So adrenalized Wall Street computers trading madly due to programming glitches lost a brokerage a half billion in a flash! Leaving the firm floating, nearly lifeless, into space, hoping for rescue. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/business/unusual-volume-roils-early-trading-in-some-stocks.html?smid=pl-share
Author Archives: Dr. O
Banks–Reformed or Recidivist?
So the economic storm of 2008 almost sunk a flotilla of banks operating on the edge. Lesson learned? Apparently not. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/nyregion/in-the-financial-world-a-less-scrupulous-class-of-lawbreaker.html?smid=pl-share
Conflict of interest rears up!
Not as if this case hadn’t been percolating a few years. City ethics board member quits to help wife indicted for fraud.
Be Nice to the Troops, Boss!
Bombastic, bullying bosses are apparently becoming a rare breed in the military, and also in policing, where over the top supervisors can be enabled by military-like rank structures. O’Reilly to be replaced as missile agency chief – Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World – Military Times.
Firm guilty but “nobody did nuthin!”
Talk about accountability, or lack thereof. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/business/more-fraud-settlements-for-companies-but-rarely-individuals.html?smid=pl-share
PSU Brass: 14-year cover-up?
Surprise, Surprise! Workplace wierdos are never a secret. When they are also lifers in insulated institutions like Penn State, the benefit of the doubt is theirs and management’s biggest problem is how to look the other way so what’s known isn’t “seen.” Report: Paterno, PSU officials in 14-year cover-up.
Public Pension Plague Spreads
I’ve posted several pension and disability pay stories but this one, focused on public safety personnel, underscores the pervasiveness of the pension dilemma. Cops and firefighters across the country are due generous life-time retirement payouts that, if they are not to eat up ever more revenue capacity of their jurisdictions, will have to be reduced drastically for junior or incoming employees–effectively cannibalizing the young to feed the old. No easy way out. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/07/29/us/29reuters-usa-pensions-policeandfire.html?smid=pl-share
Former state police commander to collect tax-free disability pension
Second Massachusetts State Police head to do so, at an estimated $25,000 per year hit on federal tax revenues. Former state police commander to collect tax-free disability pension.
City paid $18 million in disability to cops, some with other jobs – Chicago Sun-Times
Ho hum! Another big-city police disability pension system that lets trick knees and bad backs qualify cops for decades worth of tax-free payouts, often while otherwise employed, until their regular pensions kick-in.
City paid $18 million in disability to cops, some with other jobs – Chicago Sun-Times.
Local Fiscal Dike Springs More Leaks
First Vallejo, now Stockton as California municipalities join sister jurisdictions in the South and New England in the bankruptcy club. True trickle down at work here: Once anti-tax zealots gained a stranglehold over federal and state legislatures, the aid spigot for local services such as public safety and education was shut down. And the folks who live in cities such as Stockton don’t have the werewithal to fully fund their schools, cops or firefighters. “It’s on them” say the anti-tax ayatollahs, as if educating kids serves only the locality or crime never spills over to the next town. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/us/stockton-california-heads-for-bankruptcy-court.html?smid=pl-share