Posts by Bob Munro
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Employee: But I didn't want to own up to it so I deliberately lost it all. And overshot a little. Or maybe a lot.
Amazingly, from what I can understand of this, he actually only overshot a lttle - he was good at this game - it was the bank that lost a lot when it liquidated his positions.
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Yup, amazing that the same company employs Garth George.
Rich, I was wandering around in a bit more of the Independent and found this article by John Lichfield.
Rogue trader tried to hide €1bn winnings
A series of revelations over the weekend give bizarre, and intriguing, new insight into the trader's alleged activities. His former bosses, at Société Générale, France's second largest bank, say that M. Kerviel had, over a period of many months in 2007, bet €50bn in a clandestine computer game of his own invention.
They originally described his winnings as "modest" but evidence which emerged in Germany at the weekend suggests that, by the end of 2007, he may have earned as much as €1bn on secret, undeclared trading late into the night.
Instead of finding some way to cash in, and abscond, with the money, he set out two weeks ago to lose his winnings – mostly, it appears, by deliberately foolhardy speculation on the German DAX shares index. His intention was to return his winning position to "neutral" and cover up his activities.
The bank's president, Daniel Bouton, said on Saturday that M. Kerviel's deliberate attempt to "take losing positions" had been too successful – leaving him with a €1.4bn loss on 18 January. This turned into a €4.9bn loss – the largest ever by a single trader – when SocGen tried to dump his trades as European markets crashed a week ago.I guess I’d sort of got the idea from other reports that he had trumped Nick Leeson by another unreal amount but I hadn’t realised the true scale of his trading, (roughly New Zealand’s annual GDP I think), or the fact his system was working very well and it only failed as he tried to hide it, by deliberately ‘losing’ the billion euros he had made for the bank – not himself.
Neat summary of an incredible story. Almost defies belief. -
You read the UK Independent? Why?
Patrick Cockburn, son of the great Claud.
Fallujah is more difficult to enter than any city in the world. On the road from Baghdad I counted 27 checkpoints, all manned by well-armed soldiers and police. "The siege is total," says Dr Kamal in Fallujah Hospital as he grimly lists his needs, which include everything from drugs and oxygen to electricity and clean water.
The last time I tried to drive to Fallujah, several years ago, I was caught in the ambush of an American fuel convoy and had to crawl out of the car and lie beside the road with the driver while US soldiers and guerrillas exchanged gunfire. The road is now much safer but nobody is allowed to enter Fallujah who does not come from there and can prove it through elaborate identity documents. The city has been sealed off since November 2004 when United States Marines stormed it in an attack that left much of the city in ruins. -
Very wise, Peter. In my background research for this piece (if that's the appropriate term) I discovered that I am also a Piscean. Personally I have strapped a 5 metre ladder horizontally across my shoulders. It makes getting through doorways a bit tricky, but the added safety -- in terms of mine shaft accidents -- is fully worth it.
Just so we understand these are very wise words and the practice more common than you might think, I worked with this Piscean
in the late ‘80s.“My traveling rig was unusual: two sleds hooked in tandem towed by a
14 foot aluminum ladder suspended from my pack. This was my insurance
against a crevasse fall. At first, it took me five minutes to climb in. After lining
everything up, I would step in between the middle rungs of the ladder and strap on my skis. Then I would hoist the pack up, leaving the ladder suspended around my waist. Hooking my sit harness into the ladder was the final step before I lurched off along the glacier. The whole carnival train, all 21 feet of it, would have been an amusing sight if anyone had been around to see it.”I never saw him wearing his ladder in New Zealand but he assured me it was standard practice where he came from.
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As a careful Piscean I have now strapped lengths of 4 x 2 across my (already Christmas Holiday Inflated) arse in an attempt to prevent a fall down a coal mine.
Piscean attempting first winter ascent of North face of Denali.
**Solo attempt for first winter ascent on Denali's north side: "He walks with a ladder," pilot says**
“Former construction worker Artur Testov left for Kantishna on December 21 and began the hike to the base of the peak. This is the first solo climb of the north side of Mount McKinley; it has never been attempted in the winter, receiving no sunlight at all and with temperatures down to 60 below, a spokesman told ExplorersWeb.
Artur is hiking through 25 miles of Alaskan tundra in order to reach the base of the huge Wickersham Wall.
Prior to his 1998 success; Artur made a 1997 January attempt on the peak which was aborted after he fell in a crevasse at 14,000 feet.
This time, he carries an 8 foot ladder: "He walks with the ladder. He took one rung out and he stands in that hole, you know, and his backpack's on the top of his back," the pilot told ktuu.com. “
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Just back from an idyllic three days on Waiheke. A wedding and old friends, lovely weather and sheltered beaches. According to Metvuw Russell, you will cop a bit of rain through Wednesday but clearing with the next high after that. The water trucks were in evidence so I guess they can do with a drop. Sorry it looks like it might be falling on you.
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50-100 odd years from now we'll all have a box in our house that makes stuff, we'll feed in raw material in the top, some energy, download a design from the 'net and things will come out - arbitrary things, anything - the cost of things will depend on the cost of the atoms, the cost to move them around and (maybe) the cost of the design - want a cool couch - down load it and next day it will come out of the household fabber - or milk or a plant or the Mona Lisa - or stuff you can't make today - diamond windows from coal? don't like it? feed it back in the box, pulling something apart is really just the same problem (keep the kids away!)
Folks who think this scenario is actually only a few years away are very active here.
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Very near to Australia there is a country which all testimony concurs in describing as the fittest in the world for colonization, as the most beautiful country with the finest climate, and the most productive soil; I mean New Zealand.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
to House of Commons committee 1836 -
Bikini clad girls bouncing along on exercise balls have no connection with burgers.
Or even Primo chocolate milk, which is what the bouncing ads are for. The BK girls rode horses in bikinis, and stood around in a laboratory, wearing white coats with their bikinis.
Young women are confident in the freedoms and opportunities they have these days so a bit of sexism doesn't bother them?
Ugggh.
Your'e quite right Joanna. I'll shut up here.
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I'm a boomer generation male so it's hard for me to get a handle on this. But it does seem wider than just television advertising. Maybe it's actually a confidence thing? Young women are confident in the freedoms and opportunities they have these days so a bit of sexism doesn't bother them?