Rich Guys Club

“The system is built to be gamed.”

“The voices of dissent are not being heard.”

These are the words of an anonymous executive at one of America’s 10 largest banks, who after many years of watching the worst of Wall Street’s ethics transform his company, has decided to speak out.

Despite the obvious risks to his banking career, the executive, who’s been in the industry for more than 20 years, says he can’t bear to keep quiet any longer: “I decided that I cannot live with the extent of the compromises to my value system.”

Read More: – Ryan McCarthy, Huffington Post

The Lazarus-like recovery of the nation’s big banks did not benefit just the bankers — it also created huge paydays for hedge fund managers, including a record $4 billion gain in 2009 for one bold investor who bet big on the financial sector.

The manager, David Tepper, wagered that the government would not let the big banks fail, even as other investors fled financial shares amid fears that banks would collapse or be nationalized.

“We bet on the country’s revival,” Mr. Tepper, who describes his trading technique as a mix of deep analysis and common sense, said Wednesday in an interview. “Those who keep their heads while others are panicking usually do well.”

Read More – By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and LOUISE STORY, NY Times

At first, Minneapolis janitor Rosalina Gomez said she didn’t realize she was cleaning up after the CEO of the bank that bought her foreclosed home in a September sheriff’s sale.

“At the beginning I didn’t know he was the guy,” said Gomez through an interpreter in an interview with HuffPost. “I didn’t know the relationship between my house and him. I saw him one time but never talked to him.”

The guy is Richard Davis, CEO of Minneapolis-based US Bank, the nation’s sixth-largest bank and recipient of $6.6 billion in TARP bailout funds. On Feb. 28, Davis was set to receive an “Executive of the Year” award from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal at a banquet — 11 days before Gomez and her family had to comply with an eviction order.

The Service Employees International Union, of which Gomez is a member, could not resist the opportunity to draw attention to the soon-to-be-evicted woman cleaning up after one of the bankers taking her home away (US Bank is the trustee; Chase is the mortgage servicer). The SEIU began agitating for Gomez, an effort which dovetailed with a union campaign on behalf of area janitors fighting for a better contract.

Read More: – the Huffington Post

The new credit card law is finally here. Starting Monday, banks will need to abide by new regulations on terms and disclosures. The idea behind the landmark law was to prevent banks from using practices that often dug borrowers deeper into debt.

A look at how the credit card law affects key aspects of your account.

INTEREST RATES

THEN: Banks could raise the interest rate on an account at any time, including the rate on an existing balances, even if you weren’t late on payments.

NOW: The rate cannot be raised in the first year after an account is opened unless an introductory rate has come to an end. After that, cardholders must be notified 45 days in advance of any rate change.

Read More: -By Candice Choi and Eileen AJ Connelly, the Associated Press

Simon Property Group made what it called a $10 billion offer for General Growth Properties that would end one of the largest U.S. bankruptcies on record and combine the two largest U.S. shopping mall owners.

Simon [SPG  77.29     0.07  (+0.09%) ], the largest U.S. real estate investment trust, said Tuesday that it would offer $6 per share, or roughly $1.9 billion, plus a stake in property assets it valued at about $3 per share.

Simon controls about 15 percent of the malls in the U.S., according to Bank of America. General Growth controls about 14 percent.

Read More: -By: CNBC.com and Reuters

Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.

As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

Even as the crisis was nearing the flashpoint, banks were searching for ways to help Greece forestall the day of reckoning. In early November — three months before Athens became the epicenter of global financial anxiety — a team from Goldman Sachs arrived in the ancient city with a very modern proposition for a government struggling to pay its bills, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting.

Read More: – By Louise Story, Landon Thomas Jr, and Nelson D. Schwartz, the New York Times

Merrill Lynch executive Harold Ford Jr. made headlines for nabbing a couple of big-ticket Democratic donors, Orrin Kramer and Steve Rattner, and he could appeal to more of his fellow financiers as he weighs a challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who voted against the TARP bill as a member of the House. But even if Harold Ford’s Wall Street buddies do want to donate to his campaign, will their wives let them?

Ford has a somewhat squishy record on abortion: He described himself as “not pro-choice” and “pro-life” as a congressman in Tennessee. Ford now claims he is and always has been pro-choice, but still supports a ban on late-term abortions. Last week, Stephen Colbert lambasted Ford on his show. “Did you change from not pro-choice to pro-choice?” he joked. “Was that your choice?”

Kelli Conlin, the president of NARAL New York, said she has spoken to several pro-choice wives of big-ticket donors who are persuading their husbands not to back Ford.

Read More:- by Liz Goodwin, the Daily Beast

The bull is breathing all over Wall Street.

A little more than a year after Merrill Lynch was officially swallowed by Bank of America, many of the executives of the once storied Wall Street firm — which used the animal that is synonymous with rising stock markets as its mascot — have landed in leadership positions around the financial world.

On Monday, John Thain, who was Merrill’s chief executive when the firm sold to BofA, got the top job at troubled lender CIT. Thain said he was interested in the opportunity to revitalize the small-business lender. “CIT can and will serve an important role in the recovery of the U.S. economy and the creation of jobs,” Thain told reporters.

Read More: – by Stephen Gandel, Time

The surviving investment banks are bristling at efforts aimed at recouping taxpayer losses and forestalling a repeat of the panic of 2008: congressional proposals to tax bonuses, President Obama’s planned tax on large banks’ liabilities, and his suggestion that banks be prohibited from using taxpayer-insured funds for proprietary trading. The latter proposal “will restrict lending, increase risk, decrease stability in the system, and limit our ability to help create jobs,” says Steve Bartlett, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, the trade group for megabanks.

But if the banks want us out of their business, they should get out of our business first. We’ve (barely) lived through a 40-year period in which investment banks, which had their origins in partnerships, have imposed themselves on us. They effectively moved into our house, raided our fridge, and set the joint on fire. Now they’re complaining that our renovation efforts are cramping their style.

The process began when Merrill Lynch went public in 1971. It was followed by the four other horsemen of the 2008 credit apocalypse: Morgan Stanley (1986), Bear Stearns (1985), Lehman Brothers (1994), and Goldman Sachs (1999). The Gang of Five went public so they could compete with the international banking giants that were encroaching on their core business of underwriting stock offerings and advising firms, and in order to boost their activities in risky, capital-intensive businesses like proprietary trading. “In order to have a capital base that would support the funding they needed, they had to be public,” says Roy Smith, a former Goldman Sachs partner and a professor of finance at New York University.

Read More: – By Daniel Gross, Newsweek

Although trust in business rebounded smartly at the end of 2009, CEOs remained the least credible spokespersons for a company, according to the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey of 4,875 college-educated consumers in 22 countries. Globally, 54% of respondents said they trusted business to do what is right, up from 50% last year.

The improvement among companies is driven largely by respondents in the U.S., Italy, and Spain. The U.S. numbers, in particular, show a much more dramatic change: some 54% of respondents said they trusted business to do what is right, up from a low of 38% a year ago and near 2008’s high of 58%. “Last year, with trust in the mid-30s, the U.S. became the new Europe,” says Richard Edelman, president and CEO of public relations firm Edelman, which commissioned the study. “Now it’s stabilized.”

Teaming with Government

But even for U.S. companies, the results are not as sunny as they appear. CEO credibility remains low, and business needs to partner with government to make progress on important issues, says Edelman. “Business needs to come up with a framework, whether it’s on compensation or some other issue, and lead on it.” Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist for public relations firm Weber Shandwick, agrees. “You really have to build a relationship with government,” she says. “What industry is doing is making sure they have offices in D.C., hiring lobbying firms.”

Read More: – By Kimberly Weisul, Businessweek