As business rapidly shifts to electronically stored information (ESI) and the cost of storage drops dramatically, organizations have been saving massive amounts of data — endless iterations of documents memos, emails, PowerPoints, etc. All of this data comes back to haunt the organization the moment even the possibility of litigation looms.

The 2006 revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) elevated ESI to a prominent position in civil litigation. At the same time, the steadily falling cost of data storage was leading organizations to pursue a save-everything strategy because it was cheaper to store electronic data than to cull it. The combination of the two, FRCP and cheap data storage, left massive amounts of data as a sitting duck for anyone pursuing litigation.

“The problem is that so much information sits on a server and becomes a corporate record. That creates a huge risk exposure,” says Tom Russo, adjunct professor, Widener Law School, and president of doeLegal, a litigation management company, Wilmington, Del. more

Bonuses to the tune of $165 million — in a company that just received $180 billion of taxpayers’ money?

“Horrible, outrageous, ” storms Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. “Rewarding incompetence,” fumes Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

President Obama joined the chorus today, saying he’s “choked up with anger” and calling on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to pursue “every single legal avenue” to cancel the AIG giveaways.

The question is: How much can Geithner do? more

Insurance companies might feel a little like Rodney Dangerfield these days about not getting respect. They’re the ones everyone loves to hate, from employees to doctors and hospitals. But for most employers, as long as they’re getting the most competitive rates from their carrier, they’re happy. more

In the “be careful what you wish for” department, one of my favorite business columnists warns that cash-rich companies may be courting sizable risks, including misguided capital spending and shareholder revolt. Wall Street Journal Intelligent Investor columnist Jason Zweig often injects his discussions with insights culled from behavioral economics research. Here, he blends comments from famed value investor Benjamin Graham and a much more recent University of British Columbia study to highlight the potential pitfalls looming at companies that horde too much cash.

This is an important issue at the moment, as treasury expert Karen Kroll regularly documents: Hording cash through rigorous working capital management initiatives marks a top priority at numerous companies right now.

That’s a risk, and here’s why. more

Just how much have mark-to-market accounting rules contributed to the current upheaval in the banking sector?

“The application of these rigid accounting rules, in times like these, is much like throwing gasoline on a raging inferno,” said Thomas Bailey, president and CEO of Brentwood Bank in Pittsburgh, testifying today before a congressional panel on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers of America. (His and others’ testimony is available at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hr031209.shtml.) more