A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
December 12th, 2010Via: New York Times:
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.
Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.
In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.
The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available.
Two Explosions in Center of Stockholm
December 12th, 2010Via: Reuters:
Two blasts rocked the center of Stockholm on Saturday in a possible attack inspired by Sweden’s presence in Afghanistan, killing the bomber and wounding two other people, police and media said.
Swedish news agency TT said that 10 minutes before the first blast, when a car exploded near a busy shopping street, it received an email with threats over the Swedish presence in Afghanistan and over a years-old case of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad by a Swedish artist.
Police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said the car exploded at peak shopping hours at 5 p.m. (12 p.m. EST). About 10 to 15 minutes later another explosion took place on a street 300 meters (984 ft) away.
A man was found dead near the second explosion and two people with minor injuries were also found nearby.
Asked if the man blew himself up in some way, Lindgren said: “It is possible.”
Investigations were continuing to see if the two incidents were linked, he said.
A bag found near the dead man had also been examined, but no more explosives were found in it, he said.
Newspaper Aftonbladet quoted a source as saying that the man was carrying six pipebombs, of which only one exploded. He also had a rucksack full of nails and suspected explosive material, the newspaper said.
$150 Billion Budget Deficit Sets November Record
December 11th, 2010Green shoots, I tell you. Green shoots.
Via: AP:
The federal budget deficit rose to $150.4 billion last month, the largest November gap on record. And the government’s deficits are set to climb if Congress passes a tax-cut plan that’s estimated to cost $855 billion over two years.
The Treasury Department says November’s budget gap was 25 percent more than the deficit in November 2009.
Bernard Madoff’s Son Mark Found Hanged
December 11th, 2010Update
Via: Gothamist:
Yesterday morning, the body of Mark Madoff was found hanging from a dog leash in his Soho apartment, while his two-year-old son was sleeping in another room. While no note was found, it’s believed the 46-year-old son of infamous Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff committed suicide, based on desperate e-mails he sent to his lawyer and wife at 4 a.m. A Daily News source said of a message to his wife, “It basically sounded like he couldn’t take it anymore. At one point he said something like, ‘You’ll have a better life if I’m not around …I love you,'” and suggested she and their kids “would be better off without ‘this’ hanging over them all, forever. He all but said he was going to kill himself.”
According to the Post, Madoff wrote to his lawyer, “No one wants to hear the truth… Take care of my family.” Then, “In two messages sent to wife Stephanie, he said, ‘I love you” — and then alerted her to “send someone to take care of Nick,’ the source said. A freaked-out Stephanie — at Disney World in Orlando with her mom, Arlene, and 4-year-old daughter, Audrey — then dispatched her stepfather, high-powered lawyer Martin London, to the apartment in the swank building.” London was the one who made the discovery at the 158 Mercer Street apartment and called police.
A police source told the News that “Madoff – wearing khaki pants, a dark blue pullover shirt and white socks – knotted the black leash around a steel pole in a lighting rack on the living room ceiling.” The Post has a photograph of Madoff and a dog on its front page—with an enlargement of the leash—and the headline “End Of His Rope” (the Daily News’ cover is relatively classy in comparison).
—End Update—
Via: Guardian:
Mark Madoff, the eldest son of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, has been found hanged in his downtown Manhattan apartment on the second anniversary that his father turned himself in to authorities.
His death, which was reported to the police by his father-in-law at 7.30am today, came days after he was named in a new lawsuit by the liquidators of his father’s empire.
“He was found hanged in his apartment. It was an apparent suicide,” police spokesman Paul Browne said. But authorities said he left no suicide note.
Mark Madoff and his brother, Andrew, were under investigation but had not faced any criminal charges in the $50bn (£31bn) Ponzi scheme that led to their father being jailed.
His death also came on the cutoff date for trustees looking to clawback losses from the fraud to file final lawsuits.
No Escape from Sauron’s Ever-Watching Eye
December 11th, 2010Via: Technofascism Blog:
When a man can’t put a simple roof over his head, trap and hunt game, grow food, defecate in a hole and raise and educate children without fending off an endless onslaught of permits, fees, licenses and hordes of heavily armed orcs, he is already living in Mordor and there truly is nowhere to hide from Sauron’s ever-watchful gaze. Others may flee if they must, but as for me, here in Mordor, where the shadows lie, I will make my stand.
Madoff Trustee Launches $19.6 Billion Lawsuit
December 11th, 2010Via: CBS News:
As Saturday’s deadline looms to file claims in the recovery of assets from Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud, the trustee seeking money for the swindler’s victims has sued an Austrian banker, claiming she masterminded a 23-year conspiracy that facilitated Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and funneled billions of dollars into her “deliberately Byzantine” network of European banks.
The trustee, Irving Picard, is seeking $19.6 billion in damages from Sonja Kohn, whom his lawsuit names as the “mastermind” of Medici Enterprise.
The New York Times reports that the 157-page complaint filed today in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan is the first by Picard to invoke the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Picard describes a European “labyrinth” of banks, hedge funds, asset management firms, shell companies and offshore trusts, which absorbed billions of dollars from Madoff.
“Sham entities” established and controlled by Kohn, in New York and Europe, “had or have no legitimate business purpose and existed or exist only to receive stolen Customer Property from Madoff,” the complaint states.
The complaint also says Kohn received tens of millions of dollars in “kickbacks” and referral fees from Madoff, and that about half of the funds Picard is suing to recover — $9.1 billion out of $19.6 billion — is directly linked to Kohn and her family members.
Is the U.S. About to Indict Julian Assange?
December 10th, 2010Via: ABC News:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the man behind the publication of more than a 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables, could soon be facing spying charges in the U.S. related to the Espionage Act, Assange’s lawyer said today.
“Our position of course is that we don’t believe it applies to Mr. Assange and that in any event he’s entitled to First Amendment protection as publisher of Wikileaks and any prosecution under the Espionage Act would in my view be unconstitutional and puts at risk all media organizations in the U.S.,” Assange’s attorney Jennifer Robinson told ABC News.
Robinson said a U.S. indictment of Assange was expected soon.
Assange is already in custody in London on sexual assault charges including rape originating out of Sweden. He is being held in solitary confinement with restricted access to a phone and his lawyers, Robinson said.
“This means he is under significant surveillance but also means he has more restrictive conditions than other prisoners,” she said. “Considering the circumstances he was incredibly positive and upbeat.”
Justice Department officials declined to comment on the possible coming charges, but earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the release of the documents had put the United States at risk and said he authorized a criminal investigation into Assange.
Related: Assange Prosecution Would Be “Extremely Dangerous” for First Amendment
Bogus Foreclosures
December 10th, 2010Via: AP:
People have always loved to complain about their banks. The push-button circus that passes for customer service. The larding on of fees. But the false foreclosure cases are hardly the usual complaints. These homeowners paid their mortgages — or loan modifications — on time. Some even paid off their loans. Worse, those on the receiving end of a bad foreclosure claim tell similar stories of getting bounced from one bank official to the next with no resolution while the foreclosure process continues apace.
Many have to resort to paying a lawyer, even after presenting documentation. They say they have to sue not only to stop the wrongful foreclosure but also to attempt to win back their costs.
There are no official statistics for these homeowners, but lawyers, real estate agents and consumer advocates say their ranks are growing.
…
After going to court and serving as his own lawyer, Nyerges got Bank of America to drop its foreclosure action. All along, he had been showing employees of Bank of America a copy of the $165,000 cashier’s check he used to pay for his house in September 2009. “No one at Bank of America could wrap their brain around this concept that I had no mortgage,” he says. In September, the court awarded Nyerges $2,500, plus 6 percent interest, for his costs.
Says Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens, “This was an unfortunate error that was corrected when it was brought to our attention.”
FAA Loses Track of 119,000 Aircraft; Situation Could Facilitate Terrorism and Drug Trafficking
December 10th, 2010Oh the humanity.
*chortle*
Even more shocked than me would be Daniel Hopsicker, who covers CIA drug running (and the tail number boogie) full time.
Via: AP:
The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.
The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government’s knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.
About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have “questionable registration” because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.
Already there have been cases of drug traffickers using phony U.S. registration numbers, as well as instances of mistaken identity in which police raided the wrong plane because of faulty record-keeping.
Next year, the FAA will begin canceling the registration certificates of all 357,000 aircraft and require owners to register anew, a move that is causing grumbling among airlines, banks and leasing companies. Notices went out to the first batch of aircraft owners last month.
Related: The Torture Express: CIA Cut Out Operation Busted
U.S. Real Estate Wreck to Continue
December 10th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
U.S. home values are poised to drop by more than $1.7 trillion this year amid rising foreclosures and the expiration of homebuyer tax credits, said Zillow Inc., a closely held provider of home price data.
This year’s estimated decline, more than the $1.05 trillion drop in 2009, brings the loss since the June 2006 home-price peak to $9 trillion, the Seattle-based company said today in a statement.
“It’s definitely going to continue into 2011,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. “The back half of 2010 looked horrible and 2011 should look like the mirror image of that.”
