Could Madoff family members go scott free?

One was Bernard Madoff's right-hand man for decades. Two others were executives in his firm. All are family — and presumed targets of the investigation of Madoff's epic fraud, according to ABC News.

But nearly three years into the probe, Madoff's brother, son and niece have avoided criminal charges, raising the possibility that they could get off entirely, ccording to an ABC News report..

People with knowledge of the case say federal investigators turned over potential criminal evidence against Peter, Andrew and Shana Madoff to prosecutors in the spring with expectations that a decision on whether to prosecute them would be made by the end of summer.

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan hasn't taken any action, suggesting any potential criminal evidence gleaned from a massive paper trail and the testimony of cooperators isn't strong enough to conclusively prove that the three knew that Madoff spent decades orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a final decision hasn't been announced. All three family members have denied any wrongdoing. Prosecutors already had decided not to charge Madoff's wife; Ruth….

Read all about it at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/years-chances-madoff-charges-fade-14653389

Dollar Beating All Assets in September Undermines S&P U.S. Debt Downgrade

After all the concern that the U.S. is debasing its currency, the dollar beat stocks, bonds and commodities for the first time since May as investors sought refuge from slowing growth and Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis, Bloomberg reports.

The U.S. currency rose 6 percent in September, according to IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, beating returns of 1.6 percent by Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s U.S. Treasury Master Index. The MSCI All-Country World Index of stocks in 45 countries lost 8.9 percent, the largest monthly drop since May 2010. Raw materials measured by the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Total Return Index of 24 commodities slid 12 percent.

Gains for the world’s reserve currency show investor confidence in the nation’s creditworthiness after Standard & Poor’s stripped the U.S. of its AAA rating two months ago. Even with Republican leaders in Congress joining critics of Federal Reserve stimulus measures, the currency bested all 16 of its most-traded counterparts in September for the first month in more than three years.
“In a time of crisis you want to be holding the most liquid currency out there,” Aroop Chatterjee, a currency strategist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, said in a telephone interview Sept. 27. “It waters down the argument for ‘the end of the dollar as a reserve currency….’”

Read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-02/dollar-beating-all-assets-in-september-undermines-s-p-downgrade.html

Greece Will Miss Its Deficit Target

The Greek government acknowledged Sunday that it will miss its deficit target this year, as it moved ahead with a plan to slash thousands of public-sector jobs to meet the demands of international creditors, according to the Wall St Journal.

Greece also has agreed to take some €6.6 billion ($8.8 billion) in new austerity measures in 2011 and 2012 to bring its budget back on track, but some economists warned that additional cuts will further weigh on the country's growth.

The Greek government called an extraordinary cabinet meeting Sunday to approve the 2012 draft budget as well as the job-cut plan, following three days of talks ...
The country's deficit this year is expected to reach 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, or euro18.69 billion ($25.2 billion) -- higher than the targeted euro17.1 billion ($23.1 billion), which would have been 7.8 percent of GDP, the ministry said...

Find out more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576606722182855778.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

How North Dakota Became Saudi Arabia

The Wall St Journal writes: Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma-based founder and CEO of Continental Resources, the 14th-largest oil company in America, is a man who thinks big. He came to Washington last month to spread a needed message of economic optimism: With the right set of national energy policies, the United States could be "completely energy independent by the end of the decade. We can be the Saudi Arabia of oil and natural gas in the 21st century."

You'd expect an oilman to make the "drill, baby, drill" pitch. But since 2005 America truly has been in the midst of a revolution in oil and natural gas, which is the nation's fastest-growing manufacturing sector. No one is more responsible for that resurgence than Mr. Hamm. He was the original discoverer of the gigantic and prolific Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota that have already helped move the U.S. into third place among world oil producers.

How much oil does Bakken have? The official estimate of the U.S. Geological Survey a few years ago was between four and five billion barrels. Mr. Hamm disagrees: "No way. We estimate that the entire field, fully developed, in Bakken is 24 billion barrels….."

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Wall Street Protest Spreads Nationwide

From the Wall St Journal: The anti-Wall Street protest in Lower Manhattan entered its third week with hundreds of arrests after the group blocked traffic Saturday on the Brooklyn Bridge, and budding copycat movements across the U.S. continued to stage smaller-scale protests, planning them online on social networking sites.


Inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in New York, some 100 people gathered Sunday outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago to protest inequities in the nation's financial system. WSJ's Jack Nicas reports. Protesters held sizable gatherings in Chicago and Los Angeles. In other cities, like San Francisco and Pittsburgh, protests were smaller or existed only in a planning stage. A website, occupytogether.org, lists groups that are offshoots of the New York protest. Activists have begun organizing outside the U.S., including in Prague, Melbourne and Montreal.

In New York, the protesters initially set out to occupy Wall Street but were rebuffed by police. Instead, the group set up in a nearby park, keeping the "Occupy Wall Street" moniker. The spread to other cities appears largely organic—the protests don't have a central organizer—and the idea came from a Canadian magazine and grew on social media websites.

Read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204612504576607303128523710.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

Hackers joining Wall Street protests

Amid the real world protests swarming around Wall Street, the Department of Homeland Security has warned financial companies to be vigilant against a looming cyber- security threat from Anonymous, a headless horde of activist hackers, according to NY Post reports.

Wanted for shutting down Web sites as high-profile as that of the CIA, a recently released DHS bulletin said the group “will continue to exploit vulnerable publicly available Web servers, computer networks and other digital information mediums for the foreseeable future.”

While the DHS warning doesn’t mention Wall Street protests in particular, it did say that “publicized events” like Occupy Wall Street may motivate the group.

Nevertheless, the agency wouldn’t weigh in on the ways it might monitor Anonymous’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street.

“We don’t have any role in someone’s right to public protest,” said a DHS official.
Occupy Wall Street spokesman Patrick Bruener acknowledged that Anonymous marches alongside those demonstrating against the financial industry’s misdeeds but said that sometimes their actions cross a line.

Find out more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/hackers_joining_wall_street_protests_q1ghamyb6FnIrSRFqKPvCK

Debt rumors hammer top firm

Jittery investors eager for clarity on Morgan Stanley’s exposure to Europe’s debt crisis will have to wait at least another three weeks. That’s assuming they can hold out that long as Morgan’s shares hemorrhage on rumors about the bank’s financial health. Morgan Stanley plans on disclosing in detail its exposure to the euro-zone when it reports third-quarter results on Oct. 17, sources say.

Meanwhile, Wall Street has been fretting that Morgan Stanley’s exposure could reach into the tens of billions of dollars.

Although Morgan CEO James Gorman has personally been reaching out to investors to assuage the panic, the stock has continued to its roller-coaster ride. Yesterday, Morgan’s shares fell a whopping 10.47 percent to close at $13.51. The drop followed reports highlighting that the amount the bank pays to insure its own debt -- in the form of so-called credit default swaps -- has skyrocketed in recent weeks as unrest over the solvency of European nations like Greece has persisted.....

Read more about it at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/debt_rumors_hit_morgan_stanley_MRae74IGmT4XULZtyNjN3J#ixzz1ZhWxV1RX