How the FDIC can curb banks’ reckless speculation

By Barry Ritholtz – Let’s be blunt: Banking has devolved into an unruly mess.

After years of deregulation, it has become all but impossible to re-regulate modern banking. There was a brief window during the credit crisis, but that has passed. Today, profits trump soundness. Safety and security are secondary to risk-taking and speculation.

I have been wondering what we, as a democratic nation, are going to do about this. Are we going to rule banks, or are bankers going to rule us? more> http://tinyurl.com/cbeyqa4

Related articles

• How the FDIC Can End TBTF (ritholtz.com)
• ‘Dump Your Bank’ Movement Still Gaining Momentum (aarp.org)
• RITHOLTZ: I Think About JP Morgan’s Trading Loss The Same Way I Think About Cockroaches (businessinsider.com)
• REVEALED: The True Origins Of The Piggy Bank (businessinsider.com)
• JPMorgan’s debacle, and its parallels to AIG (ritholtz.com)
• Banker Angst: The Inside Story (With Pictures), David Futrelle, TIME.com

In Praise Of Stretch Goals

BOOK REVIEW

Betterness: Economics for Humans (Kindle Single), Author: Umair Haque.

By Steve Denning – In an article  entitled The Folly of Stretch Goals, Daniel Markovitz writes, “Let’s dispense, once and for all, with the managerial absurdity known as ‘stretch goals.’”

Well, no! Instead, let’s celebrate stretch goals.

Markovitz’s article shies away from stretch goals for several reasons:

• “Stretch goals can be terribly demotivating, overwhelming and unattainable”
• “Stretch goals foster unethical behavior”
• “Stretch goals can also — tragically — lead to excessive risk taking.”

Stretch goals need to be about human excellence, not about financial targets. Financial goals bring out the selfish gene that lurks in all of us. Instead, stretch goals need to appeal to what is best in us. more> http://is.gd/lMczMu

Related articles

• The Folly of Stretch Goals (blogs.hbr.org)