Stories catching our attention. Bringing those stories to yours. Throughout the week, conversations between Benzinga correspondents and other leading thinkers in finance, economics, and politics get to the heart of real issues we face right now, uncovering the details of news reports and cover storiā¦
Typhon Capital Management CEO and attorney James Koutoulas is leading the Commodity Customer Coalition to recover customer funds from the MF Global unwinding.
Bloomberg TV economics editor Dr. Linda Yueh discusses common misconceptions about and the major risks with regard to the elusive Chinese economy.
Professor at the London School of economics, director at MFX Solutions, derivatives lawyer, and chairman of PRIME Finance Jeffrey Golden discusses the new expert panel for resolving complex international financial disputes and weighs in on the discussions surrounding the Greek debt swap talks with creditors.
Citi managing director Steven Wieting discusses Friday's GDP announcement and the Fed's decision to keep rates on hold until late 2014.
Soc Gen discusses the euro short, Morgan Stanley bemoans lack of exchange volume as secular, Citi shows three trading scenarios surrounding Greek debt negotiations, and BAML shows the relationship between correlations in sovereign and corporate credit spreads conditional on different rate environments.
Trillium Asset Management VP Jonas Kron describes the risks Trillium is identifying in companies heavily reliant on agricultural imputs, specifically hydrologic risks with sweeping long-term impacts.
NYU Stern finance professor Dr. Edward Altman developed the widely-used Altman Z-score, which was initially designed to estimate the probability of a firm defaulting. Recently, he has reworked his metrics to apply them toward analyzing sovereign risk.
Typhon Capital Management CEO and attorney James Koutoulas is leading the Commodity Customer Coalition to prevent JP Morgan from getting a lien on MF Global's bankruptcy assets that could take precedent over the return of client funds, which are suspected to have been commingled with MF Global's own money.
BoomBustBlog author and entrepreneurial investor Reggie Middleton on the eurozone: "In order for any economic progress to be made, the debt needs to be destroyed."
Trinity College Dublin Professor of Finance and St. Columbanus AG Head of Research Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev discusses what deleveraging will look like from the perspective of the markets for securitized loan products as well as the developed-market and emerging-market economies interlinked with the eurozone banking system.
Tangent Capital senior managing director James Rickards discusses his new book, Currency Wars, which details the environment containing both massive inflationary and deflationary headwinds that we find ourselves in and the possible outcomes of policy interactions in the coming years.
Cumberland Advisors chairman and chief investment officer David Kotok discusses upcoming mass sovereign and bank funding and refinancing in the eurozone, posits that the US economy is probably all right for now, and discusses the lag between monetary policy decisions and the reaction in precious metals prices.
Economist and author of the Street Light blog Kash Mansori discusses IMF and ECB involvement in the Italian sovereign crisis, ponders the question of liquidity vs. solvency issues, and discusses implications of keeping credit default swaps from triggering on eurozone sovereigns.
Executive director of the Get Money Out Foundation discusses the movement, the constitutional amendment, and his career in lobbying before spearheading the project.
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan of the Dylan Ratigan Show and Radio Free Dylan discusses the two-tiered system of privilege in America favoring those with access as well as what needs to be done to save the banking system from collapse.
UMKC economist Randy Wray details the commodities bubble that has caused massive volatility in markets for hard assets over the past decade due to an influx of pension fund money.
Real-estate attorney at Ice Legal and mayoral candidate in Lake Worth, FL details mortgage-crisis related issues in his home state, one of the areas most affected by the fallout in the housing market.
Bruce Krasting discusses the possibility of an Obama-led initiative aimed at refinancing mortgages at better rates for customers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Former SEC official Tom Selling, Ph.D. and CPA, who writes the blog The Accounting Onion, explains how eurozone banks are overstating profits by refusing to mark Greek bond assets to market.
Omgeo executive director for industry relations Tony Freeman discusses how Brazil regulates derivatives and how the marked difference in European and U.S. markets for these products makes regulatory implementation much more complex.
UBS senior economic adviser and former chief economist George Magnus discusses unconventional policy responses to the current crises afflicting the world's major economies in the wake of thirty years of debt-fueled growth.
Peterson Institute for International Economics research fellow Jacob Kirkegaard says Eurobonds are a long way off, discusses liquidity in the European banking system and the increasingly important role of the ECB in the eurozone debt crisis.
Bloomberg economics correspondent and Oxford University fellow Dr. Linda Yueh discusses the increasing role central bankers are playing in financial policy since the 2008 financial crisis.
Derivatives and structured finance expert Janet Tavakoli: "A lot of games are still being played in the global financial system."
Fator Securities' institutional equity sales division's Brian Rogers discusses the money flow contributing to the rise in value of gold, the policy corner the Fed finds itself painted into, and the OTC derivatives books at the heart of an uncertain market in financials.
Phoenix Capital Research chief market strategist Graham Summers on U.S. and European debt, and the end of the Fed's buying programs: "You have a recipe for the perfect storm, and that's what we're getting."
Westwood Capital managing partner Daniel Alpert: "Quite frankly, I am very uncomfortable with the notion of ratings agencies actually inserting themselves into the political process."
Legendary fund manager Jim Rogers weighs in on the Standard and Poors downgrade of U.S. debt, says he has his money in hard commodities, "real things."
Econned author and Naked Capitalism writer Yves Smith: "Frankly, I think Bank of America is over; it's just not official. That's my view of this thing."
Granite Springs Asset Management principal and managing director of global economic research Vincent Truglia discusses how political stagnation is getting in the way of both effective crisis management in the eurozone and economic growth in the United States.
Baseline Scenario author and Harvard fellow James Kwak discusses the debt ceiling deal and the conflicting prerogatives that were at work during the debate.
Reuters MuniLand blogger Cate Long discusses the history of the swaps deal at the heart of Jefferson County's financial troubles, the prospect for a debt haircut vs. an outright bankruptcy, and implications for the broader muni market.
TABB Group principal and director of fixed income research Kevin McPartland discusses the SEF provisions in Dodd-Frank and gives his outlook for U.S. Treasuries post-debt ceiling debate.
University of Minnesota Law School professor Dr. Brett McDonnell discusses a recent paper wherein he compares libertarian and liberal responses to financial crises, and gives his view on Dodd-Frank through this prism.
Bloomberg TV economics correspondent Linda Yueh discusses discrepancies in the policy mandates of certain central banks, particularly between the Financial Policy Committee and the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England.
Reuters broke the story of 2710 Thomes Avenue, the small house in Cheyenne, Wyoming that is "home" to more than 2,000 companies. Benzinga Radio had the chance to chat with Carr on the details of her investigation and the United States' surprising emergence as a haven for corporate secrecy.
UMKC professor of economics L. Randall Wray discusses how progressives have undermined the future of Social Security over the past few years and how the discussion of entitlement reform plays into a meaningless debate between Democrats and Republicans over raising the federal debt ceiling.
MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan gives the lowdown on the deals that are awesome for banks and sovereign wealth funds while terrible for American taxpayers, describing the situation as analogous to giving up our birthright for a bowl of soup.
Evercore Pan-Asset CEO Christopher Aldous explains the boutique UK investment firm's decision to drop synthetic ETFs from the majority of its portfolios, citing pressure from investors.
Former L.A. Times editor James O'Shea discusses his new book, "The Deal from Hell," giving an inside look at the Times-Mirror acquisition by the Tribune Company in 2000.
NYU Stern Professor of Finance and creator of the Altman Z-Score Robert Altman discusses longer-term debt issues in Italy as well as probable outcomes in Greece and Spain.
Interfluidity author Steve Randy Waldman explains the implications of a recent Supreme Court reversal on Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, protecting fund management companies from securities fraud lawsuits due to the legal structure of the funds.
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson: "My point is that both parties can share in our collective 'here is where we're at financially,' but I'm believing that only Republicans are capable of fixing it. That's what I'm signed up here to be a part of."
Fortune Magazine contributing editor William Cohan, author of the recent book entitled "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World," explains Goldman's attempt to neutralize the negative media coverage that has engulfed the firm in the wake of Senator Levin's report on the financial crisis.
Reuters MuniLand blogger Cate Long discusses varying estimates of the size of the U.S. municipal bond market and implications for the Federal Reserve's gross underestimate in its official numbers.
Business Monitor International head of Europe Country Risk Mark Schaltuper discusses the political climates in Germany and Greece overshadowing Greek bailout negotiations.
Control Risks Europe analyst David Lea explains the wave of protests sweeping across Europe, especially in Spain and Greece, and discusses potential flashpoints in the coming weeks and months.
Madison Street Partners portfolio strategist and Roosevelt Institute senior fellow Marshall Auerback argues that Germany should be the one to leave the euro in order to preserve the monetary union.
Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker discusses the widening gap in media focus between deficits and unemployment numbers.
Cumberland Advisors chairman and chief investment officer David Kotok: "It's the banking system that's at risk here and that's what has them scared."
As You Sow chief strategist for the environment and fracking Michael Passoff says shareholders are demanding that the energy-industry self-regulate in order to minimize risk.