has no clue how to protect their money from stockbrokers.
We are still amazed the public has any money left from the salesmen they entrust their serious retirement assets too.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Jim Cramer and CIT shares
One of the most beautiful things to be shown on television will be the day that Mr. Cramer nominates HIMSELF to his own "WALL OF SHAME". If the quality of his "researched analysis" of the market and stocks he flippantly recommends were parallel to the venue of running a corporation, his scorecard would earn him an unceremonious boot (such as he frequently calls for when CEO's from under performing companies are in his cross hairs). That he has been given such a public forum from which to spout his nonsense is even a worse offense. This is the best entertainment in the world. This guy is the Jerry Springer of Wall Street.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
North versus South.........red nine, red nine, HIKE !!
Planning for the fall football season in the South is radically different than up North. For those who are planning a football trip South, here are some helpful hints.
Stadium Size:
NORTH: College football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
SOUTH: High school football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
Campus Decor:
NORTH: Statues of founding fathers.
SOUTH: Statues of Heisman trophy winners.
Homecoming Queen:
NORTH: Also a physics major.
SOUTH: Also Miss America .
Getting Tickets:
NORTH: 5 days before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus.
SOUTH: 5 months before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus, make a large financial contribution and put name on a waiting list for tickets.
Parking:
NORTH: An hour before game time, the University opens the campus for game parking.
SOUTH: RVs sporting their school flags begin arriving on Wednesday for the weekend festivities. The really faithful arrive on Tuesday..
Game Day:
NORTH: A few students party in the dorm and watch ESPN on TV.
SOUTH: Every student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast, and rushes over to where ESPN is broadcasting "Game Day Live" to get on camera and wave to the idiots up north who wonder why "Game Day Live" is never Broadcast from their campus.
Tailgating:
NORTH: Raw meat on a grill, beer with lime in it, listening to local radio station with truck tailgate down.
SOUTH: 30-foot custom pig-shaped smoker fires up at dawn. Cooking accompanied by live performance from the Dave Matthews Band,... who come over during breaks and ask for a hit off bottle of bourbon.
Getting to the Stadium:
NORTH: You ask "Where's the stadium?" When you find it, you walk right in.
SOUTH: When you're near it, you'll hear it. On game day it is the state's third largest city.
Concessions:
NORTH: Drinks served in a paper cup, filled to the top with soda.
SOUTH: Drinks served in a plastic cup, with the home team's mascot on it, filled less than half way with soda, to ensure enough room for bourbon.
When National Anthem is Played:
NORTH : Stands are less than half full, and less than half of them stand up.
SOUTH: 100,000 fans, all standing, sing along in perfect four-part harmony.
After the Game:
NORTH: The stadium is empty way before the game ends.
SOUTH: Another rack of ribs goes on the smoker, while somebody goes to the nearest package store for more bourbon, and planning begins for next week's game.
Nothing else in the universe comes even halfway close to the glories of
Southern football!
______________________________
And for SEC Fans:
HOW MANY SEC STUDENTS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
At VANDERBILT: it takes two, one to change the bulb and one more to explain
how they did it every bit as good as the bulbs changed at Harvard.
At GEORGIA : it takes two, one to change the bulb and one to phone an
engineer at Georgia Tech for instructions.
At FLORIDA : it takes four, one to screw in the bulb and three to figure out
how to get stoned off the old one.
At ALABAMA : it takes five, one to change it, three to reminisce about how
The Bear would have done it, and one to throw the old bulb at an NCAA
investigator.
At OLE MISS: it takes six, one to change it, two to mix the drinks and three
to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion.
At LSU: it takes seven, and each one gets credit for five Semester hours.
At KENTUCKY : it takes eight, one to screw it in and seven to discuss how
much brighter it seems to shine during basketball season.
At TENNESSEE : it takes ten, two to figure out how to screw it in, two to buy
an orange lampshade, and six to phone a radio call-in show and talk about
how much they hate Alabama .
At MISSISSIPPI STATE : it takes fifteen, one to screw in the bulb, two to buy
the Skoal, and twelve to yell, "GO TO HELL, OLE MISS".
At AUBURN: it takes one hundred, one to change it, forty-nine to talk about
how they did it better than at Bama, and fifty to get drunk and roll
Toomer's Corner when finished.
At SOUTH CAROLINA : it takes 80,000, one to screw it in and 79,999 to discuss
how this finally will be the year that they have a decent football team.
At ARKANSAS : None. There is no electricity in Arkansas
Stadium Size:
NORTH: College football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
SOUTH: High school football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
Campus Decor:
NORTH: Statues of founding fathers.
SOUTH: Statues of Heisman trophy winners.
Homecoming Queen:
NORTH: Also a physics major.
SOUTH: Also Miss America .
Getting Tickets:
NORTH: 5 days before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus.
SOUTH: 5 months before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus, make a large financial contribution and put name on a waiting list for tickets.
Parking:
NORTH: An hour before game time, the University opens the campus for game parking.
SOUTH: RVs sporting their school flags begin arriving on Wednesday for the weekend festivities. The really faithful arrive on Tuesday..
Game Day:
NORTH: A few students party in the dorm and watch ESPN on TV.
SOUTH: Every student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast, and rushes over to where ESPN is broadcasting "Game Day Live" to get on camera and wave to the idiots up north who wonder why "Game Day Live" is never Broadcast from their campus.
Tailgating:
NORTH: Raw meat on a grill, beer with lime in it, listening to local radio station with truck tailgate down.
SOUTH: 30-foot custom pig-shaped smoker fires up at dawn. Cooking accompanied by live performance from the Dave Matthews Band,... who come over during breaks and ask for a hit off bottle of bourbon.
Getting to the Stadium:
NORTH: You ask "Where's the stadium?" When you find it, you walk right in.
SOUTH: When you're near it, you'll hear it. On game day it is the state's third largest city.
Concessions:
NORTH: Drinks served in a paper cup, filled to the top with soda.
SOUTH: Drinks served in a plastic cup, with the home team's mascot on it, filled less than half way with soda, to ensure enough room for bourbon.
When National Anthem is Played:
NORTH : Stands are less than half full, and less than half of them stand up.
SOUTH: 100,000 fans, all standing, sing along in perfect four-part harmony.
After the Game:
NORTH: The stadium is empty way before the game ends.
SOUTH: Another rack of ribs goes on the smoker, while somebody goes to the nearest package store for more bourbon, and planning begins for next week's game.
Nothing else in the universe comes even halfway close to the glories of
Southern football!
______________________________
And for SEC Fans:
HOW MANY SEC STUDENTS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
At VANDERBILT: it takes two, one to change the bulb and one more to explain
how they did it every bit as good as the bulbs changed at Harvard.
At GEORGIA : it takes two, one to change the bulb and one to phone an
engineer at Georgia Tech for instructions.
At FLORIDA : it takes four, one to screw in the bulb and three to figure out
how to get stoned off the old one.
At ALABAMA : it takes five, one to change it, three to reminisce about how
The Bear would have done it, and one to throw the old bulb at an NCAA
investigator.
At OLE MISS: it takes six, one to change it, two to mix the drinks and three
to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion.
At LSU: it takes seven, and each one gets credit for five Semester hours.
At KENTUCKY : it takes eight, one to screw it in and seven to discuss how
much brighter it seems to shine during basketball season.
At TENNESSEE : it takes ten, two to figure out how to screw it in, two to buy
an orange lampshade, and six to phone a radio call-in show and talk about
how much they hate Alabama .
At MISSISSIPPI STATE : it takes fifteen, one to screw in the bulb, two to buy
the Skoal, and twelve to yell, "GO TO HELL, OLE MISS".
At AUBURN: it takes one hundred, one to change it, forty-nine to talk about
how they did it better than at Bama, and fifty to get drunk and roll
Toomer's Corner when finished.
At SOUTH CAROLINA : it takes 80,000, one to screw it in and 79,999 to discuss
how this finally will be the year that they have a decent football team.
At ARKANSAS : None. There is no electricity in Arkansas
Ken Lewis and lunatics.........
Poor guy. He will be much farther than up to his ass in legal issues before all is said and done.
This cat cost his shareholders billions, fiduciary duty be damned.
Paulson and Bernanke and their bosses will cost us trillions. The truth is we have a multi-trillion dollar cover-up by banks which amounts to felony fraud on a massive scale and the slime who who have gotten us here are still in Palm Beach driving their Maserati's. It wasn't the folks in Mandaree or Porcupine that got us here.
Americans, God bless us, aren't thinking. Maybe I give Americans far too much credit for brains because we reside in a country where our Congress needs to convene to consider passing a law telling 360,000,000 people that texting while driving is now illegal, in a nation with that many clueless idiots, who can't figure this out for themselves----why,we deserve what we get shoved down our financial gullets.
This cat cost his shareholders billions, fiduciary duty be damned.
Paulson and Bernanke and their bosses will cost us trillions. The truth is we have a multi-trillion dollar cover-up by banks which amounts to felony fraud on a massive scale and the slime who who have gotten us here are still in Palm Beach driving their Maserati's. It wasn't the folks in Mandaree or Porcupine that got us here.
Americans, God bless us, aren't thinking. Maybe I give Americans far too much credit for brains because we reside in a country where our Congress needs to convene to consider passing a law telling 360,000,000 people that texting while driving is now illegal, in a nation with that many clueless idiots, who can't figure this out for themselves----why,we deserve what we get shoved down our financial gullets.
So much for "sovereignty"................
Strange justice in Indian country
Mark J. MacDougall and Katherine Deming Brodie
September 28, 2009
Conditions in this obscure country, as reported by sources ranging from Amnesty International to a U.S. Senate committee, are appalling. One in three women will be raped in her lifetime. Half the reported murders and 72% of child sex crimes are never prosecuted. Ninety percent of sexual assaults on native women are committed by men from the dominant ethnic groups. The nation's highest courts regularly reverse convictions based solely on the defendant's race.
This country is not Sudan, Rwanda or Kosovo during ethnic cleansing. Rather, this is the state of law enforcement today on the 310 Indian reservations that are home to nearly a million Native American citizens of the United States.
"Indian Country" — the federal government's name for the 54 million acres of reservation lands in the United States — is larger than Minnesota or Utah. The layers of social ills on most reservations — alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, malnutrition and chronic disease — are a well-documented national shame. But the failure of the U.S. government to provide equal legal protection to victims of serious crimes, who happen to be Native American, is just bizarre.
As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit wrote in February of this year, in U.S. v. Cruz, "The exercise of criminal jurisdiction over...Indian country [encompasses] a complex patchwork of federal, state, and tribal law, which is better explained by history than logic." That patchwork is rooted in 19th century legislation that established the rule that serious crimes in Indian country can only be prosecuted in the federal courts. A 1978 Supreme Court case, Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, expanded that doctrine by holding that only the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — not tribal or state authorities — may prosecute crimes committed by non-Native Americans on Indian lands. Although tribal courts operate on most reservations, their authority is limited to the prosecution of Indian defendants and to prison sentences of a year or less.
The consequences of these laws are stark. Unless federal authorities intervene, murder, rape and other felonies committed on the reservation by Native Americans may only be punished in a tribal court with a sentence of a year. Crimes committed by non-Indians cannot be prosecuted by tribal courts at all.
Felony prosecutions on Indian reservations are the responsibility of the U.S. attorney for the district in which the reservation is located. The 93 U.S. attorneys — one for each judicial district — are appointed by the president. Like the rest of DOJ, however, U.S. attorney's offices have limited resources and must establish priorities. With few exceptions, crimes committed in Indian country are rarely at the top of the list. U.S. attorney's offices in districts with some of the largest Indian reservations, such as those in Arizona and California, are also responsible for major urban and border areas. Rural offices — such as those in Alaska and the Dakotas — must allocate small staffs to vast territories.
In June, addressing the National Congress of American Indians, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli announced the first major DOJ initiative in 15 years to address escalating public safety problems in Indian country. Among other steps, he announced a listening conference with tribal leaders to increase engagement, coordination and action on a variety of tribal justice matters.
Earlier this month, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009. The act would allow tribal courts to impose sentences of up to three years and create a special office to review decisions by U.S. attorneys to decline prosecutions of reservation crimes.
The DOJ initiative and the Senate bill, although commendable, don't go far enough. Greater accountability and transparency are important, but equal legal protection for victims of serious crimes in Indian country requires more.
A SEPARATE U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
One immediate solution that Congress and the Obama administration should consider is a separate office of the U.S. attorney for Indian country (USAIC). The jurisdiction of the USAIC would extend to all Indian reservation and trust lands. The USAIC would have the authority to investigate felonies on Indian reservations nationwide, seek indictments and pursue prosecutions, without regard to the race of the defendant. Cases would be brought by the USAIC in the judicial district where the crime was committed, like any other case brought by the U.S. attorney for that district.
The critical difference would be that serious crimes on reservations — by Indians as well as non-Indians — would receive the same level of prosecutorial resources as an offense committed outside the reservation. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the USAIC would not be limited to violent crimes but would extend to the full range of federal offenses, including political corruption, financial fraud and narcotics trafficking in Indian country.
The treatment of native peoples is one of the darkest chapters in American history. Although nothing can be done to change that history, extending basic legal protections to residents of Indian country, equal to those enjoyed by their fellow citizens, is a modest goal.
Mark MacDougall, a former federal prosecutor, is a partner, and Katherine Deming Brodie is policy counsel, at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington.
Mark J. MacDougall and Katherine Deming Brodie
September 28, 2009
Conditions in this obscure country, as reported by sources ranging from Amnesty International to a U.S. Senate committee, are appalling. One in three women will be raped in her lifetime. Half the reported murders and 72% of child sex crimes are never prosecuted. Ninety percent of sexual assaults on native women are committed by men from the dominant ethnic groups. The nation's highest courts regularly reverse convictions based solely on the defendant's race.
This country is not Sudan, Rwanda or Kosovo during ethnic cleansing. Rather, this is the state of law enforcement today on the 310 Indian reservations that are home to nearly a million Native American citizens of the United States.
"Indian Country" — the federal government's name for the 54 million acres of reservation lands in the United States — is larger than Minnesota or Utah. The layers of social ills on most reservations — alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, malnutrition and chronic disease — are a well-documented national shame. But the failure of the U.S. government to provide equal legal protection to victims of serious crimes, who happen to be Native American, is just bizarre.
As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit wrote in February of this year, in U.S. v. Cruz, "The exercise of criminal jurisdiction over...Indian country [encompasses] a complex patchwork of federal, state, and tribal law, which is better explained by history than logic." That patchwork is rooted in 19th century legislation that established the rule that serious crimes in Indian country can only be prosecuted in the federal courts. A 1978 Supreme Court case, Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, expanded that doctrine by holding that only the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — not tribal or state authorities — may prosecute crimes committed by non-Native Americans on Indian lands. Although tribal courts operate on most reservations, their authority is limited to the prosecution of Indian defendants and to prison sentences of a year or less.
The consequences of these laws are stark. Unless federal authorities intervene, murder, rape and other felonies committed on the reservation by Native Americans may only be punished in a tribal court with a sentence of a year. Crimes committed by non-Indians cannot be prosecuted by tribal courts at all.
Felony prosecutions on Indian reservations are the responsibility of the U.S. attorney for the district in which the reservation is located. The 93 U.S. attorneys — one for each judicial district — are appointed by the president. Like the rest of DOJ, however, U.S. attorney's offices have limited resources and must establish priorities. With few exceptions, crimes committed in Indian country are rarely at the top of the list. U.S. attorney's offices in districts with some of the largest Indian reservations, such as those in Arizona and California, are also responsible for major urban and border areas. Rural offices — such as those in Alaska and the Dakotas — must allocate small staffs to vast territories.
In June, addressing the National Congress of American Indians, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli announced the first major DOJ initiative in 15 years to address escalating public safety problems in Indian country. Among other steps, he announced a listening conference with tribal leaders to increase engagement, coordination and action on a variety of tribal justice matters.
Earlier this month, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009. The act would allow tribal courts to impose sentences of up to three years and create a special office to review decisions by U.S. attorneys to decline prosecutions of reservation crimes.
The DOJ initiative and the Senate bill, although commendable, don't go far enough. Greater accountability and transparency are important, but equal legal protection for victims of serious crimes in Indian country requires more.
A SEPARATE U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
One immediate solution that Congress and the Obama administration should consider is a separate office of the U.S. attorney for Indian country (USAIC). The jurisdiction of the USAIC would extend to all Indian reservation and trust lands. The USAIC would have the authority to investigate felonies on Indian reservations nationwide, seek indictments and pursue prosecutions, without regard to the race of the defendant. Cases would be brought by the USAIC in the judicial district where the crime was committed, like any other case brought by the U.S. attorney for that district.
The critical difference would be that serious crimes on reservations — by Indians as well as non-Indians — would receive the same level of prosecutorial resources as an offense committed outside the reservation. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the USAIC would not be limited to violent crimes but would extend to the full range of federal offenses, including political corruption, financial fraud and narcotics trafficking in Indian country.
The treatment of native peoples is one of the darkest chapters in American history. Although nothing can be done to change that history, extending basic legal protections to residents of Indian country, equal to those enjoyed by their fellow citizens, is a modest goal.
Mark MacDougall, a former federal prosecutor, is a partner, and Katherine Deming Brodie is policy counsel, at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
8 long hours inside the SEC.........
The following is taken from DeepCapture.com, the finest blog on Earth regarding the shenanigans of Michael Milken, naked short selling and Steve Cohen. This my friends is just another why you are sadly mistaken if you believe the SEC is out to protect the little guy. Read and tremble. dp
Washington, DC) The SEC’s roundtable on securities lending and short selling got started today, and Deep Capture was there.
What follows is my assessment, based on my observations thus far.
In the simplest terms, I’d say the situation at the SEC is one of extreme disconnection. This is an agency that has completely lost track of its founding mission.
The day consisted of four panels, all dedicated to examining different aspects of securities lending. The panelists included one academic, one public employees’ pension fund manager, the CEO of FINRA, and 20 representatives of hedge funds and brokerages or companies that provide services to hedge funds and brokerages.
Not a single representative or advocate of retail investors had a voice on any panel, and the substance of the panelists’ comments was consistent with the thinking that obviously called them all together: the discussion never got beyond reforms to benefit the institutions that get rich from lending out the shares entrusted to them by the rest of us.
Nor did retail investors get any more than a passing reference in any other context. The industry was there to talk about the needs of industry. Period.
The result was eight hours of possibly the least interesting discussion I’ve voluntarily endured. In fact, it more resembled two dozen high school book reports on a handful of facets of a single industry, as the same thing was said over and over in the lest interesting way possible.
For eight hours.
Meanwhile, the subject that really matters: illegal naked short selling, is scheduled for just three hours tomorrow (including a break!), with panelists hailing from four hedge funds, Goldman Sachs, DTCC, the Security Traders Association, NASDAQ, NYSE, one academic, and one fish-out-of-water from IBM.
Is there any question how those panels are going to come down on the issue?
This entire exercise, I’m nearly prepared to declare, is little more than a farce.
Lest I leave you with the impression that everything was devoid of meaning, allow me to recount one of those moments of cosmic synchronicity that make days like today all worthwhile.
It happened during the fourth panel. Specifically, during the opening remarks given by Leslie Nelson (yes, a male, but sadly no, not the guy from The Naked Gun movies), Managing Director of Global Securities Lending at Goldman Sachs.
Just as Mr. Leslie Nelson was beginning to talk, about 15 of you emailed me a link to Matt Taibbi’s recent post where he announced that naked shorting will be a major component of his upcoming piece in Rolling Stone.
Included in that post was a link to a pamphlet apparently being circulated broadly on Capitol Hill by Goldman Sachs lobbyists, intent on preserving the status quo with regard to loopholes permitting illegal naked short selling. Trusting my audio recorder not to miss anything, I decided to tune Mr. Nelson out slightly to read the words of his notorious employer.
In the Goldman pamphlet, the first sub-point of bullet point one reads:
“Rule 204 of Regulation SHO has been effective at reducing fails in the marketplace.”
At precisely the same time read that line, I heard Nelson read the following from his prepared statement (prefatory to what — consistent with the rest of the day’s panel — had nothing to do with delivery failures):
“Rule 204 has been undeniably effective at bringing US equities fails to levels that are truly de minimis.”
See…I read and heard those lines at precisely the same moment.
It was as though the Goldman Sachs government relations team had briefly hijacked my eyes and ears.
It’s also indicative of how very seriously Goldman is taking this challenge to what is likely one of that company’s most plumb sources of revenue.
Finally, I’d say it’s predictive of the message what we can expect to hear repeated over and over again as the issue makes its was earnestly through Congress and flaccidly through the SEC.
You know, I do not drink, but if I did, I’d suggest everybody take a shot whenever they hear that phrase repeated during the three short hours (including a break) of the roundtable’s second and final day. That might just make the thing tolerable.
Washington, DC) The SEC’s roundtable on securities lending and short selling got started today, and Deep Capture was there.
What follows is my assessment, based on my observations thus far.
In the simplest terms, I’d say the situation at the SEC is one of extreme disconnection. This is an agency that has completely lost track of its founding mission.
The day consisted of four panels, all dedicated to examining different aspects of securities lending. The panelists included one academic, one public employees’ pension fund manager, the CEO of FINRA, and 20 representatives of hedge funds and brokerages or companies that provide services to hedge funds and brokerages.
Not a single representative or advocate of retail investors had a voice on any panel, and the substance of the panelists’ comments was consistent with the thinking that obviously called them all together: the discussion never got beyond reforms to benefit the institutions that get rich from lending out the shares entrusted to them by the rest of us.
Nor did retail investors get any more than a passing reference in any other context. The industry was there to talk about the needs of industry. Period.
The result was eight hours of possibly the least interesting discussion I’ve voluntarily endured. In fact, it more resembled two dozen high school book reports on a handful of facets of a single industry, as the same thing was said over and over in the lest interesting way possible.
For eight hours.
Meanwhile, the subject that really matters: illegal naked short selling, is scheduled for just three hours tomorrow (including a break!), with panelists hailing from four hedge funds, Goldman Sachs, DTCC, the Security Traders Association, NASDAQ, NYSE, one academic, and one fish-out-of-water from IBM.
Is there any question how those panels are going to come down on the issue?
This entire exercise, I’m nearly prepared to declare, is little more than a farce.
Lest I leave you with the impression that everything was devoid of meaning, allow me to recount one of those moments of cosmic synchronicity that make days like today all worthwhile.
It happened during the fourth panel. Specifically, during the opening remarks given by Leslie Nelson (yes, a male, but sadly no, not the guy from The Naked Gun movies), Managing Director of Global Securities Lending at Goldman Sachs.
Just as Mr. Leslie Nelson was beginning to talk, about 15 of you emailed me a link to Matt Taibbi’s recent post where he announced that naked shorting will be a major component of his upcoming piece in Rolling Stone.
Included in that post was a link to a pamphlet apparently being circulated broadly on Capitol Hill by Goldman Sachs lobbyists, intent on preserving the status quo with regard to loopholes permitting illegal naked short selling. Trusting my audio recorder not to miss anything, I decided to tune Mr. Nelson out slightly to read the words of his notorious employer.
In the Goldman pamphlet, the first sub-point of bullet point one reads:
“Rule 204 of Regulation SHO has been effective at reducing fails in the marketplace.”
At precisely the same time read that line, I heard Nelson read the following from his prepared statement (prefatory to what — consistent with the rest of the day’s panel — had nothing to do with delivery failures):
“Rule 204 has been undeniably effective at bringing US equities fails to levels that are truly de minimis.”
See…I read and heard those lines at precisely the same moment.
It was as though the Goldman Sachs government relations team had briefly hijacked my eyes and ears.
It’s also indicative of how very seriously Goldman is taking this challenge to what is likely one of that company’s most plumb sources of revenue.
Finally, I’d say it’s predictive of the message what we can expect to hear repeated over and over again as the issue makes its was earnestly through Congress and flaccidly through the SEC.
You know, I do not drink, but if I did, I’d suggest everybody take a shot whenever they hear that phrase repeated during the three short hours (including a break) of the roundtable’s second and final day. That might just make the thing tolerable.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I bet you would agree..........
that no matter how long you have been in the securities industry, I have only been around since April 1, 1982 (that is NOT an April Fools joke) there has not been a time that confidence in how Wall Street operates is at such a low.
This whole business is about greed and excess. Listening to Ace Greenberg today on CNBC was the icing on the cake after reading "House of Cards" by William D. Cohan (if you haven't read the book I suggest you stop whatever you are doing and either order the book online or drive straight to a book store and order your copy for your library). After reading that book perhaps Ace should be in jail. For what? For not doing his job as a fiduciary of the firm.
The regulators are clueless, the revolving door at the SEC swings in the wind every week, the politicians and lobbyists protect their campaign coffers and the public is as clueless about risk and money management as they ever were. Dark pools, naked short selling, unfunded liabilities, lack of transparency, fragmented exchanges, derivatives and where does it end? The accounting games, the IPO mispricings, the side-pocket hedge fund investments, the bankrupt FHA and FDIC mortgage mess and you know what? In 2009, a large number of Americans still entrust their retirement assets to salesman who are only concerned about their income and not the clients outcome. I guess America deserves what is being shoved down its throat. Until we vote for real change nothing will change. The government is not getting it done.
Today, only two guys are in jail. Sir Allen Stanford and Ponzi Madoff.
Two, only two.
For the love of America, how can that be?
This whole business is about greed and excess. Listening to Ace Greenberg today on CNBC was the icing on the cake after reading "House of Cards" by William D. Cohan (if you haven't read the book I suggest you stop whatever you are doing and either order the book online or drive straight to a book store and order your copy for your library). After reading that book perhaps Ace should be in jail. For what? For not doing his job as a fiduciary of the firm.
The regulators are clueless, the revolving door at the SEC swings in the wind every week, the politicians and lobbyists protect their campaign coffers and the public is as clueless about risk and money management as they ever were. Dark pools, naked short selling, unfunded liabilities, lack of transparency, fragmented exchanges, derivatives and where does it end? The accounting games, the IPO mispricings, the side-pocket hedge fund investments, the bankrupt FHA and FDIC mortgage mess and you know what? In 2009, a large number of Americans still entrust their retirement assets to salesman who are only concerned about their income and not the clients outcome. I guess America deserves what is being shoved down its throat. Until we vote for real change nothing will change. The government is not getting it done.
Today, only two guys are in jail. Sir Allen Stanford and Ponzi Madoff.
Two, only two.
For the love of America, how can that be?
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