Marian Wang was a reporter for ProPublica, covering education and college debt. She joined ProPublica in 2010, first blogging about a variety of accountability issues. Her later stories focused on how rising college costs and the complexity of the student loan system affect students and their families. Prior to coming to ProPublica, she worked at Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco and freelanced for a number of Chicago-based publications, including The Chicago Reporter, an investigative magazine focused on issues of race and poverty.
Marian Wang
Reporter
Are Goldman's 'Big Short' Denials Short on Persuasiveness?
Goldman Sachs dd nothing illegal in shorting the market, but it has a lot of persuading to do if it expects people to believe it wasn't happy to see the housing market tank.
After the SEC's Goldman Suit, Other Banks Being Scrutinized
Reports about Deutsche Bank's CDO deals with Paulson & Co. raise disclosure issues like those for which the SEC sued Goldman Sachs. But Deutsche Bank says its situation was different.
Senate Dems to Deny Buffett's Derivatives Exception
Though Warren Buffett has long argued about the danger of derivatives, he has pushed to exempt existing deals from proposed new regulations on such contracts. But his efforts to win such an exemption are reported to have failed.
Buffett, a Longtime Derivatives Critic, Lobbies for an Exemption
In 2003, Warren Buffett called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction." But as Congress considers financial reform, he is now trying to have his company's derivatives portfolio grandfathered in.
Is the SEC Porn Story a New Problem, or Political Ploy?
Reports that SEC employees viewed porn at work, while the economy was collapsing, aren't new, but the "new" reports seem curiously timed to efforts to criticize SEC oversight.
Ex-Regulator Says Lincoln's Derivatives Bill Not Perfect, but Is 'Superior' to Others
A former commodities regulator says a bill now moving through the Senate to limit some derivative products isn't perfect, but would allow regulators to stop selling products that were little more than financial gambling, and would require others to be traded on a more transparent exchange.
The Homeowners Whose Loss Was Paulson's $1 Billion in Gain
The Wall Street Journal found the borrowers whose home mortgages were the underlying collateral in Goldman Sachs' Abacus deal, the CDO that is now the subject of the SEC's civil-fraud charges against Goldman.
Governments Increasingly Ask Google for User Data in Criminal Matters
Google has disclosed statistics on government requests for data and for content removal. Next to Brazil, the United States put in the most requests for user data in criminal matters -- 3,580 in the last half of 2009.
SEC Rebuked for Regulatory Failure With Lehman Brothers
The examiner who studied the Lehman collapse tells a congressional panel that regulators failed to protect investors. The examiner, Anton Valukas, says the SEC was clueless about Lehman's use of the accounting manipulations known as Repo 105.
Charges Aside, What About Goldman's Nondisclosure of a Potential Lawsuit?
Goldman Sachs says it was surprised by the SEC's lawsuit against it, but regulators had given the firm notice of that potential last July. Goldman did not pass that information along to investors, though.
Loose Legal Concept Gives Goldman Sachs Grounds to Argue
Financial firms like Goldman Sachs must disclose material information to investors, but what's "material" is an unclear standard that even experts don't agree on. The SEC's suit against Goldman could set a legal precedent.
Goldman Sachs Points to Magnetar Trades in Its Defense
In documents submitted to the SEC last September, Goldman Sachs argued that other banks also hadn’t fully disclosed hedge funds' roles in CDOs. It maintains that not disclosing hedge fund bets against CDOs was “normal business practice.”
Other Major Banks Did Deals Similar to Goldman’s
The SEC's suit against Goldman Sachs faults the firm for failing to tell investors about a hedge fund's role in creating an investment deal. Several other investment banks were doing the same thing in deals they created with the hedge fund Magnetar.
