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I was astonished, when I started to read what promised to be an interesting piece about the Fed swap lines, that Chris Whalen thinks that with regard to political and economic freedom there is no distinction to be made among Europe, Russia and China. Perhaps he is writing from the perspective of the banks, who are quite unhappy with some proposed European restraints.
"Many readers of The IRA have asked us in the past several months if we despair for the future of the United States and the economic system built upon the much abused dollar. The short answer is no; we at IRA are bullish on the United States, in part because the very democratic freedom that allows Americans to commit acts of libertine stupidity is also our greatest strength.
No matter how much gold is stored in the central banks of the nations of the old world such as China, Russia and the European Union, these nations are not democratic. No amount of monetary rectitude will offset the fact that the peoples of the old world are not free to act, either in political or economic terms."
Chris Whalen, The Fed as the New Global Aristocracy
Contrast that expression of American financial triumphalism with this blistering comparison of the Arab protests and the Occupy Wall Street Movement.
"And that is the true parallel in the West. The protest movements are indeed against Big Business – a perfectly justified cause – and against "governments". What they have really divined, however, albeit a bit late in the day, is that they have for decades bought into a fraudulent democracy: they dutifully vote for political parties – which then hand their democratic mandate and people's power to the banks and the derivative traders and the rating agencies, all three backed up by the slovenly and dishonest coterie of "experts" from America's top universities and "think tanks", who maintain the fiction that this is a crisis of globalisation rather than a massive financial con trick foisted on the voters.
The banks and the rating agencies have become the dictators of the West. Like the Mubaraks and Ben Alis, the banks believed – and still believe – they are owners of their countries. The elections which give them power have – through the gutlessness and collusion of governments – become as false as the polls to which the Arabs were forced to troop decade after decade to anoint their own national property owners. Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of Scotland became the Mubaraks and Ben Alis of the US and the UK, each gobbling up the people's wealth in bogus rewards and bonuses for their vicious bosses on a scale infinitely more rapacious than their greedy Arab dictator-brothers could imagine."
Robert Fisk, Bankers are the Dictators of the West
According to Janet Tavakoli in this account, even the well-heeled and highly educated are beginning to show their puzzlement and disgust for the blatant cover up of fraud as demonstrated in this instance of the credibility trap.
"Afterwards, several people came to me and to the other questioners. Much of the audience complained to CCGA's conference organizers. All were disappointed in Professor Shiller. A male CPA in the audience later contacted me via my website and wrote that he was glad I had put the question to Shiller: "though I have a great deal of respect for him, I was disappointed in his 'response' (if you could call it that)."
One woman who earned a Ph.D. in history found Shiller's response to me "incoherent:"
I was with my husband, brother, and his wife. I chatted with the stranger next to me and at least two people escaping at the same time [leaving after the speech]. No one could believe what a huge "fail" the evening had been...the failure of our political and expert classes to address the core issues...have alienated even those working in the financial industry--right up into the rung below the top of the food chain...this feels like the Ancien Régime's last days.
Alumni of the Federal Reserve, corrupt politicians, and willfully blind academics would be correct to say that evening was a case of "class warfare." Well-heeled U.S. patriots declared war on the lack of class demonstrated by their financial peers."
Perhaps Americans can revel in their unique freedom of action when they step to the voting booths next fall, and vote for one of the two choices offered to them by their corporate oligarchs, while their elected representatives continue to ignore massive bank frauds and the gaming of the system by the monied interests, now colloquially called the 'one percent.'
And don't step out of line or speak up because you may be pepper sprayed at will.
But more interestingly, it seems likely from my read of the demimonde that the States are going to diverge from Europe once again in some greater policy matter, probably involving the handling of the financial crisis, a shock like nationalizing the banks, or even a military solution to a nagging problem. And this may just be an advance serving of 'freedom fries' with extra ketchup and a side of jingoism.
By the way, I am watching this stock market decline somewhat sceptically this morning. There is the Zynga IPO coming out this week, and the markets will welcome it with open hearts and hopefully, your open pocketbooks.
The short answer is 'maybe.' It is more of a buyer beware situation than most had thought, and still think.
It is nice to see someone in the mainstream media addressing this situation intelligently and without making an apology for what is apparently a criminal act and surely an egregious abuse of the public trust.
It is an axiom that it is not the initial crime that does the greatest and most widespread damage, although in this case it appears likely that someone in MF Global is due for jail time.
The damage is going to be to the US and British financial systems, Wall Street and the City of London, and in a large part because of the capture of political process by the monied interests.
This week the Senate led by Richard Shelby turned down the appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They have vowed to block any appointee until they can change the law that authorized the Bureau in the wake of the financial crisis in order to provide 'accountability.' For them that means the ability to control the Bureau and starve it of funds in order to protect their banking cronies on Wall Street.
Nothing is ever perfectly safe in this world. But some things are safer than others and there are steps one can take to diversify their wealth and avoid higher risks.
'A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.'
Lord Acton
If I am correct, there are even bigger scandals to come when the tide goes out again, although there will be great efforts made to cover them up and excuse them 'for the sake of public confidence in the system.' The derivatives market is a scandal-in-process, and is likely to rock the US banking system and the Dollar to their foundations when it topples.
There may be even larger losses and anxiety for the unsuspecting who have misplaced their trust in false ideologies, slogans and theories promoted by a self-serving oligarchy.
NYT
A Risk Once Unthinkable
By James B. Stewart
December 9, 2011
Are customer accounts at brokerage firms safe?
Until the collapse of MF Global, that’s a question I thought I’d never have to ask.
Brokerage firms are required by law to maintain segregated accounts holding all client assets, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money market funds and cash. The law was passed after the 1929 crash, in the depths of the Depression, to make sure that customer assets were there at all times, ready to be disbursed even if everyone asked for their money at once...
I had always assumed it was impossible and that strict internal controls existed at all brokerage firms so that firm officials couldn’t tap segregated customer funds even if they were willing to break the law. Thanks to MF Global, it’s now apparent that isn’t necessarily true. “If people are determined to misuse customer funds, they will misuse them,” said Ananda Radhakrishnan, the director of the division of clearing and risk at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
That’s because the commodities and securities industry is mostly self-regulating, and self-regulation ultimately depends on the integrity of the regulated. Broker-dealers — securities firms that execute trades of stocks, bonds and other assets for customers — are overseen by the S.E.C., while futures commission merchants, which trade commodities, derivatives and futures, are regulated by the C.F.T.C. Like most large brokerage firms, MF Global was both a broker-dealer and a futures commission merchant, though its primary business was commodities futures trading...
Typically, this requires transfers from segregated accounts (other than at the customer’s request) to be approved by multiple officials, including in many cases, the firm’s chief financial officer and chief compliance officer.
“It’s not a low-level functionary,” a regulator said. “It’s someone who has real standing. Most customer assets are held at the biggest firms and they have scores of people involved in this process....”
The law also allows commodities firms like MF Global to use segregated customer funds as a source of low-cost financing for their own operations, but they are required to replace any customer assets taken from segregated accounts with supposedly ultrasafe collateral of the same value, typically United States Treasuries, municipal obligations and obligations whose payments of principal and interest are guaranteed by the government.
This week, the C.F.T.C. issued new rules restricting how client assets can be invested, which had grown under C.F.T.C. interpretations to include sovereign debt and transactions known as “in-house repos,” or repurchase agreements, in which a firm contracts with itself to use customer assets as, in effect, interest-free loans to finance its inventory of Treasury bonds. MF Global was apparently a heavy user of in-house repos, and before his firm collapsed, Mr. Corzine had argued strenuously against the C.F.T.C.’s proposal to ban them.
Making bad bets on European sovereign debt — like making bad bets on United States mortgage-backed securities — isn’t a crime, but improperly transferring segregated customer assets is a potential criminal violation of the securities laws and a relatively straightforward one at that. (The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan is in the early stages of investigating the removal of customer assets from MF Global.)
I spoke this week to several people involved in the MF Global investigation. No one has reached any firm conclusions about how the assets were transferred, but possible innocent explanations have dwindled to almost none. And James B. Kobak Jr., a lawyer for the MF Global trustee, said in court on Friday that there were “suspicious” trades made from customer accounts. If that’s the case, there may have been a deliberate and concerted effort to override MF Global’s internal controls to gain access to segregated customer assets, and if that can be proved, those responsible should be prosecuted and, if convicted, go to jail.
Unfortunately for MF Global’s customers — and future victims of similar crimes, if that’s what it turns out to be — there’s no easy remedy and it will most likely be months or even years before they recover their money. The Securities and Investor Protection Corporation explicitly warns that it’s “not uncommon for delays to take place when the troubled brokerage firm or its principals were involved in fraud.”
SIPC will replace up to $500,000 of securities and cash (but not futures contracts) missing from customer accounts at member firms. A measure of the magnitude of the problem is that since its creation in 1970, SIPC has advanced $1.6 billion to make possible the recovery of $109.3 billion in assets for an estimated 739,000 investors (through the end of 2010).
Meanwhile, the C.F.T.C.’s enforcement capabilities, like the S.E.C.’s, have been starved for lack of funding...
Read the entire article here.
Do you think you own that gold you have in storage?
Maybe, maybe not.
This is nothing compared to what will happen in the event of a major default.
Bloomberg
HSBC Sues MF Global Brokerage Over 20 Bars of Gold, Silver on Deposit
By Linda Sandler and Tiffany Kary
Dec 9, 2011 3:24 PM ET
HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) sued the MF Global Inc. brokerage trustee to establish whether he or another person is the rightful owner of gold bars worth about $850,000 and silver bars underlying contracts between the brokerage and a client.
Five gold bars and 15 silver bars underlie eight Comex contracts between the brokerage and its client Jason Fane of Ithaca, New York, London-based HSBC said in a court filing yesterday. Both parties have asserted claims to the bars, creating difficulties for HSBC, which is storing them, the bank said. HSBC asked a judge to decide who the rightful owner is.
“HSBC has received conflicting instructions regarding ownership and disposition of the property,” it said. “Accordingly, HSBC is exposed to multiple liabilities with respect to the disposition of the properties.”
Bullion is selling for about $1,717 an ounce on the Comex in New York, up about 21 percent this year, as investors bought the metal to protect their wealth from Europe’s escalating debt crisis, and reached a record $1,923.70 in September. Treasuries returned 9.3 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows.
‘Bars Are Mine’
“These bars are mine,” Fane said in an e-mail today. “We had a letter from HSBC that they were on the loading dock to be shipped to our warehouse contractor when there was some action taken by a third party to stop or delay shipment.”
The trustee, James Giddens, expects this “relatively minor and not unusual dispute” to be successfully resolved, his spokesman, Kent Jarrell, said in an e-mail.
Fane wrote HSBC after the bankruptcy, asking the bank to transfer the bars to his account at Brink’s, according to a copy of his letter filed in court. The trustee wrote HSBC saying the gold and silver was “customer property,” and the bank shouldn’t turn it over to Fane, HSBC said in the filing. Brink’s provides vaults and other services for the safekeeping of valuables.
The judge handling the bankruptcy said today that in January he would address the matter of distributing physical goods, such as gold and silver bars, after lawyers for some customers said they couldn’t get their share of the payouts because bars can’t be broken into pieces.
According to Fane’s letter, the five Comex gold contracts are for an average of 99 ounces of each....
This felt like a 'drift higher' day more than anything else.
The VIX fell.
Watch for a possible SP downgrade of Eurozone debt next week.
