April 12, 2013

xpost from LBN: Ex-Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating Value of Mortgage Bonds

Source: New York Times

A former senior trader at Credit Suisse Group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he fraudulently inflated the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, becoming one of the highest-ranking Wall Street executives to admit to crimes related to the 2008 financial crisis.

Kareem Serageldin, the former Credit Suisse trader, admitted to mismarking their positions to avoid losses in their investment portfolio at the end of 2007. He appeared in Federal District Court in Manhattan a week after being extradited from Britain.

During the court hearing, Mr. Serageldin, 39, said that after discovering that members of his team were fudging the value of its bond portfolio, he made the fateful decision to participate in the fraud rather than put an end to it.

Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/ex-credit-suisse-executive-pleads-guilty-to-inflating-value-of-mortgage-bonds/
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Looks like we have at least one investment banker going to jail for the fraud that led to the financial crisis.

April 12, 2013

Ex-Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating Value of Mortgage Bonds

Source: New York Times

A former senior trader at Credit Suisse Group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he fraudulently inflated the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, becoming one of the highest-ranking Wall Street executives to admit to crimes related to the 2008 financial crisis.

Kareem Serageldin, the former Credit Suisse trader, admitted to mismarking their positions to avoid losses in their investment portfolio at the end of 2007. He appeared in Federal District Court in Manhattan a week after being extradited from Britain.

During the court hearing, Mr. Serageldin, 39, said that after discovering that members of his team were fudging the value of its bond portfolio, he made the fateful decision to participate in the fraud rather than put an end to it.

Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/ex-credit-suisse-executive-pleads-guilty-to-inflating-value-of-mortgage-bonds/

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Looks like we have at least one investment banker going to jail for the fraud that led to the financial crisis.

April 12, 2013

Two very special editions of Making Sense with Steve Leser are coming up...

On the show airing this Sunday at 7pm EST on Blogtalk radio and Monday at 2pm PST on KCAA 1050am, we will have Inna Shevchenko from Femen and the Rude Pundit will be back!

Next Sunday/Monday April 21st/22nd we will be doing a special show on Genocide with very special guests. More details on that soon!

April 12, 2013

Those who criticize Femen, for which women can we speak up? How close to us do they have to be?

The outrage du jour for some about Femen is that they are "Neocolonialist" or "Eurocentrist" or some other wharrgarbl (Look up the term) because they are speaking up for Femen members and other women in different cultures (Tunisia, Egypt, etc).

So how close do women have to be geographically so that you can speak up for them? How about culturally? There are women who are culturally different who live right here in the US and Europe. What kind of feminist would make the argument that you cannot speak up for mistreatment of women because those women are from a different culture or geographical region?

Would any LGBT person say you cannot speak up for laws and acts against LGBT people in Uganda because of cultural reasons or because you would be behaving "colonialist" if you do so? Of course not. That is insane. (Any LGBT folks who disagree with me please speak up, I'm willing to be corrected).

We can run the gamut of race, color, etc., and ask the same question. Oppression of a vulnerable group is oppression of a vulnerable group. It doesnt make it better if it is occuring in Asia Minor or Africa or Europe or the Americas.

Can a woman in the Czech Republic speak up for a woman in Turkey? What if the Turkish woman is on the Asian side of Turkey? Can the Czech woman still speak up for her? What if the woman speaking up is in France and not Czech Republic? Can a woman on the European side of Turkey speak up for a woman on the Asian side of Turkey?

So we have tons of new criticism and rules being made up on the fly for Femen.

April 11, 2013

Amina a Tunisian Woman Protested about Anti-Women policies and Anti-Women acts in Tunisia.

Simple right? And when she was accosted by her own family, thrown into the psych ward, and threats were made by various political factions in her country to have her stoned to death, the European Branch of Femen organized global protests on her behalf.

This is not a European group 'imposing their worldview' on Tunisia or other countries in Asia minor.

For those who do not know, Femen is a decentralized organization not unlike Anonymous. Any woman can protest under Femen's banner. Any woman can start her own local Femen. That is what Amina did. She started Femen Tunisia. Some Egyptian Women have started Femen Egypt.

This is not Colonialism/EuroCentrism or any other such wharrgarbl. Nor was it Colonialism or Eurocentrism to protest Apartheid in South Africa. Nor is it Colonialism or Eurocentrism to protest virulently anti-LGBT policies in Uganda and other countries and we can go on.

These criticisms of Femen are ridiculous.

I recorded an interview with one of Femen's leaders, Inna Shevchenko, on Tuesday. I will play the interview on my radio show this Sunday/Monday.

April 10, 2013

xPost from GD: Video-My Appearance on Fox News regarding Proposed cuts to SS and Medicare

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April 10, 2013

Video: My appearance on Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss proposed cuts to SS and Medicare

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April 9, 2013

I'm going to be on Fox News at 4:15pm today discussing the SS/Medicare aspect of the budget

More updates to follow.

Edited to reflect changed time of segment.

April 7, 2013

Tonight's Making Sense with Steve Leser, 7pm EST, North Korea, Amina/Femen/Tunisia and Economy

Don't miss this week's Making Sense with Steve Leser

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/04/07/making-sense-with-steve-leser--n-korea-amina-femen-more

We have a great show this week. Topics include:

- What is Really Going on with North Korea? Is this something to be worried about or is it same stuff, different Kim?

- Then Amina and Femen and the blowup over Tunisia potentially implementing Sharia.

- We will also talk about how the Verdict on the Sequester is starting to come in with the first monthly jobs report after budget cuts were implemented and there is reason for concern

As always, we will finish with our Trademark weekly hall of fame and shame for those politicians and prominent individuals who made great sense, or shameful nonsense, respectively.

April 6, 2013

Poll: Do you support Amina's goal to prevent anti-women Sharia laws from being adopted in Tunisia?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-nisman/tensions-with-tunisias-ji_b_2998955.html

Tensions With Tunisia's Jihadists: Who Will Blink First?

The month of March 2013 has witnessed an increase in tensions between local Tunisian Salafist networks, the newly formed government of P.M. Laarayedh, and the country's secular/liberal societal factions.

On March 26, Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia (AST) issued a warning on social media towards P.M. Laarayedh, after he condemned Tunisia's Salafist minority as responsible for recent violence in an interview with French media that same day. The post featured a threat to topple the government from Abu Iyad al-Tunisi, a prominent jihadist founder of AST suspected of orchestrating the September 11, 2012 riots at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis. Following those riots, Abu Iyad was targeted for arrest at the al-Fatah Mosque in Tunis, but escaped after his supporters confronted security forces.
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Since 2011, Tunisian jihadist groups, including AST, have directed the majority of their domestic efforts toward charity and social programs, in a likely effort to gain the support of conservative and impoverished communities. These efforts include the establishment of community policing patrols in both suburbs of the capital Tunis and outlying towns. Patrolmen often operate in cells of two and four, openly identifying themselves with bright orange vests. These patrols have helped to protect local businesses from criminal activity, while using foreign-donated funds to distribute food and appliances to impoverished families. They have also been accused of enforcing their own strict version of Islamic law, otherwise known as "morality policing."

Such policing efforts include both rhetoric and attacks against perceived heretical establishments and individuals. Furthermore, the head of the local branch of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice recently called for a Tunisian topless feminist protester to be stoned in accordance with Sharia law. Additional attacks against Sufi and religious minority shrines, secularist/liberal political leaders, media offices, and security forces headquarters have been largely attributed to Salafist militants operating in the capital, as well as in outlying areas.