Woman Who Invented Credit Default Swaps is One of the Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives, Which Would Be at the Very CENTER of Cap and Trade

Courtesy of Washington’s Blog

As I have previously shown, speculative derivatives (especially credit default swaps) are a primary cause of the economic crisis.

And I have pointed out that (1) the giant banks will make a killing on carbon trading, (2) while the leading scientist crusading against global warming says it won’t work, and (3) there is a very high probability of massive fraud and insider trading in the carbon trading markets.

Now, Bloomberg notes that the carbon trading scheme will be centered around derivatives:

The banks are preparing to do with carbon what they’ve done before: design and market derivatives contracts that will help client companies hedge their price risk over the long term. They’re also ready to sell carbon-related financial products to outside investors.

[Blythe] Masters says banks must be allowed to lead the way if a mandatory carbon-trading system is going to help save the planet at the lowest possible cost. And derivatives related to carbon must be part of the mix, she says. Derivatives are securities whose value is derived from the value of an underlying commodity — in this case, CO2 and other greenhouse gases…

Who is Blythe Masters?

She is the JP Morgan employee who invented credit default swaps, and is now heading JPM’s carbon trading efforts. As Bloomberg notes (this and all remaining quotes are from the above-linked Bloomberg article):

Masters, 40, oversees the New York bank’s environmental businesses as the firm’s global head of commodities…

As a young London banker in the early 1990s, Masters was part of JPMorgan’s team developing ideas for transferring risk to third parties. She went on to manage credit risk for JPMorgan’s investment bank.

Among the credit derivatives that grew from the bank’s early efforts was the credit-default swap.

Some in congress are fighting against carbon derivatives:

“People are going to be cutting up carbon futures, and we’ll be in trouble,” says Maria Cantwell, a Democratic senator from Washington state. “You can’t stay ahead of the next tool they’re going to create.”

Cantwell, 51, proposed in November that U.S. state governments be given the right to ban unregulated financial products. “The derivatives market has done so much damage to our economy and is nothing more than a very-high-stakes casino — except that casinos have to abide by regulations,” she wrote in a press release…

However, Congress may cave in to industry pressure to let carbon derivatives trade over-the-counter:

The House cap-and-trade bill bans OTC derivatives, requiring that all carbon trading be done on exchanges…The bankers say such a ban would be a mistake…The banks and companies may get their way on carbon derivatives in separate legislation now being worked out in Congress…

Financial experts are also opposed to cap and trade:

Even George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund operator, says money managers would find ways to manipulate cap-and-trade markets. “The system can be gamed,” Soros, 79, remarked at a London School of Economics seminar in July. “That’s why financial types like me like it — because there are financial opportunities”…

Hedge fund manager Michael Masters, founder of Masters Capital Management LLC, based in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands [and unrelated to Blythe Masters] says speculators will end up controlling U.S. carbon prices, and their participation could trigger the same type of boom-and-bust cycles that have buffeted other commodities…

The hedge fund manager says that banks will attempt to inflate the carbon market by recruiting investors from hedge funds and pension funds.

“Wall Street is going to sell it as an investment product to people that have nothing to do with carbon,” he says. “Then suddenly investment managers are dominating the asset class, and nothing is related to actual supply and demand. We have seen this movie before.”

Indeed, as I have previously pointed out, many environmentalists are opposed to cap and trade as well. For example:

Michelle Chan, a senior policy analyst in San Francisco for Friends of the Earth, isn’t convinced.

“Should we really create a new $2 trillion market when we haven’t yet finished the job of revamping and testing new financial regulation?” she asks. Chan says that, given their recent history, the banks’ ability to turn climate change into a new commodities market should be curbed…

“What we have just been woken up to in the credit crisis — to a jarring and shocking degree — is what happens in the real world,” she says…

Friends of the Earth’s Chan is working hard to prevent the banks from adding carbon to their repertoire. She titled a March FOE report “Subprime Carbon?” In testimony on Capitol Hill, she warned, “Wall Street won’t just be brokering in plain carbon derivatives — they’ll get creative.”

Yes, they’ll get "creative", and we have seen this movie before …an inadequately-regulated carbon derivatives boom will destabilize the economy and lead to another crash.

Source: Lisa Kassenaar, Bloomberg

The banks are preparing to do with carbon what they’ve done before: design and market derivatives contracts that will help client companies hedge their price risk over the long term. They’re also ready to sell carbon-related financial products to outside investors. [Blythe] Masters [of JP Morgan Chase] says banks must be allowed to lead the way if a mandatory carbon-trading system is going to help save the planet at the lowest possible cost. And derivatives related to carbon must be part of the mix, she says. Derivatives are securities whose value is derived from the value of an underlying commodity — in this case, CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

[Barello's Take: Something tells me this whole scam is about to go down the toilet...hopefully in tandem with a few Wall Street firms.]

The Media Research Center hauls the mainstream TV networks on the carpet for failing to report “climategate,” the false reporting of global-warming information to help promote a new active trading market in several air pollutants.

First Article:

Day Fourteen and Counting

December 04, 2009 12:05 ET

Bozell Defends Networks’ Silence on ClimateGate:

“Maybe They Just Don’t Know”

Alexandria, VA – For the fourteenth straight day, the three broadcast networks have failed to report on the great and growing ClimateGate scandal on their weekday morning or evening news programs.  How to explain this?

Perhaps it is that ABC, NBC and CBS have not yet heard of the story, despite two weeks of non-stop reporting on and discussion of ClimateGate in a whole host of media outlets.

Perhaps the broadcast networks only trust their fellow liberal press outlets, like the New York Times.  Perhaps they don’t realize the Times exhibited journalistic diligence on ClimateGate, with a front page story the day the story broke.

In the event that ABC News, NBC News and CBS News missed the news, the Media Research Center (MRC) is today rushing each of them a copy of the Times story, in the hopes that armed with this new information, they will finally report a story that has been roiling nearly everywhere else for a fortnight.

So as not to offend the networks’ pro-global warming sensibilities, MRC President Brent Bozell is looking to have the stories delivered by bicycle messenger.

Bozell:

“Ignorance is no excuse under the law, but maybe we should stop criticizing and start showing compassion for NBC, ABC and CBS and their neglect of the huge ClimateGate story.  We are more than happy to help rectify their knowledge deficit – via a network-friendly source and in an as environmentally-friendly a way as possible.

“We think that once the networks read the story of ClimateGate in their vaunted New York Times, they’ll feel compelled to report it themselves.

“We very much look forward to seeing the fruits of their labor.”

Second article:

NBC Nightly News Takes Up ClimateGate, But Frets It Could ‘Delay Taking Action’

By: Brent Baker
December 04, 2009 21:15 ET

Two weeks after the scandal broke, NBC Nightly News on Friday night became the first broadcast network morning or evening news program to inform viewers about “ClimateGate,” but only in the most cursory manner as correspondent Anne Thompson, a long-time ally of the environmental left, despaired the e-mails may end up “giving politicians from coal and oil-producing states another reason to delay taking action to reduce emissions. The government’s leading scientist told Congress there is no time to lose.”

Anchor Brian Williams had teased: “ClimateGate, they’re calling it. A new scandal over global warming and it’s burning up the Internet. Have the books been cooked on climate change?” But neither Williams nor Thompson ever again used the “ClimateGate” term as Thompson’s story assured viewers the threat remains while she saw — not a major scientific scandal — but merely how “those who doubt that manmade greenhouse gases are changing the climate say” the e-mails “show climate scientists massaging data and suppressing studies by those who disagree.”

Thompson, who in 2007 declared “the scientific debate is no longer over society’s role in global warming. It is now a matter of degrees,” allowed soundbites from a Republican Congressman and Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute, but countered with how “25 leading U.S. scientists accused climate change opponents of misrepresenting the e-mails’ significance” and, after a clip of left-wing activist Michael Oppenheimer, she fretted over how, as quoted above, the e-mails will “delay” vital action.

Thompson concluded with NOAA’s administrator: “Climate change is not a theory. It is a documented set of observations about the world.”

(The Media Research Center on Friday issued a press release mocking the network silence on ClimateGate: “Day Fourteen and Counting.”)

Immediately following Thompson’s defense of global warming hysteria, Williams noted “snow today in Houston, Texas” which “weather experts say…is the earliest snowfall on record in that city.” Williams:

“And there’s weather in the news tonight. Snow today in Houston, Texas. Weather experts say it is the earliest snowfall on record in that city. As much as four inches fell in some places, snarling travel. And in a city on the Gulf of Mexico with no salt spreaders, Houstonians are being warned to stay indoors tonight as it gets colder there. Already a big mess at the airport. A lot of preemptively cancelled flights.”

President Obama didn’t go far enough for Thompson when he addressed the UN in September, as reported in a BiasAlert post:

Reporter Anne Thompson wistfully recalled that “when Barack Obama became President, many in the world hoped the U.S. would take a leadership role in stopping climate change” and so “that led to big expectations for today’s speech — expectations that were quickly dashed.” Thompson asserted “the world wanted to hear President Obama make a commitment to specific cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. Instead of action, it got talk” and, in the ultimate insult a journalist can deliver, she rued how Obama had “one line that sounded a lot like his predecessor, George W. Bush, who refused to agree to emission cuts without similar actions from India and China.”

An August 16, 2007 CyberAlert item, “NBC News Joins Newsweek in Smearing Global Warming ‘Deniers,’” recounted:

Reporter Anne Thompson began her crusading piece with “In Denial” on screen over video of the Cato Institute’s Patrick Michaels. She fretted about “interest groups fueled by powerful companies, including oil giant ExxonMobil.” Citing the far-left Union of Concerned Scientists, she highlighted their claim that “ExxonMobil gave almost $16 million over seven years to denier groups, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute.”….

Touting Michael Oppenheimer as an expert, whom NBC identified only as an “atmospheric scientist” with Princeton University, Thompson asserted that “climate experts say whether hired guns or honest dissenters, deniers are confusing the issue and delaying solutions.” Oppenheimer, who NBC failed to note is “science adviser” to the left-wing Environmental Defense organization, ominously warned: “This is a problem that needs to be attended to very soon, immediately, or else it threatens to get out of control.” Thompson’s conclusion echoed: “The scientific debate is no longer over society’s role in global warming. It is now a matter of degrees.”

The MRC’s Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the story on the Friday, December 4 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: There was a surprising announcement just a short time ago from the White House. President Obama has changed his plans, now says he won’t attend the beginning of that U.N. conference on climate change next week in Copenhagen. Instead, he’ll attend at the end of the conference when leaders from China and India will be there. And, as the world prepares to tackle this issue, there’s a new scandal that’s burning up the Net these days. It began with emails that were stolen, and the scandal has to do with climate change. Our chief environmental affairs correspondent, Anne Thompson, has our report.

ANNE THOMPSON: The hottest debate in the blogosphere is about changes in the earth’s atmosphere and what stolen emails reveal about some data supporting global warming. Those who doubt that manmade greenhouse gases are changing the climate say these e-mails from Britain’s University of East Anglia show climate scientists massaging data and suppressing studies by those who disagree. That’s led to angry headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, and angry politicians.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI): It’s junk science, and it is a part of a massive international scientific fraud.

THOMPSON: The uproar is having an impact. The United Nations today said it would investigate the emails, but did not back away from the science that led it to determine man is responsible for global warming. Still, critics say the emails show catastrophic predictions of countries and people devastated by warming need to be reconsidered.

PATRICK MICHAELS, CATO INSTITUTE: There are clear problems with these records that deserve investigation, and not providing them to people because they’re, quote, “going to find something wrong with it,” is just not the way we’re supposed to do science.

THOMPSON: Today, in a letter to Congress, 25 leading U.S. scientists accused climate change opponents of misrepresenting the emails’ significance.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: I think the e-mail scandal is being used as a political side show to deflect interest in actually dealing with climate change. I think, in that regard, it will fail.

THOMPSON: Even more than in Copenhagen, some think the e-mails will have the greatest impact in Washington, giving politicians from coal and oil-producing states another reason to delay taking action to reduce emissions. The government’s leading scientist told Congress there is no time to lose.

JANE LUBCHENCO, NOAA ADMINISTRATOR: I emphasize that climate change is not a theory. It is a documented set of observations about the world.

THOMPSON: An ever-changing world still debating how much it is changing. Anne Thompson, NBC News, New York.

MSNBC.com video of the story.

— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center

In the event that ABC News, NBC News and CBS News missed the news, the Media Research Center (MRC) is today rushing each of them a copy of the Times story, in the hopes that armed with this new information, they will finally report a story that has been roiling nearly everywhere else for a fortnight.

So as not to offend the networks’ pro-global warming sensibilities, MRC President Brent Bozell is looking to have the stories delivered by bicycle messenger.

Bozell:

“Ignorance is no excuse under the law, but maybe we should stop criticizing and start showing compassion for NBC, ABC and CBS and their neglect of the huge ClimateGate story. We are more than happy to help rectify their knowledge deficit – via a network-friendly source and in an as environmentally-friendly a way as possible.

“We think that once the networks read the story of ClimateGate in their vaunted New York Times, they’ll feel compelled to report it themselves.

“We very much look forward to seeing the fruits of their labor.”

washington post (owned by warren buffet via berkshire hathaway which owns a ton of goldman sachs) must be in bed with goldman to run a soft ball all-sunshine fluff story like this…who cares that this random guy moved to the mountains ‘to clear his head’ for a while…not one mention of what a cluster$%% these bankers created.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402016_pf.html

washington post % of ownership by company here: http://finance.aol.com/company/the-washington-post-company/wpo/nys/institutional-ownership

Chris Story is reporting eight planeloads of military and legal authorities descending on Washington to enforce Chinese demands for payment of settlements that have been owed them for many years.

Let’s look a little more closely at Story’s agenda and modus operandi.

Allegedly Story sells reports on financial investigations.

Another practitioner of his art goes by the name of “Poof.”

For years, Poof kept his or her story running that certain “deliveries” or “packages” were being made which were crucial to the announcement of NESARA.

The substance of his/her serial was that the “packages” were in an armored car that had been stopped by George Bush (Jr. or Sr.) before being allowed to unload its cargo onto a plane. Then the obstacle would be removed and the armored car would be on the road again, only to be stopped at the next tarmac. This would go on day after day,

Chris Story also uses serialized plot lines.

One of his favorites is that the Chinese (usually in the figure of the shadowy “Madame Wu”) are demanding money owed to them since the Second World War and that anyone who stands in their way will be removed. Madame Wu would periodically surface demanding payment, followed by a retinue of financial and legal authorities.

Month after month, headlines of the following general kind would appear on Story’s site:

“MADAME WU DEMANDS U.S. TREASURY PAYMENT TODAY.” (1)

Payment to the Chinese is somehow never made. Back again comes Madame Wu after a few intervening reports of skullduggery elsewhere in the world.

In another column, Story gives the elements of his endlessly-spun account of how the Americans react to the “settlements.” Different names have appeared since then, but the plot remains generally the same.

“CONTINUATION OF THE SAME BUSH, GREENSPAN GIGA-SCAM MONITORED FOR YEARS

“CHINESE PAID OFF? WHY DID THEY LET BUSH GO HOME AFTER ANOTHER FALSE PROMISE?

“U.S. LAW ENFORCEMENT TALKS BIG, BUT LACKS THE GUTS TO DO WHAT IS NECESSARY

“PELOSI LIES TO ENFORCEMENT: SAYS SHE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT THE SETTLEMENTS

“TRUSTEES CAUGHT PILFERING FUNDS ARE ORDERED TO BE SHOT ON SIGHT.” (2)

At one point U.S. Ambassador to China Leo Wanta had a “white-hat” role to play in the money transfers and Story promoted the frustrating of that role as “Wantagate.” This Story line went on for some time and then was abruptly shut down in 2008 when Wanta apparently joined the “black hats.”

In his discussion of it, Story gives one of his motives for creating sensational rumors and stories.

“Although I invented the phrase Wantagate and then plugged the matter very intensively, I did this as a marketing matter and publicity device because the Wanta cause served several purposes.

“The overt object of the exercise, as noted, was to hold the criminalists to their formal undertaking to Wanta, which was successfully making them squirm: had Wanta stayed the course and clung on to us, as he should have done, he would have forced the issue. But he lost patience and was suborned by Cheney et al.” (3)

Note that the common thread in all of it is American financial transgressions.

The amount of money involved was at that time estimated to be $3-4 trillion. Added Story:

“The whole matter is of course FAR MORE COMPLEX THAN THIS.

“We have documentation SO DEVASTATING THAT IF REVEALED, IT WOULD CAUSE THE COLLAPSE OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.” (4)

We seem always to be sitting on the edge of our seat with Story awaiting cataclysmic events which never seem to happen. Here is one that, unless you buy the use of clones, etc., is impossible:

In January 2008, Story reports the death of Hank Paulson, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury:

“UPDATE, 5.00PM 2ND JANUARY 2008:

“Henry M. Paulson, the Secretary of the United States Treasury, died today from gunshot wounds suffered as described in this report. The State Department have confirmed this to sources in touch with this service. We do not know, and it may never be known, whether Paulson was shot dead ‘in the course of duty’ given that he had continually committed gross treason in time of war and had repeatedly (we are informed) been warned of the consequences if he did not cease and desist.” (5)

I’m under the impression that Hank Paulson is still very much alive today and went on, after his untimely death, to engineer TARP (the Troubled Assets Relief Program) in September 2008. (6) For “Troubled Assets,” read “derivatives.”

He finishes that column with mention of some of his favorite Story elements:

“127 PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES BELIEVED TO BE ON THE HIT LIST

“FINANCIAL BRINKMANSHIP LEADS TO THE PREDICTED BLOODBATH

“CRISIS HAS ESCALATED WAY BEYOND THE WANTAGATE DIMENSION.” (7)

“Beyond the Wantagate dimension” means that Story has found his new theme to replace the now-retired Wantagate thread.

Hit lists, bloodbaths, and financial brinkmanship – this is raw Story.

Strong stuff, designed to hook the reader and keep him or her going for months, following events which relentlessly unwind and then double back on themselves in true Agatha-Christie fashion but seemingly go ultimately nowhere.

“Thus, in using Leo/Lee Wanta for their own nefarious purposes, as a front behind which to continue perpetrating fraudulent finance operations, these idiots [American intelligence agents] dug their own grave because this enabled us to publicise, to some extent, what they were up to, almost in real time.

“They didn’t seem to GRASP what was happening for ages.” (8)

Neither do we apparently.

Story sheds light on whose interests he serves:

“No, I am not MI6 or MI anything. But I AM a loyal subject of Her Majesty, and proud of it. Her Majesty, who has served our country and the world impeccably throughout her very long reign, is the one remaining upholder of the Rule of Law left.

“(This statement may trigger the usual knee-jerk, ignorant American Black propaganda against our Monarch. Those lies come from the same sewer that we are jointly exposing. The criminalists want the British Monarchy out of their way, as it is the one power still standing for the Rule of Law, as may soon become clear).” (9)

I personally think that Story serves more than just the Queen, although I think she is a person of much influence. But I think his references to the Queen mask his service to a larger set of British monied interests.

In Story’s report on Wanta’s recent firing of his American attorney, Michael Cottrell, Story makes use of the Queen’s information channels:

“As a direct consequence of that report [on the firing], a Queen’s Messenger was sent from London to Wanta with a copy of the report, and a request that he explain what it was all about (who told me this? Wanta).

“In March, I was asked by Michael Cottrell to write to The Queen (twice) enclosing certain materials connected with this matter, which I did. I received a reply only in June (I have no complaint about this whatsoever as I was not expecting any response from our Head of State at all).” (10)

So Story, who would not consort with the FBI or other agents of American intelligence, freely uses Her Majesty’s good offices to transmit his reports. It is not as if he is impartial.

But back to Madame Wu.

The Chinese story is usually a reference to a huge amount of money owed the Chinese, who are coming to collect it, “this time” with international financial and legal authorities on their side, and watch out to anyone who stands in their way. Story’s latest column is on this theme. “IT WILL BE DONE, OR THERE WILL BE BLOOD ON THE FLOOR.” (11) Vintage Story. Hopefully not Hank Paulson’s a second time.

But where is Story’s mention of the derivatives megabubble that will take everyone down? Is he dancing while Rome burns? Is he being paid to distract our attention? And from what and whom?

I see he makes passing reference in his latest column to “exposure” of 9/11, which must come out. Given the knowledge that most Europeans appear to have about 9/11, his passing reference to it is hardly ahead of the curve. (12)

But, in the “true” story of 9/11, will he mention the role of certain banks that allegedly financed it to hide gold-laundering, stop financial investigations underway, and destroy $240 billion in “Durham/Brady” bonds owed primarily to Russians paid in 1991 to persuade them to wrap up the old Soviet Union? Will he expose the entire global network of criminal and financial interests behind 9/11 or just the White House?

The information has been on the Internet since Dec. 2008. (13) What part of the story will he tell and what part not? And why?

He seems not to tell the story of British money and he seems to focus on undermining whoever is the current American administration. Whose interests does that serve in the shady world that Chris Story inhabits?

Namaste,

Steve

Footnotes

(1) Chris Story, “Madame Wu Demands U.S. Treasury Payment Today,” World Reports, May 15, 2008, at http://www.worldreports.org/news/133_madame_wu_demands_u.s.treasury_payment_today.

(2) Story, “Settlement Funds Scammed Daily, Put Back at 4:00 p.m.. MI6 Betraying the Queen, Failing to Enforce the Law,” World Reports, Aug. 12, 2008, at http://www.worldreports.org/news/158_settlement_funds_scammed_daily_put_back_at_4.00pm.

(3) Story, “Why We Closed Down Wantagate: Briefly Explained. The Editor’s Response to Another Website’s Misunderstanding,” World Reports, June 15, 2008, at http://www.worldreports.org/news/141_why_we_closed_down_wantagate_briefly_explained,

(4) Ibid.

(5) Story, “Henry Paulson has Died after Being Shot in the Chest. Top Aide to Vice president Cheney Shot Dead at Close Range,” World Reports, Jan. 2, 2008, at http://www.worldreports.org/news/109_henry_paulson_has_died_after_being_shot_in_the_chest_.

(6) “Henry M. Paulson, Jr.,” New York Times, Dec. 6, 2009, at

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/henry_m_jr_paulson/index.html?inline=nyt-per.

(7) Story, Henry Paulson Has Died,” ibid.

(8) Story, “Why We Closed Down Wantagate,” ibid.

(9) Ibid.

(10) Ibid.

(11) Story, “Signs of an End-Game Showdown with Washington. Planeloads of Authorities Descend on the United States,” World Reports, Dec. 3, 2009, at http://www.worldreports.org/news/250_signs_of_an_end_game_showdown_with_washington

(12) Ibid.

(13) “September 11 Commission Report (Revised), at http://sbeckow.wordpress.com/the-commentary-of-others/september-11-commission-report-revised/.

The first time I used the word “rubbish” in the US caused a few split-second confused looks, which smoothed out into grins. Apparently, I’m supposed to say “trash” instead. True, “rubbish” or even “garbage” do sound a little more over-the-top, but I think it’s pretty nifty how even such a simple noun can have different derivatives within English.

In downtown Chicago, there’s about one rubbish bin/trash can on every corner of a street, and two or three more along the same block. And it’s pleasantly clean, too, unlike the alleyways of Hong Kong or New York. But in recent years, I’ve noticed a trend – an increase in the number of rubbish bins usually means a decrease in litter and filth, no matter where you go. Well, population density of the area plus size of given area also factor in as well, but in general, people are pretty good about keeping their trash off the streets. I’ve also noticed that open-lidded bins are usually kept cleaner than lidded ones, but tend to smell more, while lidded bins keep the smell in, but the area around the openings is … well, let’s just say you don’t want to know what kind of slime has rubbed off onto the lid.

Recycling bins are even better. As long as the stuff actually gets recycled – I once read an article on how a neighbourhood in Hong Kong thought they were being good citizens and helping the environment by sorting their recyclables, but it turned out that the garbage collectors just dumped it all into the landfill with the rest of the rubbish. Hm. That’s why I really admire places like California where they offer people an incentive to recycle.

Order the DVD at: http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net…
Fall Of The Republic documents how an offshore corporate cartel is bankrupting the US economy by design. Leaders are now declaring that world government has arrived and that the dollar will be replaced by a new global currency.

President Obama has brazenly violated Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution by seating himself at the head of United Nations’ Security Council, thus becoming the first US president to chair the world body.

A scientific dictatorship is in its final stages of completion, and laws protecting basic human rights are being abolished worldwide; an iron curtain of high-tech tyranny is now descending over the planet.

A worldwide regime controlled by an unelected corporate elite is implementing a planetary carbon tax system that will dominate all human activity and establish a system of neo-feudal slavery.

The image makers have carefully packaged Obama as the world’s savior; he is the Trojan Horse manufactured to pacify the people just long enough for the globalists to complete their master plan.

This film reveals the architecture of the New World Order and what the power elite have in store for humanity. More importantly it communicates how We The People can retake control of our government, turn the criminal tide and bring the tyrants to justice.
A film by Alex Jones.

My client, a major financial institution located in N.Y.C. is seeking a Derivatives Accounting Analyst to join their Derivatives Accounting Group.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Assist the Derivatives Accounting Manager with the monitoring, reporting and analysis of derivative activity.
• Prepare the FAS 157 Non-Hedge Accounting Request Checklist for each new third party derivative transaction submitted by the Business Unit.
• Structure new third party derivative transactions in the appropriate valuation system.
• Assist with the preparation of the quarterly FAS 157 process, including:
  • Prepare, reconcile and distribute monthly and quarterly P&L and balance sheet reports for each of the firm’s  business units that hold derivative instruments
  • Analyze credit value adjustment on intercompany derivatives for inclusion in segment reporting, and annual and quarterly SEC filings
  • Perform variance analysis of derivative valuations (entity submitted vs. provided by DAG)
  • Review of quarterly non-hedge accounting SI submissions and preparation of the FAS 157 control binders.
• Assist in the preparation of derivative disclosures as required for the 10-Q/10K.
• Respond to and explain changes in valuations to business units across the firm as needed.
• Assist in the DAG’s user acceptance testing of automated solutions to the above responsibilities to increase the speed and accuracy of deliverables.
• Special projects and preparation of ad hoc reporting.

Location:

New York City

Requirements:

• 5+ years experience in finance and/or accounting in financial services with

1–2 years experience working with FAS 133/157 preferred

• Strong MS Excel skills
• Knowledge of derivatives
• CPA preferred but not required
• Highly motivated, keen to develop and advance, a team player
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Control oriented, good attention to detail

Compensation: 130k  Plus bonus.

Contact: Kevin J. Collins / Koren Rogers Inc. / 914 686 5800 ext 128

Depositary, Custodian, Trustee: Their Respective Roles Towards Investment Funds

If it is pretty clear what the role of the manager of an investment fund consists of, things become slightly more disorientating when other entities involved in fund structures are considered. One may ask what are the respective roles assumed by a Depositary, a Custodian and a Trustee, and what are the possible relations between them.

The same word may correspond to several types of functions and activities, depending on which jurisdiction and type of investment funds we are talking about. This post reflects my experience in handling Luxembourg, French, Irish, BVI, Cayman and Hong Kong funds’ work: my comments may therefore not be relevant to US funds (clarifications thereof are welcome!):

1. Depositary / Custodian

In a nutshell, the Depositary is a “Super-Custodian”, or more accurately a “Central Custodian”. A Depositary could choose to assume all the functions of a Custodian, although in practice it makes sense to delegate some functions to Sub-Custodians (see below). On the opposite, a Custodian may not assume all of a Depositary’s functions.

A Depositary generally has three functions:

(1) the preservation of the assets of the fund (the depositary holds the title of the assets when they are transferable instruments such as equities, or operates as a mere book-keeper complementing a Prime-Broker’s job when it comes to derivatives);

(2) the day-to-day administration of the assets of the fund (the depositary receives the income produced by the assets);

(3) the control of the funds’s operation (compliance with investment policies, notably proper creation/redemption/cancellation of the units/shares issued to the investors)

So what is the difference between a custodian and a Depositary? Well, a Depositary is a regulated bank holding a licence allowing it to operate as a Depositary, which may choose to delegate part of its functions to a Sub-Custodian.

A Depositary holds the title of the assets of the funds (unlike a Sub-Custodian), national laws may require that a fund appoints a Depositary (e.g. UCITS funds and most of continental Europe’s non-regulated funds such as Luxembourg’s SIFs shall appoint a Depositary located in their own jurisdiction, although this may change with UCITS IV introducing a passport for Depositaries) which is held liable, together with the manager, for the supervision of the fund’s business, and potentially vicariously liable for the functions it has delegated to a Sub-Custodian.

Such delegation to a Sub-Custodian often occurs when the manager wants to invest in markets where the Depositary does not operate or operates under a separate entity (this is “Global Custody”). There are of course rules to be observed when structuring a delegation, which notably implies the performance of due diligence and ongoing monitoring by the Depositary. As Sub-Custodians are governed by their national laws, the rules on asset segregation and re-hypothecation may vary widely.

2. Trustee / Custodian

Trustees only exist in jurisdictions where Trust Law applies, that means English common law jurisdictions. There are no Trustees involved in continental Europe’s funds.

The Trustee is the legal owner of the fund’s assets and owes a fiduciary duty to the investors i.e. the beneficial owners of the fund’s assets. Its role is very similar to the control function assumed by a Depositary: there is no Depositary when there is a Trustee, but there is a Custodian. The Trustee’s roles consist of:

(1) holding control over the asset of the fund that were entrusted to him by the investors ;

(2) making sure that the investment policies provided in the Trust Deed and the laws governing the fund are observed by the investment manager ; and

(3) ensuring that the assets are segregated from the manager’s assets.

The Custodian exercises a direct control over the assets of the scheme and has the main mission to hold, safeguard and operate them in accordance with the managers’ investment decisions.

Although the respective roles of Trustee and Custodian shall be clearly distinguished, in some jurisdictions the Law authorises one single entity to assume both roles, such entity being thus referred to as the “Trustee/Custodian”.

Summary:

Trustee = control only

Custodian = custody only

Depositary = custody (frequent delegation) + control

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Happy Trading
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Happy Trading
www.tripleint.com

WASHINGTON — Suddenly the Federal Reserve is everybody’s punching bag.

Strip the Fed of its bank regulation powers, some in Congress are demanding. Get probing audits of its behind-the-scenes operations, others say.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is always fair game for criticism and second-guessing, usually over interest rate actions. But this year the criticism is much broader as Congress responds to widespread public anger that the Fed bailed out Wall Street but not ordinary Americans, and with unemployment in double digits.

Former Fed chairman William McChesney Martin Jr. famously said that the central bank’s job was to yank away the punchbowl just when everybody is starting to party. And while Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has signalled the Fed will keep interest rates low for now, a round of higher rates inevitably will come.

The Fed finds itself both the punchbowl keeper and the punching bag. Imagine the outcry when it does begin to crank up rates â?? perhaps just ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Fireworks seem likely at Senate confirmation hearings early next month on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Bernanke to a second four-year term as chairman.

Many economists and Fed watchers say congressional efforts to rein in the Fed’s powers could interfere with the central bank’s ability to help guide the fragile economy to recovery.

The Fed’s very independence and its unique ability among U.S. institutions to create money out of thin air enabled it to act quickly to stabilize the nation’s financial system after it froze up last September after the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers investment house, Fed backers say.

“It might have been the Fed’s finest moment when it had to jump into the market,” said David M. Jones, a former Fed economist and president of DMJ Advisors, a Denver-based consulting firm. “We still have to wait to see how effective the Fed is in its exit strategy and whether it can keep inflation in check. But this badgering by Congress, even if there is populist sentiment, is inappropriate.”

The Fed’s aggressive intervention also set the stage for the current criticism. Many lawmakers question whether the Fed’s money machine has mainly benefited financial markets and not the broader economy. Lamakers are also peeved that the central bank acted without congressional involvement when it brokered the 2008 sale of failed investment bank Bear Stearns and engineered the rescue of insurer American International Group.

Bernanke, first appointed by President George W. Bush, has worked closely with both Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in confronting the worst financial crisis in decades. Geithner also has gotten his share of congressional wrath, mainly for his administering of the $700 billion bank bailout fund.

“In the past, the Federal Reserve was held in very high esteem,” said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a libertarian who ran a quixotic third-party presidential campaign in 2008. Now, it’s “the source of our problem,” suggests Paul, author of the bestseller “End the Fed.”

Usually an outlier, Paul suddenly has found an army of at least 307 House colleagues and 30 senators marching behind his legislation to subject the Fed to intense scrutiny by Congress’ Government Accountability Office. The House Financial Services Committee endorsed Paul’s approach 43-26 last week over objections from its chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

The bill would authorize Congress to audit not only the Fed’s lending programs but its basic decisions to set monetary policy by raising or lowering interest rates. Paul has been introducing a version every year since the early 1980s, but this is the first time it has garnered any serious attention.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who will preside over Bernanke’s confirmation hearings, has proposed legislation that would strip the Fed of its bank-regulation authority and give the Senate a role in selecting the 12 regional Federal Reserve bank presidents.

Dodd says his measure would return the Fed to its core mission of setting monetary policy, claiming it proved itself “an abysmal failure” by not cracking down on risky lending practices that led to the financial meltdown.

Dodd is in an extremely tight battle for re-election, even though he has served in Congress for 35 years.

“I don’t think it ever hurts to have a member of Congress stand up and denounce the Fed. There is a lot of anger out there, and this is basically a therapeutic gesture,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

Still, Baker said, it probably isn’t wise to tamper with the formula that makes the Fed “very much an anomaly in American government. It’s independent, it has to be. You don’t want the Fed to be under the control of the president. And it kind of sits out there — not in the executive branch, not in the legislative branch, not in the judicial branch. Sort of its own little element in the separation-of-powers constellation.”

While the Fed is subject to some congressional oversight, its decisions don’t have to be ratified by the president or Congress. Fed officials are not paid with money appropriated by Congress.

Should Bernanke be worried?

“Not only should he be worried, he’s clearly ratcheted up his game in terms of his communications with Congress,” said Norman Ornstein, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Ornstein said the Fed bashing this time is different from before, with “a broader base of support. And it’s coming from people who in the past would not have hit the Fed. There’s a lot of populist anger out there — on the left, in the center, and on the right. And politicians are responsive to that.”

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee

Monday, November 23, 2009 1:51 PM

A page one, top-of-the-fold New York Times report Monday warns that U.S. debt is rising so fast that the federal government is careening toward a “payment shock” in the not-too-distant future.

The Times lead headline read: “Federal Government Faces Balloon in Debt Payments: At $700 Billion a Year, Cost Will Top Budgets for 2 Wars, Education, Energy.”

The Times headline appears eerie just as the Senate moves to push forward on a radical healthcare reform — with CBO estimates for a final bill costing nearly $1 trillion dollars over the next year.

The national debt now stands at over $12 trillion and the White House estimates that the cost of servicing the debt will rise to more than $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year. The Times suggests that $700 billion annual payment cost may be conservative.

The additional $500 billion a year in interest payments would surpass the combined budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security, plus the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Times observes.

Treasury officials face not only huge new debts incurred in response to the economic meltdown but a balloon of short-term borrowings coming due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are certain to return to normal levels when the Federal Reserve concludes that the fiscal emergency has passed.

Link to Article

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 — 9:50 pm

As the number of problem U.S. banks swells to the hundreds, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is increasingly hard-pressed to fill in the gaps where institutions have put depositor’s funds at risk.

Unfortunately, a dire prediction made by government officials in early 2009 has come true: the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund is now broke, according to published reports.

“The deposit insurance fund dropped by $18.6 billion during the third quarter of 2009 to negative $8.2 billion, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. set aside $21.7 billion in provisions for additional bank failures,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “This is the second time in the agency’s history that the balance has fallen into negative territory.”

In March the FDIC took steps to stave off the possibility that its insurance fund would run dry, instituting new fees on banks, forcing them to pay to protect consumers.

The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair, wrote to bank leaders declaring that “without these assessments, the deposit insurance fund could become insolvent this year.”

According to the FDIC’s most recent quarterly report, there were 552 “problem” banking institutions in the U.S., the most since the end of 1993.

“In its state of the industry report, the F.D.I.C. reported that banks posted a $2.8 billion gain in the third quarter, after a $4.3 billion loss in the previous period,” The New York Times reported. “The number of bad loans of nearly every stripe — credit cards, mortgages, small business and commercial real estate — continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace.”

BizJournals added: “Fifty institutions failed during the third quarter, bringing the total number of failures in the first nine months of 2009 to 95. As of Nov. 21, 124 banks have failed nationwide.”

“The FDIC has not yet accessed a temporary $500 billion fund of capital it has available to it from Treasury for the insurance fund,” Marketwatch notd. “The FDIC estimates that bank failures will cost the agency as much as $100 billion over the next five years, with the majority of the losses taking place in 2009 and 2010. The agency may require banks to pay additional assessments to cover losses to the fund if bank failures expand in greater numbers than anticipated by the agency.”

When banks insured by the FDIC are seized or declare bankruptcy, the agency returns depositors’ funds up to $250,000.

Read the FDIC’s full Q3 2009 report [PDF link].

With AFP.

An earlier version of this report said the FDIC insures depositors’ funds up to $100,000. The government-run agency expanded its coverage for consumers from $100,000 to $250,000 in 2008. President Obama further extended the additional cushion until the end of 2013.

Nov. 24, 2009 at 2:49pm

Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported aggregate net income of $2.8 billion in the third quarter of 2009. Earnings were more than three times what was reported a year earlier and an improvement over the industry’s $4.3 billion net loss in the second quarter 2009.

In contrast, outstanding loan balances declined by the largest percentage since quarterly reporting began in 1984.
“There is no question that credit availability is an important issue for the economic recovery. We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers,” said agency Chairman Sheila Bair. “This is especially true for small businesses that rely on FDIC-insured institutions to provide over 60 percent of the credit they use.”

Total loans and leases declined by $210.4 billion (2.8 percent) during the quarter. Loans to commercial and industrial borrowers declined 6.5 percent, and real estate construction and development loans declined by $43.6 billion (8.1 percent).

The number of institutions on the FDIC’s “Problem List” rose to its highest level in 16 years. At the end of September, there were 552 insured institutions listed, up from 416 on June 30th.

The complete Quarterly Banking Profile is available on the FDIC Web site.