Another Blank Wednesday

Why does nothing ever seem to happen to make interesting news for Wednesday morning ? I suppose I could infer some paranoid conspiracy in the ruling classes to manipulate news for either early week - to get maximal coverage all week - or bury stories on Friday to weekend oblivion. That would be eisegesis and I'm no dirty eisegete ! I merely interpret what actually happens according to what it really "is" in the sense of its telic immanence , away from the propaganda of La Grande Bouche.

[See what one can think and write when one tries to use these more sophisticated $10, $100 and $1000 words more often.]

OK, here's the translation to the American dialect of the hill country: I tell what I see as I read the signs, stripped of fakery.

Enough preamble. What significant happened ? One thing. We know know that Battleship Ben means business when it comes to ripping out that rotten core of Wall Street excess, namely, paying traders for phony unrealized gains that later cost the firm huge sums. Unlike the eternally co-opted SEC, he intend to force true reform.

From FT: "US regulators have intensified efforts to gather intelligence on banks’ trading positions in a move that could herald a drive to ensure traders’ bonuses are based on real profits rather than unrealised gains. ... The authorities wanted to know what proportion of a bank’s balance sheet was held in more liquid positions and how much was held in derivatives and other trading positions whose profitability might not be known for years, they said.

"New rules could enable an overhaul of the tradition of paying traders bonuses based on paper gains on positions at the end of each year before it is known whether they have made a loss or a profit in cash terms. By determining the extent of realised and unrealised gains, regulators would be able to judge whether traders’ bonuses were in line with the profitability and risk profile of their institution, bankers said.

"“Bankers’ pay has been out of whack for the last four or five years,” said Jonathan Finger of Finger Interests, which owns shares in financial groups including Bank of America. “Traders got the money, but shareholders were left holding the bag.” "

Hallelujah !!! Go get 'em, Ben.

Obviously, hedge fund manager pay should similarly be based on only realized gains. If one wants to pay for paper gains, pay in paper - viz., restricted stock with clawbacks.

Actions

I am doing nothing. Je ne fais rien. Robię nic.

Word of the Day

"Confect" - verb, transitive [$10] literary
Confect means to make by putting together ingredients.
Sentence: As the Senate confects a national health care plan, one cannot help expecting a Frankenstein monster to appear in the end.

Les Mots du Jour

"Appât" - noun, masculine
"Ballot" - noun, masculine & adjective
"Nigaud, e" - adjective and noun, both M, F [NB: pronounced, this word sounds close to a "forbidden" word in American, except as used by Black Americans.]
Appât means bait (literally and figuratively].
Ballot means (noun) 1. bundle, packet; 2. nitwit, dumdum; (adjective) silly, daft.
Nigaud means (adjective) silly, simple; (noun) simpleton.
La Phrases: L'appât ballot des nigauds ... L'appât nigaud des ballots ... L'appât bête des imbéciles.

All translate in modern idiom to Sen. Patrick Moynihan's famous phrase, "boob bait for the bubbas" to describe slogans tossed to the rabble to motivate them or collect contributions for a phoney cause. In my opinion, this is what all the "Tobin Tax" talk is, about putting taxes on all financial transactions.