|
|
|---|
Monday, January 4, 2010
In Mid September I wrote a letter to Australian regulators which detailed my concerns about a fund manager in Australia known as the Astarra Strategic Fund – formerly known as Absolute Alpha. This letter resulted in regulatory action against a cluster of related funds (almost twenty), however my letter was almost entirely about only one fund in the group. I did not make any major suggestions in the letter about other funds in the Astarra complex. My involvement was detailed today in the Sydney Morning Herald (see stories here, here and here, with the first story on the front page below the fold). There was no genius in my letter – everything could be found (fairly easily) on the internet – and the original tip-off came from a reader of my blog – who noticed links with a story I wrote up in March 2009.
For reasons I will explain below this fund collapse is qualitatively different and more serious than any previous fund collapse in Australia and that the Australian press have not yet detailed why this one is important.
The letter argued that it was possible that the Alpha Strategic fund was a fraud. I did not have the ultimate proof of that so I did not make my letter public and will not do so yet. However there is a way of proving that a fund is not a Ponzi – and that is to “show us the money”. If the assets are really there then it should be possible to convince regulators of that fact by showing them the assets. If Bernie Madoff had been asked to prove the existence of all the money he supposedly managed then he would have been caught because he could not comply. An honest fund should be able to comply fairly quickly – sometimes within 20 minutes – but almost certainly within a week.
The Australian regulator asked Astarra to show them the money – and to date that has not happened. That does not mean that the money is not there. It is however suggestive, especially as approximately three months have elapsed whilst regulators and fund administrators have tried to “value” the fund assets. Indeed the difficulty of valuing assets was sufficient for the regulator to cancel licenses and to place the funds in the hands of administrators.
At a meeting last week the (regulator appointed) administrator Neil Singleton said that with respect to one fund the only proof of assets they have is a letter from a Virgin Islands company stating that the fund (presumably the Strategic Fund) held 118 million in interests in other hedge funds. This letter did not detail any interests held and gave no mechanism for confirming that statement. However the administrator has not stated that the assets are not there – so – like the regulator and the administrator I too will leave that question open. The press simply says the details as to the $118 million are “sketchy”.
Background to the Australian privatised social security system and where various Astarra entities fit in to that system
Australia has a privatised social security system. Much of the money is with large honest players run in a nearly index manner and which have cut fees to relatively low amounts. Those funds are run by Australia’s otherwise dying trade unions. Privatised social security (which Australians call “superannuation”) has been the saviour of the union movement in Australia – and – through their control of funds the unions now are within a breath of control (though generally do not vote their control) of a large proportion of Australia’s industry.
The money that is not with the union funds is in a rag-tag of funds run by large banks (for example Colonial’s wraps owned by Commonwealth Bank) or with independents and/or self-managed funds. The money in those funds (wraps) is let to a large number of sub-funds – sometimes large, sometimes boutique funds managers who live off the large and mandated fund flows from our “superannuation system”.
The boutique funds range from very good to awful and shonky. Indeed I think the best no load mutual available anywhere in the world is in Australia (I used to work for the manager). But there have been some flea-bitten dogs sold to Australians. One thing is for sure – you cannot do privatised social security without very good fraud protection because that amount of money from unsophisticated investors is a truly massive honey-pot for scammers and flim-flam artists. As an aside, possibly the worst thing about George W’s privatised social security proposals was that they would be supervised by Cox’s toothless and supine Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trio Capital (the “mother-ship” of the Astarra entities) is a “wrap provider” – meaning a financial planner might use Trio to invest all their client’s retirement money. The Astarra Strategic Fund is an individual fund under that wrap. My letter was about the Strategic Fund – and the collapse of the Strategic Fund would not be qualitatively different from the collapse of any of about six funds that collapsed during the financial crisis. The financial planner might have put her clients in six (or more) funds – and the loss of one of them is a blow – but in no way imperils the system.
But (somewhat surprisingly) the entire Trio edifice has been placed with administrators – which means that the end-beneficiary has had their entire retirement savings blocked. In some funds there is not even enough cash to pay pensions to retired people for the month of January. Some pensioners are not having their current payments blocked but there are doubts about future payments. [Details as to who will receive pensions for the month of January can be found on Trio’s website.] This is qualitatively different from earlier fund failures because it is a failure of every fund that a person might have invested – a failure of the core asset protection mechanism in the Australian system. [I cannot work out why the otherwise sensationalist Murdoch press has not written a single story on this yet. All they need to do is find a cluster of pensioners who will not receive their pension this month and who will have no idea as to why.]
How I came to write my letter to regulators
Six months ago a reader pointed me to a fund of hedge funds (called Absolute Alpha) based in Australia.
I looked – and within forty minutes I became very concerned – but could not prove harm to the fund’s investors. I tipped off the Sydney Morning Herald.
The journalists at the Herald worked hard at the story but alas they too could not prove harm. Indeed a major bank misled them as to whether the assets were in (their) safe custody. The bank confirmed the assets were in custody – a statement they have now withdrawn. Obviously with a reputable third party vouching for the assets any hypothesis of harm was going to be hard to sustain. The Herald published nothing.
I however remained suspicious – but could not easily do anything. For there to be something desperately wrong either the bank had to be a party or grossly negligent as to their custody of the assets.
Absolute Alpha was a boutique fund manager loosely associated with – and partly owned – by a superannuation wrap provider called Astarra. Astarra is now called Trio. The wrap provider did all the superannuation compliance and in turn (claimed to) invest funds with other fund managers – mostly reputable managers. The relationship between Trio and some of the funds in which they were supposed to invest is complex.
The amount of money in Absolute Alpha was probably under 100 million. There were plenty of things that did not look right – but I did not think there was much I could do about it.
So I let it go – though I did not forget about it.
Later I tried to log into Absolute Alpha’s website and it was dead.* This (falsely) indicated my worst fear.
Again I alerted the Herald.
Alas it was not so simple. Absolute Alpha it seems had taken over the funds management of all the money in the Astarra wrap. They had renamed themselves Astarra. Astarra later renamed itself Trio. Astarra’s website boasted of a billion dollars in funds under management.
This was potentially very bad news. Australia is about a twentieth the size economically of the United States – so $1 billion in funds under management was the equivalent economically of $20 billion in the US. If my bad-case was true we had a Madoff (at least proportionately) in the making. [Now the funds have been taken into administration the official numbers are about 40 percent of the numbers boasted on the website. The danger was not quite as big as I thought it was.]
Anyway I wrote a letter to the Australian Securities regulator (ASIC) laying out all my concerns and (implicitly) the method for testing my concerns were false. [I sincerely hoped I was wrong – and hoped the regulator would prove me incorrect by identifying and valuing the assets. I still sincerely hope all the money turns up in the British Virgin Islands.]
I have heard lots of criticism of the Australian Securities regulator. However on this important matter their actions were exemplary. They did what the SEC could not do and act on a “Markopolos letter” within weeks. They did what the SEC should have done when they investigated Madoff – and attempted to confirm the existence and value of the assets.
Three weeks later ASIC put a stop on all Astarra funds – prohibiting new money going in or any moneys going out. They acted to protect investors. This showed responsiveness that Mary Schapiro and American regulators can only aspire too. The Sydney Morning Herald finally published a cryptic story on the front page. The Sydney Morning Herald article did not suggest – and I did not reasonably think – that the problems extended further in the Trio edifice.
A few months have passed and eventually all major Trio entities were placed in administration by the superannuation regulator. They will probably be liquidated. The funds have been passed to (reputable) private sector “forensic accountants” – the choice of accountants being made by the securities and superannuation regulators. They are the sort of liquidators you use when (as stated by the regulator in their press release) you are not “able to satisfy concerns regarding the valuation of superannuation assets”.
The whole mess will be explored by the accountants - and if the assets are not there then the matter will played in court – at which point I will publish my “Markopolos letter” analysing what I got right and wrong.
But for the moment I will leave you with what attracted me to Absolute Alpha in the first case. It was the CV’s of the principal players. Here they are:
Shawn Richard - Chief Executive Officer
Shawn is the founder of Absolute Alpha and a key member of the investment team. Prior to founding Absolute Alpha, Shawn has held and continues to hold, various senior positions, including directorships of companies both in Australia and overseas.
Shawn has been involved in financial markets since 1996 and had been specialising in alternative investments for more than 8 years, both offshore and in Australia. Over this time, Shawn has established relationships with some of the most exclusive hedge fund managers around the globe.
Shawn’s offshore experience in alternative investments includes among others, structuring and analysis of derivative instruments with some of the largest private hedge funds in the United States. Shawn was also part of a small team of professionals providing risk management services to Asian institutions and regional banks in relations to their exposure in equities.
Shawn holds a bachelors degree in Finance from the University of Moncton.
Eugene Liu -Chief Investment Strategist
Eugene is the Chief Investment Strategist of Absolute Alpha. As Chief Investment Strategist, Eugene is involved in the development and evaluation of asset strategic plans, development and modelling of analytic tools, reviewing and analysing investment data to formulate investment strategies, and the investment risk management process. Prior to joining Absolute Alpha, Eugene worked with the Asset Management team of Pacific Continental Securities and World Financial Capital Markets in the US and Asia. In these roles, Eugene performed extensive financial modelling and valuation analyses of various hedge fund strategies. Eugene also led a team of arbitrage specialists who provided structured product deal flow to many of the largest hedge funds in the industry.
Eugene holds a degree in economics from Trenton State College in New Jersey.
Charles Provini (US) - Asset Consultant
Charles has been involved in hedge funds for more than 20 years and is a senior asset consultant and member of Absolute Alpha’s investment committee. Currently, he is the President of Paradigm Global Advisors, a well established hedge fund manager based in NY and he is also the Chairman of C.R. Provini & Co., Inc., a financial services firm, founded in 1991. Prior to this, Charles held various senior positions, including, President of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Director at Ladenburg Thalmann, Inc., one of the oldest members of the New York Stock Exchange, President of Laidlaw Asset Management, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Howe & Rusling, Laidlaw’s Management Advisory Group, President of Rodman and Renshaw’s Advisory Services, and President of LaSalle Street Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Charles has been a leadership instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Chairman of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Honour Board and is a former Marine Corp. officer. He is frequent speaker at financial seminars and has appeared on “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America” discussing financial markets.
Charles is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has an MBA from the University of Oklahoma.
Now the first CV – Shawn Richard – is notable only for what it does not say. It does not mention a single firm that Shawn ever worked for – and hence reduces the possibility of doing due-diligence.
Eugene Liu’s CV is not so careful mentioning two firms, Pacific Continental Securities and World Financial Capital Markets. Pacific Continental is easy to find – it was a bucket shop of enormous proportions in the UK. Essentially the firm found hapless victims and steadily moved their life savings into soon-to-be worthless scam stocks for huge commissions. This was explored widely in the UK press including beautiful articles about a salesman’s time as scam artists. World Financial Capital Markets is a little harder to trace as a firm. Several firms have had that name – but one firm by that name met an unfortunate end involving fraud and the principals reappeared at Pacific Continental.
It turns out that Shawn Richard was a manager with Pacific Continental in Taiwan.
The third CV is of Charles Provini who used to be the CEO of Paradigm Global and who was (falsely) claimed to remain in that position. When I copied these CVs off the Absolute Alpha website Provini had not worked for Paradigm for about two years. Some of the rest of Mr Provini’s CV is raised my eyebrows too – for instance he worked as the President of Laidlaw Asset Management. A firm of that name was cited by the UK securities regulator (the FSA) for cold-calling and selling scam funds to UK investors.
The link to Paradigm Global was what raised my eyebrows. Paradigm is an asset manager (for funds of hedge funds) owned by Hunter Biden and James Biden. These are the Vice President’s son and brother respectively. I have written about Paradigm extensively before as it has an unfortunate habit of being associated with scams. Absolute Alpha was not difficult to do due diligence on. It took me only 40 minutes to work out that they were needing very close scrutiny. It does not speak well to the due-diligence of a fund of hedge funds (which is what Paradigm claims to be) that they keep being associated with cases like this.
The Biden connection was what prompted me to look at Absolute Alpha and hence what led me to write my “Markopolos letter” to ASIC and hence what rapidly led to the closure of Astarra and Trio. It is worth asking how deep that connection is.
Are Absolute Alpha/Astarra really associated with the Biden’s firm?
At first glance the links between Astarra and the Bidens’ firm are weak. Provini could have been marketing “vapourware” with no real association.
All that is certain is that Provini was cited on the Absolute Alpha website as an asset consultant and President of Paradigm for at least two years after he was sacked from Paradigm. Provini is now running inconsequential penny stock companies.
But the links run deeper than that. Absolute Alpha also used to cite other staff members who worked at Paradigm – indeed the original “managing partner” was also a staff member at Paradigm.
Absolute Alpha used to publish a process diagram as to how they identified funds to invest in. I have reproduced that diagram below:
For reasons I will explain below this fund collapse is qualitatively different and more serious than any previous fund collapse in Australia and that the Australian press have not yet detailed why this one is important.
The letter argued that it was possible that the Alpha Strategic fund was a fraud. I did not have the ultimate proof of that so I did not make my letter public and will not do so yet. However there is a way of proving that a fund is not a Ponzi – and that is to “show us the money”. If the assets are really there then it should be possible to convince regulators of that fact by showing them the assets. If Bernie Madoff had been asked to prove the existence of all the money he supposedly managed then he would have been caught because he could not comply. An honest fund should be able to comply fairly quickly – sometimes within 20 minutes – but almost certainly within a week.
The Australian regulator asked Astarra to show them the money – and to date that has not happened. That does not mean that the money is not there. It is however suggestive, especially as approximately three months have elapsed whilst regulators and fund administrators have tried to “value” the fund assets. Indeed the difficulty of valuing assets was sufficient for the regulator to cancel licenses and to place the funds in the hands of administrators.
At a meeting last week the (regulator appointed) administrator Neil Singleton said that with respect to one fund the only proof of assets they have is a letter from a Virgin Islands company stating that the fund (presumably the Strategic Fund) held 118 million in interests in other hedge funds. This letter did not detail any interests held and gave no mechanism for confirming that statement. However the administrator has not stated that the assets are not there – so – like the regulator and the administrator I too will leave that question open. The press simply says the details as to the $118 million are “sketchy”.
Background to the Australian privatised social security system and where various Astarra entities fit in to that system
Australia has a privatised social security system. Much of the money is with large honest players run in a nearly index manner and which have cut fees to relatively low amounts. Those funds are run by Australia’s otherwise dying trade unions. Privatised social security (which Australians call “superannuation”) has been the saviour of the union movement in Australia – and – through their control of funds the unions now are within a breath of control (though generally do not vote their control) of a large proportion of Australia’s industry.
The money that is not with the union funds is in a rag-tag of funds run by large banks (for example Colonial’s wraps owned by Commonwealth Bank) or with independents and/or self-managed funds. The money in those funds (wraps) is let to a large number of sub-funds – sometimes large, sometimes boutique funds managers who live off the large and mandated fund flows from our “superannuation system”.
The boutique funds range from very good to awful and shonky. Indeed I think the best no load mutual available anywhere in the world is in Australia (I used to work for the manager). But there have been some flea-bitten dogs sold to Australians. One thing is for sure – you cannot do privatised social security without very good fraud protection because that amount of money from unsophisticated investors is a truly massive honey-pot for scammers and flim-flam artists. As an aside, possibly the worst thing about George W’s privatised social security proposals was that they would be supervised by Cox’s toothless and supine Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trio Capital (the “mother-ship” of the Astarra entities) is a “wrap provider” – meaning a financial planner might use Trio to invest all their client’s retirement money. The Astarra Strategic Fund is an individual fund under that wrap. My letter was about the Strategic Fund – and the collapse of the Strategic Fund would not be qualitatively different from the collapse of any of about six funds that collapsed during the financial crisis. The financial planner might have put her clients in six (or more) funds – and the loss of one of them is a blow – but in no way imperils the system.
But (somewhat surprisingly) the entire Trio edifice has been placed with administrators – which means that the end-beneficiary has had their entire retirement savings blocked. In some funds there is not even enough cash to pay pensions to retired people for the month of January. Some pensioners are not having their current payments blocked but there are doubts about future payments. [Details as to who will receive pensions for the month of January can be found on Trio’s website.] This is qualitatively different from earlier fund failures because it is a failure of every fund that a person might have invested – a failure of the core asset protection mechanism in the Australian system. [I cannot work out why the otherwise sensationalist Murdoch press has not written a single story on this yet. All they need to do is find a cluster of pensioners who will not receive their pension this month and who will have no idea as to why.]
How I came to write my letter to regulators
Six months ago a reader pointed me to a fund of hedge funds (called Absolute Alpha) based in Australia.
I looked – and within forty minutes I became very concerned – but could not prove harm to the fund’s investors. I tipped off the Sydney Morning Herald.
The journalists at the Herald worked hard at the story but alas they too could not prove harm. Indeed a major bank misled them as to whether the assets were in (their) safe custody. The bank confirmed the assets were in custody – a statement they have now withdrawn. Obviously with a reputable third party vouching for the assets any hypothesis of harm was going to be hard to sustain. The Herald published nothing.
I however remained suspicious – but could not easily do anything. For there to be something desperately wrong either the bank had to be a party or grossly negligent as to their custody of the assets.
Absolute Alpha was a boutique fund manager loosely associated with – and partly owned – by a superannuation wrap provider called Astarra. Astarra is now called Trio. The wrap provider did all the superannuation compliance and in turn (claimed to) invest funds with other fund managers – mostly reputable managers. The relationship between Trio and some of the funds in which they were supposed to invest is complex.
The amount of money in Absolute Alpha was probably under 100 million. There were plenty of things that did not look right – but I did not think there was much I could do about it.
So I let it go – though I did not forget about it.
Later I tried to log into Absolute Alpha’s website and it was dead.* This (falsely) indicated my worst fear.
Again I alerted the Herald.
Alas it was not so simple. Absolute Alpha it seems had taken over the funds management of all the money in the Astarra wrap. They had renamed themselves Astarra. Astarra later renamed itself Trio. Astarra’s website boasted of a billion dollars in funds under management.
This was potentially very bad news. Australia is about a twentieth the size economically of the United States – so $1 billion in funds under management was the equivalent economically of $20 billion in the US. If my bad-case was true we had a Madoff (at least proportionately) in the making. [Now the funds have been taken into administration the official numbers are about 40 percent of the numbers boasted on the website. The danger was not quite as big as I thought it was.]
Anyway I wrote a letter to the Australian Securities regulator (ASIC) laying out all my concerns and (implicitly) the method for testing my concerns were false. [I sincerely hoped I was wrong – and hoped the regulator would prove me incorrect by identifying and valuing the assets. I still sincerely hope all the money turns up in the British Virgin Islands.]
I have heard lots of criticism of the Australian Securities regulator. However on this important matter their actions were exemplary. They did what the SEC could not do and act on a “Markopolos letter” within weeks. They did what the SEC should have done when they investigated Madoff – and attempted to confirm the existence and value of the assets.
Three weeks later ASIC put a stop on all Astarra funds – prohibiting new money going in or any moneys going out. They acted to protect investors. This showed responsiveness that Mary Schapiro and American regulators can only aspire too. The Sydney Morning Herald finally published a cryptic story on the front page. The Sydney Morning Herald article did not suggest – and I did not reasonably think – that the problems extended further in the Trio edifice.
A few months have passed and eventually all major Trio entities were placed in administration by the superannuation regulator. They will probably be liquidated. The funds have been passed to (reputable) private sector “forensic accountants” – the choice of accountants being made by the securities and superannuation regulators. They are the sort of liquidators you use when (as stated by the regulator in their press release) you are not “able to satisfy concerns regarding the valuation of superannuation assets”.
The whole mess will be explored by the accountants - and if the assets are not there then the matter will played in court – at which point I will publish my “Markopolos letter” analysing what I got right and wrong.
But for the moment I will leave you with what attracted me to Absolute Alpha in the first case. It was the CV’s of the principal players. Here they are:
Shawn Richard - Chief Executive Officer
Shawn is the founder of Absolute Alpha and a key member of the investment team. Prior to founding Absolute Alpha, Shawn has held and continues to hold, various senior positions, including directorships of companies both in Australia and overseas.
Shawn has been involved in financial markets since 1996 and had been specialising in alternative investments for more than 8 years, both offshore and in Australia. Over this time, Shawn has established relationships with some of the most exclusive hedge fund managers around the globe.
Shawn’s offshore experience in alternative investments includes among others, structuring and analysis of derivative instruments with some of the largest private hedge funds in the United States. Shawn was also part of a small team of professionals providing risk management services to Asian institutions and regional banks in relations to their exposure in equities.
Shawn holds a bachelors degree in Finance from the University of Moncton.
Eugene Liu -Chief Investment Strategist
Eugene is the Chief Investment Strategist of Absolute Alpha. As Chief Investment Strategist, Eugene is involved in the development and evaluation of asset strategic plans, development and modelling of analytic tools, reviewing and analysing investment data to formulate investment strategies, and the investment risk management process. Prior to joining Absolute Alpha, Eugene worked with the Asset Management team of Pacific Continental Securities and World Financial Capital Markets in the US and Asia. In these roles, Eugene performed extensive financial modelling and valuation analyses of various hedge fund strategies. Eugene also led a team of arbitrage specialists who provided structured product deal flow to many of the largest hedge funds in the industry.
Eugene holds a degree in economics from Trenton State College in New Jersey.
Charles Provini (US) - Asset Consultant
Charles has been involved in hedge funds for more than 20 years and is a senior asset consultant and member of Absolute Alpha’s investment committee. Currently, he is the President of Paradigm Global Advisors, a well established hedge fund manager based in NY and he is also the Chairman of C.R. Provini & Co., Inc., a financial services firm, founded in 1991. Prior to this, Charles held various senior positions, including, President of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Director at Ladenburg Thalmann, Inc., one of the oldest members of the New York Stock Exchange, President of Laidlaw Asset Management, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Howe & Rusling, Laidlaw’s Management Advisory Group, President of Rodman and Renshaw’s Advisory Services, and President of LaSalle Street Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Charles has been a leadership instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Chairman of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Honour Board and is a former Marine Corp. officer. He is frequent speaker at financial seminars and has appeared on “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America” discussing financial markets.
Charles is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has an MBA from the University of Oklahoma.
Now the first CV – Shawn Richard – is notable only for what it does not say. It does not mention a single firm that Shawn ever worked for – and hence reduces the possibility of doing due-diligence.
Eugene Liu’s CV is not so careful mentioning two firms, Pacific Continental Securities and World Financial Capital Markets. Pacific Continental is easy to find – it was a bucket shop of enormous proportions in the UK. Essentially the firm found hapless victims and steadily moved their life savings into soon-to-be worthless scam stocks for huge commissions. This was explored widely in the UK press including beautiful articles about a salesman’s time as scam artists. World Financial Capital Markets is a little harder to trace as a firm. Several firms have had that name – but one firm by that name met an unfortunate end involving fraud and the principals reappeared at Pacific Continental.
It turns out that Shawn Richard was a manager with Pacific Continental in Taiwan.
The third CV is of Charles Provini who used to be the CEO of Paradigm Global and who was (falsely) claimed to remain in that position. When I copied these CVs off the Absolute Alpha website Provini had not worked for Paradigm for about two years. Some of the rest of Mr Provini’s CV is raised my eyebrows too – for instance he worked as the President of Laidlaw Asset Management. A firm of that name was cited by the UK securities regulator (the FSA) for cold-calling and selling scam funds to UK investors.
The link to Paradigm Global was what raised my eyebrows. Paradigm is an asset manager (for funds of hedge funds) owned by Hunter Biden and James Biden. These are the Vice President’s son and brother respectively. I have written about Paradigm extensively before as it has an unfortunate habit of being associated with scams. Absolute Alpha was not difficult to do due diligence on. It took me only 40 minutes to work out that they were needing very close scrutiny. It does not speak well to the due-diligence of a fund of hedge funds (which is what Paradigm claims to be) that they keep being associated with cases like this.
The Biden connection was what prompted me to look at Absolute Alpha and hence what led me to write my “Markopolos letter” to ASIC and hence what rapidly led to the closure of Astarra and Trio. It is worth asking how deep that connection is.
Are Absolute Alpha/Astarra really associated with the Biden’s firm?
At first glance the links between Astarra and the Bidens’ firm are weak. Provini could have been marketing “vapourware” with no real association.
All that is certain is that Provini was cited on the Absolute Alpha website as an asset consultant and President of Paradigm for at least two years after he was sacked from Paradigm. Provini is now running inconsequential penny stock companies.
But the links run deeper than that. Absolute Alpha also used to cite other staff members who worked at Paradigm – indeed the original “managing partner” was also a staff member at Paradigm.
Absolute Alpha used to publish a process diagram as to how they identified funds to invest in. I have reproduced that diagram below:
It mentions two things which link Absolute Alpha (now called Astarra) to Paradigm global. These are the use of the Park Score (named after James Park – the founder of Paradigm) and the PASS database – the core database of hedge funds from which Paradigm claims to make its investment decisions.
Still, this could all have been ripped off Paradigm without Paradigm knowing.
Alas Paradigm does not get off so lightly. The boys from Absolute Alpha went to New York and co-marketed with people from Paradigm. Indeed I know someone who thought that Absolute Alpha were OK because staff at Paradigm had vouched for them. Whether Paradigm knew that Shawn and Eugene in Australia were using “Paradigm inspired” marketing material however is unknown.
Paradigm – the Biden’s firm – had unwittingly got involved in another funds management firm which has been closed by regulators or been exposed as Ponzis. That is four I know of now – and I have yet another one that I suspect of being unsound.
A plea to Michelle Malkin
So much of what is published by the conservative blogosphere is non-fact based muckraking. And yet – sitting here has been my observation that the fund of hedge funds associated with the Vice President’s family has an unnerving habit of association with scams and other funds closed by regulators. Surely a competent muckraking conservative blogger can actually do some digging rather than pontificating from the sidelines.
It makes me think of conspiracy theories. Maybe conservatives in the US do not want to do this sort of financial digging because most the fraudsters and scamsters are part of the Republican movement and do not like regulators because – well – they might catch them.
But there must be honest Republicans out there. It is time for Michelle Malkin to do some honest work. So I will plead with her – can you please do some digging into Paradigm or find some other muck-raking conservative to do it for me.
I for one want to get back to making money honestly.
Still, this could all have been ripped off Paradigm without Paradigm knowing.
Alas Paradigm does not get off so lightly. The boys from Absolute Alpha went to New York and co-marketed with people from Paradigm. Indeed I know someone who thought that Absolute Alpha were OK because staff at Paradigm had vouched for them. Whether Paradigm knew that Shawn and Eugene in Australia were using “Paradigm inspired” marketing material however is unknown.
Paradigm – the Biden’s firm – had unwittingly got involved in another funds management firm which has been closed by regulators or been exposed as Ponzis. That is four I know of now – and I have yet another one that I suspect of being unsound.
A plea to Michelle Malkin
So much of what is published by the conservative blogosphere is non-fact based muckraking. And yet – sitting here has been my observation that the fund of hedge funds associated with the Vice President’s family has an unnerving habit of association with scams and other funds closed by regulators. Surely a competent muckraking conservative blogger can actually do some digging rather than pontificating from the sidelines.
It makes me think of conspiracy theories. Maybe conservatives in the US do not want to do this sort of financial digging because most the fraudsters and scamsters are part of the Republican movement and do not like regulators because – well – they might catch them.
But there must be honest Republicans out there. It is time for Michelle Malkin to do some honest work. So I will plead with her – can you please do some digging into Paradigm or find some other muck-raking conservative to do it for me.
I for one want to get back to making money honestly.
CRIMINAL REPUBLICANS WANT TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY HERE IN THE US ALL TO THE BENEFIT OF THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS WHO NEARLY DESTROYED THE ECONOMY UNDER BUSH 2. THE CORPORATE CRIMINALS ARE THE REPUBLICANS MAIN CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS. THEY WILL SEND YOUR DAUGHTERS AND SONS OFF TO DIE IN FOREIGN LANDS IF IT WILL HELP CREATE PROFITS AND THEN LIONIZE THE DEAD AMERICANS AS "WAR HEROES".
chicagotribune.comThe Devil's Work
Greenberg, Paul
December 31, 2009
My dear Wormwood,Our work is never done, but now and then your activities up there come to my attention down here in the depths. This time heartiest congratulations are in order. I'm proud of you, nephew. You've been mentioned in dispatches, and I fully intend to put you in for promotion the next time your efficiency report is due.The killing of that Salvation Army major in little North Little Rock, Ark., by a couple of thugs apparently bent on robbing him would have advanced our cause even if it hadn't so disheartened our enemies. For he was the kind of cheery soul who is always helping others and generally undermining our cause in the best -- or, from our perspective, worst -- way."He was a big guy," as one of his friends described him. "A big, old teddy-bear kind of guy." That's the worst combination we can come up against, as you well know. We covered it in Deviltry 101 -- an early lecture on the dangers of a happy spirit. I trust you were paying attention, dear nephew. If not, there'll be hell to pay.It's one thing to show up some old sourpuss who's always doing good in the most solemn, pompous, grudging way, complete with a long sermon on the faults of the undeserving poor. That's no trick; that type is our best advertisement, for nothing makes evil more attractive than those who do good self-righteously, squeezing every nickel of self-promotion out of their meager gifts to charity.It's the jolly Santa types that really undermine us. Like this Philip Wise of the Salvation Army. Somebody who goes into tough neighborhoods, ministers to the needy, plays the tuba, loves sports and kids, and generally brings the Good News. That sort is a walking, talking, smiling threat to our satanic Master.Major Wise never stopped doing the Enemy's work, and when he was gunned down in the presence of his three children, what a testament to the real, inescapable existence of Evil in the world.The major was just returning to the Army's community center after dropping off a couple of bell-ringers at their homes on the last day of its annual kettle drive. That'll show the skeptics that no good deed goes unpunished. Major Wise had done so many of them over his 15 years with the Salvation Army that we hated to see him coming with his beaming countenance. We knew he was up to good.It wasn't just his loss but the shocking nature of it, and the anger it set off, that was such a boon to our work up there. All the years of good he had done, all the troubled and hungry he'd offered succor and a second chance, all the desperate families he'd helped, all the hope he'd revived and the grace he'd shared ... all that was obscured for at least a day by the way he died. Good work, Wormwood, or rather bad work. I can think of no greater compliment.These mortals forget. They may be so taken with the major's loss and the circumstances surrounding it that they forget all the good Philip Wise did in his 40 years. His was a life all should celebrate and be thankful for. Instead, it was the fleeting shadow of evil that captured the headlines for a day. Damnable fine job, Wormwood. I'm proud of you. This is the kind of bad news our demonic fraternity thrives on, not the Good News the major spread. His sort of news just makes my tail curl.The news about the major's death has spread through the whole state and will make us more cynics than we could ever hope to attract by just irony and wit, a couple of our favorite instruments. Of course those have to be handled with caution. For the other side has its wits, too, and they're blessedly clever. (All the works of G.K. Chesterton should have been banned long ago; instead, we've found a far more effective way to handle him: Just ignore his books.)This time, Wormwood, old boy, you've pulled off a real coup. You're a credit to all deviltry, and next time you get leave, we must have a cup of fire and brimstone to celebrate. We'll put it on your tab, naturally, at Lucifer's Inn, which never closes.Here's the problem, nephew. And it hasn't changed a bit since we were both imps. Weeping and wailing may tarry for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Did you see what the widow Wise, also a Salvation Army major, had to say at the funeral? "I believe I have peace today," she told the mourners, "because I know the work is not done here yet." She said she'd continue to give "hope to the hopeless ... so, together, we will minister to this neighborhood."These people are dangerous, Wormwood; they never tire of doing good. They are strong as lions, swifter than eagles to do His work, even when we deliver the most crushing of blows. It is at such moments that they show their real strength. Bowed low, they rise up higher than ever. We face a formidable foe, Wormwood, and sometimes I despair -- which is the mood we must inculcate in our victims. They must come to believe resistance is useless.Instead, someone like Cindy Wise offers unkillable hope and even forgiveness: "I know that deep down I have to forgive them," she said of the killers, "for taking my husband away from me, and that's the way it has to be done -- to forgive them and continue to pray for their salvation."What's a poor devil to do when faced with that kind of spirit, that kind of faith and determination? Just continue to do what you've been doing, dear Wormwood -- plant doubt, sow cynicism, and surely we will be rewarded with more bad news, the kind that needs to be spread far and wide, accompanied by cries for blood and vengeance. Or even used to make political points. That would be a real boon for our hellish cause.Burn this letter, Wormwood, lest our confidences be leaked. It's maddening the way some C. S. Lewis type is always sharing my correspondence with the curious. The mortals must never be given an inkling of what we have in store for them in exchange for their pitiable souls; they must be kept ignorant of even having souls.Your affectionate uncle,Screwtape(Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer prize-winning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. His e-mail address is pgreenberg@arkansasonline.com.)
Salvation Army major has sad W.Va. homecoming
Philip A. Wise was shot to death in Arkansas on Christmas Eve
Philip A. Wise was shot to death in Arkansas on Christmas Eve
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. -- Salvation Army Maj. Philip A. Wise and his three children arrived at a community center in North Little Rock, Ark., on Christmas Eve to pick up his wife and prepare for their 16-hour, overnight drive to West Virginia, where he was born and raised.
As he and his children left their car, two men armed with handguns approached Maj. Wise and demanded money. They shot him. His wife called 911. Maj. Wise died near the center's back door.
Maj. Wise's murder, just feet away from the building where he had devoted himself to community service and pastoral duties, has shocked the national Salvation Army family.
But the collective pain is especially acute in his home state, where he first heard the call to become a minister more than 15 years ago and went on to spread the word of God in Charleston, St. Albans, Moundsville and other communities.
"You would never have taken his heart away from West Virginia," said Salvation Army Maj. Bob Cornett of Morgantown, one of Maj. Wise's closest friends.
Yesterday, Maj. Wise, 40, made his final journey home for a funeral at the First Presbyterian Church in Morgantown. He was buried in Center Point Christian Church Cemetery in Center Point, W.Va.
Dozens of relatives, friends and colleagues packed the church to share memories of Maj. Wise, a big, bearded man who dedicated himself to his family and the Salvation Army center he and his wife, Maj. Cindy Wise, ran in a poor North Little Rock neighborhood. Together they oversaw a youth music program, Sunday school, religious workshops and social service outreach efforts.
"He never had to prove himself or his abilities," said Maj. Lewis Reckline, who first met Maj. Wise at the Salvation Army's officer training school in Atlanta. "He did just what he was supposed to do, day in and day out."
Maj. Wise was born on May 8, 1969 in Weirton, and his youth was filled with hardships. Health problems prevented him from playing football at Weir High School, so he joined the band and became a tuba player.
His Christian faith helped him overcome past personal struggles, friends said.
"He would readily give credit to the Salvation Army for saving his life," said Maj. Ken Luyk, who worked with Maj. Wise in Arkansas.
Despite the pain of leaving behind family and friends, Maj. Wise and his wife took a new assignment in Arkansas three years ago. They immersed themselves in their new community, eventually adopting three children 18 months ago: Vincent, 8, and Dorothy, 6, Thomas, 4.
The children, all siblings, were a joyous addition to the Wise family.
Maj. Ken Luyk recalled seeing them together at the North Little Rock center the Saturday before Christmas. The children and their mother were watching videos and preparing for a musical performance the next day, while Maj. Wise counted money from the Salvation Army's annual kettle fundraising drive.
"Here they were, much like any other Salvation Army family, trying to balance family and ministry," Maj. Luyk said.
Maj. Wise was eager to come home to West Virginia for the holidays, said Maj. Cornett. He'd made plans to see a friend in Morgantown and then head to his mother's house in Weirton, 30 miles west of Pittsburgh, for Christmas dinner.
The Cornett and Wise families also had plans to drive to Pittsburgh last weekend to take their children to the zoo.
Still, even on Christmas Eve -- just hours before his long journey -- Maj. Wise was working. He dropped off two Salvation Army bell-ringers at their homes before coming back to the center to meet his wife at 4 p.m.
After the two gunmen shot Maj. Wise, they ran to a nearby housing complex. No one has been arrested.
"I think everybody's outraged, shocked," said Sgt. Terry Kuykendall of the North Little Rock police department. "For someone to lose their life is bad enough, but to lose it on Christmas Eve, and for it to be in front of your three children ..."
Police have few leads in the case. The North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce is offering a $10,000 reward for information.
When another friend, Capt. Tony Perez heard the news about Maj. Wise's death, he was overwhelmed by feelings of "anger and rage," he said.
"Then I thought for a moment -- Phil wouldn't want that," he said.
Maj. Wise would forgive his attackers, Maj. Cornett said.
"If Phil could do it himself, he would lead them to Christ," his friend said. "He would tell them about the savior."
As Maj. Wise's casket was carried from the church yesterday, Mrs. Wise stood outside in the bitter cold, wearing her blue Salvation Army uniform and clutching her children.
"Now we're going to take him where his body will rest forever," she told them.
In addition to his wife and children, Maj. Wise is survived by his mother, Dorthy Wise, of Weirton; two sisters, Jeannie St. Clair of Hagerstown, Md., and Patty Monk of Palmyra, Pa.; and one brother, Ancel Greg Wise, of Empire, Ohio.
Donations in Maj. Wise's memory may be sent to the Salvation Army's North Little Rock youth music program at 1505 W. 18th St., North Little Rock, Ark., 72114.
Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at 412-263-1183 or jsherman@post-gazette.com.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10003/1025458-455.stm#ixzz0bdHDMgES
As he and his children left their car, two men armed with handguns approached Maj. Wise and demanded money. They shot him. His wife called 911. Maj. Wise died near the center's back door.
Maj. Wise's murder, just feet away from the building where he had devoted himself to community service and pastoral duties, has shocked the national Salvation Army family.
But the collective pain is especially acute in his home state, where he first heard the call to become a minister more than 15 years ago and went on to spread the word of God in Charleston, St. Albans, Moundsville and other communities.
"You would never have taken his heart away from West Virginia," said Salvation Army Maj. Bob Cornett of Morgantown, one of Maj. Wise's closest friends.
Yesterday, Maj. Wise, 40, made his final journey home for a funeral at the First Presbyterian Church in Morgantown. He was buried in Center Point Christian Church Cemetery in Center Point, W.Va.
Dozens of relatives, friends and colleagues packed the church to share memories of Maj. Wise, a big, bearded man who dedicated himself to his family and the Salvation Army center he and his wife, Maj. Cindy Wise, ran in a poor North Little Rock neighborhood. Together they oversaw a youth music program, Sunday school, religious workshops and social service outreach efforts.
"He never had to prove himself or his abilities," said Maj. Lewis Reckline, who first met Maj. Wise at the Salvation Army's officer training school in Atlanta. "He did just what he was supposed to do, day in and day out."
Maj. Wise was born on May 8, 1969 in Weirton, and his youth was filled with hardships. Health problems prevented him from playing football at Weir High School, so he joined the band and became a tuba player.
His Christian faith helped him overcome past personal struggles, friends said.
"He would readily give credit to the Salvation Army for saving his life," said Maj. Ken Luyk, who worked with Maj. Wise in Arkansas.
Despite the pain of leaving behind family and friends, Maj. Wise and his wife took a new assignment in Arkansas three years ago. They immersed themselves in their new community, eventually adopting three children 18 months ago: Vincent, 8, and Dorothy, 6, Thomas, 4.
The children, all siblings, were a joyous addition to the Wise family.
Maj. Ken Luyk recalled seeing them together at the North Little Rock center the Saturday before Christmas. The children and their mother were watching videos and preparing for a musical performance the next day, while Maj. Wise counted money from the Salvation Army's annual kettle fundraising drive.
"Here they were, much like any other Salvation Army family, trying to balance family and ministry," Maj. Luyk said.
Maj. Wise was eager to come home to West Virginia for the holidays, said Maj. Cornett. He'd made plans to see a friend in Morgantown and then head to his mother's house in Weirton, 30 miles west of Pittsburgh, for Christmas dinner.
The Cornett and Wise families also had plans to drive to Pittsburgh last weekend to take their children to the zoo.
Still, even on Christmas Eve -- just hours before his long journey -- Maj. Wise was working. He dropped off two Salvation Army bell-ringers at their homes before coming back to the center to meet his wife at 4 p.m.
After the two gunmen shot Maj. Wise, they ran to a nearby housing complex. No one has been arrested.
"I think everybody's outraged, shocked," said Sgt. Terry Kuykendall of the North Little Rock police department. "For someone to lose their life is bad enough, but to lose it on Christmas Eve, and for it to be in front of your three children ..."
Police have few leads in the case. The North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce is offering a $10,000 reward for information.
When another friend, Capt. Tony Perez heard the news about Maj. Wise's death, he was overwhelmed by feelings of "anger and rage," he said.
"Then I thought for a moment -- Phil wouldn't want that," he said.
Maj. Wise would forgive his attackers, Maj. Cornett said.
"If Phil could do it himself, he would lead them to Christ," his friend said. "He would tell them about the savior."
As Maj. Wise's casket was carried from the church yesterday, Mrs. Wise stood outside in the bitter cold, wearing her blue Salvation Army uniform and clutching her children.
"Now we're going to take him where his body will rest forever," she told them.
In addition to his wife and children, Maj. Wise is survived by his mother, Dorthy Wise, of Weirton; two sisters, Jeannie St. Clair of Hagerstown, Md., and Patty Monk of Palmyra, Pa.; and one brother, Ancel Greg Wise, of Empire, Ohio.
Donations in Maj. Wise's memory may be sent to the Salvation Army's North Little Rock youth music program at 1505 W. 18th St., North Little Rock, Ark., 72114.
Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at 412-263-1183 or jsherman@post-gazette.com.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10003/1025458-455.stm#ixzz0bdHDMgES
Police: ‘Relentless search’ for Wise’s killer By Jeremy Peppas / Staff Writer / jpeppas@nlrtimes.comThursday, December 31, 2009 10:47 AM CST
Salvation Army Maj. Phillip Wise had Christmas plans.All he had to do was drop off the Christmas Eve donations at the Salvation Army headquarters in North Little Rock, pick up his wife, Cindy, who also is a Salvation Army major and was in the building waiting on him, and head home, to West Virginia, for the holidays.His three young children — 4, 6 and 8 — were with him.Then the unthinkable happened.Wise was robbed at gunpoint and as his children watched. He was then shot and bled to death in the parking lot at 1505 W. 18th St., in the Baring Cross neighborhood of North Little Rock.
Salvation Army Maj. Phillip Wise had Christmas plans.All he had to do was drop off the Christmas Eve donations at the Salvation Army headquarters in North Little Rock, pick up his wife, Cindy, who also is a Salvation Army major and was in the building waiting on him, and head home, to West Virginia, for the holidays.His three young children — 4, 6 and 8 — were with him.Then the unthinkable happened.Wise was robbed at gunpoint and as his children watched. He was then shot and bled to death in the parking lot at 1505 W. 18th St., in the Baring Cross neighborhood of North Little Rock.
Wise was 40.He had been with the Salvation Army for more than 15 years, said Salvation Army Maj. Harvey Johnson at a somber press conference in Little Rock on Christmas morning.“We often serve in places that aren’t often safe,” Johnson said. “We do our best to do things to protect ourselves, but we go to places to bring light to dark places. To offer hope to those who might be hopeless.”North Little Rock Chief of Police Danny Bradley, public information officer Sgt. Terry Kuykendall and Capt. Donnie Bridges, who is commander of the investigations division for the department, joined Johnson at the press conference.
“Our entire community is saddened by this horrible crime,” Bradley said. “Particularly because it is a gentleman who has given so much to the community.”Wise, who lived in Maumelle, was supervisor of the North Little Rock, Maumelle and Sherwood operations the past three years. He was also active in the Rotary Club, a member of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and was a familiar face in Central Arkansas.Bradley wouldn’t go into specifics of what happened, as he said it was ongoing investigation, but he did pledge that investigators would be engaged in a “relentless effort” as they searched for the killers.According to police, two black men, both armed and wearing all black, approached Wise. Police didn’t give a description of either man other to say that they were in their late teens or early 20s. The incident happened around 4:15 p.m. and a Pulaski County coroner pronounced Wise dead at the scene later that afternoon.
Bradley said the motive was “attempted robbery” and declined to say how much, if any, money was stolen. He added that an award is being offered for any information “on who committed this horrible crime.” The department can be reached at 758-1234.Bradley also said he didn’t believe that the homicide was connected to a robbery of a Salvation Army donation kettle at Sherwood Wal-Mart earlier in December.In that incident, a black man wearing a black jacket stole the kettle and fled the scene in an older white BMW. Police have obtained photos of that incident.After that incident, Johnson told reporters that the robberies of Salvation Army kettles were rare.“In my 30 years, I have seen it twice,” Johnson said.Wise also served as the pastor of the Salvation Army church in the group’s building in North Little Rock.
“Our entire community is saddened by this horrible crime,” Bradley said. “Particularly because it is a gentleman who has given so much to the community.”Wise, who lived in Maumelle, was supervisor of the North Little Rock, Maumelle and Sherwood operations the past three years. He was also active in the Rotary Club, a member of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and was a familiar face in Central Arkansas.Bradley wouldn’t go into specifics of what happened, as he said it was ongoing investigation, but he did pledge that investigators would be engaged in a “relentless effort” as they searched for the killers.According to police, two black men, both armed and wearing all black, approached Wise. Police didn’t give a description of either man other to say that they were in their late teens or early 20s. The incident happened around 4:15 p.m. and a Pulaski County coroner pronounced Wise dead at the scene later that afternoon.
Bradley said the motive was “attempted robbery” and declined to say how much, if any, money was stolen. He added that an award is being offered for any information “on who committed this horrible crime.” The department can be reached at 758-1234.Bradley also said he didn’t believe that the homicide was connected to a robbery of a Salvation Army donation kettle at Sherwood Wal-Mart earlier in December.In that incident, a black man wearing a black jacket stole the kettle and fled the scene in an older white BMW. Police have obtained photos of that incident.After that incident, Johnson told reporters that the robberies of Salvation Army kettles were rare.“In my 30 years, I have seen it twice,” Johnson said.Wise also served as the pastor of the Salvation Army church in the group’s building in North Little Rock.
LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED IN YOUR HUNT FOR THESE SAVAGES. THEIR CRIME IS BARBARIC AND AN AFFRONT TO CIVILIZATION! THEY MUST BE CAUGHT & PUNISHED!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
I have been impressed and overwhelmed by the response to my essay "An introspective Look at the Future of America", originally posted at 321gold.com. I have received hundreds of emails and a lot of thoughtful comments here, and the article has been re linked and posted at several high traffic sites and blogs across the internet.It turns out that several people have written to say that they posted the link here or there at some conservative or liberal politically affiliated site, or at a corporate news related site... and the link or article was immediately deleted. This really just proves my point. We have no debate, we have no choices, and at this point barely even the illusion of choice. What we have is censorship. A privatized version of State Sponsored media which is really no different at all than any other (name your favorite totalitarian state). I have concluded that there must be a whole lot of people out there who have reached similar conclusions to those that I have reached regarding the real state of the union, and the problem is that there's no one writing about it. If there is, the oligarchs with the money controlling the media and politics just bury it, and it never happened. So as we head off now into 2010 I am convinced of something...I am convinced that this whole thing is going to continue to take shape in the form of decay and that Americans are going to willingly accept whatever the controlling oligarchy orders them to accept without question.I have made a decision that in addition to my private subscription publication "EarthBlog News", my new years resolution will be to increase the activity at my blog site here using a donation model. If you like what you read, donations will be gladly accepted. The purpose will be to inform. While EarthBlog News concentrates on what I am doing in the financial markets as related to what is going in the world, here I am going to post whatever insights I think might be interesting to a general audience, including my efforts at self sufficiency.One thing I want to do in January is dissect my essay, and link some supporting evidence that you may or may not be aware of. Anyone can start a blog and publish an opinion, but I'd like to back up my opinion with facts.So as we get going in 2010, I'd like to say Happy New Year to everyone, and to say thank you for all the thoughtful comments and support.
I have been impressed and overwhelmed by the response to my essay "An introspective Look at the Future of America", originally posted at 321gold.com. I have received hundreds of emails and a lot of thoughtful comments here, and the article has been re linked and posted at several high traffic sites and blogs across the internet.It turns out that several people have written to say that they posted the link here or there at some conservative or liberal politically affiliated site, or at a corporate news related site... and the link or article was immediately deleted. This really just proves my point. We have no debate, we have no choices, and at this point barely even the illusion of choice. What we have is censorship. A privatized version of State Sponsored media which is really no different at all than any other (name your favorite totalitarian state). I have concluded that there must be a whole lot of people out there who have reached similar conclusions to those that I have reached regarding the real state of the union, and the problem is that there's no one writing about it. If there is, the oligarchs with the money controlling the media and politics just bury it, and it never happened. So as we head off now into 2010 I am convinced of something...I am convinced that this whole thing is going to continue to take shape in the form of decay and that Americans are going to willingly accept whatever the controlling oligarchy orders them to accept without question.I have made a decision that in addition to my private subscription publication "EarthBlog News", my new years resolution will be to increase the activity at my blog site here using a donation model. If you like what you read, donations will be gladly accepted. The purpose will be to inform. While EarthBlog News concentrates on what I am doing in the financial markets as related to what is going in the world, here I am going to post whatever insights I think might be interesting to a general audience, including my efforts at self sufficiency.One thing I want to do in January is dissect my essay, and link some supporting evidence that you may or may not be aware of. Anyone can start a blog and publish an opinion, but I'd like to back up my opinion with facts.So as we get going in 2010, I'd like to say Happy New Year to everyone, and to say thank you for all the thoughtful comments and support.
HERE'S THAT POST...,
Saturday, December 26, 2009
An Introspective Look at the Future of America
By Craig Harrisearthblog.news@gmail.com
An Introspective Look at the Future of America
By Craig Harrisearthblog.news@gmail.com
As we close out 2009 and look forward into 2010 and beyond, this has been a year of near financial catastrophe and monumental change, none of which benefited America or ordinary Americans. Late in 2008 and throughout 2009, events have happened in the US which would have been labeled unfathomable just a few short years ago, and yet already these monumental changes are expected to be filed into the memory hole and Americans are expected to believe nothing has changed.As we exit the year, we are told the US is a laissez-faire free market economy and yet the US government is now the largest owner of housing in the US as well as the owner of last resort for some of the largest and completely insolvent US corporations. The Federal Reserve, a privately and anonymously owned and controlled corporation chartered with issuing the nations currency, were given the green light by themselves to transfer to themselves and their shareholders the people's wealth in the form of their future labor. The FED balance sheet has ballooned to become a junk bond warehouse as they overtly and covertly buy their own debt, immune from any sort of oversight, regulation or auditing and operating above the law. Along with that, increasingly coercive brute force measures are now routinely necessary to manage and manipulate so called "free market" asset prices which are cheerled by so called "financial news media" whose board members and management are all the same people who transferred the people's wealth to themselves. The corporate media party line idea of a "free market US economy" now seems like a distant memory and it all feels like systemic fraud, corruption, malfeasance and organized crime at the very highest levels.During 2009 we have seen the continued collapse of American industry amid wave after wave of layoffs. The corrupt corporate media cartel likes to trot out a group of FED sponsored shills who call themselves "professors" to call this a "jobless recovery" although it's difficult to imagine a recovery where American industry has collapsed and is now owned by the government. US cities both large and small have been decimated by the loss of the US manufacturing base. Detroit now resembles a third world country with a 50% unemployment rate. Ransacked, foreclosed houses go for a dollar apparently because no one who has a choice is willing to own property or live there. The US has an officially stated unemployment rate of ten percent and a real unemployment rate of over 20 percent. Wall Street may have recovered due to a direct injection of capital from the future labor of the people, but there has been no action taken whatsoever to improve the situation of the average citizen as the disconnect between the ruling Oligarchs and Wall Street, the real economy and the lives of ordinary Americans continues to widen. The people's bailout money, which represents the future labor of Americans, went directly into the pockets of the people who created the crisis in the first place because they are in the enviable position of being "too big to fail". Interestingly, or sadly, the same people and institutions responsible for and who profited from the catastrophe are still in charge and have handed even more power and control to themselves. Although there has been talk in Washington of "too big to fail" being undesirable, the result of the post collapse policies have resulted in ever fewer, ever larger players with more power and control and instead of being "too big to fail" now wield so much money and power that they demonstrate wholesale ownership of the entire US political body.Due to the post collapse monetary and fiscal policies, the people have now been saddled up with an unpayable level of debt. The cause of the near total collapse of the financial system was too much debt and the "solution" has has been even more debt piled on to the original debt. During the year, the Dallas FED estimated the financial obligations of the US government at 99 trillion dollars. The head of the TARP program estimated the bailout cost at 24 trillion dollars. Totaled together the US has in the neighborhood of 120 trillion dollars of current and future obligations on an annual revenue of around 2 trillion dollars which is falling due to high unemployment, higher state and local taxes and fees and lower wages. Cutting that down to size, imagine earning 200,000 a year and having a debt of 12 million dollars. In short, the US dollar has become a token of an unpayable debt and thus the anchor of the entire global financial system is a ponzi fraud. It becomes impossible to compute the value of anything as measured in a fraudulent currency that represents an unpayable debt.The banking system is not lending money because it's still insolvent. The people, having lost over 5 trillion dollars in the real estate bust are also collectively insolvent. Many US states and cities are bankrupt or near bankrupt. One in nine Americans subsist on food stamps. Even as a college education has become unaffordable to most Americans, college graduates now find themselves jobless. One in seven households now have their adult children living back at home due to the inability to find a job. The homeless population is growing and tent cities sprouted up across America during 2009. The estimated homeless population in LA alone is 40,000 people a night. People in the US if they have a job are working longer and harder to make the same income. Wages have remained stagnant and the real cost of living continues to spiral ever higher for ordinary Americans. The new man in charge, elected on a platform of "change", has delivered his change in the form of change=no change, or how do you like your change now?By any metric you choose, whether it's the median home costing half the median income even at artificially low interest rates, to the ballooning cost of insurance, healthcare, education or anything else people spend their money on, the US is experiencing a rapid decline in the standard of living for ordinary Americans and an emerging ultra rich ultra powerful shadow oligarch rule amid a generalized and widespread financial and social decay. The US population is becoming a nation of voiceless serfs with fewer and fewer remaining civil and property rights and a rapidly decaying standard of living, the antitheses of everything America is said to represent and strive for.The hypocrisy and fraud of the oligarch rule corporate media story line is now nearly impossible for an educated, informed adult to digest. As Jim Grant pointed out recently, according to Section 19 of the Coinage Act of 1792, the penalty prescribed for any official who fraudulently debased the people's money is death, yet in 2009 debasing the people's money resulted in a "man of the year" award from the self serving corporate media who will be next in line for a bailout from the people for their good service to the new oligarch rule. This organized crime, this theft, occurring right out in the open, may explain why employees of the largest US financial institution are now not allowed to gather in groups larger than 12 outside and their executives are carrying firearms. In an affront to the intelligence and sensibility of any citizen of this planet, the new US president expanded a war he was elected to end and started a new frontier in Pakistan, for that he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The people who were awarded hundreds of billions of dollars of the people's money because they lost all their money are skimming millions and billions off the top for themselves and their associates in what they call "bonuses". 2009 has been a year of egregious assault on the American public by the people in charge.The "people's representatives" as they like to be called, no longer represent the people at all but instead solely represent and pledge allegiance to the special interests and corporate lobbyists who have bought and paid for their votes, along with the media oligarchs who control who sits in the seats. Regardless of whether they call themselves Democrats or Republicans, they are a group of self important, self serving, morally bankrupt, corrupt, clueless buffoons and criminals running unchecked by a complicit corporate media.Every American should be ashamed, embarrassed and sad that their country has been bought and sold to an organized criminal enterprise which includes the entire political body and the media. The only thing the "people's representatives" have in common is contempt for the people they are ostensibly representing. It is revolting for any American to watch these cretins heaping praise Ben Bernanke at the congressional theater of the absurd. His institution has already debased the dollar by 95% and failed miserably in every mandate they had since they took over in 1913. If any American has managed to retain or save any money, he can now put it on deposit in their banking system and earn a negative real return (a loss of his purchasing power) while at the same time the banks will take his deposit and loan it to his brother at 30% interest. So Mr Bernanke the money printer has control over the largest legal loan sharking operation ever concocted and it is funded by the America people, against the America people.During 2009, the leadership has taken actions which benefit the corporations and special interests who own them, while showing nothing but wanton disregard for the millions of citizens whose lives their sponsors have destroyed. What we are headed towards in the US if we are not there already, is a Straussian society of ultra rich, ultra powerful oligarchs and a serfish powerless population with no middle class to speak of. The US president De Jour is, and from here on out will be a yes man, subservient to the ultra powerful too big to fail oligarchs who control the money and power and are responsible for putting him in the drivers seat. This is not compatible whatsoever with prosperity, democracy or anything else the US still holds itself out as. Here at the end of 2009, the United States has morphed into a bankrupt fascist oligarchy which owns the military machine as a policy enforcement tool, the entire political body and the media. It isn't going to fix itself because the fraud, corruption and malfeasance is systemic. It meets every definition of organized crime and it's all happening right out in the open.In my way of thinking, this is not at all unlike the breakdown of the Soviet Union where for a period of time a sort of mafia of oligarchs weilded the wealth and power, carved up the remaining wealth of the country among themselves and had their way with the country amid a climate of manufactured fear, chaos and decay. The key point being that the people in control are out to make money and increase their power at the expense of the citizens. Mr Orwell said "the purpose of power is power" and that statement needs to be well understood. These megalomaniac, sociopathic aspirations of ever more power and control by an elitist group of criminals come at the expense of America and future Americans. It doesn't matter whatsoever to the oligarchs because they have property waiting in Croatia. When the remaining wealth has been extracted from America, they will all pull out and the citizens will be left with a rusted out bankrupt hull. I believe the circumstances for this eventuality have already been created, just not yet realized due to the enormous size of the economy and the momentum it has. In other words, I believe it's collapsing as fast as it can although living through it seems like slow motion. When viewed from the future in a historical context however, I think it will have seemed fairly rapid.The financial markets have deteriorated into a Las Vegas casino atmosphere where the the only consistent winners are the house and the too big to fail entities trading on foreknowledge and inside information shared freely between the treasury and the few remaining large trading houses. The entire system is bankrupt, fraudulent, corrupt and irretrievably broken. The anchor of the global financial system, the US dollar, has become the worlds largest ponzi scheme and the remaining 95% of the worlds population would like a new, viable standard. At this point however, despite any action the FED may or may not take, the US debt is far too large to ever be repaid. It is questionable if the interest payments will even be serviceable if interest rates were to rise, and the only reason interest rates are low is because the FED is using brute force. At this time the only way out without a complete collapse is to inflate away the debt, thus turning a deflationary collapse into a long period of inflationary decay and declining standard of living.I have been of the opinion that what we saw in October 2008 was a collapse of the global fiat financial system which was more or less expected due to the collapse of the real estate bubble. I have reminded my subscribers that when I was forecasting a drop in real estate prices of as much as 50% during the heyday of the mania, that sounded unfathomable. What I believe is in store for our future sounds nearly as unfathomable now as that idea did back then. I believe the reason it sounds unfathomable is due to the constant barrage of lies, misinformation and propaganda from the tight knit corporate media oligarchy which has essentially merged with the new power structure of the US in a corrupt, overt form of fascism that would make Mussolini blush or Goebbels the propagandist nod in approval.Over a period of decades and with one FED induced serial bubble after another, the financial system finally reached an unsustainable level of debt and leverage in 2008. When the FED started raising interest rates, when the real estate bubble burst, it involved so much debt and leverage that the whole system failed, pricing models and risk models failed, and the banking system quickly became insolvent.I believe we have already had a systemic collapse, and the only thing the FED can do now is alter the look and feel of the collapse and to manage the allocation of the remaining wealth. In the end, whether by deflationary collapse or inflationary decay, the result of the collapse will feel the same to the US general population regardless of the interim path taken.If the FED had done nothing, the whole system would have quickly degenerated into a deflationary collapse and failure of the financial system due to insolvency. The course the FED chose however is the one myself and many others predicted beforehand...the FED chose to solve the problem of too much debt by creating even more debt by taking the unprecedented action of buying it's own debt under euphemisms like "quantitative easing" and "debt monetization" and also covert buying to artificially force negative real return rates of interest. Through this course of action, the FED so far has been able to turn what would have been a rapid deflationary collapse into a decaying inflationary depression which is euphemistically called "a recession that is now over" by the six people who control 96% of the global media and attempt to pass off propaganda as "news" to a woefully mis informed, dumbed down and apathetic general public.Going forward, If the FED doesn't buy enough of their own debt, then interest rates on the long end would rise and the risk becomes a deflationary collapse into insolvency for the FED and it's banking system. If interest rates remain effectively at zero on the short end and artificially suppressed by quantitative easing on the long end, then the real estate market can recover and the banks can regain solvency. If interest rates rise as the free markets would argue for however, then the real estate market sinks even further, the US dollar rises, and greater insolvency of the banks follows. The higher interest rates go, the thinner the knife edge gets and the FED would quickly find itself staring into another October 2008 collapse kind of situation. On the other hand, if by buying enough of their own debt they can keep short and long term interest rates down, then the free money percolates through the banking system, puts pressure on the dollar, lifts commodity and real estate prices and pulls out of the collapse via inflating away the debt so long as they can avoid run away hyperinflation in the process. This is the path we have traveled throughout 2009.The key point is that the FED has had the option of doing two things...creating even more debt in order to save itself and the banking system, or do nothing and watch themselves collapse into a mass of failure, loss of power and control, insolvency and domino style bankruptcy and default. They have chosen the expected course, which is to increase the debt and print money, which is the way they save themselves and their banking system. In short, given a choice between saving the people and saving themselves after a collapse, they have taken the expected course which is to attempt to save themselves. What else would you expect? If they had wanted to save the people they would have taken the peoples bailout money and handed it to them in the form of a check. Instead they handed it to the banks.Although they have been somewhat successful in reducing the insolvency of the banking system, they have effectively created a giant wealth transfer mechanism whereby all the money that disappeared in the collapse was re created out of thin air and given to the banks and wall street. I think of it as a sort of shell game. The money disappeared from Mom and Pop's 401k and re appeared on the balance sheets of the banks via freshly created new money (debt). As a result, we have something still called "free market capitalism" which is not free market capitalism at all. We have emerged from this crisis with a sort of financial oligarchy where a few entities who control all the wealth and power also control politics and media. Understanding this will help to understand issues like "healthcare reform" which will involve you paying more and getting less, with the primary beneficiaries being the oligarchies who control health care and insurance.The one major point I have to make at this time is throughout 2009, there was no action taken that put the average citizen in a better position, but instead during the course of the year there was a gigantic wealth transfer from the citizens to the banking system, effectively orchestrated by the so called "people's representatives" who are in fact, all owned by the banking system and Wall Street with half a dozen or so oligarchies and lobbyists in a public display of fraud, malfeasance and corruption that sets a new historical precedent.I have been and remain of the opinion that the ultimate "solution" to this crisis will be for the entities who now control the wealth and power to accumulate even more wealth and power via a global central bank and global currency which now for the first time in public has been discussed on and off throughout 2009 and described as the New World Order by such luminaries as Henry Kissinger. So looking out beyond 2010, I see a new global reserve currency emerging and a global central bank which will effectively also be a global governing authority where the heads of state effectively report to the group of central bankers and their anonymous shareholders who effectively control the money, power and politicians on a global scale. When the global currency is introduced, only then do I expect a sort of collapse of the US dollar versus this global currency. In this way, the world can carry on while the former global reserve currency called the US dollar will be free to depreciate to a level where solvency is regained and the now unpayable US debt is inflated away to the point where it can be repaid in depreciated dollars. US citizens will experience a continued decay as the US becomes to resemble more and more, a third world country. Detroit is already there. The corporate media won't show it to you but if you do a youtube search on Detroit what you see will shock you.My view of the world tends to be the long view. Throughout 2009 I have been positioned and trading in in various hard assets including but not limited to gold silver, back month crude oil, Soybeans, raw land and Americana. I own and trade some Chinese shares but no US equities or bonds. I have lost confidence in the US leadership. I have lost confidence in the fairness of the "system" where some elite entities are free to keep the profits and nationalize their losses. I have opted to opt out by embarking on a long term effort to transfer more and more capital "off wall street" and their organized crime ring they call the banking system, and instead investing in things without fraudulent or impaired balance sheets. At some point in the future, I want to be short US 10 and 30 year bonds because it is nonsensical to me that anyone would be willing to loan a bankrupt country money for 30 years at an interest rate of 4% or so. The only reason this situation exists today is due to the FED monetizing debt and attempting to manipulate the long end using brute force.So as we head off into 2010, I see a lot of uncertainty in the short term. If interest rates rise and the US dollar gets stronger, by mid year I would expect a repeat of October 2008. What I expect to happen over the longer term however is that the FED will ultimately print enough money to attempt to slowly inflate the debt away to a manageable amount amid a generalized and severe decay in terms of the standard of living for Average Americans. At some point along the line, I expect the world reserve currency role to be moved into a global currency and for the US dollar to be allowed to float against it without the benefits associated with the world currency role, and for the US standard of living to continue to decline and eventually decay into a societal collapse followed by something different. I expect China to emerge as the dominant economic power in the world and to purchase a large amount of US assets. Somewhere along the line I also expect the Nobel Peace Prize recipient to bomb Iran because he will be ordered to do so by the people who control the money.Personally, based on what I see coming over the long term I have elected to forego city life and have embarked on a long term project in the picturesque Appalachian foothills in an effort to increase my degree of self sufficiency and insulate myself from the continued decay and declining standard of living sweeping the country. My long view for the US is high inflation which will not show up in the government's fraudulent statistics, along with a declining standard of living, increasing decay and ultimately leading to chaos, societal and government collapse in the US within a decade or two, maybe sooner.I would like to end by quoting Marc Faber with one of the most compelling quotes of 2009. I find this quote compelling because the price of anything as measured by a fraudulent standard is meaningless. To me, it is a gift to be able to still exchange US dollars for anything with real value."I would buy every three months some gold and not worry so much about the price because the weight stays the same"
THANKS TO CRAIG HARRIS FOR HIS INSIGHTS!!!
The thin VERY blue line: Porn shame of hundreds of police staff disciplined over internet use
Hundreds of police workers have faced disciplinary action for looking at internet pornography and social networking sites, figures show.
More than 400 officers and support staff have been sacked or given warnings after being caught looking at inappropriate material online.
Officers have also been dismissed for using police databases to check out people’s backgrounds for personal reasons.
The total figure of 439 disciplined staff could be much higher because some forces refused to disclose details citing data protection rules.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that an inspector in Lancashire was given a written warning for accessing sites at work which ‘are or might be considered to be indecent, offensive, pornographic, or obscene’.
An officer in the same force received a warning for viewing ‘inappropriate’ images.
Earlier this year an inspector was caught looking at ‘pornographic images via the internet’.
South Yorkshire was the force with the worst record, with 53 members of staff caught on inappropriate sites.
One officer was reprimanded for posting an ‘unauthorised video on a commercial internet website’.
A sergeant was warned over the inappropriate use of an email three times, while a PC was disciplined for ‘retention of inappropriate material on the computer system’.
Two civilian police workers and a PC were also forced to leave after accessing ‘police systems to obtain police information without a legitimate policing purpose’.
The information provided by 47 police forces showed that on average nine members of staff have been punished for flouting IT rules in every force.
In Cheshire, 51 were disciplined, including two inspectors who were warned over excessive use of the internet and for using a social networking site.
One special constable was so furious at having been reprimanded for looking at a social networking site that he resigned.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘You would have hoped that the police of all people would have good enough computer security to prevent employees viewing illicit sites.’
But Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: ‘I am surprised at these figures. I was aware of some officers accessing inappropriate sites on some occasions, but not to this extent.
‘Perhaps forces should be doing more to explain what IT policies and procedures staff are expected to follow.’
The figures come in the week that the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced an investigation into allegations that a Wiltshire PC had sexual images on his personal computer. The officer was arrested earlier this month.
Official: Polish Ex-Prime Minister Says Internet is For Porn
Hundreds of police workers have faced disciplinary action for looking at internet pornography and social networking sites, figures show.
More than 400 officers and support staff have been sacked or given warnings after being caught looking at inappropriate material online.
Officers have also been dismissed for using police databases to check out people’s backgrounds for personal reasons.
The total figure of 439 disciplined staff could be much higher because some forces refused to disclose details citing data protection rules.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that an inspector in Lancashire was given a written warning for accessing sites at work which ‘are or might be considered to be indecent, offensive, pornographic, or obscene’.
An officer in the same force received a warning for viewing ‘inappropriate’ images.
Earlier this year an inspector was caught looking at ‘pornographic images via the internet’.
South Yorkshire was the force with the worst record, with 53 members of staff caught on inappropriate sites.
One officer was reprimanded for posting an ‘unauthorised video on a commercial internet website’.
A sergeant was warned over the inappropriate use of an email three times, while a PC was disciplined for ‘retention of inappropriate material on the computer system’.
Two civilian police workers and a PC were also forced to leave after accessing ‘police systems to obtain police information without a legitimate policing purpose’.
The information provided by 47 police forces showed that on average nine members of staff have been punished for flouting IT rules in every force.
In Cheshire, 51 were disciplined, including two inspectors who were warned over excessive use of the internet and for using a social networking site.
One special constable was so furious at having been reprimanded for looking at a social networking site that he resigned.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘You would have hoped that the police of all people would have good enough computer security to prevent employees viewing illicit sites.’
But Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: ‘I am surprised at these figures. I was aware of some officers accessing inappropriate sites on some occasions, but not to this extent.
‘Perhaps forces should be doing more to explain what IT policies and procedures staff are expected to follow.’
The figures come in the week that the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced an investigation into allegations that a Wiltshire PC had sexual images on his personal computer. The officer was arrested earlier this month.
Official: Polish Ex-Prime Minister Says Internet is For Porn
Politicians are usually behind the times when it comes to technology, something confirmed by former Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski when he stated something that we have known for years: The internet is for porn.
In a stunningly ludditic speech, the non-cellphone using Kaczynski condemned plans by his party to allow voting via the internet.
I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it.
Quite brilliant (and a fair description of my average day). In fact, Kaczynski seems so out of touch that he doesn’t even realize that internet connected voters are pehaps the most savvy out there. Quite the opposite in fact: “[They are] the easiest group to manipulate, to suggest who to vote for”.
As an aside, does anyone else find it odd that the technophobic Kaczynski shares a surname with the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski? Just sayin’.
Internet for pornography, not voting-Ex Polish PM [Reuters]
In a stunningly ludditic speech, the non-cellphone using Kaczynski condemned plans by his party to allow voting via the internet.
I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it.
Quite brilliant (and a fair description of my average day). In fact, Kaczynski seems so out of touch that he doesn’t even realize that internet connected voters are pehaps the most savvy out there. Quite the opposite in fact: “[They are] the easiest group to manipulate, to suggest who to vote for”.
As an aside, does anyone else find it odd that the technophobic Kaczynski shares a surname with the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski? Just sayin’.
Internet for pornography, not voting-Ex Polish PM [Reuters]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
