Mankind is Surplus Requirement to this World, time to Go Green - Atheism, Love, Humanity, God and the Natural World.

Physical World, Metaphysical Understanding

The world, physical in nature,

But its interpretation is wholly metaphysical!

………………………….

Metaphysics basically mean ‘beyond’ physics, and is the science of understanding the Universe beyond its physical manifestations. It is thus a little sister to spirituality and religion.

For the Atheists, this world is wholly physical, and so too is its understanding. They will not countenance one single thought upon metaphysics, for they believe that it is a back-door to religion and God. They dislike God and His religion so much, blaming God for humanity’s own folly and weaknesses. But in their daily protestations of disbelief, they only bring God closer to us. And indeed inevitably to themselves, for how can you wrestle with an idea if you do not get your hands and mind in close?

He he he.

Life is about love. But of course for Atheists this would be difficult to accept. But the funny thing is that most of them do. No doubt they would provide some socio-biological necessity for the continuation of the human race as a reason why we keep falling in love. But why there be continuity at all? It is self-evident that this world does not need the human race to prosper, for if all of humanity were to suddenly disappear, would the Earth crumble and fall into a lifeless and barren planet?

Let’s face it. Mankind is surplus requirement to the existence of Earth. Earth would get on just fine without us. At least in the physical sense of things...

But we are still here. And alas, still reducing this Earth into a wretched slave to our destructive impulses and greedy consumption. How I fear the time of reckoning when God looks unto His creation and asks Mankind, “Oh what have you done with the world I have created?”

Something to ponder over, sunshine.

It is time to Go Green.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Slaying the Beast of Debt - the Crusade-Jihad against Banks, Usury and Fiat Money of all Religion

14. The Pyramid

There is no get-rich-quick schemes,

No multi-level marketing pyramids

More heinous and globally prevalent

Than the interest-banking

And fiat currency systems of the world.

And lo! Its illusion is guarded by watchdogs

Zealous in their affairs.

................

Which Christians will now complete the mission of Jesus to rid the world of the money-changers and the contagion of usury? Which Muslims will now rise to expel the new Islamic banking hegemony from the halls of power and influence?

Bankers in Jerusalem had to migrate their business due to
a regulatory change in the Temple. But they are back.
With a vengeance.

The rich nations become richer and the poor becomes poorer, and not by the natural state of human talent and endeavour. Oh no. Because if you are in the class of those who set the rules of the game, you can do anything, because you can change the rules to suit your fraud.

For every dollar of 'aid' sent by the rich north to the poor south, many times more are repaid by these southern nations back to the Western banks to service the interest payments for such loans often pushed upon the weaker countries who knew not to trust the bankers, the IMF and the World Bank.

Those who make it their vocation to study and chronicle the fluctuating fortunes of the world, cannot but be amazed at how forgetful Mankind is. Just how many times do we need to pay the price for overweening greed of the ruling rich, the banks and corporations? Only five years ago the world was shaken by the 2008 debt crisis. Worldwide, millions upon millions lost their jobs as demand dried up, and millions more will lose their homes by the connivance of banks and mortgage companies who fleece the uninformed and poor class who did not read the fine print in their mortgage contracts. Because of the sub-prime fiasco, credit dried up as financial institutions refused to lend each other, global trade froze and mighty banks and insurance companies that once ruled Wall Street fell like dominoes. And yet, it was the tax payers that paid to save the too-big-to-fail banks. Yes, I know that it is the (future) US taxpayers who is bearing the direct cost. But trust me, at the end, everyone man, woman and child on Earth will be footing the bill. Trillions upon trillions upon trillions... 

Obama has done nothing, because he is a creature of the very same establishment which caused the crisis.

So who among the Christians and Muslims are going to take the quest to slay the Beast of Debt? I promise it shan't be easy, but I can almost guarantee you that it will never be boring.

Have a lovely interest-free day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Sinners Guide to Scams and Cons

“Between a fellow who is stupid and honest and one who is smart and crooked, I will take the first. I won’t get much out of him, but with that other guy 
I can’t keep what I’ve got”~Lewis B Hershey

THE LANGUAGE OF THE CON. As a practicing lawyer, I have heard many, many fishy stories. I have read many, many documents, great works of forgery, and in some instances, fantasy - in one instant that I shan't easily forget is coming across an official Land Office document which was written over by one individual to alienate a certain part of his property as a garden and home for elves (no kidding). I have learnt a little I think, to distinguish between the sincere and the less-than-sincere, and use my nose to smell a rat. I have also come across many ‘businessmen’ who are honest but naïve in the ways of the world. But  of course, I have also come across a number of con artists. These are some telling points about our ethically-handicapped friends (of course, some of whom are down right criminal) –

THE GREAT PYRAMIDS - If it looks like pyramid scheme. If it smells, walks and talks like a pyramid scheme. Then, in ALL probability, it is a pyramid scheme. It doesn’t matter what the ‘object for sale / trade’ is. In my short life I have come across blatant gimmicks like shoe polish, mattresses and herb-infused women’s err... feminine pads that doubles as an alternative remedy for high-fever – you plop it on your forehead. (I kid you not), that is utilized as the ‘trade’ to justify collecting a disproportionately high ‘purchase price’. Alternatively, I have come across pyramid schemes organized around a real estate development, with millions upon millions of dollars invested to market and give a veneer of legitimacy to the fraudulent program. The simple rule is that if there is a ‘down-liner’ structure, if you are required to make a hefty deposit (say, 20-30%), then it is highly likely that it is pyramid-ponzi scheme.

THEY ARE FAST TALKERS! Conmen tend to talk fast. They are not too fond of pauses and silent contemplation. They have a story to sell and they don’t want you thinking too much over it…”And you said that Ferdinand Marcos had this deal with…? What date exactly? Waitaminute, wasn’t he overthrown already then?

THEY TRAVEL IN GROUPS! They often come with hanger-ons. Sometimes two, three even four ‘partners’ who appear to have no role whatsoever but to take up valuable space in your meeting room. Oh, they sometimes nod vigorously in agreement with the lead speaker's claims, and that's it. Most of the time not  a word would they breath through out the entire pitch.

THEY ARE BEING SHADOWED BY THE CIA! If they throw in words suggesting grand conspiracies like the CIA, the FBI, IMF, President of the United States, World Bank, McDonalds, Freemasons… and how these people would come down hard on them for their product (whatever it may be) if only they BUT knew! But of course, in the real world, those that need to be-in-the-know are probably already in-the-know. So the question is, why are such ‘malevolent forces’ not doing anything? Of course the truth is, they don’t care, because it is all a pack of lies.

He was caught and punished. But mainly because he
soaked and conned his own class, the rich.

IT IS YOUR LUCKY DAY! If it is such a great idea, if it is such a brilliant scheme… why are they coming to you? Why not just keep it to themselves, or at the most to their close friends and family? Why need they set up shop in your country and not their own? And even if they had to, why not get venture capital from the USA, Britain or Europe? If the idea is too good to be true, you KNOW that it is too good to be true.

JUST PAY USD20,000 AND YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO GET USD6 MILLION! And finally, the clinching evidence if you have any doubt as to the honesty of any deal - If such a scheme entails you paying a small amount relative to what you will get – say, paying a USD20,000 to help ‘facilitate lottery administrative charges’, ‘pay death duties’, ‘settle bank financial fees', ‘help procure necessary permits to remit monies cross-borders’, through which a disproportionate amount of money (maybe USD6 million and above) is released / remitted into your account, then come on… you have to be naive to fall for such trickery.

Listen to your heart… Though your dry-bone and almost empty wallet is shouting to be filled. This will save you money, or at least the blushes of being duped by a con artist.

This has been a public service broadcast from the sinners’ almanac. I hope you found it to be helpful. Actually, I have been wanting to write this for the longest time.

Thank you for dropping in, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Price Discovery and Price Propaganda - Sinners' Dictionary

Financial and Economic Analysis is...

Price Propaganda disguised

As Price Discovery.

I touched on this point in the last posting and I think this interesting topic deserves further elaboration. Why? Because it is the holidays, most of my clients are away sunning themselves on a beach or prepping their resumes for the annual job migration that comes after the announcement of bonuses - I have the time.

Price Discovery. In the days of old, when dinasours ruled the planet and Taufiq was studying 'A' Levels economics we had this thing called price discovery. The simple theory is that price of an item or service is discovered where the supply of such things meets demand in the x/y graph.

This theory, in theory, is effective where there is perfect disclosure of information and no barriers of trade, which can be in the way of import duties as well as technical barriers of entry - for instance, a rule that the bananas to be imported and sold must be straight and not curvy whatsoever, or that a car must meet a particular exhaust emission standards.

Disenchantment #1. The first reality-check I have come across is, sadly, that human communication is not perfect that way. Never was. Not just about financial or economic information. Things get lost or distorted in the transmission of any type information, "Yes, yes... don't worry. Her cousin is very pretty!". 

Disenchantment #2.The second reality-check is that people are wise to this distortion and have found ways not to just inform the market, but actually manipulate the market. And of course, people will do so in the manner that best suits their interest in the troika of the equity, debt and currencies market. Things were never perfect to begin with but the growth of derivatives have multiplied the profit and risk exponentially. For instance, do you know that the oil derivative futures market is actually bigger than actual trading in the global oil market? So the tail is now wagging the dog. And the tail is BIGGER than the dog.

Price Propaganda. Whether it is central banks, brokerage firms, rating agencies, investment banks, university economic faculties, 'thinktanks', monetary authorities or international financial organisations, at the end of the day, press statements, research reports and analyses are created according to their individual agendas, each party generating its own disinformation that best advances its respective goals - Price propaganda.

Chaos. In the traditional world of supply and demand, it is difficult to make obscene amounts of money without actually manufacturing / building / growing something that people wants to buy. So to liven things up and to allow banks to make tonnes of money shuffling paper, the financial industry has essentially engineered magical financial products, so complicated and so leveraged that even professionals find it hard to find out the degree of liability involved or where the liabilities are in fact parked or hidden. I may be wrong, but I don't think that such complexities were accidentally generated. It is only in the dark realms of financial chaos and anarchy that dynastic fortunes are made. Someone somewhere is benefiting from this man-made confusion. It began in Wall Street and the City of London, and the contagion is spreading... 

The Temple of Greed

Once upon a time, 

Jesus chased the moneylenders out of the temple. 

Now the entire world is their temple

The Good News. I hate ending on a depressing note, so this is the good news - You. Because there is someone out there as kind, sensible, generous, fair-minded and obviously as good-looking as you. We can make a change, we can make amends. We can still choose prudence over consumerism, community over individual self-interest, charity over selfishness, love over hubris and certainty over doubt. For even if the selfish ones have spread the religion of greed, it is based on falsehood, and falsehood never lasts. I rest the future of the world on the conscience of your present and in the lessons of your past. I know you will choose well.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

footnote: The eye-candy in this posting is my aunt, Mak Ndak, pictures taken by her granddaughter, Balqies Arafia Zaid.

Alchemy, Fiat Money and the Zealous Watchdogs

Oh Lord! Sorry! I should have been studying Your Secrets instead!

8. Philosopher’s Stone II

Deceived and tricked,

They rest their hopes

In transmutation,

Drowning in complexities,

Drifting into conjecture.

Not knowing that

Alchemy is the quest

For gold

But without the ‘L’.

Prophets have said it. Saints have said it. Evangelicals, mystics and decent people have all said it. It is written in the holy scriptures and in the lessons of spirituality through the ages. Why look for gold when there is God to look for? Why be satisfied with the kingdom when you can have the King Himself? But we mortals are like that. We make mistakes, we err than we go, "Err... ooops. Sorry, God."

Sexy, sexy gold and silver bars. 

There used to be a time when people go mad for gold. They would steal for it, beg for it and marry for it. The possession of gold ruled their moods, and often ruining their lives. But then, sometime during the 20th century, fiat money was created. Fiat essentially means that this money is 'by right'. And it is devolved from a country's legislation on the central bank and the monetary laws. Right now there is no other type of money in circulation in the world. But lets not waste time on economics, for the truth is...

7. Fiat Money

... is Monopoly™ Money.

Fiat money is essentially make-believe because... err, how do I put it frankly, because IT IS. It is essentially an I-owe-you issued by the central bank or a you-owe-me issued by the commercial and investment banks. There used to be a time long ago when you can actually exchange paper money for gold. Now that those days are long gone. Fiat money is also known as paper money...

188. Paper Promises

Paper money make poor substitute

For gold and silver,

A mode of transaction

On human promises.

And oh, how well

We know of man

And his paper promises!

In the offices of the European Central Bank there live gremlins. And their entire job
is to make gremlin promises.

People nowadays are worried about the value of money. And there are a small but noisy group asking for the return to gold and silver. But their crusade is difficult. For it is in the interests of the powers-that-be to keep the system in place, even as we see the ruination of economy and capitalism by the 2008 credit crisis and the current Euro-mess in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. This is not capitalism or free market, for there is no competition to banks. They set the rules, they break their own rules and often they change the rules to suit their profit margins. And they would fight all comers to keep the system in place... And keep YOU in your place in the ponzi-pyramid scheme that we are presently living in...

At which level of the pyramid are you?

14. The Pyramid 2

There is no get-rich-quick schemes,

No multi-level marketing pyramids

More heinous and globally prevalent

Than the interest-banking

And fiat currency systems of the world.

And lo! Its illusion is guarded by watchdogs

Zealous in their affairs.

The Federal Reserve. One of the most fiercest watchdogs around...
I am informed that they never sleep.

In the mean time, the people are blackmailed and threatened. Without fail, every minute and every day, the mainstream media is awash with news as to how bad things are going to be if the banks collapse. If the fiat currency collapses. If the pyramid crashes into society. So people are scared even to voice their concerns...

18. The Pyramid 

The fiat currency system

Is a weapon used by all governments

To blackmail its restless population;

‘Dismiss us? Do so and see the savings

That you keep in our currency take wing,

I am sure your children who will go hungry

Shall understand your crusade against us!’

The Greeks are up in arms but to no avail. People say that they were
bad money managers. But I think they got fooled by their own politicians and bankers.

The system is corrupt and biased against free market competition and capitalism. I think that many people who are protesting the banking corruption in USA and Europe are not against capitalism or free market. They are simply asking for honesty in government and transparency in the relationship between the elected representatives and the big banks. And they are asking why the few are so often advantaged to the detriment of the many.

But ultimately for many of us, we are merely reiterating the words of the wise before us. After all, did Jesus not chase out the money-lenders? He had a point, and I wish to marry that point to the concept of tawhid in Islam which speaks of the utter Uniqueness of God and His Attributes...

132. Mortal Usury

Oh My enterprising servants!

I have vested upon this earth

Wealth of certain certainty

For people of certainty,

Dabble not in the arts of usury,

And attempt not to copy My Unique Ability

To make something from nothing.

We mortals cannot make something out of nothing. Whether it is fiat money or interests on loans, people are essentially trying to do just that. I do not know if or when the fiat money and usury banking system will ever end. But I think we have seen enough examples through out the world and notice how such a system is easily corrupted by banks and insurance lobbyists and the politicians who are their paid minions. There used to be a time when paper money is at least backed by gold and banks actually do their job, which is to provide financial services to industries of manufacturing and trade. A time when regulators were actually given the laws and resources to supervise the industry. Now we know that those laws have been changed, and each budget we find the regulators scrimping to understand, much less regulate the financial alchemy engineered by rocket scientists under the hire of Wall Street and the City (London).

God made man and he did not leave mankind to our own devices. Ought we not to trust Him? Even the USA Dollar says so...

Have a fiscally prudent day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE IMMORTALS and MARGIN CALL - The movie reviews.

THE IMMORTALS. As promised, the sinner dragged himself to the nearest cineplex to watch The Immortals. In a previous posting, the sinner audaciously pre-review reviewed the movie (Click Here) and predicted that actual review would find The Immortals garnering a pitiful 3 out of 10. I am afraid that even that prediction turned out to be optimistic.

Oh, there is something about a super-Bow in the movie, but by that time I was bored.

So this is the important bit about the story - a King (Hyperion, played by Mickey Rourke) sees wife and children dying of a disease. They never actually spell out what disease, but because of that, Hyperion decides to start an all-out assault on the Greeks and their holy Mount Tartarus where he is knowledgeably informed that the Titans are imprisoned - The Titans are essentially the other gods who got clobbered by Zeus and family. So if the Titans are out, they would start another war in heaven and hopefully (thinks Hyperion), Zeus and family would all be killed. Theseus (who happens to be Zeus's bastard son, I think) gets caught up in all this, along with Phaedra the Virgin Oracle (played by Freida Pinto, from Slumdog Millionare).

This is about as naked as naked men are gonna get in this movie.
So if you are expecting another meat-feast, prepare to get disappointed.

The Virgin Oracle about to lose her qualification to be one.

Things happen so fast, there is very little time for character development, and really, I just ended up not caring at all about what happens to Theseus, Hyperion, Phaedra, Zeus or the Titans come to think of it. The script is really just barely this side of bearable, and surprisingly the set and CGI, to be absolutely honest- ain't so good as the scenes in 300. And really, Hyperion is just another pissed off guy, except that he is just really obsessed about getting his vengeance. Other than that, I think that Mickey Rourke (who was brilliant in The Wrestler) is just doing this movie for the money. Heche, who agreed to sit as co-reviewer had 2 important observations - 1. If you are looking for a large number of almost-naked men in loincloth doing manly things... well you would be disappointed. There is barely any sight of abdominal muscles or 'a cute butt'. Only Theseus was on hand to show off his ripped body. Yes, just one eye-candy for our discerning female audience. Not good enough. 2. Her second observation is the most interesting - if the Greeks were so concerned about the Oracles being virgin, why do they pick such hot-looking babes as their Oracles. Really, just choose the ugliest maidens in the village and surely, the chances of them losing their virginity would be smaller. All in all, The Immortals turns out to be an even greater disappointment than anticipated -  2 out of 10.

MARGIN CALL. From a movie lemon to a movie corvette. Where do I begin with a movie about Wall Street greed that is so full of talent and amazing acting of the highest calibre. You just gotta look at the cast - Kevin Spacey as Sam Rogers, Paul Bettany as Will Emerson, Jeremy Irons as John Tuld, Zachary Quinto as Peter Sullivan, Penn Badgley as Seth Bregman, Simon Baker as Jared Cohen, Mary McDonnell as Mary Rogers, Stanley Tucci as Eric Dale and Demi Moore as Sarah Robertson - for you to realise that this is a powerhouse acting resource for the director to pull in. So did the director, JC Chandor manage to bring out the best from his actors? He did. Awesomely.

There is a Greek phrase for this scenario -
The shiteus is gonna hit the faneus.

Margin Call is a story set over a 24 hours period in an anonymous Wall Street Investment firm. Over that 24 hours, people are sacked, huge previously unnoticed liabilities in derivatives and CDOs are going to bankrupt the firm (to know more watch Inside Job, the Cannes Festival winning feature documentary which brings to light the many sins of Wall Street), and the firm's decision to dispose of ALL their toxic assets into the market by lunch time next day - which would trigger (as the movie implies) one of the worst credit crunch default in the history of civilization. People are going to lose their jobs. Other firms, banks and mutual funds are going to sink, but at least this particular firm will managed to sneak out FIRST. In one of the final scene, Sam the crusty Risk Management departmental boss confronted John Tuld, the Boss of bosses in the firm about the appalling effect on Wall Street and the economy that would be triggered by their decision to dump their foul-smelling bonds into the market. And this was John's reply - "It's just money. Made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don't have to kill each other to get something to eat..."

An intelligent and entertaining movie. A must-watch for anyone who's at least a little bit concerned about the condition of this world and where consumerism and cheap (read false) credit will ultimately take mankind to. An amazing 8 out of 10 movie.

Have a beautiful day, sunshine. God bless.

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam.

Love will show the way.

Please God - I don't want to see Matt Damon In a Feature Documentary about Malaysia entitled 'From Boom to Bust' - Subprime Bust Part 3

(Reposted because of posting error - Apologies)

I TOO WAS AN ADDICT. Easy credit? It is really a contradiction in terms. I got my first taste when I was only 26 years old when a foreign bank operating in Malaysia sent me a pre-approved credit card with a maximum limit of RM20,000.00. I initially ignored their earlier courtship of me when they offered RM25,000.00 pre-approved personal loan. But at 26 and the thought of carrying 20 grand of credit in my wallet was just too tempting. So many girls to chase, so many toys to buy and so little money, you see. The eternal conundrum of a fresh graduate just out of law school.

EASY CREDIT. If easy credit was channeled towards cost of the production of good and services, that is not too bad. I need to increase purchase of noodles for my wantan mee stall, I need the money to tide by my operation because I keep being bothered by the local town council enforcement officers. But to a large extent, easy credit is utilized to finance our never-ending desire for consumer goods and services. A new iPhone. A new handbag. The new PS3. The latest Armani perfume. The new Mont Blanc pen. Beef Burger enlivened with Fois Gras…. The story goes on and on… To infinity and beyond, says Buzz Lightyear.

WALL STREET. The easy access to credit, often non-documented and failing the standard credit review is also reflected in commercial credit and finance. So now everyone can go bankrupt and lose their houses. Oh but wait. I don’t think any of the CEOs in Wall Street have lost their palatial mansion in the Hamptons. Oh no, it’s the poor Joe in Middle America that’s having to pay his rising housing loan instalments while the value of his house is sinking into the quicksand of reality.

AND NOW IN MY BACKYARD. The government of Malaysia has announced an initiative called the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District – which is a multi-agency, multi-billion dollar project to enhance KL as an international financial hub. A large chunk of downtown real estate will be alienated for the purpose of developing an international financial centre, replete with entertainment, residential and travel infrastructure to accommodate the hordes of financial professionals anticipated to flock into the district.

I AM NOT CRITICIZING. I AM ONLY RAISING QUESTIONS. I will resist the impulse to attack this project, which may have good collateral effect on the city and the country as a whole. But in my brain, there is a question bouncing about, and it is this – How do we attract the merchant and commercial banks into the KLIFD if we are not able to provide the regulatory regime which they most desire? And are they not interested in a less regulated system which would permit them to structure and ‘engineer’ such magical concoctions like the synthetic collaterized debt obligations and other voodoo financial instruments? I hope I am proven wrong. I really do.

I AM A MALAYSIAN... WHEN THINGS ARE GOOD. If the international banking sector, as well as the commodities and currencies trading have all become essentially an open casino – how will we attract the biggest gamblers if we do not allow them to make the biggest bets. The main problem with trillion dollars bets is that there is also a trillion dollars downside. Can Malaysia cope with the downside? Will the Malaysian authority charged with regulating KLIFD have the expertise and the chutzpah to deal with the silky smooth presentations and goobleedegook chatter of international investment bankers and money managers? Something which even the SEC and the Federal Reserve of USA themselves failed to do. Or has each stakeholder involved in this project already purchased a home somewhere overseas, ready to pack the bags and migrate at the first hint of a financial fiasco?

THE INNOCENT MAJORITY. There are countless tens upon millions of people out there who don’t have a clue about Subprimes, CDOS, 1st Floor and Mezzanine levels of toxic bond towers, and off-balance-sheet liabilities. They are farmers and restaurant owners. They are factory workers, teachers and civil servants. They have nothing to do with the elevated conversations of investment bankers, money managers and commodities and currency traders. But they will be ones to suffer if the monolithic banking / securities / currency / commodities derivatives behemoths are poorly managed. Or even worse – barely regulated. Because in the modern world, all things are connected. And a credit squeeze will affect everybody. See Iceland, Greece, Spain, Portugal in the ever-growing list of countries either borrowing or printing money to climb out of their fiscal indiscipline.

DEAR KLIFD PROMOTERS - So go ahead if you think that the KLIFD can benefit the country. With the necessary and effective safeguards, Chinese walls, risk analysis and enforcement, it may work. But if you are trying to replicate the same 'pure' free market formula which has proven to be disastrous over the years in Wall Street, London, Dubai and other ‘international financial hubs’, then please sirs, think again.

A couple of years down the road, I don’t want to see Matt Damon in a documentary on Malaysia entitled KLIFD - from Boom to Bust. Click here on my earlier posting entitled ‘Subprime Bust Part 2 - INSIDE JOB THE MOVIE’ and a related posting entitled ‘Michael Lewis (Wall Street Insider) Mikhail Taufiq (Venture Capitalist) and the Subprime Bust’ –Click here.

188. Paper Promises
Paper money make poor substitute
For gold and silver,
A mode of transaction
On human promises.
And oh, how well
We know of man
And his paper promises!

Have a financially prudent day, pet.

Pax Taufiqa.

Obama and the Saints & Scoundrels

SAINT OR SCOUNDREL? "No need to regulate derivatives, its lovely. Its the most beautiful creation since the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel", said the regulators, investment bankers and professors of economics. Well, in 2008, the halo of sainthood broke amidst the increasing defaults by American homebuyers who were deceived by predatory lending practises into taking loans and mortgages that they would never be able to repay. "Come on... there's NO WAY the price of your house would stagnate or fall. Its going up, up and up!" sang the chorus of lenders while keeping quiet on the fact that the teaser rate of low interest will end in 2-3 years time, and the poor borrowers may end up having to pay TWICE their monthly instalment coming into year 3.

TWICE THE SCOUNDREL. Not satisfied defrauding the borrowers, Wall Street financial 'wiz kids' cobbled together subprime mortgage bonds, credit default swaps, Collaterized Debt Obligations and Synthetic CDOs (God knows what they are!) to essentially play Russian Roulette with the American Economy (and ergo, Global Economy). When the going was good nobody complained and the American public had no say... "You guys are too simple" they intoned, "You cannot grasp the complexities of these trades" they said condenscendingly, "Trust us", they pleaded. Then in 2008, everything went belly up, and a huge stinking whale of almost a Trillion Dollars ended up on the shore of America.

INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS AND SOCIAL FAILURE. Now suddenly, it's "a social problem", and the US government needs to bail out these gentlemen. I leave you with this quote from Michael Lewis's book ("The Big Short") - "The ability of Wall Street traders to see themselves in their success and their management in their failure would later be echoed, when their firms, which disdained the need for government regulation in good times, insisted on being rescued by government in bad times. SUCCESS WAS INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT; FAILURE WAS A SOCIAL PROBLEM." Wow.

Problem? What problem?

OBAMA. Now, I am not an American, but I don't see things changing at all under Obama's presidency. Its like watching a horrid bloody road accident and later seeing the same dangerous drivers being given a new set of car keys, without even a demerit on their licenses. And them shiny new cars are all paid by the American Taxpayer. Oohh... my head hurts thinking about it.

FINANCIAL INDUSTRY IS NOT AN INDUSTRY. You know, I am all for individual responsibility. After all, nobody forced the low-credit borrowers to take up the loans. But nobody also forced the bankers, rating agency and Wall Street traders to take a gamble too. I think there is a pattern here. Where consumerism and unbridled greed becomes the norm in a poorly regulated industry, prepare to see the least appealing of our human nature. We must face the fact that men are not angels, and a miniscule percentage of us are saints, the rest of us being the Mr. Typical Joe willing if tempted, to make a quick buck, especially if we are betting with someone else's money.

THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. I hope America will be able to recover its traditional base - hard working Americans in manufacturing, research and innovation (which they are still capable cleary capable of doing, see their world-leading ICT industry). And the financial services industry being a 'support and services' sector to REAL trade and industry, instead of the uncontrollable nightmare-machine that it is now.

Pax Taufiqa.

Subprime Bust Part 2 - INSIDE JOB the Movie

INSIDE JOB. At 5.14am earlier this morning I was still awake. And guess what, I only dozed off at about 9.30am. For this loss of sleep I must blame INSIDE JOB, a movie which according to the tagline, costs $20,000,000,000,000.00 to make. The movie was in fact a documentary, directed by Charles Ferguson, about the subprime bust in the USA which almost tipped the entire global economic structure into chaos. In my earlier posting entitled 'Michael Lewis (Wall Street Insider) Mikhail Taufiq (Venture Capitalist) and the Subprime Bust"(Click Here) , I touched a little about this scandal.

AMAZING MOVIE. If you wish to know just how close the world came to a financial tsunami of biblical scale, you MUST see this movie. The list of luminaries alone (both the villains and heroes of this Wall Street escapade) which were interviewed is a good reason enough to watch it - Willem Buiter – Chief economist for Citigroup. John Campbell – Department chair of Harvard University’s Department of Economics. Kristin Davis – Best known as the “Madam” to countless investment bankers. Martin Feldstein – The George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Jerome Fons –Served as Managing Director of Credit Policy at Moody’s Investor Services. Barney Frank – Democratic Representative for the state of Massachusetts. Samuel Hayes – Hayes holds the Jacob H. Schiff Chair in Investment Banking Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. Glenn Hubbard – Chief Economic Advisor during the Bush Administration and current Dean of the Columbia University Business School. Christine Lagarde – The French Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment. Jeffrey Lane – CEO of Modern Bank, and former Chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns Asset Management. Lee Hsien Loong – The current Prime Minister of Singapore. Frederic Mishkin – American economist and professor at Columbia Business School, Mishkin was a member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2008. Charles Morris – Author of The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash. Raghuram Rajan – An economist and Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. Andrew Sheng – Chief Advisor to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. George Soros - is a Hungarian-American currency speculator, stock investor, businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. Dominique Strauss-Kahn – Current Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and former Minister for Finance, Economy and Industry, France. Paul Volcker – An American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1979 – 1987. Scott Talbott – Top lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable. Nouriel Roubini – Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University. (write-up extracted from the movie's PressKit)

MATT DAMON TURNS UP THE HEAT. The narrator and interviewer was none other than Mr. Bourne Ultimatum himself, Matt Damon. I wonder just how many of the super-bosses interviewed thought "Hey, I am going to be interviewed by Matt Damon. The kids are gonna love this. I bet Matt haven't a clue and will throw me easy questions to answer... this is going to be a walk in the park". Or so they thought.See bankers, regulators and acadamicians (under pay of the financial industry) squirm in the interview chair, looking like they rather be a million miles away from the interview and Matt Damon. See grown men (the villians are all men) lie to the camera and asking for a break in the interview to regain their composure. See one particular guy lose his cool and insult Matt. Hehehe.

MOVIE ACCOLADES. The movie is brilliant and already recognised so, winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature recently in February 2011, and before that the Writers Guild of America Award AND the Directors Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay and Best Documentary. Sunshine, if you are an American, I suggest you spend some quality time to watch the movie. It is very enlightening, to say the least. I am not saying that the sinner predicted the subprime catastrophe, but in 2004 I recorded this prose...

188. Paper Promises
Paper money make poor substitute
For gold and silver,
A mode of transaction
On human promises.
And oh, how well
We know of man
And his paper promises!

OUT! OUT! OUT! When Jesus, the Prince of Peace, kicked out the money-lenders out of the Temple, I don't think it is because he disliked how they smelled. The economy, for those in the know (and I know you are in the know, sunshine), is not only a temporal issue - it is a spiritual issue of great significance not only because you have frauds and monopolies, but how such crimes and social injustice affect a great swath of humanity if something goes wrong. And in 2008, oh boy, did it go wrong!

Have a nice day, sunshine. And if you have the vote in America, please make you vote count. As I said, if your country has a cold, it's the rest of the world that will be sneezing. Help us.

Pax Taufiqa.

Relevant Links - 'Inside Job' Official Website / 'Inside Job' Sony Pictures Website / Wikipedia on 'Inside Job'

God the Chef All-Mighty, Angels, Obesity, Excess, Diet and One Over-sized Mould

19. Recipe Book …
To turn base metal into gold;

Take a pot,
Boil some revelations,
Throw in a pinch of salt,
A smidgen of iron,
Some bones,
And let simmer.

Finally, pour the mixture into a clay mould,
Add a soul,
Then let it set for one hour.

..............................

(From the 2nd Chapter, 'The Dam.Munir.Ana')

We are all finely balanced recipes of God. Too much sugar – problem. Too little sugar – problem. Too little or too much salt – also problem. Too much water – bad. Too little water – more bad. No water – dead bad.

If God remained the Chef of our bodies, deciding what goes in and out of us, that’s fine. But He has left the kitchen (in that metaphoric sense) and is allowing the dishes themselves (that’s you and I) to add and subtract our ingredients as we like. And often, we like too much of the good stuff (and the good life). God of course left the cookbooks for us to follow. Often you will find God's recipes in the physical and spiritual teachings of saints. But do we follow their instructions? Of course not!

I am guilty. I have been peppering myself with sugar, salt, caffeine, nicotine, fat, oil and all the other yummies as if eating is going to go out of fashion.

So here I am, stuck over a slowly burning cooker. The sugar is caramelizing in my wok and my pillars of salt is making Prophet Lot’s wife faint.

I was a fanatical student of the maxim; The Road of Excess Leads to the Palace of Wisdom. Now my ‘wisdom’ is going to book me an early appointment with the Chef All-Mighty. I am just afraid that He will take one look at me and ask, “What have you done with My Creation?!”

And for once in my (after)life, I will be at a lost for words.

Help!

Pax Taufiqa.