The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "bond market" ...
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"Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund"
For over 20 years, The Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund has built up a "powerful political network" throughout the state that provided financial perks to its leader and employees. The fund marketed itself as a "nonprofit," a claim that the Tennessean proved false.
Tags: Charles "Bones" Seivers; Metro Finance; Murfreesboro; Morristown; Rich Riebeling; Bank of America; campaign donations
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Broken Promises
JPMorgan Chase has become the central focus of what is now the largest-ever criminal investigation of the $2.6 trillion municipal bond market. This report shows how JPMorgan Chase convinced school districts, counties and cities to use so-called interest-reat swps, complex derivatives that were supposed to provide low-cost financing to the public. Instead, taxpayers lost millions of dollars as JPMorgan reaped profits.
Tags: finances; banks; corruption; scams; overcharging; municipal bond market;
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All Bets Are Off: How the Salesmanship And Brainpower Failed At Long-Term Capital
The Journal tells the story of Long-term Capital Management LP, an institutional investor with 25 PhDs on its payroll, whose largest bets failed in one single day. The company lost more than 90 percent of its assets before it was bailed out by large Wall Street banks. What happened "forced many of the world's institutional investors to redefine the ways they manage risk and triggered calls for tougher regulation of hedge funds, those freewheeling investment funds that cater to the wealthy."
Tags: investors; bond market; securities; business; corporations; banking
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The Sham of Enron: How the Deception of Shareholders, Analysts and Employees Paved the Way for the Biggest U.S. Bankruptcy
Bloomberg reports on the collapse of the Enron Corp. The three part series reveals that the company had close ties and had enriched financial analysts who overwhelming backed the company despite red flags in the end of 2001; that former Enron Chief Financial officer Andrew Fastow was behind the engineered network of Enron's off-balance-sheet entities; and that an online venture called NewPower designed the conquer the deregulating energy retail market strategy that contributed to Enron's slide into bankruptcy. The file includes a Bloomberg Markets article of May 2001 that contains some preliminary findings on Enron's questionable deals and accounting practices.
Tags: business; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); mergers and acquisitions; accounting chicanery; stocks and bonds
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How are you voting? What are your stocks?
A Business Week investigation finds that members of Congress often invest in companies whose fortunes they could influence. The story reveals that lawmakers often had insider information, which determined their or their relatives' stock trading decisions. For example, the reporter quotes the finding of a marketing professor that many members of the Congress sold tobacco stocks at the time when the antitobacco mood in Washington began to heat up. "The only strict prohibition bars members from voting on or pushing legislation that benefits a very small group ... but if the bill benefits them as ... shareholders, for example, they face no restrictions," the magazine reports.
Tags: insider trading; politicians; Congress; House; Senate; conflict of interests; tobacco; access to information; ethics; investments; stocks and bonds; financial disclosure filings
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White-collar blues
Fortune reports on increasing job cuts in different industries. The story reveals that, in "the unemployemnt flu of 2001," many of the people losing their jobs are white-collar, college educated and upper middle class. Profiles of some of the new unemployed trendsetters, who lost their jobs with WorldCom, are featured in the article. It also includes layoff statistics for different sectors and big corporations, as well as advice to white-collar unemployed on how to cope with the change and to find new jobs.
Tags: Internet; dot-com; labor; free agency; WorldCom; economy; market; stocks and bonds; downsizing; management; retraining
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The Bond Game Remains the Same
For three years running, federal securities regulators have been cracking down on a sleazy aspect of the municipal bond industry that had been its dirty little secret for a long time. The practice of donating to political campaigns of local officials who, while in office, dole out lucrative contracts for muni-bond offerings. It's been called "paying to play," and ridding the $1.3 trillion muni-bond market of the practice has been a top priority of the Democratic chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since 1994, the investment banking firms that underwrite these offerings have been banned form making such contributions. To find out whether bond lawyers indeed "pay to play," the NLJ put one locale in New Jersey under a microscope and found that lawyers are continuing this game. (July 1, 1996)
Tags: Donovan CAR The bond game remains the same Contest entry 17 pgs.
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Billion-Dollar Bath
Newsweek Magazine reports that "For 11 years, prosecutors say, (Toshihide) Iguchi took Japan's Daiwa Bank for a ride, losing a fortune trading bonds in New York, while fabricating profits...Two months after mailing Daiwa's president a bizarre letter of confession, the 44-year-old Iguchi was charged with bank fraud. Daiwa's loss: an eye-popping $1.1 billion..."
Tags: Stock Market Wall Street finance investment broker trader scandal banking regulations
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No title (id: 10597)
The LA Times publishes a special report on the financial difficulties that ORange County is facing; the finances were so bad that the county declared itself bankrupt. The report examines how the county was able to lose $1.5 billion on the bond market; how it will affect the ordinary person in the county and what steps are being taken to remedy the situation, Dec. 11, 1994
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No title (id: 10098)
Investment Dealers' Digest details the conflict between executives at American International Group, Inc., a financial services company; the problem illustrates the risk of the derivatives market, Sep. 6, 1993.