Financial fuckery thread

[Cain]

Yeah, it sounds like virtually any software household name brand had a part in this game.

[Cain]

Another dead banker.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-13/ryan-crane-jpmorgan-equities-trading-executive-dies-at-37.html

Ryan Crane, a JPMorgan (JPM) Chase & Co. employee who in a 14-year career at the New York-based bank rose to executive director of a unit that trades blocks of stocks for clients, has died. He was 37.

He died on Feb. 3 at his Stamford, Connecticut, home, according to the website of Leo P. Gallagher & Son Funeral Home in Greenwich, Connecticut. The cause of death will be determined when a toxicology report is completed in about six weeks, said a spokeswoman for the state's chief medical examiner.

Crane started at JPMorgan in equities trading after graduating from Harvard University in 1999, according to his profile on the LinkedIn Corp. website. Following promotions, he worked as an executive director, or a rank above vice president and below managing director, in the bank's Americas Program Trading group. Program traders handle transactions in baskets of at least 15 stocks, often for mutual-fund clients seeking to rebalance index-linked portfolios.

It'd be nice to have some kind of base-rate for deaths of executive bankers by time of year and age, to compare this apparently recent glut of suicides and deaths to.

I mean, it's possible this is entirely normal and within the established baseline of expected deaths for people in that industry.  Or for people otherwise matching their demographic characteristics.  It's even likely that this is the case.

But I like numbers, to be sure.  Because I keep hearing disturbing rumours about the housing market in the USA and UK.  I keep hearing that the problems aren't solved, and the next crisis could be magnitudes worse than 2008.  And bankers killing themselves could be an indication that something is about to go down, badly.

Or it could be something else.  Banks and organised crime are joined at the hip.  HSBC and Wachovia do business with terrorists and cartels on a daily basis...do we really think JP Morgan wouldn't also involve themselves?  Has something happened to cause a split, or for these groups to believe the banks are not being entirely honest with their cash?

Like I said, it's probably nothing.  But I'd like to know for sure. I'm just too lazy to crunch the numbers.

[Junkenstein]

Hmm. This is starting to be a trend I can get behind.

But I like numbers, to be sure.  Because I keep hearing disturbing rumours about the housing market in the USA and UK.  I keep hearing that the problems aren't solved, and the next crisis could be magnitudes worse than 2008.  And bankers killing themselves could be an indication that something is about to go down, badly.

I keep hearing similar things only about China and the inevitability of doom there. I've been chalking most of it up to fearmongering with an inevitable failure due there at some point anyway in the future. A crisis or good warning of an upcoming one there could certainly cause suicidal feelings here if you've heavily invested your rebalancing strategy on it.

No proof, naturally, but seemed worth raising as an outside possibility.

[Telarus]

Whoa, another one? I think you're right to keep an eye on this (good idea keeping the Lo5s in mind tho).

[Salty]

I was made aware that there's been zero change in regulation RE: mortgage lending practices, which is ever so slightly terrifying.

Hopefully, this trend is simply due to all those carefully made voodoo dolls in my closet.

[Telarus]

And we have another.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/02/18/j-p-morgan-employee-falls-to-death-in-hong-kong/

[Salty]

Jesus. That's, what, six?

[Salty]

Eh, I dunno. I just can't buy the idea that I've already seen conspiracy nuts tout over this. The notion that impending economic doom would cause these people to kill themselves seems a bit absurd. They would still have more resources than most, already do. It's the little people that end up starving to death in such situations. The rich are almost always relatively rich.

And, IIRC, the number of people who jumped to their deaths because of the market crash that led to the Depression is dramatized.   

[Salty]

What if, now hear me out, what if...these bankers feel...guilty for fucking millions and millions of people ovahahahaha HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, god, I kid, I kid.

[Cain]

That's what makes it odd.  People in a business where ruthlessly fucking everyone over isn't merely expected, but also valorised, seem to be showing a great amount of grief and depression at their situation.

Which means either "banker" is the wrong characteristic to be focusing on, when it should be, say, "late-middle age workaholics whose personal lives are a shambles and drink too much", or something strange is going on.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

This guy missed an epic sink-shitting opportunity:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html

"Give me that or I'll fucking break it!" Novogratz yelled, grabbing for my phone, which was filled with damning evidence. His eyes were bloodshot, and his neck veins were bulging. The song onstage was now over, and a number of prominent Kappas had rushed over to our table. Before the situation could escalate dangerously, a bond investor and former Grand Swipe named Alexandra Lebenthal stepped in between us. Wilbur Ross quickly followed, and the two of them led me out into the lobby, past a throng of Wall Street tycoons, some of whom seemed to be hyperventilating.

I have to forgive him because he got a handy list of their names but man, what a missed opportunity.

[Cain]

He almost caused them to shit in sinks with the video he made, so that counts for something, right?

As an aside, I would've strung them along on the offer of hush money, then reported on that, too.

[Cain]

Gold prices have been manipulated, it seems

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/gold-fix-study-shows-signs-of-decade-of-bank-manipulation.html

The London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say.

Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be investigated, New York University's Stern School of Business Professor Rosa Abrantes-Metz and Albert Metz, a managing director at Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a draft research paper.

"The structure of the benchmark is certainly conducive to collusion and manipulation, and the empirical data are consistent with price artificiality," they say in the report, which hasn't yet been submitted for publication. "It is likely that co-operation between participants may be occurring."

The paper is the first to raise the possibility that the five banks overseeing the century-old rate — Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Societe Generale SA (GLE) — may have been actively working together to manipulate the benchmark. It also adds to pressure on the firms to overhaul the way the rate is calculated. Authorities around the world, already investigating the manipulation of benchmarks from interest rates to foreign exchange, are examining the $20 trillion gold market for signs of wrongdoing.

The data seems to show manipulation of gold prices, in a steady downward direction, since 2004.  The author of the paper says he himself is not entirely sure why this would be the case.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Gold prices have been manipulated, it seems

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-28/gold-fix-study-shows-signs-of-decade-of-bank-manipulation.html

The London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say.

Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be investigated, New York University's Stern School of Business Professor Rosa Abrantes-Metz and Albert Metz, a managing director at Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a draft research paper.

"The structure of the benchmark is certainly conducive to collusion and manipulation, and the empirical data are consistent with price artificiality," they say in the report, which hasn't yet been submitted for publication. "It is likely that co-operation between participants may be occurring."

The paper is the first to raise the possibility that the five banks overseeing the century-old rate — Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Societe Generale SA (GLE) — may have been actively working together to manipulate the benchmark. It also adds to pressure on the firms to overhaul the way the rate is calculated. Authorities around the world, already investigating the manipulation of benchmarks from interest rates to foreign exchange, are examining the $20 trillion gold market for signs of wrongdoing.

The data seems to show manipulation of gold prices, in a steady downward direction, since 2004.  The author of the paper says he himself is not entirely sure why this would be the case.

SURPRISE!

[hirley0]

SURP  RISE!

Did you mean SURF RISE ?

http://en.mercopress.com/2014/03/07/with-an-eye-on-argentina-and-venezuela-brazil-private-sector-wants-mercosur-trade-in-local-currencies