"But perhaps the most stunning piece of news we're getting in the wake of the MF Global collapse is in the clients of the firm who managed to get away scot-free, with no freezing of accounts or capital -- particularly the accounts of the mega-cap independent oil company Koch Industries, run by the politically active Koch brothers.
A recent report in Reuters has described the billions of dollars of client accounts that were withdrawn from MF Global in the last few weeks before their collapse, including 8 accounts from Koch industries engaged in oil trade that were transferred to Mizuho Securities after years of a steady and profitable relationship with MF.
Both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were charged with overseeing MF Global, their clearing member. If we are to believe them, they had no idea of any difficulties within the firm before customer accounts went missing just a few days before the collapse.
But someone clearly knew of the cratering positions and imminent collapse of MF Global, as billions of dollars of accounts were "coincidentally" withdrawn. And what do the Koch brothers say was the reason for these withdrawals? There's been no comment."
Daniel Dicker,
MF Global and the Koch Brothers: Friends to the End, Huffington Post, Nov. 11, 2011
"There are numerous vested interests on Wall Street, in Washington, and in the corporate conglomerates who see nothing wrong in distorting information, 'spinning the news,' and sometimes even outright lying, when it comes to reporting on the economic situation. They are promoting a story, and often an agenda. They hide behind the safe harbor provisions of the law, and the subjective aspects of economics. They use euphemisms such as 'talking your book' to describe calculated deception.
The financial media accepts it, condones it, and does it themselves. As one financial news anchor, said shortly after the tech stock bubble collapsed in 2002, 'Of course market strategists and analysts lie. Everyone knows that. But no one made people buy those stocks.'
Straight news reporting is less seen in the mainstream media these days, since solid investigative journalism is considered too costly to the corporate management. Much cheaper to allow paid shills to take scripted shots at one another, in the manner of professional wrestling. This is how the voters are informed, and how public policy is shaped. And when it comes to economics, the establishment is firmly in control of the message. The selection of guests is carefully scripted to support a point of view."
Jesse, 9 July 2010
JPM announced the 'rescue' of First Republic Bank this morning, in a takeover subsidized by the FDIC.
I believe this is the third bank failure in the past four weeks.
The better than expected ISM Manufacturing numbers this morning helped throw the markets into a sharp reversal.
Gold and silver managed a fairly impressive intraday wash and rinse.
The Dollar shifted into rally mode.
Stocks had another ranging day but managed to finished mostly unchanged.
This may be a data driven week, with the Fed's latest rate decision on
Wednesday afternoon, and the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.
The corruption at the Supreme Court is almost on a par with the financial corruption and insider trading at the Fed.
The oligarchy is audacious.
Have a pleasant evening.
