business writer and former Wall Street investment banker
William Cohan is an American business writer and former Wall Street investment banker. A former columnist for Bloomberg News, he is the author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World and the forthcoming Why Wall Street Matters.
Wall Street is welcomed back to Washington After financial disaster in 2008, President Obama distanced himself from "fat-cat bankers." Candidate Donald Trump roasted Hillary Clinton's ties to Wall Street. But as President, he's recruited a Who's Who of alumni from hedge funds, J.P Morgan Chase -- and especially Goldman Sachs -- as economic advisors. He says he'll relieve the financial industry of "burdensome" regulations. But critics are asking: what about all those promises to working people? Politicians and pundits may be demanding answers, but we hear that Trump supporters don't care about his advisors -- if he can "Make America Great Again."
Barclays, LIBOR and Banking Culture The latest global financial scandal may be the biggest of all, involving a benchmark used to set interest rates for contracts worldwide. It's the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR . As the world learns more about international banking, one public policy expert calls it a "cheating culture." We hear about the growing LIBOR scandal and what it might mean for $350 trillion in contracts -- from multi-national business and municipal government bonds down to mortgages and student loans. Photo: Bob Diamond, then-CEO of Barclay's UK, speaks at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2012.
The LIBOR and Why It Matters The London Interbank Offered Rate , or LIBOR, is what banks charge each other to borrow money, and it's not just for financial wonks and accountants. It's also used as a benchmark to set rates for $350 trillion in contracts: commercial loans, home loans, car loans and credit cards, including yours. Now it turns out that major banks may have manipulated the LIBOR for their own profit. Are they being run by a "cheating culture?" Would regulation of the latest global financial scandal help or should bankers be required to risk their own money, not everybody else's?
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
The week that wouldn't quit Will next week get even weirder? (Special one-hour episode)
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
