Watch Out, Wall Street! The Federal Reserve, a Primary Banking Regulator, is Trying Harder to Spot Speculative Excesses Peter Eavis at The New York Times Dealbook reports: In a speech on Thursday, governor Jeremy C. Stein, who joined the Fed last year, focused on parts of the financial markets that show signs of overheating. He went into considerable detail, citing metrics that appear designed to spot bubbles. Specifically, Mr. Stein raised a red flag about junk bonds and mortgage-backed securities, and how investors are financing their purchases of such assets.
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“With New Firepower, S.E.C. Tracks Bigger Game,” Ben Protess and Azam Ahmed report at the New York Times Dealbook. Embarrassed after missing the warning signs of the financial crisis and the Ponzi scheme of Bernard L. Madoff, the agency’s enforcement division has adopted several new — if somewhat unconventional — strategies to restore its credibility. The S.E.C. is taking its cue from criminal authorities, studying statistical formulas to trace connections, creating a powerful unit to cull tips and assign cases and even striking a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to have agents embedded with the regulator. In one of the agency’s first efforts,…
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Wild Market Quiets the Buzz for I.P.O.’s Evelyn M. Russli and Michael J. De La Merced at New York Times’ Dealbook: As stocks swing violently, a chill is beginning to settle on the initial public offering market. A small number of companies have already retreated on their offering plans. WageWorks, an employee benefits provider, pushed its offering, originally scheduled for Friday, to next week and dropped its target price range by as much as 43 percent. Two real estate investment trusts, Orchid Island Capital and Eola Property Trust, have withdrawn their filings. And Old Mutual, a big South African insurance…
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Who Is the Mystery Hamptons Moneybags? asks the New York Times DealBook. The hunt is on for the New York mogul with questionable cash management skills. Speculation bubbled on Wednesday after a receipt left hanging out of a Capital One ATM in East Hampton that displayed its owner’s remaining balance as $99,864,731.94 — yes, that would be $99 million and change — was posted on Dealbreaker. The receipt, which appears to show a $400 cash withdrawal from a savings account plus a $2.75 ATM fee, was rumored to belong to the Appaloosa Management honcho David Tepper, who made billions during the…