JPMorgan Chase and Jamie Dimon decide on a little derivatives sunshine

bwahahahaha...! long overdue...

from the ft...

JPMorgan Chase announced surprise “significant mark-to-market losses” on credit derivatives in its chief investment office, an opaque unit whose aggressive trades have recently drawn controversy.

The bank said in a regulatory filing that the portfolio at the CIO had “proven to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than the firm previously believed”.

On a hastily convened conference call, Jamie Dimon blamed “errors, sloppiness and bad judgment”.

Separately, JPMorgan said it was on the hook for as much as $4.2bn in excess of reserves for various legal proceedings.

there's been a great deal of abortive effort to uncover the precise extent of the toxic derivatives held by our criminal, too-big-to-fail banks... suddenly, in this surprise announcement, lo and behold, a little sunshine... my hunch is that this is the thin edge of the wedge and that's there a lot more to come...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

This is your democracy on meth

post title courtesy of timothy egan in the nyt...

Newt’s Shop of Horrors

ari berman in tomdispatch...

Tomgram: Ari Berman, The Politics of the Super Rich

[T]he super PACs on both sides of the aisle are financed by the 1% of the 1%. Romney’s Restore Our Future Super PAC, founded by the general counsel of his 2008 campaign, has led the herd, raising $30 million, 98% from donors who gave $25,000 or more. Ten million dollars came from just 10 donors who gave $1 million each. These included three hedge-fund managers and Houston Republican Bob Perry, the main funder behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, whose scurrilous ads did such an effective job of destroying John Kerry’s electoral prospects. Sixty-five percent of the funds that poured into Romney’s super PAC in the second half of 2011 came from the finance, insurance and real estate sector, otherwise known as the people who brought you the economic meltdown of 2007-2008.

[...]

Before Citizens United, the maximum amount one person could give to a candidate was $2,500; for a political action committee, $5,000; for a political party committee, $30,800. Now, the sky’s the limit for a super PAC, and even more disturbingly, any donor can give an unlimited contribution to a 501c4 -- outfits defined by the IRS as “civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare,” and to make matters worse, that contribution will remain eternally secret. In this way, American politics is descending further into the darkness, with 501c4s quickly gaining influence as “shadow super PACs.”

so, the u.s. has now officially joined the ranks of third world countries whose super-rich elites have routinely bought and sold the national assets of their people to the highest bidder, the common good be damned...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

MF Global is back in the news and about goddam time

mm-hmmmm...

MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion

back on november 3, i posted this, courtesy of zero hedge...

The theft by MF Global was not stealing hundreds of millions form its customers: it has stolen a whopping $1.5 billion

i just love that word "shortfall"... it sounds so much better than theft, doesn't it...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Woo-hoo...! Goldman Sachs accused of fraud

holy shit...! an actual whiff of accountability...!

Goldman Sachs, which emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis, was accused of securities fraud in a civil suit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail.

The move marks the first time that regulators have taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market. Goldman itself profited by betting against the very mortgage investments that it sold to its customers.

a good sign...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments