This is What Happens if You Stare at the Fed’s Dots for Too Long
Jared Bernstein | On the Economy
The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee accelerated the taper a bit, even as they downgraded their forecast for GDP growth this year. Now, this may have you scratching your noggin a bit: if they think growth this year is going to be significantly slower than they thought before (see figure), why are they doing less?
shared by @CenterOnBudget, @markgongloff, Reformed Broker
 

Janet Yellen isn’t giving up on the long-term unemployed
Washington Post
Three takeaways from the Fed’s decision to cut its bond-buying — and from the chair’s comments at her news conference.
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Argentina says next bond payment ’impossible’, default looms
Reuters
Argentina threatened to default on its debt on Wednesday when the government called it impossible to pay bond service due on June 30.
shared by @tylercowen, @FGoria, @pdacosta, @prchovanec, Crossing Wall Street
 

Ex-Goldman Trader Says Bonus Cut to $8.25 Million Unfair
Bloomberg
Deeb Salem, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) trader who said he helped the bank earn more than $7 billion, wants to be paid the almost $5 million difference between his 2010 bonus and what he told his mother to expect.
shared by @jennablan, Reformed Broker, Here Is The City, @Noahpinion
 

Currency Probe Widens as U.S. Said to Target Markups
Bloomberg
U.S. prosecutors are broadening their investigation of the foreign-exchange industry as they question salespeople at the world’s biggest banks on markups, disclosures.
shared by NYT Dealbook, @JohnLothian, Crossing Wall Street, @pdacosta, @Ian_Fraser
 

Perks Live Forever at CME Amid Review of Trade Incentives
Bloomberg
On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where competition among high-frequency traders is supposed to create a fairer market, some firms get a better deal than others. That’s piqued the interest of regulators.
shared by @ThemisSal, @nasiripour
 

They’re Everywhere! Big Four Auditors Mixed Up In Mortgage Fraud
Forbes
Can anyone deny that there are four firms – KPMG, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Ernst & Young (auditor to Lehman) – who knew all along what was going on and never told a soul, including the SEC?
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TCI Hedge Fund in Britain Ends Ties to Charitable Arm
New York Times
According to regulatory filings in Britain, the Children’s Investment Fund, known as TCI, will no longer donate money to the foundation on a contractual basis, though it may do so on a discretionary basis.
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Cybersecurity firm says large hedge fund attacked
CNBC
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence says a large hedge fund was the victim of a sophisticated cyberattack in late 2013 before it was thwarted.
shared by Business Insider, @ThemisSal
 

US share buybacks and dividends hit record
Financial Times
US share buybacks and dividend payments climbed to a record level in the first quarter of 2014, as companies chose to boost shareholder returns in the absence of robust revenue growth. Members of the S&P 500 index — led by Apple, IBM, Exxon, and FedEx, — paid $241b out to shareholders in the first quarter, surpassing the previous record in 2007.
shared by @davidmwessel, @mhewson_CMC
 

Public Faith in Congress Falls Again, Hits Historic Low
gallup.com
Seven percent of Americans now say they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress, down from 10% in 2013. This is the lowest confidence score Gallup has recorded for any institution — ever.
shared by @ErikSchatzker, Reformed Broker, @JacobWolinsky, @Dvolatility