Regulation, smegulation...or why Cox should be put in jail

What is the point of more regulations of hedge funds? Honestly? If we have Madoff fully regulated by the SEC who could and probably did walk in there to check them out and they still did NOTHING.
I happen to know a lot of families who have lost everything. They totally trusted Madoff. There was no reason not to because his returns were great for some many years. Many people invested in other funds of funds and may not even know that they have lost everything invested in that fund.
How is it the SEC is only now bringing an action when apparently there were articles pointing out red flags as long ago as 2001? See here and here.
What is the point of putting ourselves in the hands of government to protect us? They don't do it. Government and more, bigger government is not the answer. The legislators have no real clue what the unintended consequences are of what they do. For example, they put into effect a "marked to market" rule in order to avoid Enron from ever happening again. This was supremely stupid. Why? Because there were already laws in effect which dealt with fraud and regulation which could have and should have been applied to Enron to begin with.
Now we are stuck with a system which sometimes penalizes companies for very good investment which may be held for the long term. How do you explain it? What is the value of your home? Well for the last 10 years there was an average value BUT if you had to "mark it to market" for tomorrow and no one is buying, you will have to value it at zero.
Maybe I am wrong on this--but I don't think so.
This is close to home since I know a lot of people affected. I would hazard a guess that this will ripple through the entire Jewish Long Island population who has (had?!) a lot of money. Due to the fact that he knew many of his investors as contemporaries, many were just retired. They are totally hammered on this.
I wonder about his sons and daughter who were in the business. They had to know....

Blago Blagojevich

Wow! I really have to blog more often....IF ONLY YOU WOULD POST SO I KNOW YOU ARE OUT THERE? Or please pass along.

So if you are under a rock, you might not know about the wonderful Governor or Illinois, Blagojevich. He was standing up (?!) against big bad Bank of America, the evil doer, for not being willing to make a loan or two. Let's see, extending credit for only political reasons instead of sound lending policies, hmmmm could that be part of why we are in this mess? He said something about.....banning that Bank from business with the State of Illinois. Well I read this and thought--here is another politician with no idea how business should work, affecting the business dealings in his state in an awful way. Barney Frank, step aside--or at least move over an inch or two from the center of the cameras.

Now today, bless them, the FBI finally goes through and arrests him as part of a sting operation. Take a peek. You can't make this stuff up.

If you look at Michele Malkin, she has a charming piece about his wife too.

Now if only someone was watching the dunderheads in DC. You know, the ones who took money from Countrywide, from Fannie and Freddie. The one who didn't pay his taxes though he chaired the committee.

I promise to provide links to those of you who aren't up on your political knowledge the way you should be.

Grateful

What are you grateful for?
On Fridays I go to the gym at 7:30 and try to work off the calories and stress of the week. I plug into my computer and get to work by 8:45 or 9 or so and the craziness begins. I was leaving the gym today and the manager was at the desk and the person who should have been there was 10 minutes late. How in this economy can someone be so oblivious?
What about the employee who comes in late? The one who actually calls and says, my alarm clock didn't go off. Or they look like a wreck because they were clearly out partying the night before? What about the "bad seed" who is constantly carping about management or who stabs their co workers in the back?
I want to let everyone know that if some has a job and is not appreciative of it, they better find that appreciation fast. If you hear any friends whining about bonuses, or lack of raises, and you like them, please make sure they stop.

Yesterday we heard of over 1000 people laid off from MTV (unconfirmed), Citigroup did its eighth round this week (that we know of), several law firms are laying off hundreds of attorneys, JP Morgan Chase is about to announce layoffs and we think there are more to come at Goldman. Many of our friends with two kids in college paying full boat have lost jobs with few prospects in sight. This is not looking pretty.

Today we learned of another huge law firm that is in a quick death spiral. Their head of the firm was arrested. Not only that but they lived on leverage and didn't have the credit line to pay their partners and associates. When you can get a job, glamor matters so much less that honesty and integrity. The type of people you work with matters most.

Since I am basically an optimist, I have to say that there will be opportunities galore on the other side of this. Look forward don’t look back. We have some money in our pockets. We have our health. No honest job is too small, and no one should be afraid to reinvent themselves right now. Hang in and whenever possible, give someone a boost.

Say it ain't so

I get these alerts from various news organizations, and I generally read the WSJ so I will link here to the news that some brilliant folks have just determined that we have been in a recession since December of 2007. YES--I said 2007. This was determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. This is a private nonprofit economic research think tank. They apparently house many Nobel winners in economics. I guess these are the guys to go to if you want to be absolutely, positively sure.....

Meanwhile, more Obama announcements and Hillary to boot! Market is down so far, big! I guess the news of Hillary's appointment did not make the markets less jittery, though, to be fair it really does seem that the markets have a lot of distortion in them right now.

I was away in the deep South this weekend and didn't follow the TV coverage of the terrorism in India. The stories I did read had one theme that we should all note. None of the private security in the big hotels in India can get pistol permits. The police also do not carry firearms. There were reports that the police in the train station ran away. Wouldn't you? So, in the face of terrorists armed with weapons, the gentle population had nothing to fight back with. What can we learn from this? In NYC we all know it will happen again. What happened to the nice guys with automatic weapons that used to be stationed in Grand Central?

If a bunch of gunman start storming parts of NYC and the police are not around, what would you do?