What Is A CDO And Why Should I Care?

Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /home2/chrissti/public_html/pennystockrobots.com/reviews/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787

There are influences in the economy above and beyond the basics of traditional economic theory. These influences consist of the world of shadow banking.

The public would be wise to become very intimate to the games afoot. The alphabet soup of derivatives first must be made comprehensible to be controlled.

The warning signs were clear that nothing good would come from the development of Collateralized Debt Obligations, CDOs. I was fortunate to have been in banking and in a group which voiced serious concerns over the development of crazier and crazier esoteric instruments. They were to be peddled as “same as cash” but were in fact far from that. By July 07 the auctions for these began to fail as financial institutions backed away.

For the bankers the bigger fool theory was the rage by then. Systematically, the institutions such as Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia Securities dumped millions of dollars of these into the hands of unsuspecting companies, and even retirees to get them out of their holding before the wheels fell totally off the cart.

The instruments were created by companies such as Blackrock and Nuveen. By mid-February 08 the market for these seized up entirely. We are talking about a 300 billion dollar market freezing up.

When the CDOs froze, retirees among others found their economic lives were at a standstill. Complaints poured into the Office of Financial Regulation.

Of course, no on e in the industry had really done anything wrong. The result was that at least a number of small investors got back their principal.

The press ignored the story. It must be a coincidence that the wrong-doers were also major sponsors.

It took the total melt-down in September 2008 to get the press to cover the issue.There has been more than a little speculation that patronage by Wall Street of the major media outlets was the censoring influence on the media. The appearance of the Bernanke and Paulson in Congress on Sept 23, 2008, with the demand for 700 billion dollars to wall street finally got some attention.

It is not my ideal of accountability to have the taxpayer pay for the financial excesses of the financial institutions.

The market shook shortly after the Presidential Election. Rumors flew that the market was not pleased at the idea that bonuses could be impacted.

For example, Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers was know to be facing a cut. His bonuses in 2007 had been a cool 34 million.

Clearly Rand’s notion of enlightened self-interest did not trump raw greed for the banking industry. For more on Rand, see Objectivism and the 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged”.This all plays nicely into the capital C Conspiracy Theorists who are ready to gloat over the “I told ya so’s”.

These “Too big to fail” are not national institutions. They are international. The idea of a sovereign nation is a thing of the past.

Is this to be the new world? Wait and see.

James Horne has been a securities analyst for over 10 years. He is CEO of Pure Reason LLC, the home of Shadowtraders. His voice has been heard by hundreds of students learning to trade Futures with Shadowtraders online day trading strategies. Before you buy any trading software, make sure you attend Shadowtraders Monday Night Webinar, and hosted by Barbara Cohen

Tweet This Post