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Posts Tagged ‘disclosure’

SUPREME COURT RULES FED MUST RELEASE ALL BAILOUT DATA

by - March 21st, 2011 9:44 pm

Courtesy of The Daily Bail

Video – The Fed has 5 days to release all data.

March 21 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve must disclose details of emergency loans it made to banks in 2008, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an industry appeal that aimed to shield the records from public view.  The justices today left intact a court order that gives the Fed five days to release the records, sought by Bloomberg.

A huge win for transparency.

Statement from Matthew Winkler, editor in chief of Bloomberg News:

As a financial crisis developed in 2007, "The Federal Reserve forgot that it is the central bank for the people of the United States and not a private academy where decisions of great importance may be withheld from public scrutiny.  The Fed must be accountable to Congress, especially in disclosing what it does with the people’s money."

“The board will fully comply with the court’s decision and is preparing to make the information available,” said David Skidmore, a spokesman for the Fed.

The order marks the first time a court has forced the Fed to reveal the names of banks that borrowed from its oldest lending program, the 98-year-old discount window. The disclosures, together with details of six bailout programs released by the central bank in December under a congressional mandate, would give taxpayers insight into the Fed’s unprecedented $3.5 trillion effort to stem the 2008 financial panic.

“I can’t recall that the Fed was ever sued and forced to release information” in its 98-year history, said Allan H. Meltzer, the author of three books on the U.S central bank and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Continue reading at Bloomberg… 


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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters: Calling a Bean, a Bean

by - January 4th, 2011 4:56 pm

To Err is Human, To Disclose Divine.

Courtesy of Sam E. Antar with Ilene

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR) is currently under the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is facing numerous class action lawsuits alleging securities fraud. In particular, plaintiffs are alleging false and misleading disclosures in violation of federal securities laws.

One troubling issue is that when Green Mountain initially disclosed an accounting error concerning its K-Cup margin percentages, it claimed that the error was “immaterial.” Material and immaterial errors are treated differently.  If an accounting error is immaterial, a public company is required to correct it by making a one-time cumulative adjustment to earnings in the latest quarter. If an accounting error is material, a public company is required to notify investors that its previous financial reports cannot be relied on and that it will restate its affected financial reports to correct that error.

Background

On Monday, September 20, 2010, the SEC notified Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that it was conducting an informal inquiry. It requested information concerning “revenue recognition practices and the Company’s relationship with one of its fulfillment vendors.” Eight days later, on September 28, 2010, Green Mountain surprised investors by disclosing news of the SEC inquiry in an 8-K filing. In that 8-K report, Green Mountain also disclosed that it discovered an "immaterial accounting error" affecting financial reports issued from 2007 to June 26, 2010:

In connection with the preparation of its financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter, the Company’s management discovered an immaterial accounting error relating to the margin percentage it had been using to eliminate the inter-company markup in its K-Cup inventory balance residing at its Keurig business unit. Management discovered that the gross margin percentage used to eliminate the inter-company markup resulted in a lower margin applied to the Keurig ending inventory balance effectively overstating consolidated inventory and understating cost of sales. Management determined that the accounting error arose during fiscal 2007 and analyzed the quantitative impact from that point forward to June 26, 2010.

As of June 26, 2010, there is a cumulative $7.6 million overstatement of pre-tax income. Net of tax, the cumulative error resulted in a $4.4 million overstatement of net income or a $0.03 cumulative impact on earnings

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2 Big 2 Foreclose--Is The Subprime End Game Approaching?

by - October 11th, 2010 8:18 pm

How big is the foreclosure mess? Big. Here’s WB7′s perspective. 

2 Big 2 Foreclose--Is The Subprime End Game Approaching?

Courtesy of williambanzai7 at Zero Hedge

MG

THE MIDDLE GAME QUAGMIRE

After a bad opening, there is hope for the middle game. After a bad middle game, there is hope for the endgame. But once you are in the endgame, the moment of truth has arrived. – Edmar Mednis (Grandmaster)  

I have one central thought of where this fraudclosure fiasco could lead, and this is why everyone should watch very carefully how the various players move their pieces in this subprime middle game.

Up until now, the banks have been making sweeping statements that this all reflects a "technical" glitch in foreclosure processes.

Well, having a posse of State AGs band together to commence a joint investigation is no longer a minor "technical" glitch. Allegations of masses of forged signatures, falsified or fabricated notarized documents,  back dating etc., if true, collectively amount to an institutional pattern of criminal behavior. Having the Justice Department announce it is opening a preliminary investigation raises the stakes even higher.

Being forced to suspend all foreclosures has obvious "material" economic consequences to the CDO note holders.

But having title companies pull out of the residential real estate market because they no longer trust the veracity of bank provided documents presages claims by mortgagors who lost their properties as well as the subsequent purchasers of same. The only way to conclusively cure that kind of problem is to get waivers, and releases from the various claimants wherever they may be or pass retroactive curative laws or laws doing things like creating a bailout fund to indemnify those who are injured (yikes!). You cannot simply say this is immaterial, sprinkle in the word MERS and hope this will all go away.

The CDO note holders will have potential claims stemming from the interruption of non-performing loan processing. Think breaches of the trust servicing agreements and allegations of "gross negligence or willful misconduct", the latter being magical legal hurdle in these types of agreements. However, the much…
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Ex-Fed Governor Mishkin Caught in ‘Pay for Say’ Over Icelandic Economy

by - August 23rd, 2010 12:37 am

"HE WHO LOSES WEALTH LOSES MUCH; HE WHO LOSES A FRIEND LOSES MORE; BUT HE THAT LOSES COURAGE LOSES ALL." MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Ex-Fed Governor Mishkin Caught in ‘Pay for Say’ Over Icelandic Economy

Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN

The Icelandic Chamber of Commerce commissioned ex-Fed Governor Mishkin to write a glowing report on their economy, even while the country was being destroyed from within by a rogue banking system and a corrupt regulatory regime.

 

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New Short Sale Fraud Allegations: Second Liens

by - January 16th, 2010 1:49 pm

New Short Sale Fraud Allegations: Second Liens

Courtesy of Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker

During the bubble we had banks that knew (because the FBI had warned them in 2004, there were stories in the media in 2006, and in 2007 HUD published a study) that virtually ALL stated and reduced-documentation loans were fraudulent.

They wrote ‘em and securitized ‘em anyway and I have not been able to find ONE prospectus from that period in which the above fact was disclosed to buyers of that securitized debt.  Not one.

This was a major contributor to the bubble and subsequent bust.  Indeed, without it the "home price appreciation" that occurred could not have, as there were insufficient numbers of people with incomes to support the prices being asked.  The bubble would not have happened and neither would have the bust without this active fraudulent activity up and down the line.  If the actual character of the loans in these securitized instruments had been disclosed to buyers these securities would have been absolutely unmarketable and the bubble would have instantly stopped inflating.

But we know for a fact that these disclosures were not made, this debt was sold, and literally hundreds of billions of dollars of losses were taken by investors who believed that the loans in these securitized instruments were "good" when they were not.  There have been ZERO investigations or prosecutions thus far related to this practice.

Now when stuck homeowners are trying to execute a short sale we have allegations that the banks are illegally trying to get something for their second liens (HELOCs and "silent seconds") which in fact are worth NOTHING in a short sale for less than the outstanding first mortgage balance.

As Diane Olick has reported:

But here’s what’s not legal and what’s apparently happening quite often recently. Since many second lien holders are getting very little, they are now allegedly requesting money on the side from either real estate agents or the buyers in the short sale. When I say "on the side," I mean in cash, off the HUD settlement statements, so the first lien holder doesn’t see it.

"They are pretty clear and pretty upfront about the fact that if the first lender knows they are getting paid, the first lender will kill the short sale," says Brandt.

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Bloomberg News is still after the Fed for more disclosure

by - September 19th, 2009 6:33 pm

Bloomberg News is still after the Fed for more disclosure

newsCourtesy of Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns

Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matt Winkler wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday explaining why he is after the Federal Reserve to come clean about its secret lending program during the height of the financial crisis. 

Bloomberg has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve to force the Fed to reveal the name of the banks it lent money to in this operation, something I first blogged about last November.  Last month, Bloomberg won its case in District Court. The Fed is now considering whether to appeal.

At issue is transparency in our financial system.  In the Op-Ed, Winkler puts it thus:

The law doesn’t allow the government to get away with secrecy based on a mere claim that some sort of damage would result if it released the information in question. To prevail, the Fed must "provide evidence that if the requested information is disclosed, competitive harm would be ‘imminent,’" Judge Preska wrote. The Fed must show that competitors would use against a bank the fact that it received federal dollars—that running to the government trough for sustenance would become a competitive disadvantage.

That isn’t an easy test, and with hundreds of billions poured into financial institutions, it shouldn’t be. What’s more, the Fed didn’t come close to meeting this test. All it offered in court were sworn statements from Fed employees speculating that borrowers might be labeled as losers. They said nothing about how competing banks might use the information.

The issue at stake here is understanding the financial crisis and its aftermath. The information Bloomberg is seeking is vital to that, and it belongs to all Americans. Bloomberg isn’t alone in saying so. Dow Jones, the New York Times, the Associated Press, Gannett Newspapers, Hearst, Advance Publications, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have all expressed support for Bloomberg’s efforts and may join a friend-of-the-court brief if the decision is appealed.

Below is a Bloomberg News video in which Winkler discusses the case with Betty Liu. In his opening remarks, Winkler says the Fed was taking on an unprecedented role and that this requires transparency. 

I agree because the Fed has been politicized through these actions. Its independence is now threatened because of it as the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 attests.

 


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The Real Issue Behind Fed Secrecy: Lying

by - August 28th, 2009 9:36 pm

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Karl, on the Fed’s quest for secrecy – a few legal arguments…

The Real Issue Behind Fed Secrecy: Lying

Courtesy of Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker

Henry Blodget writes an interesting piece over at Businessinsider in which he cites Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust:

Today, we have federal deposit insurance Therefore, the probabilities and magnitude of depositor runs on banks are much reduced compared with 1933. Yet, we can see “runs” by stockholders and other creditors of banks if there is a suspicion of financial problems. If the Fed is required to  publish the names of financial institutions to which it has extended credit and this publication induces financial institutions to refrain from borrowing from the Fed, one can only speculate if this would be the tinder for another liquidity conflagration in the coming months.

CramerHow about a little honesty from commentators in the mainstream media?

"Liquidity conflagrations" happen when people discover they have been lied to.

Anyone remember Bear Stearns?  "We’re well capitalized" on CNBC?  "Everything is fine"?  Cramer’s pumping of them on his show as "safe"?

Market participants in fact knew everything was not fine.  There were statements flying around (that turned out to be true) that some counter-parties had begun refusing to novate deals with Bear. 

It was the discovery of the lie that caused the run on Bear Stearns and its ultimate collapse.

Likewise with Lehman.  Remember Dick Fuld’s "I’m gonna burn the shorts" comment, again, on CNBC and elsewhere in the National Media?

The truth got out: they were having liquidity problems.  Once again, as soon as people discerned that they were being lied to, Lehman’s fate was sealed.

The problem The Fed has is that as the supposed "risk regulator" for the American Banking System it has absolutely refused to do its job of prudential regulation and still is. Instead of demanding that its member banks hold capital against all unsecured lending it has "blessed" models rather than markets.  But at the same time it has declared "haircuts" against collateral that make clear that so-called "face value", or "par", is a farce.

liesThe Fed is supporting institutionalized lying – that is, the intentional…
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Here Comes THE JUDGE!

by - August 25th, 2009 6:49 am

Here Comes THE JUDGE! **UPDATED** 

Courtesy of Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker

BOOYA!

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve must make public reports about recipients of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers under programs created to address the financial crisis, a federal judge ruled.

Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it Bernanke!

What our CONgress refuses to do the judiciary comes through with!  Transparency – one way or another.

The ruling can be found here (PDF, thanks Zerohedge!) and is important in a number of ways:

  1. It destroys any attempt to claim that identity of a borrower from The Fed’s programs is "proprietary" or "generated" by the borrower (a "person") since the data is in fact generated by The Federal Reserve system itself.  Bravo for the judge seeing through the attempted BS.
  2. It calls out The Fed for intentionally not searching potentially-responsive documents.  Bad move Bernanke.  Rulings citing apparent bad faith are rare in cases such as this. 
  3. It (properly, IMHO) dismisses arguments of "stigma" due to nothing more than a speculative assertion.  This was Bernanke’s claim during Congressional testimony as well when he refused to provide the information to Congress; we now have a judicial ruling saying that that argument is BS.

The only bad news is that coming from the district court it is not binding precedent, but if The Fed attempts to appeal it and loses it will become so – and a quick perusal of the opinion shows little meat for The Fed to attempt an appeal upon.

This should result in the public disclosure both here and forward of borrowers and terms under The Fed’s facilities. 

It should also result in an immediate demand from Congress for all of this data as well to be provided on a public basis, both for current programs and on an ongoing, forward basis, since there is now a judicial ruling that these records are NOT exempt from disclosure.

Now if we can just get all this fraudulent accounting and violations of prompt corrective action in front of a Judge…..

PS: Ben, here’s my gift of the day to you:

See also: Court Orders Federal Reserve to Disclose Emergency Loan Details, Bloomberg.

 
 


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Phil's Favorites

It's a confidence game

May 23rd, 2013 11:47 am

Paul Price discusses the "Confidence Game" being played in the stock market and how to read the indicators; some of the commonly used indicators are contrary indicators (e.g. individual investors' sentiment). Paul made this video for Real Money Pro about a year and a half ago.  It's a confidence game

Courtesy of Paul Price 

...

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Zero Hedge

European Stocks Dive Most In 10 Months

May 23rd, 2013 11:40 am

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

There was quite a bit of dispersion among European equity indices today (with Italy worst and Spain actually holding up - albeit down 1.4%) but the European equivalent of the S&P 500 (the BE500) dropped 2% - its biggest single-day plunge in 10 months. Credit markets - just as in the US - have been warning of a disconnect for two weeks and today's equity dive has more than halved that divergence. European sovereigns are wider by 10-15bps. Europe's VIX is over 2 vols higher at 18.4% (its highest in a month). European financial stocks dropped by their most in 3 months and European high-yield credit worsened by its most in 3 months. A late-day ramp made things alook a little better than ...



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Chart School

The More, the Merrier

May 23rd, 2013 11:35 am

Courtesy of Doug Short.

Five years after the 2008 financial market collapse, governments and central banks across the globe have still re-ignited a sustained global economic expansion. What growth there has been, has been localized, sporadic and anemic. Europe remains mired in recession. The expansion in the U.S. is episodic, with alternating quarters of growth and contraction. While China, seemingly rebounding, lacks the aggregate demand to pull other economies along in its wake.

How to put the global economy on an even keel remains a puzzle to be solved. But, a more profound worldwide economic stagnation looms on the horizon. How we tackle today's problems will determine in part our ability to navigate the secular dearth of growth we are soon to face.

According to United Nations' projections, several nations in the developed world will begin to experience a contraction...



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Sabrient

Sector Detector: Fed tries to refill bulls’ fuel tank as cyclicals lead

May 23rd, 2013 1:52 am

Courtesy of Sabrient Systems and Gradient Analytics

The market went through some gyrations on Wednesday in reaction to Fed Chairman Bernanke’s testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. He first defended continued quant easing by warning, “A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily but also would carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery.” Stocks dutifully rallied and all major indexes hit new intraday highs.

But alas, consensus is apparently not a given over the longer term. The minutes hinted that a tapering off could start sooner, “A number of participants expressed willingness to adjust the flow of purchases downward as early as the June meeting if the economic information received by that time showed evidence of sufficiently strong and sustained growth.” So …...



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Insider Scoop

Long Setup in Herbalife Still Attractive; Stock Breaks Out as New Auditor Hired

May 23rd, 2013 12:00 am

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Few stocks have attracted more news over the last six months than nutritional supplement maker Herbalife (NYSE: HLF).

Even casual market observers are aware of the circumstances surrounding the the initial bout of extreme volatility in the name back in December 2012. The shares went into free-fall at the end of the year after hedge fund manager Bill Ackman revealed in typical sanctimonious fashion that his firm Pershing Square Capital Management was short around $1 billion worth of the stock.

Amid much pomp and circumstance, Ackman laid out his short thesis at a New York investment conference and...



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Option Review

Big Volume In Saks Options As Shares Rip Higher

May 22nd, 2013 8:36 pm

 

Today’s tickers: SKS, USG & PFE

SKS - Saks, Inc. – Timely bullish bets initiated in Saks options just seconds prior to the closing bell on Tuesday are generating sizable gains for at least one trader today, with shares in the high-end retailer up at the highest level since 2008. The stock closed Tuesday up 11% on the day at $13.67 after the company reported first-quarter revenue above average analyst expectations. Within minutes of the close shares in SKS moved sharply to the upside after the New York Post, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported...



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Market Montage

Putting in a Bearish Outside Candle Today

May 22nd, 2013 3:24 pm

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

The indexes along with a host of stocks are putting in a bearish outside candle today (over yesterday's highs and below yesterday's lows).  Typically this is … well bearish.  But in the QE era when a technical signal screams bearish it has tended to be completely forgotten within a few days, causing those who follow it to get squeezed if you are short or left behind if you go to cash.  This is the difficulty of the current market – QE causes it not to behave as normal.  In the "old days" today would be a day to take major note of.

The RSI I noted at an extremely rare 75 this morning, is...



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All About Trends

Mid-Day Update

May 22nd, 2013 1:40 pm

Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Click here for the full report.




To learn more, sign up for David's free newsletter and receive the free report from All About Trends - "How To Outperform 90% Of Wall Street With Just $500 A Week." Tell David PSW sent you. - Ilene...

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OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of May 20th, 2013

May 19th, 2013 11:38 pm

Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current  trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

...

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly

May 19th, 2013 1:09 am

NEW: Newsletter writers are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.

Here's the latest Stock World Weekly! Just sign in with your PSW user name and password, or sign up to try it out. 

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IRA Strategy/Income Trader

The IRA portfolio

May 15th, 2013 7:35 pm

Reminder: Craigzooka is available to chat with Members regarding his virtual portfolio performance, comments are found below each post.

By Craigzooka

I am going to share with you how I manage my IRA and the power of reducing your cost basis.  My goal each year is a 20% return in my IRA.  Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don't, but I believe that all of my success is due to reducing my cost basis.  To illustrate the power of reducing your cost basis here are some trades we did last year.  These trades are taken from an educational portfolio we ran in a paper-trading account for a little more than a year.

  • We bought RIG on 5/15/2012 for $44.13, sold it on 1/18/2013 for $46 but booked a profit of $1,154.
  • We bought MT on 1/4/2012 for $19.24, sold it on 12/21/2012 for $15 but booked a profit of $454.
  • We bought CHK on 1/27/2012 for $21.93, sold it on 10/19/2012 for $18 b...


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ETF Selector

Stock Market Gets Big News After Friday’s Close

May 12th, 2013 7:23 am

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Stock market posts another record setting week, but the big news came after Friday’s close.

Courtesy of NASA

The stock market put on another record setting show with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) closing at a record high 15,118 and the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) closing at 1633.70, another all time closing high.

For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) gained 1%, the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) climbed 1.2%, the Nasdaq Composite (NYSEARCA:...



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Pharmboy

Give Them an Inch, They Will Take a Mile

January 21st, 2013 8:09 pm

Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Well, well, well....it is good to know that there are others in the scientific arena who believed that YMI Bioscience's data (cough - Gilead) is a better drug than Incyte's Jakafi.  Now, the definitive data are still unknown, but there was enough evidence from a Phase 2 trial to take a small risk for a huge reward.  So, let's forget about Apple (AAPL), and do nothing but biotechs from now until Congress passes universal health care coverage for prescriptions....and drive the prices down so that research and development is no longer feasible to conduct in the US. Even Seattle Genetics (SGEN) has been on a tear as of late...



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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...

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