Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Of Insurgent Finance.....and Venture Communism... | 22 comments (22 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
I'm deeply distressed (4.00 / 5)
by the lack of historical understanding of who Michael Milkin was. Some 30 years ago, I was part of a team that assembled what is basically an intelligence dossier on Milkin and his operation. In no way does Milkin represent a shift and break from the traditional Anglo-American establishment control of Wall Street and American finance. The entire network of Milkin's corporate raiders, in fact, were merely front men - thugs - deployed by old line oligarchical families as they pursued their policy of deliberate de-industrialization. Rupert Murdoch was no fucking upstart, either.

There were many others behind the scenes who should also have been held accountable for what Milkin eventually went to jail for. For example, Tony Gebauer who had been at J.P. Morgan for over 20 years before being brought into Milkin's operation. Lazard Freres should have been crucified but skated entirely. And then there were the bluebloods at the law firms such as Sullivan and Cromwell; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Cravath, Swaine & Moore.  Taking down the Wall Street law firms is going to be the thorniest problem in dealing with finance as a criminal terrorist conspiracy.

The fact that this remains an ongoing conspiracy is seen in the fact that AIG FP's credit default swap operation was basically set up by a bunch of thugs that had worked for Milkin, centered around trader Howie Sosin.

As for the idea that many of the targets of these bastards were "declining industrial concerns" the prize-winning work of Philadelphia Inquirer reporters Donald Bartlett and James Steele (http://americawhatwentwrong.org/Barlett-and-Steele/) in the early 1990s presented a number of case studies showing how these industrial companies had actually been decimated by the "miracles" of modern finance. It had nothing to do with their being "in decline."

Finally, a challenge for anyone who doubts all this: please identify for me the period or point in time in the past century when the Anglo-American oligarchies ceased to be self-perpetuating. This question goes directly to the "agency" question of whether history is accidental, or in some fashion shaped and directed by human design,

by NBBooks on Mon May 16th, 2011 at 10:55:02 AM EST
Re: I'm deeply distressed (none / 1)
Mark Mitchell started out writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, but has posted his most provocative writing on Deep Capture, where he has a 15 part series on the history of Dendreon explaining in great detail how Michael Milken operated, at times in conjunction with Bernie Madoff, to manipulate the market in emerging pharma companies to the profit of those involved. Seems that legitimate companies that might produce genuine advancements in areas where Milken's spawn were scamming were deliberately tanked. This includes Dendreon, which is the focus of his series. Lots of names are named, some with ties to organized crime, who are part of the "new elite" that emerged in the 80s and 90s. It is surprising that Mark Mitchell is still alive.

I would expect that much of the material cited by NBBooks will collaborate Mark Mitchell's work, which is, unfortunately, too easily dismissed as "conspiracy theory". When someone commits crimes causing as much damage as the Junk Bond fiasco, as Michael Milken did, and ends up doing a short time in jail and emerges with $600,000,000 in "earnings" safely stashed in "The Milken Family Foundation" you can see just how rotten the finance system in the US has been for how long. Alan Abelson of Barron's was one observer who got it right in his weekly columns back then.

Madoff had a hedge fund back then, along with his pyramid scam fund. One of the things Mitchell shows is that, due to the rules of the SEC and other regulatory bodies, hedge funds can legally sell naked shorts on stocks. Whenever the involved players needed to tank Denderon, like after a favorable FDA ruling, Madoff's fund would sell a massive naked short on the stock. It is likely that much of the money for these operations came from the other Madoff fund.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon May 16th, 2011 at 02:08:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I'm deeply distressed (none / 0)
(I may have mangled the justification for naked shorting by Madoff's company, but I don't have time just now to go back to the Mitchell articles.)

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon May 16th, 2011 at 02:11:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I'm deeply distressed (none / 1)
Lots of names are named, some with ties to organized crime, who are part of the "new elite" that emerged in the 80s and 90s.

Brother, these guys ARE organized crime.

by US Blues on Mon May 16th, 2011 at 04:19:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I'm deeply distressed (none / 1)
Agreed. Organized and committing crimes, but, due to "regulatory forbearance" and political capture not prosecuted. That is the problem: if people are repeatedly allowed to engage in criminal activities without consequences, if they are smart, they obtain advantages that drive others out of business. Gresham's law applied to business practices.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon May 16th, 2011 at 04:44:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Of Insurgent Finance.....and Venture Communism... | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Display: