Tag: financial crisis

John Paulson’s Interview With The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission | zero hedge

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John Paulson, head of the hedge fund that made the ‘Greatest Trade Ever Made’ netting billions in just one day by shorting the subprime real estate finance market, testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. This summary of his testimony makes interesting reading and is instructive of the forces at work in the collapse

“If ACA and IKB or Moody’s didn’t like the ~100 subprime reference securities we helped pick for the deal, they could have…not bought the deal or – get this – replaced them with ones they liked better…I couldn’t have gone short if they hadn’t gone long, they agreed on the reference portfolio, it got rated, boom, done” It sounded like he just wanted to say something like “Hello morons?! This is how Finance works, HELLOOO!!!”

The article also contains a link to audio of the testimony.

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Links to FedConnect and Federal Grants Sources

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This is a little old, but still valuable…

Important Application Information for New Small Business Funding

Earlier today, our office sent you an email regarding yesterday’s announcement for $30 million in funding from the Recovery Act and FY 2010 budget appropriations which will be made available to qualified small businesses to support the commercialization of promising new technologies.

Qualified small businesses can submit applications through Grants.gov to be considered for award. Use the Grants.gov “Basic Search” feature to search for the Xlerator program. Questions relating to the content of the FOA must be submitted through the FedConnect portal at www.fedconnect.net. While there is not a direct link to the SBIR Phase III FOA, applicants can search for it by typing “DE-FOA-0000397” in the search box under the reference number search.

View Grants.gov here: http://www07.grants.gov/search/basic.do
View FedConnect here: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities.aspx

Please note that only DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I and Phase II grantees from FY 2005 to FY 2009 are eligible to apply to this U.S. Department of Energy Phase III Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).

For additional information please review the attached FOA for the DOE FY2010 Phase III Xlerator Program for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity Delivery, Energy Reliability, Fossil Energy, and Nuclear Energy.

Small Business Dashboard | U.S. Department of Energy – Office of Economic Impact and Diversity

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Transparency, Accuracy, and the Small Business Dashboard

With small businesses creating two out of every three net new jobs, holding more patents than the largest corporations and universities combined, and employing half of all working Americans, we can’t afford to ignore opportunities to improve and advance federal contracting opportunities to small businesses.

Today President Obama’s Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Businesses put forward thirteen recommendations to:

  • Develop clearer and more comprehensive small business contracting policies;
  • Provide for a better workforce and hold agencies accountable for meeting small business goals; and
  • Leverage technology to enhance transparency, increase federal procurement accessibility for small businesses, and improve data quality.

Transparency, Accuracy, and the Small Business Dashboard

Read the Executive Summary here.

Small business contracting goals, started in 1978, help agencies map out the percentage of annual prime contract spending that should be awarded to small businesses every year. The thirteen recommendations that the Interagency Task Force put forward today will address the gap between the annual government-wide goal for contracting and the actual annual prime contract spending. While the Department of Energy received an “A” grade for FY 2009 achievement from the Small Business Administration, we are fully committed to improving government-wide small business contracting.

The brand-new Small Business Dashboard is a reflection of this commitment. On the Small Business Dashboard visitors can see government-wide goaling information, design their own data feeds from small business data, perform detailed searches on government contractors, view top types of contracts used and states by vendor locations, and learn more about the contracts at each Federal agency.

Visit the Small Business Dashboard here.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization is looking forward to working with the Task Force as we implement the recommendations put forward today and evaluate progress. We hope resources like the Small Business Dashboard prove useful to your small business, and we welcome the opportunity to continue talking with you.

Finding a Good Financial Bill in 2,300 Pages | NYTimes.com

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I did something I doubt few people have dared. I took the liberty of a 13-hour flight back from Asia earlier this week to read all 2,300-plus pages of the bill. Yes, all of them.

My law professor verdict: There are many things to applaud in this bill and much in there that will substantially enhance the government’s power to regulate the financial industry. On the whole, if you think that the financial industry needs more supervision and financial regulators more tools, you should be relatively happy. If you are an advocate of big world changing ideas like breaking up the banks, you will be less so.

Read Article.