Asia Times – In 2009, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, the nation’s most prestigious honor for public servants, was given to Brooksley Born for her role in 1998, as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to try, albeit unsuccessfully, to bring over-the-counter financial derivatives under the regulatory control of the CFTC weeks before the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM).

OTC derivatives are contracts executed outside of the regulated exchange environment and whose value depends on (or derives from) the value of an underlying asset, reference rate or index. Market participants use these instruments to perform a wide variety of useful risk management functions. The Bank of International Settlement (BIS) reports the notional value of outstanding OTC derivatives contracts ending June 2009 to be US$49.2 trillion worldwide against a 2009 world gross domestic product (GDP) of $65.6 trillion.

The award citation read: The government’s failure to regulate such financial deals has been widely criticized as one of the causes of the current financial crisis. In the booming economic climate of the 1990s, Born battled other regulators in the [Bill] Clinton administration, skeptical members of Congress and lobbyists over the regulation of derivatives, warning that unregulated financial contracts such as credit default swaps could pose grave dangers to the economy.

Her efforts brought fierce opposition from Wall Street and from administration officials who believed deregulation was essential to the extraordinary economic growth that was then in full bloom. Her adversaries eventually passed legislation prohibiting the CFTC from any oversight of financial derivatives during her term. She stepped down from the CFTC in 1999 and returned to a distinguished career in public interest law. Born, an attorney, was nominated as CFTC chair by Clinton on May 3, 1996, and confirmed by the Senate on August 2, 1996, to a term expiring April 15, 1999 and stayed on to serve as acting chair until she resigned on June 1, 1999.

At CFTC, Born conducted a financial analysis that led her to anticipate a serious financial crisis due to growth in the trade of unregulated derivatives. Born was particularly concerned about swaps, financial instruments that are traded over the counter on the dark market (trading on a cross network an alternative trading system that matches buy and sell orders electronically for execution without first routing the order to an exchange or other displayed markets, such as an Electronic Communication Network, which displays a public quote.

Instead, the order is either anonymously placed into a black box or flagged to other participants of the crossing network. The advantage of the crossing network to the transaction parties is the ability to execute a large block order without impacting the public quote. Swaps thus have no transparency except to the two counter-parties. The disadvantage to the market is that material information is hidden from market participants.

On May 7, 1998, the CFTC under Born issued a “Concept Release Concerning OTC Derivatives Market” requesting comments on whether the OTC derivatives market was properly regulated under the existing exemptions of the Commodity Exchange Act, a federal act passed during the New Deal era in 1936, and on whether market developments required regulatory changes.

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I’m so excited,  the Wigtown Wanderer’s own Bridget the Bloodthirsty’s owl came a few days ago.  I apologize for taking so long to post pictures.  My camera cord was lost under a pile of knit books and printed patterns!  She sent me a wonderful package.   Thank you so much, you are a wonderful swap pal!
This post is picture-heavy so it you want to see more you have to look behind the cut

It was themed to my position of ball minder in the Appleby Arrows!  I love the cowl and the mitts!  They are so soft and very pretty.  If you look carefully you will see that the lace pattern is arrowheads.  Also there is a yummy Apricot and Vanilla white tea that I have not tried yet.  Knitpicks circs and yummy Panda Cotton in Blues & Greys colourway.

In the package, there was a quaffle tape measure, golden snitch pins and pincushion and little bludger stitchmarkers, as well as a great new Appleby Arrows Official Ball Ledger.

Wait there’s more!  Very cool pins, one is an Appleby Arrows pin and the other is my Quidditch jersey!

Last, but surely not least Faye’s favourite part of the package.  Her present from Bridget a squeaky giant giraffee!  She loves it so much and has been bringing it all over the house with her since she received it.  I wasn’t able to get a picture of it when I opened the package because as soon as a look off the packaging and showed it to her, she snatched it out of my hands and hide in her kennel to enjoy it!  So I have pictures of her playing with it.

All I was thinking about was the 5 days courtesy of Stampin’ Up! (Thanks – you guys are awesome!!!)

I had the most wonderful 7 days in Noosa.  Jason and I arrived at the Sheraton on the Monday 18^th August as I had to have an MRI done on my right ankle.  Since coming out of a wheelchair then on crutches for 12 months walking unaided for a few months, then to find out I need an ankle reconstruction on my good leg was really disappointing, but all I was thinking about was the 5 days courtesy of Stampin’ Up! (Thanks – you guys are awesome!!!).  I had been looking forward to this holiday for over 18 months.  How’s that; I was on stage with Shelli in Brisbane May 2008 receiving an award for recruiting.  I told Shelli “I will be with you next year on the holiday” and I was.  I reached my goal and achieved more than I could have dreamed.

I thought I would start by showing you some photos and share a few special things from the Incentive Trip.
Here we go…

Monday - Jason and I spent at Sun Shine Plaza, Coffee Shops and Hastings St. 

Tuesday – Noosa Junction, I found a bead shop and this is the latest mini hobby.  We had dinner at Cato’s with Jason’s sister Aimee who lives at Tewantin just down the road.  As we were walking to the restaurant I waved to the SU girls as they were sorting out some of the presents.  They got such a shock Janiel jumped up and closed the curtain.  They didn’t know we arrived on the Monday. 

A welcome gift delivered to our room

Wednesday – Jason and I had a lovely breakfast on Hastings St.  I went to the SU reception area to meet the event girls she asked me if I had seen anything I said no but I had seen the aprons hanging up but I thought they were for the make and take day.  Janiel is the most awesome organiser you will ever meet she plans everything with such precision.  What an amazing job those girls do!  Jason and I then went out for coffee and when we came back we were handed our coconut wine glasses (you know the kind made from real coconuts) with a yummy tropical concoction inside. This was my first incentive trip but it appears the best part of these trips is catching up with the other girls and their partners.   Although I did know some of the girls and it was great to relax and really get the chance to talk.  The rest of the afternoon was at leisure – shopping, coffee, chatting etc – and then that evening we shared the most wonderful welcome dinner at the hotel.  Before going into dinner we had cocktails and nibbles, chatted and I met lots of Demos I didn’t know.  I spent a lot of time talking to the NZ Girls and their partners.  SU know how to make you  feel very special and again just fantastic presentation.   Dessert was out of this world!  

Look at the dessert table, yummy!!  There were more deserts than I could manage but they all looked so inviting I wanted to try them all.  Of course in true Stampin’ Up! Style there was a surprise apron and chef’s hat awaiting us on our bed – this was to be taken with us the following day.  I was so excited to see a handmade card with the gift and you’ll never guess it was made by Shelli and she had personally written in it.

Thursday – Jason had been going for lots of walks along the beach and in the National Park, I could have been there to.  I love Noosa - it brings back lots of wonderful memories for me.  I have been going there since 1976 and oh boy it is different every time I visit.  We all met in the Lobby at 10 am ready for the surprise.  We caught a ferry up the river towards Noosaville. 

We were taken to Ricky’s restaurant where we were formed into teams to take part in a wonderful cooking school – each team making a different course for our lunch.  As we arrived we were all handed our knife and fork and as you can see they all had our name on a tag and ribbon around lots of different colours ours was Kiwi Kiss.  All the same colours had to cook a specific meal.  The food was unbelievably superb.  There was a prize given to the Master Chef of each group.  I was excited when they called out Kim/Kym.  I stood up thinking it was me and then the other Kim was walk up to get the prize they had forgotten me at the back.  I called out which one and the Chef said Smiley, that was me, I was really happy because I never win anything and guess what I’m not a very good cook actually really bad if you ask my family.  Anyway I was happy with my new Pretties Kit. When we got back it was still early and everybody was talking about shopping.  Some got a limo and others piled into our car, well we thought we were all going to the same Plaza but we thanks to me ended up at the biggest but not the nearest.  It was a great time as I got to know Jacinta, Danilla and another but really sorry can’t remember your name.   I felt like we had kidnapped them but they tell me they had a great time and lots of great cloths they came back with.   

That night (Thursday) was Karaoke down at the Surf Club so a large group of went down there, and I think nearly everyone got up that night onto the stage.  So much fun! Highlights of the night included Aaron and the boys doing an excellent rendition of Midnight Oil’s “Beds are Burning”, and all of the girls getting up to do ABBA’s Dancing queen (which is easily changed to “Stamping Queen”).  

That night our room gift had been what we would be using for our Make and Take session – and it was beautiful new stuff out of our upcoming Summer Mini (to be released in December)

Friday – Jason went off for a walk and I headed down to meet the other Demonstrators for swapping and stamping.  The swaps were, absolutely fantastic!

Shelli wanted a group photo as this was the only time we would be together as Demonstrators. Stirling took a photo of the group then Shelli calls out let me check it please, This was a bit funny as Stirling took lots more photos so  Shelli  would have lots to pick from Angie. Karen and Janiel had the huge task of making sure everyone had a shot taken on their camera.

At the end of the session “Morning Tea” was served – an Ice Cream/Gelato cart arrived with lots of different flavours of Ice Cream, as well as things to add to your bowl – smarties, freckles etc. A bit like the Cold Rock idea, but we just helped ourselves.  That afternoon we just relaxed and did what we wanted.   

I decided long before the holiday that I was going to ride a camel but I you have to be less than 90kg to do it so Jason was going to have to take the photos.  I was sitting in the lobby with a few demos and Shelli came over and asked me what I was going to do in my free time. I told her my goal was to ride a camel but I was afraid of heights. Then Megan Finer from NZ said that would be cool and Helen her friend said ok.  We booked, paid and no pulling out I thought to myself………….   

I decided I wanted to go to the bead shop at Noosa Junction.  Well I got there and told Jas he could leave me and pick me up in an hour; but he didn’t hear me say hour.  I was happy in learning a new technique and we he was outside getting sunburnt and hostile to say the least.   We went to our favourite Pizza Place Zackary’s he ordered dinner and we did not speak for several hours well at least three, then I said well I don’t care what you take but I want custody of Charli (our Chocolate Labrador).  We both laughed, made upand  had lots of Cocktails and listened to the band a Sheraton Hastings St bar.

Saturday – Well today was the dreaded Camel ride and silently I was really frightened.  Getting on and off was really scary as you think you are going to fall off and you have to hold on so tight, but I think you are supposed to let go during the ride, but I never did.  There were lots of funny moments my camel spent his time trying to get to Megan, Jason running up the beach with cold water for us and taking pictures all along the track.  He even popped up in the middle of the bushland.  I am glad I did it but I think it will be a onetime only.

The clue we had been given was “a journey back in time and we had to make sure we had something warm to wear for latter as part was outside and may get a bit cold as the night went on.  We boarded a bus which took us to our first destination Cooroy – a row of vintage limo’s just awaiting our transfer to the next surprise.  You can just image the squeals of delight (from both men and women) it was quite amazing! 

They were for our trip back in time dinner destination which was this beautiful home called the Plantation.

Janiel had created an unforgettable night for us all; on arrival we drove up in a convoy along a tea light lit driveway we were greeted with drinks and take lots of photos.

We walk out the back I was amazed at the set up for our evening dinner. Where each demonstrator was sitting, was another gorgeous gift a cameo cream shawl so soft, for us to wear as the night got colder.   All the flowers on the tables had apples in them everything was done so beautiful. This is what it’s all about just having fun and relaxing with friends and being spoilt by SU.  After Dinner we meet up with an astronomer with his massive telescopes to show us the planets and the moon.  Shelli made a farewell speech our lovely night was coming to an end.  Before we left the Plantation I finally gave Shelli her Swap and a gift bag.  In it was a cake of amazing soap that looked like piece of pie.  I gave all the GM’s, their wives, Janiel and Angie a piece of different flavoured pies and a bracelet I had them.    Before we knew it was time to get back on the coach the driver dimed the headlights as we headed down the amazingly tea light lit long driveway. it was wonderful and really beautiful to see in the dark (hundreds of tea lights with a white paper bag around each one I don’t think I would like to of been the one to light them all).  It was a sad feeling leaving the Plantation and on the bus coming home it was a drone of soft voices. 

Arriving back to the Sheraton Noosa Resort and saying our goodbye’s to all that had to get up early. I said to Jason going back to our room I am going to buy another bag to fit everything in and GUESS WHAT our last surprise was a gorgeous brown bag its even has the Stampin’ Up! Logo printed in it and on the bench was a mini red hat box with cookies and milk for our bedtime snack and a wonderful way to end our night.

It was just the best holiday and I hope to be lucky enough to win another one in the future.  Even Jason said he enjoyed himself and would like to do it again.

All work is © Stampin’ Up! ® 1990-2010

After my 2nd week on Jenny Craig, I decided I couldn’t deal with Anytime Bars anymore. They remind me of the first wave of protein bars in the late 90’s – thick, heavy, blech. Just pure protein blended with wallpaper paste and peanuts, left out in the sun to dry. But I ate them, and I lost weight…maybe I should take a lesson from the me of 1999?

Anyway, I had vowed not to buy another box of Anytime Bars. I didn’t think it was worth it. But now, I blame them for my over-indulging. I’ve skipped the Anytime Bars for weeks (along with a gross number of fruit & veggie servings…oops), and every night I tell myself “I can have around 100 extra calories since I ditched the AT bar.” And every night that turns into 200 + extra calories of junk. It’s a snowball effect!

This week, I’m giving the bars a shot. So far, I still don’t like the taste, but I DO like the fuller feeling I get.  I’m hearing on the JC site boards that there are some civilian alternatives I could try instead.  Do you have a suggestion for an Anytime Bar alternative? Please leave it in the comments or send me a DM on Twitter

Bloomberg – The association that sets standards for the $605 trillion privately negotiated derivatives market is creating a committee to improve the way it governs itself as the industry seeks to fend off the toughest of regulations being debated by U.S. lawmakers.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association will start the committee to oversee market reform efforts, to act as liaison to regulators and “to ensure no undue dominance or preponderance on the part of any given firms,” according to an 11-page document posted on ISDA’s Web site yesterday. About one third of its members will be from investment-management companies, with the rest from derivatives dealers.

Congress is debating legislation that may restrict trading in the contracts, which are used to protect against losses from or to speculate on everything from interest rates to oil. ISDA has fought proposals that would force companies to post cash to cover trades and push over-the-counter trading onto regulated exchanges or exchange-like systems.

“They’re attempting to preserve the OTC market,” said Robert Claassen, a partner and derivatives lawyer in Palo Alto, California with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Improving the market’s structure and governance may help to deflect “rules that could potentially wipe out the OTC derivatives market,” he said.

About two-thirds of the ISDA Industry Governance Committee’s membership will be from dealers including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, with the other third coming from investors such as hedge funds, asset managers and insurance companies.

Three Tiers

The committee will represent the top layer of a three-tier approach to governing the market, ISDA said in a statement. Steering committees overseeing four asset classes — interest rates, equities, credit and commodities — will make up the second tier. Two other steering committees will oversee collateral and operations issues. Implementation groups, representing the third tier, will carry out the agendas set by the committees, ISDA said.

“By emphasizing such a structure, the industry believes it can represent both sell- and buy-side interests in a cohesive and comprehensive manner to the regulatory community,” ISDA Executive Vice Chairman Robert Pickel said in the statement. Pickel was replaced Nov. 30 as ISDA chief executive officer by Conrad Voldstad, a former Merrill Lynch & Co. executive who earlier headed JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s first global swaps group.

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WhydoesIndyMac/OneWest repeatedly opt for foreclosure over other solutions that benefit all of the parties?  Patrick Pulatie mines its Shared Loss Agreement with the FDIC (similar to the agreements that numerous servicers have with the FDIC) for hidden incentives.   Spoiler:  the taxpayer and the middle class homeowner eat the losses again.   Check out the full article below:

http://iamfacingforeclosure.com/blog/2009/12/01/anatomy-of-a-government-abetteded-fraud-why-indymaconewest-always-forecloses/

Oh my golly – over 2 hours trying to upload this last video and hopefully up in 15 more minutes.  WordPress, can’t live with you can’t live without you

(if viewing from a feed in  your email, come to the blog to see all the videos 1-5  Where The Rubber Hits The Road)

Hi friends – I sent a BIG holiday present to myself yesterday and received it today!  Yes, I splurged on overnight shipping (I thought I’d been good this year so why not?!)

As a demonstrator, we can preorder some goodies from upcoming mini catalogs, like the one coming in January 2010.  (Seriously, can you believe it is going to be 2010?!)   I called SU and got the ok to show you my box of NEW stamps, punches and accessories as long as the actual mini catalog is not posted.

Literally, the box arrived 30 minutes ago and to share with you, I’m opening up the box with you as my guest, peeking over my shoulder.  I will post in little segments so it is not an hour long post!   Now just to prepare you, this is LIVE video, no edits just pure reality stamping….

p.s  it’s a blog, which is quirky and if lots of people are on at once, might stop and start. So clear your cookies, temporary internet files just in case your cache is full…

Part One:  Opening the Box!

Here’s what I sent to my *secret* partner Sherry.  I was so thrilled to be the one to sent her package since she’s one of my very dear blog friends.  I met her over a year ago through a swap that she hosted   Gotta love her!

What’s that you ask?  did I make those cute mushroom tags?  well, yes!  Yes I did!  lol.  Sherry said she would love to start a mushroom collection so I made the Enchanted tags especially for her.  I made the small one using some Heather Ross mushroom fabric, and the large one I made up.

Here’s the ornament I made.  I gave her an elf hat which matches her enchanting green hair. 

You can find the pattern for this sweet rose fairy in the book below:  Felt Wee Folk by Salley Mavor

Here’s a closeup of the front and back of the fairy.

My daughters and I made this yummy Peppermint Bark 

I also sent this nice kitchen towel that I made.

***

I received an amazing vintage package from Jennie @ J. Nichelle Holiday.  She makes the most beautiful things from vintage items!

Three vintage glass ornaments and a glittered bottle brush candy cane

YUMMY chocolates

and just look at this gorgeous 8″ wreath!!!  everything on the wreath is vintage, except the wreath.

Thank you for hosting such an enchanting swap Val! 

I’m looking forward to being part of Val’s Year Of Enchantment.  click on the picture fore more info!

Put away the books, we’re out of school
The weather’s warm but we’ll play it cool
We’re on staycation, havin’ lots of fun
S-T-A-Y-C-A-T-I-O-N in the summer sun

Can you tell I’m getting a little excited?   Only 16 more sleeps before I go on leave and I don’t go back to work till the end of January – 43 days off – woo hoo!

This will be the longest continuous break I’ve had since I was diagnosed with glandular fever 20+years ago, and I spent 5 weeks at home feeling cruddy and the only energy I had was to cross stitch while getting addicted to Santa Barbara and Days of Our Lives (I watched the first episode that Patch appeared in and was hooked, lol).

But like then, I’m going to be predominantly housebound, apart from some small trips and a quilt class or two… and a friend coming to stay for a few days.   May actually be forced to be housebound, as my nephew’s car is off the road and he’s regularly borrowing mine to get to and from work.

Flossie (Mum) coming to stay for the 1st week of the New Year, we’re going to have a ‘bee’ between putting together some quilt tops and finishing off some small projects like wallhangings and bags.

It’ll be the usual deal of her using the machine, and my cutting and pressing…though I am thinking of getting her to help me make a start on either one of these gorgeous quilts by Roslyn of Bloom…Simply a Bloom or Sweet Menagerie.

A bit inspired by Blessed’s version of Simply a Bloom and the bundle of Allspice Tapestry Charm Squares and Jelly Rolls I found when sorting out the stash for the sale of surplus items!

Both of these seem like relatively simple projects for someone who is less than comfortable on the machine, as it’s just straight sewing…

Am busy getting organised and things prepped with the intention of sewing something every day!

Things I must do while on staycation:

• Get my blocks finished and posted to Aunt Pitty Pat for the Holly Jolly Christmas Block Swap – have got all my backgrounds cut, just need to sit down this week and start to prep the appliques, I’m doing Christmas Wreaths, Plum Puddings and Christmas Ornaments

• Make softie book/s of this panel – I commented on the Busy Thimbles blog and as a result the panels arrived today and I get to have a play… already have ideas swarming through my head

• Finish my South Seas Lace cross-stitch… as usual I’m lagging behind behind on this SAL, both Claire and Sandra have finished theirs… and I’m still stitching on mine, making slow progress… got bored with the narrow border and wanted to see what the final border looked like.

Actually, check out Sandra’s Grand Marquoir finish post… isn’t it gorgeous?   This is another project I’m lagging behind on, I’ve done 3 letters…sigh…

• Keep up to date with The Parsonage Dresden Plate Exchange – I’m working on Kylie’s at present … you can see one of her blocks below, I didn’t make this one, Jules did.    I’ll also have Jules handed over to me in the next fortnight.

• Start my Blackbird Design Stocking Series – I’m hoping to be part of Dragon My Needle’s Christmas Design SAL – a year long stitch along working on particular Christmas Designs.  I got the January 2009 kit from Stitches and Spice for these gorgeous little stockings, and hope to get the rest of the series during 2010.  So the aim is to stitch at least 1 stocking a month during 2010.

Things I’d like to do while on staycation (and more likely towards the end of my 43 days will be getting lots of things prepped so that I can just pick things up and work on them once I get back to work… including:

• Prep Aunt Millie’s Garden blocks – I’m using a white with black pindot background and lots of spotty/dotty/striped bright fabric
• Prep Love Letters blocks – I’ve got 2 lots of fabric for these, deep navy, burgundy, browns on tan backgrounds for Mum, and the 3 Sisters Chocolat range that was used in the original quilt for me.   Not going to make both – will get the blocks ready for Mum to stitch hers, and will prep and applique mine

• make a start on Kellie from Don’t Look Now’s Joseph’s Coat Quilt along

• Organise cross-stitch patterns for Aury’s Bride’s Tree SAL.  The Bride’s Tree is a German tradition. It is believed that a couple’s Christmas tree needs twelve specific ornaments for happiness in their life journey together. My eldest nephew and his girl get married in November 2010, and have asked us to give them money towards their honeymoon in lieu of gifts as they are funding the wedding themselves.   This seemed like a nice idea, to make them 13 ornaments for their 1st tree as a married couple, and I thought I’d look for quakerstyle patterns for each months theme, and have found some freebie patterns already i.e. the quaker heart to represent true love and love of family.

I’d also really like to aim to do a blog post a day… either a progress report on what I’m working on, or maybe dragging out some WIPs/PIGs and posting in more detail, in an attempt to shame me into progressing some of these.

Anyway, off away to do the dishes and to bed… coming home tomorrow night to progress the embroidery on some Christmas ornaments for a catch up with some girlfriends weekend after next.

Will blog a Christmas themed post at the weekend, hopefully to show the finished ornaments, and my first blocks for Holly Jolly as well as some show and tell as Mum has started decorating the house today, and I realised none of her Christmas quilts are recorded on the blog.

WSJ – China launched a new body to centralize settlement and clearing of financial products traded among the country’s banks, in a move that could bolster confidence in China’s derivatives markets and open the way for the regulators to approve new products.

The move, announced by the central bank over the weekend, comes as the U.S. and the European Union have also been trying to centralize trading of some derivatives in their markets, to prevent markets seizing up if a key player defaults as they did when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy last year. A central clearing body removes some of the risk that counterparties won’t deliver and makes the overall market situation more transparent to regulators.

China’s strict capital controls meant its markets weren’t directly affected by last year’s financial turmoil. But the financial crisis greatly shook the trust that Chinese banks had in their foreign counterparts, and China’s largest lenders even now decline to trade key products with the local units of most foreign banks.

That has increased the expense and reduced the liquidity in China’s interest-rate and foreign-exchange swaps markets. Those are the country’s two main financial derivative products and key tools for companies trying to manage their foreign-exchange and credit risks.

By inserting itself between counterparties trading those products, a central clearinghouse would assume the risk that either party might default, and take insurance against that happening by collecting collateral from each party.

There are few details as to how the new clearinghouse will actually work. In a statement posted on its Web site Saturday, the People’s Bank of China said the Shanghai-based clearinghouse will clear local- and foreign-currency financial markets, but didn’t specify which markets it will start with or when.

The clearinghouse will “raise the transparency of the interbank market…better guard against systemic risk, and maintain the stability of the financial system,” People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in a separate statement. Mr. Zhou said it also will reduce settlement costs and “provide the necessary technical support for financial products innovation.”

That may signal that regulators feel the new clearinghouse will give them better ability to handle more volatile and heavily traded markets. So far China has been slow to introduce new financial products, with their reservations about derivatives reinforced by the financial crisis.

One possible concern is the lack of experience any Chinese government institution has in calculating risk and assessing appropriate levels of collateral to collect, given the huge amount of risk clearing centralizes in one organization.

The PBOC statement said the clearinghouse has signed a cooperation agreement with Deutsche Börse, which owns the Eurex derivatives trading platform and operates clearinghouses for exchange and over-the-counter products..

In June, China’s foreign-exchange trading platform, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Funding Center, launched central counterparty clearing for the foreign-exchange spot market. The move was somewhat unusual by global standards, because the two-day settlement period for foreign-exchange deals in China diminishes the risk of default. Market watchers said the move was likely to build experience to help guard against default in markets with longer maturities.

The foreign-exchange trading center is one of the six government agencies, also including the central bank and the Ministry of Finance, backing the new clearinghouse. It will have 300 million yuan ($43.9 million) of registered capital, the central bank said.

I made these cute bags for a Handmade Stocking Stuffer exchange.   I had 13 kids to make for. (5 girls and 8 boys from 5-12 yrs old)  

I used Heather Ross fabric for the Mushroom bags. they are for the girls and the 5-6 yr old boys.

I have some fabric left over if anyone would like one for $10

the 9-11 yr old boys  are getting these awesome bags with knights, dragons, trolls, wizards on them.

here’s the bags, ready to be sent to Santa Carrie  so she can divide them all up and send 7 handmade stocking stuffers back for each child… not to be seen untill Christmas morning

Carrie, thank you for hosting this awesome swap! I know it was alot of work… especially being your first one hosting

ServiceSwaps Community offers a bartering network for members to swap services and things online! Our barter network integrates seamlessly with Myspace, Flicker, Facebook and Twitter which allows members to effectively barter items to a mass audience. Our ServiceSwaps Network is available for all members to build their own private network of trusted swappers to swap and barter among themselves Read More iLMA’s Biz Barter Project – Read Below biz barter project

My view this morning!

It’s really unusual to have snow this early in the year on the ridge opposite the front of my farmhouse.  Sometimes, the larger peak Mount Leinster does have a dusting in mid November but normally we only have it on the whole range in the thick of winter (if at all) so I was delighted to wake up to this pretty picture first thing this morning!

Hilary joined me just before half past ten to felt for the first time, our project was a simple felt vessel.  We had a chat about the basics of felting over a warming freshly ground coffee (part of a Going Green swap package from Chaimama via Ravelry) and then got stuck in selecting and weighing fibre.  The Icelandic wool batts (available from my Etsy store) are excellent for sculptural felt and it is important to have roughly the same amount of fibre on each side of your resist hence the weighing!  Hilary decided to make a round vessel with the main colours being my favourite apple green in combination with a gorgeous turquoise.  We sub-divided the wool into four equal piles giving us two layers to lay out for each side prior to any surface embellishment.  Once the two layers were laid and wet out lightly Hilary then added some turquoise mulberry silk and some swirls of wool in another complimentary turquoise/greeny shade.  As I have mentioned before using more soap than usually advised coupled with a lot less water seems to work really well with the Icelandic wool. 

Hilary sealing the edges

Once Hilary’s vessel passed the pinch test I cut out a very small hole to release the resist.  As you seal and work the cut edges the opening will always widen so a good tip is never to make the initial cut too big!  When sealing the edges use a lot of soap on your hands, this helps you to make a nice clean edge.   Now the vessel was worked by hand both on the bamboo blind (we had started with bubble wrap and progressed to the blind as the fibres started felting together) and in very hot  soapy water in the sink.  Hilary also threw the felt onto the table to help shock and full it, then kept stretching it to form the final shape and help the wool form the memory.  Finally all the soap was rinsed totally out of the felt, the vessel was reshaped, the texture and form admired and all that was needed were a few images to mark a great mornings felting!

Hilary with her stunning first piece of felt!

For some reason the image uploader is playing up this evening so check out my Flickr images for a larger shot of the finished vessel, the texture is beautiful!

NYT – Opaque markets breed insider profits and abuse of investors. Sunshine can bring competition and lower costs even if regulators do little beyond letting the sunlight shine.

You might think that as Congress considers just how much regulation is needed for the shadow financial system — the one that largely escaped regulation in the past — letting in such light would be an easy and uncontroversial move.

But it is not proving to be easy at all, and is one part of the Obama administration’s financial reform package that is most in jeopardy.

Timothy Geithner, the secretary of the Treasury, will testify before the Senate Agriculture Committee next week in an effort to hold on to important provisions of the proposal that have come under attack by banks fearful of losing one of their most profitable franchises — the selling of customized derivatives to corporate customers. Remarkably, the banks have persuaded customers that keeping the market for those products secret is in their interest.

Last week, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, faced the same panel, and ran into questions that indicated at least some senators were sympathetic to efforts to keep large parts of the derivatives market in the dark.

Those markets allow companies to bet on — or, if you prefer, hedge themselves against losses from — changing interest rates and commodity prices. They also allow investors to use credit-default swaps to bet on whether a company will go broke. The administration wants to standardize those products when possible, and force the trading of them onto exchanges when possible.

Banks want to whittle away the reforms if they can, and to minimize the roles of the C.F.T.C. and the Securities and Exchange Commission, experienced market regulators who have been generally kept away from over-the-counter derivatives in the past. Instead, the banks would like to leave it to banking regulators to oversee the dealers, something regulators totally failed to do in the past. Unless Mr. Geithner can persuade legislators otherwise, one of the great bank lobbying campaigns will have succeeded, in large part because some companies that buy derivatives from banks have been persuaded that their costs will rise if needed reforms were made.

The opposite is probably true. The history of nearly all markets is that customers suffer if dealers are able to keep them ignorant of what is actually going on.

Until the beginning of this decade, that was true in the corporate bond market, where actual trades were kept confidential. That made it easy for bond dealers to charge big markups when they sold bonds to customers.

After regulators forced timely disclosures, the bid-ask spreads — the difference between what customers paid when they bought bonds and what they could get when selling them — declined significantly. The result was smaller profits for bond dealers, and better returns for bond investors.

“It is now time,” Mr. Gensler testified, “to promote similar transparency in the relatively new marketplace” for derivatives traded over the counter.

“Lack of regulation in these markets,” he added, “has created significant information deficits.”

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I hope all of my USA readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  I know we did!  We got together at my sister’s house with all of my entire family.  everyone was there…  parents, siblings, nephews, and nieces.   (no, we did not eat that grand fellow pictured above… he’s my sister’s pet)

I took the sweet potato casserole, the yummiest I’ve ever had..  it’s BETTER than the kind with marshmallows!  try it and you will see!  as far as leftovers… I doubled the recipe and there was only one helping  left!  you can find the recipe HERE.

Today the kids are setting up the tree while I get some Christmas sewing done.  We never go shopping on Black Friday (except for groceries) what are all of you doing today????

 Two of my sisters live in other states and my youngest brother is leaving to go to Johannesburg, Africa (on a mission for two years) before Christmas. Tonight we are celebrating Christmas at my parent’s house since the entire family is together. 

Besides all of the family celebrating, I’ve been getting some swaps done.  here’s your SSCS sneak peek   

and here’s a sneak peek for the Enchanted ornament swap

AND I have been helping santa make some cute things for the Christmas stockings too.  I’ll show those pictures later.

Bloomberg Markets – Taxpayers may have spent $13 billion more than necessary when government officials, acting in private, struck deals with big banks on AIG’s credit-default swaps.

In the months leading up to the September 2008 collapse of giant insurer American International Group Inc., Elias Habayeb and his colleagues worked nights and weekends negotiating with banks that had bought $62 billion of credit-default swaps from AIG, according to a person who has worked with Habayeb.

Habayeb, 37, was chief financial officer for the AIG division that oversaw AIG Financial Products, the unit that had sold the swaps to the banks. One of his goals was to persuade the banks to accept discounts of as much as 40 cents on the dollar, according to people familiar with the matter.

Among AIG’s bank counterparties were New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., Paris-based Societe Generale SA and Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG.

By Sept. 16, 2008, AIG, once the world’s largest insurer, was running out of cash, and the U.S. government stepped in with a rescue plan. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the regional Fed office with special responsibility for Wall Street, opened an $85 billion credit line for New York-based AIG. That bought it 77.9 percent of AIG and effective control of the insurer.

The government’s commitment to AIG through credit facilities and investments would eventually add up to $182.3 billion.

Beginning late in the week of Nov. 3, the New York Fed, led by President Timothy Geithner, took over negotiations with the banks from AIG, together with the Treasury Department and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s Federal Reserve. Geithner’s team circulated a draft term sheet outlining how the New York Fed wanted to deal with the swaps — insurance-like contracts that backed soured collateralized-debt obligations.

Subprime Mortgages

CDOs are bundles of debt including subprime mortgages and corporate loans sold to investors by banks.

Part of a sentence in the document was crossed out. It contained a blank space that was intended to show the amount of the haircut the banks would take, according to people who saw the term sheet. After less than a week of private negotiations with the banks, the New York Fed instructed AIG to pay them par, or 100 cents on the dollar. The content of its deliberations has never been made public.

The New York Fed’s decision to pay the banks in full cost AIG — and thus American taxpayers — at least $13 billion. That’s 40 percent of the $32.5 billion AIG paid to retire the swaps. Under the agreement, the government and its taxpayers became owners of the dubious CDOs, whose face value was $62 billion and for which AIG paid the market price of $29.6 billion. The CDOs were shunted into a Fed-run entity called Maiden Lane III.

Habayeb, who left AIG in May, did not return phone calls and an e-mail.

Goldman Sachs

The deal contributed to the more than $14 billion that over 18 months was handed to Goldman Sachs, whose former chairman, Stephen Friedman, was chairman of the board of directors of the New York Fed when the decision was made. Friedman, 71, resigned in May, days after it was disclosed by the Wall Street Journal that he had bought more than 50,000 shares of Goldman Sachs stock following the takeover of AIG. He declined to comment for this article.

In his resignation letter, Friedman said his continued role as chairman had been mischaracterized as improper. Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment.

AIG paid Societe General $16.5 billion, Deutsche Bank $8.5 billion and Merrill Lynch $6.2 billion.

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Bloomberg – Republican lawmakers demanded a Congressional hearing to review whether the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was unprepared to deal with the bailout of American International Group Inc. last year.

The rescue, which funneled billions of dollars to banks that traded with AIG, amounted to a “backdoor bailout” of the firms, Representatives Roy Blunt of Missouri and Spencer Bachus of Alabama wrote in a letter to Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House financial services committee.

The New York Fed, led at the time by Timothy Geithner, gave up efforts to save taxpayer money on AIG’s rescue after the insurer’s trading partners refused to make concessions, the special inspector for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said in a report this week. Geithner, now the Treasury Department secretary, needs to tell Congress whether regulators got the best deal possible in the bailout, which swelled to $182.3 billion, the lawmakers said.

The inspector general’s report “paints a devastating picture of government regulators ill-prepared to deal with the failure of complex financial institutions like AIG, and who failed to fight for what was in the best interest of the taxpayers,” Blunt and Bachus said in the letter today.

Geithner today urged the Joint Economic Committee to pass a financial regulation overhaul intended to strengthen the banking system to avoid a repeat of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

‘So Devastating’

“We should never again face a situation — so devastating in the case of AIG — where a virtually unregulated major player in the derivatives market can impose risks on the entire system,” Geithner said.

AIG’s bailout includes a $60 billion credit line, a Treasury investment of as much as $69.8 billion and up to $52.5 billion to fund facilities to buy mortgage-backed assets owned or backed by the insurer.

The Fed gave up efforts after two days last year to negotiate discounts from banks that purchased credit-default swaps from AIG backing securities, and opted to pay them in full, according to the report from Special Inspector Neil Barofsky.

Jack Gutt, a spokesman for the New York Fed, declined to comment. In a letter to Barofsky included in his report, the Fed said it “would not have been appropriate to use our supervisory authority on behalf of AIG to obtain concessions from domestic counterparties.” Doing so would have been a “misuse” of power, the letter said.

Before the Fed stepped in late last year, AIG tried to persuade banks to accept so-called haircuts of as much as 40 cents on the dollar, according to people familiar with the matter. The Fed’s decision to pay the banks in full may have cost taxpayers $13 billion, or 40 percent of the $32.5 billion AIG paid to retire the swaps, the people said.

“It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions.”
— Joseph J. Cassano, a former A.I.G. executive, August 2007

NYT – Two weeks ago, the nation’s most powerful regulators and bankers huddled in the Lower Manhattan fortress that is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, desperately trying to stave off disaster.

As the group, led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., pondered the collapse of one of America’s oldest investment banks, Lehman Brothers, a more dangerous threat emerged: American International Group, the world’s largest insurer, was teetering. A.I.G. needed billions of dollars to right itself and had suddenly begged for help.

One of the Wall Street chief executives participating in the meeting was Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Mr. Paulson’s former firm. Mr. Blankfein had particular reason for concern.

Although it was not widely known, Goldman, a Wall Street stalwart that had seemed immune to its rivals’ woes, was A.I.G.’s largest trading partner, according to six people close to the insurer who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. A collapse of the insurer threatened to leave a hole of as much as $20 billion in Goldman’s side, several of these people said.

Days later, federal officials, who had let Lehman die and initially balked at tossing a lifeline to A.I.G., ended up bailing out the insurer for $85 billion.

Their message was simple: Lehman was expendable. But if A.I.G. unspooled, so could some of the mightiest enterprises in the world.

A Goldman spokesman said in an interview that the firm was never imperiled by A.I.G.’s troubles and that Mr. Blankfein participated in the Fed discussions to safeguard the entire financial system, not his firm’s own interests.

Yet an exploration of A.I.G.’s demise and its relationships with firms like Goldman offers important insights into the mystifying, virally connected — and astonishingly fragile — financial world that began to implode in recent weeks.

Although America’s housing collapse is often cited as having caused the crisis, the system was vulnerable because of intricate financial contracts known as credit derivatives, which insure debt holders against default. They are fashioned privately and beyond the ken of regulators — sometimes even beyond the understanding of executives peddling them.

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NYT – A ray of sunlight broke through the Washington fog last week when Neil M. Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, published his office’s report on the government bailout last year of the American International Group.

It’s must reading for any taxpayer hoping to understand why the $182 billion “rescue” of what was once the world’s largest insurer still ranks as the most troubling episode of the financial disaster. And it couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment.

Many in Washington want to give more regulatory power to the Federal Reserve Board, the banking regulator that orchestrated the A.I.G. bailout. Through this prism, the actions taken in the deal by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time, grow curiouser and curiouser.

Of special note in the report: the Fed failed to develop a workable rescue plan when A.I.G., swamped by demands that it pay off huge insurance contracts that it couldn’t make good on as the economy tanked, began to sink. The report takes the Fed to task as refusing to use its power and prestige to wrestle concessions from A.I.G.’s big, sophisticated and well-heeled trading partners when the government itself had to pay off the contracts.

The Fed, under Mr. Geithner’s direction, caved in to A.I.G.’s counterparties, giving them 100 cents on the dollar for positions that would have been worth far less if A.I.G. had defaulted. Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Société Générale and other banks were in the group that got full value for their contracts when many others were accepting fire-sale prices.

On the question of whether this payout was what the report describes as a “backdoor bailout” of A.I.G.’s counterparties, Mr. Barofsky concluded: “The very design of the federal assistance to A.I.G. was that tens of billions of dollars of government money was funneled inexorably and directly to A.I.G.’s counterparties.” The report noted that this was money the banks might not otherwise have received had A.I.G. gone belly-up.

The report zaps Fed claims that identifying banks that benefited from taxpayer largess would have dire consequences. Fed officials had refused to disclose the identities of the counterparties or details of the payments, warning “that disclosure of the names would undermine A.I.G.’s stability, the privacy and business interests of the counterparties, and the stability of the markets,” the report said.

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Happy to say I got the ornaments for small fox’s First Annual Ornament Swap out the door! So glad. I took such a long time deciding what to make that I was left with little time for the making — some would say the most important part. But the making did turn out to be delightful, my first bit of crafting for the holidays. I learned how to make Swedish paper hearts at the Swedish American Museum in Andersonville last year and since then I’ve been wanting to try it with felt. Well, it works great! I tweaked the pattern a bit, so that it would be flat and not a basket, but I’m sure it would work if you had enough felt.

{finished hearts with a little thank-you something for small fox}

And of course Lizzy watched me and asked a million questions, the first and most persistent of which was, “Can I make one?” Of course! So I got out the old red sweater I’d recently felted and we went to it. She made two ornaments, and a crown and did most of the stitching herself. She’s getting very handy. And doesn’t her crafty Mama love that!

Happy Thanksgiving week! A couple weeks ago, my friends, Cindy and Diane, and I decided to start the holiday season by seeing the new 3D Christmas Carol movie at the Imax. Wow, it was big! 3D is so much fun. And, the glasses are so stylin’!

Diane, me, Cindy

I sent off my quilt for the holiday swap at 4SQS. It was adapted from the book “A New Light on Storm at Sea Quilts”. The ornament quilt in the book had 2 ornaments and was way bigger than the requirements of the swap. Here is my take on it:

I also received my package from the same swap. I am borrowing the picture from Kari, who was my secret partner. Isn’t it adorable?

Kari also sent me a charm pack and fat quarters from the Flower Show III line – which I love!

This past weekend I was back in Joshua for a quilting retreat. I didn’t feel like I accomplished as much as I wanted. It took me a full day and a half to complete the 5 blocks I owe Margaret for the final round of our row robin. I’m happy with the way they turned out, though. She wanted 9 inch star blocks. The last of the 5 I had originally planned didn’t work out as I’d planned, so at midnight on Friday, I was picking a new block…and not just a little disgusted with the way things were going. Anyway, I ended up doing a block called “Margaret’s Choice”, which I thought was more than fitting. Here is what I ended up doing:

Margaret’s Choice is the left most block. The other 4 are patterns from Quilter’s Cache…the home of thousands of quilt blocks!

Saturday night, my back was sore from all that time spent sitting at my sewing machine. Barbara has an anti-gravity chair in the retreat center. So, I retired to that seat with some microwave warmed heat bags on my shoulders.

(I know, attractive, right?)

And, this was the view from the chair:

We made 2 new friends this time around. Bridget and Nancy were great fun and did some lovely work!

After dinner on Saturday night, Barbara, Diane, Gerry, Cindy, and Kris relaxed in the sitting area.

What besides the stars did I get done? I put together the wonky 9-patch blocks for this round of the ORBQ. I am using Flower Show III.

I also made a scarf with dupioni silk on the front and red flannel (for warmth and to match my red wool coat) on the back.

Some of the other work on the design walls:

And, the girls:


Diane, Bridget, Nancy, Gerry, Kris, Cindy, and Kay

More LIVE reality video… Usually I videotape it and Matt edits it, makes it look great but he’s at work so I’m just putting it up RAW!

Oh my goodness!  These are SO cute!  Corduroy buttons in red and pink, epoxy brads with hearts and flowers in delicious colors like chocolate , reds and pinks!

More coming – stay tuned!

p.s.  If you don’t have a demonstrator already and would like to have a copy of the new Stampin’ Up Occasions mini catalog sent to you (free of course), just sign up here and I will mail you one!

Linda

Are they kidding me?!  These punches are really cool.  Seriously, I know I’m a Stampin Up cheerleader but really, these are over the  top!

They close shut, making them easier to store on a shelf and take up WAY less room.  They have images in 2 places so you can identify them easily.  Very easy to punch and hold…