Like clockwork, the investment public was hit this past month with more stories of lies, greed and manipulation. Once again, the arrogance and selfishness of our country’s largest investment houses have reared their ugly head. Unfortunately, most of these stories have been left off the nightly news programs. Dan, Peter and Tom, the alleged purveyors […]
Imagine what would happen if the punishment for robbing a bank was modeled after what Eliot Spitzer is now expecting out of the major brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch. In the future all get-a-way vehicles must be at least 100 yards away from all banks. This is in order to give the overweight security guards […]
David Chacon is a broker who finally had enough. This highly successful broker at Salmon Smith Barney filed a lawsuit for himself and on behalf of the investing public. The goal of the suit is to expose what he dubbed is, “The Telecom Mafia.” “The Telecom Mafia” is a group of people who were personally […]
We are in a difficult situation. For lack of a superior term let’s call it a crisis of confidence. Everyone should remember the story of the little boy who cried wolf; well, let’s just state that our markets have gone the way of a childhood fable. These past few weeks more companies have added insult […]
Extra!! Extra!! Elian Gonzalez is the new CEO of Enron!!! Shark attacks in the Enron company pool!! Tonya Harding is now in charge of Enron security!! All of these things are obviously ridiculous. The fact of the matter is that almost everything surrounding Enron that has been reported to the public has been ridiculous. Here […]
We have received a plethora of questions trying to put into words exactly how some of these large corporate scandals occurred. I have been trying very hard to articulate the actions of the many corporate hucksters I have reported on during my radio show. Unfortunately, many of the financial structures are quite complicated and I […]
The following was an article I wrote in March of 2001… This past month the New York State Attorney General has finally started to take some action against many of the large brokerage firms and the conduct of their analysts. Both are implicated in causing much of the carnage in the equities markets over the […]
Growing up in a small town in upstate New York we were lucky enough to have one of those small town weekly newspapers. We looked forward for the arrival of each week’s addition. I remember fondly, anxiously waiting to see if our athletic heroics of the past week were covered in that week’s addition. Maybe […]
I am amazed at the 180-degree turn that the major brokerage firms have taken in their marketing strategies over the past year. Gone are the get rich quick commercials with “Stewart”, and “truck drivers owning their own country.” We have returned to the stuffy, conservative commercials of old, with voice-overs by William Dafoe and Steve […]
I have Enronitis. Not the same Enronitis that democratic pundits like Terry McAullife are trying to sensationalize. My Enronitis takes the form of a repetition and “I told you so” syndrome. All anyone wants to talk about is Enron and they all want to know how I knew of its demise. Well, over 200 radio […]