Item: One theory kicking around Washington--and it may not be that farfetched--is that if health care is passed on reconciliation there will be so much partisan anger on Capitol Hill that this year nothing else at all will get through the Senate.
A peek inside the mutual fund world by our intrepid correspondent, Pandora
Item: As the U.S. government weighs its regulatory options, more and more of Wall Street's old guard is coming out in favor of stricter regulation of the financial industry, according to a New York Times article last week.
A peek inside the mutual fund world by our intrepid correspondent, Pandora.
Item: Paul Volcker, the once-again influential member of President Obama's White House team, has a long memory.
"All you need is love." No one said it better than John Lennon.
Pandora must admit that the first thing she thinks of when she hears about the nasal-mist flu vaccine for H1N1, or swine flu, is not Calvert Investments.
Has Pandora mentioned recently how much she loves and anticipates Bill Gross' monthly investment outlook and how she is just never, ever disappointed?
Andrew Donohue's annual address last week at ICI's Securities Law Developments Conference was not exactly a big news-breaker.
Mutual funds have shown no sign of slowing down when it comes to sales.
Pandora is happy to report that the American dream is alive and well and that Americans remain as optimistic as ever.
Here's a riddle: What do registered investment advisors have to do with the homeless, pit bulls, child soldiers and famine?
Closed-end fund gurus Thomas J. Herzfeld Associates has published a nifty little book called "Closed-End FUN, 2010 Edition: A Not-So Serious Look at the Closed-End Fund Industry."
Friends and foes of a self-regulatory organization for advisors both went on a roller coaster ride of hope and fear as they listened to Barney Frank talk last week.
It's not too often, listening to the talk at SEC open meetings, when you wish whoever is in full spate would say still more.
Target-date funds could take a lesson in disclosure from this guy.
One more fund firm has been eliminated from the M&A rumor mill with the sale of Delaware Investments to Australia's Macquarie Group.
Some fund industry lawyers have made the imaginative leap of speculating the Supreme Court would let the Securities and Exchange Commission appear in the Nov. 2 oral arguments in the fund fee case, Jones v. Harris Associates.
Rejoice, fund followers!
Pandora is somewhat amused Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales--the researchers behind the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School of Financial Trust Index, which measures Americans' trust in the nation's financial system--see "a sense of optimism and a reduction of fear and anger toward America's financial institutions" in their latest findings.
Pandora was looking for something new and interesting on the Web and came across this gem: the Con Artist Hall of Infamy (www.theHallofInfamy.com).
As far as this reporter can see, the 152 pages of legislative language the Obama Administration sent Congress for the purpose of creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency contains only one reference to mutual funds--and an innocuous one at that.
A group of pensioners in Germany this past week meted out justice swifter than the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.
Snickers has a delicious new take on Pandora's favorite investment.
Another complication facing financial reform legislation is the fact this past week Republicans made clear they are throwing their hat into the ring.
Victims of Bernie Madoff can celebrate the Ponzi schemer's sentencing June 29 with popcorn and a movie because the day also marks the straight-to-DVD release of what's being billed as a "funny-money movie spoof mockumentary" about get-rich-quick schemes.
It was not a good week for the Investment Adviser Association.
It seems Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro is channeling Vicki Gunvalson of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" fame.
Who says financial services industry folks don't have a heart?
Jilted Reserve investors may yet see the firm's top brass get their just desserts. Bruce Bent and Bruce Bent II are being charged with fraud in connection with the spectacular fall of its flagship Reserve Primary Fund, which last fall became only the second money market fund ever to break a buck.
Item: Securities and Exchange Chairman Mary Schapiro will be able to break news twice this week--talking first before the Mutual Fund Directors Forum and then the Investment Company Institute.
Asset manager T. Rowe Price is cutting 288 spots, or 5.5% of its workforce, in response to falling assets under management and revenue.
It was a sobering day for some Old Mutual investors last week when they were no longer considered quintillionaries. That's right, quintillionaires.