Reader Threatens To Sue Fed After Losses Incurred By Going Long Inverse Leveraged ETFs

Remember when double and even triple inverse leveraged ETFs were all the rage? That all occurred in the brief period of time before it became clear that Bernanke would first take down the global financial system before he let Citi get back to $1/share again. Apparently one reader recalls it all too well: "In 2008 at the bottom of the market I sold positions I owned in physical
gold and banks stocks such as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and
also non financial companies such as Ford (F). I used these proceeds to
purchased inverse ETF’s such as NYSE: FAZ (Direxion Financial 3x Short)
and NYSE:SRS (Proshares Real Estate 2x Short). Since making these purchases, these ETF’s have suffered significant
drops in value as reflected in their price. In fact NYSE: FAZ has
plummeted from $1100 per share to $11 per share and SRS has reduced in
price from $1000 per share to $19.50 per share. It is now apparent that
the Fed spent trillions of dollars to raise the price of bank stocks and
to inversely suppress the price of these inverse ETFs." Yet is this nothing but a case of fippers' remorse? Is there legal precedent for an actual claim? Was the Fed in breach of duty "by allowing investors to make investments into funds such as FAZ and SRS
and other inverse ETF’s, while the Fed was performing transactions that
the Fed knew or should have known would severely harm the investors in
these publicly traded fund." Will Bernanke cave and make whole everyone who dared to put money into the market, even if it meant betting on a broad market decline? After all the whole purposes of the latest propaganda campaign is to get people to put money in the market with no fear of loss whatsoever: whether one is bullish or bearish (and as the lack of participation shows, most are certainly still bearish). Which is where it gets interesting: "Therefore, I appeal to your office
to make due and just compensation in treble damages amounting to $__
million dollars for a full and good faith settlement of this matter. If
this is agreeable, I am prepared to enter into a confidential good faith
settlement." In our ridiculous bizarro world, in which nothing makes sense following each recurring Fed intervention, perhaps the Fed making whole those who lose money regardless of their bias, is just what is needed to break the 33 weeks of outflows...

Full letter submitted by Bill Pitts:

December 7, 2010
 
 
Mr. Ben Bernanke
Chairman
Federal Reserve Bank
20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20551-0001
 
Re: Financial Loss Suffered By Owners of Inverse ETF’s
 
Dear Chairman Bernanke:

On or about March of 2009, the Federal Reserve Bank (The “Fed”) commenced in actions that involved making loans to banks, financial institutions, wholly owned Fed companies (i.e. Maiden Lane), lenders and publicly traded companies. Additionally evidence suggest that the Fed through these firms and at the direction of the Fed made direct purchases of equities in publicly traded companies for the purpose of raising stock prices. These transactions were undisclosed to the public and investors. Neither the Fed nor the recipient companies disclosed these material transactions to the investing public. Ostensibly, this assistance from the Fed was conducted with the objective of increasing the stock value of many troubled companies and banks. Additionally, under the plan by the Fed and U.S. Treasury, these banks and financial institutions used the Fed supplied funds to purchase each other’s stock. This was conducted to allow each bank to raise each other’s stock values to improve the assets values on one another’s balance sheets. These actions were supported encouraged, known about and assisted through actions of the Fed and the United States Treasury.

While these actions may have been helpful to those firms to abate the systemic problems within the market, assisted in working to make recipient banks more solvent and may have prevented additional bank failure, these actions resulted in severe detrimental damage to many individual  investors.

As you are keenly aware, most every market transaction has two sides to a trade. As a stock or asset class increases in value, some investors realize gain while simultaneously others who concluded that the stocks would NOT improve in price and made investments accordingly known as taking a “short” position would loose money. The inverse of this scenario is also true.
 
As stock prices decrease, those investors who purchased inverse Exchange Traded Funds (“ETF’s’) would gain value in their investments.

As I understand it, between the Fed and the SEC you all are charged with ensuring fairness, honesty and integrity in our markets and monetary system. It is also my understanding that the Fed professes to never intervene in the markets unless it is to prevent crisis.
 
I attempted to understand current events, market conditions and the fundamentals of financial and cash flow statements prior to making personal direct investments. I have always assumed that significant transactions with companies being publicly traded would be conducted in the open and that significant transactions would be disclosed to all investors to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, it appears that as a result of the Feds efforts to correct the current financial crisis these rules of disclosure and openness were set aside.
 
After the September 2008 market crash I took a much more active role in managing my investments. Based upon reading financial data and analyst reports it was very obvious to me that there many commercial property REITS, banks and lending institutions were severely impaired, would suffer significant cash shortfalls and were insolvent or would go bankrupt. It appears that your office arrived at the same conclusion as evidenced by the subsequent injection of hundreds of billions of dollars of cash directed to these institutions by the Fed.

In 2008 at the bottom of the market I sold positions I owned in physical gold and banks stocks such as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and also non financial companies such as Ford (F). I used these proceeds to purchased inverse ETF’s such as NYSE: FAZ (Direxion Financial 3x Short)  and NYSE:SRS (Proshares Real Estate 2x Short).
 
Since making these purchases, these ETF’s have suffered significant drops in value as reflected in their price. In fact NYSE: FAZ has plummeted from $1100 per share to $11 per share and SRS has reduced in price from $1000 per share to $19.50 per share. It is now apparent that the Fed spent trillions of dollars to raise the price of bank stocks and to inversely suppress the price of these inverse ETFs.
 
Now 20 months after these investments were originally made, your office disclosed that it had directly and indirectly injected hundreds of billions of dollars into numerous publicly traded companies. However, this information was not made public to investors by either the Fed or the institutions receiving these cash injections as these significant material transactions were occurring.
 
As a result, investors could not make informed investment decisions. By allowing investors to make investments into funds such as FAZ and SRS and other inverse ETF’s, while the Fed was performing transactions that the Fed knew or should have known would severely harm the investors in these publicly traded fund.
 
My damages had I continued to hold onto my shares of Ford and physical gold are in excess of $__ million.  Therefore, I appeal to your office to make due and just compensation in treble damages amounting to $__ million dollars for a full and good faith settlement of this matter. If this is agreeable, I am prepared to enter into a confidential good faith settlement. I would also be prepared to drop action in attempting to raise public awareness to prepare for a class action lawsuit against the Fed regarding this matter.
 
Should we not be able to resolve this matter I will be forced to file a claim in the Federal District Court and work to initiate a Class Action Lawsuits to represent all owners of these inverse ETF’s that suffered economic loss. Enclosed please find a few of the reports relied upon to arrive at the conclusions. I would seek to further explore this through depositions and discovery of the many recipients of funds from the Fed.
 
I do not envy your position and the challenges you face during these very difficult times. Had I been on the other side of these trades I may very well hold a higher opinion of the Fed and its actions. Unfortunately I have been damaged as a result of your decisions.

Should your office desire to discuss this, I can be reached at my office at XXX-XXX-XXXX or my mobile at XXX-XXX-XXXX
 
Regards,
 
 
William G. Pitts
 
Enclosures
 
Totally Busted: The Truth About Goldman's Bailout by the Fed

"Secret bailouts do not merely benefit recipients; they also deceive investors into mistaking fantasy for fact. Such deceptions often punish honest investors, like the honest investors who sold short the shares of insolvent financial institutions early in 2009.Based on all available public disclosures, the story remained fairly grim into the spring of 2009. Accordingly, the short interest – i.e., number of shares sold short – on Goldman Sachs common stock hit a record 16.3 million shares on May... 15, 2009 – about 3.3% of the public float. But over the ensuing six months, Goldman’s stock soared more than 30% – producing roughly $500 million in losses for those investors who had sold short its stock. Not surprisingly, the total short interest during that timeframe plummeted to less than 6 million shares, as short-sellers closed out their losing positions."

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/12/totally-busted-truth-about-goldmans.html
 
 
12/1/10 Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR2010120106870.html 
 
12/1/10 Fed gave $3.3 Trillion to banks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTPa1hGtpJs
 
12/1/10 Fed made $9 trillion in emergency overnight loans

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/news/economy/fed_reserve_data_release/index.htm?hpt=T1
 
12/1/10 Meet The 35 Foreign Banks That Got Bailed Out By The Fed (And This Is Just The CPFF Banks)

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meet-35-foreign-banks-got-bailed-out-fed-and-just-cpff-banks
 
12/2/10 Federal Reserve May Be `Central Bank of the World' After UBS, Barclays Aid

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/federal-reserve-may-be-central-bank-of-the-world-after-ubs-barclays-aid.html
 
Fed Releases Details on Bear Stearns, AIG Portfolios

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aymTlczlMmpA&pos=1
 
Fed in hot water over secret bailouts

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/Robert-Reich-s-Blog/2010/0401/Fed-in-hot-water-over-secret-bailouts
 
The Fed Admits To Breaking The Law

http://networkedblogs.com/21Xqv
 
Fed Opens Books, Revealing European Megabanks Were Biggest Beneficiaries

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/fed-opens-books-revealing_n_790529.html
 
Paulson/Goldman/Center for Responsible Lending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E10bHAI7U68&feature=player_embedded
 
Goldman CEO Visited WH 4 Times During SEC Investigation

http://www.thefoxnation.com/business/2010/04/22/goldman-ceo-visited-wh-4-times-during-sec-investigation
 
Goldman's White House connections raise eyebrows

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/21/92637/goldmans-connections-to-white.html
 
Indymac Boys Get Sweetheart Deal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssl5yb7FewA
 
Obama’s $6.3 Trillion Scam Is America’s Shame:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a.G6KFfaDdSc
 
Congress threatened with Martial Law if they do not give hundreds of billions to Bankers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8
 
Alan Grayson: "Which Foreigners Got the Fed's $500,000,000,000?" Bernanke: "I Don't Know."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ&feature=player_embedded
 
BoE Secretly Loaned $102.9 Billion to RBS

http://www.cnbc.com/id/34126826
 
Bank of England tells of secret £62bn loan to save RBS and HBOS

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6646923/Bank-of-England-tells-of-secret-62bn-loan-to-save-RBS-and-HBOS.html
 
Bank of England advisers not told about secret £62bn loan to HBOS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/03/bank-england-secret-loan-hbos
 
Federal Reserve refuses to tell the US Senate to Whom they have given $2.2 Trillion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EQDrVKYWmc
 

Bailouts could cost U.S. $23 trillion

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164.html

 
Sticker Shock: $23.7 Trillion Bailout?

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Politics/story?id=814
 
Tracking the $19 Trillion Bailout Funds

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2009/09/22/tracking-the-19-trillion-bailout-funds.aspx
 
Fed Lends Two Trillion Without Oversight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxuqmPyKqcs&feature=player_embedded
 
How Lehman, With The Fed's Complicity, Created Another Illegal Precedent In Abusing The Primary Dealer Credit Facility

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-lehman-feds-complicity-created-another-illegal-precedent-abusing-primary-dealer-credit-f
 
Access to fed Money - One of few naked Short Sellers who destroyed Bear Stearns and Lehamn Bothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q48eSoTNByQ&feature=related
 
Geithner: Pickpocketing Trillions from the People to Give to the Oligarchy Was "Deeply Unfair", But We ... Um ... WE Had To

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/04/geithner-looting-country-for-trillions.html
 
Why Is The Fed Actively Managing A $25 Billion Maiden Lane MBS Portfolio When Its $2.4 Trillion SOMA Holdings Have A $1 Billion DV01? (And Are Unhedged)

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/why-fed-actively-managing-25-billion-maiden-lane-mbs-portfolio-when-its-24-trillion-soma-hol
 
Did The Fed Just (Surreptitiously) Bail Out Europe?

http://www.themarketguardian.com/2010/04/did-the-fed-just-surreptitiously-bail-out-europe/
 
Goldman Sachs pay out $111million in bonuses despite taking billions in bailout money

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339220/Goldman-Sachs-pay-111million-bonuses-despite-taking-billions-bailout-money.html#ixzz18NTzHyqF
 
Goldman's White House connections raise eyebrows

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/21/92637/goldmans-connections-to-white.html
 
Israeli made partner at Goldman Sachs

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3320118,00.html
 
Goldman Sachs was top Obama donor

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-20/politics/obama.goldman.donations_1_obama-campaign-presidential-campaign-federal-election-commission-figures?_s=PM%3APOLITICS
 
Israel OKs US ‘Gift’ of Billions of Dollars in Warplanes

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/09/16/following-fierce-debate-israel-decides-to-buy-f-35-warplanes/

h/t Will

Comments

[downrodeo]

however, gold is still up almost 200 since the beginning of August. Of course, you're not going to get rich speculating on short term metals prices. It's utility really depends on what your plans are.

[Spalding_Smailes]

Lots of miners getting monkey hammered the last few weeks. Many loyal gold bugs have taken hits playing the miners.

[downrodeo]

Gold mining stocks and gold are not exactly the same thing.

repeating after Mr Lennon Hendrix: Gold is monie, so is silver.  What is so hard about that?

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

I watch miners to see how far the President's Working Group on Financial Markets will "monkeyhammer" the assets so to achieve "7%" annual growth.

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

ABX, the world's largest miner, was down 3 cents. 

[Bay of Pigs]

Don't look now, but the USD is getting "monkey hammered" right now.

LMAO. 

BTW, most Goldbugs are long term holders of the miners. We don't sell on weakness.

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

OMG China does what 25 bps and it is going to stop the best trade for a decade?  AHAHAHA!  China has hiked twice in the face of the Fed, and this will stop gold which is used as the first investment by the financial system as a reserve on the Central Banks balance sheets from being the best investment on market?  Oh this is a funny thought!

[Spalding_Smailes]

Look at gold after the first hike on oct 20th. Look at all the mining stocks today = blowtorched. The derivatives, the miners who borrow in dollars funding projects its all so dollarishes.

....... " The bullion bank’s role in project finance for the gold mining industry has expanded since the mid-1980s with the doubling of gold output. Initially in Australia but later world-wide they came to work hand-in-hand with mining companies in every aspect of bringing a new mine on stream and marketing the gold once it was produced.".......

[akak]

You are so full of shit, it is oozing from your ears.

So, just what was this apocalyptic reaction in the gold market to China's October 20th rate hike?  The price of gold fell $20 the next day --- a whole 1.5% ---- before going on to rise almost 8% to a new (nominal) all-time high less than three weeks later!

Oh yes, rising interest rates AUTOMATICALLY and always decimate the price of gold.  We must ignore that period of 2004 to 2006, when the Fed Funds rate went from 1% to over 6% --- while the price of gold ROSE during the whole interval.

Still sure you want to stick to your "conventional wisdom" (sic) thesis?

[Bay of Pigs]

Blowtorched? WTF are you looking at Mr Gold/Miner Douche? XAU flat today, and HUI down just a little. How's that 5 minute attention span working these days?

[Mark Medinnus]

This paper cup contains your meds.  So take them.  There you go.  Good boy.  Now, pick up your spork and finish lunch.  We'll play a game of checkers when you wake up from your afternoon nap.    

[Bay of Pigs]

Thanks Doctor Mark, but I'm feeling fine. Better give them to Spalding though for his ADHD.

[tahoebumsmith]

All of those links above is your so called economy and it only leads to one word...DEBT...23.5 TRILLION to continue the ponzi going. For those of you naysayers that think we are in some kind of recovery, please explain how we will ever get this money back? Living on a credit card, paying bills with other credit cards, moving money from account to account to make the wealth seem real and in the end there will be nothing left of your pseudo economy. It is nothing more then an act of desperation, buying a little more time but piling on more debt then can ever be paid back.

[Future Jim]

The American government has been spending trillions of dollars on programs it had no Constitutional authority to create, and such unconstitutional expenditures exceed the amount of the federal debt. Therefore, the federal debt is unconstitutional, and given that the US Constitution is pretty simple, then anyone who loaned money to the US government should have known that they were loaning money to a fraudulent enterprise and thus should not expect repayment.

Ha! Ha!

Nanner! Nanner! Nanner!

Of course, there would be a huge consequence – no one would be willing to loan money to the US government again until it started obeying the Constitution, which would be ...

Good!

http://www.endofinnocence.com/2010/09/us-federal-debt-problem-solved.html

[Grandpa Bear Hug]

He could be on to something if only he had taken a long position.

Obama administration wants Fannie and Freddie to write down principle on upside down homeowners in an effort to assure them of positive equity.

Next up, a principle write down on new vehicle loans in an effort to cover the depreciation incurred while driving off the lot.

Entitlement is the game, exclusively for bulls. If you short, you do not meet the government's entitlement threshold.

[Quinvarius]

Once I get past thinking he is a cry baby, I think he has a case.  The markets were rigged. 

[knukles]

Oh, and he was the only guy who'd not a fucking clue?
4X Inverse Shit for Brains

[Quinvarius]

That is not really the legal issue.  The legal issue is did the Fed illegally rig the markets and cause the guy to take losses?

You can keep your insults to yourself, where they belong.

[Boilermaker]

+1,000,000

People can't focus on the issue but rather go for the 'shit for brains' approach because it's levered.  Frankly, if it'd been left to market forces, the guy would have been rich as hell.  The point was the illegal intervention and lack of (gasp) transparency.

[SilverBaron]

Make that 1,000,001

[you enjoy myself]

agreed.  this case at first blush seems slightly nutty, but could there not be some liability for the Fed, at least in theory?  you can't make the argument that the Fed is an indepedent bank, operating like any other private player, if they manipulated the market at the behest of (or at least in collusion with) the Treasury.   

the SEC's mission is listed as " to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation."  if the US Govt itself, via the Fed, was secretly injecting trillions into the banks and likely directly manipulating the market, is that "fair"?  if the Fed had announced its actions and/or had the SEC banned short selling, then maybe.  but to continue to allow short selling all the while knowing that another arm of the government was going to secretly ensure that all short sellers get wiped out, is nothing short of fraud.

if not, how do you reconcile the SEC's decision to sue GS for "creating and selling an investment...that was designed to fail"?  GS held back no info regarding the actual risk of the underlying derivatives, only the knowledge that they were packaged together by someone who bet the other way. 

basically, the SEC allowed shortselling (which was an entirely rational decision at the time, absent pertinant info about Bernanke's psychosis and ability to carry through) knowing with near certainty that anyone shortselling anything was going to get wiped out by govt intervention.

[prophet]

SKF displayed some "tracking" issues in the Fall of 08 (especially mid SEP08) but paid off if you were nimble.  The 3Xs did not debut until it was all over.  The triple leveraged bull funds all could have been bought and held through 2009 for fantastic returns. 

In MAR09 the President got on the TV and said he thought stocks were a pretty good deal.  I guess you could sue him too.  FAZ from inception to then was a break even and if you held on longer than that you must have wanted to go broke.  Arrive late and overstay, good plan.  Compounding is really not all that complex.  Had you just shorted XLF you would have been okay.  Pigs get slaughtered, especially the ignorant bearish ones.

[Millivanilli]

The Bernank replied with this letter.

To whom it may concern,

FUCK OFF!

[bob_dabolina]

I think he has a real chance of winning an out of court settlement.

Ben Bernanke has nothing but love and compassion for Bill and his problem.

[liberal sodomy]

They're typical jewish eroding "assets".  Read the yiddish fineprint.

[Village Idiot]

No one reads Yiddish anymore.

[yabyum]

Hey Liberal! Go back to the Stormfront website, they miss you man!

[liberal sodomy]

Truth hurts, eh?  The truth is "anti-semitic".

[High Plains Drifter]

My advice is for him to not hold his breath too long.

[Cursive]

Would have been better had it started with:

"Dear PPT,"

[TradingJoe]

Oh well, just hilarious shit folks! No one I repeat NO ONE will get to Benjoman but Ron Paul via his committee to expose Benjoman and his fraudster at the FEDs but the benjodude will go home unharmed and will be old and farthy before anyone can claim anything from this guy! imagine all the bancheros who had "bad" bets eh? 

[RobotTrader]

AIG now up 12%.

Wow.

[reading]

Only 2000% to go to get back in the neighborhood of where it was.

[Spalding_Smailes]

Did you loadup after the volume picked up ??

[rocker]

Didn't Goldman Sachs just downgrade them. Overvalued they said.  The GS manipulation lives on. 

[akak]

AIG now up 12%.  Wow.

Hey RobotChokesOnDick, I have two new words for you to look up and add to your vocabulary: selective, and anecdotal.  When you learn how those two concepts negate all your meaningless, ultra-short-term, cherry-picked, random factoid flyby posts here, get back to us --- until then, just shut the fuck up already.

[Gloomy]

Will Devaluation and Default be the Themes for 2011?
December 14, 2010

The mystery of how so many useless new houses came to be built in a remote part of Ireland might have the usual explanation: that rash speculation had been unwisely left to go its own way by the state. Such an impression of previous government passivity would certainly be helpful to the Fianna F?il party, which has governed Ireland since 1997 and which on September 30 announced it would spend up to ?18 billion on a further state bailout of Irish banks-otherwise, in the words of Brian Lenihan, the finance minister, their insolvency would "bring down" the Irish state itself, in ways he didn't go on to describe. Lenihan put the blame squarely on the banks for their "pattern of reckless lending," but as Fintan O'Toole demonstrates time and again in this book, the government was far from being a helpless spectator. Its policies and behavior were crucial to the property boom that, when it inevitably turned to bust, wrecked the Irish economy so spectacularly. O'Toole has written much about the theater, including brilliant studies of Shakespeare and Sheridan, and he sees tragedy, absurdity, and of course hubris among the human ruins left standing on the national stage. What he shows most memorably, however, is how Ireland's political leaders were complicit in the boom's every aspect: land acquisition, planning permission, funding.

Ian Jack
"Ireland: The Rise & the Crash"
The New York Review of Books
November 11, 2010

First we wish a safe holiday and happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all. The IRA will be quiet until just before New Years, when we will review last year's predictions publish our prognostications about 2011.

Also, this week in The IRA Advisory Service, we discuss how the proposal by the FDIC to impose punitive insurance premiums on large banks that use all types of brokered deposits could have a decidedly adverse impact on the entire U.S. banking industry. To our friends at the FDIC we recall the old saying: Be careful what you wish for. You may get it.

We start this comment with an excerpt from Ian Jack's review of Fintan O'Toole's new book, Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger. Both are must reading for students of the crisis around the world. And conveniently enough, you have but to change the words of either of these works to include American politicians and states to show that the stories on both sides of the pond were remarkably similar.

Speculative booms are the result of free people doing greedy, short-sighted and stupid things to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else. We invite you to examine the new book by our friend Alex Pollock at American Enterprise Institute, Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity, wherein he writes:

"Despite their historical frequency, the busts at the end of the bubbles take people by surprise. Then they ask the same questions. How did it happen? How did prices get out of control? How did so many risky loans get made? Who is guilty. What can we do so it never happens again?"

Well, sad to say that the whole point of being a free society is that booms and busts will happen again. The Irish and their American cousins share this terrible but also wonderful attribute. When the desire for individual freedom and opportunity?runs into the reality of?a zero sum world, there is fraud and larceny. Sad to say, when Americans arrive at the point of perfectly managed regulatory perfection we shall all being living in a Euro-style corporate dictatorship. The reason that the Danes have such an orderly mortgage market is because like much of Europe, their people have only the freedoms allowed by the state. And fraud and corruption in Europe are largely the province of politicians and their clients among the largest banks and corporations. Indeed, America is well along in the journey down that road to serfdom, in part because we still are unwilling to punish the outliers and thereby restore balance between?individual aspirations for a better life, call it the American dream,?and the public good.

Last week, we received an invitation from some good citizens to sign onto a letter calling for criminal prosecutions of fraud as a necessary condition for national recovery. At first this idea liked us well, but then we reconsidered. If you are calling for criminal prosecutions, does this not demand a certain degree of specificity? Thus we demurred in the letter writing effort, preferring instead to conduct our own investigation. We are already on the record regarding our view of the need for prosecution of delinquents such as former Citigroup director Robert Rubin. Read the past issues of The IRA ( 'Country Risk: The World According to Robert Rubin (Updated)', June 29, 2010 ). Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis also come to mind.

Our friend Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism has been sorting out the foreclosure documentation mess for some months and her work suggests some additional culprits. In a December 2, 2010 post, Smith skewers American Securitization Forum executive director Tom Deutsch for giving "one of the most outrageously dishonest presentations I can recall ever seeing." Click here ?to read "American Securitization Forum Tells Monstrous Whoppers in Senate Testimony on Mortgage Mess."?

Now, just to be clear, we are not suggesting that all of the members of the ASF should be transported free of charge to Guantanamo. But if you follow the excellent work done by Smith and others in the blogosphere, the only conclusion to be reached is that there are potentially thousands of individuals associated with originating,?selling and/or servicing?mortgage loans who could or should be prosecuted for deliberate acts of fraud. And the lawyers too. Yet Washington refuses to do the will of the American people.

The view on all of this expressed by the banking and loan servicing community is that the imperfections in the documentation of a lien or the transfer of a note are significant, but that at the end of the day the imperfections will be cured and the note holder will prevail. We agree.? More to the point, when the dead weight of all of the defaulted loans which are just now starting to move from foreclosure to involuntary sale falls upon lenders, the courts, and communities, the legal and technical problems that Smith and others very accurately?accurately describe will become political and they will be fixed -- and not always to the benefit of the note holder. The whole point of our federalist system is that such issues must first be adjudicated by the lower courts, then the appeals courts and Congress?will take a systemic view and move toward a consistent means of resolution.?

One of the things about a free society is that when a problem grows to a certain size, the political force behind the good of the many becomes irresistible and the good of the few or the one can often overlooked. As new political tendencies join governments in Ireland and the U.S. in January 2011, we look for macro economic and financial factors to start driving events in some ways that will be very unpleasant for creditors and consumers like. More on this in a couple of weeks.? Just remember that sovereign states like Ireland, California?and New York don't file bankruptcy, they merely default a la Iceland and Argentina.? Or to quote the headline in The Daily Bail: "Secret GOP Plan: Avoid A Massive Bailout By Pushing States To Declare Bankruptcy, Smashing Unions"

Questions? Comments? [e-mail]

[gloomboomdoom]

junked ya, buddy

There is only ONO Dr. Doom>> http://youtu.be/H0sS6a9RW2E

For you snot-nosed punks (i.e. My brothers)>> http://youtu.be/UyMPLiizIzg?hd=1

[Mark Medinnus]

Junked: too much down button

[junkiebev]

Lost Money? Better Lawyer The Fuck Up!

Someone call the Whaaaaaambulance.

[RobotTrader]

STI already blew past the highs where I sold it last week.

This market is pretty strong.

[reading]

Are you kidding? There's like two yacks and a computer trading 3 shares right now.

[Sudden Debt]

I hope he's not using a prodeo lawyer :)

[Sudden Debt]

I hope he's not using a prodeo lawyer :)

[Technichel]

Good point William G. Pitts. Monetizing debt while openly lying to congress and the American people. I wonder what will happen.   

[yabyum]

I've had some SKS and FAZ, to a bit of a beating but, not like this dude. Will not be calling council.

[mynhair]

Class action, bitchez!

Sign me up.

[MrBoompi]

After carefully reading your post, I've found your mistake:

"As I understand it, between the Fed and the SEC you all are charged with ensuring fairness, honesty and integrity in our markets and monetary system."

Hopefully you'll remember the Fed and the SEC could give a rat's ass about honesty and integrity in our markets before you make your next trade.

[Mark My Words]

I'll damn sure join him in court if I can find out if his atty is building a real class action suit...is there any more info on this?  Serious as a heart attack!

[junkiebev]

Banks made dumb bets on illiquid instruments and could not rid themselves of them.

'I bet directionally on a quite liquid market and held losing positions which I could have easilly flattened at anytime (liquid market!) 'cause I didn't want to lose money + ZH said everything was going to be 0 (except gold which was going to be infinity) where is my bailout' q_q

One problem is systemic, the other is not.

[Technichel]

<Banks made dumb bets on illiquid instruments and could not rid themselves of them.>

Banks got rid of all of those dumb illiquid bets. The real joke was on us. We own them now because of the job The Fed has done. Why should banks ever care about anything when they have The Fed and our money? Wish they would pay us all back and rely on themselves for a change.

[junkiebev]

My point was that the banks were holding illiquid assests which they could not dispose of - the dude in the OP was holding triple leveraged short ETFs.

One position (arguably ofc) requires a bailout to flatten as there were no counterparties, the other just requires a stop-loss position exit.

[mule65]

Dear Mr. Pitts,

"Ain't never seen anyone so shitt-all stupid as you driving off that road. You musta got manure for your brains."

[Arm]

I filed a complaint with the SEC in March 2009.  Obviously nothing came out of it. 

US law defines market manipulation as the concerted effort by an individual or group of conspiring individuals to AFFECT THE PRICE OF AN ASSET.  It does not matter if you are "propping it up"; it is still conspiracy to affect the price of an asset.  Bernaneke has publicly stated he was trying to RAISE equity prices, that by itself would fall under the legal definition (he confessed for God's sake).

Remember the dual mandate of the Fed is employment and price stability (this refers to inflation, not asset prices).  Propping up the stock market is indefensible from the Fed's legal mandate for public intervention.

PS: There are hundreds of other very clear instances; for example when all the ibank CEO's in Jan 09 decided to buy bank stock on the same day to effect a short squeeze.  They publicly admitted it "as a show of confidence".

PS2: Bernaneke owes me $500k from my inverse ETF's and put options.  Let me know if you guys go through with the class-action.

[downrodeo]

a-ha! The CFR method: It isn't a conspiracy if it is out in the open

[cosmictrainwreck]

OK, Arm...at least somebody has the nerve to say something on this pussy-willow thread. have no idea what rodeo's "conspiracy" post means; sounds sarc. to me. Class action is exactly what all these big, bold, bad-ass, anti-gubmint types on here oughta be talking about - not how the guy was stupid for getting his ass kicked. First time I recall feeling really disapointed with the alleged "wisdom" on this site. Wouldn't be so bad if they didn't all TALK so fuckin' big & bad.......

[downrodeo]

nope no sarcasm. although I do forget that from time to time. sorry.

 I would love to see a class action law suit against the fed. I hope it happens.

 I can't see it though. For the sake of argument, let us say that the actions of the Fed are, at the very least, endorsed by the existing government. Said government also controls the courts, and law enforcement. I really can't imagine a scenario where the Fed will ever be defending itself in a courtroom. At least not in this country.

Now, that is not to say that I think people like this guy should give up. Let him file his lawsuit, I encourage him to do so. I just believe that Ben Bernankecould shoot a person in the face in broad daylight with a shotgun, and not face any charges. Yes, I think he and the Fed both have Cheney-esque invincibility.

Anyway, I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas. Why don't you lead the way...you seem to be a man/woman of action...(no offence meant, gender is ambiguous on the interwebs...)

PS__

The guy is stupid, but not because he got his ass kicked. That can happen to anyone. He is stupid for saying this: "Had I been on the other side of these trades I may very well hold a higher opinion of the Fed and its actions."

I read this as saying, 'yeah, I'd get down with the fed--- if it was beneficial for me. It isn't, so I don't. Give me my millions or I'll set my lawyers on ya!"

Of course, I am diametrically opposed to central banks. I believe it consolidates waaaaaaayyyyy too much power. Am I wrong? Sorry, that is a loaded question.

the gulf between 'should be' and 'is' grows ever wider...

[slimfinger]

Yes, he would be fine with the Fed if it benefited him, and he would be fine dropping a class action for a personal cash settlement.

As I stated earlier, I think the man hurts his own case (at least in my view) by openly admitting it is about money and not principle.

[Arm]

In my mind the legal case against Fed action is incredibly strong.  Securities law is quite explicit.  The problem is that I hold absolutely no hope that a United States court would rule against them. 

I am from LATAM, I am accoustomed to this style of arbitrary government actions.  Unfortunately, I used to invest in the US with the idea that markets were more or less efficient and more or less fair.  Obviously, this is not the case.  Essentially my entire wealth is now in cash and in emerging market assets where at least I know the rules of the game. 

It may be ironic, but right now emerging markets may actually be fairer than the US market.  The rules or lack of are generally understood.  In the US market there is complete legal uncertainty.  Centuries of legal precedent have been thrown out.  Laws are now selectively enforced.   The GM bailout was a travesty for example.

[bronzie]

I thought my "Stocks are for suckers" saying pretty well summed up the current markets

I realize now that I have to add a second saying: "Triple ETFs are for triple suckers"

Lots of luck with that lawsuit ...

[velobabe]

B O

that is what Barrack ObombØ smells like†

[gloomboomdoom]

that letter "O" is counterfiat

http://www.last.fm/music/Underoath/+images/501285

[Freddie]

The guy forgot the cardinal rule of investing circa 2009-2010:

"Buy the fu*king dip."

[TWORIVER]

Not unreasonable as the FED bailed out institutions on the sly. I just hope he doesn't mind getting paid in Bank Stock shares if he wins. You know what would happen after that, Right?

[High Plains Drifter]

What court would you sue the FED in?  Who has jurisdiction for such a lawsuit?  State court , New York?

[bunkermeatheadp...]

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

[Captain Kink]

The banks "should" have gone to zero.  "Should" is the most dangerous word in the english language for a trader.  Price is all there is.  If it goes against you, get the fock out.  Treasuries "should" get slammed right now (or yesterday, or in Dec. last year, etc) but they haven't and probably won't.  nice reversal in the long bond today, without any scheduled monetization...telling, I think. 

[Chuck Yeager]

Damn,  I lost on FAZ big too for the same reason,...except I dumped it after 3 days.  Those triple leveraged shorts are mathematically going to zero eventually.

RUle #1 for triple leveraged shorts...only hold them for a day.

Rule #1 makes it gambling, not investing.

[gloomboomdoom]

No Great Depression 2.0... It's not coming folks!

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

Nope, just an empire collapse.

[TonyV]

It is not going to be a collapse. Just a slow steady decline.

[MarketTruth]

It is called the Bernanke PUT. Money for everything under the sun to prop this bubble up.

Must..keep...market...inflated.

[Popo]

bilge

[chancee]

I like this.  This has potential.

[Clapham Junction]

READ THE FUCKING PROSPECTUS

[Popo]

The prospectus doesn't cover wholly illegal intervention by shadow banking operations.

[liberal sodomy]

Does anyone doubt that Hitler was right about the "International Money Power"(synagogue of satan)?

"We were not foolish enough to try to make a currency coverage of gold of which we had none, but for every (new reich´s) mark that was issued interest free [non usury system], we required the equivalent of a mark's worth of work done or goods produced. . . .we laugh at the time our national financiers held the view that the value of a currency is regulated by the gold and securities lying in the vaults of a state bank." -Adolf Hitler, 1937 (CC Veith, Citadels of Chaos, Meador, 1949.)
 
 
"And it proved sound. It worked. In less than ten years Germany became easily the most powerful state in Europe. It worked so magically and magnificently that it sounded the death knell of the entire (Zionist) Jewish money system. World Jewry knew that they had to destroy Hitler's system, by whatever means might prove necessary, or their own [system of usury] would necessarily die. And if it died, with it must die their dream and their hope of making themselves masters of the world. The primary issue over which World War II was fought was to determine which money system was to survive. At bottom it was not a war between Germany and the so-called allies. Primarily it was war to the death between Germany and the International Money Power."  - William Gayley Simpson

[Clapham Junction]

(Deleted out of respect for Tyler. I am concerned that someone will read a post like the one above and take it seriously.)

[liberal sodomy]

I'm not quite sure what your issue is.  Accurate quotes, and the bald faced truth?  Feel free to refute what I say.  You can't.

[Clapham Junction]

You have every right to write what you wish.  This is not my blog.  If it were, I'd be concerned.  I won't debate you, because I don't give a shit beyond the welfare of keeping this blog around.

[liberal sodomy]

Yes. So "concerned" and "won't debate".

Tell me.  Where are the ashes of the 6 million "jews"?  They would be piled up to the moon or would be in the soil.  They're not.

You fucking liars are in for a whole new world of shit.

[Clapham Junction]

I'm sure you are right.  

[liberal sodomy]

Welcome to Damascus, asshole.

[downrodeo]

Could we leave the jews who had nothing to do with it out of the equation? You folks have a tough time with "all A are B, but not all B are A..."

Oh, never mind it. I forgot for a moment, whenever you see someone on an anti-Jewish-people rant, it is usually a good idea to give them a wide berth. Moving to the opposite side of the hallway now; hopefully, he didn't see me...

[Blano]

Just because somebody like that Simpson dude says it doesn't mean it's true, you pathetic anti-Semitic piece of shit.  There's nothing to refute.  Now go fuck yourself.

[liberal sodomy]

"jews" aren't Semites.  Never have been.  Never will be.

[JonNadler]

And Chinese are not Chinese, they never been nor will be Chinese

(they are actually Japanese)

[Popo]

You don't know what "antisemite" means.

You're attempting a literal deconstruction of the term "antisemite" -- which means "one who dislikes jews" -- by separately deconstructing and analyzing it's syllables. 

Welcome to the English language.  It doesn't always work like that.

By the same token, you probably believe that something that is "inflammable" does not burn.  I hope for your sake you have not built your house out of inflammable materials.

Typical antisemitic strategy:  First attempt to undermine the term that defines the strategy.

[delacroix]

semitic actually refers to language. the terminology has been intentionally mutilated, to destroy accuracy

[squexx]

Go fuck YOURSELF, you brainwashed piece of  filth!  It IS the the Satanic Tribe, stupid!  I hope they do start flying planes into Sin-agogs soon by people they ruined!

[Village Idiot]

The readership/commentary are rounding out nicely around here, Tyler.

[Terminus C]

This is freedom of expression in its truest form.  Truest because there is annomimity in the statements as well.  Though I will not engage in this particular issue, I will support Tyler in allowing all ideas and leave it to the commentators to value each point of view.

[Village Idiot]

I agree.

[downrodeo]

+10

hear him, hear him

If you don't believe in free speech you despise you don't really believe in it at all.    

[Popo]

Historically, things are working out just as they always do.  First the power elite (who are by the way, decidedly not Jewish.  The Bush's, Paulson's, Clinton's,  etc. etc.), take the pie off the table.  Then the masses fight over the crumbs -- and eventually lash out at the old straw man:  The Jews.

Here's a question for the resident Jew bashers:  What percentage of the world's Jews are bankers?

Seriously, answer that question and try to maintain your position without sounding like the ignorant bigots that you are.

[slimfinger]

Why is it that so incredibly few people have the ability to simply look at things for what they are?  It seems that everyone is a pathetic slave to cliche and racial bias, and couldn't care less about what is actually being said.

The quotes above appear to have a degree of integrity; they simply address and criticize a fraudulent fiat money system that was, in truth, largely controlled by entities that happened to be of Jewish origin.  That is a fact.  This is not equivalent to stating that "Jewish people are inferior or evil".  My ex-girlfriend of many years was Jewish and I loved her and her family and friends dearly, yet I see these realities.

Ironically, I find knee-jerk and overtly hateful invectives from (likely Jewish) respondents, which blindly defend a particular race from nonexistent attacks, to be far more indicative of real "racism".

[Village Idiot]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gayley_Simpson   Interesting life.  His viewpoints are especially telling.

[JonNadler]

Also stealing everything in sight, wherever they set foot (including gold)did kind of give the Nazis an economic advantage you know. The slave labor helped too, so when they didn't have marks, just round up a bunch of slavs and make them work

[liberal sodomy]

National Socialism was a logical self defense mechanism to the new york jew- financed bolshevism in Russia that murdered 100 million people.

We could use a similar movement today.

[JonNadler]

I think I'll stick with the Bernank if that's the alternative.

Thanks for participating though

[liberal sodomy]

Better make sure your dual passport is up to date.

[the grateful un...]

I think we have already. The internment camps were built by Bush, are sitting at the ready. The Patriot Act has eviscerated our personal liberties, the President bailed out international banks with US taxpayer money, forced BOA shareholders to take Merrill without seeing the balance sheet, the only thing we need is a symbol, and parade for our dear leader and I think we've got it.

[dan10400]

This guy is a dolt.   He should sue the fed over ZIRP and being stripped of any return on savings (and removing an entire asset class) which is out of his control as opposed to his own lack of prudent fiscal management.

[Boilermaker]

There are A LOT of symptoms to this disease.  He's got a valid point and the intervention was illegal in every way.  Your point is also valid.  Why slam his point?

[Popo]

Agreed.  This guy has a *very* valid argument from every angle of securities law.   And there are *plenty* of other potential cases that could be made against the Fed.

Raising the possibility of other cases, in no way de-legitimizes his case.

Millions of people have been screwed to save the power elite.  Let the lawsuits fly.

[Oquities]

i will gleefully join this suit if it goes class action, and suggest it be expanded to buyers of puts on specific financial stocks as well. 

[TooBearish]

William Bradley Pitt aka Tyler Durden aka William G. Pitts?  Project Mayhem sidebar?

[hedgeless_horseman]

You don't talk about Project Mayhem.

[JonNadler]

serious question

The so called securities the FED bought from all these investment banks, do we know how much they were worth, cents on the dollar?

[Boilermaker]

LMFAO...oh, are you serious?

[JonNadler]

why LMFAO?

Do we know?

[Oquities]

it's because there is no assignable value on an item that is surreptitiously extracted from the market and removed from the process of price discovery, what a real buyer is willing to pay in a non-interfered market

[slimfinger]

Actually, yes.  This has been one of the biggest propaganda pieces from the very beginning - the ridiculous notion that "nobody knows what they're worth".

If you want to know what an asset or instrument is worth, you simply sell some of them.  Very, very simple.

The banks knew exactly what they were worth, and always have.

[Boilermaker]

He's right, period.  He recieved the "BAZOOKA" rectal exam from Hank Paulson and Timmy and, of course, Heli-Ben.

They have no legal fucking right to push equity prices up.  None.  He did get defrauded (amongst millions).

Most of the bashers are slamming the fact that he was in 2X and 3X inverse funds.  What if it were non-leveraged inverses.  What about just having short positions?  What about puts?

I follow the IYR (which is basically the non-levered bull fund of SRS...kind of) out of pure perverse disbelief.  Look at it today.  Look at it yesterday.  Fuck, look at it any day.

The FED did and does continue to ILLEGALLY intervene and push up values of common equities of financials and REITS. 

Oh, they'll tell him to fuck off, I'm sure.  But, that's why someone's going to lose their poise and introduce these fuckers to a 9mm to the skull.  Seriously. 

[Clapham Junction]

 Boilermaker:

  I guess I feel that if the dude had been on the right side of the trade, he'd be overjoyed.

  I don't know, the man must have been way too over-extended.  Pity.

[Boilermaker]

That's the REAL pity...he WAS on the ride side of the trade.  He just wasn't on the right side of the scam.

[Clapham Junction]

(d)

[Popo]

He WAS on the right side of the trade! 

You're trying to make the case that "Markets are markets, and they involve risk" -- but that argument actually supports his case.  It is the banking elite that refused to accept the consequences of the trade, and the consequences of their risk.

[TooBearish]

Take this line futher - publicly held companies that recieved equity or other cash infusions should have disclosed the amount, terms and type of investment (from FED, TARP or other gubbament agency) as a material change in their 10K....

[razorthin]

+10

[Bicycle Repairman]

One thing I noted about the leveraged inverse ETF's was that their performance did not mirror that of the indices they shorted.  Several inverse EFTs were negative at the same time that the indices were.  These inverse ETFs simply do not work as expected.

I exited my positions break even, when I timed the market very well and should have made a ton of $$.  I'll never use those products again.

[Clapham Junction]

(d)

[More Critical T...]

...

[Da55id]

William G Pitts.

BilgePits?

[dukeness]

He should have invested in beer, got hammered, then recycled the cans.

[razorthin]

I hope it goes Class.

[Boilermaker]

He probably had sex without a condom and will be arrested by INTERPOL.

[Twindrives]

Yes indeed.  Fuck Ben, Harry, and Robo.

[praxis]

FAZ bagholders bitchez!

I feel your pain...

[Dollar Bill Hiccup]

Conceptually this is brilliant. The FED has interrupted price discovery and done this by funding certain companies and sectors while witholding material information from the public! Material information is the cornerstone of securities markets law.

[spiral_eyes]

betting on the endogenous collapse of a fiat system is so foolish it hurts my brain. hold these positions. when china stops purchasing american treasuries the ponzi scheme will collapse and the positions will go parabolic. seeking restitution from the ponzi masters is a complete waste of energy. yawn.

[fallst]

I will never forgot that overnight SKF gap down of around 25$K, was it March 12, 2008? He did something and was leaked.  It was a week before FOMC, all the more clever. I held on and slow climb from 9:45 to 10:30 about half way back.

I now use my 30" fun screen for more calming pursuits. The graphs were cool, though. nooBalert.

[fiftybagger]

Inverse ETFs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvA_-RslqmU

[cocoablini]

Great video demo. Thanks

[Seasmoke]

Pay that man his money !

[Clapham Junction]

(d)

[cocoablini]

I was thinking that FAZ was a great trade since its at huge low for its lifetime- but etfs and ETNs just leak principle all over. You will have to get in and out in the day.
I think most trading opportunities are pretty much gone - If such a huge buyer of stocks( US Gov) decides to lose money all on its trades and allow large entities to frontrun those losses, then there is no real market anymore- its a hologram.
If I put in 100 bucks into FAZ, and it goes down 2 %- have 98 bucks in principle. If fAZ goes back up 2% do I get back to square one? Nope, The ETF is now worth 99.96. Each loss makes it harder to recoup because
The principle is adjusted.
And who knows what rhe 3x leverage short is pinned to anyway.
And if people are selling it off because its hopeless to bet against a rigged banking backed government, then its has less intrinsic value on the market on its own merits.
FAZ is a shitty etf- it doesn't reflect ANYTHING in the environment of banking and banking profits. The other day B of A was sued by a state and FAZ went down. Get real Direxion...

[cocoablini]

theresa video someone posted on the etf system- in lieu of this article.
Very good visual example of the ETF system.
The only way to hit the EtF jackpot is to time the turn almost perfectly. But unfortunately, only Goldman Sachs has that info.
All other bets, held over 3 months, leak like a bad prostate

[gwar5]

Talk about deep pockets. er...Good luck.

Apparently the Fed is definitely rigging and manipulating markets with insiders. Guilty enough for civil. 

I'd call Robert Rubin, Greenspan, Summers, and Bernanke to the stand for starters. For fun, and to keep them honest, I'd call in Brooksley Borne to the courtroom to sit and smile at each one of them before she testified. 

[optimator]

Don't try calling on a Saturday.

[gwar5]

I would think just the discovery process against the Fed would be to die for.....

[David99]

This is really very interesting as many individuals got killed in similar fashion. I would like to know the end result so as to file a similar suit against FED.

[Clapham Junction]

Look, I'm sorry, flame me, junk me, I don't care. I've pondered this issue for a couple of hours.

None of us were born yesterday.  None of us expect life to be fair.

Boo-hoo, the markets are rigged?  No shit!  

This man has no case-his position is ridiculous. I got news for you-there are Americans out there not lucky enough to have capital to gamble with, and he's crying about losing money?

If you are an investor you are a lucky citizen in this time and place. To bring a quasi-populist suit against the government is asinine.

Sack up, we've all lost a fortune or two.

[wgpitts]

Clap,

I guess from your standpoint they should drop the lawsuit for the silver manipulation against JPM and let Madoff out as well... Hell "Boo-hoo, the markets are rigged?  No shit! "

The biggest gangster sets the rules..get used to it...Is that your worldview Clap ?

[keepmydollar]

This is a fucking joke.  Screw this guy being made whole.  We all know the Fed and Treasury only jumped in to bail out their friends the banks.  If someone wants to be made whole how about me?  I purchased GM debt at $.10 on the dollar and I get rearended by Rattner and the Fed so they can pay off the damn Union thugs. 

 The market is and has been rigged, but that should be common knowledge going in.  Come on Bill grow a set and man up for your bad decision.  A better investment would be a book explaining the stop loss.

[wgpitts]

Keep your dollar

You can lay down and whimper and lick your wounds...and take it like a coward while we fight. I say fight them in the media, on blogs in to courts, with your congressmen, with every trader you know...attack, attack attack. Soon public opinion will sway, the political will of the American people to right the injustice of this institution will exist and we will prevail. It may come after a complete meltdown but it will come...

[paddy0761]

I've got 4 words for Bill:

"Don't fight the Fed"

[Logan Tassajar]

he who sells what isn't hisn

buys it back or goes to prison

[snowball777]

TBTF Defender: Did you, or did you not, "buy the dip", sir? Answer the question!

Permabear: No, I only purchased double shorts.

TBTF Defender: Were you not aware that the PPT were in the house, on account of your extensive reading of the Zero...uh...Hedge...[ uh...what's that word again..oh yeah ]..portal?

Permabear: I didn't think they'd be able to commit that unconstitutional larceny for so very long.

TBTF Defender: Let the record show that the witness did not think and we move to dismiss as the plaintiff has failed to make a prima facie case your honor.