Senate passes finance bill

Showdown time for the big US banks and their armies of lobbyists came a large step closer with the successful passage of the Senate Financial Services Bill. Could a return to Glass-Steagall be on the cards? Bill Hambrecht considers the options for the Obama administration in "Bringing Trust Back to Wall Street," while Viral Acharya and Julian Franks ponder "Regulation after the Crash." Ian Fraser bemoans the lack of ethics that killed Wall Street in his blog and also considers Nouriel Roubini's "10 part prescription for a more stable future."

Korean tensions and Spanish bank failures wobble the markets

The unlikely combination of Spanish banking woes and heightened tensions between the two Koreas sent global markets tumbling and pushed market volatility to levels last seen at the height of the 2008 crash. Could things be worse? Yes indeed, says investment guru Jim Rogers in his viewpoint article "Asia: Future Perspectives." Moorad Choudhry charts a course through the money markets in "Investing in Structured Finance Products in the Debt Money Markets," and Anthony Harrington considers what might happen if euroland started to fracture in his blog pos "A strategic look at the euro problem-What if Greece stayed and Germany left?"

Derivatives under scrutiny

While they did not cause the crash, derivatives were certainly dancing at stage center as financial markets came unglued through 2008. The regulatory drive to force more benign behavior on OTC derivatives is now gathering pace. David Shimko warns of the "Dangers of Corporate Derivative Transactions" while Eric Dinallo looks at the origins of the derivatives problem. Paul Wilmot considers "The Problem with Derivatives, Quants, and Risk Management Today," and Ian Fraser looks at former President Clinton's admission that he got it wrong on derivatives.

German short selling ban creates waves

A surprise short selling ban imposed unilaterally by Germany in mid-May infuriated Germany's euro partners who had not been informed, but now looks likely to be adopted more widely, despite its lack of logic, out of a desire for "uniformity" among regulators. A similar sentiment on the part of the US SEC about short selling is analyzed by Anthony Harrington in his blog post "SEC on dangerous ground with short selling rule," while Raj Gupta expounds on "The Role of Short Sellers in the Marketplace" and Kevin Burrows looks at the challenges facing hedge funds, often castigated for so called "speculative" short selling in his Best Practice article, "Hedge Fund Challenges Extend Beyond Regulation."