A prominent U.S. senator has intimated that executives of the troubled insurer American International Group Inc might consider suicide, adopting what he called a Japanese approach to taking responsibility for their actions.
The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them (is) if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide," Grassley said.
"And in the case of the Japanese," he added, "they usually commit suicide before they make any apology.
Okay, come on, that is a little harsh, I know that these people should not get bonuses but you can't tell them to kill themselves?
Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along with this classic song
Buy-n-Hold Rhapsody Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a stockslide No escape from reality Open your eyes At Bloomberg and CN-BC….
I’m now a poor boy I need advisory Because it’s easy come, easy go Bubble high, Crash low Never sell my broker told Doesn’t really matter to him To her
Suze, told me not to sell Put more funds into my plan October bottom Warren said Mama, retirement had just begun But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Boggle Did ya’ mean to make me cry? If m’funds not back again this time tomorrow HOLD on, HOLD on As if nothing really matters
Too late, my time has come Losses up and down the line Wallet’s aching all the time Goodbye, everybody I’ve got to SELL Got to leave buy-n-hold behind to face the truth Cramer I don’t want to lose I sometimes wish I’d never invested at all
I see a little silhouetto of a man Scaramouche, Scaramouche Will you watch the Mad Money? Buy-n-Sell and lightning-round Very, very frightening to me (Noriel) Roubini (Noriel) Roubini Roubini, Noriel Magnifico I’m now a poor fund and nobody loves me (He’s just a poor fund from a poor family Spare him his loss from this monstrosity) Easy come, easy go, will you let me Sell
Bismillah! No, we will not let you sell (Let him sell!) Bismillah! We will not let you sell (Let him sell!) Bismillah! We will not let you sell (Let me sell!) Will not let you sell (Let me sell!) No, no, no, no, no, no, no Oh, mama mia, mama mia Mama mia, let me trade Beelzebub has a devil buy-and-hold for me For me And for you…
So you think you can fool me with buy-and-hold lies? So you think you can charge me and watch my money fry? Oh, Broker Can’t do this to me, broker Just gotta get out Just gotta sell right outta’ here Nothing really matters Anyone can see
Nothing really matters Nothing really matters but the fee
I guess the SEC is feeling the heat on this one :-)
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has unanimously approved revisions to modernize its oil and gas company reporting requirements to help investors evaluate the value of their investments in these companies.
"In the more than a quarter century since the SEC last reviewed its rules in this area, there have been significant changes in technology that have increasingly limited the usefulness of current disclosures to the market and investors,” said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. “These updates to the SEC rules will help ensure more meaningful and comprehensive disclosure of information that, even though it does not appear on a company’s balance sheet, is of significance to investors in making informed investment decisions."
The Freakonomics blog has a nice article explaining that people who invested with Madoff can deduct their loses as theft, this has a more favorable tax treatment
Taxpayers who invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC directly, or through a fund of funds, have a loss that is most probably categorized as a theft loss for tax purposes. This loss has a more favorable tax treatment than theft losses of personal non-business property. Theft loss is determined and applied to get you back taxes for the current year of loss and the three years prior. These losses remain available beyond that four year period, and they can be carried forward for 20 years…
Ouch there are some high profile names in this list of victims. I read about this in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal but now I have found a nice list online.
Tremont Capital. Fund of funds. Lost "hundreds of millions". (announced on CNBC)
Maxam Capital Management LLC. Combined loss of $280 million. "I'm wiped out," said Sandra Manzke, Maxam's founder and chairman. The Darien, Conn., fund of hedge funds will have to close as a result of the losses, she said. (WSJ)
Fairfield Greenwich Group. Bloomberg: The biggest loser may be Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Ltd. invested with Madoff’s eponymous firm, three people familiar with the matter said... Fairfield Sentry has a record of more than 15 years with an annual return of 4 to 6 percentage points above benchmark interest rates, according to a marketing document dated this month that was prepared by Zurich-based NPB New Private Bank Ltd. On an absolute basis, returns exceeded 10 percent every year from 1991 through 2000. Since then, they ranged from 6.4 percent to 9.8 percent...The strategy is a “split-strike conversion,” where the investment manager buys shares of large U.S. companies and enters into options contracts to limit the risk, the document says.
Fix Asset Management. Bloomberg: Fix Asset Management, which had an account worth at least $400 million with Madoff Investments. The firm said it’s checking with lawyers about the holdings. “We are very shocked,” John Fix, the son of founder Charles Fix, said by phone from Greece. “We put in redemptions in the past few months and got our money back no problem. We are just so surprised about all this.”
Kingate Management Ltd. Bloomberg says $2.8 billion Kingate Global Fund Ltd. invested with Madoff.
Thyssen Family. Source sends the following: Thybo Investments grew out of a family office for Thyssen. They have been in fund of funds it seems since 1989. Thybo International is a "proper" fund of fund but it's newer share class G invests only in one manager - and i'm 99% sure it's Madoff as the returns are almost the same. Some more info. The fund started in Jan 2007. Ernst & Young. Luxembourg are the auditors. UBS Luxembourg is the administrator. Thybo states on their webpage: "Our track record incorporates audited financial statements at both a composite firm-wide and individual portfolios level."
Ira Roth's family. WSJ: Ira Roth, a New Jersey resident, who says his family has about $1 million invested through Mr. Madoff's firm, is "in a state of panic." He said his 86-year-old mother-in-law has been living on the investments' returns, and he has been using the funds to pay college tuition.
That is just crazy, those numbers are approaching the bailout
Someone left me a comment on the So You Think The Market Is Bad Now? It Went Down 89% Between 1929 And 1932 post asking for some additional data for the chart. Here is some of that data, as you can see it took 25 years to close above 400 again. Just imagine if this happens now, a lot of people will not be able to retire, the only problem is that there is not an abundance of jobs either, as a matter of fact there is a shortage.
Most people are freaked out about the market right now; some people lost almost 40% in their portfolios/401Ks/529 plans and IRA. Yes that is terrible but did we hit bottom yet? Here are just some of today’s layoff announcements Credit Suisse to cut 5,300 jobs Nomura cutting 1,000 jobs DuPont cutting 2,500 positions; 4,000 contractors to go Viacom to slash 7% of its staff AT&T to layoff 12000 positions
Except for Walmart November has been a disaster for stores, let’s take a look at some of them Limited Brands sales at stores open at least one year fell 12% Costco's same-store sales fell 5% Aeropostale same-store sales declined 5% Children's Place Retail Stores Inc sales dropped a worse-than-expected 7%. Nordstrom same-store sales sink 15.9% in November Chico's reports 15.4% drop in sales Kohl's Corp. November same-store sales down 17.5% Target Nov. same-store sales down 10.4% Abercrombie same-store sales down 28% Gap same-store sales down 10% in November
All we need now is for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to go bankrupt and we will be in a perfect financial disaster storm. More people will default on their mortgages because they can’t refinance since they are under water or they simply can’t pay for even the lower mortgage payment if they did refinance since they don’t have jobs anymore. Banks will dump more houses on the market; this will bring down the prices of all the homes. More people will be under water and probably walk away from their homes since they will owe more than their house is worth. Take a look at what happened in Japan in the 1990s; prices of houses dropped over 60%
Take a look at this chart below(click on it for a larger version)
In that timeframe the high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 381.17 and the low was 41.81. So in less than 4 years the market dropped a whopping 89.03%!!!! Just imagine if the market would drop 89%, this would mean that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would go as low as 1535 from today's 8000+.
Now I am not saying it will happen and I certainly hope it does not, just keep in mind that all those people who say that we have hit bottom have no clue. Take a look closely at the chart do you see the rally after the crash of 1929, it went from November 1929 until April 1930, from then on it just went down hill.
