Search results for ""author gold"

Prepare for or enhance a career investing in the credit markets with this authoritative guide. The leveraged credit market is currently valued at over $4 trillion and is one of the fastest-growing asset classes, fueling demand for well-trained credit analysts. The Credit Investor's Handbook: Leveraged Loans, High Yield Bonds, and Distressed Debt is the definitive guide for young investment professionals embarking on a career investing in the leveraged credit markets – whether public, private, performing, or distressed. Experienced professionals will also immensely benefit from this guide as they refine their investment skills. Michael Gatto has twenty-five years of investing experience in the debt markets at Silver Point Capital (a $20 billion credit-focused fund) and Goldman Sachs' Special Situations Group. Furthermore, he is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business. Michael brings these experiences together in this comprehensive manual, teaching the skills to succeed in the dynamic and complex credit markets. Michael brings highly complex case studies to life using decades of his first-hand war stories and combines them with reflections from leading industry professionals, often infused with humor, to make the book accessible, readable, and fun. Michael's seven-step credit analysis process will prepare you for a career in credit investing at the top buy-side and sell-side firms on Wall Street by teaching you the technical skills needed to invest in the debt markets. Whether you are analyzing a loan origination in the private debt market, a new issue of a broadly syndicated loan (BSL), a high-yield bond (HY), or a secondary trade, the comprehensive knowledge gained from this book will equip you to make well-founded investment recommendations. Additionally, an entire section devoted to distressed debt investing incorporates a practitioner's perspective on the nuances of bankruptcy and restructurings to develop strategies to profit from opportunities in this opaque market. In clear, straightforward terms accessible to the layperson, Michael explains strategies pursued by distressed companies such as J. Crew and Serta that have led to creditor-on-creditor violence, giving you an insider’s perspective on some of the least understood transactions in the distressed arena. You will: Gain In-Depth Knowledge: Understand the complexities of credit markets, from trading dynamics to historical credit cycles, allowing you to identify debt investment opportunities—and avoid pitfalls. Master the Analytical Framework: Learn Michael's seven-step process for analyzing credit investments, including qualitative industry and business analysis, financial statement analysis, forecasting, corporate valuation, relative value analysis, and debt structuring. Learn How to Write an Investment Recommendation: Review real-life credit memos to understand how analysts translate this framework into recommendations that drive investment decisions at the top credit funds. Discover Key Concepts and Terminology: leveraged buyout financings (LBOs), trading levels (price, yields, and spreads), shorting, and credit default swaps. Navigate Distressed Debt: Explore the strategies and nuances of distressed debt investing, including bankruptcy, subordination, creditor-on-creditor violence, and high-profile case studies from the past three decades of Chapter 11 restructurings. This book caters to finance majors pursuing investing careers, credit analysts seeking to enhance their skills, and seasoned professionals aiming to expand their expertise. Professors, researchers, lawyers, and advisors servicing the credit industry will also find immense value in this comprehensive guide.

Read more less

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'For bung-it-in-the-oven cooks everywhere, this is a must-have book: Diana Henry has a genius for flavour.' - Nigella Lawson-The Sunday Times Best Cookbooks of the Year 'This might be Henry's most useful book yet, which is saying something.' - The Sunday Times -Guardian's Best Cookbooks and Food Writing of the Year'The shining star is Diana Henry's From the Oven to the Table, in which she faultlessly delivers highly achievable, boldly flavoured dishes.' - Meera Sodha, the Guardian- Independent's Best Cookbooks of the Year'A new cookbook from Diana Henry is always a reason to celebrate and From the Oven to the Table is no exception.' - Independent -Observer Food Monthly 20 Best Food Books of the Year 'There's so much to love about the latest from the Sunday Telegraph writer. Its great strength lies in updating and upgrading food you'll want to produce with a flourish. Deliciously photographed, too.' - Allan Jenkins, Observer Food Monthly-Daily Mail's Cookery Books of the Year'Diana Henry is one of Britain's best cookery writers: her recipes are instantly appealing and she's the most elegant of writers. (...) Packed with hearty, highly flavoured dishes, it's the perfect winter cookbook for those days when you need sustenance without putting in too much effort.' - Daily Mail-Sunday Times Ireland Cookbook of the Year 'Of all the new cookbooks that came into my house this year, this is the one that has been used most often.' - Sunday Times Ireland-Delicious.magazine's Best Cookbooks of the Year'Her most simply satisfying book yet? A must-own.' - Delicious.magazine-'I'm not quite sure how Diana Henry does it but every book she writes is a winner; practical, enticing and evocative. And the recipes always work. This one may seem as simple as it gets (one-pot or tray cooking) but it never ceases to delight.' - Tom Parker Bowles, the Mail on Sunday-Diana Henry's favourite way to cook is to throw ingredients into a dish or roasting tin, slide them in the oven and let the heat behind that closed door transform them into golden, burnished meals. Most of the easy-going recipes in this wonderfully varied collection are cooked in one dish; some are ideas for simple accompaniments that can be cooked on another shelf at the same time. From quick after-work suppers to feasts for friends, the dishes are vibrant and modern and focus on grains, pulses and vegetables as much as meat and fish. With recipes such as Chicken Thighs with Miso, Sweet Potatoes & Spring Onions, Roast Indian-spiced Vegetables with Lime-Coriander Butter, and Roast Stone Fruit with Almond and Orange Flower Crumbs, Diana shows how the oven is the most useful bit of kit you have in your kitchen. Praise for How to Eat a Peach:'This is an extraordinary piece of food writing, pitch perfect in every way. I couldn't love anyone who didn't love this book.' - Nigella Lawson'...her best yet...superb menus evoking place and occasion with consummate elegance' - Financial TimesFood Book of the Year at the André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards 2019

Read more less

As seen in The Last Movie Stars documentary - the raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of an icon. The greatest movie star of the past 75 years covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his thoughts on Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, his greatest roles, acting, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward, his innermost fears and passions and joys. With thoughts/comments throughout from Joanne Woodward, Tom Cruise and many others.In 1986, Paul Newman and his closest friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern, began an extraordinary project. Stuart was to compile an oral history, to have Newman's family and friends and those who worked closely with him, talk about the actor's life. And then Newman would work with Stewart and give his side of the story. The only stipulation was that anyone who spoke on the record had to be completely honest. That same stipulation applied to Newman himself. The project lasted five years.The result is an extraordinary memoir, culled from thousands of pages of transcripts. The book is insightful, revealing, surprising. Newman's voice is powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, always meeting that high standard of searing honesty. The additional voices - from childhood friends and Navy buddies, from family members and film and theater collaborators such as Tom Cruise, George Roy Hill, Martin Ritt, and John Huston - that run throughout add richness and color and context to the story Newman is telling.Newman's often traumatic childhood is brilliantly detailed. He talks about his teenage insecurities, his early failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals (Brando and Dean), his first marriage, his drinking, his philanthropy, the death of his son Scott, his strong desire for his daughters to know and understand the truth about their father. Perhaps the most moving material in the book centers around his relationship with Joanne Woodward - their love for each other, his dependence on her, the way she shaped him intellectually, emotionally and sexually.THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF AN ORDINARY MAN is revelatory and introspective, personal and analytical, loving and tender in some places, always complex and profound.Praise for Paul Newman'One of the greatest screen actors of all time and a beautiful man.' Daniel Craig'He set the bar too high for the rest of us. Not just actors, but all of us.' George Clooney''He was my hero.' Julia Roberts'Paul was an American Icon.' President Bill Clinton'The ultimate cool guy, who men wanted to be like and women adored. He was an American icon, a brilliant actor, a Renaissance man and a generous but modest philanthropist ... Newman entertained millions in some of Hollywood's most memorable roles ever, and brightened the lives of amny more, especially seriously ill children, through his charitable works.' Arnold Schwarzenegger'Sometimes God makes perfect people and Paul Newman was one of them.' Sally Field'One of the very finest screen actors of our time. Newman spanned the gap between the golden days of Hollywood, the 40s and 50s with actors like Cary Grant and James Stewart and Clark Gable, and the present lot represented by Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise' Sir Michael Parkinson'Newman was a fine driver, who was famous in Hollywood for doing his own stunt driving as often as not.' Ron Dennis, Formula 1's McLaren Chief'To say he was an extraordinary man would be an understatement. he saw himself as a working actor, not a movie star, and insisted that everyone else did the same. There was no ego, no entourage, no hangers on. Only Paul, his script and his incredible spirit. One can say this about very few people, but he was a truly great man. It seems to me to be one of the great 20th-century lives: he was famously generous, with his extraordinary and unstinting work for his charities, he was a shining example of how to use global fame for the greater good, and most of all he was one of the great movie actors of this or any other age. [Directing Newman] was the highlight of my professional life.' Sam Mendes

Read more less

2021 Golden Poppy Award Winner for Poetry - Chosen by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance2022 California Book Award FinalistPolitically astute, filled with wisdom and great humanity, this is poetry meant to conjure a healing and provoke a confrontation, an invitation to a journey through Black America."Words are not the revolution itself, Eisen-Martin seems to say, and yet this book disturbed me more than any other I read this year. It reminds me that poetry can rewire our thinking—can actually change our minds—by using nothing like the rote language we’re so used to hearing in speech and in prose. It can jolt us out of patterns, back into intelligence."—The New York Times, "The Best Poetry of 2021"A rhapsodic follow-up to Tongo Eisen-Martin's Heaven is All Goodbyes, this collection further explores themes of love and loss, family and faith, refracted through the lens of Black experience. These poems honor intellectual tradition and ancestral knowledge while blazing an entirely new path, recording and replaying the poet's sensory travels through America, from its packed metropolises to desolate anytowns. Radical, outraged, knowing, wry, and deeply humane, these are poems of survival that soar with a vision of collective liberation.Praise for Blood on the Fog:"Continuing the lofty tradition of Langston Hughes, June Jordan, and Amiri Baraka, Tongo Eisen-Martin has emerged on center stage as today's premier revolutionary poet. A master craftsman and a sensitive artist, he reserves his sledgehammer words for the cruelty of imperialism. He should not only be read—he should be studied."—Gerald Horne"In Blood on the Fog, find a poetry of 'swinging type body language' where the swinging swings like Ellington and Ali combined, knocking you out inside and out, and turning you around in this extraordinary book."—Terrance Hayes"Black poetry has got to get its head around the deranged way language and the world expect us to be and live again. Tongo has figured this out, is feeling out how to vein the poem with his own life, and that's why I love his work."—Simone White"This is no precious, immortal-aspirational monologue; no autocrat stone of finality; no poor folks as thought experiments. More fugue than state. More disturbance as the groove. If poems are for anything, I feel like it must be this."—Justin Phillip Reed"Blood on the Fog is the illest artifact of time travel I've ever experienced. Tongo Eisen-Martin takes us to a tomorrow and yesterday where we stand—contorted and mangled—but oh so beautiful, faithful and free."—Kiese Laymon"Whether speaking rhyme in slant, calling forward Medgar Evers, or the spirituality of an oppressed people, Eisen-Martin offers stanza after stanza as a sunrise. Each poem leads us towards our liberation. This means these poems are heavy in their desire to free our current state of stoic apathy. This means Tongo Eisen-Martin's poetic legacy will live forever."—Mahogany L. Browne

Read more less

Twenty-six papers on the epigraphy, history, and topography of ancient Greece presented to the famous scholar by his eminent students and friends. The contents are: A Lid with Dipinto (Alan L. Boegehold); Athenians, Macedonians, and the Origins of the Macedonian Royal House (Eugene N. Borza); Koroni and Keos (John L. Caskey); Epicurus in the Archives of Athens (Diskin Clay); The Nature of the Late Fifth Century Revision of the Athenian Law Code (Kevin Clinton); Theseus and the Unification of Attica (Steven Diamant); Onesippos' Herm (Colin N. Edmonson); Gennadeion Notes v. the Journal of Thomas Whitcombe, Philhellene (C. W. J. Eliot); A Lekythos in Toronto and the Golden Youth of Athens (Henry R. Immerwahr); The Leasing of Land in Rhamnous (Michael H. Jameson); Writing and Spelling on Ostraka (Mabel L. Lang); Some Attic Walls (Merle K. Langdon); Dodwellopolis: Addendum to "Fortified Military Camps in Attica" (James R. McCredie); Athens and Hestiaia (Malcolm F. McGregor); Thucydides and the Decrees of Kallias (Benjamin D. Meritt); Arrian in Two Roles (James H. Oliver); The Dedication of Aristokrates (Antony E. Raubitschek); The Pnyx in Models (Homer A. Thompson); The Alleged Conservatism of Attic Epigraphical Documents: A Different View (Leslie Threatte); Agora I 7181 + IG II, 2, 944b (Stephen V. Tracy); An Interpretation of Six Rock-Cut Inscriptions in the Attic Demes of Lamptrai (John S. Traill); PARADEIGMA (John Travlos and E. L. Smithson); Regulations for an Athenian Festival (Michael B. Walbank); The Final Battle at Plataia (Paul W. Wallace); An Attic Farm near Laurion (Livingston Vance Watrous); Sepulturae Intra Urbem and the Pre-Persian Walls of Athens (F. E. Winter).

Read more less

William Heath Robinson remains one of Britain’s best-loved illustrators and has embedded himself into English vernacular, inspiring the phrase ‘it’s all a bit Heath Robinson’ to describe any precarious or unnecessarily complex contraption. Born in London, he originally had ambitions to be a landscape painter, but would establish his artistic reputation as a book illustrator during the genre’s so-called golden age. It was his association with weekly illustrated magazine The Sketch that was to launch and cement his legacy as a humorous artist. Combining a distinctive draughtsmanship with a curious and ingenious mind, the advent of the First World War inspired Heath Robinson to dream up a series of increasingly outlandish and bizarre military inventions with which the opposing armies would try to outwit each other. From the kaiser’s campaigning car or a suggestion for an armoured bayonet curler, to post-war ‘unbullying’ of beef, his cartoons are a fantastically absurd take on wartime technology and home-front life. Sadly, his inventions were rejected by a (fictitious) ‘Inventions Board’, but the charm and eccentricity of his ideas was loved by the public and he remains to this day one of the finest exponents of humorous British art.

Read more less

The description for the first book, Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks, fits for his second book, More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks. Who says math can't be funny? In More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks as in Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks , Patrick Vennebush dispels the myth of the humorless mathematician. His quick wit comes through in this incredible compilation of jokes and stories. Intended for all math types, both More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks and Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks provide a comprehensive collection of math humor, each book containing over 400 jokes. This too is a book that all teachers from elementary school through college should have in their library. But the humor isn't just for the classroom-it also appeals to engineers, statisticians, and other math professionals searching for some good, clean, numerical fun. From basic facts ("Why is 6 afraid of 7?") to trigonometry ("Mathematical puns are the first sine of dementia") and algebra ("Graphing rational functions is a pain in the asymptote"), no topic is safe. As Professor Jim Rubillo notes, " Math Jokes 4 Math Folks is an absolute gem for anyone dedicated to seeing mathematical ideas through puns, double meanings, and blatant "bad" jokes. Such perspectives help to see concepts and ideas in different and creative ways." And as all these endorsers of More Jokes 4 Mathy Folks say: "If you took all the people who fell on the floor laughing when they read this book and laid them end-to-end, you'd have a very long line of people. It'd be a silly thing to do, but at least you'd know who to avoid at a cocktail party."~ Gail Englert, Retired National Board Certified Teacher and NCTM Board Member 2002-05 "If you're above the 90th percentile, you'll chuckle or groan at all of the jokes in this book. If you're above the 50th percentile, you'll chuckle or groan at some of them. But if you find that you're not chuckling or groaning at any of them, well..."~ David Barnes, Associate Executive Director, NCTM "Laughter is good for your health. Really, it is! That's why I'm very glad that Patrick Vennebush has done it again! Take your own journey through MORE JOKES 4 MATHY FOLKS; but regardless of the path you take, you'll smile, laugh out loud, and think about ways to use or adapt some of these jokes in your own classroom or personal repertoire."~ Francis (Skip) Fennell, Professor Emeritus, McDaniel College, and Past President AMTE and NCTM "Henny Youngman and Leonhard Euler walk into a bar. Patrick Vennebush faithfully captures their conversation in this collection of old saws, with all the corollaries worked out, along with some new results. He proves that math, unfairly the dread of many, is more than ready to have a good laugh. Like a good joke, good math has a set-up that invites the reader to wonder what is coming, then - pow! - a zinger of a punchline that surprises and delights. Vennebush shares humor found in this intersection that will give a chuckle, maybe a groan, and some sneaky insights."~ John Golden, Associate Professor, Grand Valley State University, and Blogger at http://mathhombre.blogspot.com "While everyone loves to laugh, most people wouldn't expect that to take place in a math classroom. This book fixes that problem with humor that kids and adults will chuckle about. Check out these jokes out, and share them with your students and colleagues!"~ Robert Kaplinsky, Math Teacher Specialist,Downey Unified School District "What an amazing collection of jokes, problems and stories that are "plays" on numbers, their names, relationships among them, and how they are used in many fields and by folks in varying professions. I spent lots of time trying to figure out how the answers to questions were determined - strange relationships! - and had my colleagues and students try to solve them, too. That figuring-out process produced many laugh-out-loud results. You don't have to be a math aficionado to love this book."~ Carole Greenes, Professor and Director of the PRIME Center, Arizona State University "Patrick Vennebush proves why he will never be eaten by cannibals-he would surely taste funny. The second volume of mathy jokes will bring smiles to the faces of teachers and groans from students when you use these jokes in class!"~ Fred Dillon, Institute for Learning, University of Pittsburgh "Vennebush never fails to entertain! His work is worthy of a limerick: Patrick was faster than most folks In learning a collection of math jokes. They roll off his tongue Faster than bells that have rung, So he published some books for us slow pokes." ~ Johnny Lott, Professor Emeritus,University of Montana, and NCTM President 2002-04

Read more less

Over its fifty-year existence, John F. Blair, Publisher, was known for its Southern folklore—its tales of ghosts, goblins, ghouls, spirits, witches, devils, phantoms, haints, boogers, boo-daddies, plat-eyes, demons, apparitions, Doppelgangers, banshees, disappearing hitchhikers, pirate legends, ghost dogs, dog ghosts, dogs who see ghosts . . . In recognition of its golden anniversary, the company published this volume of twenty stories culled from its folklore collections. Readers will likely be impressed at the timeless quality of the tales, some of which have never been out of print since they first appeared in the 1960s. And you may be surprised to learn of their broad appeal, the collections having sold a total of over six hundred thousand copies. Some of these tales are now being enjoyed by their third generation of readers. If you don’t know what a coffin baby is, read “Milk and Candy” by Randy Russell and Janet Barnett. If you’d like to meet a real-life pirate who’d make a better Hollywood character than any swashbuckler yet seen on celluloid, you’ll enjoy “Stede Bonnet” by Nancy Roberts. If there’s a place in your heart for a pair of lifesaving little dogs who’ve scampered on the same South Carolina beach for over a hundred years, try “Pawleys Island Terriers” by Elizabeth Robertson Huntsinger. If you prefer folklore with a historical touch, you can learn about Theodosia Burr Alston in Charles Harry Whedbee’s “Lady in Distress” and about Francis Marion in Daniel W. Barefoot’s “Ghostly Legacy of the Swamp Fox.” The folklorists included here claim stomping grounds from the high peaks and mountain hollows to the flatlands to the swamps to the barrier islands to the briny deep. What they share is a love of their subject and the ability to bring it to life on the page. This anthology was compiled by the staff of John F. Blair, Publisher.

Read more less

Half a century ago I left a country, the red color of which dominated a large portion of the world map. One way or another, the fate of almost every single person described in this book is forever linked with that now none-existent empire. Many of them ended up beyond its borders too. Cultures and traditions, and certainly not least of all a Soviet mentality, couldn’t have just left them without a trace. Having been transplanted into a different environment, they had to play the role of themselves apart from certain corrections with regard to the tastes and customs of a new society. Nevertheless, every one of them, both those who left the Soviet Union, and those who stayed behind, were forever linked by one common united phenomenon: they all belonged to the Soviet school of chess. This school of chess was born in the 20’s, but only began to count its true years starting in 1945, when the representatives of the Soviet Union dominated an American squad in a team match. Led by Mikhail Botvinnik, Soviet Grandmasters conquered and ruled the world, save for a short Fischer period, over the course of that same half century. In chess as well as ballet, or music, the word “Soviet” was actually a synonym for the highest quality interpretation of the discipline. The Soviet Union provided unheard of conditions for their players, which were the sort of which their colleagues in the West dare not even dream. Grandmasters and even Masters received a regular salary just for their professional qualifications, thereby raising the prestige of a chess player to what were unbelievable heights. It was a time when any finish in an international tournament, aside from first, was almost considered a failure when it came to Soviet players, and upon their return to Moscow they had to write an official explanation to the Chess Federation or the Sports Committee. The isolation of the country, separated from the rest of the world by an Iron Curtain, was another reason why, talent and energy often manifested themselves in relatively neutral fields. Still if with music, cinematography, philosophy, or history, the Soviet people were raised on a strict diet, that contained multiple restrictions, this did not apply to chess. Grandmasters, and Masters, all varied in terms of their upbringing, education, and mentality and were judged solely on their talent and mastery at the end of the day. Maybe that’s why the Soviet school of chess was full of such improbable variety not only in terms of the style of play of its representatives, but also their different personality types. Built was a gigantic chess pyramid, at the base of which were school championships, which were closely followed by district ones. Later city championships, regions, republics, and finally-the ultimate cherry on top-the national event itself. The Championships of the Soviet Union were in no way inferior to the strongest international tournaments, and collections of the games played there came out as separate publications in the West. That huge brotherhood of chess contained its very own hierarchy within. Among the millions, and multitudes of parishioners-fans of the game-there were the priests-candidate masters. Highly respected were the cardinals-masters. As for Grandmasters though well…they were true Gods. Every person in the USSR knew their names, and those names sounded with just as much adoration, and admiration as those of the nation’s other darlings-the country’s best hockey players. In those days the coming of the American genius only served to strengthen the interest and attention of society towards chess, never mind the fact that by that point it had already been fully saturated by it. The presence of tons of spectators at a chess tournament in Moscow as shown in the series “The Queen’s Gambit” is in no way an exaggeration. That there truly was the golden age of chess. Under the constant eye, and control of the government, chess in the USSR was closely interwoven with politics, much like everything else in that vanished country. Concurrently, the closed, and isolated society in which it was born only served to enable its development, creating its very own type of culture-the giant world of Soviet chess. I was never indifferent to the past. Today, when there is that much more of it then the future, this feeling has become all the sharper. The faster the twentieth century sprints away from us, and the thicker the grass of forgetting grows, soon enough, and under the verified power of the most powerful engines that world of chess will be gone as well. It was an intriguing, and colorful world, and I saw it as my duty to not let it disappear into that empty abyss. Genna Sosonko - May 2021

Read more less

Audience: Investors, entrepreneurs, companies considering going public, policy makers.Summary: Rigged financial markets and hopeless under-regulation on Wall Street are not new problems. In this book, Susanne Trimbath gives a sobering account of naked short selling, the failure to settle, and her efforts over decades, trying to get this fixed.Part I. Opening ActThis is a cautionary tale. What started as a regulatory failure has turned into a regulatory crisis. Shareholder democracy is in shambles. The institutions that were established to correct a problem of trade settlement failures (failures to deliver shares for settlement) have instead exacerbated the problem. They may not survive what comes next.Chapter 1: Primer. A non-technical explanation of the terminology and concepts used in the book, plus the economic implications of trading ""phantom"" stock and bonds.Chapter 2: Start at the Beginning. Twenty-five years ago, when I was working ""backstage at Wall Street"" a group of corporate trust specialists told me about a problem in shareholder voting rights. When I went to senior management at Depository Trust Company (DTC), then and still the largest securities depository in the world, brushed it off saying, ""You can't balance the world.""Part II. Back to Where I Left OffChapter 3: A Sidewalk Café in New York. At the request of a business colleague, I have coffee with a lawyer from Texas who tells me that a problem was about to blow up the financial markets: Wall Street brokers are using short sales and fails to deliver to grab the assets of American entrepreneurs. I feel a pang of guilt for not sticking it out to fix this before I left DTC in 1993. By 2003, it was a full-blown regulatory crisis!Chapter 4: Blind Men Describe an Elephant. When I start working on the issues after 2003, the lawyers, companies, investors and consultants I meet are like the blind men and a phantom share is the elephant. From a dentist in Michigan to a Republic operative in Washington DC, few of the self-described experts even knew what a naked short sale was before it either happened to them or someone hired them to pontificate on the subject.Part III. Committing to a CauseChapter 5: Real Experts Meet. The lawyers and several companies they represent are relying on poorly written reports provided by the Blind Men. Recognizing that the errors are piling up and having a negative impact on the outcomes in the court room, I bring in real experts, including the corporate trust specialists who first came to me in 1993. We coin the term ""phantom shares"" to describe the extra shares being created by short sales, stock lending and fails to deliver.Chapter 6: STA White Paper. The industry organization of corporate trust specialists, the Securities Transfer Association (STA) issues a report on over-voting after they are unable to get help from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Articles in their newsletter include a survey showing that over-voting – the direct result of investors voting phantom shares in corporate elections – impacts every public company. Almost immediately, the Securities Industry Association sends a letter to the NYSE describing how they can hide over-voting and the NYSE removes the last remaining rule that made it possible for a buyer to demand delivery of shares. A year later, over-voting is found in every corporate election surveyed by the STA. Even after the SIA implements processes to hide over-voting, the STA finds one-third of corporate elections are still receiving up to 25% more votes than there are shares outstanding.Chapter 7: Tax Consequences. My research shows that taxpayers and governments are losing out when interest and dividends are paid on phantom shares. The loss of tax revenue is not trivial: as much as $4.0 billion to the states and $1.5 billion to the federal government every year.Part IV. Success Seems PossibleChapter 8: Regulation SHO. I submit comment letters to the SEC that outline the financial and economic consequences of fails to deliver (FTD). When FTD reporting from NSCC to SEC begins, we are optimistic. Even though it is a list of victims (companies) but not the perpetrators (brokers), this is our first chance to see weekly and then daily data. We still don't know how old a fail is, but at least we have more frequent reports of the total value of fails and the number of shares failed per company. This chapter includes several of my comment letters explaining the implications for capital markets and the economy of the unfolding regulatory crisis, including the fact that Reg SHO had no enforcement teeth. It includes the attachments I submitted, like a copy of an NYSE audit proving that they knew that brokers were voting in corporate elections without regard to shareholder rights.Chapter 9: Criminal Cases Reveal Evidence. Although none of the lawsuits against the central clearing and settlement organizations (DTCC and its subsidiaries) is able to progress in the state courts, some organized crime cases result in settlement agreements and federal prosecutions. They move slowly but reveal evidence through discovery that supports the civil claims for several issuers against the brokers. This book does not detail financial crimes, but the cases against the primary perpetrators involved in manipulating Eagletech's stock are outlined to demonstrate the criminal strategies. We visit the more complete story of Eagletech Communications, Inc. in Chapter 10.Chapter 10: The Battle Goes Public. When a Dateline NBC segment on Eagletech is announced, the pajamahideen are emboldened, organizing protests and rallies including one on the sidewalk in front of DTCC's headquarters in Manhattan. The Dateline episode falls far short of the exposé everyone was hoping for. Later that year, the National Association of Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) holds a public forum in Washington, D.C. Publicity for the issue rises to the mainstream media, with a cover story in Bloomberg Markets magazine focused on the problems created by phantom votes. The CEO of a large public company is in the audience. I challenge him to buy shares of stock in his own company and find out if the seller fails to deliver. His broker debits his bank account for over $1 million dollars – then it takes two months for him to get delivery of the shares. In the face of this evidence and the harsh reality that it can happen to anyone, Patrick Byrne escalates his activities to warfare.Part V. Escalating CommitmentsChapter 11: Byrne's War. With the NASAA event as the backdrop, I push Patrick Byrne to stay focused on the real issue: corporate governance. He has me added to several email distribution lists with what he dubs the ""Pajamahideen"" – freedom fighters who work from home in their pajamas. Patrick hires a firm specializing in ""legislative strategies"" to arrange a media event in Washington DC. It is poorly attended and not widely reported with only one congressional aide at the event. Instead of explaining the important regulatory changes needed to protect corporate governance, Patrick has the team presentation focus on criminal activity. This chapter includes the text of my online interview with The Sanity Check.Chapter 12: Publicity Ramps Up with Meetings, Events and Interviews. I appear at the confirmation hearing when a former DTCC Board members is nominated as State Treasurer for New Jersey. I and some of the pajamahideen point to his Board role as making him complicit in hiding the fails to deliver. Afterward, DTCC will attempt to use one obscure new article about the hearing in an effort to disparage me (Chapter 15). Stories show up in every financial news outlet from print and online to radio and television. Bloomberg produces and airs a special report on ""Phantom Shares"" and I am the keynote speaker at the Securities Lending Conference in New York. I am contacted by an agent from the FBI-NY and he asks me to meet with the SDNY Attorney's office to brief them on fails and shorts. I present them with shocking evidence of system-wide problems in post-trade processing. I don't hear from them again.Chapter 13: Naked, Short and Greedy in LA. The CFA-LA initially agrees to put on an event about naked short selling. Bloomberg TV is prepared to broadcast the event. Then DTCC threatens action against CFA-LA if they have me as a speaker. CFA-LA caves and cancels the event. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne steps up with a small sponsorship and STP Advisory Services funds the remainder for a new event in October. With just a shoe-string budget, we are able to fill a meeting room at the Park Hyatt in Century City (Los Angeles) with attendees from all over the US.Part VI. All Seems LostAfter a series of promising events, what happened next offered one setback after another. In a painful, emotionally charged series of events for me, the goal of resolving the regulatory crisis seemed to move further and further away. Things were happening too quickly to have feelings about them: by the time it was over, I was just starting to have feelings about the kind of feelings I had when it was happening. DTCC's efforts to banish me to the background left me raw as I constantly had to keep up my guard against it. Paradoxically, all of the negativity drew a sense of even deeper commitment from me.Chapter 14: Resistance from Wall Street. DTCC escalates their efforts against me. It has the opposite effect, making more companies and investors trust me to speak out on their behalf. They contact the producers and sponsors for events that invite me to be keynote speaker. They even threaten to cancel program participation for a transfer agent who hires me as a consultant. In the end, the people and organizations that I worked with in my years at DTC come to my support with more speaker invitations.Chapter 15: Corporate Governance Fails at Overstock. The real blow comes when Patrick has the chance to close it out with the proxy voting charade at his annual meeting. He does nothing because he got the chairman slot he was so afraid ""they"" would take away from him. The real experts I bring in are ignored completely. I feel Patrick and his lawyers push me aside in favor of a series of yes-men and consultants with worn-out low-level government titles. He will lose his appeal in a million-dollar lawsuit brought against him and one of his writers for libel and defamation.Chapter 16: Senate Inaction. Patrick is a big political donor who is able to get some statements about ""naked short selling"" read into the record by congressmen from Utah. I was able to include a couple of paragraphs about fails to deliver. Under pressure from DTCC, the SEC and Wall Street's own political donations, Congress refuses to hold hearings to air the investors' side of the story. In 2012, the Washington Post will report finding lawmakers in 2008 were investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in short-selling funds.Part VII. When the Music StopsThen came the Wall Street bailout, appointing Geithner to Treasury to replace Paulson (who pillaged the Treasury on his way out of town), Dodd-Frank which does nothing but order a bunch of studies. Soon, everyone is so wrapped up in trying to figure out what the rules are going to be that no one is able to move forward with any action.Chapter 17: Media Interest after the Financial Crisis. When the financial crisis hits the markets, I am doing radio interviews every month. In September, Matt Taibbi interviews me for the Rolling Stone magazine article that would be quoted extensively because he called Goldman Sachs a ""great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."" In 2013, Forbes was still referencing that article. The Daily Show produces a segment on short selling that gets attention as far up as the White House daily briefing.Chapter 18: CMKM and the UnShareholders. A diamond mining firm, CMKM, orders a ""cert pull"" to get all the company's shares out of the DTC. It reveals how many phantom shares are in circulation as a multitude of investors – dubbed the UnShareholders – are left holding the empty bag. Brokers begin deleting share positions as they stop returning calls to angry customers around the world, including several active-duty members of the military stationed overseas. But the evidence is there: brokers assigned phantom shares to their most vulnerable customers while getting real certificated-shares for themselves and favored clients. Before it shuts down, the UnShareholder project reveals the same circumstances applied to over 100 investors for 21 more companies across 15 brokerage firms. Launched June 9, 2008; closed in 2010. The investors were located throughout the US and in 5 other countries on three continents. In 2007, shareholders in British Columbia (Canada) sue their broker for refusal to provide certificates for shares shown in their account. The same day it was filed, it went directly before B.C. Supreme Court Justice H. Groberman, who ordered Canaccord to provide the share certificates ""without delay.""Chapter 19: Two Documentary Films. Sandra Mohr's Stock Shock is first out of the blocks among several films, including a few big Hollywood productions that would make the connection between failures in supervision, regulation and post-trade processing and the 2008 collapse of global capital markets. ""The bad guys won."" I am interviewed for the documentary Wall Street Conspiracy in July. When the stock market crashes in September, the producers invite me back to explain the connection with what I told them 2 months earlier. The transcript of that interview is included in this chapter.Part VIII. The Tragedy of a Downer EndingChapter 20: GAO Faults SEC and Other Revelations. In 2009, GAO would fault SEC for ignoring thousands of ""NSS"" complaints. My interview with the GAO is included in this chapter. The deeper tragedy is that so many companies lost access to the capital that is a keystone on US capital markets. Of the three companies highlighted in this book, Eagletech folded in 2006, CMKM held on until 2019 (as NHHI). Only Barker Minerals remains a functioning business despite the fact that the shares ceased trading after they could no longer afford to have financial statements produced by an external auditor.Chapter 21: Barker Minerals' Unique Approach. A Canadian mining firm, Barker Minerals Ltd. approached me in 2010 for help with a strategy they developed to ferret out which brokers were failing to deliver their stock for settlement. In contrast to denouncing short sellers, which was the basis for most complaints in the US, Barker called their analysis the ""Pro Long Strategy"" for its emphasis on protecting and supporting long-term shareholder investments. Barker Minerals continues in operations today, primarily using personal funding after the stock ceased trading on 5 April 2019.Part IX. Unresolved Regulatory CrisisFor decades, investors have settled for a small rate of return in their investment accounts, while the companies holding their money have earned trillions of dollars in income. If there is one lesson learned from my experiences over the last 15 years, it is that even a disorganized protest is still a protest. A small but vocal group of investors and entrepreneurs can shake up the system at least enough to get some transparency. The financial sector has lost its moral compass. Investors and entrepreneurs are on their own when they venture into US capital markets. They have to protect themselves and the wealth they hope to accumulate to ensure the future.

Read more less