abeoman

G20 Must Address the 'White Blue Eyed Bankers' Issue

The article is pegged at changing a banking system predominantly dominated by the West. It is strange that the "US" of South America has adopted a US system, realized incredible growth in GDP, increased fortunes for very few and not sufficiently changed the opportunity for the majority of it's population. So you have a left populist comment created by a political piper preaching to his constituents back home, not the US.

Who else is he going to blame politically if the Brazilian economy is shrinking? Lula is a politician and corruption is alive and well in Sambaville.

Geithner's Doomed Bailout Plan

How else is government going to yield a say in financial regulatory reform if it does not entice Wall Street to the table and have a stake in it directly? This is not what we want on Wall Street - we enjoy our independence from Uncle Sam, but the risky carrot is out to bring the cash from under the mattress to be matched by government ( in part) and make "toxic assets" disappear.

The question now becomes what will the next problem be that Wall Street will fuss about...if toxic assets are temporarily relieved.

The govt. is essentially following the money here.... Get the funds, retirement plans and hedge funds involved and then weaken the dollar to attract foreign investment. Show me a business commitment to match this anywhere in the world........

GE Gets 'Sticky Note of Doom' - FBN Interview with Ockham CEO

What speculative hogwash, classic FOX reporting.....keep announcing shorting sentiments and scoop up on the lows. Comparing GE to BAC and C is on numbers alone fundamentally flawed. GE has diversity, lines of profitable business in multiple segments and in the long run is well managed. If the negativity in GE on FOX is anchored by a closeness to the administration.....the... post this sentiment on Politico.......not SA

Relax, Obama's Socialist Agenda Is Capital Friendly

Obviously a comment meant to incite and an arrogance to boot....


On Mar 05 09:33 AM CLH wrote:

> People with out health insurance should be jailed. They suck the
> blood of the workers. Lets wake up-- no one should have to pay health
> costs for the lazy.

AIG Bailout Saga in Review

Just wondering if there would be any knowlwedge out there of how much of AIG is leveraged in BAC or visa versa. Is there any coincidence that Bank of America and AIG are both based in Charlotte NC. Did the underlying derivatives contracts which BAC is suffering have any direct influence on the investments which AIG undertook? Just wondering if the water in Charlotte has a different taste to the rest of the country, maybe? The fact that the largest insurance company in the world and certainly one of the largest banks in the world are so closely linked would be another failure of regulatory monitoring.....

The 'Stress Test' Challenge: Transparency and Intellectual Integrity

In light of the deregulated derivatives and CDS markets to date, how do you foresee a plan in which Banks can fortify their disclosure on valuations for their balance sheets, when in reality they seem to have misplaced the very notes( the original mortgage documentation for home owners) that serve as the underlying assets for these trillions of dollars in derivative contracts? I agree that the smoking gun is awol and the administration is buying for time....

Stimulus Packages: Conceptually Flawed and Historically Unproven

Rakesh - An intriguing outlook....the economic infrastructure then was not based on "free market" principles, we have today and certainly technology advancements have expedited results from government actions on the effect on the markets, not necessarily the street economy. In the FDR era, bailouts were driven by more direct economic intervention rather than into market stimulus intervention.

Most new era (post Reaganomics) stimulus legislation has been the complete opposite, protection of the markets and not necessarily direct street economic activity. For example, 401 K's, pension plan investments, for example, stimulated unprecedented cash flows into the markets, not direct economic activity, forcing the very high asset valuations we assume today.

The US has seemingly lost that industrial base positioning for this very reason, we prefer as an economic society to be judged on the prowess of our market valuations (forcing asset values to unprecedented values with corresponding PE pie in the sky values), since intrinsically we all have a direct investment incentive in the equity markets.

If at any one time during these muddy waters, any economists out there could measure the impact (by impact I mean jobless rates, GDP, average household income, savings rate, discretionary income of a population) that the gains in the market have had on long term productivity of an economy vs direct economic investments on the street and it's productivity over a long term period. I would venture to guess that the gains in the market would remain in the market and that the impact on the street would be minimal.
Thank you for your insight.

Are You Kidding? CBO's Laughable TARP Claims

The latest TARP fiasco raises several concerns for which I do not see the considerable efforts to curb the Wall Street appetite of greed. Greed often has no objectivity and considering the bailouts imminent to forge the economy in the right direction, then in my opinion a few questions should be raised regarding the use of TARP funds.

Have these questions been raised in the current TARP discussion? They either have and their consequences been ignored or they are in progress of being discussed.

1. Should TARP funds be utilised to acquire other companies?

2. Ultimately, are TARP funds stimulating the markets or the economy?

3. Should TARP funds be restricted from creating company stock buy backs?

4. Should Board of Directors, Executive Management and related parties and entities disclose their share positions prior to TARP funding and post TARP distributions or should TARP restrict share activity all together by BOAD and executive management?

5. Should there be a seperate TARP related fund to deal with market related equity positions on behalf of the TARP recipients and a seperate TARP bailout fund for "operational related"( actually lending to businesses,etc. street funding) activities?

6. Should the purpose of use for the TARP funds be disclosed explicitly and directly as in covenants created during a vc, mezzanine or any other venture or should this loan constitute no interference?

I sincerely hope these questions are being raised and discussed.

Bailout Accountability: Something's Rotten in the Treasury's Kingdom

Well put.....The TARP provision,or lack thereof, dessimates the benchmarks and standards sought by SEC on publicly traded companies. If "best efforts" clauses are what a public company today would guarantee their investors in multi billion dollar deals, in light of the current conditions, then good luck to us all!

Madoff Scandal: Where Was the SEC?

Change is welcoming, but certainly the lighthouse shift manager (Cox) sends out signals or prepares for the onslaughts of danger in a storm. A storm was brewing over a 24 months ago and the lighthouse turned off the lights!

The biggest addition to the SEC was the PCAOB with the assitance of Sarbanes Oxley, but futile in power or enforcement. The structures and business processes of the markets have not been fundamentally challenged.

Where is the legislation to address the immense powers of the Depository Trust Company (formed by the largest brokerage firms, with Goldman Sachs, Merril Lych, Lehman, Citi, Mellon BNY......) and the structures which create the opportunity for Maddoff type crimes?

SEC needs an overhaul and the business process needs to be challenged. If Mr. Cox or any of the new leadership has the guts and political will to tackle this gorilla head on, then we can talk about change and true transparency. When Enron and Worldcom were the points of disgust prompting Sarbanes Oxley and the PCAOB, we created a band aid, surrounded by the hoopla and media onslaught chastising accounting firms for extending into business consulting other than true accounting and auditing.

That created a vacuum of threats to go unnoticed and the FED and SEC even encouraged lax controls for hedge funds. The irony was that more capital was being driven as a resource to hedge fund type funds to circumvent stricter Sarbanes disclosures. If Madoff's Ponzi scheme was the TItanic, then the iceberg is out there, but we need effective legislation to turn the light on!



On Dec 13 03:00 PM TomArmistead wrote:

> Cox performed his duties as expected by those who appointed him -
> he did nothing, gracefully and conscientiously - set up commitees,
> got input, made proposals, and ignored the the greed and corruption
> running rampant on Wall Street.
>
> In his defence, the CDS operators got an exemption from regulation
> long before he took office - during the Clinton adminisration. <br/>
>
> Change will be welcome.
>