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To: FCom777 who wrote (28435)	1/15/2012 7:33:40 PM
From: Sam	1 Recommendation Respond to of 222568

I suggest for once - EVERYONE - contact their congressman with their concern about what is going on. Unhappily, contacting congressmen won't really help much. Not because there are things to do w/r/t US law. But these firms aren't limited solely by US law. London was the epicenter of the '08 crisis, and, at least as things currently stand, is also the center of the crisis that is brewing. As you say, leverage is at the heart of the problem, but what MF brought to light--at least tome-- is that these shameless financial "wizards" aren't just leveraging the assets of their own firm (which would be bad enough!), but hypothecation and re-hypothecation allows them to legally leverage the assets of their customers as well for their own benefit. Here is an excerpt from a Reuters article on this (my bolding): A report by Thomson Reuters Business Law Currents last week suggested that MF Global and other firms exploited an international gap in collateral rules and may have made highly leveraged investments secured by customer collateral that had been re-hypothecated, or re-pledged as collateral for the brokerage’s own investments. It said the funds may have been available to help finance a $6.3 billion bet on euro sovereign debt. The European debt trades pushed MF Global into bankruptcy, after regulators pressed MF Global to increase its capital and investors became spooked. U.S. regulators allow prime brokers to re-hypothecate customer collateral up to the value of 140% of a customer’s borrowing. In the United Kingdom, however, firms have no set limits on the re-pledging of collateral, although individual limits can be negotiated by an investor, such as a hedge fund. blogs.reuters.com So these guys set up subsidiaries in London and apparently can play their game to their heart's content, bolstering their own bonuses if they are successful, and bringing the company and perhaps the financial system to its knees if they aren't--with no consequences to themselves, as far as I can tell. This is what Joe Cassano did with AIG, and he is still roaming free with his hundreds of millions of dollars with no sign of remorse or second thoughts about his actions. After all, why should he have remorse? The Invisible Hand will take of everything if everyone just pursues their interests, which is what he was doing. It is insane. The US allowing re-hypothecation at all is bad enough, allowing leverage of 140% is worse, but London is completely bonkers. Cameron was utterly and brazenly and outrageously shameless when he proclaimed so self-righteously last week that he wouldn't allow London's financial district to be hampered by EU rules.

To: FCom777 who wrote (28435)	1/15/2012 8:34:14 PM
From: Al Greenleaf	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 222568

Sam's right. If the one and only thing a politician wants is to be re-elected, do you see them stating "I am here to stop re-hypothecation!"?? Nevermind the press response, or the parties responses. It would simply preclude his election, the only thing he cares about. No win, no feeding at the political trough. I have send articles that were short, simple, and bullet-pointed to all the candidates, regarding Thorium energy for example. Those that answered at all said "Thanks for writing". They would never read these aforementioned articles, and if they did, many would not begin to understand them. Their financial staff would say "why do you want to get into THIS mess for?" And they would be right. I have read all of the stuff you referenced. It is long and complicated. There may be a tiny ray of hope in the "trillion dollar lawsuit". I hope so. We are here to cooperatively increase our accounts. But will the accounts even be there after our big win (earned by betting against the system, no doubt)? It almost seems hopeless. Meanwhile, I have found that The easiest place to acquire foreign citizenship is St Kitts and Nevis, if you want to renounce your US Citizenship. If you have over $2 million in assets, you will pay an exit tax. In some countries, you will not receive Social Security. There seems to be no place to hide from all of this fraud. Suggestions are welcome.