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Future of Finance ·

Europe to Investors: “This Time We Really Mean It.”

All eyes are trained on Europe these days. While I look on, I can’t help but yearn for the day when financial markets and financial institutions are a little less interconnected, and a lot more resilient. Whether such a system lies in the future, or only in the past, is open to question. It’s clear that the factious nature of…

John Fullerton·
December 12, 2011 3:47 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

Wealth, Illth, and Net Welfare

Wellbeing should be counted in net terms — that is to say we should consider not only the accumulated stock of wealth but also that of “illth;” and not only the annual flow of goods but also that of “bads.” The fact that we have to stretch English usage to find words like illth and bads with which to name…

John Fullerton·
December 5, 2011 2:54 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

The Wisdom of Melville

“If your banker breaks, you snap.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick During the summer between the day I resigned from JPMorgan after eighteen years, and the horror of witnessing 9-11 up close and personal, I joined a couple of friends on their fifty-foot sailboat in an attempt to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. What better time to

John Fullerton·
November 28, 2011 8:10 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

The Joint Chiefs of Staff and OWS… Who Knew?

Last week, I had the privilege of meeting Colonel Mark (“Puck”) Mykleby, recently retired from the US Marine Corps. Puck was a “Top Gun” pilot, and finished his military career working in the Office of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a senior advisor on strategy reporting to Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

John Fullerton·
November 21, 2011 12:41 pm·
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Efficiency ·

Financial Collapse: It’s Only Natural

What does the collapse of MF Global, the Euro crisis, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the 1998 collapse of Long Term Capital Management all have in common? Certainly these crises all shared the following characteristics: too much leverage, lack of transparency, inadequate regulatory oversight, agency problems of misaligned incentives,

John Fullerton·
November 14, 2011 6:47 pm·
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Financial Reform ·

A Tax for the Supercommittee to Embrace

Last Friday, I participated in a Special Briefing on Capitol Hill in support of the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). I came as a seasoned practitioner speaking on behalf of the real economy, not for the interests of the Wall Street trading community. What I tried to convey was that what the US and World needs is enhanced capital market function,…

John Fullerton·
October 24, 2011 4:52 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

Listening to Occupy Wall Street

I’m a former banker, a one-percenter, and I’m mad as hell too. Let’s be clear. This movement is not frustration being expressed, as President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner, and now Eric Cantor have suggested. Frustration is passive; anger is active. Martin Luther King was not frustrated. But beyond my anger is a real

John Fullerton·
October 17, 2011 10:05 am·
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Future of Finance ·

Taming the Casino

Bloomberg View has joined its Wall Street customers in coming out against the Financial Transactions Tax proposed by Germany and France, and recommended by the European Union, declaring it politically unfeasible while undermining economic growth. Presuming for a moment that the politically unfeasible can become reality when good ideas are pursued in a real democracy, it

John Fullerton·
October 2, 2011 4:45 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

Why We Need an Independent Infrastructure Bank

Banking used to be a profession, not just a business. That profession is vital to the real economy, and essential at a time of profound economic system transition. It’s about time we rebuild the banking profession, with public-private hybrid models as necessary to promote critical public purpose such as rebuilding our energy infrastructure for the post-carbon era.

John Fullerton·
September 25, 2011 10:14 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

This Labor Day: Can CEOs Lead?

Jobs. Depending on how you count, the challenge is 7 to 10 million net new jobs in the United States over the next 5 years or so from a current base of about 130 million. A five to seven percent increase, the sooner the better. Here’s how. First, we need to break the challenge down into two pieces: emergency triage,…

John Fullerton·
September 5, 2011 2:58 pm·
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Carbon ·

Freedom

Forty eight years ago this Sunday, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began his famous “I have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by proclaiming it, “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” And it was. While the struggle for freedom has made progress since that historic

John Fullerton·
August 29, 2011 5:08 pm·
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Efficiency ·

Why We Need a Financial Transactions Tax

Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the situation is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. – John Maynard Keynes, Speculator and Economist You know you’ve hit a hot button when publicly traded

John Fullerton·
August 21, 2011 6:47 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

Only One Notch S&P?

I recall when JPMorgan lost its AAA rating. Those of us working there a long time felt the gloom of losing our specialness. The rating agencies were right — the truth hurt. Egos were stung. And they were late, as they almost always are. No different with the downgrade of US Sovereign debt. Any rational, objective observer must conclude “too

John Fullerton·
August 7, 2011 10:31 pm·
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Financial Reform ·

Debt Limit Nonsense

The debt limit negotiations are 99% political and 1% economic, so I have little directly to say about them. But I do have some related thoughts to share as we stumble toward the deadline, with much wasted tax payer money paying for amateur hour in Washington while real challenges are left to smolder and in some cases burn. I was…

John Fullerton·
July 18, 2011 4:11 pm·
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Future of Finance ·

Hell Hath No Limits

Somehow I missed the release of a new collection of essays by Wendell Berry in 2010, What Matters: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth. The introduction is by Herman Daly, whose clarification of how scale limits transform economics remains the most important idea still not acknowledged in mainstream economics today. When two of my heroes collaborate on a book

John Fullerton·
June 27, 2011 8:56 am·
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