Recent Headlines

SEC Disagrees with Supreme Court’s Anti-U.S. Investor Morrison Decision, Favors Private Right of Action against Foreign Wrongdoers

By Jeffrey R. McCord of The Investor Advocate

May 11, 2012

SEC disagrees with Supreme Court’s anti-U.S. Investor Morrison decision and favors clearly defined private right of action against foreign wrongdoers, rather than abolition of U.S. investors’ legal rights, SEC Staff Study asserts.

“TruthOut” Publishes our Op-ed Urging Investors Band Together and Force Real Corporate Reforms

January 7, 2012 - My op-ed urging union and public pension funds use investor class actions to force real corporate reform was published in TruthOut on December 23, 2011. That online publication’s slogan -- “Fearless, Independent News and Opinion” -- defines what it delivers. It also brings to mind an era before international corporate conglomerates hi-jacked much of America’s free press.

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Are the Administration’s Regulators Acting in Judge Rakoff’s “Public Interest” or Wall Street’s?

Dec. 6, 2011 - In one of its filings prior to U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff’s celebrated November 28th refusal to rubber stamp an SEC-Citicorp deal allowing the bank – a “recidivist offender,” according to Rakoff -- to escape significant damages and an admission of wrongdoing for what could have been egregious, knowing fraud in Citi’s sale of bad mortgage-related assets to unwitting investors, the SEC incredibly asserted that “the public interest . . . is not part of [the] applicable standard of judicial review [of the proposed Citicorp settlement.]” To that, Manhattan federal Judge Rakoff simply responded: “This is erroneous.”

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“Costs and Benefits” of Wall St Regulation Weighed at Little Noted House Hearing

September 21, 2011 -- Risking “household wealth catastrophe” by hamstringing SEC enforcement to “liberate” small business from regulated financiers.

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Class Action Lawsuits are a Strong Deterrent to Accounting Wrongdoing, Groundbreaking Study Finds

August 15, 2011 -- Though often maligned, class actions are at least as effective as the SEC in curbing “overly aggressive” financial reporting, finance and accounting professors find.

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“Fear and Loathing” of Wall Street, 2012

April 4, 2012 - To-date, the presidential primaries have studiously avoided reference to the unfolding catastrophe brought to the American public just four years ago by the financial services industry. The political issues contested thus far bring to mind Hunter Thompson’s reporting of the 1972 election campaign: “This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns . . .”
(See: “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail, 1972,” by Hunter S. Thompson)

Council of Institutional Investors Calls upon Congress to Override Anti-Investor Morrison Supreme Court Decision

March 1, 2012 --Inexplicably, the SEC is more than a month overdue in meeting its statutory responsibility to advise Congress whether or not to protect U.S. investors or leave in-place Morrison’s shield for foreign corporate wrongdoers against U.S. investor accountability.

Jury Out on President’s New Federal Financial Crimes Unit; Will Fed Prosecutors Find Enough Judges to Hear Cases?

January 30, 2012 - “Justice delayed is justice denied,” the old maxim attributed to William Penn, has new relevance today as federal court dockets grow longer, vacant judicial seats remain unfilled, and more aging jurists seek the semi-retirement of senior status, thereby creating still more vacant seats.

SHAREOWNERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! “Occupy” Annual Meetings and Court Rooms

Nov. 11, 2011 - The spectacular fall and bankruptcy of Jon Corzine’s MF Global Holdings within clear sight of mostly inactive regulators reminds us that “the system is still far too vulnerable and the work of regulatory reform far from finished,” to quote a NEW YORK TIMES editorial on the subject. But, how to continue regulatory reform in a world in which one House of Congress is controlled by anti-regulatory zealots and existing regulators are too often afflicted by chronic DC/NY revolving door syndrome?

What Wall Street Protestors Should Ask For and the Third Battle of Manassas

October 11, 2011--Although the mainstream media has widely reported the photogenic and growing Wall Street protest movement, and many bloggers have cheered on the demonstrators, no one can explain what these idealists hope to achieve. Yes, they’ve drawn attention to pervasive greed among elites, growing income inequality and widespread unemployment, among other ills. And, the protestors chose Wall Street as the appropriate point of departure for an evolving national movement. So, it is fitting that their goals be directed toward Wall Street and its allies on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Just What is “Financial Regulation” – That oft Cited Thing that Continues Failing Us Little Folk?

August 10, 2011 -- To unravel the mystery of what “financial regulation” may be, let’s first look at the pickle we are in due allegedly to a lack of it.

Washington Mutual’s Executives, Investment Bankers and Auditor Held Accountable by Private Investor Action

July 25, 2011 -- With Washington Mutual investor settlement, justice reaches some responsible for financial meltdown: Wall St, bank execs and auditor to pay $208.5 million.