This week, Stifel Nicolaus announced it was buying 55 UBS wealth management branches spread across 24 states, which include $15 billion in assets under management, 320 reps and over $100 million in revenue. The St. Louis regional b/d will make an...

Will the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIF) announced today by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner work or won’t it? If you listen to former Treasury Secretary Paulson’s chief of staff, the PPIF won’t work—Paulson and...

What should you do when you want someone else’s money? If you’re Congress, you tax the heck out of them until they’ve got close to nothing left. Last week, the House approved a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to AIG employees and...

I guess it wins votes: Exploiting the outrage a populace who loves to hate failed Wall Street fat cats. But the vicious moralizing is revealing. What it says about politicians is actually very scary indeed. In case you had any doubts about the...

Today, the SEC charged two former top-ranking New York political figures with orchestrating a multi-million dollar fraudulent “kick back” scheme. The SEC complaint names David Loglisci, the former New York Deputy Comptroller and chief...

Bear market rally or the beginning of a new bull market? Who the heck knows, but there is good news out there. The S&P extended it’s rally and is now up about 17 percent since hitting 12-year-lows last week. Today’s market was fueled...

There are likely few people who’d want to be in Edward Liddy’s shoes—especially today. The AIG CEO is testifying before the Inquisition—er, Congress this morning. Liddy will be grilled about $165 million in bonuses his company doled out to...

So sang the great country music pioneer Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family. As the 1936 song goes, “This dark hour of midnight [is] nearing/And tribulation time will come.”...

This week, Wall Street is bearish on compensation. Perhaps the most alarming (read hilarious) bit of news was a veritable death sentence for AIG executives issued Monday by Iowa Senator Charles “Chuck” Grassley, who told Cedar Rapids...

This article appears on VonAldo.com, Registered Rep. editor David A. Geracioti’s new blog...