Goldman Sach's Fraud

In a 22-page complaint filed Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors on real estate securities likely to go bust.


Basically, this is a filing against the collusive agreement between Goldman Sachs and Paulson


In January 2007, Paulson meets with Goldman Sachs vice president Fabrice Tourre, and asks for help betting against these bonds through the use of credit default swaps -- essentially, Paulson is asking to buy insurance on the weakest subprime-mortgage bonds.

In layman terms, Paulson will pick a bunch of securities that is extremely precarious and then he requests for help from Goldman Sachs to place insurance upon them to create a facade that they are indeed buyable and definitely not going on default for sure. Bonds with insurance shows that they are safe to a certain extent and with Goldman Sachs' backup, it will buy the consumers' confidence.


Of course, if the consumers knew that Paulson hand-picked those securities, they will not buy into it either because they all knew that it's a ruse of his. So, he chose ACA management as his scapegoat. To the public, ACA management is the one that chose those securities and Goldman Sachs as the insurance agent.


He painted an almost ostensible front to conveal the bones and skulls behind the securities.


In trying to sell the new ABACUS portfolio to investors, Goldman Sachs uses false and misleading marketing materials, according to the SEC.



The materials, created by Tourre, boldly claim ACA as the "portfolio selection agent," but make no mention of Paulson's role in selecting the bonds. As you all might have already guessed, Paulson picked those securities that are extremely risky and complex.


Beginning in 2002, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, a commercial bank in Germany, had been involved in the purchase of assets backed by U.S. mid-and-subprime mortgages.




But in late 2006, IKB informed Goldman Sachs and Tourre that it was no longer comfortable investing in mortgage bonds that were not selected by an independent third-party with knowledge of the U.S. housing market.

In February, March and April 2007, Goldman Sachs sends IKB copies of the ABACUS marketing materials, all of which represented that the portfolio had been selected by ACA, and failed to mention Paulson.



The SEC charges Goldman Sachs with fraud for failing to disclose Paulson's conflicting interest and role in selecting the ABACUS portfolio. The civil suit asks for a jury trial, and for Goldman Sachs to be fined and forced to repay illegally-obtained profits.


In conclusion, the point is that Paulson is not supposed to pick those securities because he can be very biased in the selection process and on top of that, he is trying to undermine the precarious nature of these securities by colluding with Goldman Sachs to create a facade for those risky securities he picked.


In turn, this case is synonymous to the fact that a trader is desperately trying to get rid of something that is extremely challenging to sell, by making it seems like it's one of the safest investment to make with all the superpowers' assurance behind it.


Credits -cnn, -foreclosure, -seeker401

European airlines

As we all know, the recent volcanic eruption has left the European airlines floundering. In fact, many of the other airlines are affected as well, and this includes those that are flying towards Europe.


Airlines have got the closed sign up and are hemorrhaging revenue every day. It started having a major impact for UK carriers but now it's become pretty well a Europe-wide phenomenon.



With the volcano cloud still present in the air, the airlines simply cannot operate due to safety concerns. And if the flights are stuck, their profits will plummet along with heavy charges. They will have to reschedule flights and these will involve lots of unnecessary operational costs with no profits.

There will be huge bunch of disgruntled customers for sure and a lot has to be done to house these customers for most of them have no place to live for the time being.


Arrangements have to be done to help reschedule these people and help them find a place to live in before they take off in another flight.


But the main concern here is that the revenues lost a day is brobdingnagian. In fact, its been costing the airlines more than 230 million euros in a single day !

Enough about all the griping about the revenues lost.


There are many more concerns that are of higher priority. This includes the delivery of food, services, goods, medical supplies and various other exports overseas. All these delays can actually cost the European economy a gargantuan amount of loss.


As we all know, the European economy is one of the worst right now, considering that we are actually witnessing recovery in the United States. Right now, the European economy is still receiving aid and they are still floundering.


With the latest volcanic eruption, it has just exacerbated the already emasculated economy further. Now, Europe really has to scrutinize every single move they made for it might cost them heavy repercussions if there were to be one mis-step.


Workers are not able to work, exports are not being exported, imports are not coming in either and worse still the economy is still in its nascent recovery stage.


On top of all that, we have the fraudulent case tied hand in hand to Goldman Sachs, one of the leading Wall Street Bank.


Trouble just keep coming, don't they?


Yep, that's all for now, let's pray hard for all this to be over and may we live happily ever after, NOT!


Credits -yahoo, -rotor, -sindhtoday

ANTM Spoilers

Here are the spoilers


Enjoy the pictures

Alasia

Alexandra

Angelea

Anslee

Jessica

Krista

Raina

Credits -livejournal

Glee is back!

Glee the all-time hit is back!

It is a musical, almost synonymous to High School Musical, just that it has a plot this time round, that is a little more sophistaced which touches on relationship issues, academic issues, what you want in life and of course the all-time favourite topic, backstabbing.


Basically it highlights the arduous times people are having in their high school. We see Gossip Girls being a hit because they demonstrates the high life people are leading in high school. However, do people really lead that sort of profligate lifestyle in high school?

The answer is a palpable no. So why is Gossip Girls so popular still? Well, simply because it's every high school's girls dream to lead that sort of life. It's a dream, a figment of their wild imagination. They want to belike Blair Wardoff or Serena, or Chuck or Nate.


Conversely, Glee takes a different approach. They displays the sort of life which almost every high school girls and guys are leading, the mundane life. But they all want to spice it up and make it as exciting as possible.


They know that by joining Glee, a show choir, they will be termed the lowest class in the high school. However, when you see them being themselves, having fun and immersing themselve in the life, you get jealous and then you start to think. Maybe I should just stick to being myself instead of being spurious in nature.

Maybe I can make a difference and be Sui Generis for once, rather than conforming to the mainstream.


Glee, is like a musical that brings people back to earth and the best part is that many of them can actually relate to it. It's fun, simple and yet dramatic.

Do proceed to watch the first season if you have not, before jumping straight into the second one.


You need to immerse yourself in the first season first or you will be at a loss in season 2.



Credits -ivstatic, -userserve

Irreversible Debt

If President Obama's 2011 budget were put into effect as proposed, the U.S. federal government would add an estimated $9.8 trillion to the country's accrued debt over the next decade, according to a preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.




Of that amount, an estimated $5.6 trillion will be in interest alone.

By 2020, the agency estimates debt held by the public would reach $20.3 trillion, or 90% of GDP. That's up from 53% of GDP in 2009.


So why did the debt incurred by the government almost double?


1. The president's proposal to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the majority of Americans.

A huge percentage of the government's income comes from tax alone. Recall how you had to pay Government Service Tax on every single products you pay for? Multiply that amount by the total number of products in the United States.


You will definitely get an astronical amount.


Right now, they are scraping that astronomical amount in an attemp to stimulate growth and development under such dire situations.


This is probably commonly regarded as the long term strategic view.


If they were to raise the tax level once again, interest rates will surge and the number of investments will definitely drop. A vicious cycle will set in. In turn, many investors will be put into an impasse and many will give up for the conditions are extremely acerbic and the chances of succeeding is very slim.


2. The proposal to protect middle- and upper-middle-income families from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Usually, the richer people will have to pay more tax because they have to support the burden of the economy(namely the poorer people). They too have to pay for the subsidies available to the poor ones in the society.


On top of that, they have to finance the various developments of the country per se.


For now, we can only wait and see if the strategic move will actually reap great results in the future. If it doesn't, there will be great repercussions on the entire world.


But, I trust that this plan will work. Who gives a damn about all these debts when they can be resolved sooner or later?


It's just a matter of time.
 
 
Credits -cnn, -mediabistro, -wyldsuccess, -askmrcreditcard

Singapore's tightening policy

The unexpected move by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to tighten its monetary policy boosted Asian currencies, including the ringgit, and intensified speculation that China would let the yuan trade higher.


“The shift to a tightening stance should be taken as a sign of greater determination to decisively pre-empt inflationary pressures and likely stronger (Asian) currencies in coming months,” he said.


In my opinion, I believe that Singapore's move might be a shrewd one. Why do I say so?


If you guys are following the Toyota's news, you should know that it is assuaged by a mile right now.


After the Toyota incident broke out, there was a lot of criticisms and denigrating comments against the company. Many were extremely unhappy and they cursed and swear at Toyota for putting their customers under such precarious circumstances.


They neglected the problems with the brakes and they did not even report the incident to the respective authorities.


But that's not the point. The point is that many other automobiles start to play on the defensive side. They followed suit and recalled their vehicles once a complain has been filed for fear that they will be attacked vigorously later on if they leave the matter untouched.


But the irony here is that, these automobile makers did not have a huge negative impinge on their reputation even though their mistake is on the same level as compared to Toyota's.


Rather, the public accepted their moves and gladly co-operated with the recall.


So the question is, why did the public not scream at the other automobile makers? The reason is lucid. It's because the hype is already over, the public have already exhausted all their energy on Toyota and they can't be bothered anymore. Thus, they are now merely going with the flow. No matter how big a deal is, it will definitely be over after some time. That is why people say that, "Everything will heal in time."


This is synonymous to Singapore's strategy. They are merely hiding behind China's yuan (which is like Toyota). There has been a lot of scrutinization surrounding China's yuan. People are speculating all over the place and they are almost 100% sure that it will appreciate in no time.


Either way, someone needs to start the ball rolling because the economy is recovering already. It's in the convalescent stage right now. The interest rate will rise and currencies will become stronger.


That's an undisputable truth and it is inevitable.


By prognosticating the unhappiness that will spring among the public, Singapore took this opportunity to enter the game. They can then hide behind China and no one will realise.


As you all know, Singapore is extremely reliant on exports because we are a trade dependent country. So why does Singapore take this huge risk to tighten the monetary policy?


Simply because they know clearly that it will not affect their export market at all. The slight increase in the strength of the Singapore dollar will be easily overlooked and our export markets will not drop, it will be de facto be inelastic in nature, all thanks to the hype around the yuan.


Soon, many will follow suit and then the level of impact of this move will plummet until the point where people think that it's perfectly normal to raise the rates.


Hence, this is the best opportunity for Singapore to obscure the fact that their currency is getting stronger, for the majority will not scrutinize the rise.


Instead, they will embrace it.


Thank you


Credits -thestar