Forum Post: Why the fall of MF Global matters to all of us
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 2, 2011, 10:08 a.m. EST by demcapitalist
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"Corzines bets at MF Global on European sovereign debt — many of which he made personally — proved the firm’s undoing because of the large amount of leverage that he used to magnify his bets. As of the firm’s filing at the end of June, it had $44.4 billion worth of liabilities; yet it only had $1.4 billion of equity. That kind of leverage was enough to scare credit ratings agencies into downgrading the firm last week, which led counterparties to stop trading with it."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45117449/comid/4#comments_top
44X leverage !!!!! who's money was Corzine using to make those bets? I'm gonna say mine because if the SIPC or feds need to bail anyone out it will be with my tax money. We can't get banks to loan money to small business or people who want a mortgage but will loan 43 billion to Corzine to bet with. It's the leverage we are giving these people to bet with that needs to stop because we are on the hook when they are wrong !!! nothing has changed and it won't till we stop it.
Hi demcapitalist, Thank you for good post. Best Regards, Nevada
"""who's money was Corzine using to make those bets?""" Here is one guy
Gerald Celente - Jeff Rense Radio Show - 2011.11.10
Trends Forecaster Gerald Celente explains how they are going to screw us the way MF Global screwed him! (at about the 38 minute mark on vid)
http://www.youtube.com/user/geraldcelente#p/u/0/oihowiuuLUw
Gerald Celente: My 'MF Global' Gold Positions Have Been Confiscated by the CME (starts at 9:30 on vid.)
http://silverdoctors.blogspot.com/2011/11/gerald-celente-my-mf-global-gold.html
they are a clearinghouse and a brokerage
not exactly a bank that you put money in
Ok fine but who exactly gave them the 44x loans to gamble with and when do we end up on the hook when their bets go wrong? We sure ended up on the hook with AIG selling CDS so at some point we pay for this extravagant gambling lifestyle. I really don't have a problem with people trading it the leverage that allows them to make a fortune but puts us on the hook when the deals go bad.
You walk in with $1.4 B and out with $44.4B'
I see a hernia coming on. Maybe a double one.
LOL I just want to know if I can take my 10k to the magic bean store where Corzine goes and have it turned into 440k for me to go on a gambling spree ----If I win I keep all the profit if I loose the taxpayer can bail out my company while I take a 400k golden parachute for all my hard work
Only if you have a friend in higher places, and I don't mean some corporation somewhere.
When do we actually get to the root of the problem. We can't even identify who has the money, who has the control, and who is making these crazy decisions beyond what we see on TV, hear on radio, or some other questionable source.
And to fully reply to your question. Sure, I will be glad to help in any way possible as soon as I can get my Senator, a representative or two and what's his name on board. Let's roll with this one.
I think one of the things that would really help would be for average citizens to get educated about what exactly goes on with banks, the fed, leverage , fraudulent bond deals , high speed trading etc. I think Goldman and Morgan Stanley tell people including the politicians they deal with "It's complicated don't you worry your pretty little heads about it" You hear the most naive conclusions from average citizens because they don't get what is going on, like " the credit crisis was caused by poor people buying houses that they can't afford" instead of the truth that it was caused by unregulated complex wall street products and an over leveraged banking system. Some of the best books have been written by wall street insiders. Read "The fall of Lehman brothers" " F.I.A.S.C.O". by Frank Partnoy ,The Quants by Scott Patterson," The Big Short" by Micheal Lewis. if you read those and then lent them to friends who lent them to friends etc,soon many people would understand the mechanics of wall street and would have much more educated ideas about how to change things in a positive way.
What I think would really help would be to find some people on here that could put together a logical paragraph to present their point based on facts and keep their personal bias and agendas out of the discussion. Since when should I learn about "fraudulent bond deals" if I don't even know what a legal-normal bond deal is. Yet you equate learning about all the other areas within the original purpose of them being in existence.
Now I don't know if bond deals are all fraudulent, the only thing that can be fraudulent, etc.
What I worry my "pretty little head about" is the utter failure of some of the people posting on here to convey a single thought without distorting it with personal agenda. If this is beyond ENGL101, please forgive me.
I cannot even reply to your post without assuming that everything is based on your bias and therefore not worth the thin air it is contained in.
I know this is way off topic - but it seems to be a pervasive issue when I read through these posts looking for some common sense expressed in "ye old English"
Here's another voice who was spitting into the wind Brooksly Born tried to stop the derivatives trading that exploded in 07 and tanked the economy. No one you've heard of I'm sure just a person who understood the potential for disaster in the derivatives trading that Greenspan and Clinton passed a bill to allow. No one listened to her and the taxpayer ended up on the hook for a 33 billion bailout at AIG alone. There's a hand full of people out there who understand the markets and want to change them so that they benefit the people in general not just the high stakes gamblers. I am starting to understand how Brooksly felt
"Brooksley E. Born (born August 27, 1940) is an American attorney and former public official who, from August 26, 1996, to June 1, 1999, was chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency which oversees the futures and commodity options markets. During her tenure on the CFTC, Born lobbied Congress and the President to give the CFTC oversight of off-exchange markets for derivatives in addition to its role with respect to exchange-traded derivatives,[4] but her warnings were opposed by other regulators.[5] "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born
What do you think my bias is? I think the tea party and OWS are protesting the state of the American economy and most people have no idea how the economy has been distorted by the last 2 decades of wall street turning itself into a gambling parlor that uses the taxpayer to bail them out when their bets go wrong and keeps all the profit when the bets go right. I think wall street won't change if the people don't learn what is going on there. I think wall street puts so much energy into this game that they are no longer a vehicle for new ideas and birthing young companies. There you go that's my agenda on this site. Are most of my posts distorted by this agenda ---YUP
$535 million here (Solyndra), $600 million there (MF Goldman). Pretty soon, you're talking real money.