Smoking
Guns . . . or a Lynch Mob? For Merrill Lynch it was smoking emails
that led to a $100 million fine.
Word on the street has it that Goldman Sacs and Salomon Smith Barney
and others are shaking in their boots. They want to leave Dodge but
there is no way around the angry mob of investors seeking revenge
or I should say seeking justice.
Texas and Alabama are gunning for JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers
and big state guns are shooting at Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS
Paine Webber, Bear Stearns, Deutsch Bank Securities, US Bancorp and
others.
Email is providing the evidence of conflicts of interest and biased
stock recommendations that misled investors whose losses run into
the hundreds of Billions.
And now this angry mob is seeking justice.
Meanwhile a large amount of money is being moved to safety. Safety
or the sidelines?
Banks are not safe. People rob banks, 23 of them every day, almost
one bank an hour is robbed. Bankers make bad loans. Banks go bankrupt.
Your money in the bank is safe only up to the amount insured by the
FDIC. $100,000 is the maximum insurance provided for your accounts
combined.
Already, in the first 4 months, this year 6 banks have gone belly
up with $63.9 million of uninsured deposits.
And now according to the Gallop pole people are transferring $Billions
to annuities for safety.Be cautious how you transfer money from your
bank.
The $60,000 mistake!
Reportedly one man who heard his bank was in financial trouble withdrew
$160,000 from an account held jointly with his wife. (Jointly he and
his wife were fully insured) He asked for a cashiers check. The bank
made the check in his name. The bank failed before his check cleared
and $60,000 was uninsured. Clearly, had the check been made payable
to both names the full amount would have been insured.
Unemployment continues to soar at the weekly rate of 400,000+ for
nine consecutive weeks. On 5-11 the total number of people collecting
unemployment benefits reached 3.8 million.
Leading market indicators continue to fall. Some claim the economy
may be heading back into recession. That’s strange…I totally
missed the recovery!
The smart place, the safe place, to stash your cash is in annuities.
Annuity interest rates remain strong with IRS tax incentives. Annuities
provide guarantees of income not risk; guaranteed growth not speculation;
sleep insurance not sleepless nights. And, annuities leave money to
your heirs not court battles and legal fees.
So . . . What’s New?
