Now, you might wonder why post this story, about Ken Oxendine, the Georgia insurance commissioner, and his new car. Well, two reasons. First, here’s a Republican who appears to be corrupt — or, at the very least, “careless” with the voters’ trust and the spirit of the law. Frampton wanted me to criticize Republicans once in a while. (Check me off for April, Frampton.)
The second reason is, well, it’s just kind of funny how “sweet” a car he ordered for himself — a loaded Crown Victoria. I also like the part at the end, where they had to take away his siren because he was abusing his privileges. I could definitely see my own siren privileges being revoked for similar reasons… We are still very red here in GA.
The first (and last, no doubt) post about football and securities fraud: Steve Bowden’s plea bargain.
As part of Wall Street’s $1.4 billion settlement with Eliot Spitzer, former analysts Henry Blodget (Merrill Lynch) and Jack Grubman (Salomon Smith Barney) will personally pay fines of $4 million and $15 million, respectively. Now, I shed no tears for Henry Blodget — I always thought he was way smug — but the personal fines seem questionable to me. If Blodget and Grubman hadn’t existed, Wall Street would have invented them — there was an institutional problem and, regardless of which individual was providing the research “analysis,” I think the same result would have occurred. Therefore, personal fines seem inappropriate.
On the other hand, you have to wonder how an “analyst” made the kind of dough to be able to pay a $15 million fine. The only way to justify that level of compensation — i.e., to add that kind of value — is for the “analyst” to actually play the role of salesman. I guess this was the whole problem, so screw ‘em.
By the way, they both got lifetime bans from employment in the securities industry. Maybe Amazon has a warehouse slot for Blodget…
As part of Wall Street’s $1.4 billion settlement with Eliot Spitzer, former analysts Henry Blodget (Merrill Lynch) and Jack Grubman (Salomon Smith Barney) will personally pay fines of $4 million and $15 million, respectively. Now, I shed no tears for Henry Blodget — I always thought he was way smug — but the personal fines seem questionable to me. If Blodget and Grubman hadn’t existed, Wall Street would have invented them — there was an institutional problem and, regardless of which individual was providing the research “analysis,” I think the same result would have occurred. Therefore, personal fines seem inappropriate.
On the other hand, you have to wonder how an “analyst” made the kind of dough to be able to pay a $15 million fine. The only way to justify that level of compensation — i.e., to add that kind of value — is for the “analyst” to actually play the role of salesman. I guess this was the whole problem, so screw ‘em.
By the way, they both got lifetime bans from employment in the securities industry. Maybe Amazon has a warehouse slot for Blodget…
Even Better Thoughts