http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ac1dIgMyS_sE&pos=3 April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives were grilled by U.S. lawmakers who compared the bank's mortgage bankers to bookies as Senator Carl Levin asked why they sold securities the company itself called "shitty."
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Goldman Frankenindex revealed in emails
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=aDgzfxGflUMg April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive director facing a fraud lawsuit in the sale of a mortgage-linked investment, said an index that facilitated derivatives trading in the market was "like Frankenstein."
The so-called ABX index is "the type of thing which you invent telling yourself: 'Well, what if we created a 'thing,' which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price?'" Tourre said in a Jan. 29, 2007, e-mail released yesterday by Goldman Sachs. Watching the index fall is "a little like Frankenstein turning against his own inventor."
Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, released more than 70 pages of e-mail and other documents yesterday ahead of a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the firm's actions throughout the mortgage meltdown. The firm disputes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's claim that Goldman Sachs and Tourre, now 31, misled investors in a 2007 collateralized debt obligation about the role played by hedge fund Paulson & Co., which bet the CDO would collapse.
JPM builds massive short silver position in COMEX
http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/gold_gata_cftc_042220102
THERE IS GOOD REASON to question J.P.Morgan's concentrated short position in Comex silver futures, and to investigate allegations that JPM used it to manipulate the silver market, writes Erik Townsend, a private investors currently based in Hong Kong, at FinancialSense.
But the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) has handled this matter poorly by focusing its attention on baseless, unproven conspiracy allegations pertaining to the London gold market (outside CFTC's jurisdiction). GATA should instead focus on the compelling evidence that is directly material to the still-pending CFTC investigation.
What's more, Jeffrey Christian's testimony at the CFTC Hearing has been taken completely out of context, and allegations that it reveals a scandal or revelation are baseless. Despite the best efforts of some responsible journalists including Jim Puplava, others including Tyler Durden (ZeroHedge) and Eric King (King World News) have contributed to the misinformation campaign by promulgating GATA's baseless allegations.
Yes, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the ratio of "paper gold" to real gold, but they are not the reasons GATA has made so much undue fuss about. They also have nothing to do with leverage. Investors should focus on understanding the inherent risks and limitations of the precious metals investment vehicles. The most popular are reviewed and contrasted below.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Shapiro fraud case - $80 Million in investor money used to buy Miami Heat tickets, diamond handcuffs
By David Voreacos and David Scheer
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Nevin Shapiro, chief executive officer of Capitol Investments USA Inc., defrauded investors of at least $80 million to fund his lavish lifestyle after raising $880 million in a Ponzi scheme, U.S. prosecutors charged.
Shapiro, 41, raised money from at least 60 investors from January 2005 to November 2009 to finance Capitol, a Miami Beach- based wholesale grocery distribution business, authorities said in a complaint unsealed today in federal court in Newark, New Jersey. Capitol and Shapiro "had virtually no legitimate business during this time," the government said.
Shapiro used new investor money to pay existing investors in the Ponzi scheme, while taking $35 million for himself, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint. He paid millions of dollars in debts from illegal sports bets, bought $400,000 in floor seats to Miami Heat professional basketball games and bought diamond-studded handcuffs that he gave to a "prominent professional athlete," the FBI said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKPigK94dHdI&pos=7
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Web Traffic, Video Meetings Surge as Flights Grounded
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aLIB2jOAjF2A&pos=10 April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Stranded flyers created a surge in demand for travel industry Web sites and remote conferencing services as a shutdown of many flights in Europe continued through a sixth day.
Visits to aviation industry sites as a proportion of U.K. Internet traffic have doubled since Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted April 14, according to Experian Plc.'s Hitwise Web-tracking service. U.K. visits to the Web site of the Eurostar train service, which connects London to continental Europe, rose 67 percent last week.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
EESFX.COM 2.6 released
http://eesfx.com/eesfx/ eesfx.com update
Post your comments and suggestions free for registered users here:
Saturday, April 17, 2010
EES beta release of EES MetaSync client software
Users who want to trial EES free MT4 file sync tool need only register at http://www.eesfx.com and go here:
http://eesfx.com/eesfx/index.php/docs/doc_details/47-mt4tradersync-10b.html
EES MetaSync synchronizes your files between MT4 installations as well as creating a backup in your My Documents folder. Clients of EES FX will use this tool to get the latest updates from EES FTP server on a regular basis. For non-clients, this tool is a free tool that can keep your MT4 folders synced up. As this is a beta release, we appreciate any comments or bug reports. Program is fully functional in Windows 7 as is and has been tested extensively. Any issues can be reported on EESFX.COM @ http://eesfx.com/eesfx/index.php/forum/23-ees-metasync.html
Thursday, April 15, 2010
US lacks enough doctors
As Ranks of Insured Expand, Nation Faces Shortage of 150,000 Doctors in 15 Years
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
EES Robust Systems Engineering
EES Robust Systems Engineering
Systems are failing.
We take for granted what goes on behind the scenes in medicine, banking, retail, automotive, and all sectors of the economy. A recent inquiry into the Toyota recall has found that actually the accelerator problem is not a mechanical failure but a software bug.
Since the .com bust, the amount of new graduates with I.T. or mathematics degrees has dropped drastically. DARPA is even concerned that this is a threat to national security. DARPAS numbers have a decline as steep as 43%:
A "significant national decline" in the number of U.S. college graduates with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees is "harming our national security," according to a recent report from the Department of Defense. According to DARPA, the Pentagon's research agency, the issue is of "national importance" and "affects our capacity to maintain a technological lead in critical skills and disciplines" on the international stage. The report (.pdf) cites a pronounced downward trend in computer science degrees and underlines the importance of them in an age of increased adoption of the Internet. There were 43 percent fewer graduates and 45 percent fewer CS degree enrollments in 2006-2007 than in 2003-2004, according to the Computer Research Association.
This may partially explain the current "I.T. Crisis," but it is not the entire story. A combination of factors, economic, political, and social, have created an opportunity that the internet exists at all, but at the same time have restricted it's development in certain markets. How is it that South Korea is outperforming the United States in internet download speeds and costs?
Manhattan project for banks
Joseph Menn, cyber security expert for the Financial Times, claims we need a new "Manhattan Project" for banking systems. In an article on wtop.com, he states:
WASHINGTON - Ask your bank how safe it is to do business online and it may tell you it's more secure than traditional banking. But cyber security experts would disagree. "That's a lie," says Joseph Menn, who reports on cyber security for the Financial Times. "The banks are stuck because they've been telling people it's safe, and the fraud they're on the hook for has gone up four-fold in six months," Menn says. "The banks have been kidding people about all this because they save money when people bank online." Menn says the Internet was not designed with security in mind. He says it's fine for YouTube. "But anything financial, anything commercial, anything government needs to be on a different network. Technologically, we need a Manhattan Project," Menn says. "We can keep our current computers and chips, but we need different protocols, different ways for computers to talk to each other that do not rely on openness and trust."
Banking is a good example, because it is obviously a well funded industry that should be leading the technology development curve. Instead, massive data loss, theft, and other issues occur and are growing on a daily basis.
The Gap
Companies like Intel, IBM, and others, have spent billions researching and designing very sophisticated processors and computer systems in general. Mostly, this equipment has been placed in the hands of the consumer (even if that consumer is a business). Exceptions are rare, such as mainframe environments such as IBM System Z, as there has been a trend even in large enterprise applications to client-server solutions vs. mainframes and robust systems administered by companies such as IBM.
While technology is exploding exponentially in terms of processing power and sophistication, computer education and understanding is declining, creating a 'knowledge gap' that is getting wider and wider. On a macro level, this gap can explain commonplace system meltdowns that are occurring more and more, comparing with 10, 20, or 30 years ago.
Instead of using the internet as a means of collecting information not available through traditional media such as TV, consumers have driven a trend to move TV to the internet and wireless devices.
Possible Trend toward serviced computing
This problem may lead to a trend toward fully serviced computing, such as SAS on a consumer level, which is seen in cloud computing and web services. Users may have their power stricken from them, as they continue to damage their own systems and in the case of businesses, cause losses and general economic chaos.
For example, systems could be automatically backed up, for a fee, instead of relying on the user to backup their own data. Robust devices such as the Ironkey may grow faster in popularity vs. 'cool' devices such as the iPad.
As enterprise, consumer, and business systems begin to fail, without a shift to centralized, serviced computing, we may face an I.T. crisis.
Why should we notice?
EES has found that the majority of client issues in our business are in fact I.T. related not trading related. In fact, if you examine most businesses, they are in fact I.T. businesses rather than their supposed business. For example, with the integration of electronic banking systems, banking is 95% I.T. and it could be argued that many businesses are in the same category: I.T. systems that run the businesses are increasingly more important than their core businesses. Wal-Mart, clearly not in the I.T. business, attributes its success to a computer system that tracks pricing, inventory, and customer demand on a large scale.
We are now forced to learn, adapt, and integrate; or suffer the fate of Enron, a billion dollar company run on an excel spreadsheet, or worse.
Computing Headlines – Engineering grads earn the most
- Engineering Grads Earn the Most
- How Contracting Can Recharge Your IT Career
- Computer Science Major Counts Up Second Year in a Row
- Why Aren't There More Women in STEM?
- How to Launch a Successful Remote Job Search
- Overqualified? Yes, But Happy to Have a Job
- Young Job Seekers Hiding Their Facebook Pages
- A Different Take on Some Aspects of Work You Hate
- ACM Awards Recognize Computer Scientists for Innovations that Have Real World Impact
- E-Learning and ICT Integration in Colleges and Universities in Saudi Arabia
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
DARPA: ‘Significant decline’ in U.S. science, tech degrees ‘harming national security’
DARPA: 'Significant decline' in U.S. science, tech degrees 'harming national security'
Linus Torvalds signs with Microsoft, Internet in US declines, FSA Raids DBFX execs, online banking needs ‘manhattan project’, sec watches porn, and other news
http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/the-linux-distillery/38031 linux signs with Microsoft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7508945/Facebook-linked-to-rise-in-syphilis.html facebook rise in syphillis
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/31/broadband.south.korea/?hpt=C2 internet in US sucks
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7086719.ece Staff at Disneyland Paris, the most popular tourist attraction in Europe, are considering industrial action to improve their working conditions after the suicides of three employees since the start of the year.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/big-secs-porn-problem/story?id=10193518 sec watches porn as economy tanks
http://consumerist.com/2010/03/delta-erroneously-charged-my-credit-card-wont-give-me-refund.html Delta Erroneously Charged My Credit Card, Won't Give Me Refund
http://consumerist.com/2010/03/my-mcdonalds-sets-30-minute-dine-in-time-limit.html 30 minute limit at mcdonalds
http://www.tampabay.com/features/consumer/pinellas-womans-verizon-fight-shows-why-pins-should-be-shared/1076677 It should go without saying, but the last thing a grieving daughter should have to do is battle the phone company over disconnecting her deceased father's service.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/03/06/controversy_clouds_new_rules_on_lead_removal/ 90% of contractors did not pass epa lead removal test
http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1894237 online banking isn't as safe as you think
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7072942.ece fsa raids homes od dbfx execs
http://att.pissedconsumer.com/att-overbilling-20100116168007.html att overbilling
Saturday, April 3, 2010
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