storm999

Is Dubai's Default a Black Swan Event?

It's only a black swan if you didn't realize that we are going to have a wave of sovereign defaults, in which case you are a mark, not an investor.

Is Dubai's Default a Black Swan Event?

Interesting information. The behind-the-scenes and manipulation to fund intelligence and political operations is one of the reasons the markets are inefficient.

In 1989 Catherine Austin Fitts became Assistant Secretary for Housing in Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She began to notice money was not properly tracked as it moved between different HUD departments and there was a lack of proper accounting mechanisms to deal with discrepancies in revenue indicated fraud at an alarming level. [28] She attempted to put in place some credible financial tracking mechanisms to identify where the money was going and to identify the responsible individuals and HUD departments, but after 18 months on the job she was suddenly fired by the Bush administration. Fitts was told the day after she left that her financial reforms through ‘place-based financial accounting and statements’ would also be terminated. [29]


On Nov 27 09:57 AM Tony Ryals wrote:

> The newssophisticate of October 1, 2007 sums it up pretty much for
> me except for who in the U.S. government and U.S. market oversight
> should be held responsible.I feel Christopher Cox's SEC as well as
> Mary Schapiro's FINRA should take some responsibility for failing
> to be whistle blowers but who else ? The CNN,Fox,CNBC news monopolies
> FAILED TO REPORT TO AMERICAN PUBLIC THAT THEY WOULD NOW BE GIVING
> MONEY TO SHEIKH AL RASID MAKTOUM EVERYTIME THEY WERE CONNED INTO
> 'INVESTING' IN THE NASDAQ.And that is possibly even worse than giving
> money to Bernie Madoff considering it was his country DUBAI THAT
> SENT MONEY FROM SHEIK KALID MOHAMED TO MOHAMED ATTA ET.AL. IN VENICE,FLORIDA
> PRE 9/11 !
> I'd say Bush-Cheney should take some responsibility because it happened
> on their watch but Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel knew about the Sheikh's
> role in 911 and the NASDAQ as well as how the American public reacted
> when CNN and Fox reported that Dubai Ports would take over security
> at U.S. ports.So how did he get the NASDAQ and doesn't his country's
> financial mess make him suseptible to bribery and manipulation by
> those who would harm the U.S.markets where NASDAQ does most of its
> 'business' ?
> Also take note of the fact that had
> Iran bought the NASDAQ or 26%,(and who got the other 20%+ voting
> rights Al Rashid forfeited ?),THE ISRAELI MONEY LAUNDERERS WOULD
> BE GOING CRAZY.
> This in itself is proof of the fact that Al Rashid and the far right
> Israelis who run penny stock and other stock scams on the U.S.market
> feel he is someone they can trust,(to our detriment).For example
> I noted that ICTS International of Israelis Menachem Atzmon,(convicted
> of moving money from Israeli gov to Likud Party),and Ezra Harel,(who
> ran numerous stock sams before dieing in 2003),that had been removed
> from NASDAQ in 2006 is quietly back on the NASDAQ website posing
> as an upstanding company even though it 'guarded' (unsuccessfully)Logan
> Airport Boston on 911 AND BOUGHT HUNTLEIGH AIRPORT SECURITY SERVICES
> AT THE EXPENSE OF DEFRAUDED AMERICAN INVESTORS !
>
> newssophisticate.blogs...
>
>
> When Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum decided he wanted a part
> of the western financial markets...he set his strategic plan to get
> it. On August 6, 2007 he created Borse Dubai, a holding company which
> essentially consolidated the all Dubai 'exchanges' under one 'holding'
> company. Now remember...The Sheikh owns this 'holding company' it
> is his. It is a STATE OWNED company.
>
> Shortly after its' birth it began a bitter battle with NASDAQ for
> months over OMX. OMX is a Swedish/Finnish financial services company
> with an amazing highly desired integrated 'back end technology' which
> consolidates other money market 'exchanges'. Formed in 2003, OMX
> has become a financial leader which makes gaining OMX paramount.
>
> [OMX] in addition to owning and running exchanges in Sweden, Denmark,
> Finland, Iceland and the Baltic states, provides technology to about
> 60 exchanges worldwide, including the Australian Securities Exchange,
> Nordic power market Nordpool and the Singapore Exchange. khaleejtimes
>
> All that changed on Sept 20th when NASDAQ and Dubai announced they
> would partner up and attempt a highly controversial 'swap' trade.
> According to the NASDAQ Press release...
> NASDAQ Increases Certainty of OMX Combination
>
> Borse Dubai to become a 19.99 Per Cent Shareholder in NASDAQ;
> Restricted to 5 Per Cent Voting Rights
>
> Steps taken to allow DIFX to be rebranded with the NASDAQ Brand<br/>
>
> NASDAQ to Become a Strategic Shareholder in DIFX
>
> Borse Dubai Purchases a 28.0 Per Cent stake in LSE From NASDAQ<br/>.....
>
> Borse Dubai to become a 19.99% shareholder in NASDAQ (capped at<br/>5
> per cent voting rights)
>
> NASDAQ will acquire all OMX shares to be purchased by Borse Dubai
>
> in its offer for OMX
>
> NASDAQ will become a strategic shareholder and the principal
> commercial partner of Dubai International Financial Exchange
> ("DIFX")
>
> DIFX will be re branded with the NASDAQ brand and licensed with market
> leading technology from the NASDAQ/OMX combination
> Qatar, using the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) freaked upon hearing
> of the 'agreement' and went on a spending spree. They purchased roughly
> a 10% share of OMX and sent out a release to shareholders of OMX
> to 'take no action' on the NASDAQ/Dubai 'agreement'. Then QIA went
> ahead and purchased a 20% stake in the London Stock Exchange and
> on Friday, bought the remaining 5.3 million shares of NASDAQ owned
> shares in the LSE.

High Gold Prices: It's the Oil, Stupid

The real devaluation of the dollar is not from the Fed. The Fed lost control of the money supply under Greenspan/ Bush because the international financial markets were to absorb so much new credit thanks to securitization and derivatives, especially CDS. That's why they stopped reporting M 3.

The Fed is quite sincere in its belief that epanding their balance sheet will not lead to inflation because capacity and monetary velocity are so low. They would love Congress to regulate Wall St. Unfortunately, DC has more bank lobbyists than hookers, so Congress is having a hard time doing what it needs to do.

I would love Congress to have better oversight of the Fed but turning over monetary policy to Congress is like giving gasoline and matches to an arsonist. The consequences are predictable and dire. Does anyone think Michelle Bachmann can make better monetary policy than Bernanke (if so please go jump off the nearest bridge and remove yourself from the gene pool.) If we have Congress politicizing Fed monetary policy, dollar volitility will increase exponentially (and Goldman will make money off that, too). We need to be careful what we wish for, we may get it.

Bill Gross: Anything But 0.01%

I live in LA. Apartment rents are dropping like flies hit by flit. I audited one of the largest apartment managers in Southern Ca a few months ago. Revenues were down. The explanation was people moving in together to save rent, people moving back to their parents because they lost their jobs etc. Add to this, the fact that condo developers are converting condo units to rental units to meet their debt service needs because they can't sell the condos. Add to this the continuing tidal wave of foreclosures with 1 in 7 US homes in foreclosure. I would steer clear of Apartment REITS.

We aren't going to see normal inflation, we are going to see dollar carry trade induced stag-flation in which commodities are bid up by speculators forcing inflation in an otherwise weak economy. The sick part is higher commodity priices are ultimately going to weaken growth here even more. If you see better job numbers driven by previously uneconomic mines suddenly opening up then you'll know we're in another bubble.

If we put in a smart grid and bring fibre optic to every home then we will have real growth.

> ... and just as likely, I suspect inflation will make a comeback
> once real estate picks up!
>
> Since I can't hold my breath that long, I'm going for the dividends
> paid by commodities that have autonomous pricing power at any level
> of inflation -- like natural gas pipelines, coal royalty trusts and
> apartment REITS...

10 Reasons to Believe That We're in a Depression

In one sense we must be in a depression. An L-shaped recovery is a visual metaphor for the economy contracting and then us bumping along the bottom of the contraction. Last time I checked bottom and depression are synomyms. Yup, we're in a hole. I won't write off the US yet. First, the world's wealth is held in dollars and the central banks don't want to lose their wealth. Second, we are the defacto central bank to the world, our debt, is directly tied to the expansion of the global money supply: in order for developing economies to expande their money supply, they have to have dollar-based capital reserves to service external debt, buy commodities and settle internal accounts, thus we have to print more dollars and they have to buy our debt to earn interest on the dollars we created. Third, we are reasserting our democracy and the American people are incredibly angry at Wall St and Washington DC and we are seeing the beginnings of reform in regulation and control of financial markets and the Fed. As long as the people, especially the boomers are watching, there will be better controls. Domestically, much of what has happened over the past thirty years has happened because inflation benefitted baby boomers who were old enough to purchase assets and have jobs when Nixon delinked the dollar from gold. Inflation was a tidal wave they surfed to wealth. Now, they have been hit hard and collectively will seek more control over banks and financial markets because they want stability. Inflation is the enemy of the retired. momoplistic sectors like healthcare and energy will be controlled. The financial markets will be tamed.

The question I ask myself is will this happen during this cycle or will we have a global asset bubble driven by the dollar carry trade before the great awakening. It's too early to tell because the politics aren't claear ye.

The Roots of the Coming Crash

The too big to fail crowd and the hedge funds will be get advance warning. Watch them unwind positions or go long the dollar and you will avoide the mad panic. Until then, l'm riding gold.

Short Interest on Nasdaq: Why the Data Delay?

If you look at what the naked shorts did to Lehman, Bear Sterns etc., then you have to be naive to assume the big broker-dealers don't know this information before it's published and arent't reselling to crooked hedgefunders like Galleon hedge fund partner Raj Rajaratnam.

Keep fighting for reform!

Check out this video to see what the crooks did
www.osborneink.com/200...

CIT Group's Bankruptcy Plan: Goodbye Common and Preferred Stock

I am going to check out your site. I have done well in preferreds recently. I had a small position in this dog but I am up on the others.


On Nov 03 02:56 PM Doug K. Le Du, author of Preferred Stock Investing wrote:

> CIT preferred stock investors (or their broker/advisors) should have
> known better. There is a strong relationship between the existence
> of the "cumulative" dividend provision of a preferred stock issue
> and the stability of the issuing company.
>
> CIT had issued three preferred stocks (two in 2005 and one 2008),
> all of which were "non-cumulative." For risk-adverse preferred stock
> investors, that should have been a red flag, especially with the
> 2008 issue (Series C). The crisis in the financial sector was well
> under way by then.
>
> A cumulative preferred stock dividend requirement means that if the
> company misses a dividend payment to you, they still owe you the
> money; any missed dividends accumulate with cumulative preferred
> stocks.
>
> For example, the Big Banks that failed over the last two years (Lehman,
> Fannie, Freddie, New Century, WaMu, Bear Stearns) were issuers of
> non-cumulative preferred stocks (IndyMac had no preferreds trading),
> while the Big Banks that survived through acquisition (National City,
> Countrywide, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia) issued cumulative preferred
> stocks.
>
> While those investing in the non-cumulative preferreds were wiped
> out, the dividends from these acquired Big Banks, and their cumulative
> preferred stock issues, continue to this day; not one payment was
> missed.
>
> Intuitively, this makes sense; stronger companies will have the confidence
> to step up to the cumulative dividend requirement.
>
> While there is no guarantee that companies issuing cumulative preferreds
> will never fail, the relationship between the cumulative preferred
> dividend provision and company strength should not be ignored by
> preferred stock investors.
>
> Non-cumulative preferred stocks are a major weakness of preferred
> stock ETFs, which include 30% to 90% non-cumulative issues.
>
> The non-cumulative nature of CIT's preferred stock issues was a flashing
> light that CIT preferred stock investors would have done well to
> pay more attention to.
>
> Many Happy Returns,
> Doug K. Le Du, author of Preferred Stock Investing
> www.PreferredStockInve...
> PreferredStockInvestin...

CIT Group's Bankruptcy Plan: Goodbye Common and Preferred Stock

Contingent value sounds like wishful thinking to me. I am long a small position of CITpZ preferred. I think this is lost money. Sigh. My other preferred's are way up, so I guess I should be happy.

Property Values Set to Fall 43% from Current Depressed Levels

MIllions of people are underwater, today they think it will come back in a year or two. Here's the problem with that expectation. The demand for housing from 20 somethings is going to be low, they have unemployment. At the same time, the banks have tons of forelcosures they ultimately have to get rid of. Looking farther out the boomers will start to sell their houses and move into smaller places. Expect a flat to negative real estate market with housing for seniors being the strength of the market.

Cramer Does It Again with CIT Call

The best thing to do is max out your credit cards with cash advances throw it all into a daytrading margin account with an online broker and bet everything on one of Cramer's picks. If you can't roll like that, you are not hedge fund material. :-)

Gold Is Not in a Bull Market

My DGP (double long gold) is up 25% since I put it in. I think Mr. Nadler is trying to talk sense into people because he believes in the long run a lot of people could get burned. He works for a gold dealer, he doesn't want to lose customers, so better to be prudent now and argue it's a momentum play, then he'll retain more customers.

My analysis is political. The boomers know the stock market is rigged, they fear inflation because that is the only way out of debt, so they are buying precious metals. Historically, the boomers always change the market. I expect the market to go up driven by boomer buying. Mr. Nadler is right, when they start to liquidate it will be hell. For now, though I think they are so angry and afraid of Wall St/ Washington, that they will buy the dips.

Jobless Recovery: Few Winners, Many Losers

Humorous style, infuriating content. You made me smile about the back East BS machine. Those foreclosure numbers represent real, destitute familes, God bless them.

How long is it going to be before Angelinos like me wake to find that the angry masses have set Wall St on fire? Or D.C?

The Greatest Depression Is Coming

Yeah there is going to be a massive brain drain of Americans to developing countries...uh, huh, the sky is falling, the sky is falling

The Greatest Depression Is Coming

Yeah there is going to be a massive brain drain of Americans to developing countries...uh, huh, the sky is falling, the sky is falling


On Oct 19 07:42 AM Anthony Alfidi wrote:

> The poor prospects for the U.S. economy are already driving PhD students
> from China and India to return to their home countries after they
> complete their studies here. The educated U.S. elite may follow suit
> and decamp for more economically hospitable climes. The loss of a
> professional class of scientists, engineers, and managers will do
> irreparable harm to American competitiveness.