| How to Police an Automated Market and Steve Jobs and the Cult of Apple: 2011 Reflections |
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No one wants to play a rigged game unless they're in Las Vegas and getting complimentary drinks. Wall Street has convinced the world it's a scam and investors have responded with their feet, particularly in the mutual fund industry where December will mark the 8th straight month of net withdrawals.Along with a sense of economic progress only restoring belief in a level playing field is going to bring money back into stocks. According to Larry Leibowitz, the COO of NYSE Euronext, his challenge is two-fold: he needs to create and ensure a fair marketplace then prove he's done so to the satisfaction of a deeply suspicious public. No substance. No empty gestures and faux crackdowns while the investing public is fleeced. Real, verifiable, change.Catching the offenders from the most recent scandals is necessary but not sufficient. That's just the Department of Justice doing its job. Slowly. [Read the full article] (Reuters) - An appeals court ruled that a letter linked to Mark Hurd's abrupt departure from his post as chief of Hewlett-Packard Co should be unsealed, potentially revealing new details about his dramatic exit from the technology giant.Delaware Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Berger said in an opinion dated Wednesday that while the letter contained "embarrassing detail about Hurd's behavior," it did not describe any "intimate conversations or conduct."The letter was sent to Hurd from Gloria Allred, a high-profile California attorney, on behalf of an independent contractor who had accused him of sexual harassment. It prompted the world's top computer maker to investigate Hurd, who is now a president at rival Oracle Corp.Although HP's board found no evidence of sexual harassment, Hurd stepped down after the company accused him of filing inaccurate expense reports involving Jodie Fisher, the contractor. [Read the full article] NEW YORK (AP) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is putting some of Sears Holdings Corp.'s ratings on negative CreditWatch after the company announced weaker-than-expected holiday sales and said it would close 100 to 120 of its Sears and Kmart stores. "We believe that one of the primary issues is that the company has underinvested in its stores base, especially when compared with its peers," the ratings agency said in a statement. S&P said late Wednesday that its actions were taken on all issue-level ratings on the company's debt and its "B'' long-term corporate credit rating, which is considered non-investment grade, or junk. The ratings agency said that it's likely that credit protection metrics will deteriorate further in the near term as Sears continues to grapple with softening sales of consumer electronics, home appliances and clothing. Sears Holdings said Tuesday tha [Read the full article] 
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