Wextrust Ponzi scam US Securities and Exchange Commission

Here we go. Evidence of a "Ponzi" scheme. "Wextrust entities, alleging that defendants conducted a massive Ponzi-type scheme from 2005 or earlier that raised approximately $255 million from approximately 1,200 investors."

The case will take months or years to resolve.

Bird and Fortune on the financial crisis

Bird and Fortune on the Subprime Crisis : for anyone who is feeling uncertain or confused about the inner workings of the financial markets.

Open letter to an MP on the Toxic Asset question

No apologies for continuing to bang on about the derivatives market, because it is a disease at the heart of the financial system. If the toxins cannot be withdrawn from the financial system, they threaten to bring down the banks, which will turn a 2 year recession into a 10 year depression. War might figure among the many adverse results of that. So here is a letter containing a way forward on the toxic assets problem. If you broadly agree with it, please copy, amend (some parts are specific to my situation), and send it to our own MP or representative.


... MP
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA




Many thanks for your letter of 09 October, and for your succinct resume of the position with the financial crisis.

However, you did not address the question in my letter, which is how we might draw the “toxic assets” out of the financial system. I am concerned that Government should use the breathing space that its bailout has obtained to take action to contain and if possible deflate the bubble of toxic assets created in the derivatives market.

In my previous letter I mentioned a figure of $1.14 quadrillion as the total “value” of the derivatives market, but on further research was unable to trace the source of this figure. However the Bank for International Settlements gives a figure of $596 trillion in December 1997*, which is about ten times the amount of foreign debt owed by every country in the world. The derivatives market may well have doubled in the ten subsequent months. This is an absurd amount, psychotic in the sense that it is a notion completely divorced from economic reality.

It is unconscionable that the “products” of a tiny handful of financial gamblers and gamesters should endanger the livelihood of everyone in the world. It is therefor an urgent necessary to examine these products in detail in order to verify that they are in fact based on valid and legal trading principles. One general point is that the people who created these instruments have been behaving as companies, but have been operating outside of company law. In particular, they must be examined to find out whether at least some of them amount to Ponzi schemes, which are illegal. If they are found to be illegal, the debts that they represent can be repudiated by the banks, which might help to stabilise the financial system and save billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

Mr Paulson is quoted as saying that he wanted to "kill the bad hedge funds and heavily regulate the rest." However, it is noticable that the “cash for trash” component of his TARP seems to have slid down the agenda, presumably because he recognises that the sheer magnitude of the TA problem would overwhelm the resources of the US Government.

Willem Buiter, inter alia, has suggested that a Toxic Asset Dump, TAD, should be set up, to act as a receiving and clearing house for institutions who have doubts about whether they still wish to hold them on their books. In this institution the value – or otherwise – of the “assets” can be analysed, and their legality – or otherwise – can be assessed. From what we learn in the TAD, ways and means can be devised to subject toxic derivatives to a controlled deflation.

The details of the exact scope and powers of this institution can be finalised by the statesmen and their financial regulators, but the central principle is to bring the derivatives market to account. Some banks, unsure of the validity of their derivatives holdings, might be grateful for the opportunity to subject their holdings to an objective audit, especially if they thought that there was a chance that the debt implicit in them might be cancelled if they were to be found to be illegal. At a second level of regulation, banks should be required to file the details of their holdings in specified derivatives, particularly the CDS. Confidentiality might be offered if there was a perception that knowledge of their holdings might endanger their standing in the markets. At a third level of regulation, all derivative holdings might be required to be registered with the TAD.

Given the globalised nature of the financial markets, it would seem best to set the TAD up at World Bank or IMF level, but the UK could forge ahead with a pilot scheme in order to speed up the process.

I would be very grateful if you would transmit this letter to the Treasury for an answer, or preferably ask a question about the Government’s plans to contain the derivatives market in the House.

Please also raise the question in Conservative Party circles, and especially to find the opinion of specialists in Company Law about the Ponzi aspect of some of these trades.

I hope that you will not mind that I send this as an open letter. This is not from any motive of political competition, but because these matters are so serious that any measures that will increase the chance of this proposal to be taken up must be used.


With many thanks

Yours sincerely

There is a deer in the garden

There is a deer in the garden, munching the fallen Bramleys. He moved deliberately, like a dancer. Seeing me, he treated me to a full frontal stare, the only movement an occasional licking of the lips. Judging me to be relatively harmless, he returned to hoovering up the apples. I approached slowly when his head was down. He stopped and looked again, and then (this is what I was waiting for) made a swift exit up the slope and over the fence, his movements an expression of easily contained power, with magical, Nureyev style slowness in mid leap.

Refreshed, I came back in and sat down in front to the screen to learn more about derivatives.

Where Do We Go From Here? John Mauldin's Prescription

Helpful article here from John Mauldin::

"We have dodged a huge bullet. But the anguish this has put the credit markets through the past month was avoidable. The CDS markets MUST be made to migrate to a regulated clearing entity like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Next week would be a good time."

That'll do me. Not in the slightest unreasonable.

Robert Peston mentions the Hedge Fund problem

Robert Peston reports that Mr Paulson (G Warming Bush's Treasury Secretary) said he wanted to "kill the bad Hedge Funds and heavily regulate the rest."

This is because the astronomical "value" of these funds threatens to overwhelm the financial system by multiplying the losses as and when institutions fall over. Which is why Paulson wanted to try to buy toxic assets with his pitiful $700 billion of taxpayers' hard earned, which amounts to less than 1% of the total "value". We do not seem to hear so much about this idea this week.

A better use of the money, both here and in the US, would be to use tax money to buy up unpayable mortgages at a fair price, based on the replacement value of the house, weighted by a factor related to its age, site and condition. That way, the money is spent into the real economy instead of la-la land, the householders get to keep a roof over their heads, local authorities get to save costs of housing homeless families, (it costs 10x as much to keep people in B&B than it does to build a house for them)and the threat to the banks from mortgage defaults is averted (though the banks are going to lose something from inflated mortgages. Shed a tear).

And it is official Green Party policy - Right to Rent.

Nice cartoon

Nice cartoon here from GlobeCartoons

Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence

I have just had word from QUNO on the Review Summit on the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence (Sept 12th, better late than never)

"Ministers and representatives from 42 countries,representing all the world’s regions, have gathered in Geneva and have resolved to promote sustainable security and a culture of peace by taking action to reduce armed violence and its negative impact on socio-economic and human development...We will work individually and together, at national, regional and multilateral levels, on practical measures that:
... stem the proliferation, illegal trafficking and misuse of small arms and light weapons and ammunition".

Note this bit: "We will work ... together, at national, regional and multilateral levels, on practical measures that:
... stem the proliferation, illegal trafficking and misuse of ... ammunition"

Cool. They must have been reading this. And also following the Green Party's resolution at our last conference:

Ammunition Motion

Synopsis

The Peace and Defence section specifies our opposition to the arms trade. This motion strengthens that opposition by specifying how we can more effectively reduce the arms trade by concentrating on transfers of ammunition. Small arms are metallic goods that can be easily hidden. They have no distinctive smell, apart from the oil that coats them, which is indistinguishable from the smell of any other machinery. Investigators have to make a visual or X ray inspection to confirm that a package contains armaments rather than common machinery. On the other hand, armaments are no better than highly expensive clubs without ammunition, and ammunition has two give-away characteristics: its odour, and the precursors needed to make them.


Insert new PD418 and renumber

PD418 The production, caching, and transport of ammunition can be more easily controlled than that of arms as it has a distinctive odour. Sniffer dogs are routinely trained to identify the presence of explosives and ammunition. Countries and agencies that invest in more sniffer dogs can more easily prevent the transfer of these lethal products across their borders. They could also use the dogs to lead searches for ammunitions caches in the interior, and for ammunition factories.

PD419 In order to produce ammunition, a manufacturer needs to obtain large quantities of certain chemicals. The Green Party will require that these chemicals to be put on a register, so that purchasers will have to give information about where and for what they will be used. In this way, the production of illicit ammunition will be made more difficult.


Another letter to Government is called for.

Derivatives Detox

Letter to Guardian

Your leader, (Bonfire of the certainties Oct 14th) is dazzlingly clear and accurate in its diagnosis and prescriptions. You are right to say that new financial products must be approved by the regulators, in the same way as new pharmaceutical products must be approved. To take the analogy a step further, if the health service becomes aware that a new drug has toxic side effects, it is taken off the market. Derivatives, particularly Credit Default Swaps, have toxic side effects to the financial blood stream, not least in destroying trust. And they are infectious. If a corporation succumbs, out of its corpse crawls a Hydra of claims against the gamblers who made the wrong call on that corporation’s health. Ironically, given that some claim to act as insurance policies, they have the property of multiplying debt and magnifying risk. The magnification is so big that the total “value” of the derivatives sector is more than $596 trillion, which is about ten times the amount of foreign debt owed by every country in the world. This is an absurd amount, psychotic in the sense that it is a notion completely divorced from reality. It is unconscionable that the “products” of a tiny handful of financial gamblers and gamesters should endanger the livelihood of everyone in the world. The financial instruments that they have produced and profited from now threaten the financial system with a tsunami of odious debt. They must therefore be withdrawn from the financial market if that market is to survive. This is not going to be quite so easy as taking a drug off the market, but it can be done.

First, their legality should be carefully reviewed, both in general and also in particular instances. In general, the people creating these instruments have been behaving as companies, but have been operating outside of company law. Second, an institution, (Willem Buiter suggested it should be called a Toxic Asset Dump, TAD), should be set up, to act as a receiving and clearing house for institutions who have doubts about whether they still wish to hold them on their books. In this institution the value – or otherwise – of the “assets” can be analysed, and their legality – or otherwise – can be assessed. From what we learn in the TAD, ways and means can be devised to subject toxic derivatives to a controlled deflation.

Brown and Darling deserve credit in that their actions have stabilised the banks for a time. They must now use this time to take action to defuse the derivatives time bomb.

BANKS TO LEND YOU YOUR OWN MONEY - The Daily Mash

The Daily Mash: "Julian Cook, chief economist at Corbett and Barker, said: 'The government will give your money to the banks so the banks can start lending you that money, probably at around 7% APR.

'Thanks to all the interest you're paying on your own money, the banks will make billions of pounds again and normality will be restored."

My comment: "There's sensible"

There is no evidence of human-induced financial crisis

There is no evidence of human-induced financial crisis according to this blog, which rejoices in the name of "Crikey". My first thought, like yours, no doubt, was that it was the blog of the highly respected and gaffe-proof Boris Johnson, but no, it is a serious political item.

Here is an excerpt: The financial environment moves through cycles unrelated to human activity. Financial records from the distant past demonstrate that key indices have previously been much lower than they are today, and move up and down of their own accord. Man’s contribution to these movements is dwarfed by the natural rise and fall of markets.

The following graph shows that the long-term financial trend is -- inconveniently for crisis fanatics -- resolutely upwards: &c.

Blimey! Or should that be, Crikey! What a fool I have been, concerning myself with the so-called financial crisis. Clearly, this is all a conspiracy by the Socialists to take over the banking system.

It will all be alright. Look, here is evidence: the Telegraph has a piece saying "Greed is still Good" So that's all right then. We can all relax and go back to sleep. Tomorrow we will wake up and it will all be alright.

Toxic Assets: Neutralising the Poison

I have today sent the letter pasted below to the Chancellor.

Please feel free to copy, amend (if wished) and post it to him also, and to spread it among your friends' lists. Only if they get multiple mailings will it penetrate through the rings of defence to reach the Chancellor himself. A copy to your MP will help.

There is something we can do about this crisis. We are not just passive spectators. The economics community is paralysed, and solutions are hard to find.

Right to Rent and Green New Deal are further measures we can press on the Treasury as the recession deepens.




-------------------------------------------------------------------

Rt. Hon Alistair Darling MP

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Correspondence & Enquiry Unit

2/W1 HM Treasury

1 Horse Guards Road

London SW1A 2HQ







Dear Mr Darling

We congratulate you on the adoption of the UK approach to the financial crisis by the G7 and IMF. We welcome the Treasury’s support for banks with £50 billion of part-nationalisation, which gains for the State a much needed influence on the banking sector. We support further bank partial nationalisation, but find it regrettable that the shares purchased were non-voting. We welcome the decision to regulate CEO bonuses, and point to the opportunity to reform and regulate many other dysfunctional banking practices at this time. We welcome the further £200 billion of short term investment to try to ensure liquidity, noting that it may bring in an income from interest.

In purchasing shares in banks, HMG is gaining influence. We would advise that as part of that in influence that the Government would reserve the right to levy a small charge on current accounts. This may prove to be a useful instrument in case it is needed to increase the velocity of circulation of money in the coming months or years.

On the other hand, we are opposed to any attempt directly to buy the “toxic assets” that are poisoning the banking system, as in the Paulson plan. This is a high-risk strategy that will probably result in a futile waste of taxpayers’ money.

We oppose purchase of Toxic Assets for the following reasons:

1. It is opposed to natural justice, in that money is flowing from the taxpayer to may for the mistakes of the rich elite.

2. It carries a moral hazard in that in insulates financiers from accepting responsibility for, and learning from their mistakes

3. There are opportunity costs, in that money would better be spent in the real economy, applying a Right to Rent policy for homeowners who cannot afford their mortgages, and the Green New Deal, which is needed to address the triple threats of recession, peak oil and climate change.

4. There is a probability of corrupt and/or sophisticated diversion of the monies away from their original purpose. We learn that the agents who will administer Paulson’s bailout stand to gain $7 billion for their work.

5. There is no certainty of the efficacy of trying to purchase the toxins out of the system. There is no sign yet of the Paulson Bailout having stabilised Wall St, and though it may work through, our judgment is that it will postpone, not prevent, the full collapse of the stock markets.

6. The magnitude of these toxic assets is beyond the capacity of any agency, even the World Bank , to buy off. We see from the BIS that the total value of OTC derivatives outstanding derivatives reached $596 trillion in December 2007, and I sprobably greater now. The derivatives market has created a debt greater than the total foreign debt owed by all nations. Clearly it is impossible for any government or even the World Bank to purchase these derivatives out of the banking system. Yet if they remain in the system, they will continue to poison confidence between banks.

This is an extraordinary threat caused by an extraordinary problem, and it therefore requires extraordinary remedies.

Point 5 of the G7 plan is to “Take action, where appropriate, to restart the secondary markets for mortgages and other securitized assets. Accurate valuation and transparent disclosure of assets and consistent implementation of high quality accounting standards are necessary”.

In order to achieve this aim, the World Bank (or other appropriate international body) should authorise the creation of a repository for these toxic “assets”, which Prof. Willem Buiter has suggested should be termed a Toxic Asset Dump (TAD). Buiter suggests purchase of these “assets”, but we consider that viewed as a whole, they have no real value, and indeed have a negative value in their effect on confidence in the system.

Any bank holding such assets will be permitted, encouraged and in some cases required, to file them with the TAD repository, paying only an administration fee.

The concept is to have an amnesty for these assets. They will be sidelined, taken out of circulation. Once thus stabilised, they can be studied by accountants and academic economists. If it emerges that there is real value in some of them, the banks that handed them in may receive some repayment, though some will be go back to the taxpayer in payment for the expense that they have borne as a result of the errors and misjudgments of the banking system.

Initially, the concept is a free, voluntary submission of unwanted TAs held by banks. It may be that a more complex system will be evolved, depending on the rating of each asset. Clearly there is an enormous amount of detail to be added to this concept before it can be rolled out, but we hope that the concept itself will be adopted by the British Government.

The principle underlying this plan is the doctrine of Odious Debt. It can also be justified in the Abrahamic religions in terms of Jubilee.

We believe that this concept offers a way to draw the toxic assets out of the financial system.

We hope that the minds of your advisers will be open to build on this concept.

Yours sincerely

Soros support for Green New Deal

Nice quote in support of the Green New Deal here from George Soros:

We've had the American consumer acting as the motor of the world economy and that is what is coming to an end... [We] need a new motor. And I believe we have a tremenous challenge with global warming, where you need to make tremendous investment to reduce carbon emissions... The investments necessary to avoid global warming could replace the excess consumption by the U.S. consumer as the motor of the world economy.