Wanna sell a security to the public? Then you gotta register it. Many hurdles. All kinds of disclosure. You have detailed, audited GAAP-conforming financials to file. Metrics. History of business papers to send out. A financial doctor will make you turn your head and cough. That's how things roll.
Why? Because, too often, unsuspecting farmers were taken by city slickers in the early 1900s, fomenting all kinds of laws that tried to protect them from this chicanery and let them keep their meager winnings from farming walnuts, so that they'd hopefully (eventually) have a few nuts to store away for their own winters.
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Finance: What is Reg G?5 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is reg G? wasn't he one of the Archies friends and
maybe that was Reggie..... okay so reg G or Regulation G is all
about disclosure largely as it relates to relationships that banks holding [Dollar notes appear]
companies and savings and loans have with NGOs or nongovernmental
organizations or institutions well the key driver of reg G revolves [Man picks up folder of reg G]
around the opacity of bank filings as they relate to risk and exposure in
volatile times the obvious backdrop here was the mortgage crisis of 08/09
with a goal of having that you know never happen again part of the issue was
that a number of the banking terms were so complex that there wasn't a [Stack of banking term documents appear]
pre-existing GAAP or generally accepted accounting principle measure for a way to even
talk about things so complex as banking derivatives risk what does that mean?
well Bank A is hedging its mortgage exposure because it believes that
housing starts are a good proxy for the health of the economy so they get an
investment bank to create a liquid index against which they can be short or long
with leverage and with derivatives believing that these hedges will in fact [Hedges attach to frankenstein monster]
give them life under dire situations like that mortgage crisis well in fact
many of these hedges became so complex and relied on non-GAAP terms like EBITDA
which is not a GAAP term where clever accountants can more or less make up [Accountaint appears at yummy fudge inc]
whatever they want the numbers to be such that Regulation G now put the
burden of clear disclosure on the affecting bank or institution and that's
a big deal because even the experts even the top top experts when the banking
crisis you know hit the fan well even they couldn't explain the derivatives [Banking expert throws paper away]
behind the theoretical hedges the banks were using and while this country almost
went bankrupt in the process all right so the basic idea is that if there was
ever a problem the judge about to put management in jail didn't need a PhD in [Certificate of accounting PhD torn up]
accounting to figure out or be able to trace the logic of whatever filings were
made and whatever derivative and hedging and all the other crapola that the banks
did to hide that they were trying to find clever accounting ways to make
money rather than the old-fashioned way of just selling
good mortgages to honest people who actually pay off the debts they promise
to pay so when you think reg G think gee whiz I actually understand what the hell [Reggie discussing Reg G]
these banks are talking about
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