Archive for March, 2012
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 30th, 2012 8:01 AM |
Dear Joe,
As a longtime subscriber to The New York Times, could you enlighten me as to when the media in our nation diverted its mission of pursuing the truth to one of actively advancing agendas? Actually, Joe, hold that thought and perhaps we could have that lengthy discussion another time.
I write to you today specifically in regard to your interest in the ongoing legal battles in the recovery and restitution of funds in the Madoff scandal. In your recent commentaries (The Mets Switch Teams; March 19, 2012, and Helen Chaitman Doesn’t Know When to Quit; March 29, 2012), one does not have to read all that hard to gather you are a strong mouthpiece for SIPC trustee Irving Picard. In the process, you make what amount to ad hominem attacks on Ms. Chaitman who represents hundreds of Madoff investors.
Rather than debating the merits or lack thereof in the recent settlement crafted between the owners of the New York Mets and the SIPC trustee Irving Picard, perhaps we could dig a little deeper and address questions which remain unanswered yet central to what was really going on inside the Madoff operation. Given your position and accompanying power of the public pen, I would ask you to address the following: (more…)
Tags: Frank Dipascali Madoff CFO, Helen Chaitman Doesn't Know When to Quit, Helen Davis Chaitman Joe Nocera, Irving Picard Helen Davis Chaitman, Joe Nocera, Joe Nocera New York Times, Madoff, Madoff restitution, SIPC, The Mets Switch Teams Joe Nocera
Posted in General, Madoff | 32 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 29th, 2012 7:26 AM |
Can you imagine the Indianapolis Colts hyping season tickets for the upcoming season based upon the success of the team over the last decade with ‘you know who’ under center? Could you picture the Chicago Bulls doing the same after the departure of MJ? How about the Lakers after Magic, the Celtics after Bird, or the Edmonton Oilers after ‘The Great One’ Wayne Gretzky left town?
Sports fans are not stupid—or at least when it comes to this topic. They know that the leader and the team on the field are the keys to future success and that past performance, especially after the departure of the star, is certainly not indicative of future results.
Those investing in mutual funds should make sure they employ the same principle prior to buying tickets—that is, investing—in a fund that may have had significant past success. Why do I raise this topic? Let’s navigate. (more…)
Tags: Celtics Larry Bird, Doubleline, Doubleline Funds, Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky, Jeff Gundlach, Jeffrey Gundlach, Lakers Magic Johnson, Lying by Ommission Mutual Funds, michael jordan, peyton manning, Tad Rivelle, TCW, TCW Total Return Bond Fund TGLMX, TCW vs Doubleline, the reformed broker
Posted in General, mutual funds | 9 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 28th, 2012 4:13 AM |
Smile for the camera.
If it smells like a job, sounds like a job, and feels like a job, you can rest assured that in this day and age most politicians will jump all over it and look for a photo op in the process. In so many words, that is exactly what has transpired with the passage of the JOBS Act. This newly launched government initiative is intended to Jumpstart Our Business Startups.
How might this program work? How many jobs might it generate? Are there any risks involved in the process? Do we dare ask these questions, or should we just accept the fact that it says “jobs” and it is an election year so it must be a good program. Is this the best we get out of Washington these days? (more…)
Tags: how many jobs will JOBS Act produce, job growth, jobs, JOBS Act, Jumpstart Our Business Startups, Regional Economic Models Incorporated, REMI economist Scott Michael Nystrom, Rep Scott Brown, Representative Patrick McHenry, risks in crowdfunding, risks in venture capital, risks of crowdfunding, Ryan Minto, what is crowdfunding
Posted in Employment, General | 10 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 27th, 2012 8:07 AM |
Has trading on inside information now come to an end in Washington?
Congress will pat itself on the back and trumpet the passage of the STOCK Act as an indication that Washington has heard the hue and cry of the people to stop insider trading by the sycophants—that is, our elected representatives and their staffs— in and around Capitol Hill. The vote of 96-3 in the Senate was a strong indication as to how important it was to pass this legislation.
Now that the legislation has passed, should we assume that Congress is no longer in the business of personally profiting from trading on inside information? Not so fast. (more…)
Tags: Angela Canterbury POGO Public Policy, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, inside information, insider trading in Congress, insider trading in Washington, Insider Trading Law Winks at Some Violations, Melanie Sloan, Norm Ornstein American Enterprise Institute, Osint Group, passage of STOCK Act, political intelligence firms, selling inside info in Washington continues
Posted in General, insider activity, insider trading, Wall Street Washington Incest | 2 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 26th, 2012 8:40 AM |
If you were away over the weekend, as I was, or somehow missed the news late Friday afternoon, you may awake this morning unaware that the smoking gun in the fiasco known as MF Global may have been unearthed and now points directly back at one Mr. Jon Corzine.
How is it that neither The Wall Street Journal nor the Financial Times are prominently highlighting ongoing developments in this story in their morning newspapers? You don’t think our news flow is ‘managed’? What a joke, but that is another story for another time. Thank you to Bloomberg for keeping us current in what I believe should be the the eventual case of “The People v Jon Corzine et al.” (more…)
Tags: Edith O' Brien Congressional memo, Edith O' Brien MF Global, fiduciary responsibility in MF Global case, Financial Times coverage of MF Global, friends of Jon Corzine, Gerald Shargel criminal defense lawyer in NYC, John Moscow Baker Hostetler, John Moscow chief prosecutor, Jon Corzine, Jon Corzine indictment, managing the flow of news, MF Global, MF Global Customer funds, MF Global customers, MF Global's Corzine may be Liable if Customer Risk Known, Micahel Clark of Duane Morris in Houston, Michael Clark former federal prosecutor, per JC's direct instructions, The People vs Jon Corzine, The Wall Street Journal coverage of MF Global, will Corzine be indicted
Posted in General, MF Global | 17 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 22nd, 2012 5:31 AM |
The penalties handed out by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to the coaches and executives of the New Orleans Saints organization for the bounty program practiced down on the bayou were perhaps the stiffest in the history of the game.
Goodell has shown himself to be a no-nonsense individual cut from the mold of Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Goodell is clearly focused on protecting the sport, and knows that any program which promotes an intent to injure renders modern day football to little more than barbarism. (more…)
Tags: Albert Loewenthal, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Brian Moynihan, Chuck Schumer, Darrel Issa, Eric Holder, Greg Williams, James Gorman, Jamie Dimon, Jim Himes, Jon Corzine, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, justice on Wall Street, Lloyd Blankfein, Mary Schapiro, New Orleans Saints, penalties for New Orleans Saints, penalties on Wall Street, Preet Bharara, Richard Blumenthal, Richard Ketchum, Robert Khuzami, Roger Goodell NFL Commissioner, Sean Payton, Spencer Bachus, the integrity of the game, Timothy Geithner
Posted in General | 2 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 21st, 2012 8:36 AM |
More and more we see central bankers around the world — but especially here at home and within the EU — engaged in financial repression as THE means to solve our economic woes.
What is financial repression?
A term that describes measures by which governments channel funds to themselves as a form of debt reduction. This concept was introduced in 1973 by Stanford economists Edward S. Shaw and Ronald I. McKinnon. Financial repression can include such measures as directed lending to the government, caps on interest rates, regulation of capital movement between countries and a tighter association between government and banks.
What are the challenges faced by investors in an era of financial repression? (more…)
Tags: bank bondholders, capital controls, central bank balance sheet expansion, chances of hyperinflation, chances of long term inflation, coercive exchanges, consequences of financial repression, definition of financial repression, feeling repressed, financial repression, financial transaction tax, forms of financial repression, Heading for the Great Repression?, how does financial repression work, interest rates, kick the can down the road, kicking the can, long term impact of financial repression, market distortions, market manipulations, naked short selling, nationalization of financial institutions, prior financial repression, Stanford economist Ronald I. McKinnon, Stanford economists Edward S. Shaw, types of financial repression, Uncle Sam economy, what is financial repression, why are interest rates so low
Posted in fiscal policy, General, monetary policy | 2 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 20th, 2012 1:06 PM |
The American system of justice used to be predicated on the fact that those who committed transgressions paid the penalty. Regrettably, that system of justice is now a distant memory in regard to the adjudication of certain massive and egregious financial practices.
Has it become all too overwhelming for you to keep up with the violation of contracts and moral hazards in America today? I implore you not to give up the fight as future generations are counting on us to stand up for real justice. I addressed the injustice last week in writing, Mortgage Settlement Defines Racketeering:
If the Wall Street mortgage settlement is supposed to define justice, then crime certainly does pay. (more…)
Tags: AMI, Association of Mortgage Investors press release March 12, does crime pay, investing in mortgages, is mortgage settlement fair, mortgage investors, mortgage settlement, racketeering on Wall Street, RICO violation on Wall Street, robo-signing, terms of Wall Street mortgage settlement, Wall Street mortgage business, Wall Street mortgage settlement, what is RICO
Posted in General, Moral Hazard, Mortgage Cram-Down, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 1 Comment »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 20th, 2012 9:01 AM |
Don’t believe anything that you read or hear and only half of what you see…
Almost from the outset of launching my blog back in early 2009, I coined the phrase the Uncle Sam economy to describe the massive presence and ultimate takeover of so many parts of our economy by the old man. I cautioned people that Uncle Sam was not a good business partner.
What makes a good business partner? Anybody involved in business knows there will be many times when you disagree with your partners. Disagreeing with partners will not kill a business relationship. What will kill a relationship? A lack of trust.
Given that we are all in business with Uncle Sam whether we like it or not, I ask, “Do you trust Uncle Sam?” (more…)
Tags: a lack of trust in America, can we trust the government, do you trust our government, do you trust Uncle Sam, game theory, Gary Aguirre, Harry Markopolos, how trustworthy is Uncle Sam, incredibly cynical about government, Kenneth Rogoff, Lan T. Pham, Neil Barofsky, question authority, trust in America, Uncle Sam economy, Wall Street-Washington incest, what makes a good business partner
Posted in General, Wall Street Washington Incest | 3 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 19th, 2012 9:13 AM |
Can we accept as a premise that the health of our economy is predicated on our ability to compete on the world stage?
Strikes me as a basic principle of Sense on Cents.
Stephane Garelli of IMD, a Swiss-based school which is a pioneer in the field of executive education, zeroes in on the key factors on this topic in writing on The Competitivenes of Nations: The Fundamentals. Garelli asserts,
Competitiveness is thus one of the most powerful concepts in modern economic thinking. (more…)
Tags: America's educational rankings, America's educational standings, America's Promise Alliance, Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete?, Building a Grad Nation Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, caN America's Students Compete, Charles Vest president of National Academy of Engineering, competitiveness, Competitiveness of nations The Fundamentals, EducationNext, focus on the family and education, graduation rates in America, high school dropout rate, math proficiency in America, reading proficiency in America, Sandra Fluke, Sandra Fluke distraction, Stephane Garelli of IMD, the need to compete, Vinton Cerf, what is the achievement gap, where does America rank in education
Posted in Education, General | 5 Comments »