Masters of the Universe category archive
Dustbiter 0
The masters of the universe continue to upend themselves. There’s one fewer bank tonight.
Shed no tears for
I Expect that Nothing Will Come of This 0
The New York-based bank said in a regulatory filing that it is responding to investigations by the civil and criminal divisions of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California. In May, the civil division informed JPMorgan that it had “preliminarily concluded” that the bank had violated federal securities laws in connection with certain mortgage-backed investments it sold from 2005 to 2007.
The banksters were selling bags of air, er, derivatives in a colossal Ponzi scheme fueled by the myth that “Flip this house; real estate prices will never go down, because God ain’t makin’ no more land.”
God may not be makin’ no more land, but real estate prices went down-derry-down in the murky gloom when the wheels came off the Ponzi sedan.
But nothing will come of this, because free markets and three-piece suits.
Scam Artists 0
We are living in a corporate kleptocracy.
Theft of Services: A Novel Definition of “Accountability” 0
What happens when you try to “monetize” a public trust by betraying it into private hands.
In one email, Bennett wrote, “They need to understand that anything less than an ‘A’ for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work.”
This is “accountability” as defined in Enron-world, where facts don’t matter, income does.
Fiduciary Fiddles 0
First they came for your pensions and left you with IRAs (by the way, how’s that working out for you?)
Now they are back for your IRAs.
No Minimum 0
The Colbert Report
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The Galt and the Lamers, Lord of the Flies Dept. 0
A true believer tries to bring Ayn Rand’s objectivism to life in managing Sears and Kmart, with results easily predicted by anyone who is not in the spell of Ayn Rand.
It seems to have been, indeed, a searing failure.
A nugget, from MarketWatch:
Instead, the divisions turned against each other—and Sears and Kmart, the overarching brands, suffered. Interviews with more than 40 former executives, many of whom sat at the highest levels of the company, paint a picture of a business that’s ravaged by infighting as its divisions battle over fewer resources.
Do read the rest.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Bonuses for stealing homes.
Them What Have 2
And this surprises you how?
The results were discouraging.
MarketWatch found that insider trading may be one of the most common crimes on Wall Street and one of the least prosecuted. And that was only the beginning. MarketWatch discovered that the problem for retail investors goes far beyond a failure of regulators to identify insider-trading violations.
“It’s a Jungle Out There” 0
Straub, 34, and her husband, Jonathan, were accused of disorderly conduct and harassment, after surveillance video surfaced allegedly implicating them in a scheme to hamper the sale of a neighbor’s home. The video shows someone tossing dead mice and snakes on a next-door-neighbor’s driveway. The video also showed tree branches being cut down and ‘For Sale’ signs being kicked down.
It’s quite a tony area where such hijinks at least used to be Just. Not. Done.
When I lived in Narberth three decades ago, I used to cross over into Merion to jog or bicycle and I distinctly remember Booth Lane. It’s an attractive area with streets that are wide, mostly flat, and relatively lightly traveled, except when the servants are funning errands for the lords and ladies of the manse.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Innovations in theft “financial products.”