It’s funny how you think you know someone, and then you are pleasantly surprised to learn that there is more to this person than meets the eye. I am referring to a friend of mine – Dr. Guenther Dobrauz. ...

Recently a colleague of mine at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation forwarded the following article to my attention: 'Math is for Boys' Stereotype Still Alive, by Valerie Strauss. The synopsis of Ms. Strauss's article is that by second grade girls and boys express the stereotype that ''math...

I am currently serving on the Transportation Research Advisory Board at the National Academies of Sciences.  Serving on this board is very exciting. It gives me an opportunity to make a contribution in the...

If they were honest, the headlines would read "Few jobs created last month while many give up looking and fall off the rolls."

Friday morning I was listening to MSNBC while eating breakfast. Here's a transcript of what almost made me choke on my food -

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Organized criminals are installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team of criminals sits nearby in a car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they...

A couple of my readers contacted me regarding my recent blog article Inspector General Barofsky: U.S. Treasury Hid A.I.G. Loss.

Christopher Hill of Krisken Managment in Geneva, Switzerland said:

After reading this information, I ask, how is it possible that...

Congress "ducked" on financial regulation, neglecting to solve the problems that caused the financial crisis, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt said.

In an interview with the Street, Levitt, who now serves as a Goldman Sachs adviser, said the Dodd-Frank financial legislation, passed in July, accomplishes very...

Many people are now convinced that the SEC lets white collar criminals get away with murder. For example, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that "Rattner Near Deal to Settle SEC Case."

A settlement with the SEC and a ban on his participation in the securities business would...

The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is August 29, 2010. The day after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast my hometown New Orleans drowned. Practically everything I knew as a kid was wiped out - my home, schools, playgrounds, churches, hospital where I was born, some friends, some loved...

Seems almost everyone I talk to these days is very outraged over the corruption in the financial system.

Here are some comments from one of my readers in response to my blog article
Goldman Sachs to Pay $550 Million to Settle Civil Fraud Charges:

Following up on my article Why Does the SEC Have Such an Abysmal Record Solving Financial Cases? one of my readers emailed the following:

I was reading your blog comments on the SEC and it reminded me of something that I have always found outrageous - like...

Following up on my recent article Ripped Off by Your Bank? Tell Us About It!, I've been doing some research on safe places to do my banking.

I came across an annual survey of banks in Global Finance Magazine: The World's Safest Banks...

Recently I wrote a Huffington Post article about a wire transfer I tried to make from my Bank of America account to my Credit Suisse account: Bank of America Wire Transfer: Lost in Space! . To my surprise, this Huffington...

I made a Bank of America wire transfer on 12 June 2010. The money was to be transferred to an account of mine at another bank. However, 10 days later there was no trace of my money in either bank accounts.

It seems that I have unwillingly made a 10+...

The first news I read this morning was a very depressing New York Times editorial.

Here's what I learned from the sobering statistics in this editorial. Since June 1st, when federal unemployment benefits began to expire, an estimated 325,000 jobless workers have been cut off. That...

In a recent Financial Times article it is reported that:

"'Many people believe Goldman Sachs, which goes around the Chinese market slurping gold and sucking silver, may have, using all kinds of deals, created even bigger losses for Chinese companies and investors than it did with its fraudulent actions...

Over the past five months I've spent quite a bit of time in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Austria. During my time in Zurich, Switzerland I had the opportunity to meet with Swiss journalist Lukas Hassig.

Recently Mr. Hassig contacted me about co-authoring an article on Swiss banking secrecy....

Where I grew up, in New Orleans, we respectfully bury the dead in style -- and even have fun doing so at jazz funerals. At these funerals you may find folks doing the secondline dance, and some dancing on coffins. Jazz funerals are held...

From 1997 to 2000 I lived abroad. I studied and worked in Brussels and London. In addition, I traveled all over Europe and Asia, learning about many different cultures and meeting many interesting people. The only problem I had with being abroad was that I missed spending time with my...

If we've made any progress as a nation since the crisis, it's that people these days know the word "derivatives." They may not know exactly what it means, but that's okay, because as I like to tell them, the most powerful men in the world didn't really know a whole...