indexed annuities July 2, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedThe SEC’s proposals on indexed annuities hit the Federal Register yesterday. The SEC states:
The federal interest in providing investors with disclosure, antifraud, and sales practice protections arises when individuals are offered indexed annuities that expose them to securities investment risk. Individuals who purchase such indexed annuities assume many of the same risks and rewards that investors assume when investing their money in mutual funds, variable annuities, and other securities. However, a fundamental difference between these securities and indexed annuities is that-with few exceptions- indexed annuities historically have not been registered as securities. As a result, most purchasers of indexed annuities have not received the benefits of federally mandated disclosure and sales practice protections.
The SEC says that it wants to create greater certainty as to the distinction between products which should be treated as securities and products which should not be so treated, focusing on the question of whether the purchaser “obtains an instrument that, by its very terms, depends on market volatility and risk.” In line with this concern for certainty, the proposed rules are only to apply prospectively. Moreover, insurance companies which issue annuities subject to Securities Act disclosure requirements (and which are not traded) will be exempt from Exchange Act reporting requirements because they are regulated under state law.
(more…)
fictional detectives and music July 2, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedI noticed, reading Val McDermid‘s The Torment of Others the other day, that Carol Jordan chooses to play Arvo Pärt’s beautiful fűr Alina. For British writers of crime novels music is sometimes critical as a background, or for the characters, and for communicating information about the characters (e.g. Ian Rankin‘s John Rebus).
Here’s Pärt playing and discussing the music:
sec, risk determinations, and credit ratings July 1, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedThe SEC has now published the details of three sets of proposals relating to the use of credit ratings (here, here, and here), saying:
The proposed amendments are designed to address concerns that the reference to NRSRO ratings in Commission rules may have contributed to an undue reliance on NRSRO ratings by market participants.
These proposals supplement earlier proposals for “reducing conflicts of interest in the credit rating process, fostering competition and comparability among credit rating agencies, and increasing transparency of the credit rating process” and improving investors’ understanding of credit ratings. A number of the proposed changes involve making it clear that the burden for making credit risk determinations falls on Boards (although they may choose to rely on ratings from credit rating agencies (NRSROs)). Investment advisers would also be required to make their own determinations of credit risk and would be prohibited from relying exclusively on ratings. Other proposals relate to securities issuance. For example, the SEC proposes to limit short form shelf registration for asset backed securities so that only issues to large sophisticated and experienced investors would be eligible. Brokers will no longer be required to inform customers that a security is unrated:
in proposing to no longer require broker-dealers to include in transaction confirmations the information that a debt security is unrated, we do not mean to suggest that information about an issuer’s creditworthiness is not a relevant subject for discussion and consideration prior to purchasing a debt security. We would encourage investors to seek to understand all of the risks of securities, including credit-related risks, before buying. In addition, we note that deleting this requirement would not prevent broker-dealers from voluntarily continuing to include this information in transaction confirmations.
In its discussions of these proposals the SEC is very focused on the problem that including ratings in its rules involves putting the Commission’s seal of approval on the ratings. But by recognising certain entities as NRSROs, surely there is something of a seal of approval anyway? The SEC doesn’t do merit reviews of securities offerings, but the decision whether or not to register a rating agency as n NRSRO (or an exchange, or a broker dealer) is a merit review process. Under the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006 the SEC is to register an NRSRO “unless the Commission finds (in which case the Commission shall deny such registration) that- ‘‘(I) the applicant does not have adequate financial and managerial resources to consistently produce credit ratings with integrity…” And it is a bit odd (not to say backwards) that at a time when NRSROs were less regulated they benefited from this imprimatur, but as they are being subjected to ostensibly more stringent regulation (there’s some debate on this point) they don’t.
pregnancy diet June 30, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedWell, hello, turns out that what you eat when pregnant may affect the foetus. On the other hand, if you have to work two jobs to make a living, maybe it’s not so simple to eat healthy.
margaret drabble, property and finance in the 1970s (or why don't we learn from the past?) June 14, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedI have been enjoying Margaret Drabble’s The Ice Age. Although some things have changed since 1977 when the book was published, there’s some resonance with the current financial mess:
What had happened to those days of easy money in the early seventies, what had happened to the boom, to all those spectacular profits? Why had all the confident experts been so taken by surprise? Anthony had been seduced and corrupted by these confident experts into believing that profits would go on multiplying forever, unlikely though that had always seemed. Go for growth, had been the slogan, and everybody had gone for it. Now some were bankrupt, some were in jail, some had committed suicide, and only the biggest had survived unscathed. Casualties of slump and recession strewed the business pages of the newspapers, hit the front page headlines. Old men were convicted of corruption and hustled off to prison, banks collapsed and shares fell to nothing.
eu-us summit June 10, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedThe EU-US summit takes place in Brdo today. The programme mentions talks, but also shows lots of opportunities for the taking of photographs. And there’s a special Ladies Programme too for the spouses of the leaders. What would they call it if one of the leaders were a woman? The men get to do masculine stuff like visiting the Lipizzaner riding school programme and meeting members of the armed forces. The ladies get to do feminine stuff. This isn’t bad – they go to visit an interesting sounding exhibition at the National Gallery of Slovenia and then afterwards Mrs Bush and Mrs Turk go to the National Museum of Slovenia and participate in a debate about student volunteering, while Ms Bacovnik and Mrs Barroso get to visit a breast cancer centre.
alan swan June 8, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedIt is a very sad day, as I learned that my colleague, Alan Swan, died earlier today.
the iconography of michelle obama's purple dress June 8, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedThe New York Times suggests a symbolism for the purple colour of the dress:
it was particularly the color Michelle Obama chose Tuesday night that seemed symbolically rich, even if its message may have been so subtle as to be subliminal.
“I don’t know if that’s something they consciously thought about,”said Mr. Anthony, referring to the fact that purple is, as every schoolchild knows, created by mixing the primary colors red and blue.
But purple has other connotations – for example, it is associated with royalty, nobility and wealth – a colour redolent of leadership. I certainly don’t think she is preparing for a purple-wearing old age in this sense.
virtual world machinima June 8, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closedIt’s intriguing that different vws work out differently as the background locations for machinima music videos. With WOW you get a sense of the characters in the songs, even if the characters’ movements and gestures are stock movements with little range. But the runescape characters are so small and the perspective on the scenes makes the characters seem so far away that there’s little hope of being able to relate to the characters in the songs at all.
runescape code monkey 2 June 8, 2008
Posted by Bradley in : Uncategorized , comments closed[post originally linked to video no longer available].