St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert LeChien agreed on Nov. 9 to substitute attorney Jeffrey Millar's former law firm, Brent Coon & Associates, with his new employer Saville and Flint of Glen Carbon, in a proposed class action against Redbox DVD rental kiosks.

Millar, who used to be employed by the Lakin Law Firm in Wood River (now LakinChapman) before he left to join Coon's firm, is among a group of lawyers that represents Redbox lead plaintiff Laurie Piechur.

Piechur proposes to lead a class of DVD renters who claim that Redbox Automated Retail Inc. charged inappropriate late charges to customers using its kiosks.

The suit seeks damages in excess of $350,000, costs and other relief.

If certified, Piechur's suit would be a nationwide class action.

Redbox denies the claims in the suit.

The company has tried unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed.

The last filing in the case was a move by Redbox asking to be allowed to file additional defenses based on information gathered in the suit's ongoing discovery.

That motion was filed in September.

A move by the owner of Blockbuster Video, a third party in the suit's discovery, is also moving to quash Piechur's discovery requests.

Eric Brandfonbrener of Perkins Coie of Chicago and Robert Sprague represent Redbox.

Millar, Thomas Maag and others represent Piechur and the proposed class.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Patrick Young presides until his retirement Nov. 30.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities firm headquartered in New York City, announces that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on behalf of shareholders of Green Bankshares, Inc. ("Green Bankshares” or the "Company”)

The complaint alleges that defendants knew or recklessly disregarded that their public statements concerning Green Bankshares’ business, operations and prospects were materially false and misleading. Specifically, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (i) that the Company was overvaluing the collateral of certain loans; (ii) that, as such, Green Bankshares was failing to timely take impairment charges to reduce the carrying values of certain loans to appropriate market values; (iii) that the Company lacked adequate internal and financial controls; and (iv) that, as a result, the Green Bankshares’ financial results were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On October 20, 2010, Green Bankshares announced its financial results for the 2010 fiscal Q3 and disclosed that the Company’s net charge-offs increased on a sequential basis from $4.9 million in the prior quarter to $36.5 million. Furthermore, Green Bankshares indicated that it had engaged a third-party loan reviewer, which contributed to the asset quality-impact reflected in its Q3 results. As a result of this news, shares of the Company declined more than 43% to close at $3.68 per share on October 21, 2010.

The new Basel III banking rules will leave the biggest U.S. banks short of between $100 billion and $150 billion in equity capital, with 90 per cent of the shortfall concentrated in the top six banks, the Financial Times said, citing research from Barclays Capital.

The newspaper said the study by the investment banking arm of Barclays Plc (LSE:BARC.L - News) assumes the banks will need to hold top quality capital equal to 8 percent of their total assets -- a one point cushion against falling below the effective global minimum of 7 percent set in September by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

The regulations mean banks may need to increase their capital through retained earnings or issuing equity or they can cut their risk-weighted assets by selling off assets and cutting back riskier business.

"These shortfalls are entirely manageable ... The more difficult question is what affect the new rules will have on the cost and availability of credit and bank profitability," the FT quoted Tom McGuire, head of the Capital Advisory Group at BarCap, as saying.

Broad stock indexes fell sharply in midday trading as concerns grew that the European financial crisis will spread.

Ireland formally asked for help from its neighbors over the weekend after falling into a financial crisis brought on by losses at the three banks the country nationalized. Details of the loan package were still being worked out, but Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has said the rescue would not exceed euro100 billion ($137 billion).

It was the second time that the European Union has come to the rescue of one of the 16 countries that use the euro. In May, the EU and the IMF committed $140 billion to Greece to prevent the country from defaulting on its debt. Euro zone members have been willing to prop up each other's finances in hopes of avoiding a financial crisis that could cause the value of the euro to plummet.

Ireland's request initially pushed stocks higher in Europe. But the Euro Stoxx 50, an index of blue chip companies in countries that use the euro, fell 0.6 percent in afternoon trading there.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down almost 90 points in midday trading.

Ireland's request for assistance does not put an end to the questions facing the euro zone. Fellow members Spain, Portugal and Italy are also saddled with heavy debt burdens and investors fear that they may also need a financial lifeline from other EU members. The euro fell 0.8 percent against the dollar.

"It's been difficult for the European Union to get ahead and stay ahead of the market's concerns, despite the large sums they are clearly willing to dedicate," said Robert Tipp, the chief investment strategist for Prudential Fixed Income. Ireland's announcement that it would seek assistance contributed to stock losses because it was not detailed enough to restore investor confidence, he said.

The government is reportedly close to filing charges in the largest institutional insider-trading investigation in history.

According to initial reports, the investigation could ensnare Wall Street's biggest names: Goldman Sachs, SAC Capital, Wellington, Jennison, MFS Global, Maverick, Citadel, and others.

The investigation reportedly focuses on "expert networks" -- consulting firms that pay industry participants to share insights and information with investors. Professional investors use these networks to gather information about real-time business conditions and trends in various industries

No matter where the investigation ends up, the government will likely present it as a huge step toward making the market "fair" for small investors.  And the same small investors will likely view it as confirmation that the "game is rigged."

Both of these conclusions will miss a far more important point.

The REAL lesson most investors should take away from the largest institutional insider-trading investigation in history is that competition in the global financial markets is so intense that it's basically idiotic to trade.

Trading is what is known as a "zero sum game." To win, you have to beat the competition.

In our experience, most investors have no appreciation for how intense their competition is. They think, "Wow--look at all this information I have.  Look at all my trading screens. Look at all my SEC filings. Look at my charts and graphs. Look at the smart fellow on TV telling me what to buy. Look at how many of my trades have made money!"

What they miss is that their competition has all this information, too -- so it doesn't give anyone an edge. They also don't understand that, in addition to all this information, the folks they are competing with have millions and millions of dollars to spend gathering information that will never be published anywhere or appear on an screen or chart or graph.

That's where the expert networks come in.  That's where contact networks in general come in.  That's where one-on-one meetings with managements and suppliers come in.

One glance from a CEO in response to a pointed question can contain more information than 500 pages of SEC filings. One nugget of scuttlebutt about the status of an important contract can make you more money than 500 hours of studying charts and graphs.  Most small investors don't understand that their competition gets this sort of information all day long.