Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The diversionary tactic
As TigerHawk has previously commented, the SEC case against Goldman regarding the ABACUS securities (settled previously this year for a number much larger than I had anticipated) might have had something to do with preparing the battle space for financial regulatory reform. According to the SEC Inspector General, it turns out that the timing of the case may also have had something to do with distracting the public from the fact that the SEC had been asleep at the wheel in dealing with Ponzi boy Allen Stanford:
The timing of the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc is "suspicious," a federal watchdog said, suggesting that the SEC used it to divert attention from a report that sharply criticized its probe into accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford.It is obviously quite difficult to generate much sympathy for Goldman or its employees in the current environment, and there is little if any point in rehashing the specifics of how the naive European institutional investors may or may not have gotten their faces ripped off by the sharpies at Goldman and Paulson, but it is worth noting that the SEC may have had its own agenda beyond the meets and bounds of the immediate case. I was naive in not understanding this when the civil litigation was announced in April, when I wondered -- all of the things that have happened on Wall Street, and this is the case the SEC chooses to file now?
The SEC filed civil fraud charges against Goldman in mid-April, the same day it released a watchdog report accusing the agency of mishandling an investigation into Stanford's alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
The report by SEC Inspector General David Kotz said the regulator suspected as early as 1997 that Stanford was running a Ponzi scheme but did nothing to stop it until late 2005.
The timing "strains credulity," Kotz told a congressional hearing on Wednesday examining the SEC's handling of the Stanford case.
Hey, look over here!
What was I just blogging about? Seriously, do you remember the topic of this post?
Apologies to English actress Michelle Ryan, using her in such a crude way to illustrate how distraction works. Hopefully, Ms. Ryan did not own shares of ABN AMRO, one of the counterparties involved in the losing side of the ABACUS investment.
UPDATE: In the interests of balance, another photo, as requested.
I believe Mr. Jackman is Australian, and presumably was not involved in the losing side of any synthetic securities. Here's Mr. Jackman in his younger days, sailing near Fremantle:
If you bought that, you were distracted again -- it is almost never that calm in Fremantle, and that isn't Hugh Jackman the movie star, it is your lowly TigerHawk blogger in Penobscot Bay, leaning on a whisker pole.
15 Comments:
By 
Bomber Girl, at
Wed Sep 22, 10:55:00 PM:
Had it been a picture of Hugh Jackman, I might have forgotten the subject of the blog...as it was...I was just waiting for the further news on Allen Stanford. (No pic, of him, required, thanks.)
By Bomber Girl, at
Thu Sep 23, 06:23:00 AM:
Now, what were we talking about?
(Glad the TH blog continues to be fair and balanced...)
By 
Hugh Jackman, at
Thu Sep 23, 07:03:00 AM:
"...that isn't Hugh Jackman the movie star, it is your lowly TigerHawk blogger in Penobscot Bay, leaning on a whisker pole."
Oh fine. Go right ahead -- show me up in front of the ladies.
I see how you are... oh yes, I see.
By TigerHawk, at
Thu Sep 23, 10:15:00 AM:
But it is not, to be clear, TigerHawk.
By , at
Thu Sep 23, 10:18:00 AM:
Love the rainbow flag sail. Pride, baby!
By pam, at
Thu Sep 23, 10:31:00 AM:
;^)
And people wonder why I read this blog every day....
By Bomber Girl, at
Thu Sep 23, 10:36:00 AM:
No confusion, TH, I believe your pics are generally in patriotic spandex.
By , at
Thu Sep 23, 11:39:00 AM:
"...that isn't Hugh Jackman the movie star, it is your lowly TigerHawk blogger in Penobscot Bay, leaning on a whisker pole."
"Love the rainbow flag sail. Pride, baby!"
So share with us, how exactly did you come to be known as "escort"?
;)
By Escort81, at
Thu Sep 23, 01:35:00 PM:
Because of the age of the sailboat and the sail, I believe that the rainbow pattern of the spinnaker has no original intent relating to political rights, but I suppose it's fine to see it that way.
My nom de plume is primarily derived from my late father's service on a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort during WWII in the Atlantic, and my class numerals. A secondary meaning might relate to "escorting" females, which I have done over the last 3+ decades of dating, though not in the Richard Gere-American Gigolo-compensation-for-services sense of the term. I have never owned a Ford Escort, though.
By pam, at
Thu Sep 23, 07:03:00 PM:
I am not sure I know anyone who has every owned a Ford Escort....
I like your moniker's history.
By , at
Fri Sep 24, 02:10:00 PM:
I also have trouble buttoning the top button of my dress shirts.
By , at
Fri Sep 24, 03:33:00 PM:
I believe that's a spinnaker pole, given the 'chute that's flying in the background. Around here, we only use whisker poles to wing out jibs.
By Escort81, at
Sat Sep 25, 02:21:00 PM:
Anon 3:33 is correct that I am leaning on a spinnaker pole, not a whisker pole.
By , at
Sat Sep 25, 04:15:00 PM:
"I am not sure that I know anyone who has ever owned a Ford Escort."
Is that some kind of code? WTF?
ps I own a Ford Escort. There's a story behind why.
The lede to this was SEC v Goldman. WTF?
In the spirit of Escort ... I'm 53 SWM 6' 200
Recently put on the market
Look like John McEnroe with better hair.
Lapsed Catholic, exploring my inner Druid.
Un-coordinated but can run all day -- like my posts.
I'm mellower than my posts, actually. It's an act. I haven't been in a bar fight in ten years.
Have learned to love dogs -- cats I don't get.
Love kids -- my own two especially, but all kinds, all colors -- which is why I rant.
By Bomber Girl, at
Sat Sep 25, 04:32:00 PM:
This blog is beginning to look like Craig's List. Before it was CENSORED.
