Didn’t the Fed bail these suckers out?
June 20, 2008 by Dusty · 2 Comments
Seems a couple of the executives at Bear Stearns got arrested Thursday. Matthew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi are not happy campers..or happy hedge fund operators. From the Marketwatch link:
They were charged in a nine-count indictment that alleged the two engaged in wire fraud, conspiracy and securities fraud in misleading investors about the rapidly tanking value of the two funds.
Ah..so it was only misleading the investors..no big deal..folks do it all the time, ala Enron, right? Only the bigtime Exec’s go to jail.
Well the Justice Department is making it a big deal, along with mortgage fraud..arresting hundreds possibly. Four, count em, four hundred of these folks were recently indicted. Said Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip about the indictments of all these real estate/securities folks:
“Mortgage fraud and related securities fraud pose a significant threat to our economy, to the stability of our nation’s housing market and to the peace of mind to millions of Americans,”
Mortgage fraud, as you can imagine..is up substantially in the past twelve months. From the MSNBC link:
The most common type of mortgage fraud was misstatement of income or assets, followed by forged documents, inflated appraisals and misrepresentation of a buyer’s intent to occupy a property as a primary residence.
Somehow, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg..and yes, it probably will get a whole lot uglier.
H/T to John Amato at C&L for the 411 on this interesting development.
Sphere: Related ContentHungry yet?
May 21, 2008 by Big Ass Belle · 1 Comment
You may be soon. The food crisis worldwide is growing daily, creating desperate conditions for millions of people who rely on commodities of wheat and corn and rice. Almost everything I read mentions ethanol as a prime reason, but few sources note that the US has vast acreages of tillable land which could be turned to corn production if farmers weren’t being paid to let it lie fallow.
Mr. Bush suggests that India is eating better, thus throwing the world into panic. India’s justifiable response is “fuck you fat American pigs” and rightfully so. Nouveau riche China is increasing its consumption of meat and this, too, is blamed for the worldwide, spreading crisis in food.
But there’s little discussion of how countries like Haiti lost their small farmers, because that is a tragedy that relates to mindnumbingly complex intervention by the never-benevolent IMF and World Bank, subsidized exports from this and other first world countries. It is mind numbing and important, because the destruction wrought upon Haiti and other 3d world nations by globalization and free market economics has been devastating. Another post, another day.
The Buck sucks..
March 14, 2008 by Dusty · 2 Comments
Lots o’ economic news this week..Bear Stearns, an investment/banking firm that made some stupid decisions is getting a bailout. The Buck has dropped to it’s lowest value against other currency in the history of our nation. The Carlyle Groups investment division, Carlyle Capital is sucking pond scum as well. What ever happened to that investment cry of Diversify Young Man!!!
Why in the blue hell should it our job to bail out idiots that made bad investments? These funds and equity groups dig their own graves by playing fast and loose with the hope to make lots of money quickly.
Yet, our Idiot-in-Chief still thinks his retarded ’stimulus package’ will get Americans to spend and spend and invest and invest.
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