The Big Takeover

[CA renter]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]Jp: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/fluke-credit-crisis-was-a-heist.aspx

I don’t know if you’ve read the Jim Jubak article in MSN Money yet, but, like the Rolling Stone article, this is well researched and it will make you just as heartsick and angry.

I think the real investigations are about to begin, and I think that the truly hard questions haven’t been asked yet. I think Obama is in a tough spot, any way you cut it. He can attempt to soothe us with comforting words and bring this thing down gently, or he can do what he needs to do, which is bring this entire house of cards down. I’m pretty sure which direction he’ll go.[/quote]

This was an excellent article, Allan, and spot-on, IMHO. Thank you for sharing it.

————-

Also, finally got through the video on short sellers. Yes, definitely agree there was manipulation and insider trading. But to think that Bear Stearns or Lehman Bros would still be here if not for the short-sellers is questionable, IMHO. They were in trouble even without the short selling, though the SS might have sped things up a bit. As mentioned before, I am entirely against naked short selling, but think the focus on short sellers last fall was misguided and might have been an attempt to distract people from the true culprits — those who were behind the deregulation of the derivatives markets and who turned a blind eye to (even encouraged and enabled) all the fraud and corruption that was going on **on the way up.**

The video was created by Deep Capture, which is run by Patrick Byrnes of Overstock.com fame.

Here is a snippet from an article by Gary Weiss about him (though I tend to discredit people who try to discredit others for being “crazy, conspiracy theorists” as many conspiracy theorists are often right). Just saying the opinion might be biased, even though he may well be correct:

One of the techniques of the loony-tunes CEO of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne, in advancing his shrill and nonsensical Wall Street conspiracy theories is to dispatch across the Internet an army of paid hirelings led by former Florida Republican wingnut Judd Bagley and disgraced ex-CJR editor Mark Mitchell. Well, Byrne seems to have picked the wrong target.

http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2009/02/patrick-byrnes-smear-campaign-backfires.html

[Arraya]

CAR-Think of it this way. I’m sure very knowledgeable people at the top knew that there was only room for so many IBs and the weaker ones had to go one way or another. Many good analysts were calling it way before they all went down. So what the apparent insider knowledge and “controlled” collapse probably means is they were trying to manage it in the least messy way they could so they would not lose control of the situation. Lets face it they all should have went down and certain ones were CHOSEN to stand via taxpayer money infusion. BS and LB were not. Which obviously leads to a myriad much bigger questions if true?

BTW, I like Gary Weiss and think he is a very smart guy. He is also calling for an almost complete collapse of Wall Street that is not close to over. Being a guy that has been involved legitimately in the game for 40+ years and even had a father the worked on wall street in the 20s probably does not want to think the game he worked so hard to understand is rigged at the highest levels. He only wants to think they are a bunch of greedy, short sighted idiots. While mostly true the insider trading stuff IMO, probably indicates that not all are the bumbling idiots that they all appear to be and *gasp* there may actually be people conspiring with insider knowledge to profit and guide the complete destruction of the worlds biggest financial institution and MAY be part of a much larger geostrategic plan.

Also, here is Weiss’s last alert from Feb for anybody that has not seen it.

The nation’s largest banks are so close to collapse and the world economy is coming unglued so rapidly, a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.
Specifically, it’s now increasingly likely that virtually all of our forecasts of recent months could come to pass in a very short period of time, including …
Stock market crash: A swift plunge in stocks to about 5000 on the Dow, 500 on the S&P 500 and 900 on the Nasdaq … or lower. (For our reasons, see “Stocks to fall AT LEAST another 40%!“)

Corporate bankruptcies: A chain reaction of Chapter 11 filings or federal takeovers, including not only General Motors and Chrysler, but also Ann Taylor, Best Buy, Jet Blue, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Toys “R” Us, U.S. Airways and even giants like Ford or General Electric.

Megabank failures: Bankruptcies or nationalization not only of Citigroup and Bank of America, but also JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. (See my January issue, “Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid.”)

Nationwide epidemic of small and medium-sized bank failures: Outright FDIC takeovers, with little prospect of nationalization. (I’ll give you a link to our free guide with a more extensive list in a moment.)

Insurance failures: State takeovers of companies like Ambac Assurance, Bankers Life and Casualty, Conseco, FGIC, Medical Liability Mutual, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance, Nuclear Electric Insurance, PMI Mortgage, Standard Life of Indiana and many others. (Our free guide also contains a more extensive list of insurers.)

Cities and states: An epidemic of defaults by thousands of cities, states and other issuers of tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Stock market shutdowns: Trading halts on major, big-cap stocks … plus on-again, off-again exchange shutdowns, making it increasingly difficult for investors to liquidate their holdings at any price.

Credit market deep freeze: A virtual shutdown in all debt markets except U.S. Treasuries. An avalanche of selling — and virtually no buyers — for corporate bonds, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, municipal bonds and all forms of bank loans.

Government bond collapse: A steep decline in the price of medium-and long-term government securities, as the U.S. Treasury bids aggressively for scarce funds to finance a ballooning budget deficit.
Shocking? Perhaps. Avoidable? No.

[Arraya]

CAR-Think of it this way. I’m sure very knowledgeable people at the top knew that there was only room for so many IBs and the weaker ones had to go one way or another. Many good analysts were calling it way before they all went down. So what the apparent insider knowledge and “controlled” collapse probably means is they were trying to manage it in the least messy way they could so they would not lose control of the situation. Lets face it they all should have went down and certain ones were CHOSEN to stand via taxpayer money infusion. BS and LB were not. Which obviously leads to a myriad much bigger questions if true?

BTW, I like Gary Weiss and think he is a very smart guy. He is also calling for an almost complete collapse of Wall Street that is not close to over. Being a guy that has been involved legitimately in the game for 40+ years and even had a father the worked on wall street in the 20s probably does not want to think the game he worked so hard to understand is rigged at the highest levels. He only wants to think they are a bunch of greedy, short sighted idiots. While mostly true the insider trading stuff IMO, probably indicates that not all are the bumbling idiots that they all appear to be and *gasp* there may actually be people conspiring with insider knowledge to profit and guide the complete destruction of the worlds biggest financial institution and MAY be part of a much larger geostrategic plan.

Also, here is Weiss’s last alert from Feb for anybody that has not seen it.

The nation’s largest banks are so close to collapse and the world economy is coming unglued so rapidly, a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.
Specifically, it’s now increasingly likely that virtually all of our forecasts of recent months could come to pass in a very short period of time, including …
Stock market crash: A swift plunge in stocks to about 5000 on the Dow, 500 on the S&P 500 and 900 on the Nasdaq … or lower. (For our reasons, see “Stocks to fall AT LEAST another 40%!“)

Corporate bankruptcies: A chain reaction of Chapter 11 filings or federal takeovers, including not only General Motors and Chrysler, but also Ann Taylor, Best Buy, Jet Blue, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Toys “R” Us, U.S. Airways and even giants like Ford or General Electric.

Megabank failures: Bankruptcies or nationalization not only of Citigroup and Bank of America, but also JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. (See my January issue, “Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid.”)

Nationwide epidemic of small and medium-sized bank failures: Outright FDIC takeovers, with little prospect of nationalization. (I’ll give you a link to our free guide with a more extensive list in a moment.)

Insurance failures: State takeovers of companies like Ambac Assurance, Bankers Life and Casualty, Conseco, FGIC, Medical Liability Mutual, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance, Nuclear Electric Insurance, PMI Mortgage, Standard Life of Indiana and many others. (Our free guide also contains a more extensive list of insurers.)

Cities and states: An epidemic of defaults by thousands of cities, states and other issuers of tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Stock market shutdowns: Trading halts on major, big-cap stocks … plus on-again, off-again exchange shutdowns, making it increasingly difficult for investors to liquidate their holdings at any price.

Credit market deep freeze: A virtual shutdown in all debt markets except U.S. Treasuries. An avalanche of selling — and virtually no buyers — for corporate bonds, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, municipal bonds and all forms of bank loans.

Government bond collapse: A steep decline in the price of medium-and long-term government securities, as the U.S. Treasury bids aggressively for scarce funds to finance a ballooning budget deficit.
Shocking? Perhaps. Avoidable? No.

[Arraya]

CAR-Think of it this way. I’m sure very knowledgeable people at the top knew that there was only room for so many IBs and the weaker ones had to go one way or another. Many good analysts were calling it way before they all went down. So what the apparent insider knowledge and “controlled” collapse probably means is they were trying to manage it in the least messy way they could so they would not lose control of the situation. Lets face it they all should have went down and certain ones were CHOSEN to stand via taxpayer money infusion. BS and LB were not. Which obviously leads to a myriad much bigger questions if true?

BTW, I like Gary Weiss and think he is a very smart guy. He is also calling for an almost complete collapse of Wall Street that is not close to over. Being a guy that has been involved legitimately in the game for 40+ years and even had a father the worked on wall street in the 20s probably does not want to think the game he worked so hard to understand is rigged at the highest levels. He only wants to think they are a bunch of greedy, short sighted idiots. While mostly true the insider trading stuff IMO, probably indicates that not all are the bumbling idiots that they all appear to be and *gasp* there may actually be people conspiring with insider knowledge to profit and guide the complete destruction of the worlds biggest financial institution and MAY be part of a much larger geostrategic plan.

Also, here is Weiss’s last alert from Feb for anybody that has not seen it.

The nation’s largest banks are so close to collapse and the world economy is coming unglued so rapidly, a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.
Specifically, it’s now increasingly likely that virtually all of our forecasts of recent months could come to pass in a very short period of time, including …
Stock market crash: A swift plunge in stocks to about 5000 on the Dow, 500 on the S&P 500 and 900 on the Nasdaq … or lower. (For our reasons, see “Stocks to fall AT LEAST another 40%!“)

Corporate bankruptcies: A chain reaction of Chapter 11 filings or federal takeovers, including not only General Motors and Chrysler, but also Ann Taylor, Best Buy, Jet Blue, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Toys “R” Us, U.S. Airways and even giants like Ford or General Electric.

Megabank failures: Bankruptcies or nationalization not only of Citigroup and Bank of America, but also JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. (See my January issue, “Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid.”)

Nationwide epidemic of small and medium-sized bank failures: Outright FDIC takeovers, with little prospect of nationalization. (I’ll give you a link to our free guide with a more extensive list in a moment.)

Insurance failures: State takeovers of companies like Ambac Assurance, Bankers Life and Casualty, Conseco, FGIC, Medical Liability Mutual, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance, Nuclear Electric Insurance, PMI Mortgage, Standard Life of Indiana and many others. (Our free guide also contains a more extensive list of insurers.)

Cities and states: An epidemic of defaults by thousands of cities, states and other issuers of tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Stock market shutdowns: Trading halts on major, big-cap stocks … plus on-again, off-again exchange shutdowns, making it increasingly difficult for investors to liquidate their holdings at any price.

Credit market deep freeze: A virtual shutdown in all debt markets except U.S. Treasuries. An avalanche of selling — and virtually no buyers — for corporate bonds, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, municipal bonds and all forms of bank loans.

Government bond collapse: A steep decline in the price of medium-and long-term government securities, as the U.S. Treasury bids aggressively for scarce funds to finance a ballooning budget deficit.
Shocking? Perhaps. Avoidable? No.

[Arraya]

CAR-Think of it this way. I’m sure very knowledgeable people at the top knew that there was only room for so many IBs and the weaker ones had to go one way or another. Many good analysts were calling it way before they all went down. So what the apparent insider knowledge and “controlled” collapse probably means is they were trying to manage it in the least messy way they could so they would not lose control of the situation. Lets face it they all should have went down and certain ones were CHOSEN to stand via taxpayer money infusion. BS and LB were not. Which obviously leads to a myriad much bigger questions if true?

BTW, I like Gary Weiss and think he is a very smart guy. He is also calling for an almost complete collapse of Wall Street that is not close to over. Being a guy that has been involved legitimately in the game for 40+ years and even had a father the worked on wall street in the 20s probably does not want to think the game he worked so hard to understand is rigged at the highest levels. He only wants to think they are a bunch of greedy, short sighted idiots. While mostly true the insider trading stuff IMO, probably indicates that not all are the bumbling idiots that they all appear to be and *gasp* there may actually be people conspiring with insider knowledge to profit and guide the complete destruction of the worlds biggest financial institution and MAY be part of a much larger geostrategic plan.

Also, here is Weiss’s last alert from Feb for anybody that has not seen it.

The nation’s largest banks are so close to collapse and the world economy is coming unglued so rapidly, a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.
Specifically, it’s now increasingly likely that virtually all of our forecasts of recent months could come to pass in a very short period of time, including …
Stock market crash: A swift plunge in stocks to about 5000 on the Dow, 500 on the S&P 500 and 900 on the Nasdaq … or lower. (For our reasons, see “Stocks to fall AT LEAST another 40%!“)

Corporate bankruptcies: A chain reaction of Chapter 11 filings or federal takeovers, including not only General Motors and Chrysler, but also Ann Taylor, Best Buy, Jet Blue, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Toys “R” Us, U.S. Airways and even giants like Ford or General Electric.

Megabank failures: Bankruptcies or nationalization not only of Citigroup and Bank of America, but also JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. (See my January issue, “Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid.”)

Nationwide epidemic of small and medium-sized bank failures: Outright FDIC takeovers, with little prospect of nationalization. (I’ll give you a link to our free guide with a more extensive list in a moment.)

Insurance failures: State takeovers of companies like Ambac Assurance, Bankers Life and Casualty, Conseco, FGIC, Medical Liability Mutual, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance, Nuclear Electric Insurance, PMI Mortgage, Standard Life of Indiana and many others. (Our free guide also contains a more extensive list of insurers.)

Cities and states: An epidemic of defaults by thousands of cities, states and other issuers of tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Stock market shutdowns: Trading halts on major, big-cap stocks … plus on-again, off-again exchange shutdowns, making it increasingly difficult for investors to liquidate their holdings at any price.

Credit market deep freeze: A virtual shutdown in all debt markets except U.S. Treasuries. An avalanche of selling — and virtually no buyers — for corporate bonds, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, municipal bonds and all forms of bank loans.

Government bond collapse: A steep decline in the price of medium-and long-term government securities, as the U.S. Treasury bids aggressively for scarce funds to finance a ballooning budget deficit.
Shocking? Perhaps. Avoidable? No.

[Arraya]

CAR-Think of it this way. I’m sure very knowledgeable people at the top knew that there was only room for so many IBs and the weaker ones had to go one way or another. Many good analysts were calling it way before they all went down. So what the apparent insider knowledge and “controlled” collapse probably means is they were trying to manage it in the least messy way they could so they would not lose control of the situation. Lets face it they all should have went down and certain ones were CHOSEN to stand via taxpayer money infusion. BS and LB were not. Which obviously leads to a myriad much bigger questions if true?

BTW, I like Gary Weiss and think he is a very smart guy. He is also calling for an almost complete collapse of Wall Street that is not close to over. Being a guy that has been involved legitimately in the game for 40+ years and even had a father the worked on wall street in the 20s probably does not want to think the game he worked so hard to understand is rigged at the highest levels. He only wants to think they are a bunch of greedy, short sighted idiots. While mostly true the insider trading stuff IMO, probably indicates that not all are the bumbling idiots that they all appear to be and *gasp* there may actually be people conspiring with insider knowledge to profit and guide the complete destruction of the worlds biggest financial institution and MAY be part of a much larger geostrategic plan.

Also, here is Weiss’s last alert from Feb for anybody that has not seen it.

The nation’s largest banks are so close to collapse and the world economy is coming unglued so rapidly, a major Wall Street meltdown is now imminent.
Specifically, it’s now increasingly likely that virtually all of our forecasts of recent months could come to pass in a very short period of time, including …
Stock market crash: A swift plunge in stocks to about 5000 on the Dow, 500 on the S&P 500 and 900 on the Nasdaq … or lower. (For our reasons, see “Stocks to fall AT LEAST another 40%!“)

Corporate bankruptcies: A chain reaction of Chapter 11 filings or federal takeovers, including not only General Motors and Chrysler, but also Ann Taylor, Best Buy, Jet Blue, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Toys “R” Us, U.S. Airways and even giants like Ford or General Electric.

Megabank failures: Bankruptcies or nationalization not only of Citigroup and Bank of America, but also JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. (See my January issue, “Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid.”)

Nationwide epidemic of small and medium-sized bank failures: Outright FDIC takeovers, with little prospect of nationalization. (I’ll give you a link to our free guide with a more extensive list in a moment.)

Insurance failures: State takeovers of companies like Ambac Assurance, Bankers Life and Casualty, Conseco, FGIC, Medical Liability Mutual, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance, Nuclear Electric Insurance, PMI Mortgage, Standard Life of Indiana and many others. (Our free guide also contains a more extensive list of insurers.)

Cities and states: An epidemic of defaults by thousands of cities, states and other issuers of tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Stock market shutdowns: Trading halts on major, big-cap stocks … plus on-again, off-again exchange shutdowns, making it increasingly difficult for investors to liquidate their holdings at any price.

Credit market deep freeze: A virtual shutdown in all debt markets except U.S. Treasuries. An avalanche of selling — and virtually no buyers — for corporate bonds, commercial paper, asset-backed securities, municipal bonds and all forms of bank loans.

Government bond collapse: A steep decline in the price of medium-and long-term government securities, as the U.S. Treasury bids aggressively for scarce funds to finance a ballooning budget deficit.
Shocking? Perhaps. Avoidable? No.

[jpinpb]

arraya – quite prophetic so far.

Question? What to do? So don’t hold stocks.
Cash is king, but we’re staring at hyperinflation.
Gold is through the roof. Too late to buy?

[jpinpb]

arraya – quite prophetic so far.

Question? What to do? So don’t hold stocks.
Cash is king, but we’re staring at hyperinflation.
Gold is through the roof. Too late to buy?

[jpinpb]

arraya – quite prophetic so far.

Question? What to do? So don’t hold stocks.
Cash is king, but we’re staring at hyperinflation.
Gold is through the roof. Too late to buy?

[jpinpb]

arraya – quite prophetic so far.

Question? What to do? So don’t hold stocks.
Cash is king, but we’re staring at hyperinflation.
Gold is through the roof. Too late to buy?

[jpinpb]

arraya – quite prophetic so far.

Question? What to do? So don’t hold stocks.
Cash is king, but we’re staring at hyperinflation.
Gold is through the roof. Too late to buy?

[AK]

IIRC Overstock.com has never reported an annual profit. I think they have bigger problems than a few naked short sellers.

[AK]

IIRC Overstock.com has never reported an annual profit. I think they have bigger problems than a few naked short sellers.

[AK]

IIRC Overstock.com has never reported an annual profit. I think they have bigger problems than a few naked short sellers.

[AK]

IIRC Overstock.com has never reported an annual profit. I think they have bigger problems than a few naked short sellers.

[Author]

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