MyPersDevJourney.com

I guess Fed is not the only bank that troughs money around to save banks:

EU opens Northern Rock investigation

European Commission opened an investigation Wednesday into Britain’s nationalization of Northern Rock PLC, the mortgage bank that collapsed at the beginning of the global credit crisis.

Neelie Kroes, the EU antitrust chief, said a broad look at how the British government plans to save Northern Rock was merited given the financial market turmoil, the sizable amount of money involved and the risk of an unfair advantage over other banks.

“The commission needs to open a formal investigation into U.K measures to restructure Northern Rock to ensure legal certainty,” Kroes said in a statement.

EU spokesman Jonathan

Source:news.yahoo.com

So Fed is getting more and more power by the minute. Here is an interesting article on Yahoo!. Please note, that Fed is not part of the federal or any other government. If you look up the official website, it explains that it is kinda private and kinda non-private.

The Fed was not put under the federal government to shield it from too much political influence. The shares the member banks have to hold in the Fed are non controlling. But let’s be honest here, the “real” golden rule - He who controls the gold, makes the rules. The biggest banks with the most shares in the Fed will have a huge say in what it can do for them.

So the Fed part of the name is misleading. Federal Reserve is a semi-private bank that is owned though shares by other large private banks in US. With the proposed additional powers, now it will not only control the regular banks, but also the Investment Banks, and thus will have more control of the Wall St. and global equity markets. Or rather, the regular banks are trying to control the investment banks through the Fed.

Note that the article mentions that the regulatory power will be transfered from the federal and state governments to the Fed, thus taking the power away from the elected officials and giving it to a private institution.

Wall Street awaits government plan

NEW YORK - While Wall Street faces the biggest overhaul of its regulatory structure since the Great Depression, analysts are already wondering if the plan to be announced by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday would help prevent the kind of risky investments that led to the near-collapse of Bear Stearns Cos.

The plan maps out a course for broader oversight of the nation’s financial markets by consolidating power into the Federal Reserve. It will eliminate overlapping state and federal regulators and give the central bank an expanded role in looking at the books of investment banks and brokerages.

Happy New Year! Let us welcome 2008 with excitement for all of the adventures and lessons it has in store for us!

I found this article on Yahoo by Ben Stein. I liked the later part of his article, when Ben mentioned how the investment bigwigs made tons of money selling the market the junk debt. This is something I felt very strongly against. One thing I’ve personally noticed is how in all of my 401k accounts, all of the government bond funds were replaced with Mortgage Backed securities bond funds. Financial industry was making tons of money pushing fishy debt that morgage companies were turning by the trillions. Now everyone is upset, and losing money, and wants a bail out. What a scam!

Tarnished Parachutes

In the meantime, let me switch gears and talk about moral responsibility. It’s now clear that some of the major players on Wall Street were making fortunes bundling junky subprime mortgage instruments and selling this garbage into the financial markets. The heads of some of the major brokerages and investment banks approved of this conduct and reaped the rewards when the market was hot — i.e., when the market was fooled by what was being sold.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been playing WoW (World of Warcraft) for a few years. Besides really enjoying this game, I’ve always wondered - what keeps me coming back to this game? I’ve stopped and resumed playing the game many many times. I’ve bought other games both regular and the MMORPGs, yet they are lying on the shelf gathering dust. I am also not crazy about the $15 dollars I have to pay every month for the privilege of playing the game. So let’s see some of the reasons why this game is such a hit for me:

Read the rest of this entry »

I went to the ice skating ring with some of my coworkers today. It was an interesting experience. I’ve always rollerbladed, but have not ice skated since I was 10 years old. I had no problems ice skating today, for all of my roller blading skills served me well. I did notice one thing that I thought is worth recording. When you are ice skating as long as you are moving your are safe, it is when you stop and try to stand in one place, you begin to lose your balance. I though how true it is of our lives. It is possible to fall down when you are moving and growing, but it is almost a certain thing when you stop the movement and growth in your life. So what ever you do, cast your fear aside and keep moving. Even small motion will keep you up and balanced. To think of it, it is the same concept when you ride a bike.