national-regional

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Save Hamilton: Ben Bernanke has joined the growing chorus of those who say the Treasury should bump Andrew Jackson from his perch on the $20 to make way for the first woman on U.S. currency Â-- and leave Alexander Hamilton be on the $10. The former Fed chief writes on his blog that he's "appalled" by the plan to push aside Hamilton (who Bernanke calls "without doubt the best and most foresightedÂ...

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Brushing the Dust Off IT: Banks around the world use IT systems are basically antiques, and recent tech glitches at Royal Bank of Scotland and Commonwealth Bank of Australia are making that problem increasingly difficult to ignore. The Financial Times reports that part of the issue is that three-quarters of banks' tech spending has to go toward the cost of keeping the old, complex systems running, leaving them with just a fractionÂ...

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

No End to AIG Case: In answer to yesterday's Morning Scan question about whether former AIG chief Maurice Greenberg would be appeased by a federal court ruling that validated his case against the federal government but awarded AIG shareholders zero dollars: nope. Greenberg plans to appeal the decision by Judge Thomas Wheeler, the papers report. Wheeler found that the government had reached beyond its legal authority in the 2008 bailout of insurer...

Wall Street Journal BNP Paribas pleaded guilty in 2014 to breaking U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Iran, Cuba and other countries listed as state sponsors of terrorism. So it seems to make sense that victims of terrorist attacks should receive a share of BNP's $9 billion fine. The matter of how to determine which victims deserve a portion of the funds is proving to be a knottier question. Groups including survivors of the 1979 Iran hostage crisisÂ...

Wall Street Journal Hedge funds have been placing bets on how judges will rule in lawsuits stemming from bankruptcies or crisis-era dealings. At least one of those hedge funds, Appaloosa Management, lost big when a judge ruled in favor of JPMorgan Chase this week. Hedge funds bet by acquiring deeply discounted securities, such as corporate bonds, that are likely to increase in value if the judge rules their way. That didn't happen in the JPMorgan caseÂ...