Hello All,
Here is a link to Keith Olberman of MNBC's Countdown Show and his thoughts on Pres. Bush's speech . He feels President Bush owes citizens an apology.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/#060918b

Lobbyists are a bane to this country - as long as senators/congressmen get their election funds from private groups, there won't be any change in this country.

Why can't we publicly fund candidates and make private donations illegal??

A perfect society Dave, im all for it, but its up to you as a US citizen to make it happen.

Publicly fund candidates? Ok, so your tax dollars go to candidates whom you do not support? Why as a free citizen can I not give money to someone whom I support. Obviously financial support should come with limits. But when you allow bureaucrats to decide the financing of elections it is even more dangerous than private sector contributions.

"On his own, the Amaranth trader, Brian Hunter, did not make several billion dollars, and he did not lose it on his own. We need to hear about the whole story inside Amaranth."

Has Amaranth any obligation to tell "the whole story"???? The fact they pay several million Dollars compensation to a guy which happend to have luck in the markets for 2 or 3 years and which work could be done easily by a hundred lots of people for a lot less than that amount, tells me an story of its own.

This is bullshit crazyness and i wonder what the hell the equity supplier of A.-Fund did think of, if they had ever think or only saw the $$$ of past returns.

Chance of making BIG returns are accompanied by BIG risks.

NY Times reported yesterday that AIG had exceeded political contribution limits by using multiple offshore entities with names that bore no resemblance to AIG (all ulitimately taking money from a single AIG account). It's quite amazing this was EVER discovered. The system is so entrenched, it would take a generation of thinking, dedicated. hard-working Americans to change it. Where are they? Not in my part of the country ...

All is explained by the name of the fund: «Amaranth«, from Greek amarantos = unfading. Indeed unfading...

The United States is not a Democracy. It is a Plutocracy. The U.S. Constitution was never about "democracy." It established a mechanism whereby white, educated, land-owning men were in charge of the country. Women and people of color were only given the vote much later, after long, bitter struggle.

Not enough people really understand what this means. We have a knee-jerk response to the word "democracy," which is why the spin-meisters use it so often.

Bush's response to the question above is very, very telling, and deserves to be carefully studied. This is the mindset of the ruling classes. Underestimate it at your peril.

Also, the U.S. Constitution has no bearing on the financial markets and their manipulation. The Federal Reserve Bank was established in 1913 by an act of Congress. Thus, it is our elected representatives (funded by corporate money) who designated themselves to guard the henhouse.

I recommend David Korten's excellent "When Corporations Rule the World" and his newly released "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" for those interested in understanding and working for change in the existing global economic playing fields.

Bill,

absolutly!

Sunlight on this!

Here in Germany we have a political discussion about a 30% payhike for the boss of Siemens (SIE:DE). Just for perspective^^

A loss of that magnitude would ripple the country here^^ Hedge Funds (as they exist in the US) are NOT allowed in Germany, and i think for some reason! And i am glad about this.

Hedge fund managers get paid enormously, which explains their behaviour. If you can collect between 20% and 60% of the profits on others people money, that is a huge incentive: For fraud, abuse and huge risks.

It's the perfect world for the chosen few: If a speculation pays off, you make millions in a minute. And if you screw up by misjudging the market (e.g nat gas) then you're perhaps fired. But it only gets better: You are employed at another fund where you can play again. That's what happened to Brian Hunter.

Reported this morning is that Hunter, while making between $75 & $100 million last year, was ranked 29th on the list of highest-earning traders for 2005! Would be interesting to see what the other 28 made!

Re Hunter:

the other top traders are not a secret. We know it due to the fact that 2 unfrighted senators investigated the immense oil/gas speculation. Bill commented on their report on Aug. 29 and made the link to it available. The list of the traders can be found on pages 30 and following.

The really sad thing about this report is that almost no major newspaper (and of course no TV stations) took it up and tried to educate the Little People. That's the sorry state of the public debate in the US.

Bill,

I personally hope that Amaranth sinks into oblivion. Recall that it was they who took advantage of the rogue management situation at Stelco and manipulated the market in STE.a stock to acquire about 19.9% of the common shares ( 20% would have triggered the shareholder Rights Plan adopted by the board in 1998 ). They eventually unloaded their position before the stock went below a buck, and holders such as myself saw our equity wiped out because we believed there was justice in the system and regulators there to protect us.

re Hunter

As a commenter yesterday wrote, "Of course they (the big brokers" were trading against Amaranth." The only quesion is, were these brokers serving as Amaranth's brokers? Or maybe I am missing something about this "story behind the story."

My view is that Brian Hunter committed a number of trader sins. 1) He put far too much of his capital into one trade. 2) He had a huge position in an extremely illiquid market. Supposedly, he was overseen by a "risk management committee"? Lol, lol, and lol.

re BabyCondor & America

Hey I'm all for the Little People and all, but there are valid reasons why America is not a "democracy" -- though it is unfortunately increasingly becoming one. When people can vote to take money out of my pocket to put it into their's, that is the Tyranny of the Majority, a concept that used to be well understood and feared. You may call it 'Plutocracy' and put a class label on it, but society only works when the educated retain the reigns of power. The key, of course, is that there must be a level field for all, and then let 'evolutionary' forces do their work.

Brian Hunter was nothing special, nor does he have anything to do whatsover with politics. He's just another trading gunslinger who has "blown up" in a spectacular fashion.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has been writing about guys like this and their "black swans" for years.

There is nothing new under the sun.

All right Juker, I'll take the bait:

"there are valid reasons why America is not a "democracy"

Excuse me?! Please enlighten me and mention one reason.

"When people can vote to take money out of my pocket to put it into their's..."

Am I to understand that you have issues with taxation?

"but society only works when the educated retain the reigns of power."

Wow, just wow!! The gall, the arrogance...I am impressed. I look forward to reading such "educated" commentary in the future.

just_observing:

Please observe that America is a Representative Democracy.

If you want to observe a pure democracy , observe Venezuela. Observe that there is no Bill of Rights there, no property rights, no contractual law that is respected. But yet someone was 'elected'.

They are experiencing the Tyranny of the Majority, but you don't know what that is.