Sunday, January 6, 2013

HOW CAN THERE BE ANY DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE THAT THE STATE OF THE FINANCIAL FIRMS IS WHAT IT APPEARS TO BE - UPDATED AND AMENDED (12/9/2013 as well as 1/18, 6/2, 6/20, 8/15, 8/16, 8/20, 8/31, 9/7, 9/12, 9/14, 9/15, 9/21, 9/26, 10/3, 10/8, 10/20, 11/4, 11/6, 11/13 & 11/20/2014)?

Introduction:
As reported in the 6/3/2009 edition of the Daily/Weekend Business Publication (A1/14), soon after the bottom fell out of the mortgage securities market in 2008, an illustrious group of interested parties, led by financial firms, set out to address the main “culprit” responsible for their woes, as they saw it, namely the accounting Rules that force them to report billions of dollars of losses on those assets.

Here are the Facts/Background Details:
As a result of the above scenario, a deluge of lobbying funds were unleashed to “persuade” key members of Congress to pressure the accounting industry to change its Rule in 2008. From a layperson’s perspective, the last thing needed in the wake of the Arthur Andersen fiasco, is watered down accounting rules, in my opinion. It does appear that these accounting Rules lie at the very heart of the financial crisis recently faced, as outlined in the following observation/question: “are the hardest-to-value securities worth no more than what the market is willing to pay, or did the market grow too dysfunctional to properly set market value?” The ongoing scenario was so obvious in its intent that the then Director of the Financial Reporting Policy For CFA Institute Center for Financial Market Integrity, an investor trade group raised the question in his statement, “this political interference…raises questions about whether accounting standards going forward will have the same quality and integrity that the market deserves.” Due to the prior Rule, the following firms had charges as follows:
  1. Merrill Lynch - $41.8 billion
  2. Citigroup - $37 billion
  3. AIG - $26 billion
  4. Lehman Brothers - $13.5 billion and
  5. Wachovia - $12.3 billion
The "annoying" accounting Rule had required banks, securities firms and insurers
to use market prices to assign values to mortgage securities and other assets that
don't trade on exchange-to "mark to market." As a result of this Rule, in the midst of
the financial crisis, affected companies were forced to slash the value of many assets
based on actual market conditions. This single criterion is why so
many large institutions flirted with disaster and others
were swallowed up. The resulting lobbying effort from the coalition of
interested groups from the Chamber of Commerce to the Commercial Real Estate
Developers Assoc., collectively spent a total of $27.6 million on lobbying efforts to
affect a change in the Rule and other issues. The end result was that the financial
Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which is the accounting industry's rule making
body came under intense pressure from Congress and the Rule was hastily changed.
Not all within the FASB were happy with the change but the token opposition was not
sufficient to overturn the completed action.
 
The Finale/Outcome:
Beginning the second quarter of 2009, big improvements were expected to occur and they did in many cases. With this scenario that was enacted, try to compare the two following situations:

  • financial and other effected firms were forced to use "actual" market conditions to value their mortgage securities and other asses that caused many to be pushed to the brink of insolvency and as a result they lobbied for and won the right to change this "unfair" Rule, which made many appear to be unstable.
  • On the other hand, home owners faced with their homes "under water" were forced to walk away from them.
These homeowners have no lobbying arm to unleash to lobby Congress or anyone else for that matter to do anything on their behalf to address the overpriced values of their homes to make them more affordable to avoid loosing them. Needless to say, many suffered and many still are at the hand of the very institutions represented in this collective group that also included the Bankers Assoc., which contributed a total of $1.98 million of the total lobbying effort that sought and received relief from their financial woes (that were forced to be priced according to market conditions), yet these very institutions have shown no such accommodation for the hundreds of thousands of homeowners "shoved out" of their homes, for the most part. Furthermore, how can it be really known with any degree of certainty if the fiscally improving conditions of some of these institutions are "real" or due to accounting gimmickry and regardless of the true picture, THIS IS EITHER A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF A SOCIETY BEING GROUPED INTO CLASSES BY DEFAULT, or A CASE OF PROVIDING AN AVENUE FOR THOSE OF THE "free loaders cause" TO BE GRANTED "BACK DOORCITIZENSHIP (BY MISAPPLICATION OF THIS 1st AMENDMENT RIGHTS DECISION'S TRUE INTENT. These individuals are vigorously supported by most entities who choose to adopt the type of "business" practices ushered in by self styled dynastic types (from foreign shores) with the aid of "entitled" types as discussed in the Here are Selected Examples for Consideration section of the post AT WHAT PRICE LOYALTY - UPDATED AND AMENDED? and supplemented by the details in the post  HOW DO YOU GO FROM BEING A SMALL TOWN COUNTRY STORE TO BECOMING THE BIGGEST CORPORATION OF ITS TYPE IN THE WORLD - UPDATED AND AMENDED?.

Conclusion:
The question, which is the premise of this post is as valid today as it was in throes of the financial crisis, because prior to the crisis, it was believed that the state of the financial firms was "sound", therefore, with the continually improving economic conditions, how can anyone with any degree of certainty claim that existing conditions are based on "valid" accounting principles and that some "vital" criterion (or criteria) isn't (or aren't) being overlooked. This subject when appropriately evaluated from the perspective of the "free loaders" with their shadow banking system that was quite correctly mentioned by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) as depicted in the post THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION's (FCIC's) REPORT IN ADDITION TO TIME, ALSO VINDICATES A CRUSADER - UPDATED!  that is discussed in depth in The Finale and The Conclusion sections of the post THE METHODS OF "FREE LOADERS" - UPDATED?; will always lead anyone of sound principles to wonder whether or not the root cause of this problem needs further investigating to determine whether or not it's been adequately addressed, especially when:
AS DEMONSTRATED ON THE PAGES OF THESE BLOGS, BECAUSE "FREE LOADER CAUSE" TYPES HAVE MANY SUPPORTERS WHO HAVE FOUND THEMSELVES ADDICTED TO DRINKING AT THE TROUGH OF MAN'S OLDEST "PROFESSION" AS A MEANS OF DEMONSTRATING BUSINESS "SUCCESSES" (THAT WAS USHERED IN BY THOSE TYPES PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED, USING THEIR FLAWED MODEL AS GENERALLY DESCRIBED IN THE POST ETHICAL TREATMENT OF OTHERS SHOULD ALWAYS BE PRACTICED - EDITED/UPDATED AND AMENDED; THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT ALL HAVE BEEN SO DELUDED, BECAUSE I HAVE NOT AND NEITHER ARE MY SOLID "FOUNDATIONS" TO BE SO MISUSED, AS NEITHER ANY IMPOSTOR NOR ANYONE ELSE HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE OR REASSIGN WHAT'S PERSONAL TO ME TO ANY OTHER FOR IMMORAL AND DEGRADING PURPOSESWHICH HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED AND SUBJECT TO SPECIFIC PENALTY AS DOCUMENTED IN THE BIBLICAL BOOK OF REVELATION AS DESCRIBED IN THE FOOTNOTE OF THE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED POST ETHICAL TREATMENT OF OTHERS SHOULD ALWAYS BE PRACTICED - EDITED/UPDATED AND AMENDEDIN REALITY, THOSE OF THE "FREE LOADERS CAUSE" REMAIN:
  • "WITHOUT ORIGINS"
  • "PHOTOLESS" while remaining in hiding and using the photos of others,
  • RELIANT ON THE SOLID "FOUNDATIONS" OF THOSE WHOSE PHOTOS ARE BEING ILLEGALLY USED FOR THEIR FLEETING "LEGITIMACY" as the Passport example in Footnote2 of the post WHAT LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNED FROM THE RECENT FINANCIAL CRISIS - UPDATED AND AMENDED demonstrates as well as dependent on
  • THE ability to use THEIR READY AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES TO PURCHASE FLEETING "LEGITIMAC YIN THE IDENTITIES OF OTHERS VIA "CHECKBOOK LEGITIMACY", and
  • THE READY WILLINGNESS OF "FREE LOADER CAUSEOPERATED "BUSINESSES" WILLING TO SUPPORT OTHERS OF THEIR CAUSE IN KNOWN "FREE LOADER CAUSE" "STRONGHOLDS" IN THEIR EFFORTS TO "FIND" "CREDIBILITY" FOR THEIR CAUSE GENERALLY BY ACCEPTING THE PHONY IDENTITIES OF SUCH IMPOSTORS AS ORIGINALS, [WHOSE VITAL STATISTICS, SUCH AS, HEIGHT, WEIGHT, REAL MEDICAL RECORDS AS OPPOSE TO THOSE OBTAINED USING THE NAME OF ANOTHER* (SEE FOOTNOTE) ETC., WOULD DEFINITELY NOT BE REPRESENTATIVE OF THOSE WHOM THEY ARE MISREPRESENTING, as pointed out in the fourth bulleted discussion in the 1st bulleted listing in this Conclusion section above];  
regardless of whose support such types are reliant on to imply that their fleeting "legitimacy" makes them "originals" based on their own interpretation of this word, as previously indicated above, (which is further strengthened by the discussion and photo inserts in the Here are the Facts section of the post HOW TO VIOLATE FERPA AND STILL COMPLY WITH THE INTENT OF THE LAW - EDITED /UPDATED AND AMENDED as well as the photo and related linked inserts in the Here are the Details of Importance section of the post EXPEDIENTLY TAKING IN IDENTITIES MAY BRING MORE THAN BARGAIN FOR - UPDATED AND AMENDED; WHICH UNMISTAKABLY DEMONSTRATES, IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE THE CASE WHEN THE TOTALITY OF ALL THE FACTS EXPOSED ON THE PAGES OF THIS BLOG IS TAKEN TOGETHER, (OR SIMPLY PUT WHEN ALL THE DOTS ARE CONNECTED).



* FOOTNOTE:
The real medical records of any individual are consistent
and cannot be replaced by an impostor hiding in the shadows and simply outwardly using the photo of an individual to make payment for goods and services obtained from known "free loader" operated businesses who are willing to accept any fictitious forms of identification because these individuals have NO history in their own identities, which they use publicly (or to put it simply, they have "no origins"). Such records will show the real date of birth of the individual, as well as any and all ailments that the individual contracted, which in my case would be the exact date when my sinus issues first flared up and was diagnosed in Barbados as a teenager because all births prior to those born before 1970s were home-births (as referenced in the post A TRIBUTE TO MY LATE MOTHER - EDITED AND UPDATED), with midwives making the deliveries and as such records are unlikely to document any childhood ailments etc. Therefore most immunizations I received for the most common diseases at that time such as the; measeles, mumphs and polio were given at schools, which in my case was the Speightstown Boys School (opposite the residence of Roland Edwards and his daughters), next door to the Methodist church that were (the School and Church) only separated by a single side street. On the other side of the Methodist church was the Brazant family residence as shown in the second photo in the Here are the Background Details section of the post THE OUTSPOKEN PEN PAL, WHO BECAME A FRIEND - EDITED W/INSERTS AND UPDATED/AMENDED and documented in the post MY FATHER'S LEGACY, WHO FULFILLED IT - EDITED?.  

2 comments:

J_F_Brazant said...

Those who know what it is to be measured by different standards should not in turn resort to such measures when they have placed themselves in such a pisition, in the life of aan indifidual. In reality no one has the right to judge others, when contriuting to their being held hostage in the first place, this is worst than unfair! There is a big difference berwween pointing out an area for improvemment if in a position to do so, judging on the other hand when unfair measures have been employed to bring about unusual circumstances is really undignified, especially when in a pisition to alter such a situation but would rather stand and point out the obvious rather than take action. How much less different than those who carried out such is one wo chooses to point fngers when in a position to correct a situation. This is an area on, which nothing more needs be said. Note: all links are availale in the COMMENTS Page.

J_F_Brazant said...

Those who know what it is to be measured by different standards should not in turn resort to such measures when they have placed themselves in such a position, in the life of an individual. In reality no one has the right to judge others, when contributing to their being held hostage in the first place, this is worst than unfair! There is a big difference between pointing out a direction to be followed, which involves an area for improvement if in a position to do so, and judging on the other hand when unfair measures have been employed to bring about the unusual circumstances since, really there is nothing about my economic situation that was brought about by my choosing. This is undignified, especially when in a position to alter such a situation but would rather stand and point out the obvious rather than take action. How much less different than those who carried out such is one who chooses to point fingers when in a position to correct a situation? When I have been in a position to assist, I have done so even in the case of some who acted unwisely but found themselves in precarious positions in due course; after all what good are resources if they are obtained by "whatever works" methods and then they are hoarded and continually expanded on with no thought for others. Worrying about the future in this regard is neither a matter for discussion nor one of great significance if the remainder of one's life is in disarray; of more importance are the decisions we make about the other areas that can more significantly impact those intrinsic attributes such as: thoughtfulness, wholesomeness, fairness and helpfulness, etc., in our lives, and ultimately how these qualities are used to then impact the lives of others. Remember, the basic tenets of God's commandments are: 1) honoring God and 2) respect for others as pointed out in the post "WHAT IS HONOR - UPDATED?", IN THAT ORDER. Note: all links are availale on the COMMENTS Page