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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33556)	4/21/2008 1:35:00 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217669

chief of Bank of America, cautioned on Monday that a softening economy could continue to hurt the bank's overall results. His face shows no celebratory mood!!

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33556)	4/21/2008 2:10:57 PM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217669

the 27-year old school administrator, who bought 100,000 Yuan ($14,000) of Shanghai-listed Western Mining Co. Elroy, It would be nice to be able to quantify that with stats as opposed to anecdotal evidence.. I was at a client's (Toronto) last week for a meeting and their accountant's comment to me on the market was. You don't play that stuff do you (more anecdotal evidence) Point being how pervasive is it ? Being on the other side of that trade from you presently I'd really like to be sure also.. The Chinese need to have a domestic consumer society... but if everyone is toasted by the market that will be on hold... The Black Swan Edit: I can find more appealing pictures of happy Brazilians ;O)

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33556)	6/25/2008 1:25:26 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217669

From $32,000-a-month mansion to an RV on the run It's quite a lifestyle change – from renting a $32,000-a-month mansion from Donald Trump to driving around in a Winnebago-style recreational vehicle with the US marshals service in hot pursuit. He was accused of operating a Ponzi-style scheme, inventing fake investments to satisfy clients as his fund's value wobbled. The fund used a phony auditing firm and issued untruthful results to its investors. In court, Israel told his former customers: "I lied to you and I cheated you and I cannot put into words how sorry I am." The plot is thickening by the day around Samuel Israel, founder of a hedge fund called Bayou Group who went on the run on June 9 – the day he was supposed to report to prison for fiddling investors out of $450m (£225m). Israel's car was found on a bridge in upstate New York with the keys in the ignition and the name of the MASH theme tune, "suicide is painless", etched in dust on the bonnet. All too aware of Israel's trickster past, the Feds never bought the idea that he had jumped. After initially claiming she had found a suicide note, his girlfriend, Debra Ryan, this week cracked under questioning and admitted that she helped him pack a load of belongings – including a motor scooter - into a recreational vehicle ready for an extended road trip. With echoes of the chase for Dr Richard Kimble in "The Fugitive", the US marshals service has issued a picture of a huge white Freelander camper van with a dent on its rear passenger side. "Israel may be at RV [recreational vehicle] parks, camp grounds or highway rest areas," said the marshals' wanted notice. "Suspect should be considered armed and dangerous." When he was sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence in April, Israel became one of the most villainous names to emerge from the lightly regulated hedge funds industry. He was accused of operating a Ponzi-style scheme, inventing fake investments to satisfy clients as his fund's value wobbled. The fund used a phony auditing firm and issued untruthful results to its investors. In court, Israel told his former customers: "I lied to you and I cheated you and I cannot put into words how sorry I am." Not sorry enough, based on his subsequent conduct. Israel's lawyers convinced judge Colleen McMahon that he had an addiction to painkillers, a dicky ticker and severe back problems. She allowed him to stay out on bail pending medical treatment. It seems that rather than having a back operation, Israel was making elaborate plans for a Thelma and Louise-style jaunt around the country. His girlfriend has revealed that he woke her the morning of his disappearance and persuaded her to help him move his RV to an interstate rest stop before giving him a lift home. She has been charged with aiding a fugitive and faces up to 10 years inside. The situation is provoking a few sniggers. Israel's pseudonyms, according to US marshals, include Sam Ryan and David S Clapp. A presenter on one morning news program wondered aloud why anybody would choose the name "Clapp". It does, however, highlight ongoing questions about America's ferocious punishment of white-collar criminals. Israel's sentence rivals the 24-year stretch handed to Enron's boss Jeffrey Skilling and the 25-year punishment given to the WorldCom fraudster Bernard Ebbers. For Israel, a man of 48 in questionable health, the prospect of two decades in prison provides little hope of rehabilitation. "Twenty years for a defendant like this is basically a life sentence," Evan Barr, a former federal prosecutor, told the New York Times. "So Mr Israel may well have concluded it was worth the risk of trying to flee given that the maximum additional penalty for bail jumping would only tack on another 10 years of jail time." Attitudes are harder towards corporate crime in the US than in Europe – partly because Americans tend to be more engaged in the markets. About half of Americans are invested in the stockmarket, compared to a third of British people, and a higher proportion actively manage their retirement arrangements rather than relying on corporate plans. With a paunch and a bald dome, Israel makes for an unlikely fugitive. His disappearance is a considerable embarrassment to his defence lawyers from a firm called Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello and Bohrer. It's the second client this firm has mislaid in high-profile circumstances – its attorneys also defended Comverse Technologies boss Kobi Alexander who did a moonlight flit to Namibia and is resisting extradition attempts. Naturally, Israel's flit has left his victims unimpressed. Lee Hennessee, an investment adviser whose clients lost big-time on Bayou Group, told the Wall Street Journal: "I believe he's dead as far as I can throw him." Ross Intelisano, a lawyer for others who lost money, told the New York Post: "Unless they find a body, I think he's on the lam." · This article was amended on Tuesday June 24 2008. Dr Richard Kimble was The Fugitive, not Jack Ryan. This has been corrected.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (33556)	6/30/2008 9:19:05 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 217669

Bernanke faces general investigation by IMF. Just one more example of the Fed losing its power. The Shrinking Influence of the US Federal Reserve By Gabor Steingart in Washington Humiliation for Mr. Dollar: Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, faces a general investigation by the International Monetary Fund. Just one more example of the Fed losing its power. The United States Federal Reserve Bank, or Fed, seems as much a part of America as Coca-Cola or Pizza Hut. But at least one difference has become apparent in recent days. While the pizza chain and soft-drink maker are likely to expand their scope of influence in the age of globalization, the US central bank is finding that its power is shrinking. AFP The US Federal Reserve. No Fed chief in US history has been forced to submit to the kind of humiliation that Ben Bernanke is facing. This is partly down to circumstances. Inflation is going up and up, and this year's average will likely top 4 percent. But this time Mr. Dollar is also Mr. Powerless. He can raise interest rates in the fall, or he can pray, which would probably be the better choice. At least prayer would not prevent the US economy from growing, a highly likely outcome if interest rates go up. After years of growth, the United States is now on the brink of a recession, one that is more likely to be deepened than softened by a tight money policy. Investments will automatically become more expensive, consumer spending will be curbed and economic growth will slow down, immediately affecting unemployment figures and wages. REPRINTS Find out how you can reprint this SPIEGEL ONLINE article in your publication. The textbook conclusion is that this will stabilize the value of money, because no one will dare demand higher wages or higher prices. But the macroeconomics textbooks are no longer worth much in the age of globalization. Modern inflation is driven by the global scarcity of resources. Nowadays purchasing power exceeds purchasing opportunity. Most of all, there is not enough oil, and too few raw materials and food products. These increasingly scarce resources are becoming the focus of disputes among many people and billions of dollars are at stake. This is why the price of a barrel of crude oil (159 liters) has increased from $25 (€16) in 2002 to $135 (€87) in 2008. And it is also why the price of corn has tripled in the same time period, while that of copper has almost quintupled. If the inflation introduced in the United States is excluded, a small miracle is revealed, namely something approaching price stability. Adjusted for inflation, prices are in fact rising by only 2.3 percent. If this were the extent of it, the Fed chief could simply blink like an old watchdog and go back to sleep. Instead, he is barking loudly, which is his job. But he has lost his bite, because the Fed's interest rate policy can do nothing about the scarcity of goods. AFP US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The entire US financial system is to come under the scrutiny of the IMF Embarrassing Investigation Some of Bernanke's personal adversaries are also contributing significantly to his current humiliation. In the past, the chairman of the Federal Reserve was a pope among the priests of the financial elite. But unlike his predecessor Alan Greenspan, Bernanke is finding that his policies are not universally accepted, even within the Fed. The last seven decisions reached by the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, were accompanied by a growing number of dissenting votes. Bernanke's critics say that with his policy of cheap money -- in other words, recurring rate reductions -- he in fact helped fuel the inflation problem he is now trying to combat. Another problem for Mr. Dollar is that it will be several months before his actions take effect. Officials with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have informed Bernanke about a plan that would have been unheard-of in the past: a general examination of the US financial system. The IMF's board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) is to be carried out in the United States. It is nothing less than an X-ray of the entire US financial system. As part of the assessment, the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests -- worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar. NEWSLETTER Sign up for Spiegel Online's daily newsletter and get the best of Der Spiegel's and Spiegel Online's international coverage in your In- Box everyday. Under its bylaws, the IMF is charged with the supervision of the international monetary system. Roughly two-thirds of IMF members -- but never the United States -- have already endured this painful procedure. For seven years, US President George W. Bush refused to allow the IMF to conduct its assessment. Even now, he has only given the IMF board his consent under one important condition. The review can begin in Bush's last year in office, but it may not be completed until he has left the White House. This is bad news for the Fed chairman. When the final report on the risks of the US financial system is released in 2010 -- and it is likely to cause a stir internationally -- only one of the people in positions of responsiblity today will still be in office: Ben Bernanke. Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan