Wealth Think

Amid the sobering talk of a possible recession, there were two pieces of news last week that are cause for additional consternation. First, bond guru Bill Gross of Pimco warned that the subprime crisis could linger for another two years, wiping out another $250 billion in loan defaults through the end of next year on top of the $900 billion worth of current questionable collateralized debt obligations and subprime loans.

A new marketing idea we've been hearing at recent conferences for the mutual fund industry is the notion of embracing new technologies, including blogging, instant messaging, chat rooms, webcasts, podcasts, websites tailored for each individual investor and even creating communities along the lines of facebook.com and YouTube.com.

It's been four years since Noreen Harrington has appeared on the scene, but she recently spoke before an industry group on why she blew the whistle on the market timing and late trading at Canary Capital, setting off the shocking scandal that rocked the fund industry, cost it $5 billion in fines and nearly tarnished its reputation forever.

Hedge funds in Europe have just proposed that they self-police, in an attempt to ward off regulation. They are offering to volunteer information about their holdings, risk management, governance and valuation techniques.

It isn't often that mutual fund firms launch remarkable, truly unique new products. Certainly, exchange-traded, lifecycle, 130/30 and emerging-market funds have been among the most significant and popular offerings in recent years.

Fines, being barred from the industry and even facing years behind bars evidently won't deter some market timers looking for a quick, sure buck.

The President's Working Group on Financial Markets will form two private-sector groups to develop best practices for the hedge fund industry, and while it comes far short of requiring hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, this is welcome news, both for investors and the market.

Of the 14 regulations that came out of the mutual fund trading scandal, the two most important were the creation of a chief compliance officer and the requirement that three-quarters of a fund's board of directors, including its chairman, be independent.

Lifecycle funds are now taking another punch, and while this one may not be fully merited, it is one that fund companies might want to consider as a roadmap to improving such funds' performance and marketability.

When Peter Scannell appeared before Congress to testify about market timing at Putnam Investments, he hardly appeared the picture of a valiant hero. Scannell was somewhat incoherent, his written testimony riddled with misspellings, according to one of our reporters who was there.