Financial Advisors - What EVIL Lurks?

Who Can You Trust?

The  question  would receive a resounding reply from Bernie Madoff's clients, no doubt. But don't rely on regulators or institutions to provide effective preventative controls. That's naive.

Three ways you can work to mitigate the evils of wayward advisors is to first employ two or more well-recognized practitioners to handle your affairs. A little competition goes a long way to keeping everyone on the up and up.

Secondly, consider employing only " fee-based hourly" advisors who are not so interested in generating commissions. The downside is that they are generally not as incented or aggressive and  that may be  a handicap  in both good or bad markets.

Lastly, do you homework!

It Just Got Even Harder to Trust Financial Advisors  

If you haven't yet checked your adviser's disciplinary record, you will after reading this.

There's a phrase no one wants to read in a sweeping report about the financial advisers who handle their savings: economy-wide misconduct. 

A new working paper by business school professors at the University of Chicago and University of Minnesota found that 7 percent of financial advisers have been disciplined for misconduct that ranges from putting clients in unsuitable investments to trading on client accounts without permission. That's a troubling mark for an industry that relies on the trust of clients. And some large, well-regarded firms have misconduct records that far exceed the average. Nearly 20 percent of financial advisers at Oppenheimer & Co., with more than 2,000 advisers counted in the study, have misconduct records, according to the new paper.

"It's everywhere, not just small firms. It is pervasive," said Amit Seru, a finance professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and a co-author of "The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct."

READ  MORE 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-01/it-just-got-even-harder-to-trust-financial-advisers

Euro sinks as weak data piles pressure on European Central Bank

The euro hit its lowest in almost three years against the yen while European shares extended their strongest run of the year on Tuesday as data from around the region bolstered the case for more ECB stimulus next week

Japan PM Abe to form panel to debate extra stimulus budget: sources

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will pull together a new advisory panel to debate the need for a supplementary budget for the coming fiscal year from April to stimulate the flagging economy, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

Australia's net foreign debt tips over $1 trillion as second widest current account deficit recorded

Australia's net foreign debt has expanded beyond $1 trillion for the first time on record.

It's Official: Canada Has Sold All Of Its Gold Reserves

One month ago, when looking at the latest Canadian official international reserves, we noticed something strange: Canada had sold nearly half of its gold reserves in one month. According to the February data, total Canadian gold reserves stood at 1.7 tonnes. That was just 0.1 per cent of the country’s total reserves, which also include foreign currency deposits and bonds. 

As we noted, the decision to sell came from Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office.

“Canada’s gold reserves belong to the Government of Canada, and are held under the name of the Minister of Finance,” explained a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. “Decisions relative to gold holdings are taken by the Minister of Finance.”

READ MORE  

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-03/its-official-moment-canada-has-no-gold-reserves-left

www.firstfinancialinsights.blogspot.com

Post Crash Alert: Devastated Pension Plans Adding To Global Woes, & More #News

Did Global Stock Market Meltdown Hurt UK Pension Schemes?

The ‘Black Monday' stock market turmoil on 24 August saw the FTSE 100 index plummet 14% below its peak of almost 7,000 points in February.

Investors across the globe began panic selling stocks, particularly in commodities, amid fears of the much anticipated growth slowdown in China.

While about £96bn was wiped off share values in the UK blue chip index, the Dow fell 1,000 points on opening and the Shanghai Composite experienced total losses of 35% since June.

Hymans Robertson put the total pain for UK defined benefit (DB) schemes at a staggering £30bn surge in aggregate deficits in a day, as equities values and bond yields headed south. 

Commentators are divided on whether the event was merely a market correction or an indication of more chaos to come.

But what many agree on is the fact that China is no longer the world's economic growth engine, posing the question of where future investment returns will come from.

How China's economic slowdown could weigh on the rest of the world 

In the year to July, China's customs agency reports that imports from Australia are down by $15bn dollars on the same period last year - a loss which is already equal to 1% of Australia's GDP, and many other countries stand to lose out to similar degrees. China's imports overall are down by 14.6% over 2015. Find out what happens if this decline continues for the rest of the year - or worsens - and how that loss compares to each country's GDP

Deflationary Collapse Ahead?

Eventually, even at near zero interest rates, the amount of debt becomes too high, relative to income. Governments become afraid of adding more debt. Young people find student loans so burdensome that they put off buying homes and cars. The economic “pump” that used to result from rising wages and rising debt slows, slowing the growth of the world economy. With slow economic growth comes low demand for commodities that are used to make homes, cars, factories, and other goods. This slow economic growth is what brings the persistent trend toward low commodity prices experienced in recent years.

The Amazing Harbinger of the Dow's 531-Point Slide 

A strange thing happened fifteen minutes after stock markets opened for regular trading on Friday, August 21, 2015. At least some people on the nationally prominent MarketWatch website were privileged to see in advance what would prove to be the full-day losses for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) and the Standard & Poors 500 (SPX) indices. This harbinger or revelation of what was to come occurred six hours and fifteen minutes before the market's close. The uncanny trend projections, or perhaps target prices, were made available while the Dow was down about 180 points -- more than 350 points above its astonishing Friday close.

What If The "Crash" Is as Rigged as Everything Else? 

There is an almost touching faith that markets are rigged when they loft higher, but unrigged when they crash. Who's to say this crash isn't rigged? A few things about this "crash" (11% decline from all time highs now qualifies as a "crash") don't pass the sniff test.

Australia 'sleepwalking into a mess' 

"Unless we recognise that, and recognise that the productivity challenge and the fiscal challenge are intimately linked, and we have to deal with both of them, then we will go on continuing to repeat the mistakes that we've been making and that will get us into a situation that none of us want to be in."

Dr Parkinson earlier told a room of more than 90 corporate, community and academic leaders that productivity reform could not be detached from fiscal reform.

China  Meltdown So Large That Losses Eclipsed BRICS  Peers 

Take the combined size of all stocks traded in Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, multiply by two, and you'll get a sense of how much China's market value has slumped since the meltdown started. Shanghai-listed equities erased $5 trillion since reaching a seven-year high in June, half their value, as margin traders closed out bullish bets and concern deepened that valuations were unjustified by the weak economic outlook. 

The four other countries in the BRICS universe have a combined market capitalisation of $2.8 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Learning Success: 

APPLY Tips From The Best

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group – Anyone who owns more than 400 companies and is worth billions of dollars is clearly doing many things right. I admire Richard Branson’s tenacity, and I admire his personal brand

Amazing Chinese Economy Grows By 7% - What's Next? & More

China's economic growth beats forecast

World's second-largest economy grows by 7 percent in the second quarter amid dramatic fall on stock markets.

China has released figures of its economic growth for the second quarter showing the country's economy has grown at a steady seven percent, its weakest performance since the global crisis but slightly better than expected.

The figure released on Wednesday was slightly above forecasts and came as the ruling Communist Party is struggling to reverse a stock market plunge that threatens to disrupt its economic reform plans.

The world's second-largest economy has seen sharp downturn in its economic growth raising fears of job losses. Since November, Beijing has cut interest rates four times and pumped money into the economy through spending on construction.

"There are good reasons to think that the latest figures are mirroring a genuine stabilisation of conditions on the ground," said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics in a report.

The Multi-Trillion Dollar Oil Market Swindle 

I have maintained that oil should have corrected to around $70 in the fall of 2014, tied to U.S. production increases which at the time represented the price at which drillers would continue to add to supply. That price tied to cost reductions has probably been reduced to $60ish currently. But today, with the consensus oversupply widely quoted in the media as some 2 million barrels per day worldwide, it’s clear that if the numbers are correct below, the perceived oversupply wouldn’t exist at all. Suffice it to say prices would be at least at the point where production would need to be added, perhaps around $60-$70 per barrel, if not higher.

Science says no impacts from Shenhua mine: Baird 

Asked what he had said, the minister told reporters: "There's no point in going to cabinet if you are going to express what you said in cabinet on national TV."

Shenhua Watermark is planning to construct an open-cut mine about 25km southeast of Gunnedah to extract 10 million tonnes of coal a year over 30 years.

Greek debt crisis: Goldman Sachs could be sued for helping hide debts when it joined euro 

The deal is based on fresh economic reform proposals submitted by Athens which bear a striking similarity to the creditors’ offer rejected by the Greek people in a referendum last Sunday – sparking claims that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has effectively executed a huge U-turn in order to avoid a catastrophic “Grexit”

Austerity Has Failed: An Open Letter From Thomas Piketty to Angela Merkel

Five leading economists warn the German chancellor, “History will remember you for your actions this week.”

440 cuts and counting - the Abbot Legacy

This post will be regularly updated to keep track of the Abbott Government’s broken promises and everything his Government does to hurt Australians. Each item will have a link to a source.

More Leading Headlines

Brazil Leader Faces Backlash From Friends, Foes

Venezuela needs debt refinancing, not default - Capriles

1. BlackRock Sees 40% Haircut in Puerto Rico Debt Restructuring

1. Dutch pension costs to rise as assumed investment returns cut
2. 
   
3. Ukraine Gears Up for Debt Talks as Default Deadline Looms

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth:

What Happens If Global Warming Continues?

 EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

Methane Bomb 

or Archaic 

Fabrications?

Ontario Debt Downgraded For Excessive Spending & More

Investors' Insights Comments 

The BIG Market Warning

There is little doubt we are in the midst of a perfect financial storm, that history will perhaps one day record as "The Mother of All Global Market Crashes". Interest rates were too low, for too long, that created unsustainable bubbles in financial  and real estate markets around the world.This time it is different was again the usual mantra.

It never is. It Never Will Be. It couldn't last! 

Mathematically, everyone denied that a mean reversion of interest rates would ever occur and thereby collapse global asset bubble values everywhere by 50% or more. Guess what? Somebody bought that last tulip, and we are now experiencing the reversion with the full brunt of its present value mathematical consequences.  

Moreover, many economies are facing debt woes and physical economic and climate change issues causing either water,capital or food shortages. You cannot run economies without food, water and energy; somehow Nobel Prize nor Ivy League economists can never  figure this out. 

The FED charts tell us the financial market weather is very bad. Wall St is getting very worried and today's  world headlines tell the story of a free fall in values in Japan, China, Australia and elsewhere, that mirrors all the great stock, bond  and economic meltdowns of past and recent history. Plunging prices for  days and weeks on end - because we just run out of bigger fools. The real laws of supply and demand.

If you have that sinking feeling that things are about to get much worse. One thing you need not worry about, you are not alone.

And remember that old adage  -  when its over, its over!

 Read More

http://pwa2100.blogspot.ca/

Ontario Cut by S&P as Big Spending 

Makes It Global Laggard

While the deficit has been dropping, the province’s total debt outstanding has been rising and now stands at about C$315 billion, according to the Ontario Financing Authority. Ontario’s C$250 billion of long-term bonds rated by Moody’s Investors Service is the most of any province, state or local government in the world, the New York-based company said last year.

Someone stole $1 billion from Moldova. That's an eighth of its GDP 

Investigators, including the US auditing firm Kroll, are looking into the matter but have released few details. The speaker of Moldova's parliament finally released a report by Kroll late Monday night that implicated a Moldovan businessman in the scheme, but recommended further investigation.

Many Moldovans are mad about all this.

Greece – What You Are Not Being Told by the Media 

If you are a fan of mafia movies, you know how the mafia would take over a popular restaurant. First, they would do something to disrupt the business – stage a murder at the restaurant or start a fire. When the business starts to suffer, the Godfather would generously offer some money as a token of friendship. In return, Greasy Thumb takes over the restaurant’s accounting, Big Joey is put in charge of procurement, and so on. Needless to say, it’s a journey down a spiral of misery for the owner who will soon be broke and, if lucky, alive.

Is the American Economy Really Recovering? 

I went back through historical records, back before the global financial crisis revealed just how poorly managed America really is, and I pulled Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data from two periods: the peak just before the global financial crisis in 2007 to 2008, and as of May 2015. I cross-referenced the data with other numbers the BLS publishes on average weekly earnings.

Gold Gets Ignored in Greek Meltdown With Fewest Bulls Since 2006

While money managers ignored the precious metal’s allure as a haven, demand from Greek customers for Sovereign gold coins was double the five-month average in June, the U.K. Royal Mint said June 29.

China Targets Short Sellers in Stock-Index Futures Contracts

The measure, which comes after the exchange made it more expensive to speculate on stock-index contracts, is intended to curb short selling and won’t work, according to Xinhu Futures Co. China’s state-run media has blamed rumor-spreading short sellers and foreign investors for a stock-market rout that erased more than $3.2 trillion of value in less than a month.

Life insurance industry a risk to U.S. stability, IMF says

In a report released Tuesday, the IMF said that prolonged low interest rates "pose a slow burning solvency risk" for life insurers. If low rate stay until 2018, 11 out of 18 life insurance groups would report negative shareholder equity, the IMF said.

More Leading Global Headlines

Ranking The States By Fiscal Condition 

Greek Banks Prepare Plan To Raid Deposits 

 U.K. Welfare Spending Increases $43 Billion Under Cameron


Chinese Trading Suspensions Freeze $1.4 Trillion of Shares Amid Rout


Central Banks Across the World Pressured to Fight Against Euro Depreciation


European Central Bank’s Nowotny: If Greece Misses Payment, Funds Will Be Cut Off

Top Weekly 

Ideas and 

Insights

LESSON ONE:

How It All Began?

IS EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

Science or Archaic Fabrications?