Thoughts on policy, business, disclosure, and communications
A redeeming thing about a crisis is that it brings out good things in people. The debt crisis has delivered an onslaught of good writing made particularly visible by the coincidental and exponential development of Internet publishing. Having enjoyed the luxury of time to read some of it the past few days and having personally [...]
XBRL US produced a remarkable 29-page document explaining how adoption of an industry standard computer language could expedite economic recovery. The organization’s CEO, Mark Bolgiano, presented it to Congress at a hearing today. Also today, XBRL US posted for comment a 20-page white paper entitled “Bringing Transparency to the Mortgage-backed Securities Market.” Let’s hope [...]
There was much talk about the Great Depression on Meet the Press this morning. Since the Depression, we’ve created nuclear energy, solar energy, lunar travel, Internet technology, and a global economy, so today’s crisis needn’t resemble the Depression. In fact, there’s a great lesson to learn from the 1920s and 1930s.
Asset Backed Securities Experience Holds Structured Information Lessons
On Dec. 22, 2004, eight months before I arrived at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commission unanimously adopted a rule formalizing staff guidance on asset backed securities, including the residential mortgage backed securities at the heart of today’s credit crunch. As published in the [...]