JOGAR NO CASINO COM CARTAS MARCADAS

First Subprime, Now Europe
Revenge of the Rating Agencies
By Marc Pitzke in New York


AFP
The New York Stock Exchange: The power of the credit rating agencies has remained undiminished, despite their role in triggering the 2008 financial crisis.
Many observers assign a large part of the blame for the 2008 financial crisis to the "big three" credit rating agencies, which gave their AAA seal of approval to worthless investments. Now those same agencies are helping to bring the euro zone to its knees -- and no one is trying to stop them.

The scandal brewing over Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's biggest bank, has been sucking in more and more players. These include the bankers and traders who sold the infamously risky credit products that helped trigger the subprime crisis, the hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, who cashed in big at the expense of the victims, and the US politicians who condoned the farce for the longest time.


One group, however, has so far escaped the grip of the widening affair, although it's embroiled just as deeply. That group is the major credit rating agencies -- the same ones which are now causing Europe to shudder, having downgraded their ratings for Greece, Spain and Portugal.

It was Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's, the same two agencies which are now rocking the European boat, which in 2007 had given their seal of approval to "Abacus 2007-AC1," Goldman's ill-fated credit product, by giving it the highest AAA rating -- only to cut it down to "junk" status nine months later. Goldman's investors lost more than $1 billion; the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing Goldman for fraud, alleging that it misled investors.

Phantoms and Puppet Masters

Wherever things blow up in the financial world, the rating agencies' tracks can be found. The anonymous analysts of S&P, Moody's and Fitch (the smallest of the "big three") were center stage during the global crash. They also appear in the SEC fraud complaint against Goldman. And now they're causing financial havoc in Europe.

They're the éminences grises of Wall Street, phantoms and puppet masters. They wield enormous power over the fate of loans, deals, companies and even countries. Yet rarely has anyone ever really questioned their actions -- let alone held them accountable.

Their role, however, is far from unblemished. In the US, the rating agencies' behavior is now finally being called into question, albeit slowly. New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman accuses them of "a deeply corrupt system." US Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat, sees them as the main culprits in the credit crisis: "If any single event can be identified as the immediate trigger of the 2008 financial crisis, my vote would be for the mass downgrades starting in July 2007," he says. "Those mass downgrades hit the markets like a hammer."

From AAA to Junk

Levin chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, which on Tuesday also ripped through Goldman's top management. For 14 months, the committee has investigated the rating agencies. Last week, it published its preliminary findings -- a mountain of files, 581 pages thick. Levin's damning conclusion: "I don't think either of these companies have served their shareholders or the nation well."

The agencies "used inaccurate rating models in 2004-2007 that failed to predict how high-risk residential mortgages would perform; allowed competitive pressures to affect their ratings; and failed to reassess past ratings after improving their models in 2006," the inquiry found. "The companies failed to assign adequate staff to examine new and exotic investments, and neglected to take mortgage fraud, lax underwriting and 'unsustainable home price appreciation' into account in their models."

The result: Of all the subprime mortgage bundles which in 2006 were AAA-rated, 93 percent are "junk" today.

The Agencies Still Carry Carte Blanche

These are the same companies which are now messing with Europe's financial present and future. This is how it works: The agencies set the credit ratings for companies, even entire countries, and assess the risk of their investment products. These range from simple bonds to complex constructs like the derivatives and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) which formed the house of cards that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis and which are also at the center of the current lawsuit against Goldman Sachs.

Despite this dubious track record, the agencies still carry a carte blanche: If they award their highest seal of approval -- an AAA rating -- it means it's safe for investors. Unfortunately, such a rating can also be a trap. An AAA rating snared the Goldman clients -- among them the German bank IKB -- who invested in "Abacus 2007-AC1."

The agencies' quasi-monopoly goes back to 1909. That year, the financial analyst and investor John Moody began to categorize and score information about railroad companies, their stocks and their management. Later he added other industries and firms to the mix.

Today, Moody's analyzes more than 12,000 companies in 100 countries. S&P, which also maintains the famous S&P stock market indices, has been issuing ratings since 1916. It was bought by the financial and media conglomerate McGraw-Hill in 1966. Fitch, which was founded in 1916 and is now a subsidiary of the French holding company Fimalac, is the smallest member in this elite club.

Leading the Economy to Ruin

Ratings range from AAA all the way down to D. This traditional system proved to be worthless during the credit crisis. The dubious investment products at its heart defied serious and simple ratings. They were highly overrated by the agencies -- often at the request of the same companies who managed those products, which in return paid the rating agencies.

As early as 2006, Angelo Mozilo, then CEO of Countrywide, America's largest mortgage company, called Countrywide's subprime loans "toxic." Yet it took Moody's until the summer of 2007 to downgrade them. All this happened under the watchful eye of the US government.

That example was no exception. For years, the agencies gave their blessing to subprime loans which would later become the quicksand of the crisis, even when their risks were already known. This puts much of the responsibility for the collapse that followed onto the agencies' shoulders.

Their ratings helped lead the investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns into ruin and helped destroy the insurance giant AIG. They also contributed to a trillion-dollar hole in the US budget. "The story of the credit rating agencies is a story of colossal failure," says Representative Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

'We Sold Our Soul to the Devil for Revenue'

For a century, the rating agencies have acted as Wall Street's trusted referees. "But now, that trust has been broken," states Senator Levin's committee. "And they did it for the money."

From 2002 to 2007, the three top credit rating agencies doubled their revenues, from less than $3 billion ($2.2 billion) to over $6 billion per year. Most of this increase came from ratings. Their executives got paid "Wall Street-sized salaries," according to the Senate committee.

"It's like one of the parties in court paying the judge's salary, or one of the teams in a competition paying the salary of the referee," the report continues. The New York Times put it this way: "It is as if Hollywood studios paid movie critics to review their would-be blockbusters."

Not that they weren't aware of it themselves. Back in 2006, an S&P employee wrote in an internal email: "We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it." The next year, one of Moody's executives complained to his superiors that he felt "like we sold our soul to the devil for revenue."

The agencies and the banks are not just connected by money, but also by personnel. In 2005, Goldman hired Shin Yukawa, a ratings expert, away from Fitch. Yukawa immediately put his knowledge to good use -- in Goldman's mortgage department, which created "structured" credit products and made sure they got splendid ratings. One of these products was "Abacus 2007-AC1."

Little Chance of Reform


Yet a reform of the system is not in sight. The Democrats' current proposals to further regulate the US financial industry contain little about the rating agencies, apart from a tepid appeal to "strengthen" their regulation.

Some critics are now trying a different approach. A few institutional investors -- among them the state of Ohio -- are suing the agencies for their role in the financial crisis. On Monday, a Manhattan court denied Moody's and S&P's joint motion to dismiss one of those class-action lawsuits.

Two days later, S&P's hammer fell on Spain.

POR CÁ O COMITÉ CENTRAL OU MESA DOS PARTIDOS PROGRESSISTAS DA AR IMPÕE A COLONIZAÇÃO COM DIREITOS.

EEUU | La población se encuentra dividida

Una mayoría de estadounidenses apoya la ley de Arizona sobre inmigración
Ricard González | Washington
Actualizado miércoles 05/05/2010 04:21 horasDisminuye el tamaño del texto Aumenta el tamaño del texto
No va a ser nada fácil para los activistas pro-inmigración convencer a una mayoría de congresistas de que apruebe la reforma inmigratoria antes de las elecciones legislativas de noviembre. Sobre todo, tras la publicación de una encuesta en la que una mayoría de la población aprueba la dura ley de Arizona sobre inmigración, y que muestra como las opiniones de la población sobre la inmigración se han endurecido durante los últimos años.

De acuerdo con una encuesta encargada por 'The New York Times' y la cadena CBS, un 51% de los norteamericanos está a favor de la ley de Arizona, mientras un 38% considera que va demasiado lejos, y otro 9% cree que la norma debería ser aún más estricta.

E DEPOIS ADMIRAM-SE DOS RESULTADOS.ESTES BONS ALUNOS DO POLITICAMENTE CORRECTO DERAM TUDO SEM RECIPROCIDADES EM NENHUM LUGAR.VENDERAM PURA E SIMPLESMENTE OS SEUS CONCICADÃOS E CODENAM-NOS A SERVIR-LHES DE ESCRAVOS E AOS SEUS ACOLHIDOS...

AS RECIPROCIDADES EM ÁFRICA.E A COBARDIA DA EUROPA

May 5, 2010

‘We’re in the final days of white life in South Africa’

(Marc Shoul/The Times)
Jonathan Clayton in Vredefort

The gunman leant forward and pushed the pistol hard into Manie Potgieter’s neck. “Listen, you white bastard,” he whispered, his breath heavy with alcohol. “I have Aids. We are now going to rape your wife and give her Aids too. Then, we kill you, got it?”

From his position on the floor, hands tied behind his back, he could hear his assailant’s three accomplices pulling the tracksuit bottoms off his wife, Helena, 28.

“I was sure they were going to shoot me, but I just prayed she would be OK. She was telling me in Afrikaans not to worry. I just prayed,” Mr Potgieter, 30, a blond giant of a man, told The Times.

Suddenly, a clang of metal echoed through the early morning air — and the attackers took fright. They had been in the remote farmhouse for an hour and dawn was fast approaching. “Let’s go, someone is coming,” one of them shouted in panic. Without firing a shot they were suddenly gone.


The Potgieters’ nightmare was over — but it was one of the very few happy endings to a spate of attacks on South Africa’s white Afrikaner farming communities in which an estimated 3,000 people have been killed since 1994.

On another farm, a few miles away, Louis Boshoff, 65, and his wife, Elsabe, 57, were not so lucky. A few months ago, Mr Boshoff arose early one morning, as he has done for almost 47 years, to milk his small dairy herd.

“Two men were hiding in one of the outdoor sheds. They had balaclavas on and came at me. One had a gun and the other a catapult with ball bearings as shot,” he said.

When one of them fired at his barking dogs, Mr Boshoff saw red and tried to rush them, but he was shot twice. He lost his spleen, most of his pancreas and half his liver. His wife rushed to be at his side, tripped and suffered a broken leg.

The subject of attacks on white farmers is deeply disliked by the ruling African National Congress for the unflattering comparisons that it brings with neighbouring Zimbabwe, but it has come to the fore since the murder of the white supremacist leader Eugène Terre’Blanche a month ago. That incident followed a sharp deterioration in race relations after Julius Malema, the outspoken leader of the ANC’s Youth League, started singing at rallies an old anti-apartheid struggle song that includes the words “shoot the boer [farmer]”.

The High Court banned the song but the ruling is now under appeal. Mr Malema faces an ANC disciplinary hearing after he defied orders and continued to sing the song while visiting Zimbabwe, where he praised President Mugabe for land reform policies, under which 4,000 white commercial farmers have been driven off the land in the past decade.

Since Terre’Blanche’s murder the farm attacks have continued unabated. Last week another two white farmers were killed in separate attacks.

“The murder of TB [Terre’Blanche] was planned. They start singing ‘kill the boer’ — then the most famous boer of the lot is murdered. I did not support him, but do not tell me it is not linked,” said Ian Bothma, 47, a tradesman from Terre’Blanche’s home town who has recently applied to emigrate to Australia. “We are now in the final days of white life in this country.”

The Government points out that blacks are also the targets of farm attacks; black unions, for their part, emphasise that, 16 years after the end of apartheid, many black farm workers are still ill treated, with their white employers accused of fuelling the violence by paying derisory wages and using illegal migrant labour.

At the root of the problem is the Government’s failure to carry out land reforms that meet black aspirations without destroying the productive agricultural sector. It wants at least one third of productive farm land to be in black hands by 2014 but is way off target. The land bank set up to finance farm purchases is broke; fleeced by its own managers, with a corruption investigation under way.

Andre Botha, chairman of Agriculture South Africa’s rural safety committee, told parliament recently that the biggest challenge facing the industry was “irresponsible remarks” by officials and politicians. “If we are excluded from being South African then there is a big question mark put on democracy,” he said.

Last week, President Zuma promised that there would be no Zimbabwean-style land grabs — but most whites are not convinced. “I was born and bred here but it is time to go,” Mr Bothma said. “It is unfair to inflict such a future on our children.”



40,000 farmers in South Africa

3,000 farmers murdered since the end of apartheid

800,000 white South Africans out of a total of 4.4 million have emigrated since 1995

200,000 hectares of abandoned farmland has been leased by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to farmers fleeing South Africa

87% of agricultural land was owned by whites at the end of the apartheid era

30% of land must be in black hands by 2014, if government targets for land reform are to be met

2% of land has changed hands so far, with funds for further purchases having dried up and a corruption inquiry under way

20% of South Africans of all races want to emigrate, with 95 per cent of those naming violent crime as the single most important factor

PELOS VISTOS LÁ NÃO EXITE SOS RACISMO FORMADO POR BRANCOS E PAGOS PELOS PRETOS...
NEM O TODOS IGUAIS, TODOS DIFERENTES.SÓ PEÇAS DE CAÇA GROSSA QUE DEIXA FELIZ TODO O MUNDO...O QUE COMEÇA LOGO AQUI EM MARROCOS...

MAIS ROUBOS MENOS IMPOSTOS DE CERTEZA...

Segurança nos hipers reforçada
CATARINA CRAVEIRO
Para fazer face ao crescente número de roubos ocorridos nas superfícies comerciais - no ano passado, os furtos no comércio provocaram perdas superiores a 348 milhões de euros em Portugal, segundo um estudo da Checkpoint -, a segurança vai ser reforçada nos supers e hipermercados.

OS COLARINHOS BRANCOS PROTEGEM BEM OS CANOS SERRADOS.NO FINAL OS TRABALHADORES POR CONTA DE OUTREM PAGAM MAIS UM BOCADINHO DE TODO ESTE IMPÉRIO DE NOVO TIPO...

E QUEM NÃO SE DEIXE ROUBAR É CRIMINOSO...

05 Maio 2010 - 00h30

Santo Tirso
“Não se sabe a sequência dos tiros”
"Nunca se conseguiu concluir na investigação quem disparou primeiro". A afirmação é do inspector da PJ que, ontem de manhã, depos perante o colectivo de juízes do Tribunal de Santo Tirso, no julgamento do ourives acusado de matar um ladrão durante um assalto.


No banco dos réus sentam-se, além do ourives Fernando Vilaça, os quatro comparsas da vítima mortal, por roubo à mão armada à ourivesaria da Trofa, em Julho de 2009. Dos disparos entre o dono da loja e os assaltantes, o investigador da PJ garante que "não se sabe a sequência dos tiros".

UM ESTADO QUE NÃO GARANTE A SEGURANÇA DOS SEUS CIDADÃOS DEVE IR ABAIXO.AINDA POR CIMA QUANDO SE COLOCA DELIBERADAMENTE AO LADO DOS CRIMINOSOS.

IMIGRAÇÃO-NACIONALIZAÇÃO ENRIQUECEDORA...

05 Maio 2010 - 00h30

Sintra: Trio de assaltantes foge sete quilómetros
Tentam abalroar polícia no IC19
Três jovens, dois de 17 anos e um de 16, suspeitos de roubos por esticão ocorridos nos últimos três dias, na Amadora, fugiram anteontem à PSP no IC19 (sentido Sintra-Lisboa), depois de terem desrespeitado um sinal de paragem em Mem Martins. Pelo caminho, o gang tentou abalroar um motociclista e vários carros-patrulha da PSP, vindo a despistar-se junto à esquadra da PSP de Queluz.


Pelo menos desde domingo que este gang é referenciado na Amadora. Conduzindo um carro furtado, os jovens abordam as vítimas na via pública, roubando--lhes artigos em ouro.

Pelas 23h00 de segunda-feira, a viatura suspeita foi detectada por um motociclista da esquadra de trânsito de Sintra, na avenida Vitorino Nemésio, em Mem Martins. O condutor desrespeitou a ordem de paragem, tentando abalroar o agente. Iniciou-se então uma perseguição, que depressa entrou no IC19. Cerca de sete quilómetros depois, o Renault Clio sai do IC19 em direcção ao Hospital Amadora-Sintra, embatendo com um automóvel. Já com seis carros-patrulha e uma moto da PSP no encalço, os jovens acabam por despistar-se junto à esquadra da PSP de Queluz, danificando três carros ali estacionados. Apesar de terem tentado a fuga a pé, foram todos apanhados, tendo apenas o condutor da viatura ficado detido para ser presente ao juiz.

-------------
05 Maio 2010 - 00h30

Loures: Secção de roubos da Judiciária caça quatro assaltantes
Torturado 3 horas
Sofreu um toque na traseira do carro, à chegada a casa, e saiu logo para resolver o problema com uma declaração amigável. Mas nada ali estava a acontecer por acaso e, sem saber, acabara de cair numa armadilha que o arrastou para mais de três horas de terror – sequestrado e espancado dentro do próprio carro por três dos quatro assaltantes. O pesadelo só acabou já de madrugada, há cerca de um mês, em Loures, quando o gang lhe conseguiu sacar mais de 3900 euros.



Proprietário de uma oficina era conhecido de um dos assaltantes, jovens entre os 21 e 25 anos. Sabiam que a vítima tinha dinheiro e bens e emboscaram-na com um falso acidente – o engodo perfeito. Acabou enfiado no banco de trás do próprio carro, sequestrado e agredido durante horas a fio, forçado a dar códigos dos cartões multibanco com que o gang lhe sacou dinheiro em várias caixas ATM de Loures, Lisboa e Cascais. Três seguiam sempre com a vítima; o quarto elemento ia sozinho no Seat cinzento de um deles (ver foto). E este foi o erro que cometeram, tendo sido apanhados anteontem pela Secção de Roubos da Judiciária de Lisboa. No final, a vítima decorou a matrícula.

Durante o sequestro, roubaram--lhe ainda vários bens e a chave da oficina de automóveis, que tentaram assaltar. Só recuaram face ao soar do alarme do estabelecimento. E esgotada a possibilidade de levantarem mais dinheiro decidiram libertar a vítima, dentro do seu carro – na altura em que esta conseguiu ver a matrícula do Seat.

Facilmente o dono do automóvel foi identificado pela PJ, que ao fim de um mês desmantelou agora todo o gang. Para já respondem por crimes de sequestro e roubo qualificado, entre outros, desta vítima – mas os investigadores acreditam que terão feito outros assaltos. Em busca domiciliária a um deles, foram encontrados uma caçadeira de canos serrados, seis gorros passa--montanhas e três pares de luvas.

PORMENORES

PROCURADO

Um dos quatro assaltantes, em cuja casa a Polícia Judiciária encontrou uma caçadeira, seis gorros passa-montanhas e três pares de luvas, já era procurado por suspeitas de pelo menos mais um roubo violento – a uma mulher, por esticão.

OUTROS CRIMES

A Secção de Roubos da PJ, com a apreensão de uma arma de fogo e material presumivelmente utilizado em assaltos, procura agora reunir provas que permitam ligar os quatro assaltantes a outros crimes violentos na Grande Lisboa, participados mas ainda por resolver.

INTERROGADOS

Os quatro homens, entre os 21 e 25 anos, foram ontem à tarde presentes ao Tribunal de Loures, onde a vítima foi sequestrada, para serem ouvidos por um juiz de instrução criminal. À hora de fecho desta edição continuavam a ser interrogados.


E CÁ ESTÁ O POLITICAMENTE CORRECTO A CULPAR A MAIORIA.A PROPAGANDA DIZER-NOS DA ASNEIRA MONSTRUOSA E TRAIDORA DO QUE TÊM ANDADO A FAZER?ESTÁ QUIETO...OS INDÍGENAS QUE PAGUEM QUE TÊM AS COSTAS LARGAS...E MUITO JEITINHO PARA ESCRAVOS MODERNOS...
E AI DE QUEM REFILE, SE DEFENDA QUE ESSE VAI LOGO DENTRO!

DEITAR DINHEIRO Á RUA

Provas não contam para a nota, contam para as escolas

REPONHAM A SERIEDADE DA DITADURA PÁ...