Citizen Cartwright

Report paints not-so-pretty picture of Lehman

After a one-year, $30 million investigation of the decline and fall of Lehman Brothers, a bankruptcy court examiner has issued a blistering report blaming Lehman executives and auditor Ernst & Young for serious lapses leading to the biggest bankruptcy in American history and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, The Wall Street Journal says.

U.S., Europe at odds over derivatives

You remember those fancy financial mechanisms that were so much discussed as a factor in the global financial crisis.

Some European officials say derivatives have made the Greek debt crisis worse and they may ban speculative trading in credit default swaps — a kind of derivative — by investors who don't own a country's underlying debt.

But U.S. officials favor regulation, not a ban.

Citigroup says it's Greece itself, not swaps, that caused its problems. To blame swaps, executives say, is like "blaming the mirror for your ugly face."

Geithner warns Europe over regulations

The Treasury secretary says the European Union's plans to regulate hedge funds would disadvantage U.S. funds, private equity groups and banks.

New derivatives market: motion pictures

The new futures exchange would enable Hollywood studios and others to hedge against the financial performance of movies, the Los Angeles Times reports.

'Volcker rule' gets some support

Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., have introduced a bill to enact and expand the so-called "Volcker rule."

The proposal by President Obama and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker would ban proprietary trading by banks, get them out of the hedge fund business and limit their growth.

The world's richest people

Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu tops this year's Forbes World's Billionaires list. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is number two, and investor Warren Buffett is third.

For the first time, China has the most billionaires outside the United States, Forbes says.

Carveout for payday loans in financial regulations

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who stepped in to keep Senate financial regulation talks bipartisan after bipartisanship had fallen apart, has persuaded Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., to ease provisions on payday loans, The New York Times reports.

The industry is politically influential in Tennessee and contributes significantly to Corker's campaigns, the paper says.

When Corker was asked whether those contributions had influenced him, he said, “Categorically, absolutely not.”

Greece wants more regulation of hedge funds

Prime Minister George Papandreou is in Washington this week pressing the United States to increase regulation of funds that some say have used the Greek debt crisis to collude in attacks on the euro.

"Unprincipled speculators are making billions every day by betting on a Greek default," he said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.

Goldman Sachs sued over executive pay

The International Brotherhood of Electric Workers pension fund says Goldman's 2009 pay allocations "vastly overcompensate management and constitute corporate waste."

And the fund wants Goldman's managers, not its shareholders, to be responsible for charitable contributions the firm is making as an apology for its activities.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce becoming a political force

It's putting together a big grass-roots political operation — part of a trend where the traditional political parties are losing ground to well-funded and increasingly assertive outside groups, the Los Angeles Times says.

Friends of the U.S. Chamber has generated more than a million letters and e-mails to members of Congress, 700,000 of them opposing Democrats' health care plan — up from 40,000 congressional contacts in 2008.

The Supreme Court's recent decision on corporate campaign spending has made many executives more comfortable about using corporate funds for political purposes, the Times says.