text:
Does Soccer Superleague Hold The Key To One Europe?
Posted September 11, 2021 admin
In case there would one say one is consistent idea interlaced all through every single European culture, it should be soccer, isn't that so? Maybe in famous hypothesis. Yet, the standard way of thinking currently remains in a critical state as the journey for the all-powerful buck – that is, the preeminent euro – has dissolved the actual texture of soccer (no offense to Pete Rozelle, however how about we call it what it truly is: football). As "European incorporation" turns into a trendy expression for the 21st century, football will probably assume a fundamental part in either working with or decelerating this social, political and financial consolidation of nations.
Football club proprietors have presented to help the reason by making a system for the future European SuperLeague, which would comprise of the area's most world class establishments. Europe has effectively made a change in displaying physicality, regardless of whether its unbridled fans are willing, as financial backers collect to secure their offers in maybe the most expected "treasure trove" in sports diversion.
Nonetheless, even top football authorities have their questions. FIFA president Sepp Blatter, apparently the most influential man in football around the world, has expressed his solid resistance to a breakaway superleague.
Notwithstanding, sports business specialists demand that any effective endeavor in football reconciliation would require the fortitude of proprietorship strategies and fan interest. Valid, the previous condition is now developing at a dangerous speed. Corporate financial backers have assessed the monetary achievability of supporting ESL establishments in different urban communities across Europe. Plans have as of now been proposed to rival the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in shaping the most attractive superleague. Media Partners International, a Milan-based counseling firm, has earned more than $1.2 billion ventures from JP Morgan to support the ESL for the initial three years. Based on the achievement of elite athletics in the United States, who knows of this present association's undiscovered potential. คาสิโน โบนัสฟรี
Assuming any questions of European football's development actually remain, think about the thriving of players' compensations. Bury Milan as of late procured Italian striker Christian Vieri for an expected $43 million, predominating the yearly finance of most expert establishments. What's more, the issue of whether Vieri merited pretty much than, say, Michael Jordan (barring supports) is insignificant. For the present, football club proprietors can manage the cost of these geniuses on the grounds that buyers are consistent to rising ticket costs.
In any case, ESL proprietors should not limit the connection between European fans and their loved groups. Football, for incalculable a long time in every nation, has provided an estimation of public character. As Europeans, during the combination cycle, contemplate the possible bereft of public customs, football remains their underside wellspring of enthusiastic independence.
Assuming the ESL passes, UEFA would be liable to drop one of its Cup contests, reasonable the Cup Winners Cup. All the more critically, UEFA stands to forfeit two hidden standards which have supported the association's presence – a guarantee to separate Cup continues in a fair way for all clubs, and to broadcast all games for nothing to European endorsers.
The ESL would comprise of Europe's best 32 (for the most part enormous market) groups contending in a far reaching competition to decide the European football champion. In the event that the association is regulated by UEFA, it will include minimal business impact – in which case, a few authorities recommend that an association without appropriate advancement or transfer will lose individuals' advantage in under three years. However, the conservatives demand that UEFA's strategies, albeit discretionary in nature, serve to shield the foundation of football from an attack of control by gigantic partnerships.
Regardless of whether the ESL and its huge market groups are effective in developing the game of football to uncommon monetary and social levels, there will without a doubt be huge repercussions to the excess establishments. Indeed, the contention of income difference among little and enormous market groups will expect the focal point of the audience. Rather than George Steinbrenner conflicting with Bud Selig, it will be two others quarreling – regardless of the fans, any game's key fixing.
The choice of what possession construction to copy stays unsure. The genuine test, now, is getting the help of the provincial local area. Obviously the joined ability of European societies, not the singular public interests, will eventually guarantee the achievement of supranational football. Proprietors can't and won't constrain an unnatural vehicle of sports amusement to their buyers. Most business pioneers in the European Union have perceived that mix includes some significant pitfalls – an illustration that football club proprietors are going to find.
Regardless of the European Commission's discretionary endeavors to offset rivalry with equivalent assurance, the nitpickers will keep on scrutinizing the thought processes of proprietors as well as every other person included.
The fulfillment of ESL could conceivably propel European mix, yet the battle to ensure one of Europe's most cherished resources – football – will unquestionably achieve the undertaking.
⟵Your Outfit Matters – So Does the Money!
NFL Tips and Tricks – 4 Drills That You Can Apply From the Pros⟶


STAMPlorations is celebrating its first birthday with a blog hop and new release! I am so thrilled to have been invited to join the party as a Guest Designer!
Here's my card. I realized at the last minute that somehow I don't have any Stamplorations sentiments (I'l be fixing that situation ASAP)! So I used my favourite flower from Eclectic Florals two ways. I stamped each flower on a circle die cut and then flipped the stamp over, stamped off once and 'coloured' the flower in with that impression. I used the stem in the set to create a frame. And finally, for some more interest, I stacked them all with the flower colour, but each one at different heights.
You can win Eclectic Florals set by leaving a comment here. And by visiting all the stops on the hop and leaving a comment on each one, there's more chances to win stamps. There's over $120 worth of stamps to be won!
The new release will be available to buy on the shop during the hop. If you buy all 6 sets it's only $30 (17% off) + free shipping in the US (flat rate to other countries). Go check it out at http://stamplorations.com/newrelease/ !
PS - this is another card I made solely with the 'back' of that flower stamp, inspired by the scrap paper where I was stamping off while making my first card - see? inspiration really is everywhere!
Nice colors you chose for your cards.
Congrats on the guest designer gig - so well deserved!
The varied layers look awesome! Love the little flower stamps - endless possibilities! Sooooo clever to use the stem stamp to create the corner anchors!
Lovely Blooms on your card and love the style to create the corners!! Your 2nd card is pretty too!!!
Love the colours and layout. Thanks for the hop.
Ardyth congrats on your guest design, love the button flowers and how you stamped with the backs of the flowers too!
Absolutely fab cards Ardyth, what fun to join in with Stamplorations for their special occasion!
Fabulous card, I love the colour combination.
Oh love the colors! Simple, yet so, so elegant!!
Love that color combination. A fun card and a great explanation of how it was created. Thank you.
Ardyth this is so pretty! Thanks for sharing.
Cool colours and as always your cards are CAS and beautiful!
Hey there GF - So fun to have you GDing with our hop! Wonderful cards!!
Love both cards. Great job.
Love this colour combo and the way you used the back of the stamp - so clever!
These are so beautiful! Love your colors!
And...your Ardyth-esque style works perfectly with these stamps! So clever to use them front and back, and, in turn, be inspired with your 'stamping off' to create yet another gem! Delights, both!
i love your bonus card!
How clever you are, using the front and backs to make two beautiful cards. For once I'm ahead of you, I have order all their different word stamps.
Clean, simple and beautiful. Love them both.
Both lovely cards but like the two step stamping on the first one.
Lovely cards! Great idea, using the back of the flower stamp!
I just love seeing the CAS greatness!
Congratulations on your GD spot, Ardyth! Love your CAS cards! So pretty!
Okay..... now you've inspired me greatly to look at all my stamps and see which ones I can stamp using the backside. Thanks for that great tip.
Ardyth, your color combination is stellar! And your card is sweet!
Fabulous color combo! Love the simple designs - they look amazing!
All I could think when I saw your card was - GORGEOUS!!! What an inspiration!!
Such a great card.. will have to look at all the new stamps in this release..
so pretty! Love both cards and the color combo you used too!
What a beautiful card!!! but I love both cards you made. Congratulation.
Very cleverly designed, Ardyth! The colors are very mod, too. Love the second card using just the back of the stamp.
Such a pretty card and cute colours. As a new(ish) and fairly unaccomplished stamper, I like hearing how you all do these wonderful cards.
Great cards with a very clever colour scheme. I really like these.
Gorgeous, gorgeous colours! I love both cards!
Beautiful flowers, nice and simple..great blog hop!
Love the way you stamps the flowers... great color combo too!
Great stamps and wonderful color combos.. Thanks for the chance to win these beautiful stamps.
Two stunning cards. Love the bright colours with the grey. The dimension on the first really pulls the whole thing off.
How clever to use the stem to make a frame! Love both of the cards!
Creative use of flower and stems! Happy Birthday STAMPlorations!


It doesn't take a psychologist to see why so many people are totally stressed out today. Our world is experiencing more chaos and confusion than it has in recent memory, or perhaps ever. The stress can take many forms: illness, broken relationships, anger, fear, depression. And the litany goes on.
People are frantic in their search for peace of mind. One place they search is the future. If they can know what the future holds, so their thinking goes, they might feel more ease and peace in the present.
As you know, linear time does not exist in the world of spirit. There is only the eternal now. But we, as humans living in the illusion of linear time, often get stuck in what we imagine to be the past or the future. And yet, all we really have is the present moment.
But that present moment itself can present challenges. The spirit guide Seth, as channeled by Jane Roberts, once said there was an alternate reality where World War 2 ended in a nuclear holocaust. Obviously, none of us—or our parents or grandparents—experienced that reality.
Time can be a challenging and confusing concept.
It's time for all of you to become fully aware of who you are and why you are here.
If you are reading this, you are among the vanguard, if you will. You are one of those who decided to incarnate at this time on your planet to help those who are struggling with life, struggling and confused over what life is all about.
You are the way-showers, the light to enable others who are lost to find their way back home. This is a huge responsibility you have. Take it seriously, but also have fun with it.
In this way you will help to ensure a positive and powerful future for yourselves and for those who are lost and struggling.
The only surefire way to predict the future is to look at where you are now, in this present moment—not where you've been or where you think you're going.
You determine and create your future. You have all the power and wisdom within you to create the glorious future you want. No one else can give you that power and wisdom. And no one can take it away from you.
Your job is to help others realize they also have that power and wisdom.
This is an intriguing Abraham-Hicks discussion entitled Predicting Your Own Future.
No I do not know that ¨linear¨ time does not exist in the world of spirit.
That is not even one of my beliefs.
I believe that time is experienced differently in different realities but the past always comes before the present and the present before the future. That then means that eternity as such also does not exist although from our points of view a few trillion years could certainly appear to be an eternity, a few billion even.
What spirit states is so very true. If you look at your life and you look at what you believe , expect and think you will see exactly where you are going. Yet this too can change within the twinkling of your eye, how? You begin to think differently, you begin to choose your thoughts , you begin to believe in your own power, in yourself. And then expect change to manifest in yourself and life. The one thing I have found that stymies me is trust, trust in my own self and my own potentials. Once you begin to trust and believe that you are the power within your life then grasp it and run with it with joy and a sense of humour. If you fail, don't worry, keep on believing and trusting in your own power, make it a habit and amazing things will surface. That way you show the way, you light a path and just maybe someone else in great need will see it and follow.
Thanks very much, Jeannie. I agree with you — trust in ourselves is a major challenge for so many today.


Many people today are trying to eat fewer carbohydrates. However, low-carb doesn't necessarily mean healthy. In this cooking demo, learn to make some lower-carbohydrate recipes that are simple, delicious and nutritious. This class is taught by graduate students in the ASU Nutrition Program who are training to become Registered Dietitian Nutritionists.


text:
Archive | bernanke
Global Collapse of the Fiat Money System: Too Big To Fail Global Banks Will Collapse Between Now and First Quarter 2011
Posted on 05 September 2010. Tags: 2011, aaa, aig, Banks, ben bernanke, Economy, fail, Federal Reserve, foreclosure fraud, global collapse, lehman brothers, matthias chang, ponzi scheme, RICO, scam, Too Big To Fail, trillions, us treasury
When Quantitative Easing Has Run Its Course and Fails
By Matthias Chang
Global Research, August 31, 2010
Future Fast Forward
Readers of my articles will recall that I have warned as far back as December 2006, that the global banks will collapse when the Financial Tsunami hits the global economy in 2007. And as they say, the rest is history.
Quantitative Easing (QE I) spearheaded by the Chairman of delayed the inevitable demise of the fiat shadow money banking system slightly over 18 months.
That is why in November of 2009, I was so confident to warn my readers that by the end of the first quarter of 2010 at the earliest or by the second quarter of 2010 at the latest, the global economy will go into a tailspin. The recent alarm that the US economy has slowed down and in the words of Bernanke "the recent pace of growth is less vigorous than we expected" has all but vindicated my analysis. He warned that the outlook is uncertain and the economy "remains vulnerable to unexpected developments".
Obviously, Bernanke's words do not reveal the full extent of the fear that has gripped central bankers and the financial elites that assembled at the annual gathering at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But, you can take it from me that they are very afraid.
Let me be plain and blunt. The "unexpected developments" Bernanke referred to is the collapse of the global banks. This is FED speak and to those in the loop, this is the dire warning.
So many renowned economists have misdiagnosed the objective and consequences of quantitative easing. Central bankers' scribes and the global mass media hoodwinked the people by saying that QE will enable the banks to lend monies to cash-starved companies and jump start the economy. The low interest rate regime would encourage all and sundry to borrow, consume and invest.
This was the fairy tale.
Then, there were some economists who were worried that as a result of the FED's printing press (electronic or otherwise) working overtime, hyper-inflation would set in soon after.
But nothing happened. The multiplier effect of fractional reserve banking did not take off. Bank lending in fact stalled.
Let me explain in simple terms step by step.
1) All the global banks were up to their eye-balls in toxic assets. All the AAA mortgage-backed securities etc. were in fact JUNK. But in the balance sheets of the banks and their special purpose vehicles (SPVs), they were stated to be worth US$ TRILLIONS.
2) The collapse of Lehman Bros and AIG exposed this ugly truth. All the global banks had liabilities in the US$ Trillions. They were all INSOLVENT. The central banks the world over conspired and agreed not to reveal the total liabilities of the global banks as that would cause a run on these banks, as happened in the case of Northern Rock in the U.K.
3) A devious scheme was devised by the FED, led by Bernanke to assist the global banks to unload systematically and in tranches the toxic assets so as to allow the banks to comply with RESERVE REQUIREMENTS under the fractional reserve banking system, and to continue their banking business. This is the essence of the bailout of the global banks by central bankers.
4) This devious scheme was effected by the FED's quantitative easing (QE) – the purchase of toxic assets from the banks. The FED created "money out of thin air" and used that "money" to buy the toxic assets at face or book value from the banks, notwithstanding they were all junks and at the most, worth maybe ten cents to the dollar. Now, the FED is "loaded" with toxic assets once owned by the global banks. But these banks cannot declare and or admit to this state of affairs. Hence, this financial charade.
5) If we are to follow simple logic, the exercise would result in the global banks flushed with cash to enable them to lend to desperate consumers and cash-starved businesses. But the money did not go out as loans. Where did the money go?
6) It went back to the FED as reserves, and since the FED bought US$ trillions worth of toxic wastes, the "money" (it was merely book entries in the Fed's books) that these global banks had were treated as "Excess Reserves". This is a misnomer because it gave the ILLUSION that the banks are cash-rich and under the fractional reserve system would be able to lend out trillions worth of loans. But they did not. Why?
7) Because the global banks still have US$ trillions worth of toxic wastes in their balance sheets. They are still insolvent under the fractional reserve banking laws. The public must not be aware of this as otherwise, it would trigger a massive run on all the global banks!
8) Bernanke, the US Treasury and the global central bankers were all praying and hoping that given time (their estimation was 12 to 18 months) the housing market would recover and asset prices would resume to the levels before the crisis. .
Let me explain: A House was sold for say US$500,000. Borrower has a mortgage of US$450,000 or more. The house is now worth US$200,000 or less. Multiply this by the millions of houses sold between 2000 and 2008 and you will appreciate the extent of the financial black-hole. There is no way that any of the global banks can get out of this gigantic mess. And there is also no way that the FED and the global central bankers through QE can continue to buy such toxic wastes without showing their hands and exposing the lie that these banks are solvent.
It is my estimation that they have to QE up to US$20 trillion at the minimum. The FED and no central banker would dare "create such an amount of money out of thin air" without arousing the suspicions and or panic of sovereign creditors, investors and depositors. It is as good as declaring officially that all the banks are BANKRUPT.
9) But there is no other solution in the short and middle term except another bout of quantitative easing, QE II. Given the above caveat, QE II cannot exceed the amount of the previous QE without opening the proverbial Pandora Box.
10) But it is also a given that the FED will embark on QE II, as under the fractional reserve banking system, if the FED does not purchase additional toxic wastes, the global banks (faced with mounting foreclosures, etc.) will fall short of their reserve requirements.
11) You will also recall that the FED at the height of the crisis announced that interest will be paid on the so-called "excess reserves" of the global banks, thus enabling these banks to "earn" interest. So what we have is a merry-go-round of monies moving from the right pocket to the left pocket at the click of the computer mouse. The FED creates money, uses it to buy toxic assets, and the same money is then returned to the FED by the global banks to earn interest. By this fiction of QE, banks are flushed with cash which enable them to earn interest. Is it any wonder that these banks have declared record profits?
12) The global banks get rid of some of their toxic wastes at full value and at no costs, and get paid for unloading the toxic wastes via interest payments. Additionally, some of the "monies" are used by these banks to purchase US Treasuries (which also pay interests) which in turn allows the US Treasury to continue its deficit spending. THIS IS THE BAILOUT RIP OFF of the century.
Now that you fully understand this SCAM, it is left to be seen how the FED will get away with the next round of quantitative easing – QE II.
Obviously, the FED and the other central banks are hoping that in time, asset prices will recover and resume their previous values before the crisis. This is a fantasy. QE II will fail just as QE I failed to save the banks.
The patient is in intensive care and is for all intent and purposes brain dead, although the heart is still pumping albeit faintly. The Too Big To Fail Banks cannot be rescued and must be allowed to be liquidated. It will be painful, but it is necessary before there is recovery. This is a given.
When the ball hits the ceiling fan, sometime early 2011 at the earliest, there will be massive bank runs.
I expect that the FED and other central banks will pre-empt such a run and will do the following:
1) Disallow cash withdrawals from banks beyond a certain amount, say US$1,000 per day; 2) Disallow cash transactions up to a certain amount, say US$10,000 for certain transactions; 3) Transactions (investments) for metals (gold and silver) will be restricted; 4) Worst-case scenario – the confiscation of gold AS HAPPENED IN WORLD WAR II. 5) Imposition of capital controls etc.; 6) Legislations that will compel most daily commercial transactions to be conducted through Debit and or Credit Cards; 7) Legislations to make it a criminal offence for any contraventions of the above.
Maintain a bank balance sufficient to enable you to comply with the above potential impositions.
Start diversifying your assets away from dollar assets. Have foreign currencies in sufficient quantities in those jurisdictions where the above anticipated impositions are least likely to be implemented.
There will be a financial tsunami (round two) the likes of which the world has never seen.
Global banks will collapse!
Be ready.
© Copyright Matthias Chang, Future Fast Forward, 2010
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20853
Posted in bernanke, cdo, chain in title, conflict of interest, CONTROL FRAUD, corruption, FED FRAUD, federal reserve board, foreclosure, foreclosure fraud, foreclosures, geithner, securitization, STOP FORECLOSURE FRAUD, sub-prime, trade secrets, Wall Street2 Comments
ONE TO WATCH! Civil Lawsuit, Allran vs. New York Fed, alleges cartel & Ponzi: ZeroHedge
Posted on 14 May 2010. Tags: allran v ny fed reserve, dinsfla, Federal Reserve, zerohedge
Via Zerohedge
All we can hope for is for this to get to trial. And any case which in its brief says: "As American citizens, the Plaintiffs allege the financial and banking system imposed on them by the Federal Reserve Banking sytem is a violation of their Constitutional and Human Rights. That the banking system practiced by the New York Federal Reserve Bank, owned and controlled by the Defendant Wall Street Banks, is the most sinful and evil PONZI scheme man is capable of devising" deserves a hearing.The ratings for C-Span will blow the Superbowl away. A 30 second ad slot will cost exponentially more as the case progresses adversely for the Federal Reserve, and the dollar gets increasingly devalued. Allran v NY Fed Reserve
[scribd id=31283401 key=key-15gwx7grwgv2k70ymkkl mode=list]
Posted in bernanke, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, FED FRAUD, federal reserve board, foreclosure fraud0 Comments
BOY WERE WE SCREWED! Bailout Tally $4.6 TRILLION
Posted on 01 April 2010. Tags: AIG bailout fraud, bailout fraud, bank bailout fraud, bloomberg, bloomberg v fed, Fed, sec, tarp fraud, wall street
To think we all lost and keep losing our homes!
Comprehensive Bailout Tally: $4.6 Trillion Spent on the Bailout to Date
Submitted by Mary Bottari on April 1, 2010 – 7:05am. PRWATCH.org
Today, the Real Economy Project of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released an assessment of the total cost to taxpayers of the Wall Street bailout. CMD concludes that multiple federal agencies have disbursed $4.6 trillion dollars in supporting the financial sector since the meltdown in 2007-2008. Of that, $2 trillion is still outstanding. Our tally shows that the Federal Reserve is the real source of the bailout funds.
CMD's assessment demonstrates that while the press has focused its attention on the $700 billion TARP bill passed by Congress, the Federal Reserve has provided by far the bulk of the funding for the bailout in the form of loans amounting to $3.8 trillion. Little information has been disclosed about what collateral taxpayers have received in return for these loans, sparking the Bloomberg News lawsuit covered earlier. CMD also concludes that the bailout is far from over as the government has active programs authorized to cost up to $2.9 trillion and still has $2 trillion in outstanding investments and loans.
Learn more about the 35 programs included in the CMD tally by visiting our Total Wall Street Bailout Cost Table, which contains links to pages on each bailout program with details including the current balance sheet for each program.
Treasury Department Self-Congratulations Premature
While the Treasury Department has been patting itself on the back for recouping some of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and allegedly making money off of its aid to Citigroup, the CMD accounting shows that TARP is only a small fraction of the federal funds that have gone out the door in support of the financial sector. Far more has been done to aid Wall Street through the back door of the Federal Reserve than through the front door of Congressional appropriations.
The tally shows that more scrutiny needs to be given by policymakers and the media to the role of the Federal Reserve especially as the Fed has accounted for the vast majority of the bailout funds, yet provides far less disclosure and is far less directly accountable than the Treasury.
Download the Financial Crisis Tracker
In addition to a comprehensive here Wall Street Bailout Table which will be updated monthly as a resource for press and the public, CMD is also making available a Financial Crisis Tracker, a widget that links to the table that can be downloaded to websites and provides up–to-date numbers on the financial crisis and the bailout. The Financial Crisis Tracker shows unemployment rates, housing foreclosure rates and the bailout total on a monthly basis. It is a more accurate measure of how we are doing as a nation than any Wall Street ticker.
* Key Findings
* Wall Street Bailout Table
* Financial Crisis Tracker
1) $4.6 Trillion in Taxpayer Funds Have Been Disbursed
All together, $4.6 trillion of taxpayer funds have been disbursed in the form of direct loans to Wall Street companies and banks, purchases of toxic assets, and support for the mortgage and mortgage-backed securities markets through federal housing agencies. This is an astonishing 32% of our GDP (2008) 130% of the federal budget (FY 2009).
2) TARP vs. Non-TARP Funding
Most accountings of the financial bailout focus on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), enacted by Congress with the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. However, a complete analysis of the activities of all the agencies involved in the bailout including the FDIC, Federal Reserve and the Treasury reveals that TARP, which ended up disbursing about $410 billion was less than a tenth of the total U.S. government effort to contain the financial crisis. TARP funds only account for about 20% of the maximum commitments made through the bailout and less than 10% of the actual funds disbursed.
3) The Federal Reserve has Played the Primary Role in the Bailout
The Federal Reserve has provided by far the bulk of the funding for the bailout in the form of loans — $3.8 trillion in total. Little information has been disclosed about what collateral taxpayers have received in return for many of these loans. Bloomberg News is suing the Federal Reserve to make this information public. On March 19, 2010 Bloomberg won its suit in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, but it is not clear if this case will continue to be litigated to the Supreme Court.
4) Federal Support for the Housing Market is on the Rise
A key component of the bailout has been the federal support for mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, primarily through the Federal Reserve. All together, the government has disbursed more than $1.5 trillion in non-TARP funds to directly support the mortgage and housing market since 2007.
Posted in bernanke, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, FED FRAUD, federal reserve board, S.E.C., scam0 Comments
Move Over Fannie Mae…Revealing the "TRIPLETS" Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II and Maiden Lane III
Posted on 01 April 2010. Tags: AIG FRAUD, assets, bear stearns, bernanke, bloomberg, countrywide, Fed, Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, Maiden Lane III, triplets, wamu
Fed Reveals Bear Stearns Assets It Swallowed in Firm's Rescue (Bloomberg)
By Craig Torres, Bob Ivry and Scott Lanman
April 1 (Bloomberg) — After months of litigation and political scrutiny, the Federal Reserve yesterday ended a policy of secrecy over its Bear Stearns Cos. bailout.
In a 4:30 p.m. announcement in a week of congressional recess and religious holidays, the central bank released details of securities bought to aid Bear Stearns's takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bloomberg News sued the Fed for that information.
The Fed's vehicle known as Maiden Lane LLC has securities backed by mortgages from lenders including Washington Mutual Inc. and Countrywide Financial Corp., loans that were made with limited borrower documentation. More than $1 billion of them are backed by "jumbo" mortgages written by Thornburg Mortgage Inc., which now carry the lowest investment-grade rating. Jumbo loans were larger than government-sponsored mortgage buyers such as Fannie Mae could finance — $417,000 at the time.
"The Fed absorbed that risk on its balance sheet and is now seen to be holding problematic, legacy assets," said Vincent Reinhart, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington who was the central bank's monetary- affairs director from 2001 to 2007. "There is both an impairment to its balance sheet and its reputation."
The Bear Stearns deal marked a turning point in the financial crisis for the Fed. By putting taxpayers at risk in financing the rescue, the central bank was engaging in fiscal policy, normally the domain of Congress and the U.S. Treasury, said Marvin Goodfriend, a former Richmond Fed policy adviser who is now an economist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
'Panic' Cause
"Lack of clarity on the boundary between responsibilities of the Fed and of the Congress as much as anything else created panic in the fall of 2008," Goodfriend said. "That created a situation in which what had been a serious recession became something near a Great Depression."
Central bankers also created moral hazard, or a perception for investors that any financial firm bigger than Bear Stearns wouldn't be allowed to fail, said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors Inc. in Vineland, New Jersey.
Policy makers' resolve was tested months later by runs against the largest financial companies. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed into bankruptcy in September 2008. The ensuing panic caused the Fed to take even more emergency measures to push liquidity into markets and institutions. It rescued American International Group Inc. from collapse and allowed Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to convert into bank holding companies, putting them under greater oversight by the central bank.
Early Failure
"Letting somebody fail early would have been a better choice," Kotok said. "You would have ratcheted moral hazard lower and Lehman wouldn't have been so severe."
The Bear Stearns assets include bets against the credit of bond insurers such as MBIA Inc., Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. and a unit of Ambac Financial Group, putting the Fed in the position of wagering companies will stop paying their debts.
The Fed disclosed that some of Maiden Lane's assets were portions of commercial loans for hotels, including Short Hills Hilton LLC in New Jersey, Hilton Hawaiian Village LLC in Hawaii, and Hilton of Malaysia LLC, in addition to securities backed by residential mortgages.
More than a year after Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings and loan, was purchased by JPMorgan Chase in a distressed sale arranged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the home loans that helped bring down the Seattle-based thrift live on in the Maiden Lane portfolio.
Lending Standards
For example, 94 percent of the mortgages in one security, called WAMU 06-A13 2XPPP, required limited documentation from borrowers, meaning the lender often didn't ask customers for proof of their incomes. Almost 10 percent of the borrowers whose mortgages make up the security have been foreclosed on, and almost a quarter are more than two months late with payments, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The portfolio also includes $618.9 million of securities backed by Countrywide, mortgages now rated CCC, eight levels below investment grade. All the underlying loans are adjustable- rate mortgages, with about 88 percent requiring only limited borrower documentation, according to Bloomberg data. About 33.6 percent of the borrowers are at least 60 days late. Countrywide is now part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp.
CDO Holdings
Maiden Lane has $19.5 million of securities from a series of collateralized debt obligations called Tropic CDO that are backed by trust preferred securities of community banks and thrifts. CDOs are investment pools made up of a variety of assets that provide a flow of cash.
Trust preferred securities, or TruPS, have characteristics of debt and equity and their interest payments are tax- deductible.
The securities created by Bear Stearns are rated C, one level above default, by Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings.
CDO securities have tumbled in value as banks are failing at the fastest rate in 17 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average price of TruPS CDO debt of this rating is pennies on the dollar, according to Citigroup Inc.
"The trust of the taxpayer was abused," said Janet Tavakoli, president of Chicago-based financial consulting firm Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc. CDOs rated CCC and lower "have a high likelihood of default," she said.
Bernanke Defense
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke defended the Bear Stearns deal as a rescue of the financial system. He said in a speech at the Kansas City Fed's annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming conference in August 2008 that a sudden Bear Stearns failure would have caused a "vicious circle of forced selling" and increased volatility.
"The broader economy could hardly have remained immune from such severe financial disruptions," Bernanke said in the speech. The Fed chief, who took office in 2006 and began his second term as chairman this year, also has repeatedly called for an overhaul of financial regulations that would allow authorities to take over a failing financial institution and oversee an orderly unwinding of its positions.
Bernanke said last year that nothing made him "more angry" than the AIG case, blaming the insurer for making "irresponsible bets" and a lack of regulatory oversight for the debacle. Officials "had no choice but to try and stabilize the system" by aiding the firm in September 2008, he said.
Yesterday's release by the Fed, through its New York regional bank, also identified securities acquired in the bailout of AIG held in vehicles known as Maiden Lane II and III.
Assets in Maiden Lane II totaled $34.8 billion, according to the Fed, which set their current market value in its weekly balance sheet at $15.3 billion. That means Maiden Lane II assets are worth 44 cents on the dollar, or 44 percent of their face value, according to the Fed.
Maiden Lane III, which has $56 billion of assets at face value, is worth $22.1 billion, or 39 cents on the dollar, according to the Fed's weekly balance sheet. A similar calculation for the Bear Stearns portfolio couldn't be made because of outstanding derivatives trades.
"The Federal Reserve recognizes the importance of transparency to its financial stability efforts and will continue to review disclosure practices with the goal of making additional information publicly available when possible," the New York Fed said in yesterday's statement.
Deal With Chase
The central bank said it reached agreement on "issues of confidentiality" for the assets with JPMorgan Chase, which bought Bear Stearns in 2008, and AIG. New York-based JPMorgan and AIG would incur the first losses on the portfolios.
Joe Evangelisti, a spokesman for JPMorgan, and Mark Herr, a spokesman for AIG, declined to comment.
In April 2008, Bloomberg News requested records under the federal Freedom of Information Act from the Fed's Board of Governors related to JPMorgan's acquisition of Bear Stearns. The central bank responded that records retained by the New York Fed "were proprietary records of the Reserve Bank, and not Board records subject" to the request, court records show.
Bloomberg filed suit in November 2008 in U.S. District Court in New York, challenging the Fed's denial, as well as the denial of a separate request made in May 2008, seeking records of four other emergency lending programs.
The district court held that the Fed should release documents related to those four programs, and should search documents held by the New York regional bank to determine whether any of them should be considered records of the board of governors.
The U.S. Court of Appeals on March 19 upheld the district court's ruling on the lending programs.
Representative Darrell Issa of California said in a statement that yesterday's disclosure may "signal a new willingness to cooperate with Congress as we investigate how these bailout deals were structured and what the decision making process entailed."
To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 1, 2010 01:34 EDT
Posted in bernanke, bloomberg, countrywide, foreclosure fraud, washington mutual0 Comments
Could Bloomberg Lawsuit Mean Death to Zombie Banks?
Posted on 28 March 2010. Tags: arianna huffington, Banking Crisis, Banking-Reform, bernanke, bloomberg, Economy, Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve System, Financial Crisis, Financial Reform, Home News, the huffington post, Zombie Banks
Mary Bottari
Center for Media and Democracy and www.BanksterUSA.org
My recollection is a bit hazy. How does one kill a zombie exactly? Do you stake it? Cut off its head? Nationalize it? Perhaps it's time to ask the experts at Bloomberg News.
Lost in the haze of the hoopla surrounding the insurance reform bill was some big news on the financial reform front. On March 19, Bloomberg won its lawsuit against the Federal Reserve for information that could expose which "too big to fail" banks in the United States are walking zombies and which banks were merely rotting.
Bloomberg, which has done some of the best reporting on the financial crisis, is also leading the charge on the fight for transparency at the Federal Reserve and in the financial sector. While many policymakers and reporters were focusing their attention on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout bill passed by Congress, Bloomberg was one of the first to notice that the TARP program was small change compared to the estimated $2-3 trillion flowing out the back door of the Federal Reserve to prop up the financial system in the early months of the crisis.
Way back in November 2008, Bloomberg filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the Fed what institutions were receiving the money, how much, and what collateral was being posted for these loans. Their basic argument: when trillions in taxpayer money is being loaned out to shaky institutions, don't the taxpayers deserve to know their chances of being paid back?
Not according to the Fed. The Fed declined to respond, forcing Bloomberg to sue in Federal Court. In August of 2009, Bloomberg won the suit. With the backing of the big banks, the Fed appealed , and this month, Bloomberg won again. A three judge appellate panel dismissed the Fed's arguments that the information was protect "confidential business information" and told the Fed that the public deserved answers.
The Fed is the only institution in the United States that can print money. It can drag this case out as long as it wants, but isn't it a bid odd that taxpayer dollars are being used to keep information from the taxpayers?
After an unexpectedly rocky confirmation battle, Ben Bernanke kicked off his new term as Fed Chair in February with pledges of openness and transparency. "It is essential that the public have the information it needs to understand and be assured of the integrity of all our operations, including all aspects of our balance sheet and our financial controls," said Bernanke. President Obama also pledged a new era of transparency when he entered office. What is going on here?
One theory is that Fed is hiding the secret assistance it provided to the financial sector, because it would expose how many Wall Street institutions are truly walking zombies, kept alive by accounting tricks like deferred-tax assets, "a fancy term for pent-up losses that the bank hopes to use later to cut its tax bills," according to Bloomberg's Jonathan Wiel. If this is the case, it raises doubts about the wisdom of Congress' only plan to take care of the "too big to fail" problem by trusting regulators to "resolve" failing banks. If there is no will to resolve them now, why should we think regulators will resolve them in the future?
Another theory is that the Fed is hiding the fact that it broke the law by accepting a boatload of toxic assets as collateral. The law says the Fed is only supposed to take "investment grade" assets as collateral.
In either case, the public deserves answers. "This money does not belong to the Federal Reserve," Senator Bernie Sanders. "It belongs to the American people, and the American people have a right to know where more than $2 trillion of their money has gone."
The President and the Fed Chairman must live up to their pledges of transparency. They can start by abandoning this lawsuit and opening the doors on the Secrets of the Temple.
Posted in bernanke, bloomberg, federal reserve board, FOIA, G. Edward Griffin0 Comments
13 BANKERS: MIT's Johnson Says Too-Big-to-Fail Banks Will Spark New Crisis
Posted on 23 March 2010. Tags: 13 bankers, alan greenspan, bank of america, bloomberg, Citigroup Inc., Federal Reserve, goldman sachs, jpmorgan chase, Morgan Stanley, simon johnson, the baseline scenerio, Wells Fargo & Co.
Review by James Pressley :BLOOMBERG REVIEWS
March 22 (Bloomberg) — Alan Greenspan, the master of monetary mumbo jumbo, leaned back in his chair and grew uncharacteristically forthright.
"If they're too big to fail, they're too big," the former Federal Reserve chairman said when asked about the dangers of outsized financial institutions.
It was October 2009, and the man who helped make megabanks possible was sounding more like Teddy Roosevelt than the Maestro as he entertained what he called a radical solution.
"You know, break them up," he told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "In 1911, we broke up Standard Oil. So what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole."
Greenspan the bank buster crops up near the end of "13 Bankers," Simon Johnson and James Kwak's reasoned look at how Wall Street became what they call "the American oligarchy," a group of megabanks whose economic power has given them political power. Unless these too-big-to-fail banks are broken up, they will trigger a second meltdown, the authors write.
"And when that crisis comes," they say, "the government will face the same choice it faced in 2008: to bail out a banking system that has grown even larger and more concentrated, or to let it collapse and risk an economic disaster."
The banks in their sights include Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Though Wall Street may not like "13 Bankers," the authors can't be dismissed as populist rabble-rousers.
Cash for Favors
Johnson is an ex-chief economist for the International Monetary Fund who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kwak is a former McKinsey & Co. consultant. In September 2008, they started the Baseline Scenario, a blog that became essential reading on the crisis. When they call Wall Street an oligarchy, they're not speaking lightly.
Drawing parallels to the U.S. industrial trusts of the late 19th century and Russian businessmen who rose to economic dominance in the 1990s, the authors apply the term to any country where "well-connected business leaders trade cash and political support for favors from the government."
Oligarchies weaken democracy and distort competition. The Wall Street bailouts boosted the clout of the survivors, making them bigger and enlarging their market shares in derivatives, new mortgages and new credit cards, the authors say.
Suicidal Risk-Taking
These megabanks emerged from the meltdown more opposed to regulation than ever, the authors say. If they get their way — and they will, judging from current congressional maneuvering over President Barack Obama's proposed regulatory overhaul — Wall Street will retain its license to gamble with the taxpayer's money. This isn't good for anyone, including the banks themselves, which often feel compelled by competitive pressure to take suicidal risks.
"There is another choice," they write: "the choice to finish the job that Roosevelt began a century ago, and to take a stand against concentrated financial power just as he took a stand against concentrated industrial power."
Obama finds himself in the middle of a struggle that has coursed throughout U.S. history — the struggle between democracy and powerful banking interests. The book's title alludes to one Friday last March when 13 of the nation's most powerful bankers met with Obama at the White House amid a public furor over bailouts and bonuses.
The material that sets this book apart can be found at the beginning and end. Chapters three through six present an all- too-familiar, though meticulously researched, primer on how the economy became "financialized" over the past 30 years.
Regulatory Arbitrage
Crisis buffs won't miss much if they skip ahead to the last chapter, where the authors debunk arguments that curbing the size of banks is too simplistic. A more complex approach, they say, would invite "regulatory arbitrage, such as reshuffling where assets are parked."
They propose that no financial institution should be allowed to control or have an ownership interest in assets worth more than 4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, or roughly $570 billion in assets today. A lower limit should be imposed on investment banks — effectively 2 percent of GDP, or roughly $285 billion, they say.
If hard caps sound unreasonable, consider this: These ceilings would affect only six banks, the authors say: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
"Saying that we cannot break up our largest banks is saying that our economic futures depend on these six companies," they say. "That thought should frighten us into action."
Though Jamie Dimon won't like this (any more than John D. Rockefeller did), incremental regulatory changes and populist rhetoric about "banksters" are getting us nowhere. It's time for practical solutions. This might be a place to start.
"13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown" is from Pantheon (304 pages, $26.95). To buy this book in North America, click here.
(James Pressley writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer on the story: James Pressley in Brussels at jpressley@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 21, 2010 20:00 EDT
By: Simon Johnson
Posted in bank of america, bernanke, bloomberg, citi, Dick Fuld, federal reserve board, geithner, jpmorgan chase0 Comments
To ROB a COUNTRY, OWN a BANK: William Black
Posted on 21 March 2010. Tags: broker kickbacks, coerced, countrywide, coutrywide loan officer mortgage fraud, fiduciary relationship, foreclosure, foreclosure fraud, foreclsoure mortgage fraud, liar loans, loan application 1003 fraud, loan origination, MERS, mortgage electronic registration inc., Mortgage Foreclosure Fraud, nina, respa, securitized MBS, siva, tila, ysp fraud
William Black, author of "Best way to rob a bank is to own one" talks about deliberate fraud on Wall St. courtesy of TheRealNews
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_MkJB84VA]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISsR7ZiWlsk]
Stop trying to get through the front door…use the back door…Get a Forensic Audit!
Not all Forensic Auditors are alike! FMI may locate exactly where the loan sits today.
This will make your lender WANT to communicate with you. Discover what they don't want you to know. Go back in time and start from the minute you might have seen advertisements that got you hooked " No Money Down" "100% Financing" "1% interest" "No income, No assetts" NO PROBLEM! Were you given proper disclosures on time, proper documents, was your loan broker providing you fiduciary guidance or did they hide undisclosed fees from you? Did they conceal illegal kickbacks? Did your broker tell you "Don't worry before your new terms come due we will refinance you"? Did they inflate your appraisal? Did the developer coerce you to *USE* a certain "lender" and *USE* a certain title company?
If so you need a forensic audit. But keep in mind FMI:
DO NOT STOP FORECLOSURE
DO NOT NEGOTIATE ON YOUR BEHALF WITH YOUR BANK OR LENDER
DO NOT MODIFY YOUR LOAN
DO NOT TAKE CASES that is upto your attorney!
FMI does however, provide your Attorney with AMMO to bring your Lender into the negotiation table.
Posted in bank of america, bernanke, chase, citi, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, fdic, FED FRAUD, federal reserve board, FOIA, foreclosure mills, forensic mortgage investigation audit, fraud digest, freedom of information act, G. Edward Griffin, geithner, indymac, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, Lynn Szymoniak ESQ, MERS, Mortgage Foreclosure Fraud, nina, note, onewest, scam, siva, tila, title company, wachovia, washington mutual, wells fargo0 Comments
Fed Ends Bank Exemption Aimed at Boosting Mortgage Liquidity: Bloomberg
Posted on 20 March 2010. Tags: AIG FRAUD, bloomberg, citi, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, Dick Fuld, FED FRAUD, federal reserve board, G. Edward Griffin, geithner, hank paulson, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, naked short selling, RON PAUL, scam
By Craig Torres
March 20 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Board removed an exemption it had given to six banks at the start of the crisis in 2007 aimed at boosting liquidity in financing markets for securities backed by mortgage- and asset-backed securities.
The so-called 23-A exemptions, named after a section of the Federal Reserve Act that limits such trades to protect bank depositors, were granted days after the Fed cut the discount rate by half a percentage point on Aug. 17, 2007. Their removal, announced yesterday in Washington, is part of a broad wind-down of emergency liquidity backstops by the Fed as markets normalize.
The decision in 2007 underscores how Fed officials defined the mortgage-market disruptions that year as partly driven by liquidity constraints. In hindsight, some analysts say that diagnosis turned out to be wrong.
"It was a way to prevent further deleveraging of the financial system, but that happened anyway," said Dino Kos, managing director at Portales Partners LLC and former head of the New York Fed's open market operations. "The underlying problem was solvency. The Fed was slow to recognize that."
The Fed ended the exemptions in nearly identical letters to the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, and Barclays Bank Plc posted on its Web site.
Backstop Liquidity
The Fed's intent in 2007 was to provide backstop liquidity for financial markets through the discount window. In a chain of credit, investors would obtain collateralized loans from dealers, dealers would obtain collateralized loans from banks, and then banks could pledge collateral to the Fed's discount window for 30-day credit. In Citigroup's case, the exemption allowed such lending to its securities unit up to $25 billion.
"The goal was to stop the hemorrhaging of risk capital," said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey. "Investors were being forced out of the securities market because they couldn't fund their positions, even in higher-quality assets in some cases."
Using mortgage bonds without government-backed guarantees as collateral for private-market financing began to get more difficult in August 2007 following the collapse of two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds.
As terms for loans secured by mortgage bonds got "massively" tighter, haircuts, or the excess in collateral above the amount borrowed, on AAA home-loan securities rose that month from as little as 3 percent to as much as 10 percent, according to a UBS AG report.
Lehman Collapse
By February 2008, haircuts climbed to 20 percent, investor Luminent Mortgage Capital Inc. said at the time. After Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in September 2008, the loans almost disappeared.
"These activities were intended to allow the bank to extend credit to market participants in need of short-term liquidity to finance" holdings of mortgage loans and asset- backed securities, said the Fed board's letter dated yesterday to Kathleen Juhase, associate general counsel of JPMorgan. "In light of this normalization of the term for discount window loans, the Board has terminated the temporary section 23-A exemption."
The "normalization" refers to the Fed's reduction in the term of discount window loans to overnight credit starting two days ago from a month previously.
The Fed eventually loaned directly to securities firms and opened the discount window to primary dealers in March 2008. Borrowings under the Primary Dealer Credit Facility soared to $146.5 billion on Oct. 1, 2008, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers two weeks earlier. Borrowings fell to zero in May 2009. The Fed closed the facility last month, along with three other emergency liquidity backstops.
The Fed also raised the discount rate a quarter point in February to 0.75 percent, moving it closer to its normal spread over the federal funds rate of 1 percentage point.
The one interest rate the Fed hasn't changed since the depths of the crisis is the benchmark lending rate. Officials kept the target for overnight loans among banks in a range of zero to 0.25 percent on March 16, where it has stood since December 2008, while retaining a pledge to keep rates low "for an extended period."
Removing the 23-A exemptions shows the Fed wants to get "back to normal," said Laurence Meyer, a former Fed governor and vice chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in Washington. "Everything has gone back to normal except monetary policy."
To contact the reporters on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net
Posted in bank of america, bear stearns, bernanke, bloomberg, chase, citi, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, Dick Fuld, fdic, FED FRAUD, federal reserve board, FOIA, forensic mortgage investigation audit, freedom of information act, G. Edward Griffin, geithner, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, note, RON PAUL, scam, washington mutual, wells fargo0 Comments
HARVARD LAW AND ECONOMIC ISSUES IN SUBPRIME LITIGATION 2008
Posted on 17 March 2010. Tags: 60 minutes, A.K. Barnett-Hart, AIG FRAUD, Allen Ferrell, Amazon, assignment and assumption agreement, bank of america, bear stearns, bernanke, billions, cbs, cbs news, chase, citi, Collapse, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, doomsday machine, FED FRAUD, foreclosure fraud, forensic mortgage investigation audit, G. Edward Griffin, Gang Hu, geithner, george soros, hank paulson, harvard university, indymac, Jennifer E. Bethel, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, michael burry, michael dell, Michael Lewis, mozillo, naked short selling, ncaa, ncaa brackets, nina, note, onewest, outsiders, Real Estate, RON PAUL, scam, siva, steven mnuchin, subprime litigation, the big short, the wall st. cheat, thesis, tila, wachovia, wall street, wall street bonuses, washington mutual, wells fargo
This in combination with A.K. Barnett-Hart's Thesis make's one hell of a Discovery.
LEGAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES IN
SUBPRIME LITIGATION
Jennifer E. Bethel*
Allen Ferrell**
Gang Hu***
Discussion Paper No. 612
Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA 02138
This paper explores the economic and legal causes and consequences of recent difficulties in the subprime mortgage market. We provide basic descriptive statistics and institutional details on the mortgage origination process, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). We examine a number of aspects of these markets, including the identity of MBS and CDO sponsors, CDO trustees, CDO liquidations, MBS insured and registered amounts, the evolution of MBS tranche structure over time, mortgage originations, underwriting quality of mortgage originations, and write-downs of investment banks. In light of this discussion, the paper then addresses questions as to how these difficulties might have not been foreseen, and some of the main legal issues that will play an important role in the extensive subprime litigation (summarized in the paper) that is underway, including the Rule 10b-5 class actions that have already been filed against the investment banks, pending ERISA litigation, the causes-of-action available to MBS and CDO purchasers, and litigation against the rating agencies. In the course of this discussion, the paper highlights three distinctions that will likely prove central in the resolution of this litigation: The distinction between reasonable ex ante expectations and the occurrence of ex post losses; the distinction between the transparency of the quality of the underlying assets being securitized and the transparency as to which market participants are exposed to subprime losses; and, finally, the distinction between what investors and market participants knew versus what individual entities in the structured finance process knew, particularly as to macroeconomic issues such as the state of the national housing market. ex ante expectations and the occurrence of ex post losses; the distinction between the transparency of the quality of the underlying assets being securitized and the transparency as to which market participants are exposed to subprime losses; and, finally, the distinction between what investors and market participants knew versus what individual entities in the structured finance process knew, particularly as to macroeconomic issues such as the state of the national housing market.
continue reading the paper harvard-paper-diagrams
Posted in bank of america, bear stearns, bernanke, chase, citi, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, credit score, Dick Fuld, FED FRAUD, G. Edward Griffin, geithner, indymac, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, mozillo, naked short selling, nina, note, scam, siva, tila, wachovia, washington mutual, wells fargo1 Comment
'Hail Mary' to Warren Buffett: Untold Details of Lehman's Fall
Posted on 16 March 2010. Tags: citi, corruption, Dick Fuld, Fed, Federal Reserve System, geithner, goldman sachs, jpmorgan, lehman brothers, lehman fraud, lehman's balance sheet, tim geithner, warren buffett
March 11, 2010, 6:15 PM ET
Doubtless, historians will be going over the mammoth 2,200 page report from the Lehman bankruptcy examiner for years to come.
But we bloggers are writing the first draft now. And there's plenty of good fodder on Lehman's final days, including fresh details on its effort to get support from billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Now, it's well known that Lehman reached out to Buffett in its final months. The Journal's Scott Patterson wrote about the Oracle's decision to pass on Lehman in a story back in December.
But the level of detail provided by this report is pretty astounding. It offers a pretty amazing snapshot of Buffett's conversation with Lehman CEO Dick Fuld as well as a remarkable window on how the Oracle negotiates during times of crisis.
The report really reads like a novel, so we'll just give you the sections here:
Fuld and Buffett spoke on Friday, March 28, 2008. They discussed Buffett investing at least $2 billion in Lehman. Two items immediately concerned Buffet during his conversation with Fuld. First, Buffett wanted Lehman executives to buy under the same terms as Buffett. Fuld explained to the Examiner that he was reluctant to require a significant buy?in from Lehman executives, because they already received much of their compensation in stock. However, Buffett took it as a negative that Fuld suggested that Lehman executives were not willing to participate in a significant way. Second, Buffett did not like that Fuld complained about short sellers. Buffett thought that blaming short sellers was indicative of a failure to admit one's own problems.
Following his conversation with Buffett, Fuld asked Paulson to call Buffett, which Paulson reluctantly did. Buffett told the Examiner that during that call, Paulson signaled that he would like Buffett to invest in Lehman, but Paulson "did not load the dice." Buffett spent the rest of Friday, March 28, 2008, reviewing Lehman's 10?K and noting problems with some of Lehman's assets. Buffett's concerns centered around Lehman's real estate and high yield investments, lending?related commitments derivatives and their related credit?market risk, Level III assets and Lehman's securitization activity. On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Buffett learned of a $100 million problem in Japan that Fuld had not mentioned during their discussions, and Buffett was concerned that Fuld had not been forthcoming about the issue. The problems Buffett saw in the 10?K along with Fuld's failure to alert Buffett to the issue in Japan cemented Buffett's decision not to invest in Lehman.
At some point in their conversations, Fuld and Buffett also discovered that there had been a miscommunication about the conversion price. Buffett was interested only in convertible preferred shares. Buffett told Fuld that he was willing to agree to a $40 conversion price per share, while Fuld thought Buffett was offering to buy in at "up? 40," or 40% above the current market price, which would have been about $56 per share. On Friday, March 28, 2008, Lehman's stock closed at $37.87. Fuld spoke to Lehman's Executive Committee and several Board members about his conversations with Buffett. Lehman recognized that an investment by Buffett would provide a "stamp of approval." However, Lehman already had better offers for its April capital raise, and Lehman did not think it could give a better deal to Buffett at the same time it gave a less attractive deal to others. On Monday, March 31, 2008, before Buffett could tell Fuld that he was not interested, Fuld called Buffett to say that Lehman could not accept his terms.
Last?Ditch Effort with Buffett
[Hugh "Skip" E. McGee, III, the head of Lehman's Investment Banking Division] contacted [President David L. Sokol, president of Berkshire Hathaway's MidAmerican Energy] again in late August or early September 2008 and outlined Lehman's "Gameplan" for survival, specifically SpinCo. During a subsequent telephone call with Sokol, McGee explained the "good bank/bad bank" scenario and stated that Lehman would need an investor. Sokol believed the e?mail and call were intended to induce Sokol to pass that information on to Buffett, so Sokol briefed Buffett on SpinCo. Buffett thought the idea would not solve Lehman's problems.
Sometime during the week prior to Lehman's bankruptcy, McGee again reached out to Sokol with what both Sokol and McGee described to the Examiner as a "Hail Mary" pass. McGee asked, "Do you have any ideas to save us?" Sokol, who was bear hunting in Alaska at the time, told McGee that he did not.
Judging by the inclusion of the largely irrelevant bear hunting detail at the end, we can tell that this report was written by a frustrated novelist. (And they did an amazing job.) But what we find most remarkable is the insight these sections offer on how Buffett assesses companies.
It's simple–but not easy–as he combines 10-K analysis with probing questions to management.
Are they willing to put their own money at risk? Are they being upfront? Are they giving investors the full story?
Clearly Buffett didn't think so.
Posted in bernanke, citi, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, Dick Fuld, FED FRAUD, geithner, hank paulson, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, naked short selling, warren buffet, warren buffett1 Comment
Michael Lewis: How a Few Wall Street Outsiders Scored Shorting Real Estate Before the Collapse
Posted on 16 March 2010. Tags: 60 minutes, Amazon, billions, cbs, cbs news, Collapse, doomsday machine, michael burry, Michael Lewis, ncaa, ncaa brackets, outsiders, Real Estate, the big short, the wall st. cheat, wall street, wall street bonuses
This is worth the time to read and watch
By Damien Hoffman The Wall St. Cheat
Michael Lewis's new book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, is already #1 at Amazon. Tonight he had some very cool interviews on 60 Minutes discussing how a few Wall Street outsiders made billions shorting real estate, his thoughts on Wall Street bonuses, and more. These videos are highly recommended now that the NCAA brackets are out and the tournaments are over until Thursday:
Go HERE for the powerful videos
Posted in bank of america, bear stearns, bernanke, chase, citi, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, FED FRAUD, foreclosure fraud, forensic mortgage investigation audit, G. Edward Griffin, geithner, george soros, hank paulson, indymac, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers, michael dell, mozillo, naked short selling, nina, note, onewest, RON PAUL, scam, siva, steven mnuchin, tila, wachovia, washington mutual, wells fargo0 Comments
FAKE it TIMMY, FAKE IT…TIMMY Faked it.
Posted on 13 March 2010. Tags: citi, corruption, Dick Fuld, Fed, Federal Reserve System, geithner, goldman sachs, jpmorgan, lehman brothers, lehman fraud, lehman's balance sheet, tim geithner
Naked Capitalism-
Quite a few observers, including this blogger, have been stunned and frustrated at the refusal to investigate what was almost certain accounting fraud at Lehman. Despite the bankruptcy administrator's effort to blame the gaping hole in Lehman's balance sheet on its disorderly collapse, the idea that the firm, which was by its own accounts solvent, would suddenly spring a roughly $130+ billion hole in its $660 balance sheet, is simply implausible on its face. Indeed, it was such common knowledge in the Lehman flailing about period that Lehman's accounts were sus that Hank Paulson's recent book mentions repeatedly that Lehman's valuations were phony as if it were no big deal.
Well, it is folks, as a newly-released examiner's report by Anton Valukas in connection with the Lehman bankruptcy makes clear. The unraveling isn't merely implicating Fuld and his recent succession of CFOs, or its accounting firm, Ernst & Young, as might be expected. It also emerges that the NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict in the performance of their duties, and may well be culpable in aiding and abetting Lehman in accounting fraud and Sarbox violations.
We need to demand an immediate release of the e-mails, phone records, and meeting notes from the NY Fed and key Lehman principals regarding the NY Fed's review of Lehman's solvency. If, as things appear now, Lehman was allowed by the Fed's inaction to remain in business, when the Fed should have insisted on a wind-down (and the failed Barclay's said this was not infeasible: even an orderly bankruptcy would have been preferrable, as Harvey Miller, who handled the Lehman BK filing has made clear; a good bank/bad bank structure, with a Fed backstop of the bad bank, would have been an option if the Fed's justification for inaction was systemic risk), the NY Fed at a minimum helped perpetuate a fraud on investors and counterparties.
[Naked Capitalism]
Posted in bernanke, citi, geithner, hank paulson, jpmorgan chase, lehman brothers0 Comments
Hank Paulson's Memoir: The Inside Job
Posted on 11 March 2010. Tags: foreclosure fraud, front running, geithner, goldman sachs, hank paulson, illegal foreclosure, indymac, ponzi scheme
By Simon Johnson
If you've read, are reading, or plan to read Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big To Fail, you also need to pick up a copy of Hank Paulson's memoir, On The Brink. Sorkin has the bankers' story, in sordid yet compelling detail, of how they received the most generous bailout in the world financial history during fall 2008 – and set us up for great problems to come. Paulson tells us why, when, and how exactly he let them get away with this.
Hank Paulson does not, of course, intend to be candid. As I review in detail on The New Republic's The Book site this morning, On The Brink is actually a masterpiece of misdirection and disinformation.
But still, he gives it all away – and if any details remain obscure, check them in Sorkin. Paulson honestly believes that the financial sector as constructed is productive, makes sense, and should continue to operate in roughly its current form.
Whether or not Paulson really understands the functioning of big banks in the US today is an interesting question – for example he never mentions how they treated customers during the boom, and there is not one word about the need for greater consumer protection moving forward. On the other hand, perhaps this omission tells us that he understands the game all too well – and is keen for it to continue.
He certainly did his best to make that happen.
Source: The Baseline Scenario
Posted in bernanke, concealment, conspiracy, corruption, FED FRAUD, G. Edward Griffin, geithner, hank paulson, lehman brothers, naked short selling, RON PAUL, scam0 Comments

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


F1RST Residences is an upscale rental community comprised of 325 apartments available in studio, 1- and 2-bedroom layouts. Contemporary, comfortable and luxurious, each design boasts floor-to-ceiling windows offering stunning views of the waterfront, D.C. monuments and Nationals Park. From spacious walk-in closets to private balconies, F1RST Residences offers you features and finishes that elevate urban living. And with access to an array of amenities, including a state-of-the-art fitness center and amenity-rich rooftop with pool, hot tub and outdoor amphitheater, living at F1RST is truly second to none. F1RST Residences is located adjacent to Nationals Park in the lively new Capitol Riverfront neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Rate your experience with F1RST Residences!
We have received your review of F1RST Residences. We appreciate your feedback!
Are you ready to call F1RST Residences?


text:
Q: Does an empty foreground service keep an android app alive? I'm working on an app that keeps communicating with a device by Bluetooth(ble) when it's in both foreground mode and background mode.
I know I should implement ble jobs in a foreground service in Android, but the app is written in flutter and all codes are in dart.
It seems that for now even though there isn't a foreground service, the app keeps alive in background mode.
But I want it to be alive as long as possible.
So I'm thinking about making an empty foreground service...
Will an empty foreground service make an app has some priority in background mode?
And is it ok to do so?
Thanks.

A: The system can terminate an application in the background at any point. In practice if there is no need for its resources, it runs several minutes maybe more.
When using a foreground service, at some point only the service will run, so there is no real use of "empty service". Closing the application manually will leave only the service running.

A: Yes, an "empty" Foreground Service will usually prevent the app process from being killed automatically by the system, unless the device is critically low on memory.
How the code in the service class itself looks like does not matter. The important thing is that when a Foreground Service is running in the app process, the whole process will be prevented from being killed. This means that you can have Dart threads in the same process that won't be killed. Activities belonging to the same process that are in the background can still be "destroyed" though, i.e. the onDestroy callback can be called.
Since BLE connections in Android uses the Binder mechanism which are not tied to any of the standard Components (Service, Broadcast Receiver, Activity, ...) that otherwise control how the app process stays alive, having an "empty" Foreground Service is actually a common way to keep BLE connections alive.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
28 Jan 2011 For Muslims, growing numbers, and growing fears
Posted at 01:02h in Multiculturalism, Uncategorised 0 Comments
Globe & Mail, Jan 27, 2010: The Muslim population of Canada will nearly triple over the next 20 years, according to a new study of global demographic trends focusing on the faith. The number of Canadians who identify themselves as Muslim will reach 2.7 million by 2030, up from approximately 940,000 today, and will make up 6.6 per cent of the total population. Keep reading...
22 Dec 2010 Politicians and "Merry Christmas" – A Muslim Speaks
By Brian Lilley - Sun Media - OTTAWA -- Knowing what to say when it comes to religious greetings can be a political minefield, but two observers who are also in religious minorities say politicians should be straightforward. "They should wish everybody a religious greeting," said Tarek Fatah, an active Liberal and Muslim in Toronto. "I don't think there is controversy in wishing anyone Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah," said Joseph Ben-Ami, a Jew who has previously worked with the Conservative Party. Keep...
20 Dec 2010 Quebec bans religious teaching in public daycares
CBC.ca, Dec 17, 2010: The Quebec government is banning religious teaching at all of its publicly funded daycares, prohibiting everything from group prayers to craft projects involving religious symbols.Family Minister Yolande James released a new guide Friday to religion in subsidized daycares that comes into effect next June. As part of the new policy, daycares will not be allowed to teach prayers or any religious doctrine. Daycares that continue to do so will face sanctions including loss of their government subsidies. "We clearly say that our...
09 Sep 2010 (Updated) Responses to Harper: "My God is a Tolerant God"
ARPA Note: Readers comments are included below. Add your thoughts by emailing [email protected] Let us know if you want them to be made public with your name or anonymously. Globe & Mail, Sept 8 2010: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has used his Christian faith to "unequivocally condemn" a Florida church that plans to burn 200 copies of the Muslim holy book. "I don't speak very often about my own religion, but let me be very clear: My God and my Christ is a tolerant God, and that's what we want to see in this world," he said. Read more
08 Sep 2010 Unlikely Partners: Chinese Province Teaches Focus on the Family's Abstinence Curriculum
Citizenlink: Despite the nation's atheism and suspicious nature, China's Yunnan education ministry has embraced Focus on the Family's abstinence and marriage education materials, to help manage the country's shifting sexual mores and skyrocketing divorce rate. Nevertheless, "safe sex" advocates, including the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and liberal sex groups are pouring millions into China to implement "safe-sex" programs and media messaging to sway teens away from the abstinence courses. Read more here ...
02 Sep 2010 Is Ottawa Beginning to Address the Multitude of Problems on Reserves?
Posted at 20:25h in Multiculturalism 0 Comments
Globe & Mail, Sept 1, 2010: Ottawa has quietly ordered a study of Canada's most economically successful first nations, raising the prospect of a new approach to developing businesses on reserves while sparking fear among some native leaders that their rights to land and resources are at risk. A small but growing number of success stories are spreading across Canada as native communities break out from historic poverty thanks to millions in earnings as landlords of on-reserve condos, hotels, industrial parks and high-end golf resorts. Keep reading...
03 Aug 2010 NYC mosque project clears hurdle
CBC.ca, August 3, 2010: Efforts to build a mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks in lower Manhattan got a big boost Tuesday when a city agency cleared the way for the construction of a controversial Muslim cultural centre. New York's City Landmarks Commission announced it would not give an old building on the site landmark status to protect it from demolition. That allows the building to be torn down to make way for a 13-storey Islamic centre that has sparked heated opposition from critics who say...
22 Jul 2010 Tories look to scrap affirmative action in federal hiring
Posted at 19:03h in Blog, Multiculturalism 0 Comments
Take Action: Send a note of thanks for this brave and principled decision to Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, and Stephen Harper ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) Globe & Mail, July 22 2010: The Conservatives say race and ethnicity shouldn't enter into the hiring process for federal jobs and have ordered a review of affirmative action policies. They want to look at government hiring practices, which currently give priority to qualified applicants from minority groups. New Democrat MP Pat Martin called the move a "full-frontal attack on affirmative action." Visible minorities, including...
22 Jun 2010 Judge: Quebec Gvmt 'Totalitarian' in Imposing Relativism Course
By Patrick B. Craine MONTREAL, Quebec, June 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Quebec Ministry of Education's decision to impose their course in moral and religious relativism on Montreal's Loyola High School assumed "a totalitarian character essentially equivalent to Galileo's being ordered by the Inquisition to deny the Copernican universe," said the Quebec Superior Court in a strongly-worded ruling released Friday.
14 Jun 2010 Video: Canadian Aboriginals Offer Forgiveness to Canada and PM Harper
OTTAWA, June 10 /CNW/ - Thousands of Aboriginal individuals are assembling in Ottawa to release this weekend the forgiveness that Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested in 2008. The Prime Minister concluded his apology for Indian Residential Schools by requesting "the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly." "At that moment" says Chief Kenny Blacksmith, "the onus was placed on our people as individuals to respond. The only way to come into our full healing as the First Peoples of Canada is to forgive. Forgiveness...


We present a measurement of the ratio R=Γ(K0 e3γ;E* γ > 30 MeV, θ* γ>20°)/Γ(K0 e3) and a first measurement of the direct emission contribution in semileptonic KL decays. The measurement was performed at the DA NE φ factory by selecting φ→KLKS decays with the KLOE detector. We use 328 pb-1 of data, corresponding to about 3.5 million K0 e3 events and about 9000 K0 e3γ radiative events. Our result is R=(924±23stat±16syst)×10-5 for the branching ratio and 〈X〉=-2.3±1.3stat±1.4syst for the effective strength parameter describing direct emission.


text:
Current Business Partners
Business Partner Testimonials
Library Pass Program
University / Institutional
Vacation Week
Credit & PDPs
Go to worcesterart.org
Adult |---View All |---New Offerings |---Art History |---Artistic Development |---Asian Brush |---Calligraphy |---Computer Art |---Drawing |---Drawing & Painting |---Mixed Media |---Painting |---Photography |---Printmaking |---Sculpture |---Teacher Institute |---Watercolor |---Workshops |---Writing Youth |---View All |---New Offerings |---3-5 w/ Adult |---5+ w/ Adult |---5-7 years |---5-9 years |---5-12 years |---8-10 years |---10-13 years |---11-13 years |---14-17 years Family |---View All |---New Offerings Teen |---View All |---New Offerings Vacation Week |---View all Credit & PDPs Scholarships Meet our Faculty Policies
New Offerings
Artistic Development
Asian Brush
3-5 w/ Adult
5+ w/ Adult
Bayda Asbridge
Bayda Asbridge is a local community artist who has the ability to work in a wide range of mediums. Since her arrival in the United States in 2007, Bayda has been added very strong element to the Worcester Art Museum's education department contributing a vast knowledge in painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, weaving and a wide range of other mixed media. Her work has been recognized in several local galleries, including our faculty exhibitions and at the Fitchburg Art Museum, giving her a well rounded knowledge of all stages of artistic production; from conception through to presentation. Since 2010 Bayda has placed in the top three in several art exhibitions and has also been interviewed twice on local television networks to honor her work. Bayda continues her ever-growing career as an artist and as a member of the Worcester Art Museum faculty.
View All Classes With This Instructor
C.J. Kennedy
Christopher Khounbanam
Claudia Guzman-Jovel
Donalyn Schofield
Marygrove College, BFA;
Wayne State University, MFA
Donalyn Digital Short
Elaine Smollin
Pratt Institute, BFA; Pratt Institute, MFA; New York University, MFA
The figure has been central to art from the earliest civilizations. Working together with artists here at WAM gives me a beautiful new dimension to our shared artistic experience. Together we explore what the figure can mean to each of us, we learn our crafts of seeing and of image-making and preserve our personal vision. My figure classes combine drawing/painting and new perspectives on use of materials. Our understanding of the figure is expanded in my sculpture classes. Here at the WAM I first saw the extraordinary range of figurative art as an impressionable child. That early exposure inspired my career in archaeology, work in which empathy for other cultures is paramount. As a painter and exhibitions manager in New York City, (1972-2006), I studied at NYU's Cinema Studies program to understand the impact of narrative form and the human figure. Because cinema studies is taught historically, I became an arts and film writer. I report on current exhibitions in New York City in In Vero Art and live and work in studios in Rhode Island and in the Hudson Valley just north of Manhattan. Instructor's websites: EAS Paintings and Drawings http://elainesmollinpaintingdrawing.blogspot.com/ EAS FILM AND SOCIETY http://elainesmollinfilmandsociety.blogspot.com/
Ella Delyanis
Ella Delyanis graduated cum laude from Boston University with a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts in painting. She further studied art education at Suffolk University. Ella has enjoyed teaching adults at the Worcester Art Museum since the fall of 1977. Ella has been doing pastel landscapes of Worcester County for over 25 years. Her work is in many private as well as corporate collections, including Fidelity Investments and Dunn and Bradstreet. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in drawing. She has been a finalist with the Massachusetts Arts Fellowship program twice, and received the Worcester Art Museum's Kinnicutt Award for foreign travel and study in 2001. Ella's work is represented by Artana Gallery in Brookline, MA, where she had a show last October. She is having another show of her pastel landscapes there this coming September. Past one person exhibitions of her work have occurred in galleries both in Boston and New York City.
George Hancin
Kent State University, BFA;
Yale School of Art, MFA
Haruo Shiga
Denver University, BFA; Rhode Island School of Design, MFA
Haruo Shiga, originally from Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan, is a local artist with a rich history in Art Education. Following his BFA at the University of Denver, he continued on to the esteemed Rhode Island School of Design in order to receive his MFA. In addition to his numerous personal showings in galleries in Denver, Rhode Island, Brown University, and even local exhibits like the Fitchburg Art Museum and WAM, he has gained experience in nearly every age group involving art education. His past work as a proprietor and Art instructor as well as his ability to work with any level of student has made him an impressive addition to our staff here at the Worcester Art Museum.
James Beschta
Jim Beschta was born and raised in southeastern Wisconsin, graduated from Dominican College and did graduate work in the University of Wisconsin system before moving to Massachusetts in 1970. He received his Masters Degree in English from Assumption College and won several awards while teaching English and Creative Writing at Quabbin Regional High School. He has published over 200 book reviews for various literary magazines and has published award-winning poetry in over a dozen journals, most recently in Sahara. He is a co-author of Bone Cages, an anthology of poetry by five central Massachusetts writers and his book Cutting the Cemetary Lawn was acknowledged nationally for its merit by the American Academy of American Poets. He has been teaching at WAM since 1998.
James Welu
Loras College, BA; University of Notre Dame, MA, MFA; Boston University, PhD
In 1966, Dr. Welu received his MA and MFA from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in art history from Boston University. He received honorary degrees from the College of Holy Cross, Loras College, and Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Welu taught at Clark and at the Worcester Art Museum for several years before joining the museum staff as an assistant curator in 1974. He served as the chief curator from 1980 to 1986 before becoming the director. He served in this position for twenty-five years. Welu retained oversight of Old Master paintings and taught on a continuous basis. A specialist in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting and cartography, Welu organized many exhibitions including Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World, the first show of the most famous woman artist from Holland's Golden Age. In 2007 Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800 was the first exhibition in North America to examine the response of the visual arts to the plague. He lectured widely and wrote such books as 17th Century Dutch Painting: Raising the Curtain on New England, Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World, The Collector's Cabinet: Flemish Paintings from New England, and Mask of Mirror. Welu served as president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and chaired the Accreditation Commission of the American Association of Museums. He was also a member of the advisory council for the art museum at Princeton University and the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. --- Source: "Museum to Host Director," Telegraph Herald, January 17, 2012
Jenn Falcon
Pratt Institute, BFA Jenn Falcon loves color, nature, animals, and patterns, integrating them in her work. She received a Worcester Cultural Commission grant in 2009 and recently completed an Artist in Residence program at Petrified Forest National Park. She was born and raised in Worcester but has career experience spanning the country, including positions at Shemer Art Center in Arizona and Randall Children's Museum in California. Jenn proudly served two years in AmeriCorps, helping children to read and speak English. She also worked in Worcester Public Schools as a preschool and elementary educator.
Jennifer Swan
Rhode Island School of Design, BFA Jennifer Swan received her BFA in Painting from RISD and has studied bookmaking, ceramics, photography, and bronze-casting, completing an apprenticeship in the lost-wax casting method in 2000. Swan teaches youth and adult programs for the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester Center for Crafts, and for the Town of Shrewsbury. In addition to teaching, she paints murals and exhibits work in local galleries. In 2001, Swan received a Kinnicutt grant and traveled to India where she completed a series of illustrations on Tibetan medicinal plants for publication in the Trans-Himalayan Journal.
Jessica Harris
Jill Pottle
Painting Studies at St. Martin's School of Art, London, England;
The College of Visual & Performing Arts, Syracuse University, BFA;
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, MFA
Julienne Ugalde
Worcester State College, BS; WheelockCollege, MS
Katie Doyle
Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, BFA; Lesley University College of Art and Design , MFA
Laurel King
Pennsylvania State University, BA; Emerson College, MFA
Laurel Dile King is a fiction writer and has taught writing at the Worcester Art Museum since 2005. She has led writing retreats in Maine, Rocky Neck Art Colony, and Tuscany. Laurel is the founding publisher and editor at Garland Press, Her awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council artist grant and a first place prize for the Worcester Magazine Short Story Contest. With the exception of that greasy summer she worked as a cook at Perkins Pancake House, each of her jobs—beginning as a counselor at Camp-Dig-a-Book—has dealt with serving up words in a more palatable way.
Lisa Montanaro
Lisa Montanaro has taught on the Faculty of Worcester Art Museum and MassArt. She holds a B.F.A. from Paier College of Art and has studied color theory and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. Ms. Montanaro has worked as a freelance illustrator in Washington, D.C. Clients include: U.S. News and World Report; Mondadori Publishing, Italy; The Los Angeles Times News Syndicate; The Washington Times; The Chronicle of Higher Education; The Weekly Reader Corporation. Lisa established and ran a successful illustration business through self-representation with clients in the editorial and publishing fields in national and international markets on a freelance basis. Working in mixed-media incorporating oil painting, photography and collage, she has exhibited and won national juried competitions in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. She gained international and national recognition for excellence in educational journalism for work on social issues such as teen pregnancy, gang violence and AIDS education. Lisa has now begun to work in the printmaking field. Most recently producing monoprints. These monoprints are achieved by painting on a piece of plexi-glass and then running it through a press for a single print in simple terms. The process is immediate and a departure from the more labor intensive and technique heavy illustration work of the past. Because of the immediacy of the printmaking process, her work is freer with an active line quality that she welcomes. She tends to work from life using the figure, found objects or the natural world. These are subjects that have a special quality that speak to her in a way other objects may not. The results have a graphic quality that Ms. Montanaro has embraced over the last five years and continues to explore today in her painting and printmaking. Group Shows include Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA; The Visual Club, New York, N. Y.; The Arts Club, Washington, D.C. and The Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA.
Lydia Bolton
Lyn Slade
Lyn Slade is one of the Northeast's premier needle felting artist-authors. Her work has appeared in numerous national periodicals, in group & solo art exhibitions, and in her book "Creative Needle Felting, wool art with a painterly style." Lyn has taught
Martha Chiarchiaro
Anna Maria College, BA, MBA; Williams College, MA
Nan Hass Feldman
Nan is an optimistic, energetic person whose works are stylized, yet recognizable, vibrantly colorful, often intricate, playful, enlivening, and upbeat focusing on the subjects of Interiors and Landscapes. Nan grew up in Brooklyn, New York where she took art classes at the Brooklyn Museum for 10 years. She received a B.F.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, an M.A. degree from Goddard College, and an M.F.A. degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Since 1982, Nan has continuously taught at the Worcester Art Museum. She has taught over 25 different art courses for all ages there and has kept up close contacts with her students over these years. Nan has also led Foreign Art Workshops for WAM in Cortona, Italy and Skopelos, Greece. Nan is one of the founders of the Danforth Museum of Art, where she has been teaching on and off since 1974 as well as an an art instructor at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and in the Framingham Public Schools and at Framingham State University. From 1999-2007, Nan ran a painting program in France. Nan has had over 45 one-person exhibits, been included in 29 museum exhibits, and has been in over 55 group exhibits in her 40 year career as an artist. Her work is in over 30 different hospital, corporate, and university collections, as well as in the collections of the Danforth Museum and in private collections in France, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Sweden.
Patricia Kelly
Massachusetts College of Art, BFA
Randy LeSage
Framingham State College, BA;
Tufts University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, MFA
Randy Digital Short
Rebecca Duffy
Pratt Institute, BFA
Richard Hoyer
Southern Connecticut University, New Haven, BA; Fairfield University, MA
Richard Paul Hoyer is a photographer and educator who works with fine art photography in gelatin silver prints as well as the latest digital media. He currently teaches classes at the Worcester Art Museum in digital photography and Photoshop. In addition, Richard is a member of the fine arts faculty at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, where he teaches photography and digital photography. He exhibits his fine art photographs at galleries in New York and New England on a regular basis.
Sarah Lividini
Freelance artist, author, and illustrator; clients include Hallmark and Goldenbooks for Children; Worcester Technical Institute, Certificate Since early 1987, Scott Nelson has been one of the nation's top freelance juvenile and humorous greeting card artist/writers. He has done freelance assignments for all the major card publishers and has written and drawn numerous children's books for many well known manufacturers including Golden Books for Children/Random House. In 2006 he won The Mom's Choice Award for his book titled "Mulch the Lawnmower" published by KRBY Creations. After studying illustration and landscape art under the late great Alex Gazonas in the mid 1980's, Scott has continued developing his mentors teachings to this day. He enjoys plein air painting in his central MA community and the shores of ME. Working in either watercolor or acrylic, Scott can often be found on the side of the road or next to the ocean painting in his expressionistic style.
Sharon Viles
Assumption College, MS;
Andover Theological School, MDiv
Sharon Digital Short
Sue Dion
Art Institute of Pittsburgh, BA; Rhode Island School of Design, MA; certified Grumbacher Instructor
Susan Slepetz
Atlantic Union College, BS;
Fitchburg State College, MEd
Susmita Bando
Thomas Grady
Thomas Kellner
Tom Kellner earned a Masters in Fine Arts from UMASS Amherst in 1983, where he created sculpture in wood and bronze. After teaching youth at the Museum School through the 1990s, Tom has been teaching a variety of drawing and sculpting skills to both teens and adults. These have included classes in figurative and three-dimensional portraiture; mold making; and techniques for wood, stone, ice, clay and plaster sculpture. He particularly likes to help students understand sculptural forms, and various styles and approaches. Currently, Tom works out of his studio in Royalston MA, overlooking the northern bank of the Miller's River. There he has produced a number of monumental stone pieces that now adorn homes and gardens across New England. Tom has worked as an artist in Residence in numerous school districts, including Athol-Royalston, Quabbin, Shrewsbury, and Worcester.
Bill Griffiths graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA and began teaching at the Worcester Art Museum over 30 years ago. He teaches over 5 classes per semester and has developed a following of students who study with him semester after semester to continually absorb the wealth of knowledge he possesses. Bill's knowledge about a wide variety of painting media (watercolor, acrylic, oils, pastel, and colored pencil) is enhanced by his extraordinary expertise in the use of color, shared each class in both group and individual critiques. The courses he has taught include: Watercolor for Travelers; Color and Light I & II; Color and Light Extended; Watercolor classes at all levels; Introduction to Watercolor for Adults and Teens; Putting it All Together: Demystifying Old Master Techniques of Final Glazes and Scumbles; and Acrylic Painting. Bill's own work—in watercolor, acrylic, and oils—show his truly deep understanding of media, color and light, and the artist's touch!
Youth Summer 2019 (PDF)
Adult Summer 2019 (PDF)
Adult Fall 2019 (PDF)
Important: Class registration and policies
55 Salisbury Street