Shadowtraders

I thought we could go a week without intrigue or loss. My mistake! Welcome to Planet Earth, where the inmates run the asylum– but the barbeque is excellent.

Nov 27th:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=af7QohP8YdRo&pos=12

Mark Pittman, the award-winning investigative reporter whose fight to open the Federal Reserve to more scrutiny led Bloomberg News to sue the central bank and win, died Nov. 25 in Yonkers, New York. He was 52.

Pittman suffered from heart-related illnesses. The precise cause of his death wasn’t known, said his friend William Karesh, vice president of the Global Health Program at the Bronx, New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society….

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Nov 28th:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/11/200911272115814779.html

Russia’s prosecutor general has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges after 39 people were killed and 87 others injured following a suspected terrorist attack on a passenger train.

Derailed north of the Russian capital, the federal Investigative Committee said the four rear cars of an express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg went off the tracks in the Novgorod province late on Friday.

Investigators have already suggested the derailment was caused by an act of terrorism.

Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways, did not mix words on a statement he made on state television, standing next to the wreck.

“To put it simply, a terrorist attack”, he said…

My own notes on the matter relate to recent developments, where Russia had announced publicly to develop high-speed rail across the entirety of Russia; Russia looking eastward for money and influence; Russian and Chinese pact for debt cooperation; given this, an attack on the high speed rail is suspicious in its timing. Most people did not see the other news items, only the blast in Russia, which was explained away as Russia being some totally wild west setting. It’s not like that, folks.

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29 Nov: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20091129_ap_formerdrexelceofredjosephdiesat72.html

Fred Joseph, who as CEO of investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert helped create the modern junk-bond market in the 1980s before the firm’s collapse, has died. He was 72.

Joseph died Friday at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center after a long fight with multiple myeloma. His death was announced by John F. Sorte, CEO of Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., an investment bank Joseph helped found…

He was named CEO of Drexel in 1985. With fellow executive Michael Milken, the company expanded the market for low-rated bonds, which most investors at the time considered too much of a risk but which quickly began to dominate the financial world.

The proceeds from junk-bond sales helped finance a wave of cutthroat corporate buyouts and made Drexel one of the most revered firms on Wall Street. But the company ultimately succumbed to a four-year criminal investigation into charges that Milken and others had used inside information to trade shares of companies considered takeover targets.

Milken ultimately pleaded guilty in 1989 to securities violations, served 22 months in prison and was fined $600 million. The scandal drove Drexel to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the following year.

Joseph ultimately accepted blame for failing to supervise Milken, saying at the time that as CEO, he must bear responsibility for whatever “transpired on my watch.” Joseph was banned from any managerial position with a securities firm for some time and agreed to pay a $3 million fine to federal thrift regulators.

He went on to serve as chairman of consulting firm Clovebrook Capital from 1994 to 1998, and then as an adviser and managing director at ING Barings LLC for three years.

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