Archive - Nov 15, 2009 - Story

As one fellow blogger that I have the utmost respect for put it: "Did you catch the bit in boldface about 'tapping' federal retirement funds for short-term cash flow? Sounds so casual, so innocent, don't it? Think about it, though. Unlike private pension funds, whose trustees have a fiduciary duty under the ERISA Act to safeguard the interest of beneficiaries, fedgov pension funds are mere slush funds for politicians to grab at will. Under the sordid conflicts of interest which are tolerated within our imperial government, the managers of Social Security and federal retirement funds subserviently hand over their reserves to our insolvent government in ad hoc, 'we'll pay you back when we can afford to' transactions. In a private-sector pension fund, such malfeasance would land them straight in jail.

But then, government is all about granting itself the right to commit acts which are illegal for its subjects -- such as the Federal Reserve's 96-year-long currency counterfeiting operation. When the sovereign itself is dishonest, openly bilking its own pensioners, it is idle to talk of 'reform.' Organized crime is not amenable to reform. Either you end it, or you trust your security to the nebulous notion of 'honor among thieves.' Good luck with that!"

After the New York Times came out with a very ingenuous piece of "objective" fluffery, we have littel to add except to bring readers' attention to our initial thoughts on Mr. Cohen and his place in the Wall Street parthenon.

H. Rodgin Cohen's (Failed?) Quest To Backstop Every Bank... Ever (And Usurp Geithner's Throne)

Lately, Goldman has been extolling the virtues of its theological affiliations and humanistic aspirations to, well, high heaven. Curious to dig deeper through the firm's purported philanthropic efforts, we decided to take a detailed look at the 2007 and 2008 tax records of the charitable Goldman Sachs Foundation. We will not comment on the performance of the actual Foundation: to the chagrin of many needy children who look up to the St. Goldman cathedral in anticipation of a generous holiday season, the Goldman Sachs Foundation has lost gobs of money in the past two years: the fund started off with $275 million in 2007, $269 million in 2008 and ended the year with $161 million. Of course, it is Goldman's prerogative to trade with its money as it desires: while this loss is deplorable, its only outcome will be that fewer Cap 'N' Trade propaganda initiatives will get the due "charitable funding" courtesy of Goldman. Yet what the foundation's tax record do provide, is a very unique and open glimpse in the myriad trading patterns of Goldman's proprietary trading operations... And boy does the firm trade.

"The Fed’s policy of maintaining low interest rates together with the weak dollar posed a threat to the global economic recovery. It is boosting speculative investment in stock and property markets and will pose new, real and insurmountable risks to the global recovery and particularly to the recovery in emerging markets. The situation has already encouraged a huge dollar carry trade and had a massive impact on global asset prices." Liu Mingkang, China Chief Banking Regulator

"Resisting – and thereby achieving success as a contrarian – isn’t easy. Things combine to make
it difficult, including natural herd tendencies and the pain imposed by being out of step, since
momentum invariably makes pro-cyclical actions look correct for a while. (That’s why it’s
essential to remember that “being too far ahead of your time is indistinguishable from being
wrong.”) Given the uncertain nature of the future, and thus the difficulty of being confident your
position is the right one – especially as price moves against you – it’s challenging to be a lonely
contrarian." Howard Marks, Oaktree