Edward J. Strafaci ~ Academic Blog

The longevity of the world’s largest ETF rests on the lives of 11 U.S. millennials Detail of the New York Stock Exchange. (Bryan R. Smith / AFP/Getty Images) By RACHEL EVANS, VILDANA HAJRIC AND TRACY ALLOWAY BLOOMBERG AUG. 9, 2019 12:41 PM The fate of the world’s largest exchange-traded fund rests on the health of a group of twentysomethings. Thanks to a quirk in the legal structure used to set up the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, known as SPY, more than $250 billion rests on the longevity of 11 ordinary kids born between May 1990 and January 1993. Those children are now carving out careers in public relations, restaurants and sales, spread around the country from Boston and Philadelphia to Alabama and Utah. But none of the eight spoken to by Bloomberg News was aware of their role in investing history. “Today was the first I heard about this,” said Alexander Most, 27, who’s about to start graduate school, studying education, policy and management. “H...

By   Lauren Silva Laughlin Aug. 15, 2019 5:31 pm ET General Electric   GE  9.74%   had enough on its plate before Harry Markopolos showed up. The researcher, who gained fame a decade ago for pointing out Bernie Madoff ’s Ponzi scheme,  issued a report  Thursday saying that the industrial conglomerate is hiding problems “more serious than either the Enron or WorldCom accounting frauds.” The company stands by its financial statements and has noted that Mr. Markopolos is being paid by a hedge fund betting that GE’s stock will fall. It said that Mr. Markopolos hadn’t contacted them prior to publishing his report online. Chief Executive Larry Culp dubbed the report “market manipulation.” Leslie Seidman, the chair of GE’s audit committee and former chair of the group overseeing the accounting industry, told CNBC that the report was “full of misleading, inaccurate and inflammatory statements.” The fact is, though, that the combination of Mr. Ma...

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