Jesse’s Café Américain Blog had a post Monday (sorry, just catching up) on MF Global and how the government is not done anything but protect the perps so far. This has left the tax paying citizen/customers dangling in the wind and now facing potential tax bills on money they may never see- how great is that? This is on top of the supposed regulator doing nothing to protect customer accounts while the TBTE banks hide the MF Global cash they hold from everyone. Here’s what got me from the post:
“Remember that the customers were not speculators who lost money on their bets, as the bailed out banks had been, but in many cases were depositors who had cash and valid title to precious metals and treasuries held on account in a firm that was one of the Fed’s primary dealers and a major player at the CME. And the money was taken twice. First by MF Global, and then by the financial institutions that seized the money and then manipulated the courts and the press to hide it and to keep it.
The theft of customer funds was bad enough, but the manner in which the exchange, the regulators, the court, the Congress and the Obama Administration have dealt with the aftermath of this is truly despicable. Throughout the financial crisis the character of the public’s dealings with the financial sector has been dominated by of opacity, obfuscation, misuse of influence, abuse of power, and fear.”
If you can stand to read the whole post at: MF Global: A Despicable State of Affairs
Can your broker’s company, its regulator or the exchanges they trade on be trusted? That is a big question. If you doubt that read up on re-hypothecation and then study very carefully the fine print in your brokerage agreement. For more see:
MF Global and the lie about safe accounts and MF Global and the great Wall St re-hypothecation scandal and this MF Global and Rehypothecation Now you understand why your brokerage was so hot for you to sign up for a margin account, even though you never trade on margin!
BTW JCA is a great place to get a non-corporate view of finance, the markets, government and politics.
