Category Archives: Risk and risk management

The UK Insolvency Service’s Oddly-Timed Carbon Scams Press Release Highlights Its Own Slow Response

A sceptical look at anti-carbon-scam enforcement activities in the UK.

Newcastle United FC, Bloodhound SSC, Glitz, Glam and Police Raids: a Last Look at the Remarkable Double Life of Carbon Neutral Investments Limited (CNI)

A last look at the lovely contact list of scammers’ friends, Carbon Neutral Investments Limited

The Lotus Formula 1 Team, Its Embarrassing Partner, Advanced Global Trading of Dubai, and Carbon Neutral Investments

On the Lotus Formula 1 team’s unfortunate entanglement with Advanced Global Trading of Dubai.

McLaren F1 & Jenson Button One Minute, Boiler Room Scams the Next: the Remarkable Double Life of Carbon Neutral Investments, Limited, (CNI)

Naked Capitalism notes that Carbon Neutral Investments, subject of a consumer warning by the UK’s FCA, has deals with Formula 1 teams McLaren and Sauber, Lord Heseltine’s publishing firm Haymarket, Newcastle United Football Club, and a host of PR and events companies, and wonders what the hell is going on.

Carbon Neutral Investments’ Trail of Disaster: How Carbon Credit Con Artists use Google Adwords to Work the Recovery Scam

Carbon Neutral Investments and the ‘recovery room’ scam

The Careless Organizers of Gumball 3000 are Hooked Up with Boiler Room Scam “Servicers” Carbon Neutral Investments (CNI)

The Gumball 3000 event is helping a deeply dodgy British firm with its marketing.

The Glam and The Scam: Sauber Formula 1 Team and its Partner, Carbon Neutral Investments, Limited

The Sauber F1 team and their dodgy partners, Carbon Neutral Investments

How Novice Eco-Warrior Michael Bloomberg Ended up Looking as if he Endorses Carbon Credit Scams

Mayor Bloomberg stitched up by Italian Vogue and a dodgy financial firm: his image and words are being exploited to market carbon credit scams

How Banks Profit From Distress (British Edition)

Yves here. Readers will notice how closely the US banking model hews to the UK version (or more accurately, original), particularly in its predatory practices.

Reps. Alan Grayson and John Conyers Call for End to Bank Welfare, Tough Rules on Bank Capital

Congressmen Alan Grayson and John Conyers have published a well-thought-out proposal on bank equity, with the objective of assuring that when banks do stupid things (which they do with great regularity, even before the era of casino banking, they’d embrace some new fad and run off the cliff together, like lemmings), they have enough capital to absorb losses. And that means a lot more capital than regulators are demanding they have now.

So I urge you to co-sign their letter (full text below) at http://nobankwelfare.com/.

The Fat Lady Has Yet to Sing for Dimon and JP Morgan

I thought I was late to write about JP Morgan’s $920 million multi-regulator settlement last week on the London Whale, but breathless news of a possible $11 billion settlement of mortgage-related liabilities has pushed the bank and its chief back under the hot lights.

Rajiv Sethi: Information, Beliefs, and Trading

Yves here. This is a terrific post, and I think readers who are in the unfortunate position of having to invest in the markets will relate to Sethi’s analysis (personally, I hate trading, I wish it were possible to be a long-term investor, but that’s become an awful lot like driving a Model T on a Nascar track). The use of Intrade data and discussing Obama v. Romney-biased speculators is both clever and makes the discussion accessible. And I must confess to being very attached to my “priors” and too willing to fight the tape!

Treasury Department’s Disingenuous Answers to Elizabeth Warren on Dodd Frank, Too Big to Fail

One of the aggravating facts of life in bureaucracies is having to contend regularly with misrepresentation. And I don’t mean faux friendly corporate bromides like “We’re here to help,” but weasely, technically accurate but substantively misleading statements. A Treasury reply to some questions from Elizabeth Warren is a classic in this genre.

Bill Black: Higher Bank Capital Requirements are Necessary but not Sufficient to Prevent the Next Crisis

By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Cross posed from Benzinga

The last ditch efforts to save Larry Summers’ prospective nomination to run the Fed and the comments about his withdrawing from consideration have prompted further discussions of financial regulation. The thrust of the comments is that Summers’ big regulatory idea was that capital requirements are the key and other forms of rules are worthless because they are easy to evade.

The last ditch efforts to save Larry Summers’ prospective nomination to run the Fed and the comments about his withdrawing from consideration have prompted further discussions of financial regulation. The thrust of the comments is that Summers’ big regulatory idea was that capital requirements are the key and other forms of rules are worthless because they are easy to evade.

It’s not only not a good idea, it’s not good because capital requirements can be gamed just like other rules.