Friday, January 11, 2013
Bill Burr on the NDAA and Politics
'Historically no one has ever handled that level of power well.'
PROFANITY WARNING.
Clip is from Bill Burr's Podcast broadcast March 26, 2012. Bill discusses the NDAA, politicians, sociopaths, Obama, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader.
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Breakin’ Away
We hear from many people that they are “stuck in their jobs” and feel that they will be trapped in that rat race forever, afraid to join the growing
ranks of the unemployed and those displaced from their homes. They
believe that they will forever – or as long as the current paradigm
holds out – have to face that daily commute, with their income fixed by
whatever future raises of which their employers feel they are worthy.
But we are here to tell you that there are many ways to free yourself from that grind.
With the institution of “Obama-care” many employers are cutting employees’ hours – or just closing their doors altogether – because they can’t afford the required “benefits package”. Even many of the “work-at-home” offerings on the Internet still make you reliant on a large company for your daily bread, requiring that you have a phone to make telemarketing calls to their prospective clients or sit at your computer all day answering complaints as a customer service representative. The biggest benefit in these types of schemes is to the company that doesn’t have to list you as an employee per se, and so does not have to offer you benefits. Working for yourself, in your own home, having control of how much money you can make based on how much time and effort you decide to put into it is the key to personal freedom. Here are some ways you can break free.
Ebay.com (or other “auction” sites such as ioffer.com, bitcoin.com, etc.) can be used as a viable income stream. Consider going to local yard sales, flea markets, estate sales and such and purchasing items that can be sold on auction sites. How do you know what will sell on eBay, for example? Do a search for those types of items that you generally find locally and see how they are doing. Go to the Advanced Search section, where you can see not only what is selling in that category, but you can see how much they have sold for, say in the last 30 days, as well as what items don’t sell at all. If you see that porcelain tea pots are selling for about $10, you will know not to purchase one locally for $20 and expect a profit.
There are still many people who are not completely “computer literate” enough, or who don’t have the time themselves to sell a few of their own items on these sites. Put up flyers in your neighborhood offering your services as an auction site seller to them for a percentage of the sale price. Don’t forget that there are listing and other fees involved that you must account for. Generally, you want to have the item owner pay the fees whether the item sells or not. What commission is typical (and fair)? Items that don’t easily sell (and may take multiple times to list) can garner commissions between 20% and 50%. Popularly selling items can get between 10% and 20%. High-ticket items (cars, boats, etc.) generally get 10% commissions.
A great opportunity for finding items to sell on auction sites are retail stores. These days many retail stores have stock that is just not moving at their retail location and would be happy to either sell you those items in bulk for a substantial discount, or simply give it to you on consignment (to be paid when it sells or returned if it doesn’t). Last year we bought $120 Minnetonkas for $20 on eBay, new in the box – obviously an overstock purchase that the resourceful seller had made, and made a profit on. Hardware stores, crafts stores and jewelry stores are some of the good retail locations to check out for doing this. Don’t be afraid to ask. Walk through your local mall or local strip-mall shopping center and ask to see the owner or manager of each of the stores. It won’t do you any good to talk with a sales clerk who can’t make that kind of decision. The owners of these stores are business-people who would be glad to reduce their inventories, even at less than their marked prices. You’d be doing them a service. There’s nothing better than a win-win situation!
Another way you can work for yourself is to learn a trade that has value to the public. One such trade that is actually simple enough to learn is watch repair. You can have your own watch repair business many ways: at home via mail order, as a contractor at a retail jewelry store, or in a battery-changing kiosk or flea market set-up. You can also offer watch repair services to the public on the Internet.
Very few retail jewelers have a watchmaker on staff. Most watches that are brought in for service are mailed by the jeweler to a “tradeshop” (you), where they are repaired and mailed back to the jeweler (with appropriate insurance, of course). We know people who live in densely populated areas who leave flyers in apartment and office buildings offering watch repairs with pick-up and delivery service and were quite successful.
With knowledge of watch repair you can also purchase non-working watches at very low cost, many of which need only a 25-cent battery and a little clean-up, that you can re-sell at yard sales or flea markets for less than the cost of a new watch and still make a good profit. You can place a low-cost classified ad saying that you buy non-working watches. Quartz watches are very profitable to repair and very easy to do. Most people don’t know that batteries cost around 25 cents each or that most quartz watches can be repaired with a replacement movement that can cost as little as $5.
This is also a great business for stay-at-home Moms. One such course that will get you on your way is available here or on Kindle.
Yet another service you can offer is computer repair. If you are handy enough to take apart and/or rebuild laptop computers, replace bios batteries, swap components, you can offer this service at lower prices than factory service centers. Auctions sites are replete with non-working laptops that can be bought at very low cost that will supply you with working parts that you can use. Many office supply stores and electronics stores charge $50 just to tell the customer what is wrong with the computer. Again, flyers, low-cost classified ads and word-of-mouth can get you as much business as you can handle.
With as many guns as are currently being sold, if you have any gunsmithing skills you will be in high demand.
These are just some of the self-employment opportunities that are out there waiting for you. And you can begin any of these as a part-time ventures while you still hold onto your job – until you don’t need it anymore. Once you get going in your own home business, you will have the freedom to live where you choose, and to make as much money as you are willing to put in the time and effort for in offering your service. Being your own boss is much more rewarding than working for someone else.
We wish you all love and freedom.
Dan & Sheila are the authors of Surviving Survivalism – How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock, available at survivingsurvivalism.com.
With the institution of “Obama-care” many employers are cutting employees’ hours – or just closing their doors altogether – because they can’t afford the required “benefits package”. Even many of the “work-at-home” offerings on the Internet still make you reliant on a large company for your daily bread, requiring that you have a phone to make telemarketing calls to their prospective clients or sit at your computer all day answering complaints as a customer service representative. The biggest benefit in these types of schemes is to the company that doesn’t have to list you as an employee per se, and so does not have to offer you benefits. Working for yourself, in your own home, having control of how much money you can make based on how much time and effort you decide to put into it is the key to personal freedom. Here are some ways you can break free.
Ebay.com (or other “auction” sites such as ioffer.com, bitcoin.com, etc.) can be used as a viable income stream. Consider going to local yard sales, flea markets, estate sales and such and purchasing items that can be sold on auction sites. How do you know what will sell on eBay, for example? Do a search for those types of items that you generally find locally and see how they are doing. Go to the Advanced Search section, where you can see not only what is selling in that category, but you can see how much they have sold for, say in the last 30 days, as well as what items don’t sell at all. If you see that porcelain tea pots are selling for about $10, you will know not to purchase one locally for $20 and expect a profit.
There are still many people who are not completely “computer literate” enough, or who don’t have the time themselves to sell a few of their own items on these sites. Put up flyers in your neighborhood offering your services as an auction site seller to them for a percentage of the sale price. Don’t forget that there are listing and other fees involved that you must account for. Generally, you want to have the item owner pay the fees whether the item sells or not. What commission is typical (and fair)? Items that don’t easily sell (and may take multiple times to list) can garner commissions between 20% and 50%. Popularly selling items can get between 10% and 20%. High-ticket items (cars, boats, etc.) generally get 10% commissions.
A great opportunity for finding items to sell on auction sites are retail stores. These days many retail stores have stock that is just not moving at their retail location and would be happy to either sell you those items in bulk for a substantial discount, or simply give it to you on consignment (to be paid when it sells or returned if it doesn’t). Last year we bought $120 Minnetonkas for $20 on eBay, new in the box – obviously an overstock purchase that the resourceful seller had made, and made a profit on. Hardware stores, crafts stores and jewelry stores are some of the good retail locations to check out for doing this. Don’t be afraid to ask. Walk through your local mall or local strip-mall shopping center and ask to see the owner or manager of each of the stores. It won’t do you any good to talk with a sales clerk who can’t make that kind of decision. The owners of these stores are business-people who would be glad to reduce their inventories, even at less than their marked prices. You’d be doing them a service. There’s nothing better than a win-win situation!
Another way you can work for yourself is to learn a trade that has value to the public. One such trade that is actually simple enough to learn is watch repair. You can have your own watch repair business many ways: at home via mail order, as a contractor at a retail jewelry store, or in a battery-changing kiosk or flea market set-up. You can also offer watch repair services to the public on the Internet.
Very few retail jewelers have a watchmaker on staff. Most watches that are brought in for service are mailed by the jeweler to a “tradeshop” (you), where they are repaired and mailed back to the jeweler (with appropriate insurance, of course). We know people who live in densely populated areas who leave flyers in apartment and office buildings offering watch repairs with pick-up and delivery service and were quite successful.
With knowledge of watch repair you can also purchase non-working watches at very low cost, many of which need only a 25-cent battery and a little clean-up, that you can re-sell at yard sales or flea markets for less than the cost of a new watch and still make a good profit. You can place a low-cost classified ad saying that you buy non-working watches. Quartz watches are very profitable to repair and very easy to do. Most people don’t know that batteries cost around 25 cents each or that most quartz watches can be repaired with a replacement movement that can cost as little as $5.
This is also a great business for stay-at-home Moms. One such course that will get you on your way is available here or on Kindle.
Yet another service you can offer is computer repair. If you are handy enough to take apart and/or rebuild laptop computers, replace bios batteries, swap components, you can offer this service at lower prices than factory service centers. Auctions sites are replete with non-working laptops that can be bought at very low cost that will supply you with working parts that you can use. Many office supply stores and electronics stores charge $50 just to tell the customer what is wrong with the computer. Again, flyers, low-cost classified ads and word-of-mouth can get you as much business as you can handle.
With as many guns as are currently being sold, if you have any gunsmithing skills you will be in high demand.
These are just some of the self-employment opportunities that are out there waiting for you. And you can begin any of these as a part-time ventures while you still hold onto your job – until you don’t need it anymore. Once you get going in your own home business, you will have the freedom to live where you choose, and to make as much money as you are willing to put in the time and effort for in offering your service. Being your own boss is much more rewarding than working for someone else.
We wish you all love and freedom.
Dan & Sheila are the authors of Surviving Survivalism – How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock, available at survivingsurvivalism.com.
MF UNTOUCHABLE: Corzine Wins Again
How you like me now...
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
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MF Global Judge Nixes Customer Group's Bid to Depose Corzine
Reuters
A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by former MF Global customers to depose the collapsed brokerage's former chief, Jon Corzine.
In a written ruling in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Judge Martin Glenn said the Commodity Customer Coalition, which had sought permission to question Corzine and other former MF Global insiders, lacked standing because it is not a direct creditor in the case.
The coalition, a grassroots group led by Chicago-based commodities trader James Koutoulas, bills itself as representing the interests of thousands of traders whose accounts at MF Global were frozen when the company went under. But the coalition itself is merely a "'watchdog' entity with its own independent goals," hoping to depose Corzine "in furtherance of its own interests" rather than those of the MF Global estate, Glenn said in his decision.
Koutoulas, reached by phone on Tuesday, dismissed that reasoning as "the most minute technicality imaginable. I could have filed 10,000 versions of the motion, one on behalf of each customer we represent," Koutoulas said, adding that the coalition is considering appealing the decision.
Most commodities customers have recovered about 80 percent of the value of their accounts through payouts by James Giddens, the trustee in charge of finding as much of the money as possible and liquidating MF's broker-dealer unit.
The coalition has said Corzine should face criminal charges for his role in the company's fall, though the exact nature of that role has been unclear. Many officials, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, have been investigating the case and have spoken to MF Global executives.
The coalition in November sought permission to depose Corzine, Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp, former Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow, General Counsel Laurie Ferber, former Treasurer Edith O'Brien, and Christine Serwinski, former finance chief at MF's North American brokerage.
Continue reading...
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Corzine congressional testimony:
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Reaction from Bob Knight that Corzine will not go to prison.
PG version:
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Adult version. Profanity warning.
For full effect, click play repeatedly.
Matt Taibbi: The Government Lied To Americans About Bank Bailout
The government made some rather flimsy claims during the financial
crisis -- among them, that the bank bailout would help struggling
homeowners and that the big banks were fundamentally sound.
But, according to Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, the claims weren't just flimsy; they were outright lies.
"The lie was the bailout," Taibbi told HuffPost Live on Thursday. "That was really part of the whole rescue effort, was telling the American public that all of these companies were healthy when in fact they weren't."
Days after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said that "the American people can remain confident in the soundness and the resilience of our financial system." But even last year, four big U.S. banks, including Citigroup, failed the Federal Reserve's stress tests.
Looking back today, many experts claim that the recession would have been worse had the country's biggest banks failed. A recent poll, for example, found most top economists agree that the bank bailouts reduced the unemployment rate.
But if you ask Taibbi, he'll say such improvement may prove temporary, especially since Wall Street only stayed intact because of the government's implicit promise to bail out the industry again if necessary. "They just threw a ton of money at Wall Street, papered over the problems, and... waved a wand over it and said everything will be all right," Taibbi said.
Taibbi has been hammering home the argument that the financial system is still fundamentally broken. In a recent Rolling Stone article, Taibbi wrote that the "only reason investors haven't run screaming from an obviously corrupt financial marketplace is because the government has gone to such extraordinary lengths to sell the narrative that the problems of 2008 have been fixed."
But, according to Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, the claims weren't just flimsy; they were outright lies.
"The lie was the bailout," Taibbi told HuffPost Live on Thursday. "That was really part of the whole rescue effort, was telling the American public that all of these companies were healthy when in fact they weren't."
Days after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said that "the American people can remain confident in the soundness and the resilience of our financial system." But even last year, four big U.S. banks, including Citigroup, failed the Federal Reserve's stress tests.
Looking back today, many experts claim that the recession would have been worse had the country's biggest banks failed. A recent poll, for example, found most top economists agree that the bank bailouts reduced the unemployment rate.
But if you ask Taibbi, he'll say such improvement may prove temporary, especially since Wall Street only stayed intact because of the government's implicit promise to bail out the industry again if necessary. "They just threw a ton of money at Wall Street, papered over the problems, and... waved a wand over it and said everything will be all right," Taibbi said.
Taibbi has been hammering home the argument that the financial system is still fundamentally broken. In a recent Rolling Stone article, Taibbi wrote that the "only reason investors haven't run screaming from an obviously corrupt financial marketplace is because the government has gone to such extraordinary lengths to sell the narrative that the problems of 2008 have been fixed."
Jon Corzine and Barack Obama Ad
Jon Corzine and Barack Obama Campaign Ad
This clip from a 2010 Jon Corzine for Governor campagin ad is exhibit A in the cesspool of DOJ corruption that has resulted in Jon Corzine not currently residing in prison for stealing $1.6 billion from segregated client accounts during the collapse of MF Global, a collapse that was brought on by at least $6 billion of massively-leveraged bets on European debt.
MF Global fraud fighter, James Koutoulas, posted this on Twitter - "If anyone still thinks @BarackObama has kept his promise to "clean up Wall Street" please review the following video."
Justice for sale.
President Obama took over $49 million in campaign donations from Wall Street, his Justice Department is full of former white collar defense lawyers, and 4 years after our financial collapse, not a single senior Wall Street executive has been charged with a crime.
CORZINED - Urban Dictionary
When something of value is stolen, and everyone who was in charge of safeguarding the valuable claims ignorance of just about anything. People in charge who confronted with questions about the valuable items usually answer, "I just dont know where it is" or claim that the valuables were "vaporized" when it was their job to know.
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Wall Street justice brought to you by Eric Holder and Covington & Burling:
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Who is Jon Corzine - CNN:
Good clip exposing Corzine's Obama connection. A look at the career of former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine as he moved from Goldman Sachs titan to Washington power broker.
These two links search for the missing funds (both highly recommended):
California manufacturing jobs fall through the cracks
Pneumatic Scale Angelus
employees were told Nov. 2 that production at the Vernon plant would
shut down Jan. 1 and move to Ohio. That meant lost jobs for 111 members
of the United Steelworkers in Vernon.
(Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times / December 24, 2012)
The shutdown of a 102-year-old California manufacturing
company points to a major flaw in California's industrial development
policy:We don't have one.
The company is Pneumatic Scale Angelus, which turned out top-of-the-line machines for sealing lids on soda and beer cans from a factory in Vernon. That was a niche business but not a small one, since bottling companies the world over were Angelus customers.
As we reported just after Christmas, Angelus employees were told on Nov. 2 that its owner, privately held Barry-Wehmiller Cos., would shut down production at the plant Jan. 1 and move it to a factory in Ohio. That meant lost jobs for 111 members of the United Steelworkers in Vernon.
The company appears to have fulfilled its legal obligation to inform city and state officials of its plans; economic development agencies at all three levels of government got notices pursuant to the state WARN Act, which requires notifications of such layoffs 60 days in advance. Another copy went to the office of County Supervisor Gloria Molina, whose district covers Vernon. Her office didn't get back to me to explain how they responded to it, if at all.
All these entities acknowledged receipt of the notices, according to copies of certified mail receipts the company provided to the union. None lifted a finger to try to stop the shutdown.
In fact, most say they weren't aware of the impending plant closing until I asked about it — in late December.
There's no guarantee that any action by government officials would have halted the closing. But we'll never know, because no one seems to have tried. The Angelus case "raises a larger question," says Glen Becerra, president of the Southern California Assn. of Governments: "When is it worth staying in California to do business? I don't see the state or local governments putting an emphasis on job creation."
Los Angeles County economic development officials say that if they had received advance warning of the Angelus decision, they would have swung into action. "I would have arranged a visit for the company with the city manager and the city development director," Barbara Levine, a regional manager at the L.A. County Economic Development Corp., told me. Here's a pointer: No one's going to swing into action if responsible agencies get layoff warnings in the mail and drop them in the trash basket.
In any case, local officials say the statewide economic development arsenal is pretty much bare.
California has no organized tax credit program for companies that pledge to add jobs. Ohio, which will absorb some of the Angelus jobs lost in Vernon, does. California has no equivalent today of the "Red Teams" that swooped in to stem layoffs during Pete Wilson's governorship during the 1990s, when the aerospace crash threatened to hollow out the state's industrial base.
California will roll out the red carpet on occasion. But you have to be very special to get it. The state doles out $100 million a year to Hollywood, ostensibly for film productions that would otherwise shoot elsewhere. But no one has ever established that the program accurately targets at-risk productions or that it produces more in job-related tax revenue than it spends. Much of the money, if not most, has gone to producers who are almost certainly gaming the system.
And while everyone complains about construction delays caused by the anti-pollution California Environmental Quality Act, the Legislature has given relief from CEQA to two specific projects. Both are proposed NFL football stadiums.
If there's a reason to incentivize movie makers to stay in California but not manufacturers of industrial equipment, let's hear what it is. And if CEQA is more of a drag on economic growth than a boon to the environment, then it should be the target of comprehensive reform, not piecemeal exemptions for would-be NFL owners.
California and Los Angeles are not manufacturing deserts, despite what you've heard about the state's hostility to business. While Los Angeles has lost half its factory jobs since 1991, it's still the largest manufacturing region in the country in terms of jobs, payroll and number of plants, according to a 2012 study of green manufacturing overseen by Goetz Wolff, an urban planning expert at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs. Manufacturing jobs are the best path up the economic ladder for people from disadvantaged communities. Yet such companies "don't have the voice of the entertainment or tourist industry," Wolff says. "There isn't a convention bureau for manufacturing."
It's not as though California has nothing to offer. The Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, which calls itself GO-Biz, points out that there are many reasons to invest in the state. It's a huge market, with the nation's leading ports and the largest high-tech workforce. It still attracts more than half of all venture investment in the country.
Ohio job development officials told me they attract business by emphasizing their state's virtually nonexistent corporate tax, but when you put all state and local taxes together Ohio's taxes haven't been that far behind California's — for fiscal 2009, the nonprofit Tax Foundation ranked California eighth in per capita taxation, Ohio 10th. (This was before our Proposition 30 raised income taxes on the wealthy and sales taxes on everyone.) Meanwhile, critics of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who took office in 2011, say that his high-profile state tax cuts have been paid for by just shifting stringent budget cuts on local governments and schools.
But Ohio does have a tax-abatement fund for companies adding jobs, even if it's moving them from another state, as Barry-Wehmiller is doing with Angelus. It established an aggressive one-stop agency to field complaints about permits and regulations.
California does offer businesses some tax credits, employee training programs and low-cost financing of manufacturing facilities through low-interest industrial development bonds. But the tax credits are typically aimed at special situations such as research and development spending or limited to disadvantaged workers.
The worst thing about the state's economic development programs is that they're fragmented. Some state economic agencies seem barely aware that others exist, so they can't refer potential clients to the right programs. Gov. Brown probably did the right thing by abolishing local redevelopment agencies, which often poached jobs from neighboring communities. But those agencies often were the home of local job development programs. In many communities, including Vernon, the redevelopment and job-development programs disappeared together.
California agencies apparently were caught sleeping when Barry-Wehmiller's WARN Act notices went out to the state's Employment Development Department, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and the city of Vernon. The EDD to this day hasn't posted the WARN Act notice on its website, where other public agencies might have seen it.
Such disorganization only makes it easier for employers to move jobs out of the state by stealth.
California has big markets, great ports and a well-trained workforce. Yes, there are high costs here and lots of regulations, though the latter often contribute to its high quality of life. But the biggest reason California loses jobs to other states may be that it's getting outsoldiered on the battlefield.
Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.
Ron Paul: Fiscal Cliff Caused by Bipartisan Big Spenders!
Forget the cliff, the United States is broke.
Transcript is below. This is worth reading.
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It's the Spending, Stupid!
By Ron Paul
As the year draws to an end, America faces yet another Congressionally-manufactured crisis which will likely end in yet another 11th hour compromise, resulting in more government growth touted as "saving" the economy. While cutting taxes is always a good idea, setting up a ticking time bomb with a sunset provision, as the Bush tax cuts did, is terrible policy. Congress should have just cut taxes. But instead, we have a crisis that is sure not to go to waste.
The hysteria surrounding the January 1 deadline for the Budget Control Act's spending cuts and expiration of the Bush tax cuts seems all too familiar. Even the language is predictably hysterical: if government reduces planned spending increases by even a tiny amount, the economy will go over a "fiscal cliff." This is nonsense.
This rhetoric is based on the belief that government spending sustains the economy, when in fact the opposite is true. Every dollar the government spends is a dollar taken from consumers, businessmen, or investors. Reducing spending can only help the economy by putting money back in the hands of ordinary Americans. Politicians who claim to support the free market and the lower and middle-class should take this to heart.
The reality is, however, that neither Republicans nor Democrats are serious about cutting spending. Even though U.S. military spending is exponentially larger than any other country and is notorious for its inefficiency and cost overruns, Republicans cannot seem to stomach even one penny of cuts to the Pentagon's budget. This is unfortunate because this is the easiest, most obvious place to start getting spending under control. The military-industrial complex and unconstitutional overseas military interventions should be the first place we look for budget cuts.
Similarly, Democrats are digging in their heels on not cutting any welfare or entitlement spending and instead propose to fix the deficit by raising taxes on the rich, even though the U.S. Government already has a progressive tax code and the rich already pay more than their fair share. Furthermore, these higher taxes would fall on small business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs—in other words, the source of economic growth and new jobs!
The truth is that there is no excuse for government spending being as high as it is, nor for taxes being as high as they are. Even the God of the Old Testament only asked for 10% as a tithe and offering, and Americans revolted against the King of England for taxes that amounted to less than five percent. Yet so many people today complain about "loopholes" for the rich that lower their actual tax rate to "only" 13% in some instances. Even that is a criminal amount to pay for a wasteful, abusive, unconstitutional government.
We are indeed headed to a fiscal cliff and have been long before this latest hysteria cropped up. But it is not cuts to spending or reduced government "revenue" that will send us over the cliff, it is continued government spending that will. Until the federal government limits itself to its Constitutionally-mandated role, spending and taxation will remain out of control.
Look for a "bipartisan" compromise in late December, with Republicans giving in to tax increases and settling for phony spending cuts that actually grow government, and Democrats caving on defense cuts in exchange for tax increases. This is how the government has always grown: both sides will sacrifice their pro-liberty, small government stances in certain areas in order to grow the government where they prefer.
Liberty always loses in the 11th hour.
Libor Scandal: Deutsche Bank Went ‘All In’
“Investment capital goes where it’s welcome and stays where it’s appreciated.” Maine governor Paul LePageThe more information one holds, the better positioned he is to take increased risk. If that information were to include the ability to influence if not outright manipulate a game/market, then one’s risk profile —that is, the size of one’s position — is likely to really increase.
Can you imagine if you were playing the tables in Vegas and you had knowledge as to what the dealer held and what he was likely to pull, what would you do?
Increase your bet, of course. We see a Wall Street iteration of this very scenario in news emanating from Deutsche Bank that Bank Made Huge Bet, and Profit, on Libor,
Deutsche Bank made at least €500 million ($654 million) in profit in 2008 from trades pegged to the interest rates under investigation by regulators world-wide, internal bank documents show.At least $654 million? I would venture that the bank made multiples of that.
The Deutsche Bank documents, handed to investigators by a former employee of the bank and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, show for the first time the scope and manner in which a bank painstakingly constructed a string of trades in hopes of profiting from small changes in various rates.A former employee? Sounds like a whistleblower. Think the firm will deny the facts and discredit the information? If past is prologue that is exactly what we will see. Remember what Jack Welch said last year about whistleblowers, though.
The only way to deal with a whistleblower’s accusations — again, every single time and again often against your own instincts — is with a hyper-bias toward believing that the informant is onto something big.What else do we learn from the WSJ article?
Mark Williams, a former Federal Reserve bank examiner, said the bets represented an “extremely large risk,” even for a company as big as Deutsche Bank.Is that right? Deutsche Bank officials? Smoking gun, folks. “Officials” does not typically connote a junior level trader or a desk clerk. “Officials” typically connote senior managers. What officials? Will we ever know? But what did the officials have to say about this whistleblower’s charge?
The former employee has told regulators that some employees expressed concerns about the risks of the interest-rate bets, according to documents. He also said that Deutsche Bank officials dismissed those concerns because the bank could influence the rates they were betting on.
A Deutsche Bank spokesman said those allegations were “categorically false.”Who do you believe? I think I will take my cue from Mr. Welch and believe the whistleblower.
So far, an internal inquiry by Deutsche Bank aimed at uncovering evidence of Libor manipulation has found misconduct by just a few individuals, people close to the bank said.Right!!?? We are supposed to believe that? If this line were delivered by a late night comic, it would certainly arouse a pile of laughs from any audience. We heard the same from the crowd over at UBS. The Telegraph reported as much about the “officials” at UBS in writing,
Mr Orcel, who was grilled by the commission alongside chief risk officer Philip Lofts and global head of compliance Andrew Williams on the practice of Libor-rigging at the bank, maintained the scandal stemmed from a small subset of traders, and top management was unaware.Tell me another one.
To think that a desk could ring up “at least” $654 million in a year and that senior management was not aware of EVERY detail as to how that revenue was generated is laughable. Wall Street does not work that way.
Regrettably “laughable” is also the appropriate description for the manner in which our financial regulators and judicial officials deal with these firms and executives.
Any wonder why trading volumes are down so much across most market sectors? Remember what Maine governor LePage says, ” “Investment capital goes where it’s welcome and stays where it’s appreciated.”
Navigate accordingly.
Sense on Cents/Libor Scandal
Larry Doyle
Isn’t it time or overtime to subscribe to all my work via e-mail, an RSS feed, on Twitter or Facebook.
I have no business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.
3 Responses to “Libor Scandal: Deutsche Bank Went ‘All In’”
SAYONARA: Khuzami To Step Down As SEC's Head Of NON-Enforcement
Overhyped and underdelivered.
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Khuzami Says He Will Step Down as SEC’s Top Enforcement Cop
Bloomberg
Robert Khuzami, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement chief who led the agency’s pursuit of financial crime after the credit crisis, said he would step down. Khuzami said in a memo today announcing his departure that he would remain at the agency for about two weeks. SEC Chairman Elisse Walter hasn’t named a successor.
In a statement, Walter said his “leadership and bold ideas transformed and reinvigorated the enforcement program.”
“We changed the institution we cherish by unleashing a culture of entrepreneurship, encouragement and opportunity that empowers individual staff members to generate new ideas and take ownership of their individual work and performance,” Khuzami said in his memo.
Still, his tenure has seen criticism from lawmakers, judges, investors and at least one current commissioner who have argued the agency hasn’t been aggressive enough in holding top executives accountable for practices that led to a taxpayer bailout of the banking industry.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over SEC cases against Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp., accused the agency of balking at bringing tough cases against high-ranking individuals in favor of reaching expedient settlements.
Commissioner Luis Aguilar, a Democrat, also expressed concern about the lack of financial-crisis cases against executives. “The investing public has a right to expect that government regulators will continue to hold accountable those individuals responsible for misconduct -- and that includes those culpable at the top, not just the flunkies below,” Aguilar said.
Khuzami, in his memo, dismissed much of the fault-finding as “often uninformed criticism” and praised the division’s lawyers for not letting it discourage them.
“It is a testament to your commitment and professionalism that you never permitted those distractions to become obstacles to excellence,” he said.
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Issa v. Khuzami:
Issa questions Khuzami about the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America bailout.
Further reading:
BUSTED: Robert Khuzami SEC Enforcement Chief
Keep in mind that Citigroup was hiding - lying about - $40 billion of sub-prime exposure, and the CFO at the time, Gary Crittenden was fined a paltry $100k for his role in this blatant rape of federal securities law.
Khuzami who once promised to be a tough cop on the beat, allegedly broke protocol, held a secret meeting with his good friend - counsel for Citi - then instructed SEC staff to go easy on Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, the lying curbskank at the helm of Citi investor relations.
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What Did Khuzami Know About $12 Billion in Hidden Losses at Deutsche?
More evidence that the financial crisis is a legal crisis in drag has emerged with two stories about the hiring of top regulators after they failed to detect massive financial frauds that occurred right under their noses.
First is S.E.C. enforcement head Robert Khuzami. Before becoming top cop at the S.E.C., he was Deustche Bank’s top lawyer while it was concealing $12 billion of losses in late 2008, according to people who worked there.
The gang that couldn't shoot straight.
What Wall Street crook wouldn't be afraid of Khuzami's intrepid team of crime fighters?
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Dear Jack,
The vast majority of whistle-blowers first take their concerns to management. It is only after management retaliation by the way harassment, ostracism, and termination does a whistle blower become a little crazy and vengeful.
I wonder if there ever was a whistle blower at GE when you and company where dumping 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson River, New York City’s primary water supply.
Until that changes, banks will continue their criminal ways at will, covering an array of activities that ranges from rigging interest rates to laundering drug money (HSBC).