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He alongside Santos attempted a mutiny as they were both fed up by their leader Turf's current actions however after hearing a motivation speech from Turf he and Santos stopped the mutiny. Cherry (Elyse Willems) was an alien ship AI that was repaired by Santos who assisted FH57 on their travels to find blue soldiers. However she had technical problems that caused her to misunderstand verbal commands causing her to initiate the self destruction after mishearing Turf saying shelf-construction killing her and the rest of FH57. Other Alien When Captain Flowers returned as O'Malley's new host, he brought with him a new alien partner, referred to as the Other Alien on his DVD profile.
In Episode 97 it was revealed that the Other Alien is seeking the original Alien for unknown reasons, and it revived Captain Flowers to assist him. The pair of them then begin searching for Junior as well. Flowers is working with O'Malley, Vic Jr. and Wyoming to exploit the Alien's race, however Flowers' dialogue with Vic Jr. reveals that the Other Alien is unaware of this fact. The Other Alien follows O'Malley and Junior onto the ship in . In Reconstruction, when Washington and the Blues were looking over the footage from the crashed Pelican, a door is heard opening and Tex says "Wait, where are they going?
Close the hatch." And the Alien, and Junior were not found on the ship, implying that the Other Alien escaped with Junior to safety. SmithSmith (Jack Pattillo) is one of the Aliens working with the soldier known as C.T., and he appears to be second in command. On his first appearance he is disturbed by the arrival of Sarge, Grif and Caboose. In Recreation Chapter 18 he beats down Jones in retaliation for shooting Epsilon-Church, and when C.T. flees with Epsilon-Church, Smith gives chase, but is taken out when C.T. destroys his vehicle. He survives, however, and is seen standing in front of the temple at the end of the scene.
Later in Revelation, he is seen, along with the other aliens, worshipping Epsilon-Church. He is eventually killed along with the rest of the aliens by Washington and The Meta. AllisonAllison Church (Lindsay Hicks) was the Director's loved one that had died in a war, whose physical appearance in Season 10 marks the first character portrayed by a live action actor instead of an animation. Her death has haunted the Director ever since then and when the Alpha AI was created the memory of her was so strong it created a 'shadow' of her Which gave The Director the idea of fragmenting the Alpha).
This 'shadow' was put in a robotic body, given the codename Tex, retaining the memories of Allison. The Director remembered Allison for her failure to survive and therefore, Tex is always destined to fail, no matter how close she may be to victory. In Season 10, Tex and Carolina were about to fight in the training room, when the Director notices. The Director, worried about Tex, called out "No! Allison!". This caused all the AIs in the area to begin muttering 'Allison' due to them also having memories of Allison from the Alpha. Later in the season, Washington was implanted with Epsilon.
As Epsilon's memories were also from the Alpha, when Wash was given Epsilon, he immediately began having flash memories of a conversation the Director had with Allison before she went off to war. In the epilogue of "Season 10," Carolina talks to Epsilon-Church about her mother. She says her mother was gone a lot, and it seemed like she always had important things to do, but her mother never said goodbye. Carolina explains that her mother disliked goodbyes because the person wasn't really gone, they just weren't there right now. This interaction strongly implies that Allison is indeed Carolina's mother, and—as implied by her green eyes and the Director's last words to her, "You were my greatest creation"—that Leonard Church is her father.
SirisSiris (Christopher Sabat), full name Mason Wu, appears in Episodes 9, 10 and 11 of Season 14, as part of a three-part story centered around Locus and Felix before the events of the Chorus trilogy. He is a bounty hunter working with Locus and Felix to apprehend criminals and bring them to custody as a way to make money to support his wife, Megan. He aids them in the capture of Gabriel Lozano, son of mafia boss Reuben Lozano, and later finds out that his criminal record was erased. When Felix suggests holding Gabriel for ransom for more than he was initially worth, Siris objects at first, but reluctantly accepts.
When Reuben threatens to kill the bounty hunters (or their loved ones, should they escape), disowns Gabriel, and reveals he knows their hiding location, Siris attempts to back out of the mission to defend his family, but ultimately stays, assisting them in killing Reuben and his henchmen. The very next morning, the three decide to pawn Reuben's limousine to cover the original equipment costs. He is the sniper on the team, and is in charge of surveillance and support. Interstellar Daily Dylan Andrews Dylan Andrews (Anna Margaret Hollyman) is an investigative journalist for the Interstellar Daily, who while reporting on attacks seemingly caused by the Reds and Blues, does not believe the Blood Gulch Crew did them, due to having previously written an article (shown in Season 12) about how the Reds and Blues, along with Carolina and Washington, took down Project Freelancer and their subsequent pardon.
Her search for the truth on what apparently turned the Reds and Blues from hapless heroes to cold-blooded criminals is the main focus of Season 15. In her investigation that starts on Blood Gulch, where Dylan removes VIC from his mainframe promising to delete him after he helped her, Dylan meets the Reds and Blues, helps them find the true perpetrators, the Blues and Reds, and is apprehended by Loco and Temple once she finds out they have ulterior motives. She is eventually freed and helps the Blood Gulch Crew in the final battle against the Blues and Reds. At the beginning of the Shisno Paradox Dylan and Jax remain behind on the island to clear the Reds and Blues name with the police, as the UNSC still believes they are terrorists.
She later calls Carolina to inform that the soldiers have seemingly time travel due to the discovery of ancient art pieces inspired by the Reds and Blues. Jax Jonez Jax Jonez (Joe Nicolosi) is a film school student brought by his uncle, Interstellar Daily editor Carlos Trabka (Bill Wise), to be Dylan's new cameraman. However, instead of just doing his job, Jax is constantly trying out new filming techniques and forgetting things. He claims he is good at accidentally finding things that "advance the plot." After being captured by Temple, he is shot in the knee when he angers him.
Still, Jax participates in the final battle against the Blues and Reds. In the Shisno Paradox, Jax is directing a film about the events of Season 15, whose production is troubled by the Reds and Blues’ time traveling shenanigans. Jax is depicted here as having become a deranged, mood swinging prima donna who threatens his crew, particularly his producer Kohan Wooter (a caricature of Rooster Teeth producer Koen Wooten, who even provides the voice). Jax eventually bankrupts the film when he uses time travel to add in famous film actors from the past, and is hit with a hammer by Atlus when trying to get a time travel machine to get funding from the past.
Spencer Porkensenson Spencer Porkensenson (Jason Marnocha) Is a process server who first appears in season 15 episode 2 The Cronicle following Dylan and Jax to find Lavernius Tucker. He later fought in a firefight with the Blue and Reds mistakenly believing that Bucky was Tucker. In the episode Nightmare On Planet Evil he finally finds Tucker who tells him that he was sent by Chorus to serve him Tucker believes that he is his bodyguard manservant until he tells him that You've Been Served child support papers by the new mothers of Chorus much to his horror. Completing his mission he bids the Reds and blues farewell as he will not be seeing them again unless it’s in service of the court and tells them his name and that he lives to serve and flies away.
Cyclops Cyclops, or C.C. (Katie Newville), is a large Cyclops Mark II-class military assault droid that was located inside the UNSC Hand Of Merope .It was later found by Sarge who wanted to take it back to base and destroy Freckles as he deemed it a threat however it was too big to bring back in one piece so the Reds dismantle it, and took it back to base to be reassembled. While bringing the parts back to base Grif loses various pieces of the robot forcing Sarge to use the parts he has to reconstruct the robot resulting in it being Mantis-sized.
When Sarge activated Cyclops it spoke its name with a female voice making them call it a girl. Before Sarge was about to order her to attack Freckles she threatened the Reds as she had a hardware malfunction believing that there are 16 hostile in the canyon and was about to attack the Reds but shuts down due to Sarge converting her fuel tank to diesel resulting in her running out of power. Cyclops was later repaired by Lopez and Lopez 2.0 but was taken over by Dos.0 who used her to attack Sarge and the Reds and Blues but was later destroyed by Donut who teleported Cyclops and Dos.0 to a mine field killing them.
Epsilon Doubles The Epsilon Doubles are the main characters of season 9. When Epsilon-Church entered the Epsilon unit to look for Tex after the events of season 8, he recreated Blood Gulch by using the Alpha’s memories while creating copies of the Reds and Blues. The doubles are similar to the real Reds and Blues, despite acting different at first. Sarge (ε) differs from his real-world counterpart in that he doesn’t hate Grif, is not willing to yell at the other Reds, and allows Donut to give orders. However, after having a private conversation with Donut that lasts a couple of hours, Sarge reverts to his original personality.
Simmons (ε) is nearly identical to his real life counterpart. He expresses that he "hates when things change" as his teammates obtain their original personalities. When he is about to be killed by Andy (ε), he reveals that he respects none of his teammates. Donut (ε), described by Epsilon as being a "repressed, over-achieving jarhead," orders Sarge and Simmons around when he first appears. He acts violent, wanting to shoot Epsilon on sight rather allowing him to speak. Donut (ε), like his real-world counterpart, keeps a diary. He makes sexual innuendos for much of the time he spends onscreen. After talking with Sarge, he reverts back to his original personality.
Grif (ε) is unlike his real-world counterpart in that he appears to be a hard worker. When asked by Simmons to take a break, he claims to be unfamiliar with the concept. he was an extreme neat-freak, shouting at Donut for tracking mud on Red Base's recently waxed floor. It has been hinted that Grif has OCD, which is indicated after he says that doing things 3 times is fun and was hinted to be a germaphobe. when Grif had a break Donut again tracked mud into the base but instead of shouting at him again he told him that he didn’t care saying that he’s on break returning to his original personality.
Lopez (ε) personality was originally very robotic and monotone, as he has only been seen going through his activation speech and alerting everyone of an earthquake however he also hates the Reds due to there stupidly and not understanding him. Tucker (ε) personality is the same as his real world counterpart being very foul mouthed, annoying, and perverted in the eyes of other characters however he has a better relationship with Caboose. Caboose (ε) personality is the same as his real world counterpart being loving and wanting Church's friendship however he has a better relationship with Tucker. Caboose's Mental Images Caboose's mental images are a small group of characters based on the main characters however they all have different personality than their real-world counterparts and behaved depending on how Caboose sees them in reality.Mr.
CabooseMr Caboose is the smart polite leader of Blue Team the exact opposite of the real CabooseTuckerTucker is the dumb, butt-sniffing coward who uses the same energy sword that the real Tucker uses except that anyone can use it due to Caboose not understanding that the sword is lock to him.LeonardLeonard (Church) is Caboose loud foul-mouthed best friend who was killed by O'Malley resulting in Caboose temporary losing any memory of the real Church.SisterSister also known as Yellow Church is Caboose's twisted version of Sister and Church which Caboose believes to be Church's twin brother.SargeSarge is the stern and regimented leader of the Red Team who speaks with both a pirate accent and a cockney accent.SimonSimon (Simmons) is the weak-kneed sycophant with a shrill voice and a bad memory.Orangish Guy Whose Name I Really Don't Remember Orangish Guy Whose Name I Really Don't Remember (Grif) is the drunk whose name is always forgotten or mispronounced.
Unlike his real Self Orangish Guy Whose Name I Really Don't Remember armor colour is yellow.The Girl on the Red Team The Girl on the Red Team (Donut) is a teenage girl who mistakenly thinks that her rifle is a purse and having a crush on Caboose.Agent Washingtub ' Agent Washingtub(Washington) is a superhero who portrays himself in a clear and consistent manner while using his freelancer powers to scare those trying to help him and to fight monsters and scary people from the future. References External links RoosterTooths.com – an unofficial Red vs Blue resource website * Red vs. Blue Category:Works based on Halo
A catchweight is a term used in combat sports, such as boxing or mixed martial arts, to describe a weight limit that does not adhere to the traditional limits for weight classes. In boxing, a catchweight is negotiated prior to weigh-ins, which are conducted one day before the fight. The term 'catchweight' is also less regularly used in professional wrestling, but used to describe catch wrestling; which can be used to mean no weight limit. An example of a catchweight division in professional wrestling is Pro Wrestling Pride's Catch Division Championship. Explanation Strictly speaking, a catchweight in boxing is used to describe a weight limit for a fight that does not fall in line with the limits for the expanded weight classes.
Catchweights were enacted after the traditional rules of weigh-ins, which take place on the day of a fight, were changed to that of the day before a fight. Likewise, catchweights were enacted following the expansion of the traditional eight weight divisions to seventeen. An agreed weight was used to describe a catchweight traditionally when only eight-division limits existed and all weigh-ins were done "day or hours" before the fight. A historical marker that points to when "day of" fight weigh-ins ended is the advent of television. During the Muhammad Ali era, boxing promotions began televising the weigh-in proceedings to generate publicity before the scheduled fights, necessitating a "day before" fight weigh-in.
Fighters can cut weight for a "day before" fight weigh-in with modern conditioning and training methods and regain the same weight on "day of" the fight. The purpose of a catchweight is to compensate for the ability of bigger boxers to cut weight before a "day before" fight weigh-in and regain the weight to exceed the specified limit (division or catchweight) on the "day of" the fight with little effect on performance. The catchweight aims to provide a level playing field and to prevent weight mismatches that can endanger the fighters. More importantly, the catchweight ensures the fight is not canceled due to last minute disagreement on fight time.
The term 'catchweight', with the above meaning, is especially prevalent in North America; other countries may well consider catchweight according to the old wrestling meaning, when to make a contest more interesting they might have a good middleweight meeting a not-so-good heavyweight, etc. Examples A notable case of alleged weight mismatch is Arturo Gatti vs. Joey Gamache. Gatti defeated the former world champion Gamache by a knockout in the second round. After the bout, Gamache's handlers filed a lawsuit alleging Gatti had gained 19 pounds since the weigh-in the "day before" and thus had a large advantage over Gamache. This resulted in serious injuries to the smaller Gamache.
After Gatti–Gamache, some boxing commissions started weighing boxers a second time. Combat sports commonly have defined weight classes with specific weight limits. For example, each boxing division with the exception of heavyweight has its own weight classes, ranging from 105 pounds for minimumweight to 200 pounds for cruiserweight and varying in range in the weight classes in between. In order to fight for a championship in these weight classes, the fighters must come into the fight at or below said weight. Cases can arise when a fight does not occur within a specific weight class limit. In certain cases, a contract for a fight will specify that the two fighters come into the fight at another limit.
Often, this limit is at a midpoint between two weight classes. Recent examples of catchweight fights where a weight limit was different from that of a defined weight class include the second fight between Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik, which was fought at a catchweight of 166 pounds and the Félix Trinidad-Roy Jones, Jr. fight, which was fought at 171 pounds. In another example, fighters can agree to fight at a formal weight; however, at weigh-in, a fighter can come in over the formal weight. If so the fight is not cancelled. Instead an agreement may be reached to fight at a catchweight.
Commonly, the fighter who comes in overweight pays a penalty, for example, a 20% penalty with 10% going to the fighter who made weight and 10% going to a commission sanctioning the fight. An example of this catchweight situation occurred at UFC 104 where Anthony Johnson came in over the welterweight limit of 170 for his fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida. While commissions sometimes give a one-pound grace, Johnson came in at 176. An agreement was made that the fight would occur at a catchweight of 176. Often, catchweight fights are still considered fights within a formal weight class. For example, when Manny Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto, the fight was at a catchweight of 145 pounds to accommodate Pacquiao's smaller physique.
Boxing has a junior welterweight weight class with a weight limit of 140 and a welterweight weight class with a weight limit of 147. Since the fight was under the 147 limit and above the 140 limit, the fight was considered a welterweight fight as well as a catchweight fight. In addition, the World Boxing Organization sanctioned this fight for the welterweight title since the fight was under the welterweight limit. Another example was at UFC 99 when Wanderlei Silva fought Rich Franklin at a catchweight bout of 195 pounds. Silva typically fought at the Light Heavyweight weight class of 205 pounds, while Franklin fought at the Middleweight weight class of 185 pounds.
They agreed on a catchweight bout, and both men weighed in at 194 for the fight. References External links Category:Boxing weight classes Category:Mixed martial arts weight classes
The Victoria Falls Conference took place on 26 August 1975 aboard a South African Railways train halfway across the Victoria Falls Bridge on the border between the unrecognised state of Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) and Zambia. It was the culmination of the "détente" policy introduced and championed by B. J. Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa, which was then under apartheid and was attempting to improve its relations with the Frontline States to Rhodesia's north, west and east by helping to produce a settlement in Rhodesia.
The participants in the conference were a delegation led by the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith on behalf of his government, and a nationalist delegation attending under the banner of Abel Muzorewa's African National Council (UANC), which for this conference also incorporated delegates from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI). Vorster and the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda acted as mediators in the conference, which was held on the border in an attempt to provide a venue both sides would accept as neutral. The conference failed to produce a settlement, breaking up on the same day it began with each side blaming the other for its unsuccessful outcome.
Smith believed the nationalists were being unreasonable by requesting preconditions for talks—which they had previously agreed not to do—and asking for diplomatic immunity for their leaders and fighters. The nationalists contended that Smith was being deliberately intransigent and that they did not believe he was sincere in seeking an agreement if he was so adamant about not giving diplomatic immunity. Direct talks between the government and the Zimbabwe African People's Union followed in December 1975, but these also failed to produce any significant progress. The Victoria Falls Conference, the détente initiative and the associated ceasefire, though unsuccessful, did affect the course of the Rhodesian Bush War, as they gave the nationalist guerrillas significant time to regroup and reorganise themselves following the decisive security force counter-campaign of 1973–74.
A further conference would follow in 1976, this time in Geneva. Background After the Wind of Change of the early 1960s, the British government under Harold Wilson and the predominantly white minority government of the self-governing colony of Rhodesia, led by the Prime Minister Ian Smith, were unable to agree terms for the latter's full independence. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence on 11 November 1965. This was deemed illegal by Britain and the United Nations (UN), each of which imposed economic sanctions on Rhodesia. The two most prominent black nationalist parties in Rhodesia were the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)—a predominantly Shona movement, influenced by Chinese Maoism—and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which was Marxist–Leninist, and mostly Ndebele.
ZANU and its military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), received considerable backing in training, materiel and finances from the People's Republic of China and its allies, while the Warsaw Pact and associated nations, prominently Cuba, gave similar support to ZAPU and its Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). ZAPU and ZIPRA were headed by Joshua Nkomo throughout their existence, while the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole founded and initially led ZANU. The two rival nationalist movements began what they called their "Second Chimurenga" against the Rhodesian government and security forces, and, while based outside the country, sent groups of guerrillas into Rhodesia at regular intervals.
Most of these early incursions, which had little success, were perpetrated by ZIPRA. Wilson and Smith held abortive talks aboard HMS Tiger in 1966 and HMS Fearless two years later. A constitution was agreed upon by the Rhodesian and British governments in November 1971, but when the British gauged Rhodesian public opinion in early 1972 they abandoned the deal on the grounds that they perceived most blacks to be against it. The Rhodesian Bush War suddenly re-erupted after two years of relative inactivity on 21 December 1972 when ZANLA attacked Altena Farm near Centenary in the country's north-east. The security forces mounted a strong counter-campaign and by the end of 1974 had reduced the number of guerrillas active within the country to under 300.
In the period October–November 1974, the Rhodesians killed more nationalist fighters than in the previous two years combined. Mozambican independence and the South African "détente" initiative The effect of the security forces' decisive counter-campaign was undone by two drastic changes to the geopolitical situation in 1974 and 1975, each relating to one of the Rhodesian government's two main backers, Portugal and South Africa. In Lisbon, a military coup on 25 April 1974 replaced the right-wing Estado Novo administration with a leftist government opposed to the unpopular Colonial War in Angola, Mozambique and Portugal's other African territories. Following this coup, which became known as the Carnation Revolution, Portuguese leadership was hurriedly withdrawn from Lisbon's overseas territories, each of which was earmarked for an immediate handover to communist guerrillas.
Brief, frenzied negotiations with FRELIMO in Mozambique preceded the country's independence on 25 June 1975; FRELIMO took power without contesting an election, while Samora Machel assumed the presidency. Now that Mozambique was under a friendly government, ZANLA could freely base themselves there with the full support of Machel and FRELIMO, with whom an alliance had already existed since the late 1960s. The Rhodesian Security Forces, on the other hand, now had a further of border to defend and had to rely on South Africa alone for imports. The second event was more surprising for the Rhodesians. In late 1974, the government of Rhodesia's main ally and backer, South Africa, adopted a doctrine of "détente" with the Frontline States.
In an attempt to resolve the situation in Rhodesia, the South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster negotiated a deal: the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda would prevent guerrilla infiltrations into Rhodesia from his country, and in return the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith would agree to a ceasefire and "release all political detainees"—the leaders of ZANU and ZAPU—who would then attend a conference in Rhodesia, united under a single banner and led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and his African National Council (UANC). Vorster hoped that if this were successful the Frontline States would enter full diplomatic relations with South Africa and allow it to retain apartheid.
Under pressure from Pretoria to accept the terms, the Rhodesians agreed on 11 December 1974 and followed the terms of the ceasefire; Rhodesian military actions were temporarily halted and troops were ordered to allow retreating guerrillas to leave unhindered. Vorster withdrew some 2,000 members of the South African Police (SAP) from forward bases in Rhodesia, and by August 1975 had pulled the SAP out of Rhodesia completely. The nationalists, on the other hand, ignored the agreed terms and used the sudden cessation of security force activity as an opportunity to regroup and re-establish themselves both inside and outside the country.
Guerrilla operations continued: an average of six incidents a day were reported inside Rhodesia over the following months. Far from being seen as a gesture of potential reconciliation, the ceasefire and release of the nationalist leaders gave the message to the rural population that the security forces had been defeated, and that the guerrillas were in the process of emulating FRELIMO's victory in Mozambique. ZANU and ZANLA were unable to totally capitalise on the situation, however, because of internal conflict which had started earlier in 1974. Some ordinary ZANU cadres perceived the ZANU High Command members in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, to be following a luxurious lifestyle, contrary to the party's Maoist principles.
This culminated in the Nhari rebellion of November 1974, in which mutinous guerrillas were forcibly put down by the ZANU defence chief, Josiah Tongogara. The ZANU and ZAPU leaders imprisoned in Rhodesia were released in December 1974 as part of the "détente" deal. Robert Mugabe had been elected ZANU president while they were incarcerated, though this was disputed by its founding leader, the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, who continued to be recognised as such by the Frontline States. On his release, Mugabe moved into Mozambique to consolidate his supremacy within ZANU and ZANLA, while Sithole prepared to take part in talks with the Rhodesian government as part of the UANC delegation.
Sithole retained the ZANU leadership in the eyes of the Frontline States until late 1975. The Victoria Falls Conference According to the terms agreed in December 1974, the talks between the Rhodesian government and the UANC were to take place within Rhodesia, but in the event the black nationalist leaders were loath to attend a conference on ground they perceived as not neutral. The Rhodesians, however, were keen to adhere to the accord and meet at a Rhodesian venue. In an effort to placate both sides, Kaunda and Vorster relaxed the terms so that the two sides would instead meet aboard a train provided by the South African government, placed halfway across the Victoria Falls Bridge, on the Rhodesian–Zambian border.
The Rhodesian delegates could therefore take their seats in Rhodesia and the nationalists, on the opposite side of the carriage, would be able to attend without leaving Zambia. As part of the détente policy, Kaunda and Vorster would act as mediators in the conference, which was set for 26 August 1975. The UANC delegation was led, as expected, by Muzorewa and included Sithole representing ZANU, Nkomo for ZAPU and James Chikerema, the former ZAPU vice-president, for a third militant party, the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe. According to Rhodesian intelligence, the various nationalist factions had not patched up their differences, were not prepared to accept Muzorewa as their leader and, to this end, were hoping that the conference failed to produce an agreement.
The Rhodesians relayed these concerns to Pretoria, which told them firmly that the UANC would surely not risk losing the support of Kaunda and the Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere by deliberately sabotaging the peace process. When the Rhodesians persisted in their complaints, citing evidence of nationalist infighting in Lusaka, the South Africans were terser still, eventually wiring Salisbury: "If you don't like what we are offering, you always have the alternative of going it alone!" The conference started on the morning of 26 August as planned. The six Rhodesian delegates took their places first, then around 40 nationalists entered and crowded around Muzorewa on the opposite side of the cramped railway carriage.
Vorster and Kaunda arrived and sat on the Rhodesian side, where there was more space, and each spoke in turn, giving their blessing to the negotiations. Muzorewa then opened the proceedings at Smith's invitation. Speaking assertively, the bishop gave three concessions which would have to be given by the Rhodesian side for talks to begin: first, one man, one vote was established by Muzorewa to be "a basic necessity"; second, an amnesty would have to be given for all guerrilla fighters, including those convicted of murder by the High Court in Salisbury; and finally, all of the nationalists would have to be given permission to return to Rhodesia as soon as possible to begin political campaigning.
Smith replied calmly that Kaunda, Nyerere and Vorster had all assured him that the UANC had agreed not to demand preconditions for talks, and that Kaunda and Vorster had in fact confirmed this to him that same morning; his delegation was therefore surprised by Muzorewa's confrontational opening speech. Smith says that his reply "provoked a flood of rhetoric"; the nationalists evaded his words and, one by one, gave passionate speeches about being "a suppressed people ... denied freedom in their own country" who only wanted to "return home and live normal, peaceful lives". Smith sat back and waited for them to finish, then responded that there was nothing stopping them from going home at any time and living peacefully if they so wished, and that they were in this situation by their own hand.
They themselves, he said, had refused the Anglo-Rhodesian accord agreed four years previously, which he said had offered Rhodesian blacks "preferential franchise facilities", and they themselves had chosen to use "unconstitutional means and terrorism in order to overthrow the legal government of our country." The UANC delegates countered by railing against Smith even more strongly than before, repeating their previous arguments and rejecting the right of Britain to negotiate on their behalf. This argument went on for nine and a half hours before the conference broke up, Smith refusing outright to grant diplomatic immunity to the UANC's "terrorist leaders who bear responsibility for ... murders and other atrocities".
Muzorewa said that he doubted Smith's sincerity in seeking a resolution if he was unwilling to grant such a "very small thing" as immunity to the nationalist leaders. The conference broke up without any agreement or progress having been made. Aftermath: direct talks between the government and ZAPU in Salisbury After the failure of the talks across the Falls, even the facade of a united front amongst the nationalists was broken on 11 September, when Muzorewa expelled Nkomo and four of his deputies from the council after they suggested a new leadership election be held. ZAPU contacted Salisbury soon after, stating that they wished to enter talks directly with the government.
Smith "opted for the unthinkable", in the words of Eliakim Sibanda, reasoning that for all of their differences, Nkomo was still, as Sibanda writes, "a seasoned and pragmatic politician", who commanded a not insignificant force of guerrillas. The ZAPU leader was popular, too, not only locally but also regionally and internationally. If he could be brought into an internal government, and ZIPRA onto the side of the security forces, Smith thought, ZANU would find it difficult to justify continuing the guerrilla war, and even if they did so, they would be less likely to win. Dr Elliot Gabellah, Muzorewa's deputy in the UANC, told Smith that Nkomo was "the most balanced and experienced" of the nationalist leaders, and that most Ndebele now favoured open negotiation.
He said that most Ndebele would support a deal between the government and Nkomo, and that Muzorewa probably would as well. Meetings between Nkomo and Smith were duly arranged, and the first took place in secret in October 1975. After a few clandestine sessions passed without major problems, the two leaders agreed to have formal talks in the capital in December 1975. Nkomo was wary of being labelled a "sell-out" by his ZANU rivals, particularly Mugabe, so to prevent this from happening he first consulted Kaunda, Machel and Nyerere, the presidents of the Frontline States. Each of the presidents gave his approval to ZAPU's participation in direct talks, and with their blessing Nkomo and Smith signed a declaration of intent to negotiate on 1 December 1975.
Constitutional negotiations between the government and ZAPU began in Salisbury ten days later. The ZAPU delegation proposed an immediate switch to black majority rule, a government elected on a "strictly non-racial" basis, and reluctantly offered some sweeteners for the Rhodesian white population, "which we detested", Nkomo says, including some reserved seats for whites in parliament. The talks dragged on for months afterwards, with little progress being made, though Smith notes the "congenial atmosphere, with both sides ready to crack a joke". Nkomo's account of the meetings is less favourable, stressing Smith's perceived intransigence: "We went to great lengths to offer conditions that the Rhodesian régime might find acceptable, but Smith would not budge."
Notes References Sources Category:1975 conferences Category:1975 in international relations Category:1975 in Rhodesia Category:20th-century diplomatic conferences Category:Diplomatic conferences in Zambia Category:Diplomatic conferences in Rhodesia Category:Foreign relations of Rhodesia Category:History of Rhodesia Category:Rhodesian Bush War Category:History of Zimbabwe Category:Rhodesia–Zambia relations
Abraham Albert Hijmans van den Bergh (1 December 1869, in Rotterdam – 28 September 1943, in Utrecht) was a Dutch physician specializing in internal medicine. Hijmans van den Bergh is best known for his Van den Bergh reaction. In 1919 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. References External links Biography at inghist.nl Hijmans van den Bergh Building Category:1869 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Dutch physicians Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:People from Rotterdam
Antlerite is a greenish hydrous copper sulfate mineral, with the formula Cu3(SO4)(OH)4. It occurs in tabular, acicular, or fibrous crystals with a vitreous luster. Originally believed to be a rare mineral, antlerite was found to be the primary ore of the oxidised zones in several copper mines across the world, including the Chuquicamata mine in Chile, and the Antler mine in Arizona, US from which it takes its name. It is chemically and optically similar in many respects to other copper minerals such as malachite and brochantite, though it can be distinguished from the former by a lack of effervescence in hydrochloric acid.
Antlerite is a common corrosion product on bronze sculptures located in urban areas, where atmospheric sulfur dioxide (a common pollutant) is present. Antlerite forms mainly in sheltered areas where weathering is low, which permits accumulation of copper ions and enhancement in the acidity of water films. In exposed areas, the main corrosion product is brochantite. References Category:Copper(II) minerals Category:Sulfate minerals Category:Orthorhombic minerals
Ascanio Sobrero (12 October 1812 – 26 May 1888) was an Italian chemist, born in Casale Monferrato. He was studying under Théophile-Jules Pelouze at the University of Turin, who had worked with the explosive material guncotton. He studied medicine in Turin and Paris and then chemistry at the University of Gießen with Justus Liebig, and earned his doctorate in 1832. In 1845 he became professor at the University of Turin During his research he discovered, in 1847, nitroglycerine. He initially called it "pyroglycerine", and warned vigorously against its use in his private letters and in a journal article, stating that it was extremely dangerous and impossible to handle.
In fact, he was so frightened by what he created that he kept it a secret for over a year. Another of Pelouze's students was the young Alfred Nobel, who returned to the Nobel family's defunct armaments factory and began experimenting with the material around 1860; it did, indeed prove to be very difficult to discover how to handle it safely. In the 1860s Nobel received several patents around the world for mixtures, devices and manufacturing methods based on the explosive power of nitroglycerine, eventually leading to the invention of dynamite, ballistite and gelignite from which he made a fortune.
Although Nobel always acknowledged and honored Sobrero as the man who had discovered nitroglycerine, Sobrero was not only dismayed by the uses to which the explosive had been put, but also on occasion claimed that he was not given sufficient recognition. References See also Category:Italian chemists Category:1812 births Category:1888 deaths Category:University of Paris alumni Category:University of Turin alumni Category:University of Giessen alumni Category:University of Turin faculty Category:People from Casale Monferrato Category:Italian inventors Category:People from Turin
Long-Term Capital Management L.P. (LTCM) was a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut that used absolute return trading strategies combined with high financial leverage. LTCM was founded in 1994 by John Meriwether, the former vice-chairman and head of bond trading at Salomon Brothers. Members of LTCM's board of directors included Myron S. Scholes and Robert C. Merton, who shared the 1997 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for a "new method to determine the value of derivatives". Initially successful with annualized return of over 21% (after fees) in its first year, 43% in the second year and 41% in the third year, in 1998 it lost $4.6 billion in less than four months due to a combination of high leverage and exposure to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and 1998 Russian financial crisis.
The master hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Portfolio L.P., collapsed in the late 1990s, leading to an agreement on September 23, 1998, among 14 financial institutions—which included Bankers Trust, Barclays, Chase Manhattan Bank, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Paribas, Salomon Smith Barney, Société Générale, and UBS—for a $3.6 billion recapitalization under the supervision of the Federal Reserve. The fund liquidated and dissolved in early 2000. Founding John Meriwether headed Salomon Brothers' bond arbitrage desk until he resigned in 1991 amid a trading scandal. According to Chi-fu Huang, later a Principal at LTCM, the bond arbitrage group was responsible for 80–100% of Salomon's global total earnings from the late 1980s until the early 1990s.
In 1993 Meriwether created Long-Term Capital as a hedge fund and recruited several Salomon bond traders—Larry Hilibrand and Victor Haghani in particular would wield substantial clout—and two future winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize, Myron Scholes and Robert C. Merton. Other principals included Eric Rosenfeld, Greg Hawkins, William Krasker, Dick Leahy, James McEntee, Robert Shustak, and David W. Mullins Jr. The company consisted of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), a company incorporated in Delaware but based in Greenwich, Connecticut. LTCM managed trades in Long-Term Capital Portfolio LP, a partnership registered in the Cayman Islands. The fund's operation was designed to have extremely low overhead; trades were conducted through a partnership with Bear Stearns and client relations were handled by Merrill Lynch.
Meriwether chose to start a hedge fund to avoid the financial regulation imposed on more traditional investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, as established by the Investment Company Act of 1940—funds which accepted stakes from 100 or fewer individuals each with more than $1 million in net worth were exempt from most of the regulations that bound other investment companies. In late 1993, Meriwether approached several high-net-worth individuals in an effort to secure start-up capital for Long-Term Capital Management. With the help of Merrill Lynch, LTCM secured hundreds of millions of dollars from business owners, celebrities and even private university endowments and later the Italian central bank.
The bulk of the money, however, came from companies and individuals connected to the financial industry. By 24 February 1994, the day LTCM began trading, the company had amassed just over $1.01 billion in capital. Trading strategies The core investment strategy of the company was then known as involving convergence trading: using quantitative models to exploit deviations from fair value in the relationships between liquid securities across nations and asset classes. In fixed income the company was involved in US Treasuries, Japanese Government Bonds, UK Gilts, Italian BTPs, and Latin American debt, although their activities were not confined to these markets or to government bonds.
List of Major 1998 Trades Fixed Income Arbitrage Short US swap spread Euro Cross-Swap Long US mortgages hedged Swap curve Japan Italian swap spread Fixed income Volatility On-the-run/off-the-run spread Junk bond arbitrage Equity Short equity Vol Risk Arbitrage Equity Relative Value Emerging Markets Long emerging market sovereigns Long emerging market currency Long emerging market equity hedged to S&P 500 Other Yield curve trades Short high-tech stocks Convertible arbitrage Index arbitrage Fixed income arbitrage Fixed income securities pay a set of coupons at specified dates in the future, and make a defined redemption payment at maturity. Since bonds of similar maturities and the same credit quality are close substitutes for investors, there tends to be a close relationship between their prices (and yields).
Whereas it is possible to construct a single set of valuation curves for derivative instruments based on LIBOR-type fixings, it is not possible to do so for government bond securities because every bond has slightly different characteristics. It is therefore necessary to construct a theoretical model of what the relationships between different but closely related fixed income securities should be. For example, the most recently issued treasury bond in the US – known as the benchmark – will be more liquid than bonds of similar but slightly shorter maturity that were issued previously. Trading is concentrated in the benchmark bond, and transaction costs are lower for buying or selling it.
As a consequence, it tends to trade more expensively than less liquid older bonds, but this expensiveness (or richness) tends to have a limited duration, because after a certain time there will be a new benchmark, and trading will shift to this security newly issued by the Treasury. One core trade in the LTCM strategies was to purchase the old benchmark – now a 29.75-year bond, and which no longer had a significant premium – and to sell short the newly issued benchmark 30-year, which traded at a premium. Over time the valuations of the two bonds would tend to converge as the richness of the benchmark faded once a new benchmark was issued.
If the coupons of the two bonds were similar, then this trade would create an exposure to changes in the shape of the yield curve: a flattening would depress the yields and raise the prices of longer-dated bonds, and raise the yields and depress the prices of shorter-dated bonds. It would therefore tend to create losses by making the 30-year bond that LTCM was short more expensive (and the 29.75-year bond they owned cheaper) even if there had been no change in the true relative valuation of the securities. This exposure to the shape of the yield curve could be managed at a portfolio level, and hedged out by entering a smaller steepener in other similar securities.
Leverage and portfolio composition Because the magnitude of discrepancies in valuations in this kind of trade is small (for the benchmark Treasury convergence trade, typically a few basis points), in order to earn significant returns for investors, LTCM used leverage to create a portfolio that was a significant multiple (varying over time depending on their portfolio composition) of investors' equity in the fund. It was also necessary to access the financing market in order to borrow the securities that they had sold short. In order to maintain their portfolio, LTCM was therefore dependent on the willingness of its counterparties in the government bond (repo) market to continue to finance their portfolio.
If the company was unable to extend its financing agreements, then it would be forced to sell the securities it owned and to buy back the securities it was short at market prices, regardless of whether these were favourable from a valuation perspective. At the beginning of 1998, the firm had equity of $4.7 billion and had borrowed over $124.5 billion with assets of around $129 billion, for a debt-to-equity ratio of over 25 to 1. It had off-balance sheet derivative positions with a notional value of approximately $1.25 trillion, most of which were in interest rate derivatives such as interest rate swaps.
The fund also invested in other derivatives such as equity options. John Quiggin's book Zombie Economics (2010) states, "These derivatives, such as interest rate swaps, were developed with the supposed goal of allowing firms to manage risk on exchange rates and interest rate movements. Instead, they allowed speculation on an unparalleled scale." Secret and opaque operations LTCM was open about its overall strategy, but very secretive about its specific operations, including scattering trades among banks. And in perhaps a disconcerting note, "since Long-Term was flourishing, no one needed to know exactly what they were doing. All they knew was that the profits were coming in as promised," or at least perhaps what should have been a disconcerting note when looked at in hindsight.
Opaqueness may have made even more of a difference and investors may have had even a harder time judging the risk involved when LTCM moved from bond arbitrage into arbitrage involving common stocks and corporate mergers. UBS investment Under prevailing US tax laws, there was a different treatment of long-term capital gains, which were taxed at 20.0 percent, and income, which was taxed at 39.6 percent. The earnings for partners in a hedge fund was taxed at the higher rate applying to income, and LTCM applied its financial engineering expertise to legally transform income into capital gains. It did so by engaging in a transaction with UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) that would defer foreign interest income for seven years, thereby being able to earn the more favourable capital gains treatment.
LTCM purchased a call option on 1 million of their own shares (valued then at $800 million) for a premium paid to UBS of $300 million. This transaction was completed in three tranches: in June, August, and October 1997. Under the terms of the deal, UBS agreed to reinvest the $300 million premium directly back into LTCM for a minimum of three years. In order to hedge its exposure from being short the call option, UBS also purchased 1 million of LTCM shares. Put-call parity means that being short a call and long the same amount of notional as underlying the call is equivalent to being short a put.
So the net effect of the transaction was for UBS to lend $300 million to LTCM at LIBOR+50 and to be short a put on 1 million shares. UBS's own motivation for the trade was to be able to invest in LTCM – a possibility that was not open to investors generally – and to become closer to LTCM as a client. LTCM quickly became the largest client of the hedge fund desk, generating $15 million in fees annually. Diminishing opportunities and broadening of strategies LTCM attempted to create a splinter fund in 1996 called LTCM-X that would invest in even higher risk trades and focus on Latin American markets.
LTCM turned to UBS to invest in and write the warrant for this new spin-off company. LTCM faced challenges in deploying capital as their capital base grew due to initially strong returns, and as the magnitude of anomalies in market pricing diminished over time. James Surowiecki concludes that LTCM grew such a large portion of such illiquid markets that there was no diversity in buyers in them, or no buyers at all, so the wisdom of the market did not function and it was impossible to determine a price for its assets (such as Danish bonds in September 1998). In Q4 1997, a year in which it earned 27%, LTCM returned capital to investors.
It also broadened its strategies to include new approaches in markets outside of fixed income: many of these were not market neutral – they were dependent on overall interest rates or stock prices going up (or down) – and they were not traditional convergence trades. By 1998, LTCM had accumulated extremely large positions in areas such as merger arbitrage (betting on differences between a proprietary view of the likelihood of success of mergers and other corporate transactions would be completed and the implied market pricing) and S&P 500 options (net short long-term S&P volatility). LTCM had become a major supplier of S&P 500 vega, which had been in demand by companies seeking to essentially insure equities against future declines.
Early skepticism Despite the fund's prominent leadership and strong growth at LTCM, a 2014 Business Insider article pointed out that there were skeptics from the very beginning: Investor Seth Klarman believed it was reckless to have the combination of high leverage and not accounting for rare or outlying scenarios. Software designer Mitchell Kapor, who had sold a statistical program with LTCM partner Eric Rosenfeld, saw quantitative finance as a faith, rather than science. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson was concerned about extraordinary events affecting the market. Economist Eugene Fama found in his research that stocks were bound to have extreme outliers.
Furthermore, he believed that, because they are subject to discontinuous price changes, real-life markets are inherently more risky than models. He became even more concerned when LTCM began adding stocks to their bond portfolio. Downturn Although periods of distress have often created tremendous opportunities for relative value strategies, this did not prove to be the case on this occasion, and the seeds of LTCM's demise were sown before the Russian default of 17 August 1998. LTCM had returned $2.7 bn to investors in Q4 of 1997, although it had also raised a total in capital of $1.066bn from UBS and $133m from CSFB.
Since position sizes had not been reduced, the net effect was to raise the leverage of the fund. Although 1997 had been a very profitable year for LTCM (27%), the lingering effects of the 1997 Asian crisis continued to shape developments in asset markets into 1998. Although this crisis had originated in Asia, its effects were not confined to that region. The rise in risk aversion had raised concerns amongst investors regarding all markets heavily dependent on international capital flows, and this shaped asset pricing in markets outside Asia too. In May and June 1998 returns from the fund were -6.42% and -10.14% respectively, reducing LTCM's capital by $461 million.
This was further aggravated by the exit of Salomon Brothers from the arbitrage business in July 1998. Because the Salomon arbitrage group (where many of LTCM's strategies had first been incubated) had been a significant player in the kinds of strategies also pursued by LTCM, the liquidation of the Salomon portfolio (and its announcement itself) had the effect of depressing the prices of the securities owned by LTCM and bidding up the prices of the securities LTCM was short. According to Michael Lewis in the New York Times article of July 1998, returns that month were circa -10%. One LTCM partner commented that because there was a clear temporary reason to explain the widening of arbitrage spreads, at the time it gave them more conviction that these trades would eventually return to fair value (as they did, but not without widening much further first).
Such losses were accentuated through the 1998 Russian financial crisis in August and September 1998, when the Russian government defaulted on its domestic local currency bonds. This came as a surprise to many investors because according to traditional economic thinking of the time, a sovereign issuer should never need to default given access to the printing press. There was a flight to quality, bidding up the prices of the most liquid and benchmark securities that LTCM was short, and depressing the price of the less liquid securities it owned. This phenomenon occurred not merely in the US Treasury market but across the full spectrum of financial assets.
Although LTCM was diversified, the nature of its strategy implied an exposure to a latent factor risk of the price of liquidity across markets. As a consequence, when a much larger flight to liquidity occurred than had been anticipated when constructing its portfolio, its positions designed to profit from convergence to fair value incurred large losses as expensive but liquid securities became more expensive, and cheap but illiquid securities became cheaper. By the end of August, the fund had lost $1.85 billion in capital. Because LTCM was not the only fund pursuing such a strategy, and because the proprietary trading desks of the banks also held some similar trades, the divergence from fair value was made worse as these other positions were also liquidated.
As rumours of LTCM's difficulties spread, some market participants positioned in anticipation of a forced liquidation. Victor Haghani, a partner at LTCM, said about this time "it was as if there was someone out there with our exact portfolio,... only it was three times as large as ours, and they were liquidating all at once." Because these losses reduced the capital base of LTCM, and its ability to maintain the magnitude of its existing portfolio, LTCM was forced to liquidate a number of its positions at a highly unfavorable moment and suffer further losses. A vivid illustration of the consequences of these forced liquidations is given by Lowenstein (2000).
He reports that LTCM established an arbitrage position in the dual-listed company (or "DLC") Royal Dutch Shell in the summer of 1997, when Royal Dutch traded at an 8%–10% premium relative to Shell. In total $2.3 billion was invested, half of which was "long" in Shell and the other half was "short" in Royal Dutch. LTCM was essentially betting that the share prices of Royal Dutch and Shell would converge because in their belief the present value of the future cashflows of the two securities should be similar. This might have happened in the long run, but due to its losses on other positions, LTCM had to unwind its position in Royal Dutch Shell.
Lowenstein reports that the premium of Royal Dutch had increased to about 22%, which implies that LTCM incurred a large loss on this arbitrage strategy. LTCM lost $286 million in equity pairs trading and more than half of this loss is accounted for by the Royal Dutch Shell trade. The company, which had historically earned annualised compounded returns of almost 40% up to this point, experienced a flight to liquidity. In the first three weeks of September, LTCM's equity tumbled from $2.3 billion at the start of the month to just $400 million by September 25. With liabilities still over $100 billion, this translated to an effective leverage ratio of more than 250-to-1.
Historian Niall Ferguson proposed that LTCM's collapse stemmed in part from their use of only five years of financial data to prepare their mathematical models, thus drastically under-estimating the risks of a profound economic crisis.<ref name=Ferguson>Niall Ferguson (2008). The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. London: Allen Lane. .</ref> Using ten years of data would have included the 1987 US market crash, while using 80 years of data would have included many minor and major economic downturns including the 1918 Russian sovereign debt default after the First World War and Russian Civil War, highlighting the possibility of a major foreign event causing international repercussions that LTCM seemingly overlooked.
1998 bailout Long-Term Capital Management did business with nearly every important person on Wall Street. Indeed, much of LTCM's capital was composed of funds from the same financial professionals with whom it traded. As LTCM teetered, Wall Street feared that Long-Term's failure could cause a chain reaction in numerous markets, causing catastrophic losses throughout the financial system. After LTCM failed to raise more money on its own, it became clear it was running out of options. On September 23, 1998, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Berkshire Hathaway offered then to buy out the fund's partners for $250 million, to inject $3.75 billion and to operate LTCM within Goldman's own trading division.
The offer was stunningly low to LTCM's partners because at the start of the year their firm had been worth $4.7 billion. Warren Buffett gave Meriwether less than one hour to accept the deal; the time lapsed before a deal could be worked out. Seeing no options left, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York organized a bailout of $3.625 billion by the major creditors to avoid a wider collapse in the financial markets. The principal negotiator for LTCM was general counsel James G. Rickards. The contributions from the various institutions were as follows:Bloomberg.com: Exclusive $300 million: Bankers Trust, Barclays, Chase, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, J.P.Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Salomon Smith Barney, UBS $125 million: Société Générale $100 million: Paribas Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Crédit Agricole declined to participate.
In return, the participating banks got a 90% share in the fund and a promise that a supervisory board would be established. LTCM's partners received a 10% stake, still worth about $400 million, but this money was completely consumed by their debts. The partners once had $1.9 billion of their own money invested in LTCM, all of which was wiped out. The fear was that there would be a chain reaction as the company liquidated its securities to cover its debt, leading to a drop in prices, which would force other companies to liquidate their own debt in a vicious cycle.
The total losses were found to be $4.6 billion. The losses in the major investment categories were (ordered by magnitude): $1.6 bn in swaps $1.3 bn in equity volatility $430 mn in Russia and other emerging markets $371 mn in directional trades in developed countries $286 mn in Dual-listed company pairs (such as VW, Shell) $215 mn in yield curve arbitrage $203 mn in S&P 500 stocks $100 mn in junk bond arbitrage no substantial losses in merger arbitrage Long-Term Capital was audited by Price Waterhouse LLP. After the bailout by the other investors, the panic abated, and the positions formerly held by LTCM were eventually liquidated at a small profit to the rescuers.
Although termed a bailout, the transaction effectively amounted to an orderly liquidation of the positions held by LTCM with creditor involvement and supervision by the Federal Reserve Bank. No public money was injected or directly at risk, and the companies involved in providing support to LTCM were also those that stood to lose from its failure. The creditors themselves did not lose money from being involved in the transaction. Some industry officials said that Federal Reserve Bank of New York involvement in the rescue, however benign, would encourage large financial institutions to assume more risk, in the belief that the Federal Reserve would intervene on their behalf in the event of trouble.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York actions raised concerns among some market observers that it could create moral hazard since even though the Fed had not directly injected capital, its use of moral suasion to encourage creditor involvement emphasized its interest in supporting the financial system . LTCM's strategies were compared (a contrast with the market efficiency aphorism that there are no $100 bills lying on the street, as someone else has already picked them up) to "picking up nickels in front of a bulldozer"—a likely small gain balanced against a small chance of a large loss, like the payouts from selling an out-of-the-money naked call option.
Aftermath In 1998, the chairman of Union Bank of Switzerland resigned as a result of a $780 million loss incurred from the short put option on LTCM, which had become very significantly in the money due to its collapse. After the bailout, Long-Term Capital Management continued operations. In the year following the bailout, it earned 10%. By early 2000, the fund had been liquidated, and the consortium of banks that financed the bailout had been paid back, but the collapse was devastating for many involved. Mullins, once considered a possible successor to Alan Greenspan, saw his future with the Fed dashed.
The theories of Merton and Scholes took a public beating. In its annual reports, Merrill Lynch observed that mathematical risk models "may provide a greater sense of security than warranted; therefore, reliance on these models should be limited." After helping unwind LTCM, John Meriwether launched JWM Partners. Haghani, Hilibrand, Leahy, and Rosenfeld signed up as principals of the new firm. By December 1999, they had raised $250 million for a fund that would continue many of LTCM's strategies—this time, using less leverage. With the credit crisis of 2008, JWM Partners LLC was hit with a 44% loss from September 2007 to February 2009 in its Relative Value Opportunity II fund.
As such, JWM Hedge Fund was shut down in July 2009. Meriwether then launched a third hedge fund in 2010 called JM Advisors Management. A 2014 Business Insider article stated that his later two funds used "the same investment strategy from his time at LTCM and Salomon." See also Black–Scholes model Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 Game theory Greenspan put Kurtosis risk Limits to arbitrage Martingale (betting system) Martingale (probability theory) Probability theory St. Petersburg paradox Value at riskWhen Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management'' Black swan problem Notes Bibliography . Chapter 15: Long-Term Capital Management, pp.
245–273 Further reading Case Study: Long-Term Capital Management erisk.com Meriwether and Strange Weather: Intelligence, Risk Management and Critical Thinking austhink.org US District Court of Connecticut judgement on tax status of LTCM losses Michael Lewis – NYT – How the Egghead's Cracked-January 1999 Stein, M. (2003): Unbounded irrationality: Risk and organizational narcissism at Long Term Capital Management, in: Human Relations 56 (5), S. 523–540. Category:1998 in economics Category:Financial services companies established in 1994 Category:Financial services companies disestablished in 2000 Category:Corporate scandals Category:Financial crises Category:Hedge funds Category:Hedge fund firms in Connecticut Category:Defunct hedge funds * Category:1994 establishments in Connecticut Category:2000 disestablishments in Connecticut
Native Nod was an American emo band formed in the early 1990s and based in the New York metropolitan area. During their short stint as a group, they released nine songs, divided amongst three seven-inch EPs, Bread, Answers, and Lower GI Bleed. These nine songs can be found on the Gern Blandsten Records collection, Today Puberty, Tomorrow The World. Member Chris Leo moved on to form The Van Pelt and later The Lapse, later performing as "Vague Angels". Dave Lerner joined Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Chris and Danny Leo are the brothers of Ted Leo. Danny Leo formed The Holy Childhood (stylized as "tHE hOLY cHILDHOOD").
Justin Simon played in We Acediasts while living in Japan before relocating to New York and establishing Mesh-Key Records. Members Chris Leo, vocals Danny Leo, drums Dave Lerner, bass Justin Simon, guitar Releases Answers 7" (1992) Bread 7" (1993) Lower GI Bleed 7" (1995) Today Puberty, Tomorrow The World CD (1995) References External links Gern Blandsten Records Category:American post-hardcore musical groups
Somerset is a county in the south west of England. It is a rural county and transport infrastructure has been significant in industrial development. There is some heavy industry particularly related to the defence technologies and the county has several centres for stone quarrying, although the coalfield is now closed. Agriculture and textile production continue to provide employment along with tourism. Industry Somerset has few industrial centres. Bridgwater was developed during the Industrial Revolution as the West Country's leading port. The River Parrett was navigable by large ships as far as Bridgwater. By then loading the cargoes onto smaller boats at Langport Quay, next to the Bridgwater Bridge, they could be carried further up river to Langport.
The Parrett is now only navigable as far as Dunball Wharf; and the wharf is still in use today to unload marine gravels and sands. Bridgwater, in the 19th and 20th centuries, was a centre for the manufacture of bricks and clay roof tiles, Bath bricks and later cellophane, but those industries have now closed. With its good links to the motorway system, Bridgwater has developed as a distribution hub for companies such as Argos, Toolstation and Gerber Juice. The Somerset Levels has historically been a large producer of peat, but ecological concerns have led to the search for alternative materials for applications, such as potting of plants.
AgustaWestland manufacture helicopters in Yeovil. Helicopters were also built at Weston-super-Mare; it is now the home of a helicopter museum - The Helicopter Museum (Weston). Normalair Garratt, who built aircraft oxygen systems, are also based in the town; the company is now part of Honeywell Aerospace. Many towns have encouraged small-scale light industries, such as Crewkerne's Ariel Motor Company, one of the UK's smallest car manufacturers. Defence industries Somerset was, and is, an important supplier of equipment and technology to support the defence of United Kingdom. A Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Bridgwater was built at the start of the Second World War, between the villages of Puriton and Woolavington, to manufacture explosives; and in 2007 is still operating, at a much reduced output, as part of BAE Systems Land Systems and is due to close completely in 2008.