Today, the SEC asked Berkshire Hathaway's General Re unit to provide information related to insurance products aimed at mitigating financial losses. Hmm, and the purpose of purchasing insurance would be exactly what if not to mitigate loss in the financial sense?
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Monday, December 20, 2004
At Powerline as Hindrocket told Time magazine, "The world is full of smart people who have information about every imaginable topic, and until the Internet came along, there wasn't any practical way to put it together."
The distributed nature of the blogsphere yields intelligence that is successful at rates that vanquish verticality in the Intelligence Services, viz. National Director of Intelligence. Give 100 groups 5 Million $ each for a year. Allow them to freely and securely communicate amongst themselves and see what they come up with. The 500Million cost is less than one tenth of one percent of the budget of Department of Defense when the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan are added in. A mere bagatelle. At the end of the year cull nonperforming groups and add those which seem, in light of the recent product of the distributed groups, promising.
It is the outcome of Rathergate, which took 24 hours to unmask in the distributed blogsphere, that is wanted and not a vertical system which couldn't respond to islamofacists who wanted to fly but not land.
The distributed nature of the blogsphere yields intelligence that is successful at rates that vanquish verticality in the Intelligence Services, viz. National Director of Intelligence. Give 100 groups 5 Million $ each for a year. Allow them to freely and securely communicate amongst themselves and see what they come up with. The 500Million cost is less than one tenth of one percent of the budget of Department of Defense when the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan are added in. A mere bagatelle. At the end of the year cull nonperforming groups and add those which seem, in light of the recent product of the distributed groups, promising.
It is the outcome of Rathergate, which took 24 hours to unmask in the distributed blogsphere, that is wanted and not a vertical system which couldn't respond to islamofacists who wanted to fly but not land.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Co-Optation for Peace
Maybe we could co opt the islamofacist agenda. Say we begin with 4$/gallon gas that contains an additional $1.5 in state and federal tax, tailored/incentivised to reduce deficits and fund entitlement programs Simultaneously, disarm the grand instigator, Israel, of her nukes. Remove, in a flash, the raison-d-etre of the mullah's and sheikh's need to go nuclear. Likely you'd see less gas consumption, more outsourcing, more globalization, morbetter air, morbetter information technologies. Ayman and Osama and their friends die miserable deaths in this example. Same treatment for that small percentage ofIsraelites who will never make peace, they must be exterminated because it is in the interest of peace...killing the israelofacists is just as necessary as killing the islamofacists. Tell that to cBS. Isn't it in the interest of peace to bring Israel to the UN along with Iran. certainly that approach seems to be less costly in terms of lives lost. As long as we don't see the need to bring Israel to heel in a nuclear free zone we will never constrain those wacky mullahs.
Maybe we could co opt the islamofacist agenda. Say we begin with 4$/gallon gas that contains an additional $1.5 in state and federal tax, tailored/incentivised to reduce deficits and fund entitlement programs Simultaneously, disarm the grand instigator, Israel, of her nukes. Remove, in a flash, the raison-d-etre of the mullah's and sheikh's need to go nuclear. Likely you'd see less gas consumption, more outsourcing, more globalization, morbetter air, morbetter information technologies. Ayman and Osama and their friends die miserable deaths in this example. Same treatment for that small percentage ofIsraelites who will never make peace, they must be exterminated because it is in the interest of peace...killing the israelofacists is just as necessary as killing the islamofacists. Tell that to cBS. Isn't it in the interest of peace to bring Israel to the UN along with Iran. certainly that approach seems to be less costly in terms of lives lost. As long as we don't see the need to bring Israel to heel in a nuclear free zone we will never constrain those wacky mullahs.
Monday, November 15, 2004
Outcome Based Management
Also known as smoothing. FNM records 9 Billion loss that was previously hidden. FRE records 5 Billion in gains also previously hidden.
We can see that as a result of a major circle jerk in mortgage-backed derivatives that FNM has BLOWN 4 Billion (9-5).
Does that = Musical Chairs over? Is it time to rip the guts out of bonds? Suggest the prudent investor start with U$D bonds.
Also known as smoothing. FNM records 9 Billion loss that was previously hidden. FRE records 5 Billion in gains also previously hidden.
We can see that as a result of a major circle jerk in mortgage-backed derivatives that FNM has BLOWN 4 Billion (9-5).
Does that = Musical Chairs over? Is it time to rip the guts out of bonds? Suggest the prudent investor start with U$D bonds.
Monday, August 23, 2004
The Nuclear Race Is Almost Over
In 2001 Rafsanjani lost his cool at Friday prayers: "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the traditional Friday prayers in Tehran.
Mr Rafsanjani's pre-revolutionary credentials earned him a place among the trusted advisers of Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He established himself as a powerful figure soon after the revolution as co-founder of the Islamic Republican Party. The party played a major role in Iranian politics until its disbandment in 1987 following internal wrangling over policy.
Mr Rafsanjani was Majlis speaker from 1980-89. In the last year of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, Ayatollah Khomeini appointed him acting commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
He is seen as the main influence behind Ayatollah Khomeini's acceptance of the UN Security Council resolution which ended the war.
Well folks, it appears that Iran has been sprinting toward a nuclear device, then cloning their new weapon. A Q Kahn, father of the Islam Bomb goes unpunished in Pakistan ( only an Afghanistan away ). Remember when militant Islam went unpunished by Carter, Reagan, Clinton?
The Lunatic Fringe takes its responsibility to come from a different angle with utmost respect. In that view: we wish to posit that nuclear exchange is quite imminent.
Who fires first is unknown but certainly one is coming. Iran's nuclear weapons program is buried in multiple diffuse sites domestically. Israel will not allow the situation to develop wherein Iran is a missle based nuclear power. Certainly not. Israelis pray that the good 'ole USofA will go in. But Israelis may be mercy to successes in Iran's nuclear weapons program. They cannot afford to miss all these hardned underground bunkers with conventional smart bombs. 20% of the bunkers survive and it's curtains for the Jews in Israel.
Israel will nuke Iran and maybe Pakistan just as soon as those wacky ayatollas get their wish: a nuclear bomb.
After that Israel will be down to just a couple hundred nukes.
In 2001 Rafsanjani lost his cool at Friday prayers: "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the traditional Friday prayers in Tehran.
Mr Rafsanjani's pre-revolutionary credentials earned him a place among the trusted advisers of Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He established himself as a powerful figure soon after the revolution as co-founder of the Islamic Republican Party. The party played a major role in Iranian politics until its disbandment in 1987 following internal wrangling over policy.
Mr Rafsanjani was Majlis speaker from 1980-89. In the last year of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, Ayatollah Khomeini appointed him acting commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
He is seen as the main influence behind Ayatollah Khomeini's acceptance of the UN Security Council resolution which ended the war.
Well folks, it appears that Iran has been sprinting toward a nuclear device, then cloning their new weapon. A Q Kahn, father of the Islam Bomb goes unpunished in Pakistan ( only an Afghanistan away ). Remember when militant Islam went unpunished by Carter, Reagan, Clinton?
The Lunatic Fringe takes its responsibility to come from a different angle with utmost respect. In that view: we wish to posit that nuclear exchange is quite imminent.
Who fires first is unknown but certainly one is coming. Iran's nuclear weapons program is buried in multiple diffuse sites domestically. Israel will not allow the situation to develop wherein Iran is a missle based nuclear power. Certainly not. Israelis pray that the good 'ole USofA will go in. But Israelis may be mercy to successes in Iran's nuclear weapons program. They cannot afford to miss all these hardned underground bunkers with conventional smart bombs. 20% of the bunkers survive and it's curtains for the Jews in Israel.
Israel will nuke Iran and maybe Pakistan just as soon as those wacky ayatollas get their wish: a nuclear bomb.
After that Israel will be down to just a couple hundred nukes.
Friday, March 19, 2004
"Viruses are faster spreading, they're more complex in their payloads and the way the affect machines," Mr. Bridwell said. "When a virus like Slammer can affect the globe in less than 10 minutes, it's almost impossible for antivirus products or humans to react fast enough."
This from an article on the new mo' betta' virulence of computer viruses in today's WSJ: Damage Caused by Viruses
Rose Last Year, Survey Finds
By RIVA RICHMOND
It struck me like science fiction. A fortelling of our world to come, as genetics leaves infancy. You know, the terror to come. Maybe Bush was kinda prescient about the importance of manned travel to Mars.
This from an article on the new mo' betta' virulence of computer viruses in today's WSJ: Damage Caused by Viruses
Rose Last Year, Survey Finds
By RIVA RICHMOND
It struck me like science fiction. A fortelling of our world to come, as genetics leaves infancy. You know, the terror to come. Maybe Bush was kinda prescient about the importance of manned travel to Mars.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
The Right Amount
Civil law judgements against wall st investment banks, specialists ( many owned by same investment banks ) & mutual fund companies amount to several billion U$D. This is just scratching the surface of the lemon. For decades as an independent trader, I paid mostly 1c per share. It is true that concurrently the big boys, the mutual fund investors, with real clout were paying ~5c per share on several trillions of shares per year for many years. This was business as usual, custom and usage and all that that implies. Convenient that the costs of research were shifted by fund managers to investors as commissions through soft dollar arrangements. These costs were genuine costs of business for managers and advisors --a cost of doing business surreptitiously shifted to the mutual fund consumer (us). Isn't it the case that by paying 5x what was avaliable to an ordinary professional participant ( me ), that the 4c per share is forfeit from the fund management companies in favor of their client shareholders? Next to the question of treble damages....Serious Dough.
Civil law judgements against wall st investment banks, specialists ( many owned by same investment banks ) & mutual fund companies amount to several billion U$D. This is just scratching the surface of the lemon. For decades as an independent trader, I paid mostly 1c per share. It is true that concurrently the big boys, the mutual fund investors, with real clout were paying ~5c per share on several trillions of shares per year for many years. This was business as usual, custom and usage and all that that implies. Convenient that the costs of research were shifted by fund managers to investors as commissions through soft dollar arrangements. These costs were genuine costs of business for managers and advisors --a cost of doing business surreptitiously shifted to the mutual fund consumer (us). Isn't it the case that by paying 5x what was avaliable to an ordinary professional participant ( me ), that the 4c per share is forfeit from the fund management companies in favor of their client shareholders? Next to the question of treble damages....Serious Dough.
Monday, March 15, 2004
Kerry for President?
March 8 media sez Kerry was told by heads of state that he had their vote, White house responds promptly, asking for specifics and Kerry's people are silent. Then come's the Boston Globe reporter for political reporting saying the transcription was bungled and "foreign" leaders was in fact "more" leaders...This took place late in the day on 15 March ( the Ides of March ) one week after the story broke. Was Patric Healey fishing in the Artic Circle?...was he in a coma?... what took Kerry's people so long to corral this local boy?? is the question that niggles. Is this any indication of the focus or lack of focus on the part of Kerry's campaign and can we expect a more favorable alacrity in a Kerry administration?
March 8 media sez Kerry was told by heads of state that he had their vote, White house responds promptly, asking for specifics and Kerry's people are silent. Then come's the Boston Globe reporter for political reporting saying the transcription was bungled and "foreign" leaders was in fact "more" leaders...This took place late in the day on 15 March ( the Ides of March ) one week after the story broke. Was Patric Healey fishing in the Artic Circle?...was he in a coma?... what took Kerry's people so long to corral this local boy?? is the question that niggles. Is this any indication of the focus or lack of focus on the part of Kerry's campaign and can we expect a more favorable alacrity in a Kerry administration?
Friday, February 27, 2004
Add Back the Legal Fees: Interesting juxtaposition of articles in today's Wall Street Journal.
Grasso Lawyers, NYSE Exchange Letters
By KATE KELLY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The attorney representing former New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso has penned a strongly-worded letter to the Big Board, stating that he has no plans to return the $139.5 million retirement pay that forced his departure last fall, according to exchange representatives.
The letter, written by Williams & Connolly trial lawyer Brendan V. Sullivan, was first reported this morning by The Washington Post and the Financial Times. In it, according to published reports, Mr. Sullivan states that Mr. Grasso "has no intention of returning any portion of his compensation to the Exchange," and that "if the Exchange believes it has a valid claim, it should file it, rather than conducting a campaign through the press…in an attempt to pressure Mr. Grasso."
Mr. Sullivan's letter, which was sent yesterday, was in response to a Feb. 12 letter written by interim Big Board chairman John Reed, demanding that Mr. Grasso, who left under pressure last September amid an outcry over his compensation package, return $120 million of the nest egg to the exchange, according to the representatives. Mr. Reed wasn't immediately available for comment, and a spokesman for the Big Board had no comment.
The correspondence highlights the fact that despite referring its investigation of how Mr. Grasso's pay was set and given out to state and federal regulators last month, NYSE officials -- namely Mr. Reed -- are still working to take back some or all of Mr. Grasso's nearly $140 million compensation. On Jan. 8, the NYSE board voted to pass a report prepared by former prosecutor Dan K. Webb on Mr. Grasso's compensation on to both New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether state not-for-profit laws (under which the NYSE is incorporated) or federal securities laws were violated.
At issue is not only the $139.5 million that Mr. Grasso received last year, but an additional $57.7 million he believes he is owed -- $48 million in future retirement pay that he was contractually slated to receive, and another $9.7 million in severance pay that would be due him if his ouster were deemed tantamount to being fired.
Until recently, NYSE officials had remained largely silent on the compensation flap, despite Mr. Reed's past statements that the pay flap was "an embarrassment" to the exchange that he would try to resolve. But earlier this week, in his first pointed comment on the Grasso pay dispute, newly-installed NYSE chief executive John Thain said that he would like the NYSE to obtain a "very substantial return" of the "excessive" payout made to Mr. Grasso. Mr. Thain has refused to elaborate on the NYSE's plans to take back any of the pay, beyond saying in previous meetings with reporters that the exchange would cooperate with the regulators who are involved.
Write to Kate Kelly at kate.kelly@wsj.com
Updated February 27, 2004 1:21 p.m.
AND:
Freddie Mac Paid Parseghian,
Ex-CEO, $19.4 Million for Job
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -- Freddie Mac, the mortgage powerhouse under investigation for possible securities violations, paid Gregory Parseghian roughly $19.4 million in salary, cash bonuses, stock and other compensation for his six-month stint as chief executive of the company.
Mr. Parseghian stepped in as CEO in early June 2003, after Freddie's board forced out the company's top three executives amid an accounting scandal that resulted in a massive reaudit and net increase in earnings for 2000 through 2002 of $5.1 billion.
But the company's primary regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, started calling for his removal in August after investigations revealed his involvement in many of the most egregious accounting abuses, while he ran the company's investment strategy.
New data released by the company Friday show that Freddie rewarded Mr. Parseghian and others handsomely for helping to steer the company out of its current crisis.
Richard Syron, who succeeded Mr. Parseghian in the top spot at the beginning of the year, was awarded $8.8 million in restricted stock and just over $100,000 in other compensation in 2003.
Freddie also disclosed that it has paid about $2.2 million in legal fees for current and former employees who have provided testimony in regard to the numerous lawsuits and federal investigations affecting the company and its executives.
Write to Dow Jones Newswires editors at djnews@dowjones.com
Updated February 27, 2004 11:16 a.m.
I think Grasso got ~139 Millions for 8 years; At Parseghian's rate over 8 years we're talking 310 millions. Again Grasso is working cheap!
The contributor wishes to point out that as of this posting he had no position in the shares of Mr Grasso. But wishes he did.
Grasso Lawyers, NYSE Exchange Letters
By KATE KELLY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The attorney representing former New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso has penned a strongly-worded letter to the Big Board, stating that he has no plans to return the $139.5 million retirement pay that forced his departure last fall, according to exchange representatives.
The letter, written by Williams & Connolly trial lawyer Brendan V. Sullivan, was first reported this morning by The Washington Post and the Financial Times. In it, according to published reports, Mr. Sullivan states that Mr. Grasso "has no intention of returning any portion of his compensation to the Exchange," and that "if the Exchange believes it has a valid claim, it should file it, rather than conducting a campaign through the press…in an attempt to pressure Mr. Grasso."
Mr. Sullivan's letter, which was sent yesterday, was in response to a Feb. 12 letter written by interim Big Board chairman John Reed, demanding that Mr. Grasso, who left under pressure last September amid an outcry over his compensation package, return $120 million of the nest egg to the exchange, according to the representatives. Mr. Reed wasn't immediately available for comment, and a spokesman for the Big Board had no comment.
The correspondence highlights the fact that despite referring its investigation of how Mr. Grasso's pay was set and given out to state and federal regulators last month, NYSE officials -- namely Mr. Reed -- are still working to take back some or all of Mr. Grasso's nearly $140 million compensation. On Jan. 8, the NYSE board voted to pass a report prepared by former prosecutor Dan K. Webb on Mr. Grasso's compensation on to both New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether state not-for-profit laws (under which the NYSE is incorporated) or federal securities laws were violated.
At issue is not only the $139.5 million that Mr. Grasso received last year, but an additional $57.7 million he believes he is owed -- $48 million in future retirement pay that he was contractually slated to receive, and another $9.7 million in severance pay that would be due him if his ouster were deemed tantamount to being fired.
Until recently, NYSE officials had remained largely silent on the compensation flap, despite Mr. Reed's past statements that the pay flap was "an embarrassment" to the exchange that he would try to resolve. But earlier this week, in his first pointed comment on the Grasso pay dispute, newly-installed NYSE chief executive John Thain said that he would like the NYSE to obtain a "very substantial return" of the "excessive" payout made to Mr. Grasso. Mr. Thain has refused to elaborate on the NYSE's plans to take back any of the pay, beyond saying in previous meetings with reporters that the exchange would cooperate with the regulators who are involved.
Write to Kate Kelly at kate.kelly@wsj.com
Updated February 27, 2004 1:21 p.m.
AND:
Freddie Mac Paid Parseghian,
Ex-CEO, $19.4 Million for Job
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -- Freddie Mac, the mortgage powerhouse under investigation for possible securities violations, paid Gregory Parseghian roughly $19.4 million in salary, cash bonuses, stock and other compensation for his six-month stint as chief executive of the company.
Mr. Parseghian stepped in as CEO in early June 2003, after Freddie's board forced out the company's top three executives amid an accounting scandal that resulted in a massive reaudit and net increase in earnings for 2000 through 2002 of $5.1 billion.
But the company's primary regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, started calling for his removal in August after investigations revealed his involvement in many of the most egregious accounting abuses, while he ran the company's investment strategy.
New data released by the company Friday show that Freddie rewarded Mr. Parseghian and others handsomely for helping to steer the company out of its current crisis.
Richard Syron, who succeeded Mr. Parseghian in the top spot at the beginning of the year, was awarded $8.8 million in restricted stock and just over $100,000 in other compensation in 2003.
Freddie also disclosed that it has paid about $2.2 million in legal fees for current and former employees who have provided testimony in regard to the numerous lawsuits and federal investigations affecting the company and its executives.
Write to Dow Jones Newswires editors at djnews@dowjones.com
Updated February 27, 2004 11:16 a.m.
I think Grasso got ~139 Millions for 8 years; At Parseghian's rate over 8 years we're talking 310 millions. Again Grasso is working cheap!
The contributor wishes to point out that as of this posting he had no position in the shares of Mr Grasso. But wishes he did.
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