The latest offering from Janet Tavakoli.
The U.S. is suffering from high unemployment combined with too much consumer debt in a weak economy. Current stock market exuberance reflects earnings increases at selective companies that benefited from sputtering stimulus programs. In late 2007 through the fall of 2008, our economy had an appendix attack, and Congress issued potent addictive painkillers instead of fixing our problems. (more…)
Full story here from Janet Tavakoli.
Chicago residents grew up to the sound of local early morning radio rundowns of pork belly futures and other exchange traded commodities. Every trick in the book from manipulation of soybeans to silver has played out in Chicago’s trading pits. Every market professional I’ve talked to in Chicago since Thursday is of the same opinion. It makes no difference whether human beings or computers are front running and manipulating trades. The gyrations in the market last week have the look and feel of classic market manipulation. (more…)
Full story here from Janet Tavakoli via ZeroHedge. The Black in question is William K. Black, of previous S&L crisis fame.
William K. Black, a regulator during the dark days of the Savings & Loan Crisis, gave the most sensible testimony about the financial crisis heard in Washington so far.* Fraud thrives and spreads in a regulatory free, highly paid, criminogenic environment. Cheaters prosper driving honesty out of the market. (more…)
Full story here from Janet Tavakoli. Magnetar was also very, um, generous to Rahm Emmanuel to the tune of $1 million.
ProPublica, Planet Money, and radio show This American Life recently carried stories about Magnetar, a hedge fund that profited from the housing crisis. Unfortunately, many thought it was a fresh revelation. Magnetar wasn’t a previously unknown hedge fund. Magnetar did not create the synthetic CDO structure, and the magnitude of Magnetar’s role in the subprime crisis has been overblown. (more…)
Full story here from Janet Tavakoli. Senor Buffett has officially morphed from folksy avuncular to more of an “Uncle Buck” pederast vampire squid accomplice. Bad day for the Berkshire Hathaway PR types.
“I like Warren Buffett. I even wrote a book about the financial crisis contrasting his principles of prudent finance with recent excessive leverage, bad lending, and malfeasance (Dear Mr. Buffett). Buffett is not a regulator, an altruist, a consumer advocate, or an elected official. As CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, his goal is to maximize shareholder value.
Full story here. An interview with Janet Tavakoli author of “Dear Mr. Buffett”, the story of her meetings with Warren Buffet prior to the economic downturn and how that impacted the way she views investing. She gives an interview where she defines and discusses many points of the current economic situation.
“BRIAN LAMB, HOST, CSPAN Q&A: Janet Tavakoli, author of the book ”Dear Mr. Buffet,” what do you think of money?
JANET TAVAKOLI, PRESIDENT, TAVAKOLI STRUCTURED FINANCE: What do I think of money? You know, I’m glad you asked that question because this is all about money and whether or not Washington protected our money and what has happened to our money over the past few years.
Money was nothing more than something we human beings created in order to enhance our probability of survival. So money is a very important means of exchange.
You know, and back when we created money, the reason we did it is because, let’s say I was growing wheat. Well, I would have to exchange my wheat in the marketplace for various goods and services that I needed. And if somebody didn’t need wheat at the moment, it would be hard for me to barter my wheat for something else.
So we created money as a representation that I have this wheat behind it. I’ll give you this piece of paper or this coin and someone else will take that piece of paper or coin for your goods because they know that I have wheat backing my coins.
And we created money to make it easier for us to trade goods and to enhance our ability to get the things that we need to survive, to make life better for everyone. So money isn’t an evil thing. Money is actually a good thing that we humans created. (more…)
Janet Tavakoli: the biggest fraud in the history of capital markets
Friday, October 8th, 2010Full story here from ZeroHedge.
In the following interview with the WaPo’s Ezra Klein, Janet Tavakoli shares some more information on why every bank is about to shut down all foreclosures, in what she calls the “biggest fraud in the history of capital markets. Not very surprisingly, we are, so far, spot on in our 29th September projected timeline at this point: “We predict that within a week, all banks will halt every foreclosure currently in process. Within a month, all foreclosures executed within the past 2-3 years will be retried, and millions of existing home sales will be put in jeopardy.” (more…)
Tags: fraud, Janet Tavakoli, mortgage disaster, thankless banker jerks
Posted in Commentary, Futures Market, Futures Market Commentary, Futures Trading | No Comments »