We have been tracking the buddy club story for the past two years and have caught several firms in the act including Smith Barney, CSFB, and Merrill. Now we have a new member of the buddy club, Goldman Sachs. It is now evident that the buddy system was in full effect at Goldman Sachs. Top […]
If there was an award for clever advertising for financial firms, Charles Schwab would be the hands down winner this year. They were responsible for “putting some lipstick on the pig” and now they are touting how independent and better they are. Charles Schwab is getting out of the discount brokerage business. They want to […]
The concept of an indulgence is based on the medieval Catholic doctrine that states sinners must not only repent of sins that they have committed; they must also confess these sins and pay some sort of retribution. Author and historian Richard Hooker states that the history of medieval Catholic doctrine is in many ways an […]
We broke a story back in October of 2001 about a broker named Chung Wu, formerly of the Houston office of UBS PaineWebber. Mr. Wu was fired after doing the right thing. His so-called crime was sending e-mails to clients suggesting that they liquidate their holdings in Enron before losing their proverbial shirts. Mr. Wu […]
Credit Suisse First Boston is a firm that has enjoyed the dubious honor of gracing the pages of our newsletter and has been the topic of conversation on our radio show on many occasions. Nothing like an encore! In an effort to dig up additional business, CSFB told a prospective client it would conduct more […]
Since our inception we have done our best to carry on the good fight for individual investors. We try to do everything possible to educate, inform, and warn of all the landmines, booby traps and pitfalls that can adversely affect individual investors. In September of 1997, I wrote an article that articulated one of the […]
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 […]