Railway porter-turned-billionaire financier George Soros delivered a stark warning that the financial world is on the incorrect track and that it may be hurtling towards an even larger boom and bust than in the credit crisis.The man who ‘broke’ the Bank of England (and who is still able to earn a cool $3.3 billion in a year) said the same strategy of borrowing and spending that had got us out of the Asian crisis could shunt the financial world towards another crisis unless tough lessons are learned.Soros, who worked as a porter to pay for his studies at the London School of Economics after emigrating from Hungary, warned the financial world to heed the lesson that modern economics had got it incorrect and that markets are not inherently stable.“The success in bailing out the system on the previous occasion led to a superbubble, except that in 2008 we used the same methods,” he told a meeting hosted by The Economist at the City of London’s modern and impressive Haberdashers’ Hall.“Unless we learn the lessons, that markets are inherently unstable and that stability needs to the objective of public policy, we are facing a yet larger bubble.“We have added to the leverage by replacing private credit with sovereign credit and increasing national debt by a significant amount.”One crumb of comfort could be the 10-year period between the 1998 Asian crisis and the 2008 credit crisis. If the pattern is repeated, it should at least mean we have another eight years to go before the next crash.
Posts Tagged ‘City Of London’
Soros Warns of Market Crash
April 16th, 2010 
Before You Invest 
Posted in Finance Fraud 
Tags: Asian Crisis, Bank Of England, Billionaire, Boom And Bust, City Of London, Credit Crisis, Crumb, Economist, Financier George Soros, Haberdashers Hall, Hungary, Leverage, London School Of Economics, Market Crash, Modern Economics, National Debt, Objective, Public Policy, Railway Porter, Shunt 
Comments OffUK bonus tax set to raise billions
January 26th, 2010 Before You Invest The 50 per cent tax on banking bonuses in the UK may bring in as much as £3 billion ($4.8 billion) in revenue, it has been suggested.Government sources told the Guardian that there have been higher-than-expected payouts made by large banks operating in the UK, meaning that initial forecasts regarding how much the levy would raise were significantly underestimated.In December, British chancellor Alistair Darling said that he expected the one-off tax, which applies to bonuses of more than £25,000, was going to raise around £550 million. The officially revised estimate of how much the tax will bring in will be revealed in the Pre-Election Budget in a few months’ time.At that point, it will be clear how much each bank operating in the City of London is plotting to pay its staff.Among the firms yet to reveal their remuneration levels are HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays.Last week, Credit Suisse revealed it was going to cut the bonuses of its UK-based managing directors by 30 per cent, while also instigating a five per cent cut for the rest of its staff around the world to shoulder the burden of the levy.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: 50 Cent, Alistair Darling, Bank Of Scotland, Banks, Barclays, Billions, Bonus, British Chancellor, Budget, City Of London, Credit Suisse, Government Sources, Guardian, Initial Forecasts, Levy, Remuneration Levels, Royal Bank Of Scotland Comments OffFrance follows UK on bank bonus tax
December 11th, 2009 Before You Invest France on Thursday said it would follow Britain’s lead in levying a supertax on bankers’ bonuses giving added momentum to global efforts to curb high levels of financial sector pay.Britain’s one-off 50 per cent tax on discretionary bonuses, announced on Wednesday, provoked fury in the City of London, but the unilateral go has emboldened other leaders to take action ahead of what is expected to be a bumper bonus round for bankers.One French government official said a bonus tax had been under consideration for some time but that President Nicolas Sarkozy had feared it could hurt Paris as a financial centre.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Alistair Darling, Angela Merkel, Bonus Pay, Chancellor Of The Exchequer, City Of London, Democratic Politicians, Financial Sector, Global Efforts, Goldman Sachs, Government Official, Mr Krugman, Ms Merkel, New York Times, Nicolas Sarkozy, Nobel Prize, Paul Krugman, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Public Anger, Unilateral Move, Windfall Tax No Comments »City of London facing ‘explosion’ in fraud cases
March 8th, 2009 Before You Invest The UK is facing a series of “mini-Madoff” scandals in the coming months as investment frauds currently being investigated by City of London Police and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) come to light, the head of the agency has warned. SFO director Richard Alderman told the Independent that authorities are currently tracking a spate of trading, investment and mortgage scams linked to economic downturn. Mr Alderman added that a “huge Ponzi” scheme similar to the $50 billion (£34.4 billion) scam orchestrated by disgraced Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff is among the cases under investigation. Detective Superintendent Bob Wishard of the City of London Police fraud squad said: “The growing number of frauds in the City and the deepening recession has prompted speculation that Britain could soon see its first £1 billion fraud.”He warned that there are “undoubtedly some huge investment frauds going on”. In December, the SFO wrote to the City’s legal and accounting firms calling on whistleblowers to come forward if they had evidence of suspected fraud.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: 1 Billion, Accounting Firms, Bernard Madoff, City Of London, City Of London Police, Director Richard, Economic Downturn, Fraud Cases, Fraud Squad, Investment Frauds, Mortgage Scams, Ponzi Scheme, Recession, Richard Alderman, Scandals, Serious Fraud Office, Spate, Street Broker, Whistleblowers, Wishard Comments OffBritish Madoff, Terry Freeman,who is married to a Russian woman, was not at his home, where all the curtains were drawn, today.
February 14th, 2009 Before You Invest It’s the British Madoff as far as I’m concerned. I first invested £50,000 in November 2007 – it went up to £54,000 within a matter of weeks so I just place more in. Terry Freeman, 60, a foreign exchange trader, was arrested at his home in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, on Monday by detectives from the City of London Police Economic Crime Department.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Act One, American Investor, Buckhurst Hill, Capital Markets Ltd, City Of London, City Of London Police, Doubt In My Mind, Economic Climate, Economic Crime, Economic Situation, Foreign Exchange Trader, Leadenhall, Madoff, Moorgate, Mr Freeman, No Doubt, Police Sources, Police Spokesman, Russian Woman, Terry Freeman No Comments »Trader arrested over $87m fraud – smh.com.au – 13 Feb 09
February 13th, 2009 Before You Invest British police have arrested a City trader on suspicion of money laundering, as part of an investigation into a reported 40 million pounds ($87 million) investment fraud.The 60-year-ancient man from Essex was arrested on Monday by officers investigating GFX Capital Markets, a currency fund that recently stopped trading, a spokeswoman for City of London police said on Thursday.He was arrested “on suspicion of money laundering and Financial Services and Markets Act offences. He has since been released on bail”, she said.The Times newspaper named the arrested man as Terry Freeman, a 60-year-ancient director of GFX Capital Markets.The police spokeswoman would not comment on the scale of the suspected fraud except to say that it was “substantial”.The Times said about 40 million pounds of investors’ money was involved, in what is thought to be the largest such case in Britain since the credit crunch hit last year.City of London police, which operate in London’s financial district and specialise in economic crime, appealed for GFX investors “with concerns about the company” to contact them via an application form on their website.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Application Form, British Police, Capital Markets, City Of London, City Of London Police, City Trader, Credit Crunch, Currency Fund, Economic Crime, Essex, Financial Services And Markets Act, Investment Fraud, Investors, Money Laundering, Old Man, Police Spokeswoman, Smh Com Au, Suspicion, Terry Freeman Comments Off100 signed cheques totalling more than $173m in Mr Madoff’s office desk, “ready to be sent out,”
January 9th, 2009 Before You Invest The Serious Fraud Office said on Thursday it had launched a full investigation after receiving an interim report from Grant Thornton, the accounting firm.financial investigators are probing the alleged $50bn Bernard Madoff fraud after seeing evidence gathered by his empire’s provisional London liquidators.the US federal investigaors have found approximately 100 signed cheques totalling more than $173m in Mr Madoff’s office desk, “ready to be sent out,” according to prosecutors who filed a second legal briefing on Thursday urging a judge to revoke Mr Madoff’s bail and jail him pending trial.“The only thing that prevented the defendant from executing his plot to dissipate those assets was his arrest by the FBI on December 11,” the prosecutors wrote.According to the original criminal complaint last month against him, Mr Madoff told his sons in December “in approximately one week, he plotted to surrender to authorities, but before he did that, he had approximately $200-300m left, and he plotted to use that money to make payments to certain selected employees, family, and friends.”In the UK the SFO launched a preliminary inquiry last month after it emerged that the alleged scam had caused huge losses to a number of British investors, including Man Group, the world’s largest listed hedge fund, and Nicola Horlick’s Bramdean Alternatives investment funds.The SFO said it was investigating Mr Madoff’s British business operations, with a focus on victims and possible criminal offences committed.
Posted in Finance Fraud Tags: Accounting Firm, Bernard Madoff, Bramdean, British Business, British Investors, British Operations, City Of London, City Of London Police, Coming To Grips, Criminal Complaint, Criminal Offences, Financial Investigators, Fraud Investigation, Grant Thornton, Investment Funds, Nicola Horlick, Office Desk, Preliminary Inquiry, Public Concern, Serious Fraud Office Comments Off
