Madoff client list shows no Oklahoma connections
Bernard Madoff, who is accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
A quick search of a list of thousands of clients (.pdf file) of accused fraudster Bernard Madoff shows no Oklahoma addresses. However, the 162-page filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York City, does include several well-known victims, including former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, actor John Malkovich, talk-show host Larry King and New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Oklahoman’s Carla Hinton reported last month that the Baptist Foundation of Okahoma lost $1.4 million through investments with firms that did business with Madoff. That group doesn’t appear in the list, apparently because it didn’t deal directly with Madoff’s fund. Other Oklahoma residents and entities who invested in similar ways also could have suffered losses without appearing on the list of clients.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Comeback calculator
The New York Times has a nifty online tool that is designed to show how long it will take for your depleted nest egg to be restored at various rates of return and contributions. Like most things having to do with investing, it’s not a pretty picture. For me, it looks like it will take more than five years but less than a decade. Maybe.
The video below is provided as appropriate background music for this exercise.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
January worst month ever for Russell 2000
More bad news.
Steve Wood, senior portfolio strategist for Russell Investments, noted that the small-cap Russell 2000 Index reflected the worst January for that market segment since inception of the index. … “January was particularly brutal for financial services firms as that sector in the Russell 3000 declined more than 15% for the month, and in the mega-cap Russell Top 50 Index it showed a staggering 25 percent loss for the month.”
“In the past decade, we’ve seen a negative return for the month of January five times, but twice the respective annual return was positive,” said Wood. “In 2003, for example, the broad-market Russell 3000 reflected a decline of 2.45 percent for January, but by year’s end the annual return was 31.1 percent.”
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Madoff’s magic
How could an obscure hedge fund manager control — and lose — billions of dollars while attracting almost no attention? As Jeff Matthews writes on his “Jeff Matthews is Not Making This Up” blog, investors wanted to believe in Bernie Madoff’s unbelievable results.
People simply want to believe good stuff, not bad stuff. It’s human nature.
Investors wanted to believe Enron’s numbers were legit. They wanted to believe AIG’s earnings were real. They wanted to believe Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could grow earnings 15% forever. And we don’t mean your average day-trader.
We mean professional investors.
Don Mecoy
Business News
Who saw the meltdown coming? Peter Schiff
Watch as pundit after pundit scoffs at Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff’s accurate predictions in 2006 and 2007 about the economic meltdown and its causes. it’s a remarkable compilation, and a remarkable performance by Schiff, who pretty much hit the nail on the head time after time.
Business Writer
The meaning of thrift
A thrift initiative has created a quiz to gauge what thrift means to people. Among the questions (all to be answered in five words or less):
Thrift is ________
The opposite of thrift is ___________
Best all-time thrift movie ____________
Best all-time anti-thrift movie ___________
All-time most admirable U.S. millionaire ____________
All-time most destructive anti-thrify U.S. institution ____________
Most valuable current pro-thrift idea ____________
The author’s answers can be seen here. But answer at least a few of the questions before clicking through. The author and I agreed on the best all-time thrift movie and most notorious U.S. anti-thrift millioniare.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
SEC accuses Mark Cuban of insider trading
Mark Cuban, one of our most flamboyant billionaires and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, has been accused of insider trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.
Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban’s entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com’s stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day’s closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.
You can read the entire SEC complaint here (.pdf file). Ironically, Cuban’s latest blog post is titled “I hate to lose,” which is focused strictly on his basketball team’s rocky start — not his stock trading activities.
UPDATE: Cuban has responded to the SEC complaint on his blog.
I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff’s win-at-any-cost ambitions. The staff’s process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government’s claims are false and they will be proven to be so.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Forecasting the Dow
We ran a story on Sunday trying to gauge how much more pain stock investors might have to bear. Best guess of our experts: There could be more pain ahead. As part of that package, I interviewed Edmond investment manager Nick Massey. A regularly guest on CNBC and Bloomberg radio, Massey is pretty free with his advice regarding the overall market.
Here’s his take on the question: How low can the Dow go?”
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Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A description of short selling
This is a nice video explanation of short selling, a legal method used by traders to profit when stock prices fall. The video also includes a primer on naked short selling, which has been banned by some companies.
This is from Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch.
Getting naked in short selling from Marketplace on Vimeo.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Sad trader photos
Several blogs have sprung up that display a variety of photographs showing distressed stock or commodities traders from the United States and elsewhere. When markets tank, newspapers, Web sites and broadcast media tend to use images of worried, angry or sad traders on a trading floor.
It’s a bit misleading because, as anyone who has ever visited a major stock or commodities exchange can tell you, there are worried, angry and sad traders on the floor at times even on good days. It’s a high-pressure atmosphere populated with type-A personalities.
But it is interesting to see the photos arrayed one after another.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
