Good morning
The headlines:
- First Bernie, now Peter.
Link: The Ponzi Scheme is changing its name to “Madoff”.
Bernie’s brother, Peter, is also pleading guilty to a Ponzi scheme (wrote about Ponzi schemes here).
Okay – not really a Ponzi scheme per the actual charges. It’s “securities fraud” and “falsifying records”. He’ll also forfeit $143.1 BILLION*. And he won’t seek a prison term of “less than 10 years”.
Peter was Chief Compliance Officer at his brother’s
investment companyatm.But I think that we may have found a way to help that fiscal cliff situation:
Fines.
*That’s equal to about 10% of America’s annual fiscal deficit.
- World, meet the Nexus tablet.
Link: it runs on jelly-beans.
Well, it’s here.
And I’ll be honest: it looks smoking.
- Smoking
As does the Project Glass thing – something about your glasses being your computer screen – which is cool because specs are cool. Pun intended.
- American Healthcare waits on the Supreme Court Ruling.
Link: does it bode ill?
The Supreme Court Ruling is expected today: is Obamacare constitutional?
Ironically, it began as a joke. But in the manner of national jokes, it got out of control**.
Obamacare is meant to extend coverage to over 30 million uninsured Americans. I was under the impression that this means “free healthcare”. But a large part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes making it illegal for insurers to deny coverage or charge higher prices to patients with pre-existing conditions.
To “maintain viability”, all Americans would need to register for healthcare by 2014, or they get fined. That’s “not constitutional***”.
The law also covers things like granting rebates when you’ve been paying premiums for years but never claimed anything, lifetime payment limits on policy claims (they’re banned), and expansion of Medicaid to the poor.
It all sounds great. And expensive. And the Supreme Court’ll let us know later.
**See any and all wikipedia entries on George W Bush Jr.
***I totally have the right to not-cover-myself for medical insurance.
- Falcone sued by the SEC.
Link: how not to run a Hedge Fund.
Falcone is famous for betting against Subprime Mortgages and making a fortune****.
Clearly, the success went to his head. Since then, he’s been a baaaad boy. In the words of the SEC enforcement director: “Today’s charges read like the final exam in a graduate course in how to operate a hedge fund unlawfully”.
He goes on:
“Clients and market participants alike were victimised as Falcone unscrupulously used fund assets to pay his personal taxes, manipulated the market for certain bonds, favored some clients at the expense of others and violating trading rules intended to prohibit manipulative short sales”.
Scandalous.
Interestingly, the SEC is now seeking “disgorgement of ill-gotten gains” – which sounds like a literal pound of flesh.
So, like, about that solution to the Fiscal Cliff….
****After a lyrical account of the hard-times before the market crash when investors thought he was stupid and tried to take their money away from him.
- The American Mid-West Drought situation.
Link: naturally disastrous.
Worse than the 1980s. Which cost $78 billion by driving up food prices.
It’s like there’s a plague on this House (of Representatives).
- Barclays pays a Libor-fixing fine.
Link: naming and shaming.
Also, here’s a little video clip on the implications for other banks.
£290 million. For being the first to provide “extensive and meaningful cooperation”.
It doesn’t bode well for the uncooperative, eh?
Here’s the link to my original article on the Libor-fixing scandal.
- Apple wins.
Link: Samsung sales banned in the US.
That’s off the back of a preliminary injunction or something along those lines.
The ruling applies to the older models of some Samsung phones. Everyone is a bit in awe that Apple got such a ruling so quickly.
The link is a video clip. Enjoy.
That’s all for now.
Have a good day.
