The business press and ever useless network news has once again covered up another colossal scandal with one of their darling top advertising sponsors Citigroup/Smith Barney. The sovereign country of Japan has ordered Citigroup to shut down their financial planning offices and get out of the country. One of America’s largest brokerage firms has been […]
The World Bank issued a report this past month that showed an ever widening gap between rich and poor nations on the quality of businesses regulation. The report found that New Zealand, followed closely by the United States were the easiest to start and operate businesses. Of the 20 countries where ridiculous and excessive regulation […]
I told you that a big Microsoft dividend was coming. Microsoft may be the first of the technology companies to step up to the plate, but I have a suspicion they will not be the last. Currently, there are numerous technology companies sitting on a record amount of cash. In the most recent quarter, S&P […]
This past month, Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting piece regarding financial independence. Many of the points he made in his article were quite similar to many of the sentiments I try to get across on the radio show. His premise was that financial independence and freedom are goals that everyone […]
The United Nations turned down a request from nine members of the U.S. Congress to assign international observers to the U.S. Presidential Election. The request came in letterform drafted by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) – Texas and signed by eight other members of the House. I cannot recall a time where I was so […]
life insurance. Aside from the ridiculously uninformed, commission hungry, and overly aggressive agents; there is a plethora of confusing jargon that reads like a foreign film screenplay. In the next few months in the Markowski Monthly we will be answering some of the most important and frequently asked questions regarding life insurance. DO I NEED […]
Fidelity Brokerage Services is being fined a $2 million fine by securities regulators to settle claims that its employees deliberately altered and destroyed branch-office records before internal inspections in 2001 and 2002. The SEC has found that Fidelity’s employee’s violated books and recordkeeping rules and the company failed to supervise employees who tampered with the […]
Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citicorp agreed to pay $250,000 each for failing to comply with orders for them to produce documents in 20 arbitration cases. This is the largest arbitration related fine ever levied by the NASD. This is another example of how the deck is stacked against the investor when taking on the […]
Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission are falling all over themselves trying to figure out how they are going to go about regulating the growing hedge fund industry. All of the regulatory bodies including Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the usual Attorney Generals have failed miserably […]
More lies, greed and manipulation. That is the synopsis of a report put out by securities regulators regarding the sales practices used by sellers of variable annuities. The report painted instances of, “Deliberate deception. Sloppy paperwork. False Statements.” We have warned investors for years about the widespread improper use of annuities. Brokers love variable annuities […]