Sermon of the Week; St. Paul's: 9/28/2008: Fr. Kevin Dooley
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Reflection "There has been a terrible (error,accident, loss,occurance) and I need ALL your money"----"The Hold Up"------
Last night's sleep was wonderful---- after a busy week, and in the deepest part of Rem sleep, I had a dream of one of those old Lone Ranger movies. It began as the stagecoach was rumbling along through the pass----you know the one that all the cowboy sets used to use----and the masked bandits rode furiously to the stagecoach below and after firing a couple of shots high in the air, the stagecoach stopped. Then the lead bandit said:
"There has been a terrible error------I need all your money."
As a parent, over the years from when the kids were young, one gets used to the little hold ups of life----from the small requests of pocket change for a candy bar, to the car on Saturday nights and yes some gas money and such----
Those are the little "hold ups" in life---and we are all used to them.
HOWEVER: When we come to institutions of public trust---like our airlines, public utilities, financial institutions, and health institutions, there was at one time the notion that in matters of public trust, one had an obligation not to bet the farm, but to do "no harm" as the first principle of conduct.
A deep nosedive landing might be faster, a wild option trade for a customer might be more fun, a challenging risky surgery might be more exciting etc, but the first principle was, during those days of yore, that in the matter of public trust, the first rule was--do no harm.
Thus----when I hear our President tell us that there has been a terrible loss of faith in our financial institutons, and this was caused by something that the Congress and the President just could do nothing about, but as a result---the most conservative of investors, the treasury bill investors, conservative bond investors, will lose their pension funds unless they hand over 700Billion dollars to the treasury---rather their kids will hand over double or triple that amount over the long term----it just makes me wonder.
The very FIRST item of discussion of EVERY banker or investment professional in making a deposit of funds for an investor is----their risk level. RISK LEVEL is the whole point of the "KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER RULE." In modern times, it has been fashionable to think that the purpose of the examination of WHO the customer is is to discover if there are any TERRORISTS among us. NOT. The purpose is to match the RISK with CUSTOMER---and traditionally brokers were subjected to JAIL for inappropriate investments for their clients. Very serious infraction.
For a government to tell seniors, conservative investors that there has been a terrible mistake and the customer or taxpayer has been investing in a wild and crazy investment----makes the RED flags come out and the Fraud Calvary begins the charge----the problem is that the cavalry has to ride and charge against the very people at the top of our trusted country. And in those cases, the Cavalry has a tendency to look to the side, to turn to PR, to turn to schmooze.
To bailout, without a change in the essential structure of many of these structured investments and a complete change in the transparency of the market---which is in the trillions of dollars---will mean that this "Hold Up" will happen again.
Count on it.
Where is the Lone Ranger when we need him?
"There has been a terrible error------I need all your money."
As a parent, over the years from when the kids were young, one gets used to the little hold ups of life----from the small requests of pocket change for a candy bar, to the car on Saturday nights and yes some gas money and such----
Those are the little "hold ups" in life---and we are all used to them.
HOWEVER: When we come to institutions of public trust---like our airlines, public utilities, financial institutions, and health institutions, there was at one time the notion that in matters of public trust, one had an obligation not to bet the farm, but to do "no harm" as the first principle of conduct.
A deep nosedive landing might be faster, a wild option trade for a customer might be more fun, a challenging risky surgery might be more exciting etc, but the first principle was, during those days of yore, that in the matter of public trust, the first rule was--do no harm.
Thus----when I hear our President tell us that there has been a terrible loss of faith in our financial institutons, and this was caused by something that the Congress and the President just could do nothing about, but as a result---the most conservative of investors, the treasury bill investors, conservative bond investors, will lose their pension funds unless they hand over 700Billion dollars to the treasury---rather their kids will hand over double or triple that amount over the long term----it just makes me wonder.
The very FIRST item of discussion of EVERY banker or investment professional in making a deposit of funds for an investor is----their risk level. RISK LEVEL is the whole point of the "KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER RULE." In modern times, it has been fashionable to think that the purpose of the examination of WHO the customer is is to discover if there are any TERRORISTS among us. NOT. The purpose is to match the RISK with CUSTOMER---and traditionally brokers were subjected to JAIL for inappropriate investments for their clients. Very serious infraction.
For a government to tell seniors, conservative investors that there has been a terrible mistake and the customer or taxpayer has been investing in a wild and crazy investment----makes the RED flags come out and the Fraud Calvary begins the charge----the problem is that the cavalry has to ride and charge against the very people at the top of our trusted country. And in those cases, the Cavalry has a tendency to look to the side, to turn to PR, to turn to schmooze.
To bailout, without a change in the essential structure of many of these structured investments and a complete change in the transparency of the market---which is in the trillions of dollars---will mean that this "Hold Up" will happen again.
Count on it.
Where is the Lone Ranger when we need him?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
"Fixed" Investments
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
OpEd: Why Wall Street Matters; A reflection on CASH; "Fixed" Investments;
One of the cruel happenings on the day after a Crash on Wall Street ---any crash---is the pundit talk of folks that celebrate because "Thank goodness we were in CASH"-----that line is delivered in a very straight tone. Everyone knows who hears it that it is a pure lie.
So. For the every day laborer who has a 401K or pension, and lets the pension manager do the thinking, what is to worry about?
It is that word "CASH."
Most folks that are investing in "Fixed Investments" and getting a return of 3% might think they are in CASH or in an investment that is "guaranteed" by the government in some way----but most are in reality only guaranteed by the insurance company, or under the umbrella of a pension guarantee corp guarantee, which upon examination has limited ability to really cover the possible losses if these fixed funds have been or are dabbling in CMO, Collatoralized Mortgage Obligations or fancy hedged investments.
In summary---those who have to worry are the lenders----and if you have "fixed investments" in your retirement fund, YOU are the lender or bondholder. Thus YOU have a huge stake in the current Wall Street mess.
After all the fancy analysts in their Armani suits have switched to their sweatpants with backpacks and cleared out their desks, it is the small investor that stands to lose if the banking system cannot be stabilized.
This morning the index measuring "junk" or high risk bonds in desperate straights had risen from the index 200 to 800, or four times higher, and the Libor rate or the rate banks loan to each other had doubled from around 3% to around 6%. That in a word is FEAR in the Streets.
There has been contraction of credit in business as well as home equity lines as well as changes without notice in credit card limits. There may be further sharper limit decreases in these items. College loans may be affected, and some lenders have already discontinued their participation. In short...widespread pain nationwide and not just in stock portfolios.
Stay tuned.
Posted by Evansville Observer at 2:40 PM
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Audio: Daily Mass: 9/18/2008 First Reading
Daily Mass: St. Paul's Church, Fr. Kevin Dooley, First Reading
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Audio: Sermon: 9/17/2008: Feast of St. Robert Bellarmine
Sermon: 9/17/2008: Fr. Kevin Dooley: Feast of St. Robert Bellarmine; St. Paul's Church, Evansville, Wi. On Academic Knowledge v. Academic Wisdom; On the Wisdom of God; Having our hearts in it.
Audio: 9/17/2008: Feast of St. Robert Bellarmine
First Reading: 9/17/2008; Feast of St. Robert Bellarmine: St. Paul's Church: Fr. Kevin Dooley
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sermon of the Week: Fr. Kevin Dooley: Sept 14, 2008
Fr. Kevin Dooley: St. Paul's Church: The Religion of Fear vs. the Religion of Love; Why the message of threats might work, but is not what God calls us to.
St. Paul's: Sept 14, 2009: Prelude
Jane Oberdorf on piano; Prelude; St. Paul's Church, Evansville, Wisconsin; Sept 14, 2008; Feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Audio: Sermon of the Week: 9-7-2008
Audio; Fr. Kevin Dooley: St. Paul's: September 7, 2008; On Correction, Giving and Taking, Glimpses of the Early Church
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