Biography
Jim Allen, CFA, is head of Americas capital markets policy at CFA Institute. The capital markets group develops and promotes capital markets positions, policies, and standards.
After more than a year of posturing, agonizing, and distress, the US Department of Labor (DOL) has finally released its conflicts of interest and fiduciary rules for personal retirement accounts, including IRA rollovers.
The slightest rise in rates here in the US could devastate federal, state, and municipal budgets nationwide. All of which goes a long way to explaining the Fed’s brute determination to keep interest rates miniscule.
In normal markets, investors would find the suggestion of raising interest rates in a weak economy about as daft as holding a TV antenna in a thunderstorm. Yet, after five years of “stimulative” monetary policy, this week's survey results suggest that investors are ready for a radical departure from economics orthodoxy.
When the Basel III rules become operative in January, banks will have to meet a new leverage standard that will cap the leverage permitted under other Basel rules. In a poll conducted earlier this week, we asked readers at what level the Basel Committee on Banking supervision should set its minimum leverage ratio.