Economic sounds & sights: Too complex to keep up for now!

I haven't been able to keep up with this topic lately!

The economic ups and downs over the past months have been quite complex, with so many things going on. Teachers are being laid off, while their neighbors with "clunkers" are given vouchers for up to $4,000.00, or maybe more, to purchase a new car. Mental health funding in my state, N.C., has been slashed by 40 million, and services for the disabled will be significantly reduced. Many bank executives will receive bonuses, and others, in the case of Bank of America, hid bonuses given to executives of Merrill-Lynch, prior to the "merger/takeover". Every so often, another Ponzi scheme surfaces, and yet another round of people have lost a good chunk of savings for retirement.

There is a problem with leadership, in my opinion. The stimulus money is rejected by a governor, who adheres to conservative principals in everything but his relationship with his wife, setting a confusing example for his four sons, not to mention the citizens of his state who trusted that he would be a good steward.

Update: Allen Stanford and his Fictional Billions; What was Laura Pendergest-Holt's role in the alleged Ponzi scam?

Muckety Map of the Stanford Financial Group Scam




Here are some of the headlines and related quotes about the allegations of a possible Ponzi scheme run by R. Allen Stanford and other officials of the Stanford Financial Group:

New SEC Complaint Says Stanford Ran Ponzi Scheme
Sarah N. Lynch, Wall Street Journal, 2/28/09

"In carrying out this scheme, the SEC claims, Messrs. Stanford and Davis misappropriated billions of investors' money and falsified the Stanford International Bank's records to hide their fraud.

"Stanford International Bank's financial statements, including its investment income, are fictional," the SEC said."

Stanford Accused of a Long-Running Scheme
Julie Creswell and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 2/27/09

"Mrs. Pendergest-Holt’s ties and loyalty to Stanford Financial appear to run deep. She married James Holt, who ran a hedge fund that managed a portion of the assets held at the Antigua bank. Her brother-in-law helped oversee a team of 20 analysts that monitored the performance of various asset managers."

Stanford Financial Group

Stanford Scandal
Sam Jones, Sheila McNulty, Michael Peel, Financial Times, 2/27/09

"The SEC document paints a curious picture of Ms Pendergest-Holt as both insider and ingénue, who became a senior executive of a vast business empire in spite of having “no experience in the financial services or securities industries”.


Stanford faced internal chaos before SEC swooped
Martha Graybow, Reuters 2/18/09

"Adding to the chaos of the past weeks: The founder of the small Antigua-based accounting firm said to have audited Stanford's books died last month."