Financial Crisis

The fate of R. Allen Stanford, the mustachioed billionaire arrested in 2009 for his alleged role in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, is now in the hands of a 12-person jury after the defense and prosecution in his fraud trial finished their closing statements, according to the New York Times.

If you’re as fascinated by the European sovereign debt crisis as we are, you’ve probably begun a fair number of sentences with “If only the Greeks would…” or “The European Union should…” or “We need to get Germany, France and the U.K. to…” and various other pronouncements of armchair economics.

Four days after the initial deadline, California and New York have finally agreed to sign on to the multi-billion dollar settlement with the nation’s five largest banks after being among the deal’s harshest critics as it was negotiated, according to Bloomberg. With these two large states in on the agreement, the settlement, which would go toward homeowner relief programs, could be valued as high as $39 billion, continued Bloomberg.

State attorneys general from 40 different states have accepted the terms of a $25 billion settlement from the nation’s largest banks over their role in the financial crisis, though New York and California, who have been seen as key players in the deal, have not, according to the Los Angeles Times, though this does not prevent them from signing on later.

While many graduating colleges are entering an uncertain and even depressing economic landscape, those with the foresight to major in accounting are actually seeing improving conditions compared to previous years, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a professional organization composed of people working in human resources and college career services.

President Barack Obama is in the process of forming a special unit within the Justice Department’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force devoted to investigating abusive lending and securitization practices during the buildup to the economic crisis, and has asked New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to lead it, according to MSNBC.

While the five largest banks have agreed to overhaul their mortgage lending practices and pay $25 billion as part of a settlement agreement over deceptive practices, some state attorneys general have balked at the proposed deal, despite political pressure from the White House to sign on, according to the Associated Press.

The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness on Tuesday made a number of recommendations for jolting the nation’s jobs that, among other things, proposes that the statutory corporate tax rate be lowered to rates of what it called international competitiveness, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) issued a release on Dec. 28 advising auditors "that the appropriateness of management’s use of the going concern assumption is a matter to be considered on every audit engagement."

The SEC has charged six former top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with securities fraud. According to an SEC statement, the commission alleges "they knew and approved of misleading statements claiming the companies had minimal holdings of higher-risk mortgage loans, including subprime loans."

Japanese camera maker and medical equipment manufacturer Olympus, already the subject of a deepening investigation over what its leadership admitted was “extremely inappropriate accounting,” was dealt another blow this week as reports surfaced that the embattled company may have ties to the Yakuza, Japan’s largest organized crime syndicate, according to

The House of Representatives overwhelming voted to approve a bill that repeals the requirement that contractors working for local, state and federal governments be subject to a 3 percent withholding tax, which lawmakers said would have denied cash to companies that could be used to hire more workers, according to the Associated Press. The House today voted to support the measure by a 422-0 vote, six days after the Senate also approved the bill by a 95-0 vote

In most cases, insider trading, the use of confidential information to get an unfair advantage in the market, is the type of serious business that leads to criminal investigations and possible prosecution.

Payroll firm ADP reported today that the private sector added 110,000 new jobs in October, slightly higher than the 100,000 new jobs economists had predicted, according to Bloomberg, though slightly lower than the number of jobs added in September, 116,000.