Posted on 02/28/2014 8:11:51 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In December 2006, I was sworn in as the elected Treasurer of Orange County, California. Twelve years earlier, I helped Barron’s Editor Alan Abelson write the exposé on Orange County’s secret use of leveraged derivatives to triple the interest return from their $6 billion short-term investment fund. The article revealed huge hidden losses that forced the County to file the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of America on the same day. From 1996-1998, I assisted in the financial restructure of the OC’s public pension plan. Warren Buffett would later describe derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.”After devastating losses of $1.7 billion and criminal prosecutions; in my wildest imagination I could not imagine Orange County would ever be invested in derivatives again.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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