...Moral Hazard The reputations of many large financial institutions have been tarnished as a result of the recent financial downturn. Although Wall Street has been associated with tremendous wealth and greed for decades, it seems that some groups in society have taken a personal hatred towards financial institutions; instead of adding value to society, these people believe that Wall Street has taken advantage of individuals and have corruptly taken the country’s money. A large cause of this negative connotation is related to moral hazard, where executives are involved with malicious business practices in hopes of earning quick money. According to an online financial dictionary, moral hazard is defined as “the risk that a party to a transaction or activity is not acting in good faith, or that one party has perverse incentives to act in a manner detrimental to the counter party”. Moral hazard is usually an intentional action where one party is aware that the action may not be in good faith. However, not all immoral actions are illegal. Some actions can be legally defended but are clearly not in the interest of the other party. For example, we learned that an employee in an asset management arm of a bank is technically a fiduciary, and therefore he is obligated to act in the interest of his clients as stated in his contract. However, a trader in the Sales in Trading division of the bank has a different relationship with his clients and can assume that the other party is knowledgeable...
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...Inside Job I. Effect of Economic crisis on Iceland a. In 2000 Iceland’s government began a broad policy of deregulation i. They allowed companies like ALCOA to build giant aluminum smelting plants and exploit Iceland’s natural geothermal and hydroelectric resources, many of which are located in Iceland’s majestic and ecologically fragile highlands. b. At the same time the government privatized the 3 largest banks in the country (The banks borrowed $120 million – 3 times the size of Iceland’s economy) c. American accounting firm KPMG audited Iceland’s banks and found nothing wrong. American credit rating agencies gave Iceland’s banks the highest possible credit rating. d. When Icelandic banks collapsed at the end of 2008 unemployment tripled in 6 months and many people lost their savings. e. 1/3 of Iceland’s financial regulators went to work for the banks. II. How the Crisis Happened f. In September 2008 the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers and the collapse of AIG led to the onset of the financial crisis which doubled the U.S. national debt and rendered 30 million people unemployed g. The crisis was not an accident ii. Since the 1980s the financial industry has caused more and more severe crises even as the industry has made more money iii. After the Great Depression the U.S. had 40 years of economic growth without a single financial crisis, partly because investment banks were private institutions...
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...Schellhamer, April 13, 2010 Melisa Schellhamer, April 13, 2010 SEC files a fraud case against Goldman Sachs, an industry leader, is now being investigated for unfair investing scandal. SEC files a fraud case against Goldman Sachs, an industry leader, is now being investigated for unfair investing scandal. Goldman Sach’s Case # 5 AC805 Advanced Management Accounting Control Systems Goldman Sach’s Case # 5 AC805 Advanced Management Accounting Control Systems The Goldman Sachs fraud case opened by the Securities and Exchange is one of the items that were highlighted by the down turn of the economy in the last few years. Goldman Sachs has vigorously denied any wrongdoing, but the case against them seems fairly tight if the information currently provided is accurate. At the center of all of this Fabrice Tourre. Tourre is an employee of Goldman Sachs that has been charged with fraud. The nature of the charge is that as an employee of Goldman Sachs he helped create a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) that was not disclosed to potential investors. More damning than anything however that seized email correspondence is seems to point to the fact that he was fully aware of what he was doing. How this all ties in is that a CDO is an investment vehicle whose performance is directly related to a set of assets. In regards to this case the CDO was a family of securities that were backed by subprime residential mortgages. As this is considered risky - especially when...
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...Economic effects of subprime lending A subprime lending is an option for individuals that have difficulty meeting mortgage payment schedules or for individuals who have low credit scores and considered risky borrowers. For example, an applicant with a low credit score of 500 will have a very difficult time locating a loan. Subprime lending comes with a high cost to borrowers. Lenders see bad credit applicants as riskier than applicants with better credit scores. Borrowers in turn pay for this risk by accepting loans with a higher interest rate. Subprime lenders offered the realization of the American dream of home ownership to borrowers who would otherwise be denied credit. Interest only loan options were offered, and combined with the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) added so much liquidity that in turn created a housing boom. Over time borrowers end up paying higher interest rates with zero payment application against their loan amount. Unemployment setbacks that ultimately resulted in defaults, added to the economic crisis. Consequently, more homes were placed in a market that is already saturated with newly constructed homes. This created less demand resulting to more houses that builders were unable to sell. Controls of banking rules and regulations during the 1980’s were relaxed, and monitoring policies for these were not the highest priority. Jimmy Carter’s “Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980” was a window for financial institutions...
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...INTRODUCTION Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch (now as Subsidiary of Bank of America), Lehman Brothers and Bear Steams (sold to JPMorgan Chase) were the world top five investment banks in United States. They were the key players in the financial markets and make significant contribution to the economics. But when they failed, the consequences would also be extremely fatal. The 158 years old Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday 1:45am, September 15, 2008 (“Wikipedia: Lehman Brothers”, July 15, 2013). With a total assets of $639 billion and $619 billion in debts, Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing became the largest in history, It’s assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants such as WorldCom and Enron (“IInvestopedia: Case Study", April 02, 2009). The collapse of the Lehman Brothers is contagious and even triggered the Global Financial Crisis. LEHMAN BROTHERS HISTORY Three brothers – Henry Lehman, Emanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman in 1850, founded Lehman Brothers. Started as a normal dry-goods store, the brothers grew the business by buying and selling cotton to planters living in and around Montgomery, Alabama ("History of Lehman Brothers", n.d). Eventually the brothers built a cotton storage warehouse together with a cotton merchant John Wesley Durr in a brief partnership form. Thereafter in 1858, an office in New York was opened to fulfill the needs of the growing sales and trades. After Civic War...
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... Unfortunately, most stakeholders, including the public, regulators, and the mass media, do not always understand the nature of the financial risks taken on by banks and other institutions to generate profits. Problems in the subprime mortgage markets sounded the alarm in the 2008–2009 economic downturn. Very simply, the subprime market was created by making loans to people who normally would not qualify based on their credit ratings. The debt from these loans was often repackaged and sold to other financial institutions in order to take it off lenders’ books and reduce their exposure. When the real estate market became overheated, many people were no longer able to make the payments on their variable rate mortgages. When consumers began to default on payments, prices in the housing market dropped and the values of credit default swaps (the repackaged mortgage debt, also known as CDSs) lost significant value. The opposite was supposed to happen. CDSs were sold as a method of insuring against loss. These derivatives, investors were told, would act as an insurance policy to reduce the risk of loss. Unfortunately, losses in the financial industry were so widespread that even the derivative contracts that had been written to cover losses from unpaid subprime mortgages could not be covered by the financial institutions that had written these derivatives contracts. The financial industry and...
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...FIN30014 Financial Risk Management Topic Outline, Reading and Tutorial Questions Semester 2, 2015 ------------------------------------------------- Topic 1: Introduction to Derivatives and Financial Risk Management ------------------------------------------------- Mechanics of Futures Markets Topic Outline * Financial risk management – an overview * The nature of derivatives and their uses for financial risk management * Futures exchanges and futures contracts * Over-the-counter markets and forward contracts * Uses of derivative contracts markets: Hedging, Speculation and Arbitrage * The mechanics of futures markets * opening and closing futures positions * the operation of margins on futures contracts * the role of the “Clearing House” * Futures contracts compared with forward contracts Essential Reading: Hull (2014) Chs. 1 & 2 Additional Reading: Viney, Ch 18, pp. 604 – 613; Ch 19, pp 636-648 Web Resources (Refer to the “External Links” tab on Blackboard) * Financial Pipeline: Derivatives Self-test Quiz Questions Hull Ch. 1: 1.2, 1.4, 1.7 Hull Ch. 2: 2.3, 2.4 (ignore tax questions), 2.5 Tutorial Questions Hull Ch. 1: 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.18, 1.20, 1.21, 1.33 Hull Ch. 2: 2.10, 2.14, 2.16, 2.18, 2.25, 2.26, 2.28 Additional Questions 1. Suppose that on Jan. 4, 2011, an investor...
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...At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time. Did you hear about the plot to rig global interest rates? The $137 million fine for bilking needy schools and cities? The ingenious plan to suck multiple fees out of the unemployment checks of jobless workers? Take your eyes off them for 10 seconds and guaranteed, they'll be into some shit again: This bank is like the world's worst-behaved teenager, taking your car and running over kittens and fire hydrants on the way to Vegas for the weekend, maxing out your credit cards in the three days you spend at your aunt's funeral. They're out of control, yet they'll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard. It's been four years since the government, in the name of preventing a depression, saved this megabank from ruin by pumping $45 billion of taxpayer money into its arm. Since then, the Obama administration has looked the other way as the bank committed an astonishing variety of crimes – some elaborate and brilliant in their conception, some so crude that they'd be beneath your average street thug. Bank of America has systematically ripped off...
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...The Ethics Thing: Why It Matters More in Hard Times and Why It’s So Hard to Do What Makes Good and Smart People Do Dumb and Unethical Things? Professor Marianne M. Jennings W.P. Carey School of Business Ethical Lapses • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Student loan lenders: Sallie Mae and 17 universities Adelphia Boeing Cendant Computer Associates Tyco International T I t ti l General Electric Global Crossing Merrill Lynch Enron Qwest WorldCom Royal Shell Nortel Krispy Kreme Refco UnitedHealth Group Merck Chiquita World Bank BP Madoff Investment Securities • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • AT&T Titan Xerox Kmart Citigroup Lucent ImClone Arthur Andersen HealthSouth Royal Ahold Parmalat Apollo Group Marsh & McLennan AIG (twice)(Putnam)(Mercer) Fannie Mae (twice) KPMG (twice) GM Options scandals (200 companies) HP Universities and travel Siemens Countrywide Financial Société General Milberg Weiss Bear Stearns Satyam (India) Stanford Investments Jennings 1 Government Issues • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Illinois – Gov. Ryan Illinois – Blago Baltimore’s mayor Detroit’s mayor – Kwame Kilpatrick San Diego -- $1.1 billion pension fund deficit; skimming to meet city budget Connecticut – Gov. Rowland Chicago – Mayor’s office and contracts Embezzlement – BLM E b l t Former Delay aides and guilty pleas Abramoff Duke Cunningham -- $2.4 million from defense contractors State crime labs and scandals Tom DeLay Clark...
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...Asia and oil-producing countries. This inflow of funds combined with low U.S. interest rates from 2002-2004 resulted in easy credit conditions, which fueled both housing and credit bubbles. Loans of various types (e.g., mortgage, credit card, and auto) were easy to obtain and consumers assumed an unprecedented debt load. As part of the housing and credit booms, the amount of financial agreements called mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which derive their value from mortgage payments and housing prices, greatly increased. Such financial innovation enabled institutions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing market. As housing prices declined, major global financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in subprime MBS reported significant losses. Defaults and losses on other loan types also increased significantly as the crisis expanded from the housing market to other parts of the economy. Total losses are estimated in the trillions of U.S. dollars globally. While the housing and credit bubbles built, a series of factors caused the financial system to become increasingly fragile. Policymakers did not recognize the increasingly important role played by financial institutions such as investment banks and hedge funds, also known as the shadow banking system. Some experts believe these institutions had become as important as commercial (depository) banks in providing credit to the U.S. economy, but they were not subject to the same regulations. These...
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...AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT COINTEGRATION BETWEEN MORTGAGE RATES AND HOUSING PRICES: CASE OF THE UNITED STATES by MOHAMAD SAMIR HAMMOUD A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Financial Economics to the Department of Economics of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the American University of Beirut Beirut, Lebanon March 2009 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT COINTEGRATION BETWEEN MORTGAGE RATES AND HOUSING PRICES: CASE OF THE UNITED STATES by MOHAMAD SAMIR HAMMOUD Approved by: ______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Simon Neaime, Professor Economics First Reader ______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Marcus Marktanner, Assistant Professor Economics Second Reader Date of project presentation: March 4, 2009 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT PROJECT RELEASE FORM I, Mohamad Samir Hammoud authorize the American University of Beirut to supply copies of my project to libraries or individuals upon request. do not authorize the American University of Beirut to supply copies of my project to libraries or individuals for a period of two years starting with the date of the project defense. ____________________ Signature ____________________ Date ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Professor Simon Neaime who directly and indirectly promoted my productivity by making me experience interesting challenges...
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...Table of Contents I.) INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES 2 A.) Efficiency and Other Concepts 2 B.) Agency and Partnership Law 2 II.) INTRODUCTION TO THE CORPORATE FORM 16 A.) Formation and Structure 16 B.) Debt, Equity, and Valuation 22 III.) CONTROL OF CORPORATE DECISIONS 32 A.) The Role of the Shareholder 32 B.) Management Obligations 50 1.) Duty of Care 51 2.) Duty of Loyalty 56 3.) Duty of Fairness: Parent-Subsidiary Relationships 63 4.) Duty of Good Faith 64 5.) Management Obligations Under Federal Securities Laws 67 C.) Shareholder Litigation 76 IV.) Structural Changes 85 A.) Transactions in Control 85 B.) Mergers and Acquisitions 86 1.) Mergers 87 2.) Sale of Assets 93 3.) Asset Purchase or Tender Offer 94 C.) Public Control Contests 96 1.) The Poison Pill 100 2.) Enhanced Review When Business is Up for Sale 103 3.) Proxy Contests for Corporate Control 106 4.) Protecting the Deal: Shareholder Lockup Agreements 109 I.) INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES • Definitions o Corporate Law: The allocation of rights and power within a corporation; the internal body of law ▪ Addresses the creation of economic wealth through the facilitation of voluntary, ongoing collective action ▪ Flexible- expectation that market discipline will weed out what is not working ▪ Principle aim- reduce agency costs of all sorts o Securities Law: Regulates capital markets that corporations use to obtain funding ...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 17, Number 2—Spring 2003—Pages 3–26 The Fall of Enron Paul M. Healy and Krishna G. Palepu F rom the start of the 1990s until year-end 1998, Enron’s stock rose by 311 percent, only modestly higher than the rate of growth in the Standard & Poor’s 500. But then the stock soared. It increased by 56 percent in 1999 and a further 87 percent in 2000, compared to a 20 percent increase and a 10 percent decline for the index during the same years. By December 31, 2000, Enron’s stock was priced at $83.13, and its market capitalization exceeded $60 billion, 70 times earnings and six times book value, an indication of the stock market’s high expectations about its future prospects. Enron was rated the most innovative large company in America in Fortune magazine’s survey of Most Admired Companies. Yet within a year, Enron’s image was in tatters and its stock price had plummeted nearly to zero. Exhibit 1 lists some of the critical events for Enron between August and December 2001—a saga of document shredding, restatements of earnings, regulatory investigations, a failed merger and the company filing for bankruptcy. We will assess how governance and incentive problems contributed to Enron’s rise and fall. A well-functioning capital market creates appropriate linkages of information, incentives and governance between managers and investors. This process is supposed to be carried out through a network of intermediaries that include professional...
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...EXORBITANT PRIVILEGE EXORBITANT PRIVILEGE The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System Barry Eichengreen Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2011 by Barry Eichengreen Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eichengreen, Barry J. Exorbitant privilege : The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System / Barry Eichengreen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-975378-9 1. Money—United States—History—20th century. 2. Devaluation of currency—United States—History—21st century. 3. United States—Economic...
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...*IS1347* //integrafs1/cengage/3-Pagination/Cengage_US/Business_and_Economics/FFM13e/3B2/brigham_endpaper.3d, 11/16/11, 17:35, page: 1 FREQUENTLY USED SYMBOLS/ABBREVIATIONS ACP Average collection period ADR American depository receipt AFN Additional funds needed AMT Alternative minimum tax APR b Annual percentage rate Beta coefficient, a measure of an asset’s riskiness bL Levered beta bU Unlevered beta BEP BVPS CAPEX CAPM CCC Basic earning power Book value per share Capital expenditures Capital Asset Pricing Model Cash conversion cycle CF Cash flow; CFt is the cash flow in Period t CR Conversion ratio CV Coefficient of variation Dp Dividend of preferred stock Dt Dividend in Period t DCF Discounted cash flow D/E Debt-to-equity ratio DEP Depreciation D1/P0 DPS DRIP Expected dividend yield Dividends per share Dividend reinvestment plan DRP Default risk premium DSO Days sales outstanding e Approximately equal to 2.7183 EAA Equivalent annual annuity EAR Effective annual rate, EFF% EBIT EBITDA EPS EVA F Earnings before interest and taxes; operating income Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization Earnings per share Economic value added (1) Fixed operating costs (2) Flotation cost FCF Free cash flow FVN Future value for Year N FVAN g GAAP HVN I IFRS IPER I/YR INT IP IPO IRR LIBOR ...
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