Stay tuned…..

“Americans seeking reward money are turning in neighbors, clients and employers they suspect of cheating on taxes to the IRS at a rate of nearly eight per day, the director of the agency’s whistleblower program said.

Steve Whitlock, the director, told an audience of about 200 lawyers, investigators and government officials at a Miami Beach conference on offshore banking that his office receives 40 to 50 tips per month alleging tax liability in excess of $2 million. Americans submit another 200 per month alleging smaller violations, he said.

Whitlock said submissions have surged since the enactment in 2006 of a law that requires the IRS to pay awards of between 15% and 30% in cases where more than $2 million is collected. Prior to the law, both the decision on whether to make an award and the amount of payment were discretionary.”

It will recur. I believe it was a test of the “system”. There is a the PPT designed to intervene when irregularities happen. They move within seconds. But they did not! GS was an important part of the PPT. But not the only part.

Who is warning whom??????

Of course, if the motivation wasn’t money….. that’s even more worrying.

Even if true, we will never find any evidence and I doubt the regulatory authorities will either. Did HFT play a part in it? Probably - but I suspect whoever initiated this (manipulation has to be a strong possibility) knew exactly what the HFT platforms would do to help the ‘chain reaction’ and achieve the desired outcome.

You know the old saying: “follow the money.”

http://ir.nasdaq.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=467653&loc=interstitialskip

Couldn’t spot a release on the NYSE but didn’t dig deep - SEC may have made one I guess.

Is it true that there were 9 stocks in particular that are of interest to the investigation(s) and is it true that one of them, Accenture, dropped from around $42 to $0.01 ?? P&G and 3M were big fallers too.

Anyone know for sure? I don’t have access to detailed enough info to find out.

The timing looks interesting. My understanding is that for a trading halt to trigger, the Dow must fall at least 10%. If it happens before 1400hrs (ET), they halt trading for an hour - it’s a 30-minute halt if the drop is between 1400-1430hrs and after 1430hrs there is no halt.

This all happened a fraction after 1430hrs and I think the actual drop was a fraction under 10%. Some coincidence. It probably won’t happen again? Will it?

And so a new bubble inflates (€7bn thus far this year and that excludes €2.7bn to INBS and €8.3bn to Anglo). And what government wants to threaten growth prospects by either increasing taxes or cutting govt expenditure, particularly in a recession? And anyway, everyone else is doing it, even the US and Germany, so why shouldn’t Ireland? The fact that we have next-to-no control over money supply or interest rates doesn’t seem to worry us.

Despite Roubini being on the money with some of his 2006 predictions - though wasn’t he wrong (thus far at least) on the oil shock? - what exactly is he saying in respect of his prognosis for sovereign debt ? Or for answers to that, do you need employ his consultancy? Or buy his book?

An interview Lite, in my opinion and about as filling as granola with yoghurt.

Lots and lots of conspiracy theories going around in the good old USofA last night, ranging from big banks giving politicians a warning - through a software test that went wrong (done in production environment instead of test environment) - to attempted cyber-terrorism.

Anybody know for sure why/how it happened? Last I heard, everyone was denying ‘fat finger’ problems on their patch.

RBA warns ……..

On NR
When a system breaks down it must be fixed. Part of that process is to show confidence. Therefore the GFF cannot remain ….. The Austrian approach would have saved Ireland, at the expense of say 20% or so of the growth to 2005. Banks are restricted in the Austrian system, as they inevitably become a drain or nationalized.

maybe it is but isn’t it rational to not be stuck to a particular ideology and change course as your circumstances change, makes sense as long as it is not a flip flop every few months thereby bringing a lot of uncertainty.

It reminds me of how people can be either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael no in between no matter what either of them do…..would love to give them the blind coke test and see whose policies they actually agree with more.

Same with economics why not take the best from both worlds, the interests of the country should be at heart, not trenchent economic standpoints.

Isn’t that a bit like St Augustines “give me chastity but don’t give it to me yet!”