By Larry Doyle, www.senseoncents.com

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning Lehman Role Probed in Selling Securities:

The Justice Department has questioned several former executives at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. as part of its criminal investigation into whether they sold supposedly safe, liquid securities to clients while knowing that the market for the securities was drying up… (more…)

By Larry Doyle

Everybody knows Auction Rate Securities (ARS) were cash or cash-like, right? FINRA certainly did NOTHING to protect investors from the ARS sales and marketing scam perpetrated on investors.

FINRA spokesman Herb Perone would like to wash his hands and those of FINRA of any negligence or incompetence in regard to FINRA’s investments in Auction Rate Securities. The easiest manner of washing one’s hands is to point the finger at the entity which initially made the investment, in this case the NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers). If you recall, FINRA was formed in mid-2007 from the regulatory arms of the NYSE and NASD. In any event, Perone tries to deflect culpability on FINRA’s part in the recently reported Bloomberg story (FINRA Oversees Auction-Rate Arbitrations After Exit) highlighting FINRA’s sale of their Auction Rate Securities prior to the market’s implosion leaving thousands of investors and billions of dollars frozen… (more…)

Do nothing, get what you deserve.

Timothy Geithner, in his infinite wisdom, has said that he will regulate salaries at US financial institutions by placing caps on the amount that can be earned. He also says that he has the legal authority to do so.

I’m calling BS.

While I may rant and rave that there is no legal basis for his claim, and that it is purely baseless, defensless, unconstitutional and even seditious, he’ll go ahead and “do it” and nobody will oppose. Certainly not Congress or the Justice Department. Both are proving useless lately; for example the very concept of bailing out an insolvent financial institution is illegal (morally proper or not); statutory regulations require the orderly liquidation of insolvent financial institutions. Regulations that specify things like the appointment of a receiver, etc.

But nowhwere in any of the statutes, as far as this author can find, is there anything remotely suggesting that anyone has the power to go ahead and unilaterally determine that “This Institution Shall Not Fail”, particularly when the same individual also makes the unilateral determination that other equally deserving institutions will be allowed to fail, and forces nine other institutions to take funds against their will. (more…)

How to tell when the real Bottom has occurred

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, AIG, Washington Mutual and Wachovia Failing, TARP programs, 4500 point Dow Drop, Housing Crash, Credit Crunch, Layoffs, Foreclosures, more Layoffs, Credit Crunch, More TARP money, Bankrupt Automakers, Government Takeovers, Pick a Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, Sanford, Harbor private funds, Wall Street Bonuses, 3 trillion in government spending, Wall Street Greed and Bonuses with TARP money, More TARP money, Hyperinflation on the horizon, more layoffs and finally…..The Mexican Swine Flu. (more…)