The Senate has passed a $484 billion measure that would add $130 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, the “small-business loan program that ran out of funding last week after being deluged with applications.” The bill...more
The global market for credit is estimated to be more than $200 trillion, approximately three times larger in aggregate than the global equity market. It consists of bank loans, sovereign and sub-sovereign debt, corporate...more
PG&E’s woes continue. Not only is the company still in the midst of a dangerous fire season, but it’s struggling to find a path out of bankruptcy while fending off a growing chorus of cities and state officials “threatening...more
EU regulators announced today that they’ve been conducting an investigation into Amazon and “how it collects and uses data from third-party sellers who appear on the retailing giant’s website” with an eye to potential...more
Massive pharma news to start the day, with AbbVie announcing that it’s reached a deal to buy Allergan for roughly $63 billion. The tie-up is seen as giving AbbVie a “dominant position in the $8 billion-plus market for Botox...more
In case you haven’t had your eye on matters of global intrigue of late, figured we’d get you a bit caught up so that you know why your gas prices are heading north in the next couple of weeks....more
The SEC will vote today on what it’s calling Regulation Best Interest, “which says brokers can’t put their own paychecks ahead of a customer’s needs”—the more-industry-acceptable revision of an Obama-era fiduciary duty rule...more
N.D. California federal judge Lucy Koh sided with the FTC in its antitrust suit against semiconductor-industry giant Qualcomm, finding that the company “abused its position . . . to harm competition and charge cellphone...more
As widely expected, the Fed held rates steady when it wrapped its Open Market Committee meeting yesterday afternoon and deemed the economy “in good health,” laying the groundwork for another rate increase next month....more
In order to comply with European antitrust rulings against it earlier this year, Google announced that for the first time it will begin charging telephone handset manufacturers to install Gmail, Google Maps, and other popular...more
Less than a day after the Journal reported that CBS and the Redstones are nearing a deal to resolve their many differences, we’ve learned that CBS chief Les Moonves—facing an investigation into alleged sexual harassment...more
Markets proved that last Friday’s 600-point Dow drop wasn’t an isolated incident, as all major US indices were down nearly 4% (at least) in a nasty Monday of trading....more
FRB Requests Public Comment on Proposal to Amend Regulation A - On December 4, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") requested public comment on a proposal to amend Regulation A to make certain technical adjustments,...more
The UK and EU made a significant breakthrough early this morning to “unlock” Brexit divorce negotiations. The still-rough agreement would see Britain repaying $53 billion and addressed in at least vague terms thorny issues...more
More on the Saudi crackdown initiated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the weekend, including the government’s move to confiscate and freeze more than $800 billion in assets from the detailed princes and other...more
Goldman’s deal-making advising is sputtering a bit these days, so Lloyd and the gang are working on generating some of those deals themselves through a new Innovations Lab internal venture....more
Federal Reserve Seeks Comments on LIBOR Alternatives - On August 24, 2017, the U.S. Federal Reserve requested public comments on a plan for the New York Federal Reserve and the Office of Financial Research to come up with...more
Breakingviews suggests that the devil is definitely in the details in Sempra Energy’s apparent winning bid for Oncor. Control of the company, for example, isn’t as simple as it might seem....more
On August 8, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. extended the deadline for 19 foreign banks and two domestic bank holding companies to file their next round of "living wills" detailing how they...more
Goldman Sachs’ recent purchase of $2.8 billion in Venezuelan bonds has been kicking around the headlines for a few days now. Here’s what’s at stake for the country and the bank....more
Wells Fargo’s board not only issued a massive report on its fake account scandal yesterday. It also announced that the bank would claw back an additional $75 million from former CEO John Stumpf and former head of community...more
Following up on news last week that Bill Ackman was finally done with his grand Valeant experiment, the Times gives us a deeper look at what was really going on with the activist investor’s bet and ultimate $4 billion loss....more
It’s been far from a smooth ride for Uber over the past few weeks. And Friday’s revelation that the ride-sharing company’s been using a tool called “Greyball” to mine and use app data to “deceive the authorities in markets...more
Financial Industry Developments - Class Action Against Lending Club and WebBank Headed to Defeat - On Monday, January 31, 2017, a federal district court in the Southern District of New York granted a motion to...more
Turns out the Fed’s plate isn’t just full of decisions surrounding interest rates. It’s got a massive portfolio of mortgage and Treasury securities that needs some serious tending, too....more