Clipmarks | Debt Clips

Hedge Fund's Trade Secrets In Manipulating The Global Stock Markets

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:01:05 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: - have been savaged far more than Wall Street's errant financiers even though they have yet to write off a single extra cent in bad debt since the credit crisis hit last year. At the moment, they are simply making prudent and relatively tiny provisions in case anything does go wrong.

The ASX financial index has been slashed by 30.3 per cent since November 1. But on Wall Street, the cause of the problems, the Dow Jones banking index has fallen just 21 per cent.

How could that possibly be? The answer is that the traders have found a chink in Australia's regulatory armour.

The hedge funds have found a way to manipulate the market through a process known as short selling. This is where traders sell stocks if they think the share price will fall in the future. Then they buy them back at a lower price later on. It is perfectly legal and even encouraged as it can add liquidity to markets.

In recent years, however, the practice has become more sophisticated and incredibly complex.

Clip Source: business.smh.com.au

The volatility that has infected the Australian stockmarket in recent months may be playing havoc with your investments, but not everybody is unhappy with the situation.

Traders love it. It's how they make money.

There is a vast global industry looking for any means possible to exploit a price difference here

When it works properly, it is part of an efficiently operating market.

But lately in Australia it appears it hasn't been working properly at all. A clever bunch of traders - some local but most based offshore - have taken advantage of a legal loophole that has resulted in wild gyrations in stock prices.

Most of the problems on global financial markets relate to trouble in the US housing market. It was American banks that fed the beast that has now turned so viciously upon them

So it may come as a shock to learn it is Australia's financial institutions that have incurred the wrath of global investors.

Australia's banks - which are enjoying rude health and project a relatively rosy outlook

Tags: australian stockmarket, hedge fund traders, exploit legal "loop-hole"

Give All Those Nice People Houses - or ELSE!

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:55:24 GMT

clipped by: davboz
clipper's remarks: From your bleeding heart to blood in the streets.

Clip Source: 74.125.113.104

One illegal alien was arrested this year in Tucson after allegedly using a stolen social security number to buy two homes and rack up over $780,000 in bad debt.

Some five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It's not known how many of those have contributed to the subprime housing mortgage meltdown, but it has affected every state, including Arizona.

The problem began years ago when banks were forced to give mortgages without confirming social security numbers or borrower identification. As a result, illegal immigrants were able to obtain home mortgages which they could not afford.

One illegal alien was arrested this year in Tucson after allegedly using a stolen social security number to buy two homes and rack up over $780,000 in bad debt.

Global Depression?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:29:34 GMT

clipped by: nchnted
clipper's remarks: The jig is up.

Clip Source: www.minyanville.com

The question that has yet to be answered is whether a severe recession or possible depression is inevitable regardless. The country has a national debt of $9.6 trillion, annual deficits of $600 billion, unfunded future liabilities of $53 trillion, a trade deficit of $600 billion, inflation of 6%, 2 wars costing $12 billion per month, and a weak currency. Therefore, we have entered an extremely dangerous period without strong economic fundamentals.

The parallels to the early 1930s are eerie

Corrupt politicians, Washington bureaucrats, Wall Street fat cats, and clueless commentators have failed to realize that the jig is up. Our entire financial system has been built upon deception, lies and debt.

The only thing keeping the system afloat was blind faith in our government and financial leaders to do the right thing. That trust has been shattered into a billion pieces.

US National Debt Clock runs out of digits.

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:23:41 GMT

clipped by: petercasier

Clip Source: www.theroadtothehorizon.org

When Seymour Durst, erected "The National Debt Clock" on New York's Times Square, he wanted to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.

Unfortunately, he could not foresee the figure would run above the $10 trillion dollar mark, so this week the clock ran out of digits. The dollar sign on the left, had to be replaced by a "1".

Tags: us, economy, debt

$270 billion to settle Lehman insurance

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:08:52 GMT

clipped by: Joshua Zumbrun
clipper's remarks: Who are the finance wizards who came up with this one?

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Lehman Initial Swap Auction Indicates Larger Payout

By Shannon D. Harrington and Neil Unmack

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Sellers of credit-default protection on bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. would be forced to pay holders 90.25 cents on the dollar under initial results of an auction, setting up the biggest-ever payout in the $55 trillion market.

Preliminary results from an auction to determine the size of the settlement on Lehman credit-default swaps set a value of 9.75 cents on the dollar for the debt, according to Creditfixings.com, a Web site run by auction administrators Creditex Group Inc. and Markit Group Ltd. A final price is scheduled to be announced at 2 p.m. New York time.

Based on the results, sellers of protection may need to make cash payments of about $270 billion, BNP Paribas SA strategist Andrea Cicione in London said.

Tags: credit default swaps, lehman, payout, bankruptcy, settlement

Turbulence and Trends

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:40:54 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: observations of a central banker

Clip Source: londonbanker.blogspot.com

I was reminded yesterday that the vast bulk of “wealth” created during the Greenspan/Bernanke bubble years accrued to the very top percentiles of population – with many in the OECD middle class and lower class either stagnating or getting poorer as they mired themselves in unsustainable debt. While opportunity and employment grew strongly in emerging countries, there too the elites gained disproportionately as income inequalities surged. The crash of global financial markets therefore will have disproportionate effect on the elites, impoverishing them to a far greater extent, although it will be felt throughout society as employment, pensions, investments and public services contract.

Once we hit bottom of this downturn, some years hence in all probability, we may experience a democratisation of wealth and opportunity like none seen since the end of World War II when education reforms and unionisation laid the groundwork for the rise of the American and OECD middle classes

Tags: economy

$10.2 Trillion: National Debt Clock Goes Bust

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:03:04 GMT

clipped by: blueridge
clipper's remarks: George Bush's legacy and the cost of war. How appropriate for the Debt Clock to run out of numbers. It's so symbolic, like the clock itself staggered at the number. The figure is absolutely outrageous and completely unjustifiable. And republicans used to be the party of limited instead of Big Government. The consequences are now all coming back. But Democrats should not gloat too much, they had plenty of support for the same spending packages and gave Bush whatever he wanted (fools). The ignorant flag-waving American public now realizes they were pushed into war under false pretenses and lies.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

NYC National Debt Clock runs out of digits

NEW YORK - In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.

As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the "1" in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion.

The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars.

The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.

Tags: congress, bush, national debt, republicans, war, government spending

The Current Financial Crisis Is Only The Beginning

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:57:28 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks:

One could argue that the banking crisis is just the cold sweat, not the flu that follows it.

Clip Song

Clip Source: www.iht.com

The problem is not just that the banking system has been broken by an orgy of foolish lending but moreover that huge swaths of the global economy are predicated on that foolish lending and the consumption it allowed.

The bubble wasn't just in real estate, leaving the financial system holding the bag; the bubble was in consumption.

The banking crisis will have very serious negative effects on the real economy, and the cost will grow.

The core of the issue isn't even solvency. It's the way in which the debt causing the banking insolvency distorted, distended and hollowed out economies around the world.

The banking crisis is extraordinarily dangerous. But the changes in the global economy that are needed are even more profound. Savings rates are going to need to rise

and consumption fall.

The recession will be long and probably ugly.

There is no doubt that the needed changes can happen and that these innovative and creative economies can re-balance. But it is going to be very painful.

No digits left for growing national debt, literally, NYC Debt Clock

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:02:33 GMT

clipped by: Nathan_7870

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK - In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.

The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars.

The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.

Debt Collapse

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:02:26 GMT

clipped by: robm47
clipper's remarks: Why the bailout won't work.

Clip Source: news.goldseek.com

The problems from debt collapse due to debt-related ills inside banks cannot be solved by more debt instruments, plain and simple.

The solutions must, if they are legitimate, involve new income sources, like manufacturing returned to the US soil, like a national grand initiative for infrastructure betterment, like better agriculture management of ethanol solutions, like broader export successfully landing abroad from US firms.

The ultimate cause of the heart attack symptoms is the split in usury cost, never discussed. The root cause is that JPMorgan continues to push the cost of money down, using its strongarm futures contract devices, complete with more than a small amount of counterfeit additives bought in dark basement chambers. Such a low rate results in revolt among bankers, who refuse to lend at such an absurd rate in today’s risky environment. So the LIBOR spread widens, even the overnight rate

Tags: economic

GM falls to 1950 levels; European sales stung

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:17:53 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: I really am debating buying this. If they would just have a whole line of hybrids and electrics ready to go in a year or two I would gobble up this stock. But right now they seem to be holding on to the illusion of gas/diesel vehicles. Not as bad as ford, but certainly they are not going the route of toyota.

Clip Source: www.marketwatch.com

GM falls to 1950 levels; European sales stung

Standard & Poor's places automaker's debt on CreditWatch negative

By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch

Last update: 4:05 p.m. EDT Oct. 9, 2008

Comments: 187

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - General Motors Corp. shares, already reeling from the widening credit crisis that has crippled Wall Street, fell as much as 33% on Thursday, dropping to levels last seen in the springtime of 1950.

To put the current price tag in perspective, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU:

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US debt clock runs out of digits

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:34:40 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

US debt clock runs out of digits

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.

The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.

The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.

Douglas Durst, son of the late Seymour Durst - the clock's inventor - hopes to replace the Manhattan clock with its lengthier replacement early next year.

Tags: entertainment, us debt, economy, national debt

Because We Don't Need It...

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:10:49 GMT

clipped by: monstersmom
clipper's remarks: We don’t need more debts. Palin spent 15 million on a new sports center in the valley, leaving the small town of Wasilla, Alaska in debt to the amount of 22 million. (That’s 22 million more than the debt she took on when taking on this lovely playtime as mayor.)

We don’t need family feuds interfering with duties. I know you feel your ex-brother-in-law was a dick… but trying to get him fired...Sarah?

We don’t need another vote against gay marriage. This is just standard every day equal rights being overlooked. Sarah Palin disagrees.

We don’t need to overlook global warming. Science can now tell us "Yup. That is happening.” Not my words, that is science speak. Sarah Palin disagrees.

Clip Source: portugaltheman.net

We don’t need drilling in some of our most beautiful and untouched land. We need to work towards options. We should be investing and working towards clean fuels. We don’t need to be draining our planet of every last drop before moving on to the next. Sarah Palin disagrees

We needed votes to add the polar bear to the endangered species list. (I know, I know, that polar bear rug would really bring the room together!). Sarah Palin disagreed

We don’t need aerial hunting… Again. We do NOT need this. I don’t know of any true Alaskan that feels it is good sport to shoot an animal from a plane. Sarah Palin disagrees

We don’t need book burners and censors. Sarah Palin pushed to get the librarian of Wasilla fired when certain books were not removed from the public library. Who else in history has banned books? Not very good company is it?

Tags: palin, alaska, drilling, polar bear

Calamities of Genius

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:57:17 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug
clipper's remarks: Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield was sold for a trifle to save him from the gripe of the law; Fielding lies in the burying-ground of the English factory at Lisbon, without a stone to mark the spot; Savage died in prison at Bristol, where he was confined for a debt of eight pounds; Butler lived in penury, and died poor; Chatterton, the child of genius and misfortune, destroyed himself.

– The Terrific Register, 1825

Clip Source: www.futilitycloset.com

Homer was a beggar; Plautus turned a mill; Terence was a slave; Boethius died in gaol; Paul Borghese had fourteen trades, and yet starved with them all; Tasso was often distressed for five shillings; Bentivoglio was refused admittance into an hospital he had himself erected; Cervantes died of hunger; Camoens, the celebrated writer of the Lusiad, ended his days in an alms house; and Vaugelas left his body to the surgeons, to pay his debts as far as it would go. In our own country, Bacon lived a life of meanness and distress; Sir Walter Raleigh died on a scaffold. Spencer, the charming Spencer, died forsaken, and in want; and the death of Collins came through neglect, first causing mental derangement. Milton sold his copy-right of Paradise Lost for fifteen pounds, at three payments, and finished his life in obscurity; Dryden lived in poverty and distress; Otway died prematurely, and through hunger; Lee died in the streets;

Steele lived a life of perfect warfare with bailiffs

We turned over the odometer

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:18:21 GMT

clipped by: serial_number
clipper's remarks: ouch! most Americans already have a negative net worth, but when you subtract $86,000 it gets a lot uglier.

Clip Source: www.clevelandleader.com

Sign of the Times: National Debt Clock in Times Square Runs Out of Digits

The National Debt Clock situated near Times Square ran out of numbers as the federal government's debt soared to $10.2 trillion. The billboard style clock, which was erected in 1989 by late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst, was only equipped to handle a debt of up to $9,999,999,999,999.

The current economic crisis helped push the clock over that mark. As a temporary solution, the space that formerly held the dollar sign is now the number 1. The clock's owners plan to make room for two additional digits on the board next year.

When Durst first launched in the clock in 1989, the national debt was a paltry $2.7 trillion. With an estimated $341.4 million spent per day on the war in Iraq alone, the number will continue to rise at a rapid pace.

Tags: national debt