Eric Talley

Eric Talley Grades Federal Stress Test

-Fox Business.com, June 8, 2009 by Peter Barnes
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/tarp-overseers-say-banks-need-new-stress-tests/

In a special study for the panel included in the draft report, Talley and Walden gave the stress test generally favorable marks. “We conclude that the Federal Reserve Board’s risk modeling approach is, on the whole, a reasonable one, erring for the most part on the conservative side,” they wrote to the panel…. Still, the researchers raised concerns about the program’s transparency and lack of data disclosure, which they said could limit checks of the test by outside researchers.

-CNBC, June 9, 2009 by Albert Bozzo
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31177176

The highly anticipated stress test report is partly the work of outside consultants. The committee said it used two “internationally-renowned experts in risk analysis” to review the process; they are Professor Eric Talley, Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy at the University of California, and Professor Johan Walden, an assistant professor at the University’s Haas School of Business.

-The Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, June 9, 2009 by Ronald D. Orol
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-stress-tests-urged-for-banks

The two academics argued that important details about bank assets were not publicly provided, making it difficult for anyone to replicate the results. They also argued that the hostile scenario considered by the tests only looked at an adverse scenario through 2010, a period that does not consider potential problems in the commercial real estate market that could continue in later years.

Eric Talley Discusses SEC’s Proposed Ratings Reform

Marketplace Money/American Public Media, May 30, hosted by Tess Vigeland
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/30/sec_investment_ranking/

“The ratings agencies played a big role in putting investment-grade stamps on a lot of these mortgage-backed securities, and so the questions about how they went about rating these structured finance products—which by the way are really about sort-of repackaged mortgages, sliced, diced and julienned in a way that makes some aspects of them safe and some more risky—is going to be a real issue.”

Eric Talley Supports Congressional Inquiry into Milberg Weiss’ Illegal Conduct

San Francisco Daily Journal, May 12, by Lawrence Hurley
http://www.dailyjournal.com

Congressional action couldn’t do any harm, Talley suggested. “Shining a light on the practice will act as a deterrent,” he said. Why prosecutors didn’t act sooner in pursuing Milberg Weiss is another key question. “That’s where we want to be spending a lot of our time,” Talley said. “Why wasn’t the Justice Department able to uncover this evidence for such a long period of time?”

Eric Talley Explains Corporate Response to Shareholder Activism

San Francisco Daily Journal, March 5, by Adam Gorlick
http://www.dailyjournal.com

“The lawyers are having to spend more time dealing with negotiations between companies and hedge funds,” says Eric Talley…. “A lot of them are trying to advise companies on what structures can be put in place to improve governance and how to make changes to the board now. They need to find ways to immunize companies from proxy or takeover threats.”