The MF Global scandal will eventually take its place beside Lehman, Enron, Merrill-Lynch, GM, Goldman-Sachs and the rest. Its tentacles reach far beyond Wall Street and City of London. It is landing, like an enormous cow-pie, into the lives of farmers on the American prairie.
There are legitimate participants in the commodities markets, doing legitimate business for good reasons. One reason is to stabilize feed costs for livestock producers.
From the Minnesota Star-Tribune:
Dennis Magnuson is a farmer, not a gambler. He trades in the commodity futures markets hoping to stabilize the cost of feed for the pigs he sells. The Austin, Minn., resident said he would never put his money into bonds issued by European countries flirting with economic collapse.
But the now-collapsed MF Global Holdings Ltd. may have done that for him.
Magnuson is among more than 100 Minnesota farmers estimated to have assets frozen as a result of MF Global's bankruptcy filing and an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer funds. Most of the farmers didn't choose to do business with the huge brokerage house that has become one of the biggest financial failures in U.S. history. They invested through brokers or financial advisers who eventually used MF Global to clear trades.
On Thursday, members of the Senate agriculture committee, including Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, grilled the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over apparent loopholes in rules that allowed farmers' commodity trades to end up in risky European bonds.
What??!!!???
The article is horrifying to read, but OS hopes you read it. The final paragraph is out quote of the day:
"I don't have a scandal meter," she said. "I just think it's another example of why we just can't let these financial firms run roughshod over people on Main Street or people who are doing nothing but growing crops or raising pigs. They should not have to know every in and out of the regulatory system to protect their money."
Ya'll--if Corzine and company don't go to jail for the rest of their lives, then Bernie Madoff is owed an apology. This is just the front end of the woes to befall this country from MF Global.
Remember who Corzine is, and who his HomeBoy in the White House is. Less than a year to go until we get to register our opinions at the ballot. OS just hopes someone can staunch the financial blood loss sufficiently until then.
Before this is over, Corzine will have loaded up the Gulfstream and high-tailed it to somewhere like Paraguay. He still has his passport, and access to all sorts of cash and assets everywhere.
Heaven help us.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
After 27 Years, The Exoneration Of An Innocent Man, Thomas Haynesworth.
HT Doug Mataconis, a voice of reason in a world of flame-throwers.
Imagine, a the age of eighteen, walking into the local grocery purchase bread and sweet potatoes for dinner, being arrested for heinous crimes you never committed, and spending the next twenty-seven years in the Kafka-esque world of a southern state criminal justice system. Oh, by the way, you are black...
This is exactly what happened to one Thomas Haynesworth in 1984 in Virginia. Yesterday, the state reluctantly concluded, that yes, this man was innocent of the crimes he committed, and it would be a good idea to issue him a writ of actual innocence, wipe his slate clean, and let him get on with his life--now that he's forty-six years of age!
Even with overwhelming evidence of his innocence, four of the ten appeals judges thought he should rot in prison anyway--
Therefore, even though Virginia's case against the man was proved a complete web of lies, it's up to the guy rotting in state prison to provide direct evidence of his own innocence from 1984.
Kafka lives in Richmond, ya'll.
Blessedly, Haynesworth finally is a free man. How many more like him, however? OS suspects many, many more. There is a chilling quote from a Virginia AG in the 1990's, Mary Sue Terry, buried in the article: “Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
Contemplate this, ya'll...
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
The only things that stand between prosecutors, cops and judges who would gladly send innocent people to prison and death row are juries and state legislatures that insist that truth matters. The situation in Tennessee is egregious, with some 3,000 complaints in the system against judges, all handled in secret, by other judges. They were indignant that the legislature (now controlled by the GOP) would dare break in on their comfortable way of doing business.
Using Tennessee’s Open Records Act, Tennessee Watchdog found only 23 public actions – reprimands, censures, suspensions or agreed orders – by the COJ against Tennessee judges forthe last 10 calendar years. That total represents less than one percent of the almost 3,000 complaints lodged against judges in the last decade.
OS reminds his readers--vote, and communicate with your state reps and senators. Vote in that local DA election. Do jury duty when called, if you possibly can. Play possum with the prosecutor during the voir dire. Then, if you even smell a hint of a lie from the cops and prosecution (who cheerily suborn perjury daily), hang that jury. Remember, the defendant will be crushed under the wheels of the state unless one juror stands tall.
And you, or your eighteen-year-old kid, could well be next. For them, truth matters not a moment, only the collecting of scalps in the pursuit of the judge's robes, or that partnership in the high-powered firm, or that governorship, or all of the above.
You are just a piece of meat to grind along the way.
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
Imagine, a the age of eighteen, walking into the local grocery purchase bread and sweet potatoes for dinner, being arrested for heinous crimes you never committed, and spending the next twenty-seven years in the Kafka-esque world of a southern state criminal justice system. Oh, by the way, you are black...
This is exactly what happened to one Thomas Haynesworth in 1984 in Virginia. Yesterday, the state reluctantly concluded, that yes, this man was innocent of the crimes he committed, and it would be a good idea to issue him a writ of actual innocence, wipe his slate clean, and let him get on with his life--now that he's forty-six years of age!
Even with overwhelming evidence of his innocence, four of the ten appeals judges thought he should rot in prison anyway--
“The victims have not recanted, no one has confessed, and there is no direct evidence that Haynesworth did not commit these crimes,” Judges Larry G. Elder and William G. Petty wrote in a dissenting opinion. “The Attorney General has merely expressed his opinion that Haynesworth is innocent.”
Therefore, even though Virginia's case against the man was proved a complete web of lies, it's up to the guy rotting in state prison to provide direct evidence of his own innocence from 1984.
Kafka lives in Richmond, ya'll.
Blessedly, Haynesworth finally is a free man. How many more like him, however? OS suspects many, many more. There is a chilling quote from a Virginia AG in the 1990's, Mary Sue Terry, buried in the article: “Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
Contemplate this, ya'll...
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
The only things that stand between prosecutors, cops and judges who would gladly send innocent people to prison and death row are juries and state legislatures that insist that truth matters. The situation in Tennessee is egregious, with some 3,000 complaints in the system against judges, all handled in secret, by other judges. They were indignant that the legislature (now controlled by the GOP) would dare break in on their comfortable way of doing business.
Using Tennessee’s Open Records Act, Tennessee Watchdog found only 23 public actions – reprimands, censures, suspensions or agreed orders – by the COJ against Tennessee judges forthe last 10 calendar years. That total represents less than one percent of the almost 3,000 complaints lodged against judges in the last decade.
OS reminds his readers--vote, and communicate with your state reps and senators. Vote in that local DA election. Do jury duty when called, if you possibly can. Play possum with the prosecutor during the voir dire. Then, if you even smell a hint of a lie from the cops and prosecution (who cheerily suborn perjury daily), hang that jury. Remember, the defendant will be crushed under the wheels of the state unless one juror stands tall.
And you, or your eighteen-year-old kid, could well be next. For them, truth matters not a moment, only the collecting of scalps in the pursuit of the judge's robes, or that partnership in the high-powered firm, or that governorship, or all of the above.
You are just a piece of meat to grind along the way.
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
“Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.”
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
How Wars Begin: Argentina Begins To Turn The Screws On The Falklands
The UK doesn't have the resources to defend their islands.
They sold their Harriers to the US Marines.
Obama and Hilary will side with Argentina (and Chavez's Venezuela, by the way).
We miss you, Mrs. Thatcher and Mr. Reagan.
They sold their Harriers to the US Marines.
Obama and Hilary will side with Argentina (and Chavez's Venezuela, by the way).
We miss you, Mrs. Thatcher and Mr. Reagan.
It’s My Birthday, And I’ll Blog If I Want To
OldSouth celebrates a birthday this week; today, as a matter of fact. This is not urgent news, as it appears to be an annual event for every soul on the planet.
The bad news is that OS realizes he is one year older, and feels mortality breathing down his neck, especially as he sees those born in his year (and even those younger) called to their reward. The good news, of course, is that he is alive and healthy and alert enough to experience these moments of neurotic self-absorption, and hopefully in good enough mental frame to have the presence of mind to laugh at his own navel-gazing.
To have been born in 1955 is a real privilege. OS remembers a childhood those even ten years younger cannot remember, before the assassinations, the upheaval of the late 1960's, TheWar(that one in Indochina, not the Middle East), Johnson's grandiosity, Nixon's paranoia, Ford's well-meaning attempts to right the ship, Carter's ineptitude--before drug use became a major problem, before the single-parent family became commonplace; before, before, before, before the wheels began to come off the culture.
To his own children, 1955-1965 may well as well be 1890-1900, so removed is their experience from that of their father. OS and his sainted bride did all they could to form a home life that replicated that sweet and safe time, centered around books, friends, music, church, home-cooking, small-town bucolic life. The little county in which they settled is, in many ways, a time warp back to 1957, and it has been (with its many failings) a wonderful haven in which to raise the kids, both of whom now prosper wonderfully as young adults. Still, with all that, they spent formative years with the television discussing the odd sexual proclivities of a sitting president, his intern, and his cigar. It couldn't be completely banished, nor would it have been wise to do so. The world is what it is, and they had to be equipped to live effectively in it. They learned that no outrage is sufficient to merit removal from a place of responsibility, as long as one has power to share, favors to trade, money to shower in the correct directions. (Think Bernie Madoff, Jon Corzine...) They learned that virtue is indeed its own reward, but that given the choice between virtue and power, power wins the day for most people. And that the pursuit of virtue is the only sane course to chart in life. OS is unspeakably proud of them both.
In this Anno Domini of 2011, OS has felt keenly that the cultural ground has shifted under our feet, perhaps in some ominous direction. His friends report that same experience from different corners of the world. He notices that he spends less time writing in this blog, perhaps wishing to spend his energies more directly and face-to-face with family, colleagues, students, and friends. He has become rather less diplomatic of late, sensing that time is short, and he best say what he means while still he can.
All is not darkness, and this not a day to despair; unless of course we believe that this Vale of Tears is all there is to life, that we don't live in the context of Eternity, that if there is a God he walked away from his creation. Those folks are not only mistaken, they are doomed to hopelessness, and thence to madness and cruelty.
OS once heard a grizzled old Calvinist preacher drive home three points during a dark year of these past fifty-six. It still keeps him going, all these years later.
1. God's in charge.
2. He always finishes what he begins.
3. He never leaves himself without a witness.
That being said, OS has a birthday gift for his readers--the story of a boy from El Salvador who refused to die, refused to quit, and extraordinary people who came alongside him in his fight for his life and his future.
OS hopes his readers take a moment to read this account of tragedy, love, perseverance, generosity and ingenuity, and take the time to share it with their circle of family and friends. Hopefully, we'll each have opportunity to participate in just such an inspiring life during the time remaining to us.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
What The Heck, Let's Just Flood The World With These Fresh Dollars We Conjured Up. What Could Go Wrong?
OS didn't check the news til late afternoon--DJIA up 500 points in one freaking day.
And we thought we were all in deep doo-doo, what with most of the Western World in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars, which of course will be mathematically impossible to repay.
So, solution: Just print up some more, throw it at the stock market. That will make everything just a-o-k!
Why didn't we think of this earlier?
Well, actually, Virginia; look up 'Weimar Republic' to see what occurs from massive money printing....eventually they ended up with a little guy with a funny mustache and a messianic belief in himself. That worked out, ok, didn't it?
Well, didn't it?
And we thought we were all in deep doo-doo, what with most of the Western World in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars, which of course will be mathematically impossible to repay.
So, solution: Just print up some more, throw it at the stock market. That will make everything just a-o-k!
Why didn't we think of this earlier?
Well, actually, Virginia; look up 'Weimar Republic' to see what occurs from massive money printing....eventually they ended up with a little guy with a funny mustache and a messianic belief in himself. That worked out, ok, didn't it?
Well, didn't it?
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Judge Rakoff Tells The SEC and Citigroup He's Had Enough, Refuses To Approve One More Slap On the Wrist
As OS noted last month, the judge seems to have located his huevos.
Today's new's comes as confirmation that, indeed, he has.
From the New York Times, this evening:
Taking a broad swipe at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s practice of allowing companies to settle cases without admitting that they had done anything wrong, a federal judge on Monday rejected a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the agency.
The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of United States District Court in Manhattan, said that he could not determine whether the agency’s settlement with Citigroup was “fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest,” as required by law, because the agency had claimed, but had not proved, that Citigroup committed fraud.
As it has in recent cases involving Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and others, the agency proposed to settle the case by levying a fine on Citigroup and allowing it to neither admit nor deny the agency’s findings. Such settlements require approval by a federal judge.
While other judges are not obligated to follow Judge Rakoff’s opinion, the 15-page ruling could severely undermine the agency’s enforcement efforts if it eventually blocks the agency from settling cases in which the defendant does not admit the charges.
The agency contends that it must settle most of the cases it brings because it does not have the money or the staff to battle deep-pocketed Wall Street firms in court. Wall Street firms will rarely admit wrongdoing, the agency says, because that can be used against them in investor lawsuits.
'Well, Duh!' to quote Snookie. Beside, the lawyers at the SEC, who sheltered Bernie Madoff all those years, were too busy with their online porn to actually check to see if Citigroup were engaging in massive fraud. That would resemble...well...work! Besides, if you want a job at Citigroup or J.P. Morgan after your exhausting five years at the SEC, you best not piss those bankers off by actually doing your job.
In his decision, Judge Rakoff called Citigroup “a recidivist,” or repeat offender, for having previously settled other fraud cases with the agency where it neither admitted nor denied the allegations but agreed never to violate the law in the future.
Citigroup and other repeat offenders can agree to those terms, the judge said, because they know that the commission has not monitored compliance, failing to bring contempt charges for repeat violations in at least 10 years.
Ten years, at least ten years. No attempt to monitor compliance of known fraud artists. Billions lost, businesses and neighborhoods in ruins. Words fail.
It's time for the lawsuits and indictments, ya'll. Somebody needs to go to jail, or we need to apologize to Bernie Madoff and let him go home to Ruth and get back into business. Why the hell not? Either we prosecute massive frauds or we don't. At least, let's be honest and admit that we don't, if we don't intend to.
Here's hoping his ruling stands, and that he doesn't waken one morning with the decapitated head of a horse on the foot of his bed, left as a friendly warning about what happens to uppity judges.
Today's new's comes as confirmation that, indeed, he has.
From the New York Times, this evening:
Taking a broad swipe at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s practice of allowing companies to settle cases without admitting that they had done anything wrong, a federal judge on Monday rejected a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the agency.
The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of United States District Court in Manhattan, said that he could not determine whether the agency’s settlement with Citigroup was “fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest,” as required by law, because the agency had claimed, but had not proved, that Citigroup committed fraud.
As it has in recent cases involving Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and others, the agency proposed to settle the case by levying a fine on Citigroup and allowing it to neither admit nor deny the agency’s findings. Such settlements require approval by a federal judge.
While other judges are not obligated to follow Judge Rakoff’s opinion, the 15-page ruling could severely undermine the agency’s enforcement efforts if it eventually blocks the agency from settling cases in which the defendant does not admit the charges.
The agency contends that it must settle most of the cases it brings because it does not have the money or the staff to battle deep-pocketed Wall Street firms in court. Wall Street firms will rarely admit wrongdoing, the agency says, because that can be used against them in investor lawsuits.
'Well, Duh!' to quote Snookie. Beside, the lawyers at the SEC, who sheltered Bernie Madoff all those years, were too busy with their online porn to actually check to see if Citigroup were engaging in massive fraud. That would resemble...well...work! Besides, if you want a job at Citigroup or J.P. Morgan after your exhausting five years at the SEC, you best not piss those bankers off by actually doing your job.
In his decision, Judge Rakoff called Citigroup “a recidivist,” or repeat offender, for having previously settled other fraud cases with the agency where it neither admitted nor denied the allegations but agreed never to violate the law in the future.
Citigroup and other repeat offenders can agree to those terms, the judge said, because they know that the commission has not monitored compliance, failing to bring contempt charges for repeat violations in at least 10 years.
Ten years, at least ten years. No attempt to monitor compliance of known fraud artists. Billions lost, businesses and neighborhoods in ruins. Words fail.
It's time for the lawsuits and indictments, ya'll. Somebody needs to go to jail, or we need to apologize to Bernie Madoff and let him go home to Ruth and get back into business. Why the hell not? Either we prosecute massive frauds or we don't. At least, let's be honest and admit that we don't, if we don't intend to.
Here's hoping his ruling stands, and that he doesn't waken one morning with the decapitated head of a horse on the foot of his bed, left as a friendly warning about what happens to uppity judges.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
So, Where Does One Go To Sell Worthless Loans On To Unsuspecting Buyers
Seems the word has gotten out about the European banks--desperate for cash, with boatloads of worthless paper for sale.
Does anyone out there really believe the Euro was a good idea?
It's going to be an interesting week and month to year's end...
Does anyone out there really believe the Euro was a good idea?
It's going to be an interesting week and month to year's end...
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1863
It took an extraordinary soul to pen these words, three weeks after the dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg.
October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Why Would Anyone, Anywhere Think The EU Is Remotely Good Idea?
From the same minds that brought us the Euro, and insist it live, and freedom die:
OS asks his British cousins: Why do you not absolutely make your MP's life a living perdition until such time as Parliament votes to withdraw from the EU--immediately?
Why did your parents' and grandparents' (and great-grandparents') generation make such frightful sacrifices?
For this? Life under the thumb of Brussels and the banksters?
Really?
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact (that water consumption prevents dehydration).
Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.
Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.
“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.
“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”
OS asks his British cousins: Why do you not absolutely make your MP's life a living perdition until such time as Parliament votes to withdraw from the EU--immediately?
Why did your parents' and grandparents' (and great-grandparents') generation make such frightful sacrifices?
For this? Life under the thumb of Brussels and the banksters?
Really?
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