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Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

This was a post from sparkysantos on the rb board today.Sound familiar?? LOL!!

Hank Paulson is a Slippery Piece of Garbage:

Let's not forget folks that up until mid-2006 the stuttering thief we now call our Treasury Secretary was running the filthy, let's-securitize-everything domestic pig we all know as Goldman Sachs (GS).

In that capacity, this miserable elitist piece of human refuse was a key player in strong arming the former wimp SEC Chair William Donaldson into abandoning the Net Capital Rule.

This subtle little rule change constituted the foundation upon which a highly-leveraged mountain of toxic crap, supposedly worth trillions of dollars, was built!

And shortly thereafter King Hank also successfully persuaded Donaldson's just-as-wimpy replacement, always-grinning Christopher Cox, to dismantle the SEC's Risk Management Office; which incidentally was set up by wimp Donaldson as a condition of abandoning the Net Capital Rule!

But hey; before the chit really hit the fan, as always-a-greedy-banker Hank surely knew it would, the miserable grease ball inflated Goldman's earnings and sucked out huge related bonuses.

Paulson then accepted his current Treasury Secretary position, sold a half a billion dollars worth of Goldman Sachs stock a $ 152.50 a share (GS shares are now @ 74.68, or down 51.03%!), and due to the forced-sell requirement of the position he avoided having to pay about $ 200 million in taxes!

Now as if all this isn't enough to justify hating the guy's guts, Hank is also the POS that just months ago successfully threw the fear of God into our shallow and mentally-challenged congressional members.

Petrified by a host of gloom & doom "statements" made behind closed doors that ranged from threats of how frozen credit markets were about to freeze Main St to predictions of huge market slides and Martial Law, and allowed to pile on a about $ 150 billion in pork; both chambers of elected idiots folded within two weeks and handed greed-driven thoroughly-conflicted Hank not only the $ 700 billion he demanded, but also a crown he could wear as our new financial King.

And now the blithering piece of garbage doesn't want to disclose where the TARP funds have gone, what toxic crap was bought, and how the value of the toxic crap bought was calculated!

These sure sound like reasonable questions to Sparky! And this is particularly true since Paulson was promising all sorts of transparency just months ago! Also relevant, his thoroughly-confused friend and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, who just so happens to be one of the Bailout's over-sight dudes, also assured both houses of congress that transparency was key! What's Ben got to say now?!

Just remember folks, these Bozos will soon be back in front of a lame duck session to beg for at least another trillion dollars; for as you will all soon see, they will have no choice.

And when this does happen, which Sparky guesses will be probably be between Thanksgiving and Christmas, let's hope that this time around Hank and Ben are truly treated with all the disrespect they so rightfully deserve.

Once a few more of the pigs that are still run by King Hank’s former peers fail, Sparky thinks that then and only then will an in-depth investigation into this corrupted thug begin in earnest.

Sparky

PS -- IMHO, history will also show that King Paulson very much abused his questionable-anyway authority as head of the Plunge Protection Team. In a nutshell, he blatantly “rigged” the US equity markets during the entire 2008 presidential campaign!

Don’t believe Sparky? Just watch these US stock indices continue to slide between now and inauguration day! In fact, we’ve already lost nearly 1000 points on the Dow; we presently face another down opening; and it’s only been a week since the election!

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

War is hell.
Too bad we can't figgure out who is behind all the naked bombs going off so we could give them some hell back.
Where has all the money gone?
I guess we won't ever be smart enough to get it.
ALL FAILED TRADES MUST BE REVERSED
.But thats too simple it just might work!

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

I suspect there are quite a few people who have figured out where all (or most of) the money has gone - it has gone to trinkets like rotting sharks in tanks and gem encrusted skulls- don't expect any of it back, it is gone. All failed trades reversed?? Starting when? m The only thing I've heard over the past two years that gives me hope is TommyToys dividend capture scheme, and even that won't get to the original shorts.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Where did the money go? Doesn't the top 1% of the weathiest people in the US have accumulated wealth since 2001 of about 700 billion dollars? Hmmm...I am not trying to mislead - sorry if my fact checking is not correct - but I believe that has been posted in some form or another on the bunny's pages.

As far as the old bait n switch - well we knew that was coming. Pretty soon there won't be a bailout - people will be brainwashed at the local ice rink - and the body snatchers will be among us.

Maybe that is too far fetched - but that is what they said about NSS! HA!

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

You would think that the SEC and the current Administration want this crash to happen huh?

We live in the greatest country in the world
but Australia can fix the problem first amazing



CANBERRA: Australia moved Thursday to put a permanent ban on the most controversial form of short-selling and imposed tough new disclosure rules, in a crackdown on hedge funds aimed at restoring confidence in markets.

"Australia will be banning 'naked' short-selling," the corporate law minister, Nick Sherry, said, referring to a practice whereby investors sell shares they neither own nor have borrowed in the hope of quickly buying them back at a lower price and pocketing the difference.

Naked short-selling is considered murkier and more risky than traditional short-selling, in which investors sell borrowed stock. The ban is in line with similar moves made recently in the United States and several European countries.

Australian regulators banned covered and naked short-selling in September in an immediate response to the global market meltdown. But they left it to the government to make long-term rulings.

On Thursday, the government confirmed some of the worst fears of the hedge fund industry, mandating a strict new disclosure regime that could compromise the trading strategies of short-sellers. Beginning Wednesday, the new rules would require short-sellers to declare their positions immediately to their brokers, who would in turn notify the stock exchange before trade opened the next morning.

Today in Business with Reuters
OECD forecasts major slowdown for industrialized countriesU.S. Treasury shifts focus of credit bailoutIn London, the City goes into reverseA daily report on short sales by security and volume, including covered short sales in financial securities, would then be made to the market before trade opened the following day.

The current ban on covered short-selling is due to be lifted in two stages, for nonfinancial stocks on Wednesday and for financial stocks not before Jan. 27.

Sherry said he expected the new laws, which the government wants passed by Parliament by mid-December, to also increase supervision of credit ratings agencies, and to require them to become licensed as financial services providers and report annually to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.

"It is very important for retail and wholesale investors in Australia that we have robust ratings, and robust research of financial products," Sherry said.

The Australian stock market has fallen by about 41 percent this year and is trading near a four-year low.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/13/business/short.php

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Ok, that's it. I am mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more.
I have written letters and emails to congressman and senators and they either don't understand it all or they are ignoring the problem hoping someone else will take care of it.

So, my conclusion is no surprise to anyone here...
There is no stopping the fleecing when the fox is watching the hen house.

Only way to do it...we've gotta head 'em off at the pass...and what better way than to give 'em a taste of their own medicine.

How about TommyToys dividend capture scheme...LET'S GET IT ON!
No better time to start than now!
How do we start???

Let's corner 'em and watch 'em squeel before we skin 'em up alive.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

And still there has been NO mainstream media coverage of the fails in the system in stocks, bonds, commodities etc..You can go on Broadway in NY and buy a fake Gucci purse, OR you can go online and buy fake stock...

but the purses get more press....

Signed

ready to give up
.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Were mad as hell and werwe not going to take it anymore...

Lehman Bros. execs hit with lawsuit
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, November 14, 2008


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A San Mateo County investment fund on Thursday accused executives of failed Wall Street investment bank Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. and their accountants of fraud and deceit that led to the loss of more than $150 million of the public's money.


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According to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Lehman Bros. hid the company's exposure to losses in the real estate and mortgage markets as it raised more than $30 billion from investors, including the San Mateo County investment fund, while privately scrambling to prevent the company from collapsing.

Among other things, the suit asserts that Lehman executives made public statements in Securities and Exchange Commission filings about the company's financial strength while "concealing its dangerous exposure from its low-grade mortgage portfolio and its refusal to properly value its assets."

Among individuals being sued are Lehman chief executive Richard S. Fuld Jr., former chief financial officers Christopher M. O'Meara and Erin Callan, and former President Joseph M. Gregory. Also named is Ernst & Young, Lehman's auditing company, which is accused of helping cover up the fraud before Lehman declared bankruptcy on Sept. 15. It was the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.

"This is Main Street taking on Wall Street," said Burlingame lawyer Joe Cotchett, the lead counsel retained by the county. "This is a brushfire that's going to burn East, and the Hudson River is not going to stop it.

"This is the first of its kind," he added. "We are going after these guys' houses, their bonuses, their salaries and everything these guys have. Plus, we're going after Ernst & Young."

According to the 57-page complaint, Fuld owns a 10,000-square-foot mansion in Greenwich, Conn., a $21 million apartment on Park Avenue in New York, a $13 million beachfront home in Florida, a ski vacation house in Sun Valley, Idaho, and a multimillion-dollar art collection.

"We believe the executives have taken out more than $1 billion in the past two years in bonuses alone," Cotchett said.

Ernst & Young, a national accounting firm, received an estimated fee of $31 million in 2007 to audit Lehman's books and sign off on its subprime mortgage portfolio, the complaint asserts.

"A rosier view of Lehman Bros. was being projected than the actual facts merited," said San Mateo County Counsel Michael Murphy.

The investment fund, managed by the San Mateo County treasurer, handles investments for the county, various school districts, local municipalities, special districts and other public agencies.

County officials said the losses included $37 million to San Mateo County kindergarten through grade 12 public schools; $25 million to the San Mateo County Community College District; $22 million to the San Mateo County Transportation Authority; and millions of dollars to Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Daly City, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, Foster City, Woodside, among others.

The suit claims the FBI is investigating Lehman and its executives for securities fraud and criminal conduct.

E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 14 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Keep investing folks, all is good, nothing to see here. Just keep moving.

Goldman Targeted by Investor Complaints of Naked Short-Selling

By Pierre Paulden and Caroline Salas

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Investors in the $591 billion high- yield, high-risk loan market are accusing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of naked short selling to profit from record price declines.

At least two fund managers complained verbally to officials of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association, saying they believe Goldman helped drive down prices by using the technique, according to people with knowledge of the objections. New York- based Goldman is acting against its clients by trying to profit at their expense, the investors said.

A $171 billion drop in the value of the loans in the past year is pitting banks against investing clients on assets once considered so safe they typically traded at par. The drop exposed flaws in an unregulated market where trades can take from several days to months to settle and banks may have information unavailable to investors. In a naked-short transaction, a firm would sell debt it didn’t already own, betting the price will fall before it purchases the loan and delivers it to the buyer.

“The LSTA is closely monitoring issues of naked short selling,” Alicia Sansone, head of communications, marketing and education at the New York-based industry association, said in an e-mail.

The group, comprising banks and money management firms that trade the debt, plans to tighten rules to ensure transactions are settled more quickly and prices reported accurately, Sansone said. She wouldn’t elaborate or discuss the claims against Goldman.

‘Different Causes’

“Increased volatility in the secondary market has been broadly documented and loan portfolio managers have suffered negative returns since July 2007,” Michael DuVally, a spokesman for Goldman, said in a statement.

“Investors are understandably focused on the many different causes of this volatility, but Goldman Sachs’ trading positions should not be one of them,” he said, declining to comment on whether the firm was short-selling loans.

Goldman rose to the fourth-largest U.S. originator of leveraged loans last year from eighth in 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The firm helped arrange financing for First Data’s purchase by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as well as the $32 billion acquisition of First Energy Holdings Corp., formerly known as TXU Corp. by KKR and TPG Inc.

Most Aggressive

The bank was seen as the most aggressive in recent months in selling loans at prices below other dealers’ offers and taking longer than the LSTA’s recommended seven days to settle the deals, according to the investors complaining to the trade group.

There’s no rule preventing naked short selling of loans. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this year banned the practice for 19 stocks including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from July 21 to Aug. 12 as share prices plunged. New York-based Lehman, once the fourth-biggest securities firm, eventually went bankrupt and Fannie and Freddie, the two largest mortgage-finance providers, were brought under government conservatorship.

The slump in loan prices during the global seizure in credit markets is causing particular disruption in the loan market because the debt typically trades close to 100 cents on the dollar. Prices never were below 90 cents until February this year. By October they had fallen to a record low of 71 cents, according to data compiled by Standard & Poor’s. The decline, which S&P said equated to losses of about $171 billion, helped drive the complaints from fund managers.

‘Shell-Shocked’

“Investors are shell-shocked” by the decline, said Christopher Garman, chief executive officer of debt-research firm Garman Research LLC in Orinda, California. “In many ways they’re all but wiped out.”

Because prices were so stable, short sales of loans were unheard of until now, Elliot Ganz, general counsel of the LSTA, said at the group’s annual conference in New York last month.

“No one ever shorted loans,” Ganz said. “Prices never went down.”

High-yield, or leveraged, loans are given to companies with below-investment grade ratings, or less than Baa3 at Moody’s Investors Service and under BBB- at S&P. Banks typically form a group to arrange the financing. They then find other investors to take pieces of the debt, helping spread the risk.

Those loan parts can trade through private negotiations between banks and hedge funds or mutual funds. One of the lenders involved in the initial deal remains the so-called agent bank, which keeps track of who owns what piece. Unlike bonds and stocks, the debt doesn’t trade on an exchange and has no central clearinghouse.

Agent Banks

When a loan changes hands, the agent bank must sign off on the transaction, meaning it knows exactly who is buying and who is selling. The rest of the market is in the dark. Getting an agent to sign off, also can delay settlement.

“An agent will have a bird’s-eye view of who owns what and when,” said John Jay, a senior analyst at Aite Group LLC, a research firm that specializes in technology and regulatory issues in Boston. “They have information that no one else has.”

Conflicts within the syndicated loan market have escalated since the credit crisis began. Banks, stuck with more than $230 billion of loans they’d promised to fund leveraged buyouts, tried to renege on some agreements and others broke ranks with the typical banking syndicate.

Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, the Boston- based buyout firms that bought Clear Channel Communications Inc. sued banks including Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, in March accusing them of refusing to fund the acquisition. The banks counter-sued, claiming they were acting in good faith. The parties reached a settlement in May allowing the purchase to proceed at a lower price.

Tensions Increase

Tensions have also increased between investors that buy debt from banks. As banks ratcheted back credit and loan prices fell, fund managers that use borrowed money to buy loans have been forced to offload assets, further eroding prices and sparking more waves of selling.

Black Diamond Capital Management LLC, a Connecticut-based manager, filed a lawsuit last month against Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest bank, over derivative agreements tied to leveraged loans. Black Diamond is demanding the lender return $302 million.

The lawsuit is “without merit” and Barclays will fight it, Brandon Ashcraft, a spokesman for the bank in New York, said in an e-mailed statement.

Loans aren’t securities and are not governed by laws covering trading in bonds and stocks. While LSTA standards say a loan should settle within seven days of the trade, there’s no law governing the timing.

The average trade of a loan to a company not classified as distressed took 19 days to settle in the second quarter, according to LSTA data.

Three Days

In the bond market, the standard settlement time is three days following the trade. In a bond short sale, a trader acquires debt by borrowing the security in a deal known as a repurchase contract. The two sides specify how long the bond will be borrowed with the right to renew the pact. Because loans can’t be borrowed through such agreements, any short seller would have to go naked.

While the LSTA doesn’t track the amount of loans currently unsettled, at least 700 trades made by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. before it filed for bankruptcy hadn’t cleared, Ganz told last month’s conference.

Emergency Meeting

The strains over settlement prompted LSTA president Bram Smith to call an emergency board meeting on Oct. 20, people with knowledge of the session say. The complaints of Goldman’s trading methods were also discussed, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks were private.

Among those on the call was Lisa Opoku Busumbru, chief operating officer for loan trading at Goldman and a board member of the LSTA. Opoku Busumbru denied on the call that New York- based Goldman was short-selling loans, the people said.

Trading in the market is so opaque that it would be impossible to tell if a firm was short-selling, Jay Katz, managing director of Storm Networks LLC, a New York-based technology company launched in October with backing from Bank of America Corp. Credit Suisse Group AG and Morgan Stanley that helps settle loan trades within three days. A trade could be delayed for many reasons including not owning the debt, he said.

Heightened Concerns

While the delay in settlement had been an administrative issue for years, the tumbling loan prices and heightened concerns about creditworthiness of borrowers, banks and hedge funds have made it pernicious, said Ian Sandler, an executive director at Morgan Stanley and a board member of the LSTA.

A buyer or seller, or even the borrowing company, could go bankrupt in the time it takes for the loan to change hands, causing losses for the firm on the other side of the trade, Sandler said.

“Delayed settlement is a real concern because you have to worry about the loan deteriorating and the failure of the counterparty until the trade is completed,” said Sandler. He wouldn’t discuss the claims against Goldman or the emergency board meeting. “There is a tremendous amount of open trades currently in the loan market.”

Goldman has previously butted heads with investors, who are also clients through borrowing or advisory agreements.

In the early 1990s, the firm created the $783 million Water Street Corporate Recovery Fund to buy controlling stakes in the debt of financially distressed businesses. It was shut a year later when its negotiations upset clients such as Fidelity Investments and Tonka Toys.

While other banks are reining in capital, Goldman raised $10.5 billion last month for a fund run by Thomas Connolly in New York to make loans to high-yield companies.

The firm may write down its leveraged-loan portfolio by $1.3 billion in the quarter, Guy Moszkowski, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., estimated last week.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pierre Paulden in New York at ppaulden@bloomberg.net; Caroline Salas in New York at csalas1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 17, 2008 00:01 EST

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

What goes around… well you know the rest!!LOL!! It is rumoured that he just ask that the Federal Reserve be audited. Think this could be retaliation??NAW the SEC would never participate in such a thing!!LOL!

SEC Files Insider Trading Charges Against Mark Cuban
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2008-273
Washington, D.C., Nov. 17, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Dallas entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading for selling 600,000 shares of the stock of an Internet search engine company on the basis of material, non-public information concerning an impending stock offering.

The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban’s entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com’s stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day’s closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.

“Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market.”

The complaint alleges that Cuban violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission’s complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Cuban from future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement (with prejudgment interest), and a financial penalty.

# # #

For more information, contact:

Scott W. Friestad
Deputy Director, SEC’s Division of Enforcement
(202) 551-4962

Robert B. Kaplan
Assistant Director, SEC’s Division of Enforcement
(202) 551-4969

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Slowly but surely this maze is becoming unraveled and their secrets are being revealed. Must see TV!!!

http://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=144&mn=10553&pt=msg&mid=6127893

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Here's An Interesting Tidbit:

The only US Senator who presently seems to have the balls to call a spade a spade; and to publicly challenge always-a-greedy-banker but now King Hank Paulson as he sits upon his throne is James Inhofe (R - OK).

In fact, Senator Inhofe was just on GE-owned unfair and imbalanced CNBC trying to make his case that Paulson has simply been granted way too much authority for an unelected official; and boy did the Talking Heads stick up for King Hank! What a joke!

But guess what, Senator Inhofe's email is screwed up, and his voice mail [(202) 224-4721 is full.

Isn't it coincidental how whenever the public has a need to contact their congressional members over matters that conflict with King Paulson's ambitions, their emails and phones seem to stop working?

This is precisely what happened when the House voted on Paulson's Bailout-my-Buddies Bill the second time; this after the 435-member body had already rightfully defeated the POS in its initial form.

Remember too, the Senate had already approved the revolting piece of trash legislation; and there were not that many votes needed to railroad the Bill through the House and make it law.

But then all of a sudden, no one from outside a House Member’s district could email them. In a nutshell, King Hank first sealed off all voices from outside the Rep's area, then he and his cronies saturated the local airwaves with fear and doom & gloom predictions, and miraculously the email trends reversed from against Hank to for Hank.

Talk about Faulking censorship and a Faulking rig job!

Well anyway, the same thing is happening right now to Senator Inhofe because he wants to freeze the balance of King Hank's kitty until he simply gets off his Faulking throne and answers a few sensible questions - like why is all this Faulking taxpayer money going to your former peers; and in what decade might some small portion of it find its way to Main St?

You're a repulsive piece of human refuse Paulson, and also clearly a Faulking conflicted crook! Ultimately, you will get what you deserve - Just Watch!

Once White House operators get in at 9:00 EST, please do be sure and contact Senator Inhofe to voice your support of his efforts to restrain King Paulson.

Sincerely,

Sparky

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

What you are now witnessing is the slow motion destruction of the CRIMEX,
formerly known as the COMEX, a commodities futures market which is supposed to
provide a means for producers to hedge their products, but which has morphed into a
rigged casino where commodities that don't exist are traded as if they did for prices that
exist only in the fairytales woven by the Illuminati, who control the exchange. This
destruction is what happens when the credibility and integrity of the market owners and
managers of the CRIMEX, together with the credibility and integrity of the market
regulators, the CFTC, move from near zero to negative infinity.

Not only do the owners and regulators do absolutely nothing about obvious
criminal manipulations and illegal concentrations of short positions, but also we believe
that they conspire with the criminal operators, which we refer to as "commercial shorts,"
to aid and abet their criminal mischief by divulging the precise nature of the trading
positions of the "spec longs" who take the other side of the contracts, thus allowing
pinpoint attacks on black-box formulations, especially where stops have been placed,
thereby minimizing the cost of the manipulations by preventing the waste associated
with overkill. Also, the owners and regulators change margin requirements, and
whitewash investigations of obvious illegalities, whenever it serves to protect the
commercial shorts, thus making a mockery out of the exchange and transforming what
are supposed to be free markets into crony capitalist, corporatist fascist systems of


syndicated piracy. This lack of integrity and criminal manipulation is the most
pronounced in the gold and silver commodity markets, but many other types of
commodities are under manipulation as well, especially oil, base metals and agricultural
produce, meaning most of the rest of the exchange.

The despicable, nefarious dealings of the miscreant CRIMEX owners and
regulators is quickly catching up to them in the precious metals markets of the
exchange, and soon every one of the spec longs is going to pick up their toys and go
home, and if the specs have any brains or sense of justice, they will take as much of the
CRIMEX gold and silver with them when they leave by paying cash for it and taking
delivery of it.

Since the end of October, when open interest for the December gold contract
started a new series of decreases as the rollovers got off to any early start, the
December open interest has fallen from 190,140 to this past Friday's 122,902, yet total
open interest has fallen from 305,451 to 285,219 during that same period.

Thus, of the 67,238 December contracts that have been terminated in the
rollover thus far, total open interest has plummeted by 20,232 contracts, meaning that
many of the contracts are not being rolled over, and are being cashed out instead. If this
30% ratio persists, we could see gold open interest fall to under 250,000, a multi-year
low, an astonishing drop of 58% from the peak of 593,953 contracts set on January 15,
2008.

This is an absolute disgrace for the CRIMEX owners and regulators, and we wish
them well in the ensuing bankruptcies and criminal investigations that will occur after the
exchange collapses. No one wants to play in a game where the owners and sponsors
are in cahoots with certain privileged players to make sure they come out on top. In
addition, we note that no commodities market can survive without speculators who
provide balance to the markets by taking the other side of contracts and by keeping the
pendulum of market momentum alternating between bulls and bears. Otherwise the
markets lean to far to one side or the other, and then bubble and/or collapse due to the
lopsided positions. Once the precious metals markets of the exchange collapse, all the
other markets will soon follow, as everyone realizes that the whole system is rigged
against them. The CRIMEX will soon be ostracized from participation by honest market
players. The criminal manipulators will soon find themselves traipsing in and out of court
in endless investigations, and they will be forced to sit in their bedrooms, lonesome,
because their is no one left who wants to play with them.

In a stunning new development, the Dubai Multi-Commodities Center is now
putting the finishing touches on the formation of an exchange traded fund for silver with
a launch likely next month as demand for silver has surged in the past six months. What
may be happening here is that the OPEC nations, and possibly also Russia, are setting
up a counterbalance against the collapse of oil prices. You may recall from past issues
that we discussed at length how we thought that sovereign wealth funds in oil-rich
nations were tweaking gold and silver upward every time oil was smashed by the
Illuminist manipulators. The message was, you leave oil alone, or we will send gold and
silver to the moon and expose your destruction of the US economy by killing the
canaries in the coal mines, thus ringing the gold and silver alarm bells loud and clear.

This makes the Illuminists rabid, and induces collective myocardial infarctions
among them, because precious metal suppression, especially of gold, is JOB ONE at
the Fed. The failure to cap the price of gold was Paul Volcker's only regret as Fed Head
during his handling of the inflationary crisis of the late 70's and early 80's, and the
privately owned, Illuminist Fed does not intend to make the same mistake twice.

The Illuminati have made two major mistakes, and the Dubai exchange may be
the OPEC solution to the oil takedown, which is the direct result of those mistakes. The


first mistake is that the Illuminati gave OPEC a taste of 147 oil, and then pounded it
down to 55. This will not be tolerated, especially after these nations got a chance to
experience the huge profits generated by such lofty oil prices. The second mistake is
the trashing of silver prices in the face of growing shortages at a time when the above-
ground silver stocks are at an all-time low and headed even lower. The shortages are
being caused by manipulated silver prices that are below the cost of production, thus
causing a collapse in production, and the manipulation of base metals prices into the
subbasement is adding to the loss of production because 70% of silver is produced as a
by-product of base metal processing. Due to these criminal price manipulations, the
gold to silver ratio is now 77 to 1, when historically is should be around 15 or 20 to 1.

This huge price imbalance, growing shortage and all-time low levels of above-
ground stocks has set up the greatest opportunity to corner a commodity market in the
history of the world.

The Hunt Brothers would be drooling right now. When they were trying to the
corner the market, it was much, much larger by many billions of ounces, and prices were
being driven much, much higher, topping $40 per ounce, because there was far less
manipulation of those markets than there is today (yes, believe it or not, we once had
something bordering on free markets). The Dubai silver ETF may pick up where the
Hunt Brothers left off. Since there are only about a billion ounces of above-ground silver
stocks left, and because silver is trading at a ridiculous sub-10, ten billion could clean out
the entire above-ground silver stock. This is chump change for these wealthy oil sheiks
and their sovereign wealth funds. So get ready to rumble as the evil Illuminist scum and
the price-gouging sheiks of OPEC prepare to "get it on" in an oil-silver showdown,
complete with some very spectacular fireworks to come. Both oil and silver are headed
much higher, and gold will tag along for the ride as silver vaults to new heights.

In the end we expect some sort of compromise, as $150 oil would take down the
entire world economy, which is now teetering on the brink. We should soon see $80 to
$100 oil and $15 to $20 silver. Silver may go much higher than that depending on how
stubborn the Illuminists become about the price of oil. This is starting to get very
interesting, so stay tuned, as one of the greatest financial battles of all time gets under
way.

Instead of foolishly pumping money into insolvent, zombie banks, the sheiks may
well have decided to go after the silver market. Imagine what will happen as those who
require silver to make their products see the COMEX gold and silver being funneled to
Dubai's ETF. All we can say is, if you were waiting for some precious metals fireworks,
get ready, because it's coming. It is now time to load up on precious metals, especially
silver. Oil will do well also. As some form of confirmation, we also note the growing
open interest in the February gold options and futures contracts. Let the Battle of the
Titans begin.

The WSJ again avoids reality in an op-ed piece by Judy Shelton, called “Stable
Money is Key and How the G-20 Can Rebuild the Capitalism of the Future.”

She points out, and rightly so, “that foreign attendees will take the view that
Wall Street greed and inadequate regulatory oversight by US authorities caused the
global financial crisis – never mind that their own regulatory agencies missed the boat
and that their own governments eagerly bought up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
securities for the higher yield over Treasuries.”

Ms. Shelton forgets that US interests asked, cajoled and strong-armed many
nations into those purchases, as they did CDOs, SIVs and ABSs. Don’t you think they
read the fine print and knew what they were buying – they are professionals? Behind the
scenes there was a plan to spread the risk. Why would any sane government buy such
toxic waste? Incidentally, where are the lawsuits and criminal actions? There are none


because they were all in on the plan to distribute America’s problems, because if the US
goes under they all go under. Regulatory agencies deliberately missed the boat because
they were told to do so.

Then she has the temerity to tell us that “at the bottom of the world financial
crisis” is international monetary disorder. Stating, “ever since the past WWII Bretton
Woods system – anchored by a gold-convertible dollar – ended in August of 1971, the
cause of free trade has been compromised by sovereign monetary – policy indulgence.”
Spoken like a true internationalist Illuminist. This is what the WSJ and Barron’s have
always been mouthpieces for – the Illuminists.

She goes on relating to sound money – perhaps even to a gold-based
international monetary system. She says, “It’s hard to imagine a more universally
accepted standard of value.”

Ms. Shelton admits that the nation of sound money and a new gold standard
international monetary regime is appealing, neither will be part of any solution coming
out of Washington or the G-20 this weekend or anytime soon. She goes on to say that
fundamentally, our nation has only a sliver of bullion available to back tens of trillions in
financial claims that are the crumbly bedrock for the entire global financial system.

Someone should make Ms. Shelton aware that in order to accommodate a gold
standard for the world or the US all that has to be done is to officially increase the value
of gold to where it belongs at $3,000 to $6,000 an ounce. Nations, particularly the US,
do not want to do that because they have sold most of their gold in their efforts to
suppress the gold price. That is why a gold standard is dismissed out of hand. She says
the consensus is that concerted inflationary measures are the only possible solution.
They would be wouldn’t they? She and all concerned know better. Every time in history
re-inflation has been used it has been a failure.

That said don’t expect much in the way of public statements on a new
currency. Along those lines there will only be leaks until they decide what can be done
without weakening their control. Remember, part of what will happen is the further
exposure that conventional economic doctrine is fatally flawed. What is disturbing is that
many say that today’s problems are not the result of policies of the last 15 months. The
greatest bubble in history began on August 15, 1971, and is littered with a trail of greed
and power. Wall Street and banking led the looting of our country and Washington
complied. Almost universally as well the media never questions decisions by the
Treasury, Fed or Wall Street. They just report what the elitists want the public to hear.
The revisionist falsehoods promulgated by the likes of Milton Friedman, Keynes and Ben
Bernanke are enough to make real scholars cringe. The disinformation and distortion is
startling. The public doesn’t know the difference and we never get to challenge them.
Often what they have had to say are lies. Defending any of these liars from academia,
Wall Street, such as Paulson, and government is a sacrilege. These people all
participated in the rape of America over the past 31 years.

The best-laid plans often go astray. The elitists figured they’d have the time to
lay off their losses over time. Banking analyst Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer 1-1/2
years ago when she blew the whistle on Citigroup upset that plan. She still probably
doesn’t realize that she changed the course of history.

These events have upset the elitists’ plans forcing them into policymaking out
of desperation. In fact after 15 months the system is still out of control. We do not
believe they will ever get a handle on it. No reform is on the way and only stopgap
measures, such as creating more money and credit and having zero interest rates are
the solution. Of course, they are not a solution. The powers are going to play this out to
the bitter end. There is no stable money or monetary unit on the way. They just want you


to think there is. They are scrambling now to create a major war, because they know if
they do not they’ll be revolution.

Over the past eight years a major change has overcome America. As we have
said before it is now socially and politically acceptable to lie and to mislead. Fascists
have stolen our rights under our Constitution, from us and our leaders in Washington
and Wall Street and banking are corrupt. There is no one left to complain too. There is
no one there to protect us. Our Congress, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory
agencies only protect the elite. We have just seen massive fraud by Wall Street and
banking and our government allows American taxpayers to illegally bail them out.

Our protectors are looking the other way deliberately as we are looted of our
assets and our freedom. This will continue until there is war or revolution. There is no
meaningful change coming from Washington nor will the corruption and looting stop.

It seems now everyone is too big to fail except the average taxpayer. Each and
every day brings us closer to the economic brink, even though our government is able
without interruption to manipulate all world markets. This fraud will soon come to an end
and we will have our vengeance.

The brainwashing of the American public has been successful but there will
soon come a time via more hardship that they’ll finally wake Americans up. All those who
have misled us and lied to us will be dealt with including those in our media.

At $1.25 quadrillion derivatives inhabit every part of our society and the world
as well. We are at the beginning of the beginning of the horrible fallout we face caused
by the Federal Reserve, Wall Street and banking. The $10 trillion plus that we have
forecast as the bill for the taxpayers is but a drop in the bucket. Credit ratings are falling
like stones and well they should. The only AAA rating left is for gold. You had best own it
or you will regret it.

The terrorist scam is being thrown at us again. General Michael Hayden,
director of the CIA says there are dangers during the presidential transition. That was
because of a supposed spike in intercepted transmissions from terror suspects, which
we do not believe. Then Caligula described the threat that gives it less validity and then
the Lord of Spithead, the Home Office Security Minister in London called for a huge
threat, which makes the credibility zero.

We believe the last thing any of Americans such as Mr. Obama has to fear is
Muslim terrorists. Mr. Obama was “baptized,” we do not know the Muslim term, as a
Muslim and he is a man of color. If an attack happens it won’t be from the Muslims, but
from Illuminists. We have never heard such drivel in our lives.

Word reaches us two weeks ago that Royal Dutch Shell and the Iraqi oil
ministry struck a secret deal for southern Iraq’s natural gas. They’ll capture all natural
gas runoff from oil exploration and production. What is going on in Iraq regarding control
of oil and natural gas is sinful. The Illuminist scumbags who started the war are reaping
their rewards after killing 1.5 million Iraqis.

The crisis relief measures being voiced by one worlders worldwide are a
precursor to the evolution of a more powerful IMF that eventually will be the forerunner
to a one-world banking system. Every elected leader with minor exception is for the plan.
If they were not for it they wouldn’t be in office long.

This is the same IMF that specialized in entrapment loans to third world
countries, which virtually enslaved them in a long nightmare. As an antithesis the IMF
has a large reputation for spending money lavishly with mega-salaries and benefits, plus
all the graft that one can handle.

Home Depot, another one of our shorts, is permorming to perfection. Stay
short we have a long way to go. The home improvement retailer, said Tuesday that its
third-quarter profit sank 31% on slow sales at established locations, but that it was


able to beat analyst expectations. We set our short at $38.94 and it is currently $20.14
we are pulling our cover at $16.00 leaving it open.

Synthetic CDOs, collateralized debt obligations, the risky and complex debt
products that are based on pools of corporate credit derivatives, are under increasing
pressure after suffering a wave of default-related losses on top of general credit
market deterioration.

These synthetic CDOs based on exposure to corporate bonds through the
derivatives market have already seen $24 billion in losses due to losses connected to
the demise of Lehman Brothers.

In addition there are $32 to $56 billion of these mezzanine, or middle ranking,
tranche deals that are at high risk of major capital losses in the next default.

There are $757 billion of outstanding synthetic CDO tranches based solely on
corporate debt derivatives. Credit markets are concerned that a flight by investors
away from CDOs would lead to banks being forced to buy back huge volumes of
protection, which would push spreads dramatically wider from their already elevated
levels.

What is truly shocking is that analysts at Citigroup see market value losses
exceeding credit losses valuing the losses on $584 billion of outstanding synthetic
CDOs at $67 billion. The losses on the mezzanine tranches could be as high as $175
billion says another analyst.

These are all estimates, but even if they are off by a wide margin, banks are
going to be looking at losses of up to $200 billion, which you will of course get to pay
for. This fiasco is nowhere near over.

The G-20 meeting is over and a plan is being laid out over the next 4-1/2
months to reshape international financial reform worldwide via regulatory and
accounting rules. China, Brazil and India will have greater roles and responsibilities.
There will be new regulations and controls on banks, rating agencies and exotic
financial securities, such as derivatives. It was recorded that there was a dramatic
failure of market oversight in “some advanced countries,” which were the root causes
of the financial crisis, an implicit rebuke of the gang on Wall Street and US banking.

Talking with reporters after the event, George W. Bush told them that it is
conceivable that our country could go into a depression greater than the “Great
Depression.”

French President Nicholas Sarkozy said, “America is still the #1 power in the
world, but is it the only one? No it isn’t.”

A new regulatory body will be set up, “a college of supervisors” to examine
the books of major financial institutions that operate across national borders, so
regulators could begin to have a more complete picture of banks’ operations. They
demanded greater scrutiny of hedge funds and the completion of a clearinghouse
system to help standardize and limit risk on some of the opaque derivatives. There are
as well to be new constraints on the pay schemes at financial firms that “reward
excessive short-term returns or risk taking.”

Many foreign leaders frowned on Mr. Obama’s calls to bail out the auto
industry as a form of protectionism, when they have subsidized their industries for
years. In addition these countries will be able to take larger pieces of the industry for
themselves.

France’s Sarkozy dragged his feet on free trade. Canadian PM Stephen
Harper, spoke out against Sarkozy’s calls for broad global regulation, arguing that
even in “progressive Canada,” the idea would be seen as violating national
sovereignty.


An aside from the meeting were comments by Robert Zoellick, World Bank
President, who said he sees major fiscal expansion from the Obama administration.

It is obvious the Brazil and Washington meetings were to see if everyone was
on the same page regarding zero interest rates and massive creation of money and
credit. The latter was called fiscal stimulus. The bar was set at 2% of GDP, which it is
hoped would increase to GDP of 2%. This could be the last gasp effort, which could
take the system out another two to three years.

There remained hostility between the G-7 and China, Brazil, Russia,
Indonesia and others.

The Chinese called for a new international order, but ignored the call by
Western countries that China use some of its $2 trillion in reserves to bolster the IMF.
We’ll see what April’s meeting in London brings.

Now that our exiting president tells us the current crisis is worse than the
Great Depression, we can expect the entire US and world economy to be affective. All
the current nostrums being used won’t work. Depression is a work in progress. Bailing
out banks, Wall Street and other assorted elitist corporations is not the answer. In the
final analysis it will worsen the problems and lays all the costs upon the hapless
taxpayers.

Now we have a G-20 instead of a G-7. That is more people to blame. The
meeting when all was said and done was another scam. The administration disagreed
with just about everything. They wanted less stimulus. The college of supervisors will
probably never happen. There will be little if any hedge fund regulation and the
neocons oppose any cross border authority. Mr. Bush favored a cleaning house for
credit default swaps.

This was supposed to be Bretton Woods II and talk was supposed to be
about a new currency unit. Not one word was about a new currency. It’s called
misdirection.

Troubled US carmarkers, GM and Ford, have been given a potentially
devastating vote of no confidence by three big European insurers, which have
removed cover for their suppliers. This withdrawal of credit insurance has previously
hastened the demise of a string of European companies, with suppliers to retailers and
construction companies finding cover increasingly hard to come by.

Euler Hermes, Atradius or Coface, which control more than 80% of the
world’s credit insurance markets refuse to write policies. This will affect mostly
European operations. US suppliers largely operate without insurance.

That means GM and Ford start paying upfront for goods they can hope their
suppliers will trade uninsured; or they won’t be able to buy parts and shut down. These
events take GM and Ford closer to failure.

The vultures have hit Washington for the lobbying free-for-all for part of the
$700 billion being given away in behalf of American taxpayers. We see GM, GE, AIG,
and American Express stuffing themselves with essentially free money. If you notice
they are all top transnational elitist corporations.

Lining up are lobbyists for S&L’s, insurers, Hispanic business groups and
their members, contractors, homebuilders and plumbing and home-heating specialists.
The later group wants the Treasury to hire its members to take care of houses that the
government will end up owning due to foreclosure. Then, of course, the community
bankers. It is a feeding frenzy. Mr. Obama believes these companies should get help,
but Mr. Paulson wants the funds exclusively for elitist conglomerates.

Lined up at the trough are boat financing companies, car dealerships,
Allstate, MetLife, Citigroup, Fidelity, AMBAC the bond insurer and a host of others led


by such financial parasites as former Senator Bob Dole and Tom Daschle. This is
simply disgraceful and it is your money.

The fall of GM and Ford is inevitable. It was planned that way. The road they
followed for the last 25 years, growth at any cost, has finally caught up with them. Talk
about gross incompetence.

This shows you what the fallacy of perpetual growth, free trade, globalization,
offshoring and outsourcing have brought to American industry.

In the end trying to force continuous and perpetual economic growth through
credit and monetary expansion just doesn’t work.

The November Empire manufacturing report was a minus 25.34 down from
October’s minus 24.6 and a new low.

Industrial production in October rose 1.3% up from minus 3.7%.

Capacity utilization was revised to 75.5% from 76.4%.

It looks like Goldman Sachs is going to have great difficulty defending itself
on market fraud charges. The SEC should get wasted again on this one. How do these
crooks get away with trading using taxpayer funds. We do not need reform, we need to
clean house. The Illuminists won’t allow Glass Steagall to be brought back.

Meredith Whitney, the Oppenheimer & Co. analyst who was among the first
to warn that banks needed to raise huge amounts of money to offset mortgage losses,
worries that cuts to credit limits will constrain already cautious consumers, reinforcing
a vicious cycle of bank losses and economic decline.

If all of a sudden you lose your slush fund, your home equity, gets cut
dramatically – and it will – everything about you changes, and you become more
guarded as a consumer. You could be absolutely fine in every other area of your life,
but getting your credit line cut changes your whole outlook.”

Over the past decade, American households have piled on $8 trillion in debt,
an increase of 125%, twice the gain seen in the size of the economy.

At $14 trillion, the debt load is now roughly equal to the entire economy’s
annual output. Much of the increase comes from home mortgages, which have
expanded by $6 trillion since 1998, but it also reflects higher balances on credit cards
and auto loans.

Thanks to the easy credit, US consumers kept increasing their spending
throughout the housing run-up, easily exceeding wage growth. Retailers opened
hundreds of new stores to fill newly constructed shopping centers. Imports soared,
swelling the reserves of exporters such as China. US household savings dwindled to
almost nothing.

All of that is changing, as the world grows wary of offering more credit to
overextended Americans. As defaults jump, banks are now having trouble-finding
buyers for any investments tied to US household borrowing.

That means paring the $14 trillion of debt, but there is no consensus on
exactly how much households ought to borrow. This much is clear: the portion of
income that consumers save has steadily declined over the past 30 years from around
10% to near zero, and that trend will be reversed.

What is most worrisome for the economy is that the reversal is occurring so
quickly. Anxious households have already slashed spending, and banks worried that
savers will yank deposits are clamping down even harder on credit.

Next year may be worse. Credit agency Fitch ratings expects deeper credit
card losses in 2009, and they could reach record highs. Card issuers are trying to cut
losses while they can. “You’re seeing a lot of pre-emptive strikes from banks,” said
Joseph Beaulieu, a retail sector analyst at Morningstar in Chicago.


“You’re seeing banks cut credit card limits and home equity lines of credit
across the board. You’re seeing credit card companies close unused accounts
because they do not want someone to max out a card they haven’t used in two years.”

Credit card debt grew at a modest 1.2% annual rate in September to $971.4
billion, well below the 7.4% increase recorded in 2007, according to data from the
Federal Reserve. The Fed’s survey of loan officers showed that banks tightened
lending standards in the last three months.

“It used to be that if you had a heart beat and applied for a card, you’d get a
$10,000 credit line,” said Curtis Arnold, a consumer advocate and founder of
CardRatings.com. “Those days are long gone.

How bad it gets depends on how many more jobs are lost as the US
economy slumps into a recession that could be the deepest since the mid-1970s. If
unemployment climbs another 3-1/2%, as we expect it to, that would mean about four
million more people out of work, and likely struggling to pay credit card bills and
mortgages. Retailers have already suffered plenty of pain and will continue too.

A vast majority of physicians in Massachusetts say the fear of being sued is
driving them to order unnecessary tests, procedures, referrals, and even
hospitalizations, a phenomenon that is adding at least $1.4 billion to annual healthcare
costs in the Bay State, according to a study released yesterday.

The Massachusetts Medical Society reported that 83% of physicians
surveyed said they have practiced so-called defensive medicine and that an average
of 18 to 28 percent of tests, procedures, referrals and consultations, and 13% of
hospitalizations, were ordered to avoid lawsuits.

The society said its findings, the first it has compiled on the issue, probably
underestimate the cost of the problem because the 900 physicians surveyed, including
family doctors, obstetricians, gynecologists, and general surgeons, accounted for only
about 46% of the doctors in the state.

The Philadelphia Fed's survey predicted gross domestic product would shrink
by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, a sharp downgrade from the previous prediction of

0.7 percent growth. It said the U.S. economy entered a recession in April and that it
will last 14 months, which would make it one of the longest recessions since the Great
Depression of the 1930s.
Only the 16-month recessions in the mid-1970s and early 1980s were longer.
Even though the economy was technically growing in April this year it would not be
unprecedented for the National Bureau of Economic Research to declare a recession
was occurring then.

The NBER measures recessions by "a significant decline in economic activity
spread across the economy," rather than the traditional definition of two consecutive
quarters of falling GDP.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s company picked up roughly 66 million
shares of ConocoPhillips stock between March and September to boost its stake to
nearly 6% of the oil company’s stock.

US industrial production rose more than forecast in October as refineries and
oil rigs restarted operations in the Gulf of Mexico following shutdowns caused by
Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The 1.3 percent increase in production at factories, mines and utilities
followed a revised 3.7 percent drop in September that was the biggest since 1946, the
Federal Reserve said today. Excluding the effect of the storms and a strike at Boeing
Co., output would have shrunk about 0.7 percent in October and September, the Fed
said.


The deepening credit crisis coupled with weakening global demand is forcing
companies to cut back on investments for heavy machinery and manufactured goods.
Today's report showed output of automobiles, computers, furniture and metals all
dropped.

``Manufacturing is going south in a very big way,'' said Joshua Shapiro, chief

U.S. economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc. in New York. ``Export demand is falling
apart, and domestic demand has already fallen apart.''
Industrial production was forecast to rise 0.2 percent after a previously
reported 2.8 percent drop in September, according to the median estimate of 64
economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Projections ranged from a drop of 1
percent to a gain of 1.7 percent.

Capacity utilization, which measures the proportion of plants in use, climbed
to 76.4 percent from 75.5 percent the prior month.
New York Manufacturing

A separate report showed manufacturing in New York contracted in
November at the fastest pace on record as orders and sales plunged. The Federal
Reserve Bank of New York's general economic index fell to minus 25.4, the lowest
since records began in 2001, from minus 24.6 percent in October, the bank said today.
Readings below zero for the Empire State index signal manufacturing activity is
shrinking.

Factory output, which accounts for about four-fifths of industrial production,
increased 0.6 percent, led by a rebound in petroleum and chemical products that
reflected the resumption of operations from the storms.

Utility production increased 0.4 percent after rising 2.4 percent. Mining
output, which includes oil drilling, jumped 6.1 percent after falling 8.5 percent in
September.

Oil production operations and other facilities have resumed work after being
shut down because of Hurricane Ike, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas
on Sept. 13, less than two weeks after Hurricane Gustav struck Louisiana.
Capacity Use

Industrial capacity utilization was estimated to increase to 76.5 percent from

76.4 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey median.
Motor vehicle and parts production dropped 3.5 percent following a 1.3
percent increase the prior month, the report said. Factories assembled just 8.09 million
motor vehicles at an annual pace last month, the fewest since 1991.

Production of consumer durable goods, including automobiles, furniture and
electronics, fell 2.1 percent.
Auto industry figures earlier this month showed cars and light trucks sold at a

10.6 million annual pace in October, the lowest since April 1991. President-elect
Barack Obama is pushing Congress to approve as much as $50 billion this year for
cash-starved U.S. automakers.
Industrial production in October also was weakened by a now-resolved 8week
strike by approximately 27,000 machinists at Boeing, the world's second-largest
commercial planemaker.

Other reports indicate a bleak outlook for manufacturing. The Institute for
Supply Management's factory index for October dropped at the fastest pace in 26
years, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said Nov. 3.

Slowing demand in the U.S. and abroad is causing some companies to trim
their payrolls. U.S. Steel Corp., the largest U.S.-based steelmaker by 2007 sales, will
cut 500 American jobs amid a ``dramatic downturn'' in the economy, John Armstrong,
a spokesman, said in a telephone interview Nov. 13.


Citigroup said Monday that it would eliminate more than 50,000 jobs, in
addition to cuts it had already announced, as the global banking giant hunkers down to
weather the harshest financial environment in decades.

The cuts were disclosed as part of a town hall meeting that Citi’s chief
executive, Vikram Pandit, held Monday morning to address the state of the firm. Mr.
Pandit’s presentation, which was later posted on Citi’s Web site, indicated that the
company planned to reduce its workforce, which stood at about 352,000 at the end of
September, to roughly 300,000 “in the near-term.”

Most of the layoffs would come through attrition and the sale of business
units, the bank said, meaning the actual number of layoffs could be less at the bank.
However the cuts are made, they would represent an overall drop of 20 percent in
Citi’s headcount since its peak of 375,000 in the fourth quarter of 2007, Citi said.

Pakistan reached an agreement in principle with the International Monetary
Fund on a $76 billion loan package aimed at preventing the nation from defaulting on
foreign debt and restoring investor confidence.
The IMF funds would be available over 23 months and have an interest rate of 3.5% to
4.5%, Tarin said. The loan would have to be repaid by 2016.

Investors in the $591 billion high-yield, high-risk loan market are accusing
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of naked short selling to profit from record price declines.

At least two fund managers complained verbally to officials of the Loan
Syndications and Trading Association, saying they believe Goldman helped drive
down prices by using the technique, according to people with knowledge of the
objections. New York-based Goldman is acting against its clients by trying to profit at
their expense, the investors said.

A $171 billion drop in the value of the loans in the past year is pitting banks
against investing clients on assets once considered so safe they typically traded at
par. The drop exposed flaws in an unregulated market where trades can take from
several days to months to settle and banks may have information unavailable to
investors. In a naked-short transaction, a firm would sell debt it didn’t already own,
betting the price will fall before it purchases the loan and delivers it to the buyer.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the firm that set a record for Wall Street pay last
year, became the first U.S. bank to scrap 2008 bonuses for senior officers in the face
of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, 54, and six deputies told the New
York-based bank's compensation committee yesterday that they would forgo the yearend
awards, according to Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag. Each of the
executives receives a salary of $600,000; Blankfein's bonus last year was almost $70
million.

According to media reports, aides to Obama say that within weeks of taking
power he'll introduce stringent anti-tax haven measures within. He'll be doing this in a
bid to capture what his aides claim is an estimated US$50 billion in supposedly lost

U.S. annual tax revenue.
The public relations excuse for this major disruption of free capital flow and
trade policies will be its inclusion in a wide-ranging revenue-raising and tax "reform"
package.

After all -the argument will go -who can oppose grabbing an alleged $50
billion from tax evaders when the U.S. budget and economy are in such terrible
shape?

Just as Bush used the 9/11 terror attacks as false justification for the
unconstitutional PATRIOT Act, Obama will use the domestic and world financial crisis
as cover for his own aggressive violation of constitutional rights.


Key provisions in this radical plan include full disclosure on ownership of
trusts that are now private, restrictions on fees for specified offshore tax services by

U.S. professionals and "tighter surveillance," (whatever that means), of offshore
jurisdictions which refuse to kow-tow to IRS demands for accessing offshore tax
information.
Washington sources say leading accountancy and legal professionals,
expecting a fierce battle to improve the worst of these proposals, have already hired
lobbyists.

This all fits in with growing international pressure to outlaw tax havens as a
part of "reforms" to the world's faltering financial system. The leaders of the world's 20
most powerful economies will gather for a major conference in Washington next
weekend. Look for the meeting's agenda to include an attack on tax havens and an
endorsement in principle of Obama's anti-haven plans.

The State Board of Administration, which manages many of Florida's public
investments, has seen its assets plummet by $62-billion, a third of their value, in the
last 13 months.

The decline — the steepest in the agency's 65-year history — reflects both
big investment losses in the global financial crisis and the decision by hundreds of
local and state agencies to withdraw money from shaky SBA accounts. In both cases,
the SBA plowed money into higher-risk investments with the potential for bigger profits.
But in the ongoing financial meltdown, they generated big losses instead.

Combined, the investment losses and withdrawals slashed SBA assets from
a high of $187.5-billion on Sept. 30, 2007, to $125.4-billion as of Oct. 31.

The SBA manages 34 public funds. The largest is the state's retirement
system pension plan for almost 1-million public employees, retirees and their family
members.

The SBA also handles investment accounts for the Florida Lottery, the state's
hurricane catastrophe fund and a local government investment pool where nearly a
thousand counties, cities, school districts and other state and local entities keep
surplus cash.

In the last 13 months, the state pension plan lost more than a quarter of its
value, or $37.9-billion. It peaked at $138.4-billion on Sept. 30, 2007, and was worth
$100.5-billion on Oct. 31.

The local government pool, which was once the largest in the country, shrank
by $21.2-billion, from $27.3-billion to $6.1-billion, largely because of withdrawals.

A senior Republican senator is seeking an investigation into potential
conflicts of interest among former Goldman Sachs executives serving at the US
Treasury and whether any officials exceeded their authority by implementing a
controversial tax change without the approval of Congress.

Chuck Grassley, the most senior Republican on the Senate finance
committee, asked Eric Thorson, inspector-general of the Treasury, to investigate the
"independence" of several Treasury officials who formerly worked at Goldman Sachs
and serve as advisers to Treasury secretary Hank Paulson, the former chief executive
of the Wall Street bank.

Mr. Grassley said in a letter to Mr Thorson that there was reason to be
concerned that “relationships” between the officials and board members at two
merging banks, Wells Fargo and Wachovia, gave the “appearance of preferential
treatment”.

Mr. Grassley singled out Robert Steel, a former Goldman official who worked
under Mr Paulson at the Treasury before he became chief executive of Wachovia.


Federal law enforcement may be able to track cellular phones users'
locations without the help of the telecommunications companies themselves,
according to a report Sunday.iiDocuments obtained by the American Civil Liberties
Union under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest that existing technology
allows law enforcement to bypass wireless companies in locating individual cell phone
users.iiUsing "triggerfish" technology, mobile phones are tricked into transmitting
their serial numbers, phone numbers and other data by posing as a cellular phone
tower. Until now, it's been believed that such technology could only be successfully
employed with the help of the telecoms themselves, because the specific location of
the phone couldn't be traced with enough accuracy.iiBut a document obtained by
the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation from the Justice Department in a
lawsuit and posted online last week says triggerfish can be deployed "without the user
knowing about it and without involving the cell phone provider."

American International Group plans to pay out $503 million in deferred
compensation to some of its top employees, saying it must tap the funds to keep
valuable workers from exiting the troubled insurance giant.

News of the payments to top AIG talent comes as the federal government
has just put more money into saving the company from bankruptcy, beefing up the
total public commitment to $152 billion. Meanwhile, members of Congress are
questioning the company's expenditures --including lavish business trips to resorts -during
a time when taxpayers are on the hook for the bailout.

AIG's troubles stem from bad bets it made guaranteeing and buying risky
mortgage investments. On Monday, the U.S. government announced that it would
have to expand its rescue of the company to nearly double the $85 billion loan it first
provided in September when AIG was unable to pay billions of dollars in claims.

Home prices fell in four out of every five U.S. cities in the third quarter, a
record spurred by distressed foreclosure sales across the country.

The median price of a U.S. home declined 9 percent from a year earlier and
sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for at least a third of all
transactions, the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors said today. Prices
fell in 120 US metropolitan areas, rose in 28 and were unchanged in four, the biggest
share of declines in data going back to 1979.

The financial turmoil sparked by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage
market has caused $666 billion of losses for U.S. banks, lenders and insurers. US
companies slashed 1.4 million jobs in the last six months, the biggest cut since 1975.

“Housing is front and center of the financial crisis,” said Mark Zandi, chief
economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “So long as
house prices are declining and foreclosures mounting, the financial system will
struggle and the economy will be in recession.”
Biggest Losers, Winners

The steepest price declines were all in California. The area surrounding San
Bernardino had a 39 percent fall in its median home price to $227,200. Sacramento
saw a 37 percent decline to $212,000, and San Diego had a 36 percent drop to
$377,300. The U.S. median is $200,500.

Elmira, New York, had the biggest price increase in the U.S., with a 13
percent gain to $105,000, according to the report. Decatur, Illinois, rose 8.7 percent to
$93,400, and the median price in Bloomington, Illinois, grew 8.1 percent to $168,400.

Foreclosures boosted U.S. sales of single-family houses and condominiums
to 5.04 million in the third quarter at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, up 2.6 percent
from the second quarter, the report said.


U.S. foreclosure filings totaled 279,561 in October, an increase of 25 percent
from a year ago, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc. They include
default notices, pending auctions and repossessions.
The root cause of the surge in home repossessions is the government’s
“failure to deal effectively with unaffordable loans and unnecessary foreclosures,”
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said in testimony today to the
House Financial Services Committee in Washington.
Minimizing Foreclosures

“Minimizing foreclosures is essential to the broader effort to stabilize global
financial markets and the U.S. economy,” Bair said.

The S&P/Case Shiller home price index that tracks 20 cities may tumble as
much as 14 percent in 2008 and 7.8 percent in 2009, Freddie Mac, the world’s No. 2
mortgage buyer after Fannie Mae, said in a report this week. Combined sales of new
and existing homes probably will fall to 4.87 million, down 35 percent from the record

7.46 million sold in 2005, McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac said.
Retail sales have tumbled every month since July, the longest series of
declines in Commerce Department data going back to 1992. Consumer confidence fell
last month to the lowest ever recorded, according to the New York-based Conference
Board’s index that began in 1967.

Barack Obama, who threatened during the presidential campaign to
withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement unless he could renegotiate
it, may delay reworking the accord as he focuses on the U.S. economic crisis.

After he becomes president in January, Obama will order a study on the
world’s largest trade agreement, then seek longer-term negotiations with Mexico and
Canada on how to change it, according to three advisers, who spoke on condition that
they not be identified. A delay would be a victory for companies such as Caterpillar
Inc., General Electric Co. and Citigroup Inc.

The Treasury Department said Monday that it has dispersed $33.56 billion to
21 banks in a second round of payments as part of the $700 billion bailout program
designed to boost the nation's banking system.

The new distribution brings the total to $158.56 billion so far. The government
previously distributed $125 billion to nine banks in the form of stock purchase
programs.

In this second round, Minneapolis, Minn.-based U.S. Bancorp (USB, Fortune
500) received the largest amount of $6.6 billion. Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks (STI,
Fortune 500) received $3.5 billion, as did Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial
Corp (RF, Fortune 500). Capital One Financial Corp. (COF, Fortune 500) based in
McLean, Va., received $3.56 billion. The smallest amount of $9 million went to Los
Angeles-based Broadway Financial Corp.

The first round included $25 billion injections to Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune
500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500). Bank of
America (BAC, Fortune 500) was granted $15 billion, while Goldman Sachs (GS,
Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune
500) were given $10 billion each.
Bank bailout scorecard

Separately, Treasury said the deadline for some 3,600 private banks to apply
for a share of the $700 billion bailout is Dec. 8. Private banks had been unable to apply
for funds previously because the program involved stock purchases.

As long as a bank has submitted an application with federal regulators to
become a bank holding company or a savings and loan bank by the December
deadline, the institution is eligible for money from the bailout program.


Manufacturing in New York contracted in November at the fastest pace on
record as orders and sales plunged.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's general economic index fell to
minus 25.4, the lowest since records began in 2001, from minus 24.6 percent in
October, the bank said today. Readings below zero for the Empire State index signal
manufacturing activity is shrinking.

The gauge measuring the manufacturing outlook for six months from now
dropped to 13, the second-lowest reading on record, from 24.2 the prior month.

The New York Fed's measure of new orders slumped to minus 22.2 from
minus 20.5 the prior month. A gauge of shipments dropped to minus 13.9 from minus

8.
Less Inflation
The report also showed inflation eased. The index of prices paid for raw
materials decreased to 20.5 after 31.7, and the gauge of prices received fell to 6 from

20.7.
A measure of employment plunged to minus 28.9, the lowest reading since
December 2001, from minus 3.7.
Now that Citigroup has announced massive costs cuts and been bailed out
by taxpayers, the worst is over, right?
Nope, says Christopher Whalen, Managing Director at Institutional Risk
Analytics. Citigroup is still hugely exposed to weakening consumer debt, and its loans
are going bad at the highest rate in the industry. Thanks to an accounting-rule change,
Citi will also be forced to put another $150 billion of "off-balance sheet" debt back on
its balance sheet, which will put it in an even more precarious position. Citi will end up
needing another cash infusion from the government, Whalen says, and this will dilute
existing shareholders.

Nor is Citigroup the only huge bank for which the future is bleak, says
Whalen — JPMorgan is next in line. And before the financial crisis is through,
taxpayers will have to bail out JPM again, too. (Note: Whalen has no position in Citi or
JPMorgan.)

American Express Co. had its highest monthly increase in credit-card
delinquencies on record in October as jobless claims rose, according to FBR Capital
Markets.

Late payments rose 35 basis points to 4.4 percent last month, according to a
report yesterday from FBR analysts led by Scott Valentin in Arlington, Virginia. The
default rate increased 33 basis points to 6.96 percent, the highest since November
2005, the report said. The report didn't say what the previous record for delinquencies
was. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

American Express has been battered by rising delinquencies and higher
funding costs. The New York-based company became eligible for government funds
when it won Federal Reserve approval to become a commercial bank on Nov. 11 as
frozen credit markets choked off affordable financing.

Becoming a bank won't relieve American Express from having to borrow
money in the bond market, the analysts said.
Government revenue has declined 15.3% in 2008 vs. 2007…Gross federal debt is up
$1.495 trillion
October 31, 2008 over October 31, 2007…US federal debt soared an astounding
$549B in October.

‘Treasury Gross Public Debt’ has increased $1.508 trillion y/y. (Barron’s
page M62, source OMB)
Some people regard this measure as the ‘true budget deficit’.


Freddie Mac said it will need a $13.8 billion cash infusion from the U.S.
Treasury as losses stemming from home-mortgage defaults surge.

On Friday, the mayors of Philadelphia, Phoenix and Atlanta asked the
Treasury Department to set aside $50 billion of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief
Program to spur infrastructure investment to create jobs and lift local economies. The
mayors also asked for loans to cover short-term borrowing needs and to meet payroll.

San Jose, CA Mayor Reed created a minor furor Friday when he told an
Associated Press reporter he would seek 2 percent of the bailout, or $14 billion, for
San Jose — an eye-popping figure, given that the city's entire annual budget is $3.3
billion.

Four insurance companies on Friday asked the government to allow them to
buy thrifts so they can qualify to receive federal money under the financial rescue
program. Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Genworth Financial Inc., Lincoln
National Corp. and Aegon NV, a Dutch company that owns U.S. insurer Transamerica,
each asked the Office of Thrift Supervision for permission to acquire an existing
savings and loan.

Ben Bernanke at an ECB conference in Frankfurt on Friday asserted,
“Policymakers will remain in close contact, monitor developments closely, and stand
ready to take additional steps should conditions warrant.” This is a hollow attempt to
induce markets to believe that the Fed still has impact options. But the Fed is spent,
that’s why nationalization has occurred. The effective Fed Funds rate is between 1/8
and ¼; so further rates cuts will be futile and symbolic.

At the end of 1964 the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded at 874.1.
Seventeen years later, despite rapid inflation, the average had inched forward only to

875. It was the kind of grinding bear market that drove investors to despair…
It is beginning to look as if we are in the middle of another of those great
phases, what commentators call a secular, as opposed to a cyclical, bear market.
Broadly speaking, the 20th century can be divided into six phases; bear markets from
1901-21, 1929-49 and 1965-82 and bull runs from 1921-29, 1949-65 and 1982-2000.

U.S. producer prices declined by a record 2.8 percent in October after energy
prices slumped, government data on Tuesday showed, but a key measure of core
inflation at the farm and factory gate rose by more than forecast.
* The Labor Department said the producer price index recorded its third consecutive
monthly reduction after a 0.4 percent fall in September and a 0.9 percent drop in
August.
* Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 1.8 percent decline in the overall number.
* Over the last year the producer price index has increased by 5.2 percent.
Redbook Research on Tuesday released the following seasonally adjusted
weekly data on U.S. chain store sales:

Year-over-year: Week (w/e 11/15/08 vs year ago) -0.9 pct

Year-over-year: Month (November 2008 vs November 2007) -0.9 pct

Month-over-month: (November 2008 vs October 2008) -1.1 pct

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index is a sales-weighted index of year-
over-year same-store sales growth in a sample of large U.S. general merchandise
retailers representing about 9,000 stores.


Putnam investments said it will eliminate six of its stock mutual funds by
merging them into other. Larger funds and put them under the control of individual
managers in the latest shake-up by new chief executive Robert Reynolds.

Twelve portfolio managers will leave Putnam in the reorganization, and
another 35 staff positions will be eliminated, out of a workforce of about 2,500.

Among the funds targeted for elimination are some that made Putnam the
hottest fund complex during the go-go bull market of the late 1990s, such as its OTC
and Emerging Growth Fund, which recorded an astounding 127% return in 1999. It is
down 47$ for 2008 so far, according to data firm Morningstar.com

Morningstar estimates investors have withdrawn $12.6 billion from Putnam
funds in the year so far, helping lower assets under management to $116 billion.

The eliminated funds are: Capital Appreciation Fund and Tax Smart Equity
Fund, both of which will be merged into Investors Fund; Classic Equity Fund, to be
merged into Fund for Growth & Income; Discovery Growth fund into New
Opportunities; and New Value Fund into Equity Income, OTC & Emerging Growth
Fund will be wrapped into the Vista Fund.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin charged brokerage Oppenheimer & Co.
yesterday with fraud and unethical conduct in the sales of auction-rate securities,
which trapped $56 million of Massachusetts customers' funds this year.

The state alleged Oppenheimer misrepresented the securities, by describing
them as cash equivalents and failing to disclose that they traded only at auctions that
could fail. Top executives of the company, including chief executive Albert "Bud"
Lowenthal, sold $3 million of their own holdings before the auction-rate market
collapsed in February, the state alleged in its complaint, yet allowed brokers to
continue selling the investments to clients.

"That shows the callous disregard for their customers that they had," Galvin
said in an interview. "That kind of conduct is just something we cannot tolerate in the
financial services industry."

A spokesman for New York-based Oppenheimer, a unit of Toronto's
Oppenheimer Holdings Inc., said the company "denies that the allegations made by
[the] Massachusetts Securities Division have any basis in fact or law and intends to
vigorously defend itself."

The state is looking for Oppenheimer to buy back the investments that
customers cannot sell. It also plans to revoke Lowenthal's Massa chusetts securities
license and to impose fines on him, the firm, and other senior executives.
Oppenheimer would still be able to do business here if Lowenthal lost his license,
Galvin said. Lowenthal declined to comment through a spokesman.

US bank Citigroup has announced plans for about 52,000 new job cuts, on
top of 23,000 cuts already made this year.
Citigroup said the 75,000 job cuts represented a reduction of about 20% of its
staff, leaving it with 300,000 jobs worldwide "in the near term."
The cuts will come from redundancies, the sale of units and natural wastage,
the bank said.
Citigroup has lost more than $20 billion (£13.6 billion) in the past year
because of the global financial crisis.

Lay-Z-Boy Inc. said late Tuesday that it will lay off 850 workers as it reported
a widening loss for its second quarter, hurt by a deteriorating economy and historically
low customer confidence.

GE Capital, the lending arm of General Electric Co., will cut $2 billion in costs
next year as it pares jobs, forms regional units and marks assets such as overseas
home mortgages for possible sale amid a global financial crisis.


The changes include a newly created chief operating officer post and take effect Jan.
1, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company said today on its Web site. GE Capital will
shed an unspecified number of its 75,000 jobs as the unit consolidates back offices
and curbs lending in areas such as residential mortgages, Vice Chairman Michael
Neal said in an interview.

Consumer prices probably dropped 0.8 percent last month, the most since
1949, after being unchanged in September, according to the median estimate in a
Bloomberg News survey. Excluding food and energy, so-called core prices may have
risen 0.1 percent for a second month.

Saturday is the last day for thousands of investors to notify hundreds of
hedge funds if they want their money back by year’s end.

Hedge funds that require three months notice from investors who wanted to
exit by year’s end had a similar deadline on September 30 — also known in the
industry as “D-Day.”

More such deadlines loom for funds that allow investors to give less notice
before taking their money out, fund managers said.

In the last two days, several prominent fund managers made public
predictions that illustrate the depth of gloom now sweeping the $1.7 trillion hedge fund
industry.

The cost of protecting against default by Warren Buffett's AAA rated Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. has almost tripled in two months, a sign of just how skittish investors
have become amid the global financial crisis.

The cost to protect against Berkshire being unable to meet its debt payments,
based on credit-default swaps, is more than four times that of rival insurer Travelers
Cos. At those levels, the swaps are typical of companies rated Baa3 by Moody's
Investors Service, one level above junk. The price may have risen on concern that the
billionaire's firm could lose a $37 billion bet on world stock market values more than a
decade from now.

The September Total Net TIC inflows were $143.4 billion versus a revised
inflow of $21.4 billion in August.

International investors bought a net of $143.4 billion in US securities in
September – the biggest capital inflow in nearly 3 years. August inflow was $21.4
billion versus an outflow of $400 million and September was a well-covered $56.47
billion. The other central banks continue to be willing to accept America’s crappy
paper.

The ABC/Washington post Consumer Comfort Index was minus 52 versus
minus 50 the previous week.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told hedge fund managers it was time to
begin regulating the opaque realm of hedge funds, reversing his long held opposition.
The managers were stunned. Paulson said, “I’ve realized how flawed it is and how
important, but how necessary it is” – regulation. He has fashioned a proposal for the
Obama administration and the new Congress to endow the federal government with
broad new authorities to take over any failing financial institution, not just banks. This
will be used to concentrate the financial area, including all brokerage houses, lenders,
and insurance companies in a nationalization process that is to become a cornerstone
of fascist government. They will as well dictate compensation. No one will escape the
net.

Bear Stearns was assassinated and Lehman was allowed to fail; yet AIG,
which was in for more dire straights, was allowed to survive. The reasons they won’t
tell you are that their derivative position was mountainous, they were a first line CFR
Illuminist firm, they managed the congressional pensions and for 70 years they were a


money laundering black ops cover for the CIA – that’s why. Thus far taxpayers are
committed for $150 billion plus $24 billion in private capital to save this bankrupt
wreck. Before this is over that number could easily be over $500 billion. The taxpayer
is taking the financial industries losses.

Last week he said he would shelve the program to buy toxic assets, but he is
still doing so. If he stops, the system collapses. The securities have already collapsed
further in price.

This is the Paulson that set out to destroy the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to keep
firms honest. Corporate America said it was too expensive.

He sees the Fed as a financial overseer to be granted unlimited power in the
name of modernization, the same Fed that caused the catastrophe we are hopelessly
enmeshed in.

This new commissariat would control and force financing via “contributions”
to fund the cost of closing bankrupts in an orderly fashion.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Here is the link to Mr.Obama's transition team;

HTTP://CHANGE.GOV/PAGE/S/YOUR STORY

Pass on this link to as many as possible.Many will be heard,it will make a difference

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Now if this don't beat all. I can't stop myself from laughing. What goes around truly does come back around.. just that some circles are bigger than others!!!

Wachtell Lipton Calls for Return of Uptick Rule
NOVEMBER 20, 2008, 12:34 PM Link to This
E-mail This TOPICS Legal INDUSTRIES Financial Services As shares of Citigroup, Blackstone and other heavyweights of the finance industry slumped to new lows on Thursday, a prominent law firm passionately repeated its call for the reinstatement of the “uptick rule.”

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a firm whose client list reads like a Who’s Who of corporate America, said in a memo to clients that the “very same conditions that led to the adoption of the Rule in 1938 exist today” and sharply criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission, and its chairman, Christopher Cox, for failing to act sooner. “There is no tomorrow,” the memo said.

The uptick rule was created in an attempt to prevent short-sellers — who bet that a given stock will fall — from causing a selloff in shares that were already declining. The rule, which only allowed short sales on a stock whose last trade was higher than the previous one, was abolished last year. Many believe its removal has seriously destabilized the markets, though there is not universal agreement on this point.

Read the full text of the memo below:

November 20, 2008

Reinstate the “Uptick Rule”

The worldwide securities and credit markets continue to experience unprecedented meltdowns and volatility. Millions of investors are losing their life savings and retirement assets. There continues to be widespread manipulative short selling and bear raids. The investing public is losing confidence in the integrity of our markets.

For the past 5 months, we have called on the SEC to reinstate the “Uptick Rule” which helps limit downward spirals by allowing a stock to be sold short only after a rise from its immediately prior price. Despite widespread market participants’ calls to do so, the SEC has failed to act. The SEC must reinstate the Uptick Rule now to address the short selling, bear raids, and the spreading of false rumors. Nearly all the reasons that the SEC gave for repealing the Uptick Rule in July 2007 are not valid in today’s turbulent markets. In fact, the very same conditions that led to the adoption of the Rule in 1938 exist today.

Historically, the SEC has placed a leadership role during market crises to assure that the markets are fair and orderly. The SEC has not hesitated in the past to be creative and innovative in protecting the securities markets and the financial intermediaries from manipulative conduct. Decisive action cannot await the appointment of a new SEC Chairman. The SEC must take a leadership role in restoring investor confidence. It is long overdue. The SEC and Chairman Cox must act now. There is no tomorrow. The failure to reinstate the Uptick Rule is not acceptable.

Edward D. Herlihy

Theodore A. Levine
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/files/reinstate_the_uptick_rule.pdf

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

With all due respect Bunny, I find it odd that you are in such a self congratulatory mood over your predictive capabilities. I don't recall you ever suggesting that the subprime mortgage market would be the death of any major brokerage houses. The way I remember it you were pretty bullish on subprime mortgages. It seems to me you suggested that the markets would crumble under the weight of billions of dollars of delivery failures. I don't believe we've seen that. Instead what we've seen is the same broker dealers who facilitated naked short selling have themselves become targets of naked short selling, which in my book is what we call poetic justice, but hardly what you predicted.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Everyone has GOT to see this video!
Max Keiser - Aljazeera English News - 16 November 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZiWd0bGAdc
Wonder why we haven't heard a peep on this from our mainstream media. You would think any decent journalist would jump all over this...Duh NO!

There was a great comment posted today which captures my feelings exactly by
NowisEvollovetion (11 hours ago):
At last a man who has got the balls to say it as it is, who does'nt merely beat around the bush.

This HONESTY is exactly what we need more of,
even the presenter of this programme was reluctant to allow Max to continue with his condemnation of the ruling/banking/corrupt scumbags who have created this situation.

I dont agree with the violent aspect of this statement by Max, although I do understand his frustration.

What I am sure of, is that the courts will NOT give the people justice.
---------------

What I am sure of, is that the courts will NOT give the people justice.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Citi is asking the SEC to reinstate the short-selling ban, with Harvey Pitt, former SEC chairman and CEO of Kalorama Partners.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=935343729&play=1

Yes, it's now all unfolding...cries for help from the big boys to the SEC. Harvey Pitt says, all the SEC really needs to do is stop naked short selling. Hummmm. What a novel idea.

I say let 'em all fry. They made their bed, now let them sleep in it...for good!

Why doesn't Christopher Cox listen to logic? hummmm. Isn't it obvious! I can't quite understand where all the smart guys with a backbone are in Congress. Seems everyone is oblivious to what is going on here. They can't all be on the take...can they? has got to put the miscreants in the slammer...sooner the better. We are getting raped here over and over for years and years now.

Re: Lying, cheating and stealing. Hank Paulsen's Wall Street legacy now US Government's legacy...

Pstevenson, I would like to change that statement you made to "The have slept in the bed, now let them make it up" and now let's check out some more truth.

Chief Dunces Of Wealth Destruction, Inc.
Robert Lenzner 11.22.08, 10:20 AM ET


At $10 billion a month, the cost of fighting in Iraq for five and a half years has added up to some $660 billion. By comparison, the wealth destruction just in financial stocks has been a great deal more.

The market capitalization of Citi has been reduced by more than $200 billion--and that's despite an injection by Uncle Sam of $25 billion. Bank of America, once with a market cap larger than Citigroup's at over $240 billion, has sunk by $180 billion to only $60 billion--again despite a $25 billion investment by the Treasury. AIG, the largest insurance company in the world, is running a close third in loss of value--some $160 billion and is even more in the debt of the regulators.

Buffett's Next Moves? Click here to read a free special report, "Three Stocks Warren Buffett Would Buy Today."

Add in the decimation in the stock prices of Wachovia, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, UBS and Merrill Lynch--even Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, where shareholders have paper losses of some $60 billion--and you can easily see how the Masters of the Universe have taken out close to a trillion dollars of the public's savings and household net worth.

I'm talking about financial institutions which, until two years ago, were looked upon as relatively safe repositories of other people's money. Supposedly safe dividend streams added billions to investors looking for income. Nobody gave a second thought to leverage. The only complaints involved the obscene bonuses being paid out that accentuated the growing inequality of compensation in the U.S.

Another irritant was the even more flabbergasting take-home pay of the Shadow Banking System--the hedge fund managers and private equity bigwigs getting 2% for sitting on pension fund money and 20% of the profits, if there were any. Few besides John Paulson did their homework and examined the mortgages behind the mortgage-backed securities and found that they were based on 100%-borrowed principal without any equity or the income to service them. But they were rated AAA by the rating agencies. To go short, he thought, would be shooting ducks in a barrel. Paulson saw they were worthless and made his bundle, as he explained to Congress recently.

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In light of the mismanagement that borders on malfeasance, Croesus wishes to award Dunce Caps to the stewards of this immense wealth loss and single them out for their negative contributions to ordinary investors.

Here are just a few:

--The directors and officers of Citigroup for spending $800 million to buy a hedge fund that had to be liquidated. And for adding off balance sheet financing vehicles that are partly to blame for sinking the ship.

--The directors and officers of AIG who allowed its balance sheet to be endangered by $500 billion of derivatives that were in no way protected by any hedging and so sank the largest insurance company in the world--a stock, by the way, held by just about every self-respecting investment manager. None of them could have read the footnotes to the consolidated financial statements, because it was all there.

--Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, for not adequately overseeing the major money center banks--his main responsibility--and for blocking all attempts to oversee and regulate those weapons of mass destruction, derivatives.

--Bear Stearns chairman Jimmy Cayne for not leaving his bridge tournament in Detroit to minister to his sinking investment bank that threatened the livelihoods of 14,000 individuals.

--Kerry Killinger, former CEO of Washington Mutual, who made idiotic acquisitions of risky mortgage companies at the peak of the bubble and destroyed 100% of shareholders' value.

--Return to the back row of economy class. Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, flew to D.C. to plead for a $25 billion bailout on a private jet that cost GM $20,000, or almost 300 hours of labor on a GM car. And he should be denied credit for miles traveled.

Baby name meaning and origin for Paulden

Description for the baby name Paulden, the origins of the name and its meaning
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