THE LOBBYISTS AND US

TRANLATED FROM THE BLOG DE PAUL JORION, 24/08/12

 

In the Wall Street Journal today :

A new American law requires US-listed companies to mention on products containing certain minerals that their extraction fuels conflict in Central Africa

Too expensive for businesses, said the lobbyists! Get rid of it !

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the financial regulator in the US, has developed a host of measures designed to prevent a repetition of the collapse in short-term money markets, which cost American taxpayers more than six hundred billion dollars, plus a few hundred billion Euros for European taxpayers.

 Too expensive for the banks, said the lobbyists! Get rid of it!

FINANCE'S IMAGE!

TRANSLATED FROM THE Blog de Paul Jorion, 16/08/12

We learnt last Tuesday that the fifth largest British bank, Standard Chartered, had promised the New York State regulator that it would pay a fine of 340 million Dollars for illegal transactions with Iran. The matter is not yet closed, as four other American regulatory bodies continue to pursue their enquiries on this subject.

There was a danger that the affair, dating back to last week, would get bogged down, and it had already started to poison relations between British and American financial authorities ( to which I alluded in my article on the 12^th August: The Goldman Sachs Affair: Corrupted Justice, or an Untouchable Financial Sector? )

What is causing this sudden urgency on the part of Standard Chartered? Its image in the eyes of the public!