Kalashnikov IPO?

Recently, the surges in both sales and capitalization of several far, far smaller weapons-makers in the US: Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger (along with the world's seemingly inexorable demand for 'bulk ammo') have been huge but one can only wonder whether the market cap of Kalashnikov (the maker of the world's most popular rifle) would be greater than that of AAPL if the firm had been based in the US and gone public at inception.

And 2013 is around the corner........

Abraham Lincoln once said that he believed in the people and that if you told them the truth and gave them the cold hard facts they would meet any crisis. That may have been true in 1860, but not today.

The ignorance is astounding. 

Look at the cities, the masses huddled waiting to be fed a check,  the fatherless children without role models.  Disasterous in so many ways.   


 

Alabama Georgia SEC Title Ramblings

I don't go to many college games but figured that coming from the University of Minnesota  system and hearing so little about winning football I should watch some "winners" play the game.  Am darn glad I did!    Coach Richt is a cool dude.    I don't know what his lockere-room schtick is but his pre-game "face" is all business.  During pre-game warm-ups, Coach Richt isn't patting himself on the back with his other coaches, he's busy.  Busy offering encouraging words, busy watching his kickers and punters, busy watching players warm-up.   His coaching was done for the week.   During the game, after his punter had a poor kick, Richt sought him out and unlike so many coaches were are so quick to berate, Richt brought up some humor and by the smiles on both their faces at a rather heated moment, both enjoyed a laugh.   Talk about keeping things in perspective.  Keeping it light. 

Coach Richt was very quick to ask the "12th Man" to bring it early in the game and the Bulldawg Nation responded like none other.    It really helped during that particular series to help slow down that potent Crimson Tide offense.  Alabama fans?  Classy.    I was so impressed with how they relate to and love their football team.   No trash talking, no tough guy attitudes on the streets.

Amazing that more fans don't bring binoculars to the games.   What a great addition to so many facets of the game!      Atlanta traffic management is a joke.    Why the idiots scheduled a parade downtown and shut down so many streets around Phillips Arena prior to an SEC Championship game defies any common-sense, but then, after all, it is the City of Atlanta government we are talking about.    Arthur Blank should not be allowed to use a single dime of taxpayer money to fund any kind of new stadium, especially not a dime of mine.   The Georgia Dome works just fine.    He gets the taxpayer to build, his revenues go up, the value of his team increases.  Just like Obama and Geithner and Paulsen,  they throw the down and dirty on the back of the citizenry and the profits, long down the road, go to the big guns in charge.   Socializing losses and privatizing profits.   Easy money if you can get it.  

Both teams were winners last night.  The fans will never forget the night.   I wish Alabama continued success in the BCS game against Notre Dame.     

Hey Mate, Moving to Australia?

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

 

The full conditions for a new visa designed to encourage significant migrant investment into Australia were released today by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen MP.  The significant investor visa, first announced in May, is being introduced as a key component of the Government’s business innovation and investment program, and requires visa holders to invest at least AUD 5 million.

 

The visa will commence from 24 November this year, when applicants can submit an expression of interest through SkillSelect.

 

'The business innovation and investment program is positioned to target migrants with a demonstrated history of success in business and investment, to make a powerful contribution to national innovation and the Australian economy,' Mr Bowen said.

 

Australia is offering a significant investor visa to provide a boost to the local economy and to compete effectively for high net worth individuals seeking investment immigration on an international scale.

'The AUD 5 million minimum is considered to be sufficient for a meaningful investment contribution, justifying eligibility for visa concessions such as not having to meet the points test, no upper age limit and access to reduced residence requirements,' Mr Bowen said.  'Importantly, significant investors will be required to make complying investments in Australia which include state and territory government bonds, Australian Security Investment Commission-regulated managed funds that invest in Australian assets, and direct investment into private Australian companies not listed on the stock exchange.  'Where visa holders choose to invest directly into Australian companies, these companies will need to meet certain qualifying business standards.'

 

Mr Bowen said visa holders would have the flexibility to extend their initial four year visa by additional two year periods. They would also be able to satisfy the residence requirement of 160 days in Australia at any time throughout their four year visa.  'This flexibility recognises the needs of the global investor community while also encouraging investment into Australia,' he said.

 

State and territory governments are partnering with the Commonwealth when selecting prospective high net worth migrants, to ensure the available visas are offered to the most experienced business people and high profile investors.

MCT, Nelson Act (Timber Settlement)

H.R.  1272 passed the United States Senate  (100 goons)  on 9.22.2012.  The Chief Teleprompter than signed the bill into law on 10.5.2012.

I would love to see the total breakdown on how the interest was credited to the fund since the actual award was appropriated about a dozen years ago.  

My wish would be that of the $2,400,000 payment to the White Earth Tribe, (actually all the Bands of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe will get that amount)  that I would get a pro-rata share of the distribution instead of the tribe.

If you do the math that would be another $300 for 48,000 Minnesota Chippewa Tribe members.

You have to love reservation math, or BIA math, or OTFM math or even tribal council math.



          

Big Brother is the eye in the sky..........

(Reuters) - The FBI sees social media as a potential breeding ground for securities fraud, and has agents scouring Twitter and Facebook for tips, according to two top agents overseeing a long-running investigation into insider trading in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry.

April Brooks, a special agent in charge of the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and David Chaves, a supervisory agent, said it is hard to predict the next wave of securities fraud, but they add that it will have a lot to do with advances in technology and social media.
"I will tell you technology will play a huge part, social media, Twitter. Any kind of technology that is new and doesn't exist today, if there is any way to exploit it, these individuals will exploit it," Brooks told Reuters TV in an interview for the Reuters Investment Outlook 2013 Summit.
Brooks and Chaves oversee what the FBI calls "Operation Perfect Hedge," which has led to more than 60 convictions of hedge fund traders, analysts and industry consultants.
Last Tuesday, a day after the Reuters TV interview, the government charged a former employee of Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital, Mathew Martoma, with a $276 million insider trading scheme that prosecutors called "the most lucrative" ever.
While Cohen, whose $14 billion hedge fund is one of the most successful and best known on Wall Street, was not charged with any wrongdoing, the complaint says he signed off on trades in Elan Corp and Wyeth in July 2008 ahead of bad news about a clinical drug trial the companies were working on.
Brooks and Chaves gave no hints about the SAC case in the interview, and declined to talk about active investigations.
"Some view insider trading as reaching this crescendo, and we have reached a top. I would suggest we have not," Chaves said.
INVESTORS EMBRACE TWITTER
Hedge funds, big institutional investors and investment research firms, such as Muddy Waters (@muddywatersre), have embraced Twitter as a platform for sharing their ideas and investment strategies.
On November 20, PIMCO's Bill Gross tweeted via @PIMCO: "Bernanke confirms PIMCO's New Normal after 3 years! 2% economic potential at least for a time. Probably lower & longer Mr. Chairman."
Gross was referring to Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and PIMCO's portfolio positioning for what he calls a "New Normal" developed world economy - 2.0 percent real growth and 2 percent inflation.
"People have used Twitter as a powerful distribution mechanism, occasionally with meaningful market impact," said independent analyst Daniel Yu, who is an avid user of Twitter under the handle @LongShortTrader.
Studies and research reports have shown that Twitter can be used as an early indicator of changing investor sentiment around particular stocks and commodities. This allows Twitter data to be used to predict price fluctuations in the market.
One report, authored by academics Johan Bollen, Huina Mao and Xiao-Jun Zeng, says the degree of "calmness" of the Twitterverse can predict - with 87.6 percent accuracy - how the Dow Jones industrial average will move two to six days ahead of time.
Some hedge funds and other investors have criticized U.S. authorities for cracking down on insider trading to distract attention from the fact that law enforcement has not been able to bring any prosecutions against Wall Street bankers over the financial crisis.
Brooks and Chaves acknowledged the criticism. They said there is a desire to prosecute, but the laws are not there to criminalize actions that some think deserve to be punished.
"I wouldn't say we have missed opportunities," Brooks said, commenting on the 2008 financial crisis. "There may be others who are responsible, but who don't necessarily violate the federal statutes."
The two agents, who both work in the securities division of the New York branch of the FBI, said that when they meet with people on Wall Street, they explain there is no vendetta or campaign against the hedge fund industry. The insider trading investigation is simply part of an effort to make the markets more fair for everybody.
"The message is we are out there, and we are going to continue to be out there," Brooks said. "This type of violation, this type of crime impacts everyone."
To see the Reuters TV interview with FBI agents Brooks and Chaves, click here http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/11/23/reuters-tv-fbi-only-reached-tip-of-iceberg-on-insid?videoId=239362127&videoChannel=117851


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-uses-social-media-to-find-fraud-2012-11#ixzz2DL3Ra5A9

The phrase that killed Mitt Romney's Presidential run .......

"We are going to put America back to work."

Had your fill?

Have you had your fill of “expert” psycho-babble, high-level cheerleading, and government assurances that sound more each day like sick punch lines to bad jokes:
• “Deficits don’t matter.”
• “The recession has ended.”
• “The weak dollar is good for trade.”
• “Debt just needs to be ‘restructured.’”
• “We just need more government stimulus spending.”
• “Federal zero interest rate policies (ZIRP) help everyone.”
• “Unemployment is down.”

Enough of the minstrel show and its official nonsense. Here is the real deal on the current corporate/government war against capitalism:

Farce #1: “Market value” and “free markets” have become a joke.

In order for “value” to have financial value in the free market it, 1) must have real worth to someone else, and 2) must be freely chosen. The whole point of a market is that people choose according to their desires and needs, not yours. No one is entitled to a profit.

That’s what “market value” and “free market” mean. Other people, known as “the public,” interactively determine what your asset, good, or service is worth. You may think something is financially worth a lot. If others do not, it’s not worth squat.

If you can merely create private fiat by assigning your own value to your “assets” and products and then force others to buy them, there is no valid market value or free market. It is simply financial dictatorship.

Farce #2: Private, self-assigned, fake value is being traded for public money at 100 cents on the dollar.

Even basic monetary standards for public exchange of value no longer apply. Now big banks have been given the executive go-ahead to self-assign value to their assets at any price they choose. This is called “market to model” (i.e. profitable lying with complicated mathematical formulas).

This violation of capitalism comes not only in refusing to allow the market to determine price of assets, but in forcing the public through government capture to pay for “impaired private assets” with “real” public money at 100 cents on the dollar!

This is nothing more than the exchange of publicly accepted money for worthless, private, counterfeit crap.

Farce #3: Printed money is backed by nothing.

However, what “value” does that public money have? What is the current U.S. dollar tied to? Nothing of worth. It refers to no credible public asset, good, or service. The Treasury and the Fed are just printing money, period.

The abstract future ability of the U.S. to pay off an exponentially increasing debt amid a long-term contracting economy is not even close to being a plausible substitute. If that money was invested in infrastructure, perhaps a case could be made, but can you name even one project that the 800 billion dollars of “stimulus spending” has funded?

In order for money to be a credible marker of exchange it must be tied to an asset, good, or service that has collectively established worth (i.e. commodities, present and future national productivity, or local networks of exchange of services and goods).

Current money needs to become rebased in things that produce value, that preserve and enhance present and future life. At bottom, neither banks nor governments are doing that, and if anything they seem to be working hard together to kill off both broader prosperity and free market capitalism.

Farce #4: We have a “free” enterprise system dominated by monopolies that force people to buy inferior goods and services at exorbitant rates.

Exhibit A: “Health” care: U.S. health “insurance” is dominated by regional monopolies that are notorious for denying treatment and charging double what the rest of the world charges. What do we get for that? We get a record number of uninsured citizens, and health results (infant mortality, etc), which are near the bottom, rather than the top, of industrialized nations.

The U.S. health care system is also possibly one of the most inefficient in the world in delivering services, wasting some 750 billion dollars per year in unnecessary spending, including hundreds of billions of dollars per year in excessive administrative costs.

“The best health care system in the world”? Hardly. Maybe if you are rich or have generous subsidized benefits.

Even then, you are not immune to hospitals that cut safety corners to save on costs, and both slash pay and increase work hours for the people treating you. Think about it. Medical error is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S, killing some 200,000 people per year.

Exhibit B: Military industrial complex boondoggles: The United States is currently spending almost as much on its military as the rest of the world combined.

What kind of value are we getting for that? We’ve gotten pointless wars built on politically expedient lies, that have lasted longer than any wars in modern history, that have cost trillions, and that have made us less secure.

Farce #5: High-level financial crimes, no matter how egregious or widespread, are not being prosecuted.

Instead, corrupt and fraud-ridden organizations like Countrywide, Goldman-Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Citigroup, get bought up and/or pay a small percentage of their ill-gotten gains to settle civil suits in which they do not admit fault.

The leaders of these anti-capitalist organizations (Anthony Mazillo, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, et. al.) still walk away with enormous compensation, after having ruined their companies and tanked the world economy. When they have to hire legal representation, they do it at the stockholders’ expense, adding insult to injury.

There are probably millions of forged documents, involved in “fraudclosure”, the pervasive property assignment control fraud that includes all the big financial players. Companies and citizens have brought civil lawsuits, but these are taking time.

There has been negligible government investigation, much less criminal prosecution. Here you have millions of cases of the very foundation of private property, clear ownership, being decimated by rampant, obvious fraud, and you do nothing?

Oh, I forgot, you extend the big banks a reprieve in the form of yet another settlement, this time with States’ Attorney Generals (basically a 25 billion dollar slap on the wrist for trillions of dollars of interconnected fraud). What does it take for law enforcement to do its job?

What effect does this have? It screams, “Crime pays!” It destroys the morale of hard-working, law-abiding citizens, and it keeps zombie banks not only alive and kicking, but prospering on the backs of citizens.

It sinks the global economy even more by encouraging financial criminals to double-down on the profitable crime that got them their unreal returns in the first place.

Where do you think that’s going to end? Too-big-to-fail is now bigger. Bailouts from central banks are more frequent. Overt and covert citizen subsidies for this crime keep climbing. Welcome to the financial cancer club.

Farce #6: Risk is gone. Now there is only liability borne by citizens.

Corrupted capitalism expects you, the citizen, to pay for “their,” the crony capitalists’, failure. In functioning capitalism, a company and its investors take their own risks, profit from the gains, and stomach the losses. Other people do not pay for their mistakes or their crimes.

That core element of capitalism is now gone. Irish citizens have had to pay many billions just to cover the losses of one of their private banks. Greece has learned, with its enforced austerity programs, that if this liability is not paid in dollars (or the phony dollars of debt restructuring), it gets paid in diminished quality of life.

Farce #7: Productivity has been supplanted by parasitism

There is hardly anything more important to thriving functioning capitalism than productivity, and sharing the fruits of productivity. It is notable that productivity among U.S. workers actually skyrocketed over the last decade and a half, but real wages have flattened or declined.

Where did the surpluses go? To parasitic financializers who have seen their share over all corporate profits grow from 10% to over 45% in recent decades.
After costing trillions and wiping out the world economy, what asset, good, or service do big banks produce that has genuine public worth?

• “Expert advice”, in which brokers intentionally sell junk to consumers, as shown in investment bank emails?
• “Financial services”, which turn out to be so laden with hidden fees and loosened/fabricated credit qualifications that the lendee is worse off?
• Allegiances that concentrate financial wealth the top 0.1% of the population, causing the vast majority of the world to get poorer?

If anything, citizens would stand to gain more by paying big banks to close their doors.

Big banks have largely stopped lending to businesses or individuals because that’s not profitable enough and because they need to retain capital to reduce their exposure due to their own foolish overleveraging. This depresses community and small business entrepreneurship and productivity.

Bottom line: Big banks’ “services” take far more in costs than they provide in benefits. Much would be gained, and little lost, if they were allowed to fail or were decommissioned outright for their criminal behavior.

Conclusion

In short, the non-accountability of big banks means American honest work and honest gain will be increasingly ripped off. This is a zero-sum game in which not even a single, direct, effective champion of the interest of broader American and middle and working class interest exists in the actual machinery of Washington.

Those few heroes, the former and present prosecutors and officials who have attempted to enforce transparency and accountability, Elizabeth Warren, Brooksley Born, Harry Markopolos, Neil Barofsky, and William K. Black have either been ignored, pushed out, or shut down.

Says Neil Barofsky of President Obama:

“I thought that if there was ever going to be a political figure that would take on the interests of Wall Street, and put the American people… above the monied interests, it was going to be President Obama, and that just didn’t happen. In fact it was the opposite. He had the same ideology as Timothy Geithner [and others from Wall Street]: ‘Protect the banks. What is best for the biggest banks is what’s best for the country.’”

This is pretty grim stuff, but it has a silver lining: When you don’t have champions to manage the economy fairly or effectively, you organize yourselves to transform your economy.

Both liberal and conservative officials have turned themselves from public servants into private servants. We, in response, have no excuse but to turn ourselves into necessary public champions. We must decide and act upon our choices to drive the economy in a healthy direction.

Economy cannot exist without people and their agreement. It is our job now to form the next principles and new, healthy practices as we turn away from a corrupted system.