News Sweep: July 9

Flash crash: is the new SEC plan to limit orders to 10% of prevailing prices a way to kill liquidity?
Related: Major structural changes in the U.S. equity markets you must know.

Mortgage defaults: In Silicon Valley, the rich are walking away from their petite chateaus and Spanish-style McMansions.

The unemployment extension bill: What's next.

No country for young women: a site for young female entrepreneurs.

Greece: Because no one pays taxes, and thus it MORE

Does financial reform give shareholders too much power or not enough?

Is financial reform putting too much emphasis on shareholders who aren't there for the long haul?

By Heidi N. Moore, contributor

One potential irony of financial reform: Would instituting new rules to limit short-term decision-making in the boardroom lead us to favor those who make short-term decisions in the markets?

The financial reform bill, it turns out, comes down squarely on the side of shareholders as the ultimate power. Since the 1930s, corporate MORE

Too big to fail? How would we know?

A systemic risk council has the power to unwind banks that are too big to fail. Now we just have to figure out what that means.

By Heidi N. Moore, contributor

One example of the upside-down, through-the-looking-glass world of financial reform: We still don't know what "too big to fail" means, or what systemic risk is, but oh boy, now we sure do know who has the authority to decide. As usual, MORE

Central banks start to abandon the U.S. dollar

There's mounting evidence that central bankers have little faith in the greenback these days. Can we blame them?

by Heidi N. Moore, contributor

There are those who would argue that the financial crisis was caused by over-enthusiastic worship of the Almighty Dollar. Call it brutal financial karma, but that church is looking pretty empty these days.

A new report from Morgan Stanley analyst Emma Lawson confirms what many had suspected: the dollar is MORE

News Sweep: July 8

The Federal Reserve: It would like this "economic recovery" thing to start moving a little faster.

State Street: Why is it the exception?

Hedge funds: They're increasing their short exposure and getting precisely nowhere.

AIDS: Scientists have found some effective antibodies.

Karl Rove: His growth agenda for the GOP would keep Bush tax cuts intact.

BP: A stake in the beleaguered oil company might help sovereign wealth funds diversify. Or, it might take them down. MORE

Wall Street's great enablers: Pension funds and endowments

Are pension funds getting off too easy in their responsibility for the crisis?

By Heidi N. Moore, contributor

It is one of the great ironies of university education that, while students are known for their wild ways, no one ever expects the people in the finance office of throwing any (metaphorical) keggers. Maybe that should change.

While banks have been beaten up during the financial reform regulation process (and well before, and deservedly MORE

Is it time for individual investors to 'evacuate the stock market'?

The market bears are more convinced than ever that it's time to sell out.

by Heidi N. Moore, contributor

The markets may rally a lot these days, but the country is still in a bearish kind of mood. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs recently danced around the issue of a double-dip recession, and Peter Orszag, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, is rumored to have quit his job MORE

Citigroup: Volcker Rule or Volcker Suggestion?

Citigroup seems ambivalent about how to approach the Volcker Rule. Not coincidentally, so is everyone else.

By Heidi N. Moore, contributor

The Volcker Rule is one of those things that may come out of financial reform looking imperfect and end up being useless.

In its most recent manifestation, the Volcker Rule is supposed to prevent banks from holding too much exposure to risky activities like proprietary trading and investing in unpredictable businesses like MORE

News Sweep: July 7

Citigroup: It's selling a big chunk of its PE portfolio to Lexington Partners, reports peHUB.com.

Manuel Noriega: Drug cartels, money laundering, French courts. In short: sentenced to seven years in French prison.

Greece: Overhauling its pension system.

Flash orders: The SEC is contemplating a ban on those again.

State budgets: Do we need a Marshall Plan?

Do they need to draw a picture?: To explain the financial crisis, yes.

Is deflation the problem that will throw us into a depression?

Many economists are worried about inflation. But others say they're looking the wrong way.

By Heidi N. Moore, contributor

The national knowledge is creeping in that the good times of the stimulus may soon be over. The United States is running an 11% deficit and our gross debt is 83% of our GDP and may rise to 100% in as little as three to five years.

So when we saw a recent note MORE