Reuters Breakingviews’ Jeffrey Goldfarb and Reynolds Holding discuss whether the guilty verdicts against former McKinsey boss and Goldman director Rajat Gupta will deter other would-be insider traders. (more…)

BNP Paribas’ Marty Fridson says high-yield debt is trading at close to extreme spreads relative to fair value and that we won’t see any significant tightening until Europe’s issues are resolved. (more…)

Former FDIC chair Bill Isaac says that Jamie Dimon’s issues with the current state of financial regulation are legitimate and that the Dodd-Frank bill was a lost opportunity to make meaningful reforms. (more…)

U.S. banks may have little exposure to Greek troubles, but all it takes is one financial institution to start wobbling and credit markets could seize up in the blink of an eye says Sallie Krawcheck, the former Bank of America and Citigroup executive. (more…)

Reuters’ Elizabeth Koraca speaks with Jim Rogers, chief executive of Rogers Holdings, about regulating banks, why he’s not buying gold and why he’s short stocks.

“Listen, most of the management at JPMorgan, including the chairman, has no clue what’s going on in their back offices,” Rogers says. “All these guys are sitting there doing their thing. Do you think Jamie Dimon understands what’s happening in his offices? No, of course not.”

Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair says big banks should separate their safe and high-risk trading operations into subsidiaries. She adds these units should have their own management boards. (more…)

European regulators don’t need an excuse to tighten the screws on big finance and outlaw proprietary trading at investment banks. But JPMorgan’s $2 billion hedging loss plays right into their hands.

“The Volcker rule, aimed at banning banks speculating with depositors’ cash, will become law in the United States,” Reuters’ Jamie McGeever reports. “JPMorgan’s oversight failure here could push Europe to follow suit.”

Debbie Fuhr of ETF Global Insight says the latest ETF launches are designed to give exposures to specific sectors across asset classes, rather than exposure to broad market indexes.

“We are seeing that many active managers are looking to get into the ETF space,” Fuhr says. “Because if we look over the past few years, the net new money going into ETFs has been very significant.”

Jim Rogers says the United States’ hefty debt load will make the coming recession worse than the 2008 downturn. The Fed is only making the situation worse, he says.

“The 2008 slowdown was worse than 2002 slowdown because the debt was high,” Rogers says. “Next time, the debt’s going to be up there (gestures) and it’s going to be much worse.”

And in response to a question about what the Fed should do next, Rogers says, “They should all abolish the Fed and resign. The Fed is making the world much worse and making the United States worse.”

Axel Threlfall talks with Breakingviews Editor Hugo Dixon about the likelihood that the euro egg can be unscrambled without provoking the mother of all financial collapses.

One woman, Catherine Dobbs, has made a proposal in response to the Wolfson Economics Prize question: “If member states leave the Economic and Monetary Union, what is the best way for the economic process to be managed to provide the soundest foundation for the future growth and prosperity of the current membership?” (more…)