Fund Portfolio Management - FPM have incubated relationship and interest in 3 investment vehicles, evolving our enterprise emerging out of the ashes of the 2007-08 U.S.-stemmed global financial crisis. In regards to these vehicles, simple web browser search will connect you to its founders.
Michael Wexler led Maple Leaf Capital Fund
David Tawil's Maglan Capital Fund
Andrew Downie's Zipabout.com
We are proud affliated third-party marketeers in a crowded space of investment funds and tech ventures. For forging FPM's indepedent institutional broking / advisory capacity with integrity of management and alignment of purposes, these three vehicles are from highly select associates.
Two are London City incepted investment-stage vehicles and the other founded and based in the USA. FPM principals' relationship with two of the three vehicles' leaders are historic and meaningful, and Maglan Capital's inception performance speaks volumes for itself too. So with that depth of relationship awareness we seek to facilitate further investment introductions. The future of these essentially "restart vehicles" from their veteran founding entrepreneurs is exciting for FPM's marketing in this epochal socio-digital reformed-capitalist era.
TO
DIRECT YOUR ENQUIRIES TO OUR ENDORSED AFFILIATES PLEASE CREDIT FPM AS SOURCE,
ALTERNATIVELY CONTACT FPM'S K. Kristian Siva or call +44 (0)79126 178734.
One’s future status is somewhat dependent on our past and present ones. FPM independence
and lack of conflict of interest permits pronouncements of financial miscreants.
Whereas other sources, such as brokerage research or industry adherents like
mainstream media, maybe reluctant to spite the hand that feeds them. In less
measure as well, FPM will be signalling singled-out flagships and heroes of
progressive good and fair professional financial conduct. This last propriety
of financial conduct is our standard expectation of professionals and
operations, therefore of less concern for us.
April is the second anniversary of “No Smoke Without Fire”,
initially a blog exposition. See here. Then
FPM principals echoed “What To Do!” disaffection or disillusionment about the pernicious
status quo of investment management and banking in general. From FPM principals
being not little unaffected by the wrought global financial crisis. As
prototype case study our enterprise raison d’etre was made vivid by the
association between Blackstone Group and SAC Capital (now private corner-shop
"Point72 Asset Management"). That mild reporter termed “insider
trading scandal” is more telling than mere smoke and mirror PR, about
corruption in corporate banking life over the past 35, at least, years.
A Diary and Degree Recommendation With this missive, Kristian, as a founding principal of FPM,
flowers into the Spring of Joys on Easter Day, after an "Icarus Type of Year in 2014". Like
the myth of Icarus, FPM in aggregation of meditating and endeavour with our
enterprise, reach excessive heights, and yet sadistically our self / ego does
not let our feet touch the ground! Icarus
was the Greek mythological protagonist of complacency and hubris. Making an
escape with wings made of feather and wax, and therefore warned not to fly too high
close to the sun since it would melt the wax, or fly close to the sea as the salt degrade. Therefore Icarus was
heedless and crashed into the sea, flying too high. Also, in equal measure of philosophical
antithesis is 'Phoenix Rising From the Ashes'. But of course, before Spring
arrives the season of Winter descends. This holistic approach is relevant in
FPM reputation model of financial perpetrators having 'priors'.
FPM’s Kristian on Christmas Day
gutting road-kill deer near Cornwall.
So on Christmas Day, I was gutting and skinning my first ever
road-kill deer with friends in Cornwall (see picture above). As a diary there is also a tenuous link to the FPM premise. Between
Cornwall and London the car party passed a premier hedge fund related name of a
place, "Bridgwater" in the county of Somerset, England. Bridgwater is actually spelt
without an ‘e’ in ‘bridge’ on the road signs. Oh, my dear Lord! We have made
punt for one of our prospective FPM enterprise partners, and a pun on the word
"deer", respectively; hopefully noted by the aficionados of my joined-up
verbiage.
As Easter, in one original sense, was a pagan Goddess of
Spring, as a symbol of fertility we liken our ‘think-do in-time ideas’ as a new
birth: of assigning reputation not only through a 'financial hate list' as some
describe it, but with praiseworthy exemplifications too. With our
groundbreaking exemplar case studies involving Blackstone Group, as largest
investor in insider-trading scandalised SAC Capital, FPM implement corporate and principals' reputation in vogue. FPM
permanently crystallises the negative taints and rumoured impression from associations
in financial malfeasance of the measured past. Even whether the entity in
legality or prejudiced law was ever convicted and / or acquitted is necessarily
irrelevant to one having garnered a good or bad reputation. Not too much unlike
what financial ratings agencies and auditors are responsibly supposed to do in
earnest fiduciary professionalism.
Unfortunately the fiduciary tier of financial responsibility
from institutionalisation has bought them intocollusive conflict of
interest relationships verging on cronyism. Thereby evoking incidences of
collaboration corruption corroboration and other deceitful tricks and traits
which FPM manifests into a reputation i.e. no smoke with fire. A light allusion
or hint to a financial misdemenour is like stating "mud sticks".
While this counter-PR, setting the record straight, is a virtuous enterprise.
In an old fashion sense, battling
lies and truth-telling as a commercial enterprise has sought a backer to
sponsor these esteemed value-set with pride. Who better to uphold integrity
than the purveyors of it! Bridgewater Associates’ highly reputable profile serves as a counter-point
to financial roguery. Also, while the NSWF:Reputation
garnered firms’ or principals’ may having rising and ebbing ratings over time,
the reasons, at least in the mind of FPM’s principles, is clear. At a time when
unprecedented and rife financial malfeasance has contributed to the deepest
economic recession since 1930’s, our mission no less is to follows a checking
mechanism. An FPM progressive stop-check rationale here is echoing a public
comment published in the LA Times, about how to treat insider-trader trading
cheats, from the now demised Drexel Burnham Lambert’s scandals:
“As the courts and
legal system are so lenient on so-called first-time offenders… may I suggest
an appropriate punishment in the form of public humiliation?”
As
an insider in financing RadioShack’s troubled operations it has been alleged
that Cerberus Capital and others sold / wrote credit default swaps, which ensures
contingency payments on RadioShack debt for its buyers, in the event of a debt default event. RadioShack is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. And Cerberus et al of course didn't payout on the insurance which they deny having sold / wrote! It is insinuated
that RadioShack was allowed to survive until the expiry of the credit default
swaps written by the hedge funds, to the detriment of normal business strategy to
close some of its loss-making retail stores. Premise of lawsuit was that Cerberus
and others were engaging in exploitation of troubled companies for insider financial
trading profit at the expense of main street RadioShack and its stakeholders. Some
may say “wow!”, others succumbing to what-was-and-is say “so what?”FPM say about it in consternation astonishment
and bewilderment “What the deuce!”
No Smoke Without Fire: Cerberus Capital Insider Swap-Betting
For
exemplification of FPM Reputation Risk we have locked onto Stephen A.
Feinberg and his founded investment management Cerberus Capital
Management (Cerberus). He and his hybrid investment firm, capable of
private equity and hedge fund strategies such as distressed investments are represented today
in a Delaware bankruptcy court against allegations that it breached its
fiduciary duty[1]. The electrical retailer group, RadioShack Corporation
(now delisted from public exchange), is demised antagonist of its
financiers. The 76-year old electrical stores firm made a well publicized
Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on 5th February 2015, evoking capital markets
corruption via “conflict of interest”. The collusive fiduciary conduct of
RadioShack’s distressed debt investors, namely Standard General, Salus Capital
Partners, Litespeed Management and FPM-targeted, Cerberus Capital Management,
is being questioned of hedge fund activism. Distressed investing and corporate
activist strategies of hedge funds are often as destructively controversial as
their nearby cousins the private equity buyout strategies.
1) RRGA:
Mr Feinberg joined Drexel Burnham Lambert, the brokerage investment bank, in
1982 after graduating from politics (while creditably a tennis captain at
college). Drexel filed for bankruptcy on February 13, 1990 after years of
Federal regulatory scrutiny and souring capital markets. Drexel are the infamously
storied innovators of ‘junk-bond’ offerings. Risky types of loan liability
because in bankruptcy the repayment priority is lower down in the capital
structure of the issuing company, often with a low credit rating. A loan investment
respectably referred to as leveraged loans and high yield bonds used by
corporate financiers. FPM’s ‘reputation and guilt by association’ presumption
of Mr Feinberg was flagged through our rogues gallery links with the Drexel. Drexel being the Madoff of its day by being
“too-good-to-be-true” fraudsters of the 1980s; clearly with caveat that not
all Drexel activities and deals were based on securities fraud.
2) SLW: Dennis B. Levine pleaded guilty to insider
trading while at Drexel in May 1986. In his wake he also brought down other notable
headline crooks of that era for insider trading, among other financial frauds.
Namely Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and Martin A. Siegel. Mr Siegel was co-head
of Drexel's mergers and acquisitions department, and Mr Levine was an M&A specialist
in the office next door. This brief “Den of Thieves”[1] essential
‘history lesson’, so discouraged by senior bankers, of course puts Mr Feinberg
in the frame as an impressionable youngster in the exorbitant wealth creation yet
amid maelstrom of naughty illegality. His tenure at Drexel overlapped with Mr
Milken’s bond-desk stewardship exhibiting excessive capitalism of the 1980s. Mr
Milken’s prototype lending is attributed partly to causing the savings and
loans crisis and for the many business failures. Similarly, did Cerberus and the collective financier firms machinate RadioShack’s
bankruptcy proceeding? Countering distracting propaganda is a truer image of
vultures circling, then feeding off the carrion. This is akin to the bestial
nature conveyed of immoral corporate financiers / capitalists. As financial history
has tended to repeat itself, perhaps the financial class are steeped in madness,
expecting a different outcome in the stale relationship between bankers lending
and businesses borrowing.
4) Anecdotally,
we notice UK’s prominent right-wing U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) political leader Nigel Farage, as
having done a City of London tenure at Drexel Burnham Lambert between
1982 and 1986, after he left school to make money instead of choosing
university. His credentials as party of dissent and distraction is not our remit.
5) While we may dismiss some industries by
describing then as made of cliques cronies or of incestuous relationships the
Drexel diaspora has indeed become a behemoth of secret collective
conglomeration contentiously independent and seemingly in competition with each
other. However, we note from attendees at Milken Institute conferences and the extravagant
60th birthday party of billionaire Mr Black that their collective identity is
significant, and we don’t understate that cohesion by referring this club as
exhibiting cordial relationships. Since Martin Siegel was co-head of Drexel's M&A
department with Mr Black, it stands to reason that Mr Black might have known about
illegal activity. While Mr Black was subpoenaed with Mr Siegel at the time of
the investigation in 1986, the latter was never was charged. FPM believe this
omission of complete and full justice was due to resource-constrained priorities
of DoJ, such as pursuing Michael Milken as the big scalp.
6) The academic evidence of ‘corrupt capitalism
shenanigans’ via the Drexel Diaspora is astounding, while overwhelming FPM
research endeavours:
“Companies owned by
Apollo Global Management LLC and Cerberus Capital Management LP defaulted on
their debt more than those owned by 12 of the other largest private-equity
firms, according to Moody’s Investors Service.” Bloomberg via Newsmax
7/06/2014
...
[1] Den of
Thieves is a book by Wall St journalist and Pulitzer prize winner James B.
Stewart detailing the “Greed Decades” of the 1980s in investment banking.
"You're 'Avin A Laugh Alright!" a.k.a YAALA! - In this
FPM digest written in a concise nature than our regular exhaustive deliberating
posts, we aim to share some of our fund- and investments-related observations
and activities. We anecdotally and analytically question and challenge
established investment wisdom.
With the approach of Global Divestment Day on 14th
February 2015 to show our support for a fossil free future, FPM target
investors in BP Capital Management funds (nothing to do with the British oil
giant) to exit their investments. We understand some energy sector investors
have already bolted for the exit doors since the more than 50% drop in crude
oil prices from the summer of 2014.
While FPM on first-impressions reputation
respect the veteran oil tycoon and head of BP Capital, T. Boone Pickens. We
understand Mr Pickens' energy investment companies are for the chopping blocks! Or at least
into “Alt M&A” play. While Mr
Pickens is a legendary and constant promoter of the energy industry, having a created
multi-billion dollar energy company before concentrating on investing in them, by forming
BP Capital in 1996, he’s time has come and gone. In With the New and Out With
the Old in his environmentally damaging sponsorship of dirt energy companies.
Aside of his regular promotion of
his oil / gas views focused on the USA via his blog website, we notice even today his
opposition to Barack Obama’s Government policy to prevent Trans-Alaska
pipeline and the Keystone pipeline projects.
He’s one of the largest sponsors
of the US energy industry over the last half century yet selfishly or for his
investors he seems ignorant of Climate Change concerns. Whether he is
passionate in his fear-mongering beliefs (see
below quote) or is routinely endorsing energy industry as he has instinctively
done, we dare to suggest that the venerable oil entrepreneur is merely protecting
his proverbial laurel crown.
"Should the president make
this view a reality, America’s energy security will be dangerously undermined,
and the prospects of a prolonged downturn in gasoline prices that benefit
consumers to the tune of $720 per year will be in serious jeopardy… President
Obama’s recent proposal to extend wilderness status to 12 million acres of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge threatens the viability of America’s biggest
oil pipeline: the Trans-Alaska pipeline" Source: T. Boone Pickens,
Forbes 10 January 2015
We can only transition towards an
alternative energy future if the mainstay die-hard fossil fuel energy and
investment companies move out of the way, or sincerely steer their business
model towards newer renewable clean energy sources.This is the sector in transition transactional and brokerage value to FPM's creative-destruction model of business.
FPM have analysed the performance
of BP Capital Management's top 10 holdings, and other select energy firms. We will disseminate this
investment review of the energy sector by calling investors such as London
Pension Fund Authority to urge
divestment or switch recommendations, in the coming weeks. Fossil fuel divestment
on climate change concerns isn’t just about “environmentalist-placating” policies
but to broker the change and face of capitalism in an increasingly globalised plutocracy
which is nudging the future inhabitants of the Earth towards the precipice of
destroying humanity through the destruction of his habitat.
Why Is A Fossil Free Future Important?
Climate change is the greatest challenge
humanity has encountered. Warming in excess of 2°C will have catastrophic
consequences. In order to have a chance of staying below this maximum upper
limit of warming 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must not be burnt.
The fossil fuel industry currently holds
vast carbon reserves which if burnt would result in emissions 5 times larger
than what it is deemed to be safe. All available evidence suggests that fossil
fuel companies intend to burn the reserves within their control. In addition,
companies such as Shell are actively trying to discover new reserves, often in
environmentally sensitive regions.
If it is wrong to damage the world we
live in, then it is wrong to profit from that damage. Responsible investors
should no longer be profiting from the destructive activities of these
companies. Source FPM and 350.org
("You're 'Avin A Laugh Alright!" a.k.a YAALA! - In this FPM digest written in a concise nature than our regular exhaustive deliberating posts, we aim to share some of our fund- and investments-related observations and activities. We anecdotally question and challenge established wisdom.)
In the below Bloomberg interview video we present a disingenuous investor in alternative shale gas who is clearly marketing to "greater-fool" buyers / investors: he doesn’t want to
be left holding the baby! Evidence of
our claim is that he used analogy of “throwing away the baby with the
bathwater” to describe sell off in shale-related securities with its obvious
built-in-flaws.
Oil
Price Fall Is a Trader-Driven Decline: Sam Zell (Source: Bloomberg)
However, “feeling-before-knowing” about Mr Zell’s creed of
person, we understand he is not the only one blowing the bubble in
shale-gas related investments. From our Reputation Risk Activism based on our surveys we intend to expose
others we believe are shamelessly making money from moulding environmental human
misery. The lead liquidity-funding sponsors in the shale gas bubble-blowing cabal, who tend to act in hierarchical
heard-mentality, are usually the bigger fish in the pond. Enter David Rubinstein
of the Carlyle Group. From the video excerpt Carlyle apparently have long-term
investors succoured into various fund vehicles.
Distressed
Energy Debt `Attractive': Carlyle's Rubenstein (Source: Bloomberg)
FPM have been actively recommending divestment of
fossil-fuel energy companies, and SWITCHING into renewable-fuels focused
companies. Since our recognition and realisation of the URGENCY of ecological
threats about climate change, this is becoming less of a long-term strategy and more an exigent one.
These financial billionaire sponsors do not worry about such environmental risks, as
they would economically buy valuable safe havens on planet earth or elsewhere, which is not affected by the eco-Armageddon scenario. The other indispensable short-term factors adding to the volatility in this bubble-blown shale gas asset are political, regulatory and social movements, a.k.a geo-political concerns.
We expect to share our quantitative analysis of SELL, SWITCH recommendations in
energy companies.
E.U. Estrangement Before The Divorce (a.k.a Volatility)
FPM have been mooting the impractical nature of sewing-up into one collage the disparate countries of the initial European Union format, and worse still, the subsequent expanded mosaic mess oc now! Taking as example an aspect of over-reach in bureaucracy and flawed fundamental premises of the structural implementation of EU rules, it is inevitable that imbalances cannot continue indefinitely. Even with tinkering around the fringes of key principles to keep the unification ideology afloat while increasingly financially stressed. We expect to see more Government defaults, and not just ‘club-med’ countries in the EU zone but major ones. It may be esoteric knowledge that one of the so called tenets of EU treaty is that the “freedom of movement of people within member nations” was devised when the wealth parallels of members was similar. Nowadays it is impracticable that emigration from Poland or Romania to more prosperous countries can be controlled. Thereby labour mobility and its infinite supply distorts economic imbalances in member countries, such as creating deflationary cycle, i.e. excess supply of workers keeping wages subdued. Such business-friendly corporation effect doesn’t mitigate social environmental side-effects, such as on the country of destination of migrants where the quality of life is squeezed for its citizens. FPM’s staunch belief in eventual EU breakup is as committed as when George Soros famously broke the Bank of England.
Below Blackstone Group’s new vice chairman John Studzinski diplomatically yet unequivocally articulates the estrangement phase of the shot-gun wedded partners of the EU trading bloc as increasing “volatility”. Events are evidentially unravelling the EU; the verdict does not come at once but the proceedings should build into it.
I spotted these two Tweets from my Twitter followings, a week
prior to Christmas week, coincidentally back-to-back and regarding important
economic issues. See Twitter screen-dump below.
One of the Tweets is from the
offices of one of my dear friends and the other is from the offices of my
dubious ruler. I know which of them I wholeheartedly trust and admittedly fear
more! Therefore, the reputation of the messenger is as significant and relevant
as the message itself.
I think the discerning public should be aware of the importance of those economic-related Tweets. Here we’re not
so much interested in the debate or pro’s /cons of ‘TTIP’ or for that matter about the ‘debt
fraud’. Instead FPM are reading between the lines as to whom and which
message and messenger is credible as a source of information. We know that Governments
use propaganda to propagate its policy goals, as do companies but here we aim
to interpret or frame the issues faithfully.
Through Dame Vivienne Westwood’s
communications office and her campaigning / blog vehicle “Climate Revolution”, she is
humanely warning us of fallacies and manipulation in the UK Government’s
economic policies. This is done in this instance by the office disseminating a critical piece of
journalism by The Guardian newspaper writer Seumas Milne. Now compare Mr
Cameron, the UK Prime minister’s Tweet, which is also disseminating seemingly
important information. Whereas The Guardian writer and Climate Revolution have
a degree of independence of views by association; the ‘dummy guide’ to promoting
TTIP produced by the Confederation
of British Industry (CBI) is devoid of independence, as it is self-regulated
by its industrial members and quasi-Government funded.
FPM aims to strip out the financial /
economic propaganda news to it bare rudimentary agenda. This we do by
referencing highly informed undiluted new alternative media sources, such as NakedCapitalism.Com and ZeroHedge.com, and numerous others
together with independent bloggers. They all contribute their added value
knowledge in the phenomenon through the currently free-to-all World-Wide-Web
aka. “www.”. By implication we have lost faith in the truth and integrity of mainstream media - MSM.
A Sham Too Far: Of TTIP
Briefly, the Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is yet another administrative bureaucratic sham
that the USA is spearheading towards globalisation and imposing its single
superpower status (also known as US hegemony) on the world. You can read more
on this global agenda via Naom Chomsky’s “Hegemony
or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance” in this article here.
TTIP is clearly a sham as economic
fundamentals (e.g. burgeoning national debts; China slowing as driver of global
growth; austerity revolts etc) and geopolitical matters (e.g. Russia and Ukraine; E.U.
breakup; Middle East wars, Immigration tensions) dictates urgency to shore-up a future of “business as
usual” with rigorous new business rules in place. Otherwise nations are expected to
implode under their debt and austerity burdens. Not least, the so called “PIGS”
countries.
FPM is currently actively monitoring an incineration event /
catalyst in the “cradle of Western civilisation”. Greece is continuing amid
turbulence, not only the ever erupting populous risings over the effective takeover
of their country by the “Troika” and imposition of intolerable impossible
economic terms of the ECB, IMF and EU bailout. Lest it be forgotten that the
origins of Greece’s problems were caused by Goldman Sachs
helping to hide its debts to gain membership into the EU club. Despite the
EU bureaucrat rhetoric, yes, like a country club, a membership can be withdrawn or
terminated by either party. Come on Greece (or Barcelona) set in motion de-globalisation
and independence, what the “Bravefart Scots” chickened-out from recently in
September!
What is wrong with a united world
and a federated planet? As depicted in sci-fi “Star Trek” series for instance,
one may plausibly ask? Greater union of nations under the current brand of
neoliberal democracies ultimately and primarily will continue to serve the interests
of the wealthy classes, who by definition own most of the resources and assets of our capitalistic society. At the
exploited expense of the majority of the population, and not to mention the
disharmony inflicted on our planet’s ecology through climate change. As if to
provide empirical evidence of this FPM assertion we have only to observe the
wealth inequalities over last 35 years and, through history. Great social
wealth inequalities through lack of justice, corruption, dictatorships or other
imbalances have tended to result in revolution (viz. litany of past revolts by the
populous). The most profound and recent thorough research exposing this
stark disparity in the wealth of the nation and its population is by Thomas
Piketty (pronounced Tome-AH PEEK-a-tee) entitled “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”
The stark wealth inequality findings
are so relevant that an excerpt of the book’s thrust is presented below, Read
full book
review here from The Guardian newspaper:
“…Piketty’s main argument is this: that
invested capital – in the stock market, in real estate – will grow faster than
income. The implications of that are deep: to
have invested capital, you must have money already. If you rely on income, as
most people do, you will likely never catch up to the wealth of people who are
already rich. The 1% and the 99% enshrined by Occupy are not an anomaly of our
time, Piketty’s research suggests. It’s a structural feature of capitalism.
Piketty’s work – which has been in progress for over a decade – is a natural
pairing with the Occupy movement, which also questions the premises of
capitalism…”
Source: The Guardian, Heidi Moore, 21st September 2014
Mr Piketty’s 700-page tome is not
only the best selling book of 2014 and FPM’s Winter Seasonal gift
recommendation, but academically supports the 3-prong creative-destruction financial
enterprise mission of FPM and imbalances in financial services and in
capitalism at large.
Back to the thrust of our
argument, other than the reputation of the messenger: that TTIP and
Globalisation consolidates the power and wealth among the existing plutocrats. The
allure to low and middle income earners, the largest members of a nation, of joining that wealthy elite upholds
the edifice of plutocracy intact, much in the same way as guard-dogs or heavy
security protects the houses of the high net worth individuals. Or put another
way, much like how better treated house servants / slaves were more loyal to
their masters than their “field servants” (those who tilled the lands) during
slavery and agriculture of the past. FPM’s
Evidence here articulated in Q&A format:
Q. If United Kingdom is the sixth wealthiest
country in the world why are there food banks for poverty stricken millions and
austerity for many millions more?
A. The answer is simple. Wealth of the
nation is disproportionately held by few billionaires and some millionaires due
to politically inefficient income and tax distribution.
This wealth is also in the form
of capital assets i.e. mere accounting notation based on notional value
of assets such as property prices. The proletariat
or the majority of the population without income-earning assets are then left to subsist on a hand-to-mouth existence , which is bank debt and salary/wage income.
That is, the proletariat are
asked to live on the wealth of the nation that has not been siphoned-off or otherwise accumulated
by the top-heavy asset owners. In his epochal book “1984”, George Orwell
described “most people” as those who are not Party Members, as “Proles” i.e.
outside of the system.
"Prole" is
short for Proletariat. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the proles are the section of
society that are unaware of the dystopian elements of their world. They are
distracted by simple, unimportant matters such as the lottery, and are more concerned
with emotions as opposed to politics. They make up 85% of the population within
Nineteen Eighty-Four, and could potentially overthrow Big Brother. Winston
believes this will happen one day, when they wake up to their situation and
take action.
Under the false premise of benefiting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), TTIP will through
thin-end-of-the-wedge result in handing over greater power to the ruling classes
of wealth owners. They in essence naturally want to preserve their status quo by
stipulating future rules for businesses and corporations which make them more
powerful than Governments and its people, in instances. To read about this piece
of the TTIP on “Investor State Dispute Settlement - ISDS” see
here. An important part of TTIP negotiations, where so far both Germany and
France have objected to any legal challenge to sovereign legislation. Thrust of TTIP would exacerbate the wealth
inequalities we have now, and at the same time bind people and nations into
unbreakable servitude to corporations through their dependence on incomes and
debt obligations. As if we are not already.
At FPM we have alluded to the
end-cycle of free market capitalism, after a 35-year period of industrial deregulation,
started during the rule of Thatcher-Reagan Era of the 1980’s. Please notice the
UK-USA axis of the cordial in the then “transatlantic partnership” with pretext
about “Special Relationship”; which initiated deregulated financial / capital
markets in 1987, euphemistically termed “Big Bang” and other so-called industrial
liberalisation policies in the foresworn lie of consumer benefits, including
opening the skies and allowing airline carriers to compete for routes, and so
on and so on. This parochial or blinkered business decision alone has a) increased
immigration tensions and in relation b) ramped up carbon-emission footprints of air passengers. FPM in May this year, responsibly highlighted such global corporative excesses and irresponsibility leading to
inequalities of “unbound
capitalism” into the new millennium. The regulatory or legislative framework permitting such legal follies are
enshrined through stealth laws, such as are passed without proper public
consultation, harangued by public relations communication and other “jobsworth” proponents.
The secretive TTIP negotiations would
aim to bring into the capitalists’ debauched party, formerly socialist and
communist countries of the enlarged and growing European Union - EU. FPM feel that
globalisation of this proportions would effectively make countries increasingly
interconnected in their risks and somewhat homogeneous in national culture and
identity. Similar to the way we have McDonalds restaurants all over the globe
currently; while lacking individuality in high streets and in towns.
The recent financial crisis is
the best and vivid example of these impending global connectivity risks. Which
TTIP legislatively will bind us irrecoverably into Mutually Assured
Destruction - M.A.D system. The housing
and bubble financial crisis started in the USA and spread globally via the international
financial markets. A global economic crisis which we are still feeling the fall-out
from, with ever more national debts accumulated in some countries to prop-up a
notionally blown-up capital-value bubble. Capitalism is still on its knees. This wrought financial crash and its orchestrated
bail-out represents the greatest transfer of wealth from the public sector to
the private sector, i.e. taxpayers wealth to asset-wealthy individuals and
their multinational businesses. A.I.G, General Motors and other large
corporations should have foundered in the same way Lehman Brothers blew-up; as unbalanced
assets and liabilities of their accounts book made them insolvent from their
financial divisions’ folly in capital market shenanigans with “toxic assets”. Yet
“private profit and social loss” was allowed to systemically prevail as
justified with tags such as “Too Big Too Fail - TBTF”. Such malfeasance would
then be the permanent hallmark of globalisation with USA at the helm. There is
another way! The evidence for this is the long-process of economic stagnation
until wealth is redistributed to the satisfaction of greater majority of the
population. Is the mass of unemployment made of people who cannot find work, or those who have become disillusioned with paying taxes? Government control of wealth distribution on behalf its people, who
were expecting a fair and just socio-economic political system, have monumentally been
let down. The humdrum politicians’ masters have always been the corrupting powerful
lobbyist through mass media manipulation and funded by… yep you guessed it, the
plutocrats. This is an inflextion
Endorsing TTIP would be like the
angel “Gabriel” showing the future of things to come in a world without James
Stewart, as portrayed in the movie “What a Wonderful Life”. That future was
bleak and it would be so for the citizens of America and Europe if bi-lateral TTIP
agreements are made by such giant blocks of countries in the interest of
business. We are heading by degrees to “1984” with Big Brother being American
hegemony.
However, we should not hope to
leave such happy-endings or dystopias only in the realm of films and books but
actively intervene in the external reality and oppose the resolve of
“jobsworth” bureaucrats and vested orchestrators in the TTIP negotiations.
Please signal YOUR opposition to TTIP and over-reach of USA hegemony to your MP
by spending a few minutes on the internet. I simply put “Avaaz TTIP Protest”
into an internet search engine and “the world's largest and most effective
online campaigning community for change” Avaaz.com allowed me to sign a
petition here, in resistance to TTIP. Simple, active and effective and meaningful!
Another action would be to notice FPM’s financial savvy experience to oppose
the UK’s prime minister’s view by Tweet. On the other hand FPM have not
countered our friend’s Tweet about the “debt fraud”. Needless to say most of
the financial community is aware, or at least should be aware of the sham of
debt and austerity, and NEVER believe a politician’s official mythology.
Stop The Press! On the 12th November a 3-judges appeal
hearing to extend Mathew Martoma’s bail release, pending an appeal for his near-record
9-years’ prison and US$7 mn confiscation, as a criminal law conviction for
insider trading, was cursorily declined and belatedly he is set to start
incarceration (see our earlier full research to this update). Watch This Space!
The contradictions
in American judicial proceedings in the SAC-saga agitate FPM principal’s
Industry Intelligence with numberless pangs! A multi-years court proceedings
which reaffirms the farcical theatrical nature of American Justice – Read on. WARNING
/ ACHTUNG: A brand of justice and democracy not to be imitated. To free
ourselves of these difficulties, we expound our anger at the injustice, as FPM enterprising public information and active resistance.
At the above mentioned the appeal
hearing, U.S. Judges persistently enquired of the State prosecutors (from U.S. Department of Justice - DoJ) as to why a
deposition that Steven A Cohen “SAC” submitted at an S.E.C. inquiry in May 2012,
was not permitted in Mr Martoma’s January 2014 defence trial, even though the same insider-traded stocks (Elan Corp. and Wyeth Ltd), were at legal issue. The prosecuting lawyers seem to
become vague and stated: “Strategic
decision…so as not to confuse the jury”. State prosecutor’s, if anyone need
reminding, are paid for with public taxpayer money and supposedly representing
the public interest, here demonstrate how the law can be technically perverted, i.e. used to convict one and exonerate another from the same legal issue.
To re-cap key elements of the
legal case demonstrating this systemic corruption in capitalism the issue at
stake in FPM’a ‘plain English’ attempt (read also Muppet
Mainstream Media diversion too): Mr Martoma’s defence in effect stated in
their main appeal:
“What’s the evidence that gets me harsh 9
years prison and a confiscation conviction while head-honcho multi-billionaire
at the centre of the web-of-securities fraud Mr Cohen walks ‘scot free’ into
the sunset at age 58 with US$10 bn after 20+ years insinuation in corporate criminality?
”
The documented video deposition in
question was that of the head-honcho Mr Cohen which indicated that he relied on
Wayne Holman’s consultancy expertise (a healthcare portfolio manager, former
SAC employee and friend who left in 2006 to form Ridgeback Capital Management) to
profitably netting $275 mn from exiting a
US$700 mn loss-making trading position. It was loss-making ‘long’ position based
on the imminent drug trials announcement that was to be negative (i.e. SAC
portfolio positions in experimental Alzheimer’s drug makers Elan Corp and Wyeth
Ltd). Mr Martoma’s main appeal which is still pending will we expect seek
reduced sentencing. Mr Martoma’s failure to extend bail from this appeal while
his main appeal is pending maybe a court ‘side-show’ manoeuvre to assert
insider trading enforcement. Whereas, FPM principals have repeatedly
highlighted the “Punch and Judy”
theatrical nature of American Juctice in ‘NSWF:Reputation’.
ALL of the eight convicted individuals in this SAC-saga are still out on bail,
as was Mr Martoma until this 3-judges appeal hearing. Doh!
FPM also note that we are
updating the “FPM Reputation BlackList” to reflect that few if any from SAC-saga
and litany of litigations has yet seen the inside of a prison despite eight convictions! Internally, FPM discussing if Ridgeback Capital Management founder Wayne Holman makes it on the
reputation list.
Please feel free to correct us Mr
Preet Bharara? Mr Bharara was the DoJ presiding State attorney in the insider
trading sting (codenamed “xxxxx”), launched demonstratively
and conveniently as an enforcement witch-hunt for the depression-like financial
crisis. Another betting FPM principal also wagers that Mr Bharara, widely
touted for the top job in U.S. Justice, was not nominated for the sham
oversight of proceedings in the SAC-saga. Preet is the failed front-runner for
Attorney General of USA to replace outgoing head Eric Holder. On 10th November Barack Obama
nominated Attorney General as Loretta Lynch. This
investigative critique explores another angle why Mr Bharara was snubbed.
Mr Holder, the incumbent highest judicial authority in USA, under whose watch we
witnessed the perfunctory litigation for larcenyof net billions dollars from the public
purse into private corporate profits for billionaire “establishment class” via
Wall Street and Main Street corruption of capitalism, is walking on an FPM
reputation tightrope. Under Mr Holder’s oversight, DoJ has expediently allowed ‘money
to talk’ in the numerous high profile billion dollars litigations of corporate
criminality (an exhaustive countdown list FPM have compiled in exchange for
gratuity fee), and allowed executive white collar criminals to walk. Mr Holder: The organ grinder's money talks and monkeys
get paid peanuts still – right?
FPM have profoundly described social status-quo as “plutocracy” or as
we note unbound
capitalism! FPM found an indepth investigative commentary on U.S. Justice but
unrelated to our focus in financial and corporate matters: To
Fight for Justice is to Fight the Law. If any genius out there believes in democracy
please email us to shock us. As part of our active resistance against endemic
corruption in capitalism, our story put yet another FPM big-picture way:
IF CAPITALISM IS IRREFUTABLY CORRUPT, AND THE
MYOPIC ADHERENTS SUCH AS MEDIA, PUBLIC RELATIONS, FIDICICUARY ADMINSITRATORS ONLY
PANDER, WITH POLITICIANS DISTRACTED FROM SERVING PEOPLE’S INTERESTS, THEN JUDICIARY
IS ALSO A TOOL TO PROVIDE EXPEDIANT JUSTICE. THE RESULT IS ECONOMIC WEALTH
INEQUALITY ABOUND. NOW FOR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS TO ESCALATE TO PEOPLE REVOLUTION.
Stop the Press! On 17th November in a U.S. Manhattan court
hearing Patricia Cohen, former wife of Steven A Cohen pursuing equitable divorce
settlement since 1991, has managed to get Mr Cohen to be questioned in civil deposition
hearing on 10th December. This is another side-show which the “Artful
Dodger” will presumably settle out of court eventually. FPM congratulate Ms
Cohen’s tenacious pursuit in her warranted bid. If American Justice showed as
much tenacity as Patricia, the U.S. taxpayer could have reaped multiple billions
for its public pursue, instead they are facing austerity!
