The debate about the Federal Reserve hides an issue of leadership and management that needs to be tackled.

With the approval of Sen. Ron Paul and amendments requiring increased Congressional oversight of the Federal Reserve System, we run the risk of destroying a...

This week's favorite game was attacking Goldman Sachs for its outrageous compensation system, including expectations that the total bonus package for its employees might reach $ 22 billion. There is no doubt that, by any standards, such an amount is a record...

The Senate Banking Committee unveiled its proposal for financial reform. It differs from the Administration's proposal on one major point. It deprives the Federal Reserve of its regulatory responsibilities rather than entrusting it to oversee the "too big to fail" financial institutions. The explanation is that many Democrats resent the...

This weekend, George W. Bush Sr, Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev attended a celebration in Berlin: the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall. That event was expected to open an era of global leadership for the United States, the only remaining global power in the world.

The most recent move by the Obama Administration against the predatory and abusive practices of the credit card issuers does not seem to have changed their behavior, despite the fact that two of them, Bank of America and Citi, have received abundant and cheap funds from the authorities. This makes...

Over decades, the rating agencies have imposed their sovereign ratings as the yardstick for investors in securities issued by "sovereign" issuers, i.e. mostly issuers of bonds by Governments or guaranteed by those Governments. The history of these ratings is not pretty: initially, rating agencies approached European Governments and told them...

Writing from Istanbul October 6, 2009

After the G 20, the annual assembly of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Istanbul has been a theater (in the true sense of the word) of the most confusing and disparate cacophony of opinions on the issues of the day....

As I pointed out in an earlier post, European attempts to make the G-20 summits a platform to vent their frustrations about the financial crisis and the bonus system were ill-conceived since this is none of the G-20's business. That did not stop them from having a series of pre-summit,...

Before the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch merger, shareholders were told that no large bonuses would be paid to Merrill executives prior to the closing of their merger without Bank of America's consent. However there was a side agreement allowing Merrill Lynch $5.8 billion for bonuses. Because of this the SEC...

As we reflect on the event that has become the symbol of the financial crisis -- the Lehman collapse of September 24, 2008 -- the national reactions on both sides of the Atlantic offer interesting comparisons.

In a strange way, the U.S. was better...

On September 23 and 24, Pittsburgh will host the meeting of the G-20 leaders of the world's largest economies. I have consistently been surprised by the emptiness of the statements following these meetings ever since President Sarkozy convinced President George W. Bush to hold the first one at the heads...

The rest of the world is watching the U.S. debate over health care reform and is flabbergasted at the country's opposition to the obvious answers. They think every one should have access to health care and cannot understand why anyone would oppose Obama's...

One of the most contentious economic issues between the United States and the rest of the world is the parity of the U.S. dollar. Historically, the United States has not included the value of the dollar as a strategic element of its international strategy and leadership. In so doing, the...

Let's start from the facts: UBS (United Bank of Switzerland) is the world's largest money manager and has naturally developed that business in the United States. Being a Swiss bank, they offer not only US bank accounts but also Swiss bank accounts to their U.S. clients. Most foreign banks offer...

One of the most politically complex issues confronted by the Western world is its handling of Iran. Thirty years of disputes, including eight years of ostracizing and economically boycotting Iran, have been totally ineffective, as was the Bush administration's more directly confrontational stance. The United States cannot drive Iran into...

Europe's leadership role in the current financial crisis has been to arrange a record number of summits. President Sarkozy of France persuaded President George W. Bush to host a G20 summit in Washington and Prime Minister Gordon Brown proudly hosted the next one in London. European summits were plentiful, and...

Goldman Sachs results resonate around the world as the great comeback of Wall Street's greed. By putting $20 billion aside in one semester for bonuses, the eminent firm has provoked nothing less than a refocusing of the agenda of the September G20 meeting. Heads of Government have no intention of...