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Waiting for them to finish their due diligence on their part, and give me a start date.
Aidan is in the Busy Baby stages - always checking out stuff, always investigating, always trying to figure out how the tall people balance on two legs. What's in this box? What's in this cup? This is my favorite blankie. Watch me wrap it around myself and end up looking like a tiny Buddhist monk, crawlimerating towards you.
It is that time again.
New York hedge fund manager John Paulson was one of the first to anticipate disaster. He told Congress that his researchers discovered by early 2006 that many subprime loans covered the homes' entire value, with no down payments, and so he figured that the bonds "would become worthless."
He soon began placing exotic bets — credit-default swaps — against the housing market. His firm, Paulson & Co., booked a $3.7 billion profit when home prices tanked and subprime defaults soared in 2007 and 2008. (He isn't related to Henry Paulson.)
At least as early as 2005, Goldman similarly began using swaps to limit its exposure to risky mortgages, the first of multiple strategies it would employ to reduce its subprime risk.
The company has closely guarded the details of most of its swaps trades, except for $20 billion in widely publicized contracts it purchased from AIG in 2005 and 2006 to cover mortgage defaults or ratings downgrades on subprime-related securities it offered offshore.
In December 2006, after "10 straight days of losses" in Goldman's mortgage business, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar called a meeting of mortgage traders and other key personnel, Goldman spokesman DuVally said.
Shortly after the meeting, he said, it was decided to reduce the firm's mortgage risk by selling off its inventory of bonds and betting against those classes of securities in secretive swaps markets.
...
In early 2007, the firm's mortgage traders also bet heavily against the housing market on a year-old subprime index on a private London swap exchange, said several Wall Street figures familiar with those dealings, who declined to be identified because the transactions were confidential.
The swaps contracts would pay off big, especially those with AIG. When Goldman's securities lost value in 2007 and early 2008, the firm demanded $10 billion, of which AIG reluctantly posted $7.5 billion, Viniar disclosed last spring.
As Goldman's and others' collateral demands grew, AIG suffered an enormous cash squeeze in September 2008, leading to the taxpayer bailout to prevent worldwide losses. Goldman's payout from AIG included more than $8 billion to settle swaps contracts.
by way of
http://consumerist.com/5395226/goldman-s
"A 5-month investigation by McClatchy Newspapers has found that Goldman secretly bet on the housing crash, went out and pimped the dickens out of assets it knew were junk, and may have broken securities laws in doing so."
Goldman:
# Bought and converted into high-yield bonds tens of thousands of mortgages from sub-prime lenders that became the subjects of FBI investigations into whether they'd misled borrowers or exaggerated applicants' incomes to justify making hefty loans.
# Used offshore tax havens to shuffle its mortgage-backed securities to institutions worldwide, including European and Asian banks, often in secret deals run through the Cayman Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean that companies use to bypass U.S. disclosure requirements.
# Has dispatched lawyers across the country to repossess homes from bankrupt or financially struggling individuals, many of whom lacked sufficient credit or income but got sub-prime mortgages anyway because Wall Street made it easy for them to qualify.
# Was buoyed last fall by key federal bailout decisions, at least two of which involved then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Goldman chief executive whose staff at Treasury included several other Goldman alumni.
did in later exams what they did in '92, would they have uncovered the Ponzi scheme?
Madoff answered, "Absolutely." He added, "There is no way they can avoid being
criticized for not doing that in 2006."
Madoff said that in 1992, the SEC came for the examination and recalled John
Gentile was the supervisor. Madoff described Gentile as an "Italian guy wearing a short
sleeve shirt," and called him a "no bullshit" guy. Madoff stated that Gentile came to
BLM and wanted to see the stock record, the DTC records, and the blotters. Madoff said
that Gentile, "knew what he was looking at and that was it.".
Madoff also contrasted this experience with Ostrow [SEC auditor who supervised the 2006 audit] who "comes in like he's Colombo." Madoff stated that Ostrow "was very cryptic." Madoff stated that Ostrow was "doing things that made no sense to us at all." He added that Ostrow was a "total asshole." He said Ostrow "was an idiot," citing Ostrow's repeated requests for computer runs, which would take eight hours to run off. Madoff stated, "I almost came to blows with him." Madoff also characterized Ostrow as a "blowhard" who acted aggressively and was not intimidated by Madoff. He noted that Ostrow "talked tough, but didn't look at anything."
Madoff said it was "amazing to me" that he didn't get caught during the
Enforcement investigation, because they specifically asked him, "Are these securities at
DTC?" They further pressed, "What is your account number." He replied, "646."
Madoff stated that it was "obvious they thought that something was amiss." He went on
to say that when they asked for the DTC account number, "I thought it was the end game,
over. Monday morning they'll call DTC and this will be over... and it never happened."
Madoff stated that when nothing happened, he thought, "After all this, I got away
lucky." But he said he thought it was just "a matter of time," saying "that was the
nightmare I lived with." ~When Enforcement did not follow up with DTC, "I was
astonished."
Madoff stated that the Enforcement investigators "asked all the right questions,
but it was still focused on front-running." He said that the investigators dismissed the
allegation of a Ponzi scheme as "inconceivable to them."
He noted that the SEC never asked him about his accounting firm. He stated, "I
used a small accounting firm, but I also used KPMG London and they were terrible."
Madoff stated that he got the impression through all the exams and investigations
that "it never entered the SEC's mind that it was a Ponzi scheme." He noted that there
was a DTC Terminal in the cage, but, "They never went in to the cage."
related to stock records or DTC records." Madoff stated that "they never even looked at
my stock records" or did a "box count." He said he was "astonished" that they didn't ask
for DTC records, and stated that only a regulator could get those records from DTC, and
the SEC would "have to go to DTC." He added that DTC does not have separate
accounts for each customer, but rather, provides a global report, but stated that if they
went to DTC, they would've seen his market-making position, and that it "would've been
easy for them to see" the Ponzi scheme.
Madoff stated that the SEC could've gone to counterparties, and if they had, they
"would've seen it," adding, "they didn't do any of that." He stated that "it's the only
thing to do," and clarified, "If you're looking at a Ponzi scheme, it's the first thing you
do."
From http://www.sec.gov/news/studies/2009/oig-5
There are times when my child is so beautiful that my brain says "Here is a sculpted babydoll - there are no human children this beautiful. Surely I am gazing upon an uncanny thing; Humanity is not so perfect."
dim daa dimdim dada
dim daa dimdim dada
dim daa dimdim dada
dim daa dimdim dada
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
There is something to be said about being such a giant dork that one owns no less than four covers of "Don't Stop Believin'".
And that would be it.
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Wonder no more!
From an official publication of the Republican Party of Texas:
"President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for, in the words of the Nobel Commitee, intending to promote nuclear disarmament and world peace. In announcing the award, the Committee acknowledged that he hasn't actually achieved anything on either of these subjects. Or much of anything else. The Nobel Committee gave the president its most prestigious award for what he wants to do, not what he's done. That made us wonder, what other prestigious award will the president win next? Surely the Nobel is only the first of many accolades.
He loves NCAA basketall[SIC]. Perhaps he'll be awarded a national championship. Or maybe the NBA will name him this year's MVP. He drives a car. Perhaps Motor Trend will name him Car of the Year.
He has actually written two books. Perhaps a Pulizter[SIC], or a Nobel for literature, will come his way.
The president is known to like pie. Perhaps he'll win a blue ribbon at the Illinois State Fair.
He did host the "beer summit." Perhaps he'll be named a Real Man of Genius.
Surely a Cy Young, a Heisman, a Vince Lombardi trophy, and the America's Cup will take their places on the president's mantle soon. And his Tour de France shirt and US Open blazer must be in the mail by now.
While the president awaits his next earth-shattering award, the Republican Party of Texas is working hard every day to actually do things. Real things, in the real world, to help [Like passing legislation that gives companies tax breaks to outsource my profession overseas? -- ED] real families like yours. We work to cut your [See previous comment -- ED] taxes. We work to balance the state budget. We work to keep Texas strong, free and prosperous by fighting against the Democrats' insatiable appetite to take more control over your life, raise your taxes, and enact policies that will destroy our economy and cost jobs [ibid -- ED].
We're not going to be awarded the million-dollar Nobel Peace Prize for that."
And thank goodness for that; Destroying the world's economy by following Phil Gramm's economic policies isn't any sort of qualification for a Nobel.
--emphasis mine.
Once again, I invite the Republican Party of Texas to consider hiring a professional -- or even an amateur - copyeditor or proofreader. I'm available, and my rates are reasonable. I promise I won't change the copy and won't leak it.
It says, in Quenya, written in Tengwar,
I am a Bard; I do not vouchsafe my secrets to slaves.
I am a guide, a judge: If you sow, you labour.
Literally, it's "I am a free poem-author, the cunning-speech is not to be told [by me] to slaves. I am a guide, a person of Námo [Valar associated with discernment and judging]; one who pours therefore labours."
Elaboration through a cheezburger
TL;DR rant on how long this community's existed
belief that PC is a newcomer of late
Reminiscence of the flame wars and the trolls
and past posting's perfection
Recounting of the steps that led to the decay of nettiquette
mostly involving Steve Case and America Online
Insistent call for the moderators
discovery of the depth of CP's bile tract
regret over the lateness of CP's arrival
Earwig youTube link
Naïve RickRolling attempt
Reluctance to accept this tune won't fade
Request for eye goggles
subsequent call for bleach
Repetition of the meter of the song.
Insistent observation
that PC's comment does not scan well
Demand to refactor
the meter to a song.
[ninja edit]
"AcipHex" is a very poor brand name.
EDIT: " a ba nana."
YEAH
My brother and his wife just adopted (Just tonight the lawyer told them everything is finalised) a little baby girl, who is six months old - two months younger than Aidan.
Her name is Emily, and she is an awesome little baby.
They babysat her over the weekend and my brother made her carrots, by cooking the carrots for two hours to ensure that they would be the right consistency.
BABY!
Come on. Guess.
Here's why:
Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the day rebuilding my parent's computer's OS from the ground up: Some trojan that a free anti-virus program couldn't isolate had embedded itself into the RPC service, shutting down the ability to run many programs and even the command line prompt. And Norton anti-virus couldn't find it, malwarebytes couldn't find it ...
So I go the Weyland-Yutani route and nuke the site from orbit: It's the only way to be sure. And restore from SP1, update to SP2, update to SP3.
During this process, there's plenty of down time in which I am discussing with my father just how it would be a good idea to get a Mac Mini; His computer was up-to-date on OS patches (I had to rebuild it all about two weeks back for another trojan program embedding itself into a network service which nothing could pull out) and had an active, up-to-date antivirus.
So, I'm telling him: Just look at Google! They run appliances to deliver their services, which is why you rarely if ever hear about them having downtime!
The universe, meanwhile, is in the middle of a "Let's make a liar out of Finn" phase ...
I'm sure you see where this is going.
First MacOSX virus that bypasses admin privileges will be reported within two weeks' time, because the universe loooooorves to make a liar out of me.
My son just signed for "more", "drink", and opened his mouth like he does when he is expecting food to be spooned in.. And then reacted very positively when we gave him a drink.
My son is seven months old.
My son has, in the past 24 hours, said
DaDa
MaMa
Brother
Mother
Daddy
I can have that? (while pointing at his mother and kicking his feet to indicate {go to})
and
Yeah!
findëtengwestanya avanyárima na mólttë
tiënye, námon
ulyaldë etta mótaldë
the trees nor forest therefrom -
winter sweeps this land.
When she hides, he's not wondering where she went.
He's trying to look /around the obstacle/ because he knows she's behind it. She's popping out of the top, he's looking around the side.
that is some serious spatial conception skills.
He also drops and throws things off the edge of the playmat so that he can roll off or reach off the playmat to retrieve them.
He is also ALWAYS VERY LOUD WHEN VOCALISING. We have to shout to hear each other over him grunting and groaning while trying to figure out how to crawl.
Super precious boy.
My father was in the US Army in 1966. Last night he found this footage on youTube.
"At 8 minutes 7 seconds that's me, SP5 Richard Akins (the skinny guy) walking from the center toward the camera, then turning to the right (your left) and standing with (my) back to the camera at 8 minutes 10 seconds. The guy walking along the right side away from the camera is one of the guys that worked for me, SP4 Simon Bellamy. There's a couple more shots of him pacing around talking on the phone and me typing on a teletype in a left profile shot right after that.
I absolutely do not remember anyone shooting film, but it looks like professional footage. (Well, professional for the US Army in 1966.)
By the way (if you noticed it in the earlier part of the film), that "high speed" data transmission of 200 cards per minute translates to about 1600 eight-bit text characters per MINUTE or much, much slower (painfully slower!) than the snails-pace dial-up modem connections we use now when we can't afford cable.
This was long before the internet or even DARPANet.
Fax transmissions were still analogue and took about 3 to 8 minutes per page, depending on the complexity of the media. "
That was forty-five years ago.
Transcribed:
Aldri þaðan er látumat
Aldri þaðan er órœktu
Aldri þaðan er fararleyfi
Help, pls?
