How Wall Street Paid For Its Own Funeral
By Marina Litvinsky
The 231-page report, "Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America," shows that the financial sector invested more than 5 billion dollars on purchasing political influence in Washington over the past decade, with as many as 3,000 lobbyists winning deregulation and other policy decisions that led directly to the current financial collapse. Ref. Source 7
Wall Street Faces a Grim Third Quarter:
After two months bankers would like to forget, Wall Street may need a September to remember to avoid the worst quarter for investment banking and trading revenue since the peak of the financial crisis." Ref. Source 2
Wall Street Brings Class War to America?
By Les Leopold
The financial crisis is squaring up a new class struggle: The handful of financial elites versus the rest of us. Where's our common interest? What's good for them (a $10 trillion bailout) costs us jobs and public services, and deepens the public debt. Financial elites have effectively hijacked our economy and there will be hell to pay to get it back. Ref. Source 3
Insider Trading Conviction
Former Wall Street Hedge Fund Manager Convicted in Massive Insider Trading Scheme [11:00 a.m.] Ref. ABC News
Wall Street had its worst day since the 2008 financial crisis, as fearful investors reacted to the United States losing its coveted AAA credit rating.
All three major U.S. Stock indexes sank between 5% and 7%, pushing the Dow below 11,000 for the first time since last November. Overall, stocks have fallen 15% during the past two weeks.
Though observers said S&P's downgrade shouldn't matter all that much, the market wasn't buying it. "Investors are having one reaction to the downgrade: Sell first and ask questions later," said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation with ING Investment Management. Ref. CNN
Turmoil returned to U.S. Stock markets on Thursday as renewed concerns about the global economy sent major indexes plunging and pushed gold to a new record high.
Investors were working through bad news on various fronts, including a dismal global economic forecast from Morgan Stanley and two U.S.-issued reports on inflation and the job market.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 307 points, or 2.7%. The S&P 500 was down 3%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 3.5%.
A gloomy economic report intensified fears over a slowing global recovery. Morgan Stanley slashed its global growth outlook for 2011 and 2012 and said the United States and Europe are "hovering dangerously close to a recession." Ref. CNN
Wall Street was walloped Thursday by a stock sell-off driven by renewed fears about the U.S. And global economies.
Major stock indexes plunged. Investors plowed their money into safe U.S. Government bonds -- briefly pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury below 2%. And gold settled at a record $1,822 an ounce.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 419 points, or 3.7%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each lost more than 4%. Ref. CNN