Juggling Dynamite

Hedge fund manager Philip A. Falcone has agreed to admit wrongdoing and to be banned from the securities industry for at least five years to settle market manipulation accusations. As part of the settlement, he and his fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, must also pay more than $18 million. This new plea deal overturns a previous proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that was to let Falcone pay a fine without admitting any fault.

“The new, tougher terms reflect a wider policy change that Ms. White [new SEC head] outlined this year, aiming to shift the burden of admission of guilt onto the defendant, overturning a longstanding policy of allowing defendants to “neither admit nor deny” wrongdoing.

The agreement on Monday sets a potential precedent for the regulator, which is busy with investigations involving JPMorgan Chase and the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors.

While going after a hedge fund manager is different than pressing a giant bank, the agency is said to be to seeking an admission of wrongdoing from JPMorgan in a settlement over a multibillion-dollar trading loss last at a bank unit in London, in an episode known as the London Whale.

The shift in S.E.C. policy to seek admission of wrongdoing comes after longstanding criticism that the agency was too soft on large organizations at the heart of the financial crisis”… See: Falcone to admit wrongdoing as SEC takes a harder line

See also: DOJ investigating JP Morgan

The Indian stock market is now down 25% year to date and 44% since global growth peaked in 2011.

India’s currency has continued to weaken despite efforts by the central bank to stem its decline. On Monday, the rupee hit a new all-time low of 63.49 against the US dollar. The decline comes as foreign investors have been pulling money out of the country amid worries of a slowdown in economic growth. Here is a direct video link.

Also see: Capital Flows back to US as markets slump across Asia.

And: Mexico economy grows less than expected as industry contracts

And: Canada wholesale sales fall in widespread drop: “Wholesale sales dropped 2.8 percent to C$48.8 billion ($47.1 billion), the fastest since January 2009, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The decline exceeded the most pessimistic of 13 estimates in a Bloomberg survey that had a median estimate for a 0.5 percent fall.”

Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, talks about the U.S. economy and why GDP revisions lower ahead will reveal the third US recession since 2000 began in late 2012 as consumption turned down. Here is a direct link.