paulwilkinson.com

Make Government Information More Transparent

Level the Playing Field: Business Securities and Investors vs. Mortgage Securities and Borrowers

It was nice last week to be included as a signer of a letter organized by Chris Whalento the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Chairmen of the SEC, FDIC, Federal Reserve, and the Acting Director of the FHFA about improving the mortgage market. You can read the letter several places on the web, including Nouriel Roubini’s site.

The letter calls for “national standards for originating, selling and servicing mortgage loans” because Continue reading ‘Level the Playing Field: Business Securities and Investors vs. Mortgage Securities and Borrowers’

On the Other Side of Transparency Street

A brilliant classmate at Northwestern University on his way to medical school used to break into “On the Sunny Side of the Street” every once in a while. I don’t remember exactly why, but it’s a wonderful memory.

And I’m not sure why that comes to mind now, but there’s probably a cognitive relation among the ideas I’m pondering about transparency and understanding. The hackneyed metaphor of sunlight as a disinfectant and my time at the SEC are probably related.

Ever since deciding to study journalism at NU nearly three decades ago, a big idea in my life has been Continue reading ‘On the Other Side of Transparency Street’

Technology, Social Justice, and Making Things Better

UPDATE: CROP Walk web donations are closed but you can designate gifts (or make general donations) via the DonateNow or JustGive buttons on the RUMC home page.

First, go to the Ramona United Methodist Church CROP Hunger Walk page. Donate a few dollars. A half dozen of the folks with whom I go to church and I are participating in this event; with a few mouse clicks so can you. You’ll get more satisfaction than from anything else you could do on the Internet right now.

Second, if you’re interested in how technology like that page might help make things better for more people, go to the Texas Review of Law and Politics (TROLP) table of contents for the most recent issue and read the third article, Continue reading ‘Technology, Social Justice, and Making Things Better’

My Fortune.com Piece: California Sunshine for Shadow Banking

New Fortune.com managing editor (and ’95 Medill grad) Daniel Roth (@danroth) gave me a chance the other day to write a guest column on transparency and financial recovery and XBRL. It’s now here.

Thanks to another Fortune.com editor, I’m reminded of a lesson Continue reading ‘My Fortune.com Piece: California Sunshine for Shadow Banking’

Local Investing Can Build Global Markets

I’ve been the strongest possible advocate for global free trade ever since my Soviet Economic Institutions professor diverged from the syllabus to draw Ricardo’s theory on the board and prove unequivocally and concisely that it makes everyone better off. I still am. Dennis Santiago, however, makes strong arguments for local investing for California and Los Angeles — and good news: they don’t contradict the case for global free trade. Continue reading ‘Local Investing Can Build Global Markets’

Davos Mistakes about Securitization

I watched a C-SPAN replay tonight of a Jan. 29 panel at Davos in which five industry leaders pontificate about the future of the world. This was after tonight’s 60 Minutes lead report on the exclusive Davos gathering. The 60 Minutes report was as good as ever, but a failure of vision makes itself apparent in the Davos C-SPAN tape.

First, the CEO of a global bank, in response to an all-too-polite question about why the financial sector isn’t moving toward XBRL technology to support transparent securitization, dismissed the question with a statement to the effect that it failed to consider the “quality of the assets” — implying that only the most revered debt securities can hope to return to marketability.

Paternalistic balderdash. Continue reading ‘Davos Mistakes about Securitization’