WaveNet Pharma

Note to Regulators: It's About Capitalization, Not Compensation

This is completely flawed logic!
As long as the Government ( & the taxpayer) has the responsibility to keep national banks from imploding, it also has the duty to control the factors behind that implosion.
These banks went onto gambling as gigantic hedge funds with their shareholders money with the tacit understanding that if they run out, there would be more given to them by the government to continue gambling. It almost wrecked the foundation of capitalism and should be reined in.
A bank is not a casino and should never have been allowed to become one. Imagine where Vegas would be if all casino employees were compensated without limits on the profits they make : it would cease existence as excessive risk-taking would sweep them away.
No, all financial institutions that pose a systemic risk should have caps on the returns they are allowed to make. That would indirectly cap their compensation and control irresponsible risk taking.

The Worst Is Over Day I

Your National City comments are insightful as you provide solid analytical observations to back them.
Your Lehman comments are not : what you call fools are people who oversubscribed by almost 4x to the $4B capital infusion. Of all the financial companeis which raised capital in 2008 to strenghten their balance sheets, Lehman had the least shareholder dilution. Doesn't that tell you something ?

Lehman: ‘Creative’ Financing Rides Again

Creative or not, it is time that we stop this financial institution bashing -- whether banks or brokers or insurance companies.
They are facing the challenge of many generations -- and with them the entire US industrial fabric, our currency and our economy.

Yes, they should have been a lot more prudent with leverage and risk management. But, no, sitting on the sidelines and throwing rocks at them is not the solution.

Lehman Shorts Scared by Bear Stearns Investigation

No doubt that Shorts propagated fear, engendered investor panic and then profited from the demise of Bear. The unusual surges in trading volumes, the extremely risky put positions and the speed with which they happened cannot be explained by probabilistic theories, no matter how far fetched.
If stock price manipulation by spreading rumors from which the originators derive a financial gain is an illegal act, then the Bear case deserves to be investigated until the perpetrators are found and dealt with.