Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

SCANDAL BIGGER THAN BERNIE
New York Post ^ | August 12, 2009

Posted on 08/12/2009 3:01:24 AM PDT by nickcarraway

HARRY Markopolos -- the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff who proved to be much smarter than the SEC -- says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum "look like small-time." Markopolos gave a speech to 400 of the faithful at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton and predicted major scandals will soon be revealed about the unregulated, $600 trillion, credit-default swap market.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cdss; credit; madoff; markopolos; sec
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-31 last
To: Liz

“. Dick Fuld. Fuld never tired of telling people that Lehman was built to triumph in adversity..”

Fuld was beyond stupid. He could have sold his company, but his hubris buried it.


21 posted on 08/12/2009 8:03:37 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Liz

>>”securitized and packaged” bank loans that were
>>sold globally as profit-making financial instruments.

Got FICO?

For “Liar Loans”, that’s the only number that mattered... and if those scores were fabricated - then so were the AAA ratings... that went “poof” and were downgraded to junk almost overnight.

How does one fabricate a FICO score? Well, it begins with purchasing the source-code to Empower, the loan origination Software used by Argent Mortgage (Ameriquest’s wholesale division), and making a few changes - specifically, to the data entry screens related to FICO...

Nah, nothing to see here, move along.

And you’re Right On Target with regards to moral relativism. When folks start living by “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law”, bad things happen.


22 posted on 08/12/2009 8:09:32 AM PDT by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck
Yes, he pulled quite a prank. Lived the life of the megarich for many years.

What amazes me is the malfeasance or corruption of the regulators who, confronted with damning information by skeptical analysts, did nothing.

There must be some kind of process put in place that rewards risk taking whistle blowers for stepping up to the plate with correct information.

Perhaps we should give them access to the SEC employees pensions, the pensions of those who should have been doing their jobs, i.e.

23 posted on 08/12/2009 8:12:42 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Liz; All

“As I said——moral relativity. “

Maybe more like moral bankruptcy. All of this securitized POSpaper were designed so everone could grab one or two points, and then pass it off to the next schminder. All the while the rating agencies were in their pockets, offering them cover. Nice scam if you can get in on it.


24 posted on 08/12/2009 8:32:15 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck
Bernie would have come down a lot quicker had everyone understood the SEC was asleep at the wheel.

They weren't asleep, but many were paid to look the other way.

25 posted on 08/12/2009 8:33:37 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

“They weren’t asleep, but many were paid to look the other way”

Some must have been bought. They all were not that stupid. I would love to know how they were paid off, though ;-)


26 posted on 08/12/2009 8:42:41 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Justa
This isn't hard. Proper enforcement of regulations prevents corruption.

Phil Gramm exempted credit default swaps from regulation. You can't enforce what isn't there.

27 posted on 08/12/2009 8:49:41 AM PDT by dirtboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: detective

Bookmark!


28 posted on 08/12/2009 9:04:14 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: detective

Bookmark!


29 posted on 08/12/2009 9:04:19 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: The_Media_never_lie
No doubt the SEC is complicit but the whole system is nothing but a giant playground for a bunch of people addicted to gambling with our hard earned savings and investments.

IMO, you can't determine somethings value by splitting into 100s of pieces and betting on whether those pieces will make or lose money.

Hope I'm making sense. I'm just beginning to delve into this economic stuff.

30 posted on 08/12/2009 11:23:31 AM PDT by wolfcreek (KMTEXASA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Liz
Article made a mistake. It's not $600T of CDSs, but in the range of somewhat over $60T... Put in perspective, this number just about matches the world's annual GDP.

Still, that is 5 to 6 times total of USA's total real estate market, which tells everything one needs to know about the nature of this "insurance" that no sane insurance company would underwrite. John Paulson (AFAIK, no relation to Hank Paulson) was one of the several hedge fund guys who figured this out very early in the "game".

Was this economic crisis planned? - FR - 2009 January 07, one of my several posts on this "supersized" $60+ Trillion "insurance".

One of the reasons CDSs flew under the radar of the SEC and other financial regulators because the instrument was sold not on the open / public market or exchanges like stocks, bonds or options but as an unregulated "insurance," most of it from or through London branches of international banks and financial institutions. Now there is a "clearance exchange" in the works for these types of derivatives, which should provide substantially more transparency.

An excellent overview on the origins and the "Masters of the Universe" of this particular derivatives / CDSs fiasco (Howard Sosin, Randy Rackson and Barry Goldman of Drexel Burnham Lambert, and later of AIG Financial Products Division) is in this three-part series from January 2009, by Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis:

Bold innovators led AIG's stunning rise

Complex deals veiled risk for AIG

Credit rating downgrade, real estate collapse crippled AIG

31 posted on 08/12/2009 10:03:07 PM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-31 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson