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HomeBarack and Mitt: America’s Unfinished Business
Posted by Larry Doyle on September 6th, 2012 1:08 PM |
Should we even have to remind them?
Do the crowds on both sides of the political aisle think Americans are this naive? Well, actually, on that note, the pols from both sides are right. Many Americans remain exceptionally naive regarding far too many issues, financial and otherwise.
The media is clearly of little help in exposing the ugly underside of the Wall Street – Washington conspiracy. That said, many Americans are now far savvier than they were a few short years ago when it comes to appreciating the rackets being run by BOTH political parties, their cronies on Wall Street, and the puppets ensconced within too many of our regulators. (more…)
ARS Update: Raymond James and Morgan Keegan ARS Investors’ ‘Nightmare Over’
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 30th, 2011 4:29 AM |
I strongly believe that the marketing and distribution of auction-rate securities was the single greatest scam perpetrated on investors by Wall Street.
While a full forty months have passed since the ARS market failed that fateful day in February 2008, approximately $100 billion of the original $330 billion ARS remain frozen.
Many thousands of investors continue to wonder if they will ever get a full return of their cash locked up in what were supposedly ‘cash-alternative’, ‘cash-surrogate’, ‘totally liquid’, ‘as good as cash’, ‘money market type’ instruments.
Forty plus months. $100 billion. You think you have stress. Place yourself in the position of these investors. Sense on Cents continues to bang the drum for ARS investors and now we witness two more ‘wins’ but one real ‘disappointment’ on the ARS front. Let’s navigate.
Obama’s Big Problem is ‘The Big Picture’
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 25th, 2011 8:55 AM |
Things could be so much worse.
Really?
Try telling that to an individual ravaged by an investment scam, sold out by financial regulators, abused by her bank, and left paying substantially more at the gas pump and checkout line.
If these travesties were not bad enough, how do you think this individual may feel about the lack of real justice meted out against those individuals and organizations which perpetrated obvious scams and abuses? How do you think this individual may vote in upcoming elections? (more…)
Auction Rate Comments Reflect Real Pain
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 21st, 2011 8:05 AM |
Today’s commentary is a little lengthy but is very personal. I hope you will take the few extra minutes to read it and share it with friends, family, and colleagues. Thanks. LD
Each and every day I think of what I can write that will truly help people further understand the dynamics at work in our global economy. In the course of my writing I am often drawn to specifically help those who have been defrauded or abused by the system that operates on Wall Street and in Washington.
I derive tremendous personal satisfaction in providing an outlet and a sympathetic ear to those who feel that few if any people are in their corner. No group of investors and individuals deserves greater sympathy and a stronger voice than our fellow American citizens so badly mistreated in the entanglement of auction-rate securities.
While many within our nation and the markets today may care to focus on recent earnings reports, a rebounding equity market, or the upcoming long weekend, let us remember that there are thousands in this country who still experience real pain from the ARS scandal. Is it easier to forget about them? If you care.
I choose to reach out to them again and spread their stories of real pain and anguish. Why? (more…)
Calling All Auction-Rate Securities Holders: “A Break for 8 Banks” or Did the Fed Violate Your Property Rights?
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 14th, 2011 5:48 PM |
New information would seem to implicate the Federal Reserve for violating the property rights of tens of thousands of investors holding auction-rate securities. Could this be true? Let’s navigate.
I have been writing about the nightmare known as auction-rate securities since mid-January 2009. I often pause to reflect on ARS holders whom I have ‘met’ here at Sense on Cents but whom I will never truly know. I think of how their lives have been forever changed and negatively impacted from having been entangled in this ARS web. The pain shared in so many stories is very real.
I have also often thought that somebody or some institution within our government sacrificed the welfare (cash, mental, physical, emotional) of so many tens of thousands of individual ARS holders in order to help our large financial institutions. I shared that opinion in the midst of an interview with PBS last week. (The PBS documentary addressing the ARS travesty should run this summer.)
Today we learn that the Federal Reserve intervened in the midst of an SEC investigation of the ARS scandal in mid-2008 and ‘slowed the horses.’ (more…)
“E*Trade, Can You Hear Us Now?”
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 2nd, 2010 1:58 PM |
Keep punchin’!!
These words to live by resonate in my ears. How so? My Dad has ended almost every conversation — and certainly every meaningful conversation — in my close to 50 years with those words of wisdom and encouragement. When times are challenging or I find myself encountering a particular hurdle, the little voice in the back of my head whispers those two little words.
I find myself thinking of my Dad’s motivation when I read of specific cases of financial malfeasance. In fact, I have told many people that I write so often about the travesty surrounding the auction-rate securities debacle because I feel these investors have been largely disenfranchised. I welcome speaking up on their behalf. In the process of speaking up and continuing to punch, I have met some amazing people who continue to keep punching themselves. One particular ARS holder stands out for his own determination. He was integral to the complaint filed by Colorado State Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph against E*Trade. (more…)
Auction-Rate Securities: The Fraud Continues
Posted by Larry Doyle on May 3rd, 2010 10:57 AM |
To: Wall Street, Washington, and State Capitols
From: Sense on Cents
Re: Auction-Rate Securities Fraud and Financial Regulatory Reform
To all those enmeshed on both sides of the political-financial incest and currently debating and lobbying on the merits of proposed financial regulatory reform, you are proving yourselves to be nothing more than massive frauds yourselves by not fully addressing and exposing the single greatest financial fraud perpetrated on American investors, that is the world of auction-rate securities.
To President Obama, members of Congress, financial regulators, and Wall Street executives, your unwillingness and inability to openly and honestly address the perpetuation of the fraud surrounding ARS ($150 billion ARS remain outstanding) paints you as nothing more than aiding and abetting the fraud itself. Who amongst you is even willing to fully address this topic? (more…)
Oppenheimer ARS Investor Rails on NY AG Cuomo re: OPCO-ARS Settlement
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 3rd, 2010 5:15 PM |
How often do politicians declare victory while innocent victims remain baffled, bewildered, and befuddled as they hang onto the pangs of defeat? How often do politicians look to score political points while not delivering real progress let alone justice for those victimized by fraud? Regrettably, this dynamic plays out all too often.
I witness it in a letter sent today by an innocent investor victimized by the fraudulent distribution of auction-rate securities by Oppenheimer Holdings. This investor who remains nameless for obvious reasons shares his pain and anguish in a letter sent to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office.
Feel his pain and know that Cuomo’s settlement and victory lap are not even a drop in the bucket of the remaining $150 billion frozen ARS market. Two years have passed since the ARS market froze. For many investors, their lives and well beings froze right along with it.
Who within our political circles, our financial regulatory framework, our media are truly willing to stand up for all these victims? (more…)
Does the Palace Guard Have No Clothes?
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 14th, 2009 5:30 AM |
I eagerly await the soon to be released 2008 Annual Report of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Prior to its release and in light of all the turmoil on Wall Street over the last 24 months, I thought it may be timely to review the mission and some recent history of the “palace guard,” known as FINRA. From the FINRA website, we learn:
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), is the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. All told, FINRA oversees nearly 5,000 brokerage firms, about 173,000 branch offices and approximately 656,000 registered securities representatives.
Created in July 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange, FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services.
While FINRA promotes investor protection and market integrity, the simple fact is there are still thousands of investors with an estimated hundred BILLION dollars locked up in Auction Rate Securities. The ARS market has been designated as a fraud. FINRA not only did not protect the ARS investors, but participated in the ARS market as an investor themselves. At year end 2006, FINRA had a $647 million position in ARS. Did they sell them? When? To whom? What price? If they did sell their ARS position, did they possess material non-public information and act upon it? Will the 2008 FINRA Annual Report provide answers? I can only hope. Aside from a few state attorneys general, who is truly looking to help these investors?
FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business—from registering and educating industry participants to examining securities firms; writing rules; enforcing those rules and the federal securities laws; informing and educating the investing public; providing trade reporting and other industry utilities; and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and registered firms. It also performs market regulation under contract for The NASDAQ Stock Market, the American Stock Exchange, the International Securities Exchange and the Chicago Climate Exchange. (more…)
