By Larry Doyle. This is a reprint from Larry’s June 29 blog on www.senseoncents.com . It is a continuation of a series of articles on FINRA’s now reported involvement in the Auction Rate Securities market - and something of a shocking expose.

At first blush, I viewed the text of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA’s) 2008 Annual Report as nothing more than standard corporate fare. With the benefit of a few days to ponder FINRA’s delivery, I am actually amazed, although never surprised, by the gall of this regulatory organization. In fact, I can only describe FINRA as displaying a special type of hubris in addressing the fraud encompassing Auction-Rate Securities. (more…)

In the 1860s, the New York Stock Exchange only represented 10% of the total number of shares traded. If you bought Erie Railroad on the NYSE, you may have been able to buy it cheaper at one of the other trading areas around the city. These other exchanges cropped up all over the city. (more…)

Since the very beginning of financial time, since the very concept of shares trading bubbled up in the inspired minds of would-be traders and investors, there has been, somewhere within arm’s reach of that inspired mind, a hot cup of caffeine. History doesn’t seem to care whether that caffeine is tea or coffee or some other incantation of the stuff; the important lesson seems to be simply that it was there, in a cup, within reach. Yet while we take our Darjeeling and espresso quite for granted, it is well to remember that these products arrived on the European scene rather recently, compared with other equally popular brewed beverages. Yet for all the hops or grapes in the western world, one is hard put to place, with any precision, any single event whereby the hops or grape brews were integral to any revolution in the world’s financial markets. (more…)