Investors ill-served by financial reform amendment

Last month, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Wall Street titans they needed to put their clients' welfare above their own. But legislation introduced by Collins on Thursday looks as if it would gut the very safeguards Collins and other senators say they're trying to enact.

At issue is what's known as a fiduciary standard of care — the concept that a financial adviser (or any other professional, for that matter) should put clients' interests ahead of his or her own. If, ..read more

The economics of ditching your mortgage

For a recent story I did about underwater mortgages, I spoke with a lot of people who owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. Inevitably, these people would acknowledge the option of just walking away: giving up on paying the mortgage and leaving the house to foreclosure. Just as inevitably, they would quickly add, “I would never do that.”

There seem to be two camps on walking away. First, there are those who think it unethical and shameful ..read more

Is Goldman too big to obey the law?

In the wake of Friday's civil fraud complaint filed against Goldman Sachs, the blogosphere has had all weekend to reflect upon the implications of the news. Here's some of the best commentary:

"Wall Street has gotten a lot of mileage," notes Ezra Klein, "out of the accusation that the political system simply doesn't understand how Wall Street works. And that's, well, correct. The problem is that Wall Street also doesn't understand how Wall Street works." [Ezra Klein] It's not just that banks ..read more

More Money Tuesday roundup: iPad pricing & rising bankers' salaries

Personal Finance from around the web:

Workers in financial services don't appear to be suffering as much people employed in other businesses. Average weekly salaries for bankers and the like have spiked in recent months, leaving the rest of us behind. [EconomPic] Steve Jobs's introduction of the iPad can teach us a lot about the danger of getting tricked by the manufacturer's suggested retail price. [MintLife] Thinking about visiting a coin-counting machine to get rid of the jar full of change on your ..read more

More Money Thursday roundup: Gordon Gekko fails & 401(k) matches return

Personal finance from around the web:

The 401(k) match is making a comeback, a new survey by Fidelity reports. Forty-four percent of employers who slashed or eliminated matches during the recession now say they've restored them or will do so in the next 12 months. [BusinessWire] April is Financial Literacy Month, and the Move Your Money campaign wants you to remember the virtues of community banks and credit unions. [Move Your Money] Wall Street's Gordon Gekko was a wildly successful investor. Michael Douglas, ..read more

More Money Friday roundup: Baby denied health insurance & endangered bond rally

Personal finance from around the Web:

Turns out you don't have to actually exist in order to have a pre-existing condition. An insurance company has denied coverage for a newborn with a birth defect because of a pre-existing condition. [Star-Telegram] The American consumer is apparently more resilient than thought. Spending has been on the rise since the second half of last year, and shoppers will likely keep shelling out through the end of the year. [TheStreet.com] Experts such as fixed-income king Bill Gross ..read more

More Money Friday roundup: Hospitals vs. insurers & bankers vs. new regulator

Personal finance from around the Web:

Hospitals and health insurers battle it out over reimbursement rates. Health insurers are threatening to drop hospitals from their networks if hospitals don't lower their demands for large rate increases. [The Wall Street Journal] Members of the American Bankers Association join the legions of lobbyists on Capitol Hill hoping to influence new financial regulations. Bankers are against the creation of a consumer financial protection regulator and want to remain exempt from state consumer laws. [The Washington ..read more

More Money Wednesday roundup: Whoopi Goldberg's wisdom & investing's next bubble

Personal finance from around the Web:

Who on television is a surprisingly prolific dispenser of wise personal finance advice? You won't, ahem, view her on the investing channels — it's Whoopi Goldberg. [WalletPop] Can't get any credit? It's not because you don't have "Rockefeller" as a surname. Even America's affluent business owners and entrepreneurs are having a hard time wrangling money from traditional lenders. [The Wall Street Journal] LifeLock, the identity-theft-protection company whose CEO has famously publicized his social security number in ..read more

Will Congress back down on stricter rules for Wall Street?

Will Congress blow a once-in-a-generation chance to help Americans get better financial advice? It looks increasingly likely.

One of the biggest problems people have when they receive financial advice is that they don't always know where a financial professional's motivation and self-interest really lie. When you show up at a new-car dealership, it's pretty obvious what a salesman wants: If it's a Ford lot, he wants to sell you a Ford. But you know that going in, so you can filter ..read more

More Money Monday roundup: Falling dollar & fuzzy math

Personal finance from around the Web:

The dollar has fallen against the euro in the wake of a report that employers unexpectedly cut jobs in December. [Bloomberg] The Obama administration is announcing funding for fuel-efficiency projects it estimates will provide  provide 500 jobs near-term in areas such as research and engineering. There's potential, says the administration, to create 6,000 positions in manufacturing and assembly by 2015. [Reuters] A Prudential video about the benefits of variable annuities employs some non-standard mathematics. [All Financial ..read more

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