text:
Racism Sin Vergüenza in the Venezuelan Counter-Revolution
by Arlene Eisen
For sheer racist hatred, the young Venezuelan "protesters" championed by the U.S. government and corporate media could rival that found in the Ku Klux Klan or any other of the white supremacist formations that pepper U.S. history. "Racism is one of the main engines and expression of the counter-revolution."
Racism Sin Vergüenza in the Venezuelan Counter-Revolution
by Arlene Eisen
This article previously appeared in Venezuelanalysis.com.
"In Venezuela, nearly all the wealthy and bourgeois people are phenotypically European, while nearly all those in poverty who live in the countryside or shacks on the sides of hills in the city are Black and Brown."
It's late morning in Caracas. February 12. From the restaurant inside the hotel around the corner from Plaza Venezuela we can hear chanting, but it's too muffled to understand. Are they yelling "Maduro Salida" or "Maduro/burro Salida"[1] or something else? From the window, we can see people, almost all smiling white people, streaming down the street to join the first huge anti-government demonstration that signaled the onset of the current outrages in Venezuela.
Olga, the restaurant's manager, has tan skin, died blond hair and brown eyes. She is one of the 42% of Venezuelans who self-identified as white in the latest Census.[2] From behind the counter, she usually greets people without a smile. She barks orders to the Indigenous woman in the kitchen. Today she is laughing as she glances at a cartoon in one of Caracas' many virulently anti-government newspapers. I ask her if there are any interesting stories in the paper. She shrugs but the question unleashes a tirade about how she hates Chavismo.
ldquo;Why?" I try to sound neutral.
Olga explains that Chavismo has brought the "riff raff, brutes, thugs and criminals into the city." She is emphatic. "Caracas is now flooded with uncultured animals who make life miserable for civilized people." She concludes, "Afterall, look at the crime, the insecurity, the murders!" It's likely that Olga is one of the many Venezuelans influenced by cartoons like this one by Kiko Rodriguez. It is one of the more repulsive depictions of Chavez that not only expresses time-worn racist contempt for people of African descent, but it also foments fear and hatred.
The title is "Miko Mandante", meaning "Ape Commander" to mock the affectionate title "Mi Comandante" used by masses of Venezuelan people.[3]
During her rant, Olga never mentioned the race of Venezuela's poor, or the extreme poor, who in 2003 were 30% of the population and by 2011 were only 6.8%.[4] Chavismo's accomplishments, especially in reducing poverty, are significant because of the near total correlation between class and race in Venezuela. That is, nearly all the wealthy and bourgeois people are phenotypically European, while nearly all those in poverty who live in the countryside or shacks on the sides of hills in the city are Black and Brown. Demonization, animalization and criminalization of people of African and Indigenous descent are themes both deeply embedded and flagrantly visible in the culture and institutions of Venezuelan society. White supremacy endures in Venezuela often resembling the United States and other settler colonial countries founded on conquest and slavery. [5]
Revolution against Racism
While the roots of white supremacy run deep, the Bolivarian Revolution has seriously improved the lives of Venezuela's majority—who are people of color. [6] Unlike the days of Venezuela's dictatorships who served Standard Oil and the U.S. State Department, since 2001, voter registration is 97%. An array of legal tools—including Land Reform, a new Constitution written by a Constituent Assembly, the Organic Law Against Racial Discrimination—chip away at discrimination and promote mass participation in government, and in the various communes, councils, collectives and cooperatives. These are the structures of peoples' power—including some 30,000 communal councils[7]--designed to ensure that once-marginalized people become the protagonists of their futures and nurture their dignity.
A significant share of the country's patrimony, income from oil, is no longer siphoned off to the U.S. or to the old white Venezuelan elite. Between 1997 and 2011 the portion of Venezuela's wealth going to the richest 20% decreased from 53% to 44%[8]-- a statistic that indicates more about the elite's loss of power than impoverishment. At the end of 2013, the Guardian reported that the poverty rate had dropped by 20% , the largest decline in poverty in the Americas for 2012, and one of the largest in the world.[9] Oil revenues pay for new homes for the poor, schools where every primary student gets a free laptop, new universities with open admission, health clinics, and jobs. It also funds programs against domestic violence and transgenic seeds and a host of other campaigns for social justice.
Venezuela's oil money also has financed infrastructure designed to end the physical isolation and marginalization of African Descendants and Indigenous people. Set your search engine to "MetroCable San Agustín" to find photos and details of how Chavez' revolutionary government spent $300 million to build a futuristic funicular. It eliminates hours of climbing on foot up and down treacherous mountain sides to reach jobs, schools, health clinics and other vital destinations. For tens of thousands of shack dwellers of San Agustin—most of whom are African descendants– MetroCable and new housing construction on the hill demonstrate that the Bolivarian revolution will incorporate them.
"Chavismo's accomplishments, especially in reducing poverty, are significant because of the near total correlation between class and race in Venezuela."
Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's first President with African and Indigenous ancestors, spoke proudly about his thick lips and kinky hair. His refusal to follow the traditional path for Venezuela's "morenos" towards enblanquemiento[10] continues to evoke endless mockery and contempt from the white and white-influenced establishment. Rayma, a well-known cartoonist who is featured daily in El Universal, published on July 18, 2013, another cartoon designed to evoke the same contempt and hatred as the one by Kiko Rodriguez.
She too wins mass circulation and international prizes for her racist caricatures. The Cartoonists for Peace, Sampsonia Way, Humanitarian News and most significantly Freedom House have supported her. A visit to the Freedom House website informs the public that the organization has an annual budget of $46 million, some of which comes from the U.S. State Department. Its Board of Directors includes a number with close ties to the State Department, USAID, AIPAC, Morgan Stanley and other imperialist entities.[11]
In spite of the mockery, Chavez' embrace of Venezuelans' African and Indigenous heritage included more than symbolism. He practiced solidarity with Black and Brown people on a world scale by leading an anti-imperialist struggle for self-determination of Southern nations. He also provided material aid with no strings attached to Black and Indigenous people in the United States, Haiti and Columbia and many other countries. For example, in 2011, a joint Cuban-Venezuelan project saw the opening of the first high school in Western Sahara's refugee camps. More recently, Venezuela and Cuba extended Miracle Mission International to the West Bank, Palestine to provide free eye surgery.[12]
The Counter-Revolution—Four Dimensions of Racism
In Venezuela, the revolutionary struggle to end white supremacy and for self-determination is a slow slog, complicated by two forces: One, the white elites, backed by U.S. imperialism, and many of the middle class who support them, cling tenaciously to their power and privilege. Two, the denial by whites, "morenos"[13], and nearly everyone else that racism persists. As a result, galvanizing a mass movement against white supremacy has been difficult. On the other hand, the current counter-revolutionary movement in the streets has become the darling of the corporate press both inside and outside Venezuela. None of the coverage mentions that the racism pervading this movement could rival that found in the Ku Klux Klan or any other of the white supremacist formations that pepper U.S. history. Yet racism is one of the main engines and expression of the counter-revolution.
1. Destroying progress made by African Descendants and Indigenous People
The counter-revolutionary movement[14] that has been in the streets since early February has demonstrated that one of its main objectives is to restore unbridled white privilege to Venezuela. Cartoons, editorials, posters, graffiti continuously blame Venezuela's economic problems—both real and distorted—on the government's "squandering" the nation's oil resources on the "rabble" both inside and outside Venezuela. Roberto Weil published this cartoon in one of Caracas' major dailies, Tal Cual on March 8.
It not only falsely implies that masses of Venezuelans are starving. It also implies that the government prioritizes arming "criminals" on motorcycles and corrupt army officers over feeding people. It encapsulates the narrative of the counter-revolutionary forces in the battle for the minds of most Venezuelan people who currently reject their message. More importantly, it manufactures a "justification" for more decisive U.S. intervention.
Here's a photoshopped depiction retweeted with #SOSVenezuela that recycles the trope of incompetent animals in government positions who are manipulated by crafty (white) Cuban leaders out to steal Venezuela's wealth.
"Posters at right-wing demonstrations and photos of Black people in military uniform are retweeted thousands of times to arouse and manipulate fear of Black people, especially foreign (Cuban) Black people."
Repeatedly, the privately-owned anti-government media has reflected and reenforced disregard and contempt for Venezuela's Black and Brown people. For example, two years ago, the major daily, Tal Qual, ran a cartoon, again by Roberto Weil.
The man with the beret, presumably a Chavista, declares, "Enough of white supremacy, now we have Afrodescendant water." The cartoon ridicules and trivializes the campaign against white supremacy led by the Network of Afrodescendants in Venezuela and supported by the government. It also mocks and undermines public support for the government's program of bringing clean water to the barrios that previously had none.
Congressman Modesto Ruiz[15], an African Descendant, was one of the main authors of the Law against Racial Discrimination. He, as well as members of African Descendant civil society organizations and other officials urged that Weil and Tal Qual's publisher be charged in court with violating the law. Yet, to date, the newspaper continues with it's virulent anti-government drumbeat and Weil proceeds as one of Venezuela's most widely reproduced cartoonists. His twitter account claims 155,000 followers and floods the twitter sphere with militant support for Maria Corina Machado (a right-wing extremist leader reminiscent of Sarah Palin) and the rest of the extremists promoting anti-government lies, racism and violence.[16]
2. Anti-communism, Xenophobia and Racism in an anti-Cuban Stew
Graffiti, the twitter sphere, television and print media perpetuate a concoction of racist, anti-communist and xenophobic lies that Black Cubans have invaded Venezuela to consolidate Raul Castro's control over the Venezuelan government and economy. Posters at right-wing demonstrations and photos of Black people in military uniform are retweeted thousands of times to arouse and manipulate fear of Black people, especially foreign (Cuban) Black people. On March 16, 2014, a woman named Alexandra Misel tweeted this photo with the caption, "Are these pure Afrodescendants from Barlovento (region of Venezuela with high concentration of African Descendants) or are they from Havana?"
The next day, March 17, she tweeted the same photo, but with a new, more alarmist caption, "Invading troops dressed like National Guard."
Then, on March 23 a tweeter with the name "Alexgonzalezlu" pasted Misel's photo to another one that manipulates white people's fear of Black (Cuban) people attacking "our white youth." This image is reminiscent of the notorious trope of the white damsel in distress, threatened with rape by a Black man.
For centuries, fear of Black men as rapists and Black people as killers has been stoked time and time again to rationalize lynching, racist repression and other genocidal campaigns.
Photos of mock lynchings by anti-government thugs follow in this horribly familiar white supremacist tradition. They were taken in the heart of the wealthy Chacao municipality of Caracas and posted March 5, 2014 by News24.com
"They manipulate fear by raising the specter of the Black Cuban invaders."
Maria Corina Machado fans these flames by repeating the lament that Venezuelans have lost their dignity to the "Cuban occupation." They must be expelled.
It is also important to note that white supremacist attempts to motivate and mobilize the overthrow of a legal government are far from consistent. They manipulate fear by raising the specter of the Black Cuban invaders. But if that trope isn't enough, they also call on the traditional slave masters' narrative of the "lazy" Black man, who is "good for nothing and might as well be dead." On March 16, the caption on this unidentified photo was tweeted by politicon@politicono
It claimed, "The main activity of Cubans in their towns is hanging out."
From the comments under these tweets, it is obvious that these Venezuelan white supremacists have no way of distinguishing an African descendant who is Cuban from one who is Venezuelan. Although they sometimes claim their violent, possibly genocidal intentions, are aimed at Cubans, their practice of decapitating motorcyclists and shooting their Bolivarian "enemies" indicates that the same racism that fuels anti-Cuban threats is also harnessed to galvanize their fascist putchist terror campaign against Chavistas.
3. Criminalizing African Descendants, Indigenous People and their Organizations
White peoples' criminalization and fear of Black and Brown people date back to the first rebellions by Indigenous and enslaved people in the 1500's. For the last decades, African Descendants and Indigenous people have been invisible to the viewers of privately-owned TV stations, except when they appear as servants or criminals. The Bolivarian government disbanded local police forces that used to racially profile, murder and harass African Descendants. Yet a struggle against some racial profiling continues, including that which is a product of endo-racism among African Descendants. The Bolivarian government has also taken steps to reform prisons and establish alternatives to incarceration and mobilize local communities to prevent crime.[17] However, from the echo chamber of Venezuela's privately-owned media and the U.S. corporate press, we hear that fear of crime and the government's "inaction" in the face of crime motivates thousands of people to demand that Maduro resign. Given the virulence of racism in Venezuela, it is likely that many people, especially middle class whites, will continue to link crime (and laziness) with Blackness. The prolific alexgonzalezlu, tweeted this photo on March 11 to dramatize the man's supposed criminality and laziness.
In addition, today's counter-revolutionary narrative manipulates racist white and middle class fear by directing it against the "colectivos". They claim that Chavista grassroots collectives—the organizations that provide a space and structure for previously marginalized people to lead and participate in political education, cultural work and sports—are actually paramilitary arms of the "Maduro Dictatorship." This racist myth accomplishes two counter-revolutionary objectives. First, it undermines a revolutionary institution, the communal council, that, for the first time, gives people of color a voice in politics and how resources will be spent. The second counter-revolutionary objective inverts reality. It blames the "colectivos" for intimidation and violence, rather than the middle class youth who build and maintain barricades, vandalize public property and universities and kill those who try to cross or dismantle barricades.[18]
4. Distortion and Glorification of Gochismo
During the 1930's, when white Venezuelan intellectuals promoted a white supremacist ideology that led to exclusion of all but European immigrants, they pointed to the Andes and Mérida as "The grand reservoir of the white race for the Republic." [19] For some, Gocho identity as hard-working mountaineers emerged in direct contrast to the perceived laziness of coastal slaves and their pride was never fully separate from caste superiority. In the 20th century, seven of Venezuela's presidents (including dictators) came from the Gocho region.[20] The epitome of these white supremacist presidents was nicknamed "El Gocho". He was Carlos Andres Pérez who imposed the 1989 neo-liberal program that forced 70% of Venezuelans into poverty and the subsequent insurrection that eventually brought Chavez to power.
To clarify: all residents of the Andean states of Mérida and Tachira are sometimes referred to as Gochos. However, the counter-revolutionary Gochos are concentrated in the cities of San Cristobal and Mérida while rural residents form the majority of the states' voters and have elected Chavista governors.
"The Bolivarian government disbanded local police forces that used to racially profile, murder and harass African Descendants."
Yet images of macho white people, outfitted with makeshift rifles, pistols, Molotov cocktails, slingshots and other military equipment fill the screens of thousands of tweeters. The captions brag. For example, under a photo of a muscular, military-styled white man wearing pants from a uniform and a white t-shirt and holding an automatic rifle, the caption reads, "Get back, I am Gocho" (#S.O.S.Venezuela@Alexgonzalezlu, Feb 23) Others feature flaming bulky barricades with captions like, "Caracas copying the Gocho model."And "Release the Gocho inside you."
Ciccariello implies that the superiority complex of the mythic Gochos fuels the putchist actions we see today at the barricades in Mérida and Tachira. It is also likely that right-wing extremists like Maria Corina Machado have hyped the violent courage of the Gochos for their own political purposes. At rallies and press conferences, she never fails to associate herself with the heroism of the Gochos of San Cristobal and Merida—the first barricaders and most persistently violent of the counter-revolutionary movement. Her poster features her wearing a signature white t-shirt claiming "we are all Tachira". It labels her, "The Lady of Iron"—the woman who aims to overthrow the government and expel all Cubans from Venezuela so that real (white) Venezuelans may recover their dignity.[21]
Solidarity with African Descendants, Indigenous People and the Bolivarian Revolution
One resident of the working class zone of El Valle in southern Caracas told Ciccariello that those who burn barricades live "in the tall apartment blocks that line the main avenue and think they are better than the barrio." They act with total disregard for the lives of poor and working class Black and Brown people by charging tolls at barricades, making it impossible for people to travel to work, school, hospital and by destroying public facilities that poor people rely on.
So far, the vast majority of Venezuelan people—especially African Descendants and Indigenous people, have rejected both the politics and strategy of the counter-revolutionary movement. It is not just that the anti-government forces are "out of touch". They do not hide their racist agenda. A Bloomberg News article reported a bus driver's observation, "It's rich people trying to get back lost economic perks. The slums won't join them."[22]
But lack of popular support has never stopped the United States from intervening on the side of cooperative right-wing elites and white supremacists. The prevailing mass deception perpetrated by corporate media both here and in Venezuela has been much too effective. In the U.S., they have largely succeeded in putting a democratic face on the racist, essentially fascist, movement in the streets of Venezuela. Traditionally anti-racist coalitions have ignored Venezuela. It is time we stand in solidarity with the majority of people in Venezuela and voice strong opposition to U.S. –sponsored coups or any intervention on the side of the counter-revolution.
Thanks to Nelmir Guzman.
[1] This is a call for the current President to leave or resign. The anti-government media and counter-revolutionaries frequently mock President Maduro's supposed lack of education and refer to him as a donkey.
[2] http://www.ine.gov.ve/CENSO2011/documentos/pdf/ResultadosBasicosCenso2011.pdf The Census found that 3.5% of the country's 27,227,930 people self-identified as Black or Afrodescendant; 2.7% as Indigenous and 49.9% as "Moreno". On the other hand, Professor Jesus Chucho Garcia, a founding leader of Venezuela's movement of Afrodescendants and former Ambassador to Angola insists that at least 30% or 8 million people are Afrodescendants and the number may reach as high as 60%.
[3] The cartoonist, Kiko Rodriguez, left his birthplace in Cuba for Ecuador in 2000. He won the First Annual Latin American Illustration Competition with this cartoon, which was widely circulated in the private press of Venezuela and other countries. This award is a step towards lucrative acceptance into the New York Art World. http://www.ai-ap.com/cfe/faq/
[4] Data on reduction in poverty rates, unemployment, infant mortality and inequality and increase in education, access to clean water is summarized by Derek Ide in http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/radical-resistance-propagating-...
[5] Here's a sample of research on white supremacy and racism in Venezuela. Jesús María Herrera Salas. "The Political Economy of Racism in Venezuela" Latin American Perspectives. Vol 32. No. 2(March 2005) pp. 72-91 For a detailed discussion of how the foreign oil corporations, especially Standard Oil, manipulated and exacerbated racism in Venezuela beginning in 1918, see Miguel Tinker Salas. The Enduring Legacy: Oil Culture and Society in Venezuela. 2009. Durham: Duke University Press. 2009. Beatriz Aiffil, anthropology professor and spokesperson for African Descendants discussed the racism of the fascist right in Venezuela before the current upheavals. See http://www.noticierodigital.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=965608 Also, feminist scholars have written about endo-racism among Venezuelan women. See Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols. "Descent Girls with Good Hair: Beauty, Morality and Race in Venezuela." Feminist Theory. Vol.14 #2 (Aug. 2013) pp. 171-185. And Lauren Gulbas. "Embodying Racism: Race, Rhinoplasty and Self Esteem in Venezuela." Journal of Qualitative Health Research. Vol. 23 #3 (March 2013) pp. 326-335
[6] . See, for example, http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7513 for a statistical overview of the economy and http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10092 on accomplishments of the health care system;
[7] http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5971
[8] Derek Ide. http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/radical-resistance-propagating-imperialism-latinoa-student-organizations-and-venezuela
[9] . Mark Weisbrot. "Sorry Venezuela Haters: This Economy is not the Greece of Latin America" http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10155 See also, http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10221 for details on reduction of extreme poverty.
[10] The process of whitening the Venezuelan race.
[11] For years, Rayma has received support from pro-US organizations who are convinced that the "Chavez Dictatorship threatens her life." Yet, she endures, thrives and continues to publish viciously racist cartoons. http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2012/venezuela#.UzOxiK1dX9I. For Amnesty International's support of Rayma, go to http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR53/003/2013/en/5b4f4b82-4835-41b4-a48a-c30e5ec5d9e8/amr530032013en.html
[12] http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10257
[13] . Literally, brown or dark-skinned people—a category that makes African descendants, Indigenous people and their descendants invisible. Everyone is a "mestizo", according to Venezuela's hegemonic narrative and assumed equal as long as they accept European standards of beauty, behavior and value.
[14] . Author's note: After reading VA's article by James Petras and the interview with Raul Capote, I have decided not to use the term "opposition" to identify the forces attempting an illegal coup to oust the Maduro government and overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution. It grants them too much legitimacy.
[15] For an interview with Modesto Ruiz about the racism of this cartoon, see "African Descendants and Racism in Venezuelan Private Media" initially published in Ciudad Caracas, March 28, 2012 and translated by Tamara Pearson in http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6897
[16] https://twitter.com/WEIL_caricatura Weil's racist attacks have made him famous. He worked with US Embassy in Caracas to memorialize Daniel Pearl http://usembassyve.org/?d=6205.
[17] From author's interview with Amilcar Carvagal, Director of the Office for Culture and Solidarity, BRV Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs. Feb 5, 2014.
[18] Clodovaldo Hernandez. "Colectivos are Synonymous with Organization, Not Violence". March 18,2014, translated and reprinted by Venezuela Analysis at http://venezuelanalysis.com/print/10499
[19] Miguel Tinker Salas p. 2725 of 6242 in Kindle Edition.
[20] George Ciccariello-Maher. "Venezuelan Jacobins" 3/14/2014. http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10482
[21] . Maria Corina Machado is a daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Venezuela. She was involved in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez and received money from the National Endowment for Democracy to run an anti-Chavez petition campaign. She was elected to the National Assembly in 2010 and on March 25, 2014, the Assembly voted to strip her of her immunity. Her arrest appears imminent. There are many recordings of her speeches that encourage violence to force the resignation of Maduro and she violated official government policy in her speech at the recent OAS meeting.
[22] Anatoly Kurmanaev and Corina Pons. "Middle Class Protesting Venezuela Shortages Drive Poor to Maduro." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-13/middle-class-protesting-venezuela-shortages-drive-poor-to-maduro.html
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It's Amazing How...
...no matter where you go in the world racism remains the same and it's almost always directed at black people with the most intensity. If reading and seeing stories like this here and elsewhere doesn't convince blacks around the world to unify, I don't know what will. Thank you, Arlene Eisen, for writing this article.
The Cliven Bundy Story...
...and the whole macho cowboy culture is similar to what the Gocho Mountain culture and that of the Boers/Afrikaners in S. Africa. and many other countries that whites have colonized. The whole sense of entitlement and the indignation that the government is oppressing hard working white people on behalf of lazy blacks.


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
IT Infrastructure: IBM Power7 Systems Celebrate Two-Year Milestone
In February, IBM celebrated the two-year anniversary of its Power7 processor-based systems. IBM launched the systems on Feb. 8, 2010, and since then Power Systems have captured the Unix server market and competitive take-outs of Hewlett-Packard and Oracle systems have steadily increased, with more than 2,000 competitive displacements in the past two years, according to IBM. During IBM's recent fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call, CFO Mark Loughridge pointed out that the competitive displacements in 2011 generated more than $1 billion of business for Big Blue. IBM designed the Power7 systems to manage the most demanding emerging applications, ranging from smart electrical grids to real-time analytics for financial markets. The systems incorporate a number of industry-unique technologies for the specialized demands of new applications and services that rely on processing an enormous number of concurrent transactions and data while analyzing that information in real time. When compared with the previous-generation Power6 systems, Power7 systems can offer strong return on investment through dramatic improvements in price, performance, energy savings and virtualization for server consolidation. The Power7 systems can deliver four times the performance and four times the virtualization capability for the same priceand these systems are three to four times more energy-efficient.


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Volcker what? JPMorgan mints $300 million trading Swiss francs by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine January 29, 2015, 11:54 AM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons JPMorgan is also finding its way around the Volcker Rule. Earlier this month, traders at the nation's biggest bank made $300 million in one day, following news that the Swiss central bank was taking its cap off the franc. That caused the currency to soar, and JPMorgan JPM traders took the move, literally, to the bank. If you have been following financial regulation since the financial crisis—and who hasn't—or even just read the headlines, this might seem odd. One of the concerns after the financial crisis was that banks were taking too much risk, particularly with government-backed consumer deposits. So, as part of the Dodd-Frank reform law, Congress passed the Volcker Rule, which bans banks from engaging in risky trading. Presumably, this rule would make big paydays like a $300 million gain on a 30% move in the franc not possible. It was clear from the start that the Volcker Rule had some very large loopholes. But recently, banks are finding their way around Volcker in some unexpected ways. Last week, The New York Times reported that Goldman Sachs was "on a shopping spree with its own money," buying up mostly commercial real estate but also pieces of some private equity-type investments. But it wasn't an official private equity fund, so it's okay. There's trading, and then there's trading. The Volcker Rule was not supposed to stop banks from executing client transactions, which is trading, but supposedly the good, not so risky, kind. But allowing that kind of trading and not the other risky, bad kind was always the big problem with the Volcker Rule. Nearly every bank has announced that they are shutting down their proprietary trading desks, which might give you the impression that the Volcker Rule is working. But JPMorgan made $2.5 billion in fixed income revenue in the last three months of 2014 alone, which seems like an awful lot of money from just doing good, risk-less trading. JPMorgan could claim that they made the $300 million from collecting commissions on client trades. Matt Levine of Bloomberg ran the math and says it's possible, but unlikely. But that doesn't explain what happened to Citigroup C , Deutsche Bank, and Barclays. Those banks lost a total of about $400 million on moves related to the Swiss franc. Clearly, that bank was risking some money in the market. None of this likely breaks the Volcker Rule, at least not directly. The rule has a loophole that allows banks to trade currencies, but only in the spot market, which is day-to-day trading. Banks are not allowed to buy futures contracts, which involve more leverage, and typically more risk. But banks still have to make money, and they typically want to make as much as they can. So they are taking much large positions in seemingly safer markets, and trades. Given that JPMorgan made $300 million, it likely had about $1 billion riding on a rising Swiss franc. Citigroup had more betting the opposite way. According to Citi's last quarterly statement, it believed the most it was likely to lose based on its position on any one day in the currency market was $32 million. JPMorgan put its currency trading risk at just $8 million a day. But as a few weeks ago showed, these currency markets weren't as safe as they seemed. The result was a bigger than expected loss for Citi, Barclays, and Deutsche—and the opposite for JPMorgan. The Volcker Rule has limited the amount of risk banks can take, but it hasn't eliminated it. It's not clear the banks know that. Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly noted that Citigroup had lost $400 million on trading activities related to the Swiss franc. In fact, those losses were incurred by a Citigroup, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank.
JPMorgan's Dimon gets his bonus again by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine January 22, 2015, 5:47 PM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons (REUTERS) – JPMorgan Chase & Co's Jamie Dimon's compensation in 2014 stayed unchanged at $20 million, but the chief executive officer got a cash bonus, something he was not awarded in 2013. Dimon's compensation in 2014 comprised a base salary of $1.5 million, $11.1 million in restricted stock and a $7.4 million cash incentive bonus, the company said in a regulatory filing. His package in 2013 was composed of a base salary of $1.5 million and $18.5 million in restricted stock units. JPMorgan is the biggest U.S. bank, with $2.6 trillion in assets. Dimon, 58, is the most outspoken of big bank CEOsand has recently bristled at public criticism that JPMorgan is too big and complex to manage safely and efficiently. JPMorgan did not explain its rationale for the compensation decisions. The board is expected to provide an explanation in a proxy statement to be filed ahead of the company's annual meeting in May. Two year ago, Dimon's pay was cut in half to $11.5 million for 2012, which was the year JPMorgan traders handling company accounts lost $6.25 billion in the so-called "London Whale" derivatives transactions. Previously, Dimon had received $23 million for each of 2011 and 2010. Dimon was treated for throat cancer in the latter half of 2014. JPMorgan JPM said on Thursday that the base salaries also remained unchanged at $750,000 for other operating committee members, except Daniel Pinto, the London-based chief of corporate and investment banking. Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake and asset management chief Mary Erdoes got an increase in total compensation, while compensation was kept unchanged for other operating committee members. The bonuses for Dimon and all operating committee members, except Pinto, was composed of 60 percent restricted stock and 40 percent cash.
Davos and tons of tech — five things to watch for in the week ahead by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine January 18, 2015, 5:55 PM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons Hello friends and Fortune readers. This was a busy week with earnings beginning to pour in, including from some of the biggest banks. JPMorgan JPM , Wells Fargo WFCNP , Bank of America BOFA and Citigroup C , all reported. It was also the kick off to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The four-day work week ahead is even more packed (happy Martin Luther King Day on Monday!). A slew of earnings are scheduled from tech companies you've probably heard of, along with Starbucks and McDonald's. The World Economic Forum in Davos also gets going with its usual mix of glitz and worry over various global crisis. Here's what you need to know for your week ahead. 1. Greetings from Davos! Check Fortune.com regularly to get smart takes from Fortune's Stephen Gandel and Editor Alan Murray, who will be reporting from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The event will start Wednesday and run through Saturday. You can count on heads of state, global financial leaders and tech moguls to be out in full force. In theory, the gathering is for improving the world through public-private cooperation. In practice, it's a big business mixer. 2. Some big name tech companies report earnings A number of tech companies report earnings this week. Starting things off Tuesday is Netflix NFLX and IBM IBM . Next up Wednesday afternoon is eBay EBAY . Verizon VZ carries the flag for telecom companies on Thursday. 3. The latest from Windows It may not generate quite the same fanfare as Apple's AAPL huge events, but Microsoft MSFT will get some headlines Wednesday when it unveils its latest about the Windows 10 operating system. Xbox's chief Phil Spencer will be speaking, so you can also expect some gaming news to come out of the presentation. Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore, two Windows Operating Systems Group execs, will also be there. 4. Top food companies will also be reporting Starbucks SBUX and McDonald's MCD , two of the most prominent U.S. restaurant companies, will put out their earnings this week. Starbucks will report first on Thursday evening. Meanwhile, McDonald's will take center stage Friday morning. 5. Can't forget about oil This will be an important week for oil company watchers, who have a number earnings to look for amid sinking crude prices. On Tuesday, look out for oil services firms Baker Hughes BHI and Halliburton HAL . Energy companies have been forced to slash jobs and stop drilling. It will also be an opportunity to see how companies that are closely tied to oil prices like Delta Air Lines DAL are doing with the vastly lower fuel prices. Delta's earnings will be Tuesday morning.
Jamie Dimon calls regulation un-American, once again by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine January 14, 2015, 12:54 PM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon still thinks the way banks are treated these days is un-American. On a conference call on Wednesday morning in which the bank reported that last year it had earned $22 billion, or roughly 240,000 times what's in the average American's retirement account, Jamie Dimon said that JPMorgan JPM was "under assault," and questioned whether the increased scrutiny by regulators of banks since the financial crisis has gone too far. "In the old days, you dealt with one regulator. Now it's five or six," Dimon said, referring to instances when multiple regulators have sought to punish JPMorgan for the same issue. "You all should ask the question, how American that is." It's not the first time Dimon has questioned the American as apple pie-ness of banking regulation. In 2011, Dimon called an earlier version of capital rules contemplated by international bank regulators in Switzerland un-American. "I'm very close to thinking the United States shouldn't be in Basel any more. I would not have agreed to rules that are blatantly anti-American," Dimon told the Financial Times at the time. "Our regulators should go there and say, 'If it's not in the interests of the United States, we're not doing it.'" Back then, Dimon seemed to be arguing that his bank had come through the financial crisis better than others. So, why should it be penalized? Dimon's Wednesday comments came in response to a question about a new proposal from the Federal Reserve that would require JPMorgan, the biggest bank in America, to hold more capital in reserve to protect against losses, even compared to its other mega-bank rivals. The Fed has said the new proposal adjusts capital rules to account for the fact that risks at some banks are more complex than others, and maybe harder to detect. But Dimon effectively said the proposal shows that regulators still don't get his bank. "It's just because we're big," said Dimon. But regulators aren't the only ones questioning JPMorgan's size. Last week, rival Goldman Sachs released a report that said JPMorgan should be broken up. When asked by Fortune on Wednesday's call whether he thought Goldman should be broken up, Dimon laughed and then offered, "No comment." Like he has in the past, Dimon defended JPMorgan's size. He said it makes the bank more diverse and safer, not the opposite. He also noted that many of the aspects of JPMorgan that have raised concern among regulators, like the bank's $300 billion portfolio of so-called available for sale securities, make it safer, not riskier or more complex. "Our AFS portfolio adds to liquidity," said Dimon. The bank's size also seems to attract the attention of more regulators, something that Dimon thinks is unfair. But it has been a very long time since a big bank like JPMorgan would have had to deal with only one federal regulator, long before Dimon's career began. According to bank historian John Gordan Steele, the Federal Reserve got its mandate to oversee the nation's largest banks in 1913 (the same year that the actual J.P. Morgan died), making it the second federal regulator besides the Comptroller of the Currency. Banks also had to answer to state regulators. Regulation doesn't seem to be holding JPMorgan back that much. The bank reported a nearly $1 billion charge in the last three months of 2014 for increased legal expenses. But even with that, JPMorgan said that its per-share profit in 2014 was the highest in its history. Recently, Bloomberg reported that Jamie Dimon was a key player in an industry-wide effort to roll back a provision of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that would have required banks to split their derivative trading units from the rest of the bank. JPMorgan would have been among the banks most affected by the rule, which has been dropped.
Earnings season and another Keystone vote – 5 things to watch for this week by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine January 11, 2015, 5:31 PM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons Hello friends and Fortune readers. Earnings season officially kicks off this week with a slew of banks reporting along with a couple of tech companies trickling in between. In politics, the Senate will vote again on the contentious Keystone XL Pipeline bill, which President Obama has promised to veto. Here's what you need to know for your week ahead. 1. Let the earnings season begin It's that time of the year! Companies begin reporting their earnings this week for the year-end quarter including banking powerhouses JPMorgan Chase JPM on Wednesday, Bank of America BOFA and Citigroup C on Thursday and Goldman Sachs GS on Friday. In other industries, look out for Alcoa AA to report Monday, followed by Intel INTC and BlackRock BLK Thursday afternoon. 2. Another week, another Keystone vote. Following the House of Representatives' approval of the Keystone Pipeline bill on Friday, the Senate plans to take up the issue this week, and is almost certain to vote in favor. The project would bring as many as 800,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. But despite the Congressional support, the White House says it will veto any bill. For an explainer on the saga, see Fortune's recent article. 3. The North American International Auto Show All eyes will be on Detroit early this week for the 2015 North American International Auto Show. The event kicks off with a few days of press previews and include the unveiling of around 40 new car models, according to the Detroit Free Press. "If you are not having fun in this auto industry you apparently are not breathing," Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales, told the newspaper. 4. Expect a ton of data announcements, too The week is also jam-packed with a number of economic and consumer data reports. On Tuesday, check out the NFIB Small Business Survey, which measures a number of metrics around entrepreneurship including the level of optimism among small business owners. On Thursday, the Commerce Department will release the latest monthly retail sales figures. On Thursday, look for weekly jobless claims along with the NAHB Housing Market Index. Finally, on Friday, there's consumer data, including the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey. Check Fortune.com daily for reporting on the various reports. 5. The JPMorgan Healthcare Conference JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, the Super Bowl of biotech and healthcare conference, opens in San Francisco on Monday. It's the health industry's largest event of the year, with over 400 companies presenting. An expected 9,000 attendees will be at the 33rd annual event. You can catch webcasts for some of the sessions after registering.
Goldman Sachs says JPMorgan Chase should be broken up by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine January 5, 2015, 2:04 PM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons Goldman Sachs to JPMorgan Chase: Time to break up. Goldman says that JPMorgan JPM would be worth as much as 25% more if it were split into different pieces. Goldman advocates a "complete breakup" of the nation's largest bank, and says the boost in returns from a split would far out weigh the synergies that JPMorgan claims it gets from its current size. In a report released on Monday, Goldman's lead banking analyst said that JPMorgan could be broken up into four parts. The biggest of the pieces would include the bank's branch network, which Goldman says could be worth over $100 billion on its own. JPMorgan's investment bank would be nearly as large, followed by its commercial bank and an asset management company. Goldman says that even splitting JPMorgan in two—dividing the investment bank from the traditional bank, returning the company roughly to what was allowed before the Glass Steagall Act was repealed in the early 2000s—would boost the overall value of the current bank by 16%. "Our analysis indicates that even accounting for lost synergies, a JPM breakup would be accretive to shareholders in most scenarios," wrote Goldman analyst Richard Ramsden in the report. Banking reform advocates have long called for the nation's biggest banks to be broken up. The so-called too big to fail problem has received plenty of attention since the financial crisis. Many believe the government in late 2008 was essentially forced to bail out the nation's banks in order to avoid a deeper recession. Some think new regulations have addressed the too big to fail problem. Others, including some prominent bankers, think big bank break ups would make sense. Sandy Weill, who was the CEO of Citigroup when it became the first of the nation's modern mega-banks, now says he believes breaking up the large banks makes sense. But this is the first time Goldman has called for a bank bust up. Ramsden says the new capital requirements for big banks proposed by the Federal Reserve in early December make now a good time to consider such a split. Under the proposed Fed rule, JPMorgan, because of its size, would be required have enough capital to cover 11.5% of its riskiest assets. That could be as much as 2 percentage points more than even its closest rivals, like Bank of America BAC , Wells Fargo WFC , Citigroup C , or even Goldman GS . What's more, Ramsden says a break up makes more sense for JPMorgan because, unlike some of its rivals, its individual businesses are strong enough to stand on their own. The bank is partly a victim of its own success, he says. JPMorgan declined to comment on the report. The bank's shares rose just 7% in 2014, half as much as BofA's shares and significantly trailing the performance of Well Fargo's stock, which was up more than 20%. In the past, JPMorgan has said that it brings in as much as $15 billion in revenue because it is able to cross-sell its services among its divisions. But Ramsden contends that most of those synergies aren't real. As much as half of JPMorgan's "disclosed revenue synergies" are within the investment bank or the commercial bank, and not really across divisions, he says. Ramsden admits that breaking up JPMorgan comes with its own set of operational risks. Estimates of what companies would be hypothetically worth if they were broken up often yield higher figures than what a company currently trades for in the real market. Goldman, for instance, ranks as the fifth largest bank in the nation by assets, with $868 billion. (JPMorgan had just over $2.5 trillion in assets at the end of the third quarter of 2014, making it No. 1.) So, here's my proposal: Break up Goldman into three divisions: investment banking, private equity, and asset management. Do that, and, based on my back-of-the-envelope math, and using Ramsden's model, Goldman would be worth at least $100 billion, or nearly 18% more than what its shares are trading at today. And that's before any benefit Goldman gets from the fact that its divisions would be smaller and therefore required to hold less capital by the Fed. It's time to break up Goldman Sachs!
JPMorgan faces criminal probe into its foreign-exchange trading business by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine November 3, 2014, 7:24 PM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons JPMorgan Chase is facing a criminal probe by the Justice Department into its foreign exchange trading business, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. The bank said that U.S. financial regulators including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are conducting civil investigations. European regulators are also conducting an inquiry. JPMorgan is one of several large banks currently in settlement talks with regulators over alleged rigging of the global currency market. The bank said in its filing that the inquiry is focused on its spot currency exchange trading activities and the internal controls related to them. The bank says it is cooperating with the assorted investigations and is in talks with the DOJ and other regulators, though JPMorgan noted that "there is no assurance that such discussions will result in settlements." The banking giant also said that it now estimates its "reasonably possible losses" from legal matters could amount to as much as $5.9 billion, up from the bank's previous estimate of $4.6 billion. JPMorgan's filing came on the same day that HSBC HSBC set aside $1.6 billion for legal costs, some of which is earmarked for an ongoing investigation into that bank's foreign exchange trading business by U.K. regulators. Last week, Citigroup C — another bank in settlement talks with regulators — slashed its previously-reported third-quarter profits in order to factor in an additional $600 million in legal costs. JPMorgan's shares JPM were down about 0.8% in after-hours trading following Monday's announcement.
How we can prevent another financial derivatives disaster by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine October 20, 2014, 5:06 AM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons In September, one of the top hospitals in Texas (ranked 15 out of 620 by U.S. News and World Report) sent home a Liberian patient with a 103-degree temperature without even considering the Ebola virus. Despite 38 years of knowledge about the virus and its risks, U.S. hospitals and the CDC are unprepared for the real-world consequences of an Ebola crisis on national soil. What is the possibility that now, six years after the financial crisis, banks and regulators will be able to stop the next financial contagion in its tracks? The short answer: slim to none. But that doesn't mean we should give up. In August, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC rejected 11 megabanks' living wills—plans that were supposed to outline the actions each bank would take in the event of financial distress or insolvency. Regulators want banks to have living wills to avoid the kind of downward spiral and economic distress that occurred in 2008 and to ensure taxpayers don't pick up the tab for bank failures next time around. As part of its rebuke of the living will submissions, the Federal Reserve and FDIC asked banks to address the way in which financial contracts (i.e. derivatives) would be unwound when a bank became insolvent. On October 11, 18 global banks responded, addressing cross border contracts with an agreement that will become effective January 1, 2015. Rather than immediately rush in to close out financial contracts with a bank going under (which accelerated Lehman Brothers' downfall), non-U.S. banks that have signed on will give participating U.S. banks undergoing orderly liquidation until the next business day at 5 p.m. eastern to be deemed creditworthy before they rush in ahead of other creditors to close out their contracts. This time period mirrors the orderly liquidation timeframe in Title II of Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. The U.S. banks covered include the biggest derivatives holders, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley. The Federal Reserve and FDIC welcomed the October 11 announcement, but noted that they "look forward to the continuation of this important work." And there is much more to do. The agreement does not yet address U.S. regulators' requests to handle bankruptcy cases. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, ISDA, says U.S. regulators will have to make regulatory changes before that happens. The agreement announced is a minor improvement, Bart Naylor, financial policy advocate at Public Citizen, told me. Naylor is concerned about the speculative use of financial contracts by the banks and the privileged rights that they still enjoy. In that sense, a bank is like "a gambling addict who plays the ponies [and] is in debt to all his family and neighbors to cover old bets. He dies. The mobsters to whom he still owes for losing bets come into his house and take enough jewelry and furniture to cover those losses. His family and neighbors can take the rest, but there's unlikely to be enough to cover their loans." Will the agreed upon grace period be that useful? Can banks, even with adequate plans, possibly have a chance of being deemed creditworthy by the next business day? The history of Lehman shows the difficulties, Naylor says. A recent New York Times report describes that when the New York Fed was debating what to do about the investment bank, some at the regulator thought Lehman was solvent but other bankers "could not decide." Valuing the assets of a complex bank is not an overnight affair. In the same way that most people don't fully grasp the extent and severity of income inequality in the U.S., many people also don't understand the sheer size of U.S. bank derivatives holdings and the concentration of those contracts among just a few firms. According to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, "four large commercial banks represent 93% of the total banking industry notional amounts" (i.e. the face amounts used to calculate the payments on derivatives) — "and 86.3% of industry NCCE" (net current credit exposure). Those four banks are JPMorgan JPM , Citigroup C , Goldman Sachs GS , and Bank of America BAC . The report shows that JPMorgan's holding company, with (just) $2.5 trillion in assets, has over $68 trillion in notional derivatives. Existing rules authorize federal regulators to address bank practices that threaten financial stability. But will regulators act? Consider the recent revelations about the firing of New York Fed bank examiner Carmen Segarra after she tried to hold Goldman Sachs accountable for weaknesses in its conflict of interest policies following the financial crisis. "Regulators are captured, they are bullied by members of Congress who hear from bank lobbyists, and these members don't hear much from their constituents about the dangers because this area is too complex, not urgent/immediate," Naylor told me in an email. "So [this October 11 agreement] is what a few good regulators could negotiate in this dynamic." In math, derivatives help us determine the slope of a line. Right now, banks' use of derivatives and AWOL living wills leave us on a slippery slope with far too little being done too slowly. Weak rules and useless living wills could affect more U.S. lives than Ebola ever will. We will only harm ourselves by remaining complacent and keeping silent. Eleanor Bloxham is CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance, an independent board education and advisory firm she founded in 1999. She has been a regular contributor to Fortune since April 2010 and has advised analysts, regulators, shareholders, and banks of every size on the economics of financial services.
Has Goldman Sachs run out of moves? by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine October 6, 2014, 5:11 AM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons Goldman Sachs enjoys a mystique rivaling the élan of the New York Yankees. It's the classiest name in the financial leagues; a sterling organization that may disappoint now and then, but whose heavy hitters you shouldn't bet against; and the ultimate improviser in finding fresh ways to make money. Right now, the fabled 145-year old investment bank is leading the news on Wall Street. For good or ill, Goldman GS remains an object of intense fascination. It's getting pounded in the press over a whistleblower's charges that it received special treatment from regulators at the New York Fed. According to a story on the public interest website ProPublica, Fed officials were so intimidated by the Goldman brass that they failed to block transactions that were as suspicious as they were lucrative—allegations Goldman vehemently denies. At the same time, Goldman recently confirmed its stature by overseeing early trading for Alibaba's BABA historic IPO. But how good, really, is Goldman Sachs? An analysis of its recent performance reveals that, for the present at least, Goldman is nowhere near the champion of old. Its record ranks somewhere between pretty good and mediocre. Its businesses, and the environment in which it operates, have shifted dramatically, and not in Goldman's favor. The kind of adventurous investments that once swelled its earnings are now off-limits. "In contrast to the past, they're being extremely conservative in the way they're managing, and it will take a couple of years to see how they adapt to the new environment," says Keith Davis, a portfolio manager with Farr, Miller & Washington, which holds $20 million in Goldman shares. The fear is that Goldman has run out of moves. Goldman's path forward is restricted by two barriers. First, its main franchise is now trading, a business that, for the time being, isn't terribly profitable. The dominance of trading—making markets in stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies—represents a sharp break with the past. In 2000, 60% of its sales came from advising on mergers and acquisitions, raising money for corporations, and asset management. In 2013, those high-margin businesses accounted for just 37% of Goldman's $34 billion in revenues. So the mix is now tilted toward a field that's depressed, where a long-awaited rebound just isn't happening. Second, Goldman has traditionally generated big profits from "principal investments," using its own capital to trade in and out of stocks, take ownership positions in companies, and invest in private equity and hedge funds. The Volcker Rule, a pillar of the Dodd-Frank banking reform legislation, bans proprietary trading and severely restricts the investments banks can make. This formerly lucrative channel is now mostly closed to Goldman. As a result, Goldman's profitability has suffered. From 2005 to 2007, Goldman delivered a spectacular return on equity of, on average, 28.4%. Since then, the bank has enjoyed just one excellent year. That was 2009, when markets began to thaw after the financial crisis and investors dumped bonds en masse, handing Goldman both huge volumes of trades and fantastic margins, or "spreads," on those trades. Since 2012, its ROE has dropped to an average of 10.5% to 11%. Still, that's not bad. A major reason for the decline: new regulations have forced all banks to lower their leverage. Goldman used to support $20 in assets with every dollar of equity; today, a dollar in net worth backs just $10.50 in assets. That's a good thing, since it should smooth the big swings in returns caused by high levels of debt. An ROE in the 10% to 11% range also looks good in a period where investors pocket just 2.5% on 10-year Treasury bonds. And Goldman's ROE compares favorably to its rivals. Though it trails Wells Fargo (13.6%) and US Bancorp (12%), it waxes JP Morgan (8.3%), Citigroup (6.7%), and Morgan Stanley (6.5%). For Goldman, the challenge is that an 11% ROE may be acceptable for now, but it will be far from adequate once interest rates rise. With treasuries back at their historic norms of 4% or 5%, and highly rated corporate bonds offering a couple of points more, investors will want better things from the likes of Goldman. Its profits, dominated by trading, are still vulnerable to sharp declines. In 2011, for example, Goldman earned a puny ROE of 3.6%. By contrast, the big banks can practically guarantee large increases in profits and ROE as interest rates increase. When that happens, they'll benefit handsomely from the rising spread between the low-cost deposits and the rates on their mortgages and corporate loans. It would bolster confidence if Goldman's numbers were headed in the right direction. They're not. Goldman is having difficulty finding profitable places to reinvest its earnings. It has essentially admitted as much by re-purchasing $12.2 billion in its own shares since 2011. But it's still investing much of its earnings in the businesses, and those fresh investments are garnering sub-par returns. Since 2005, its common equity base has increased from $23.5 billion to $74.4 billion, an increase of $51 billion. But over those eight years, it's added just $3.25 billion in earnings. So the return on newly added equity is a mere 6.4%. Nor is the recent story reassuring. In the 12 months from June 2013 to June 2014, Goldman added $1.6 billion in capital. Its 12-month trailing earnings during that period, however, declined from $8.4 billion to $7.6 billion. So its ROE, driven by higher capital and lower profits, actually dropped from 11.8% to just over 10.6%. These sluggish returns have been weighed down by Goldman's primary franchise, trading. Today, Goldman holds an inventory of around $350 billion in securities that it has purchased from clients, and seeks to resell, at the widest margins possible. From 2008 to 2010, Goldman earned an average of 3.8% on its trading book. But since 2011, the margin has dwindled to a slender 1.2% to 1.3%. The problem is basic: That inventory isn't "turning over" nearly as fast as it used to, because hedge funds, mutual funds, and other clients have slowed the pace of their trading. Nor are spreads nearly as rich as in the aftermath of the financial crisis. To return to its glory days, Goldman will need to generate far higher returns on that trading book. That's the ticket to driving returns on equity to heights that would prove alluring in the coming, rising-rate environment of tomorrow. In its 2013 proxy statement, Goldman revealed that it has set a 12% ROE target for a full payout on its long-term compensation plan. That's an increase from just 10%, a surprisingly modest goal for such a hard-charging management team. But to reach even 12%, Goldman still has a ways to go. "The 12% target is still a low bar," says Davis. "I'm thinking 14% to 16% is where they should be." He believes Goldman will get there. "If they can't get to a 15% ROE in a business, they'll get out of it," he says. "It will take them a couple of years to get through it. If anyone can figure it out, they can." Indeed, when interest rates rise, trading could explode as investors pile into bonds. That trend would produce what Goldman needs most: A jump in turnover and margins in its big securities portfolio. Goldman fans also argue that because of the new capital requirements, big banks have exited fixed income, currency, and commodities trading. Hence, Goldman could find itself in a more commanding position than at any time in its recent history. That scenario is certainly possible. It's also possible that bond trading, Goldman's strength, could go the way of market making in equities. Once highly lucrative, stock trading has become a low-margin, commoditized field executed on electronic platforms. New banking regulations mandate that derivatives go electronic as well. If the opaque bond market becomes more, rather than less, competitive, Goldman will fail to restore its once-sovereign profitability. If fixed income booms again—and especially if Goldman emerges as the unchallenged king of bond trading—it will be on the road to a great restoration. Think of it as the Yankees capturing yet another World Series.
Jobs report and hack attacks — 5 things to know today by Stephen Gandel @FortuneMagazine October 3, 2014, 7:29 AM EST E-mail Tweet Facebook Google Plus Linkedin Share icons Hello, friends and Fortune readers. Happy Friday! The latest monthly jobs report, released this morning, is likely to rule the news today, but there's also an increasingly difficult situation in Hong Kong, and news of yet another data security breach — this time at a major bank. Here's what you need to know about today. 1. Jobs, jobs, jobs Perhaps no nugget of economic news has the political power of the monthly jobs report. Data for September came out this morning and they showed U.S. job growth jumped back above the 200,000 mark, suggesting the weak employment reading in the prior month was a blip and the labor market continues to make steady progress. August's numbers were very underwhelming. With mid-term elections just a month away, these numbers could make a difference in some of the tighter races. 2. JPMorgan Chase could be in trouble Names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses — but apparently not account information — was stolen from 76 million homes and 7 million small businesses in a security breach at JPMorgan Chase JPM . This is perhaps the scariest cyber attack yet, seeing as it's at one of the biggest banks in the country. 3. Your mom's favorite battery store is safe The 80s relic RadioShack RSH will live to fight another day. The company, which has been in trouble for years, has reached a $590 million restructuring deal, according to Bloomberg. The loan, led by hedge fund Standard General, will allow the store to restock and have liquidity ahead of the holiday season. 4. Facebook FB and WhatsApp get the continental OK The European Commission has given Facebook its approval — it can acquire messaging app WhatsApp in a deal worth $19 billion. While this was largely expected, it still solidifies another pelt on the buying belt of Mark Zuckerberg. 5. Hong Kong civilian groups clash The latest violence in Hong Kong's ongoing protests comes not from the Chinese police, but from adversarial civilian groups. Anti-Occupy counter-protestors have trashed the site where the protests have gone on for the past week, adding another layer to a story that could have serious impacts on Asian markets.


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New York hay grower Brian Bootes says his hayfields would benefit from more summer-like weather.
Warmer weather would be more than welcome at Bootes Farm near Middlesex, NY. "The hay crops are looking pretty good right now," says hay grower Brian Bootes. "We have plenty of soil moisture. Last week, we had 5-7" of rain in two days.
"Now, if we can just get a little heat, we should be able to get going on our first cutting of orchardgrass in early June."
Bootes puts up timothy-alfalfa and orchardgrass-alfalfa hay on 250 acres. In a typical year, he makes 20,000-25,000 small-square bales each weighing 60-65 lbs. Most are marketed through a broker serving Northeastern horse owners, but Bootes also sells directly.
It's still too early to get a feel for where prices might be headed in coming months, he says. This spring, second-crop grass hay in his area sold for $225-250/ton at the farm. First-crop hay went for $170-200/ton.
"I'm thinking that prices should at least hold steady from this point on. Row crops have taken a lot of hay ground out in this part of the country. So I don't see any kind of big over-supply developing. Then again, you never know what the weather will bring, or how much hay there's going to be in other parts of the country. I expect we'll have a lot better idea on where the market is headed a month from now."
Bootes can be contacted at 585-554-6628 or email@example.com.


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It's official – Lindsay Lohan will be portraing the legendary Elizabeth Taylor in Lifetime's original movie Liz & Dick, the network has announced. "I have always admired and had enormous respect for Elizabeth Taylor. She was not only an incredible actress but an amazing woman as well. I am very honored to have been asked [...]
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Making a big comeback in the acting world, Lindsay Lohan has officially announced that she is set to play Elizabeth Taylor's character in the new Lifetime original movie, "Liz and Dick." Over the recent months there's been numerous ... Read Post
Despite her recent nightclub altercation (and the other, strikingly similar recent nightclub altercation) Lindsay Lohan is set to star as the legendary Elizabeth Taylor in the Lifetime original movie Liz & Dick, the network itself c... Read Post
If the first official image of Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor for Lifetime's original movie Liz & Dick looked familiar, Read Post


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Sojourners: What's your hope for the ECC broadly? I'm not sure whether you can even speak to this yet, but are you hoping to stay within the denomination? What's your hope for where this conversation leads the church?
Phillips: Well, I just, I deeply love the Covenant Church. I keep using "we" language instead of "us" and "them" language, because it really hasn't sunk in yet. And there's some confusion around, how do I operate as an ordained minister in a former Covenant church plant. For me, this all comes back to our Covenant pietistic roots about relationship, new life in Christ, and reading the bible together.
I've just met dozens and dozens and dozens of gay Covenanters in recent weeks that have said, hey, thanks for speaking up, and they've told me their stories of exclusion or being ostracized in some cases. These are good Christian people — people that grew up in the Covenant, working at Bible camps, going to Covenant schools. And some of these folks have experienced depression; some have experienced suicidal thoughts. And that's the kind of thing that I hope that my friends in the Covenant, no matter where they stand on this matter, can work together to at least find some way for hospitality and inclusion to take place.
You know, I never thought that the Covenant needed to change its policies to become an open and affirming church. I was simply hoping that we could hold in tension this kind of historic covenant agreement to disagree on matters that weren't what some would call "essential matters" — like resurrection, like new life, like the presence of the Holy Spirit. I have dear friends in the covenant that wouldn't hold my position, and they're doing amazing work in ministry — alongside the gay community, even — so you know, I hope that we can find some way forward that can get beyond this moment of confusion.
Sojourners: Many churches and Christian organizations in the U.S. right now are afraid to take a stand on LGBTQ rights precisely for this reason — whether it's a hesitancy to break with denominational tradition or, maybe more pragmatically, a fear of getting defunded. For someone newly in this chaos, do you have any wisdom from having this happen to you?
Phillips: I think it's imperative that we lean into what the Holy Spirit is doing. I think the Holy Spirit is guiding us on this conversation — and there's so much grace. Even though there's so much pain and fear. I think in the end, grace wins out.
I've found that in the midst of all this, amazing friends emerge, and new friendships are forged. And you know, God's doing something really cool right now. And it seems chaotic, and it seems scary, because so many of the old models are outdated. But God's truth is not changed whatsoever, and God's news is still good. So I just encourage people to keep leaning into God's promises and friends along the way that can walk with us as we figure it out as we go.
As my kids have grown into teenagers, their behavior has changed. My daughter is less interested in hanging out with me and prefers sitting in her room glued to her computer. My son plays Nintendo war games. When current events are discussed in our home, we sometimes disagree vehemently. According to Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco, I should be on my guard because these might be signs that my kids are about to head off to join the Islamic State.
Sounds absurd, right? But that's the message to Muslim communities as part of the administration's initiative to "counter violent extremism."
In September, the Justice Department announced it was launching the program and piloting it in Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. The stated aim was to bring together community, religious leaders, and law enforcement to "develop comprehensive local strategies and share information on best practices" for countering violent extremism. Although the initiative doesn't mention the word "Muslim," those adherents are clearly the targets. The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security has promoted it to Muslim communities across the country. It has the support of the White House, which is hosting a summit on the topic this week.
President Obama said Feb. 19 he doesn't use terms like Islamic extremism because doing so would promote the false idea of a Western war with Islam, which would help extremists recruit more terrorists.
"No religion is responsible for terrorism — people are responsible for violence and terrorism," Obama told delegates at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.
Obama also said military force alone will not defeat terrorism, and the nation must work with local communities to reduce the influence of those who advocate violent extremism.
"They are not religious leaders," Obama said. "They are terrorists."
He also said: "We are not at war with Islam — we are at war with people who have perverted Islam."
Alongside professional development and communal living, Sojourners' internship program prioritizes spiritual formation through educational seminars, spiritual retreats, and mentorship pairings. Seminar topics focus on the intersection between faith and justice, and this year have included politics as vocation, simple living, reflecting on MLK, and discerning spiritual gifts.
Three spiritual retreats over the course of the year emphasize a time of rest, reflection, and service. Along with other communal living commitments, interns hold a weekly time of prayer to pray for their house, the neighborhood, and the world.
When fans barred a black man from boarding a train as they chanted racist lyrics after the Chelsea vs. PSG match on Feb. 17, it was only the most recent in a long history of similarly egregious acts.
Professional soccer is no stranger to racism. While such acts of overt bias should anger us, they should not surprise us. Whether it's chanted slurs, especially dirty tackles, or thrown bananas, racist behaviors emerge from a racist culture.
Below are videos of six of the most infamous incidents of racism in professional soccer since 2011. It is important to remember that these acts are only the explicit tip of an implicit iceberg. These are only some of the examples captured on video.
"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law" —Martin Luther King, Jr.
Last year on a crisp afternoon in March, I was one of nine people arrested by the NYPD and taken away to the local precinct for processing. My crime? Attempting to plant detoxifying sunflowers on public brownfield land on the South Bronx waterfront in New York City.
Earlier in the day, more than 100 residents, faith leaders, organizations, friends, and allies came together to protest the proposed relocation of the online grocer FreshDirect to a residential neighborhood in the South Bronx. After a jubilant and joyous interfaith reflection and prayer vigil outside the entrance to the waterfront location, security guards refused to let us cross the gate, so we sat in front of it in protest — a peaceful and non violent act of civil disobedience.
Our coalition, South Bronx Unite, works to improve and protect the social, environmental, and economic future of the South Bronx in New York City, located in the poorest congressional district in the country. For three years we have been fighting to stop FreshDirect from receiving more than $100 million in subsidies and incentives to build a diesel trucking distribution center on public land along the Bronx Kill Waterfront.
Rodnell Collins stood next to his uncle, Malcolm X, as the latter stared thoughtfully at Plymouth Rock during a visit to Massachusetts when Collins was a child.
It wasn't until years later that Collins, the son of Malcolm's sister, Ella Little Collins, would learn what his uncle was thinking: "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us."
Malcolm X, the African-American nationalist leader and onetime minister of the Nation of Islam who was assassinated 50 years ago Feb. 21, inspired countless people with the frank and uncompromising way he spoke about race relations in America. And much of what he said about the experiences of black Americans remains true today, experts say.
Yet, while other civil rights leaders of the 1950s and '60s are more broadly celebrated as American heroes, the fire with which Malcolm X spoke still overpowers the words he was saying.
The U.S. cardinal who heads the Vatican's commission on sexual abuse of children by clergy warned his fellow Roman Catholic bishops on Feb. 16 not to behave as if the problem had passed.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston told a conference at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University that some prelates were still reluctant to deal with the problem openly.
"It would be perilous for us, as leaders of the Church, to consider that the scandal of clergy sexual abuse is for the most part a matter of history and not a pressing concern here and now," said O'Malley, whose commission advises Pope Francis on how to root out the abuse that has shamed the Church.
"Its not a pleasant topic. It's easier just to ignore it and hope it will go away (but) when we are defensive and secretive, the results are disastrous," he said in his speech.
Lately, a particular quote has been wending its way around Facebook, popping up in the feeds of the most disparate names on my friends list. It appears written in feminine cursive script or blocky varsity letters or etched under a photo of leaping flames: "May the bridges I burn light the way."
The words seem significant on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, when ministers mark a believer's forehead with a sign of the cross — two simple finger strokes drawn as a reminder of the impermanence of this world and our own mortality. The imposition of ashes is often accompanied by words from Genesis 3:19: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Lent is the season of reflection, reevaluation, reconciliation, and — here's a hundred dollar Christian word — repentance. For many, the word "repent" calls to mind a red-faced TV preacher banging a hammy fist on the podium, or a guy in a sandwich board, standing on a corner yelling through a bullhorn about the fires of hell and the threat of damnation. YOU MUST REPENT!
But repent means, in the most literal sense, to turn in a different direction. It is less about avoiding being struck down by God than embarking on our own particular course-correction.
Lent is not about giving up stuff.
Lent is about the preparation of our hearts for what God has done in Christ.


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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article
In Euclidean geometry, the intersection of a line and a line can be the empty set, a point, or a line. Distinguishing these cases and finding the intersection point have use, for example, in computer graphics, motion planning, and collision detection.
In three-dimensional Euclidean geometry, if two lines are not in the same plane they are called skew lines and have no point of intersection. If they are in the same plane there are three possibilities: if they coincide (are not distinct lines) they have an infinitude of points in common (namely all of the points on either of them); if they are distinct but have the same slope they are said to be parallel and have no points in common; otherwise they have a single point of intersection.
The distinguishing features of non-Euclidean geometry are the number and locations of possible intersections between two lines and the number of possible lines with no intersections (parallel lines) with a given line.
A necessary condition for two lines to intersect is that they are in the same plane—that is, are not skew lines. Satisfaction of this condition is equivalent to the tetrahedron with vertices at two of the points on one line and two of the points on the other line being degenerate in the sense of having zero volume. For the algebraic form of this condition, see Skew lines#Testing for skewness.
First we consider the intersection of two lines and in 2-dimensional space, with line being defined by two distinct points and , and line being defined by two distinct points and .[1]
The intersection of line and can be defined using determinants.
The determinants can be written out as:
Note that the intersection point is for the infinitely long lines defined by the points, rather than the line segments between the points, and can produce an intersection point beyond the lengths of the line segments. If (rather than solving for the point in a single step), the solution in terms of first degree Bézier parameters is first found, then this intermediate result can be checked for 0.0 ≤ t ≤ 1.0 and 0.0 ≤ u ≤ 1.0 (where t and u are the driving variables).
When the two lines are parallel or coincident the denominator term is zero:
If the lines are very close to being parallel, then a computer solution may encounter numeric problems in the solution described above, and so recognition of this condition may require an appropriately "fuzzy" test in practical application. A more robust and general solution may be obtained by rotation of the line segments to drive one of them horizontal, whence the solution of the rotated parametric form of the second line is easily obtained. Careful discussion of the special cases is required (parallel lines/coincident lines, overlapping/non-overlapping intervals).
The and coordinates of the point of intersection of two non-vertical lines can easily be found using the following substitutions and rearrangements.
Suppose that two lines have the equations and where and are the slopes (gradients) of the lines and where and are the y-intercepts of the lines. At the point where the two lines intersect (if they do), both coordinates will be the same, hence the following equality:
We can rearrange this expression in order to extract the value of ,
and so,
To find the y coordinate, all we need to do is substitute the value of x into either one of the two line equations, for example, into the first:
Hence, the point of intersection is
Note if a = b then the two lines are parallel. If c ≠ d as well, the lines are different and there is no intersection, otherwise the two lines are identical.
By using homogeneous coordinates, the intersection point of two implicitly defined lines can be determined quite easily. In 2D, every point can be defined as a projection of a 3D point, given as the ordered triple (X,Y,W). The mapping from 3D to 2D coordinates is (x,y) = (X/W, Y/W). 2D points can be converted to homogeneous coordinates by defining them as (x,y,1). Thus, the implicit equation of a line can be given in homogeneous coordinates as:
We can do a similar operation with the cross product to get the intersection of 2 lines:
This returns the intersection point in homogeneous coordinates. In the special case of W = 0, we say that the intersection point is at infinity. This means the lines are parallel. As an aside, the implicit coefficients of a line can be obtained by the cross product of two points:
In two dimensions, more than two lines almost certainly do not intersect at a single point. Similarly, in three or more dimensions, even two lines almost certainly do not intersect; pairs of lines that do not intersect are called skew lines. However, in two or more dimensions, we can usually find a point that is mutually closest to two or more lines in a least-squares sense.
In the two-dimensional case, first, represent line i as a point, , on the line and a unit normal vector, , perpendicular to that line. That is, if and are points on line 1, then let and let
which is the unit vector along the line, rotated by 90 degrees.
Note that the distance from a point, x to the line is given by
And so the squared distance from a point, x, to a line is
the sum of squared distances to many lines is the cost function:
This can be rearranged:
To find the minimum, we differentiate with respect to x and set the result equal to the zero vector:
and so
While is not well-defined in more than two dimensions, this can be generalized to any number of dimensions by noting that is simply the (symmetric) matrix with all eigenvalues unity except for a zero eigenvalue in the direction along the line providing a seminorm on the distance between and another point giving the distance to the line. In any number of dimensions, if is a unit vector along the ith line, then
where I is the identity matrix, and so


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Blog Post: But I Have to Buy Links, Ads, and Exposure, Because My Customers Won't Amplify My Content - Whiteboard Friday
Couldn't agree more. Social media isn't the be all and end all for B2B (or B2O) focused companies – especially those working with companies who don't want their rivals to know what they are using.
Sometime's it's necessary to look at other ways to generate that interest. Would I be wrong in guessing you guys have a fairly high conversion rate? I would have thought those seeking out who produced those reports aren't likely to be someone outside your target market.


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Call the Mission: A Lesson In Ethical Leadership with a Nod to Dan Ariely
With breaches of ethics shaking the foundations of our global economy, and leading institutions failing to act in the interests of peace, justice, the environment, and prosperity, what can we learn from behavioral economists? And how do we keep our country more honest?
In Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely's exuberant and enlightening book, he describes studies to support his thesis that "when we get into situations when our personal financial benefit stands in opposition to our moral standards, we are able to 'bend' reality, see the world in terms compatible with our selfish interest, and become dishonest." Ariely believes that "if we recognize this weakness, we can try to avoid such situations from the outset."
For example, in one study, people were less likely to cheat if they are asked to recall the Ten Commandments just before the moment of opportunity to stray into dishonesty. "What especially impressed me," explains Ariely, "was that the students who could remember only one or two Commandments were as affected by them as the students who remembered all ten. This indicated that it was not the Commandments themselves that encouraged honesty, but the mere contemplation of a moral benchmark of some kind." So, suggests Ariely, "then we could also use nonreligious benchmarks to raise the general level of honesty."
Ariely believes that "there are tools, methods, and policies that can help us make better decisions." Further, he suggests, although we make mistakes, we learn from them and we can improve ourselves.
So, Ariely asks "How do we keep our country more honest?"
My recommendation: Call the mission.
In my consulting and training work with nonprofit boards of directors, it is unfortunate to sometimes see personalities and politics interfere with people's supposed better intentions to serve the vital work of the organization.
Conditions improve, however, under three conditions:
- When the board leader calls the mission at every meeting, reminding people why they are there – reminding people how the organization is and will make the world a better place – and even showing some evidence of that in a meaningful way
- When the board has a clear and very conscious understanding of its role and responsibilities and how it adds value in advancing the organization
- When the board establishes "tools and methods," including policies on conflicts of interest, statements of expectations and systems of accountability, and effective governing practices
Under those three circumstances, nonprofit boards are much more productive.
The classic movie Twelve Angry Men is a murder trial drama that has always reminded me of a board room scene. The entire movie takes place in the jury room with the jurors deliberating on the guilt or innocence of a young teenage boy, who will be sentenced to the electric chair, a mandatory sentence if the jury convicts him. After a long, strenuous screaming brawl among twelve angry men (yes, all men in 1957) who are eager to convict the defendant so they can be done and go home – one juror in particular so that he can get to a ball game - another juror stands firm to interrupt the screaming. He states that he is an immigrant, that he has always respected the American jury trial system, that the twelve men were called to judge a teenager's life who is on trial for murder, and that surely this young man deserves their time and attention to give this decision their full consideration. The juror called the mission.
The lesson: Perhaps we don't have to recite the Ten Commandments at every meeting. But we do need to call the mission when we participate in organizations – whether for-profits or public institutions - that affect the welfare of other people and our communities.
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1 Comments
Very nicely written piece on a subject I have seen in close quarters. Honesty or rather dishonesty is common place in all spheres of life. From jumping a red light to taking home some stationary from office to printing personal documents in office ...it all adds up one by one to result in a huge meltdown.
In my opinion I would go with the responsibility factor to rope in all these ethical dilemmas. Tell your team how much your budget is; show them how much is being printed on the customer's tab and for what purposes; show videos of how redlight-jumpers disrupt the traffic scenario; on how they cause the already stressed out beat-cop to lose his cool and vent his anger on some other innocent soul (not uncommon) ! Bringing about a sense of social responsibility and ownership will automatically lead to a self regulating organism. This may be worth trying.
Krishna Rao Vijayanagar
Graduate Student,
Illinois Institute of Technology