Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: I Feel Old Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 09:20:07 -0800 Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler Lines: 66 Message-ID: <87vb6uiwu0.fsf@garlic.com> References: <9dcde262-7129-4a8f-b034-105b67d61cf5@googlegroups.com> <87pox5nf62.fsf@redbull.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> <9dcde262-7129-4a8f-b034-105b67d61cf5@googlegroups.com> <38igmc-5aa.ln1@sambook.reistad.name> <87pox5nf62.fsf@redbull.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> <9dcde262-7129-4a8f-b034-105b67d61cf5@googlegroups.com> <38igmc-5aa.ln1@sambook.reistad.name> <87pox5nf62.fsf@redbull.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="9a6c8ce24fcd2caeb84dd64e0fa6007c"; logging-data="11996"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+xBN+XotWCqZUqLmXiBjXh40Xmpt+bsrQ=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.5 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:aq6NojiK6Wht3gBDlBCIhicFCVM= sha1:GUZ5QfdE7L8qrhFcQguPp7vqf9k= Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:156687 jmfbahciv writes: > And then the companies in charge of those trusts go bankrupt. recent saga is ENRON. preventing regulation of CDS were originally billed as gift to ENRON. #2 on time's list of those responsible for economic mess: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877330,00.html when head of CFTC proposed regulating CDS, quickly replaced by the senator's wife (who blocked regulating CDS), while the senator gets legislation preventing CDS regulation ... after which the wife resigns and joins ENRON board and the audit committee. http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#enron Congress then bills Sarbanes-Oxley as preventing future ENRONs and guaranteeing executives (& auditors) would do jail time ... but it required SEC to do something http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#sarbanes-oxley possibly because even GAO didn't believe SEC was doing anything, it started doing reports of public company fraudulent financial filings, even show they increased after SOX goes into effect (and nobody doing jailtime). http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#financial.reporting.fraud then CDS grambling bets play a role in the economic mess ... initially paying for triple-A rating eliminated any reason to care about loan/mortgage quality. The triple-A rating also opens the market for toxic CDOs to large funds restricted to "safe" investments (like large retirement funds, claims that it resulting in 30% fall in the funds and shortfall of trillions for pension payouts) contributing to being able to do over $27T 2001-2008. http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#toxic.cdo Then they realize that they can securitize mortgages designed to fail, pay for triple-A rating, sell to their victims and then take out CDS gambling bets that they would fail (creating enormous demand for bad mortgages). Yesterday had latest announcement of billions in "deferred prosecution" fines for activities during the economic mess (trivial amounts compared to the tens of trillions that were involved). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_prosecution These fines have being turned over to organizations created to help victims of the mortgage practices ... but huge amounts appear to be siphon off with little actually reaching the victims. and on-going saga of calpers Why is CalPERS Understating Its Cost of Investing in Private Equity by Roughly $1.6 Billion, Meaning 80%? http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/01/why-is-calpers-understating-its-cost-of-investing-in-private-by-roughly-1-6-billion-meaning-80.html after they got such a bad reputation during the S&L crisis, the industry changed its name to "private equity" (and junk bonds became "high-yield bonds") ... past posts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#private.equity it is like the joke why do crooks rob banks ... because that is where the money is ... similarly the large pension funds have large amounts of money and have been attractive target for all sorts looking at skimming&looting money (armed bank robbing is typically measured in thousands, wallstreet looting is measured in hundreds of billions and tens of trillions). -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970