An ongoing challenge for law enforcement in pursuing charges against bankers is actually getting convictions at trial. Even manipulating Libor is a tough sell to juries.
For those who wanted to see bunches of bankers in prison stripes, keep in mind there is that hurdle of persuading a jury a crime was committed. It may be difficult, but is possible to do.
In their research they have only found 2,400 Americans who ran money through companies set up by Mossack Fonseca, none of them high-profile, and apparently none of them from the political world.
Article tells the tale visible from correspondence for a few people who had already built a private fortune and then decided to park money overseas.
The basic asset protection shell structure includes two entities: a for-profit into which money is moved from the US, and a Panamanian based foundation which receives a contribution from the first shell, thus protecting the money from litigation, taxation, or disclosure.
Drawing of Persian daric gold coin. Alexander would have looted tons of these. Image courtesy of Adobe stock.
The number two man in the Persian Empire offered a bribe of 10,000 talents to the king in return for permission to kill off all the Jews living under the authority of the king. Today’s question: what would the amount of that bribe be worth in today’s money?
The Old Testament book of Esther tells the story of Haman plotting to kill all the Jews living in the Persian Empire. Esther then told King Xerxes about the plot. The King executed Haman and allowed the Jews to defend themselves from those planning to exterminate them. The Jews survived. Those who expected to slaughter them did not. That is the short version. For the full details, check out the book of Esther.
Hers is a wonderful story of realizing God put you in a place to do a job that only you can do. So many other delightful and encouraging aspects of the story. If you haven’t looked at it lately, check it out.
There is one particular verse in the story which overlaps my discussion of Alexander the Great looting the Persian Empire. …
My fellow CPAs who are members of the AICPA voted overwhelmingly to approve the operating agreement or joint venture or merger (however you choose to describe the combination of operations) between the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), producing a new Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA).
Drawing of Persian daric gold coin. Alexander would have looted tons of these (literally tons). Image courtesy of Adobe stock.
After developing a few points of reference for comparing ancient finances to now, I can get back to pondering the value of loot Alexander the Great stole while on his military rampage, I mean campaign.
Approximate value of the haul from looting Susa, the capital of Persia
The loot from Susa is described by Prof. Holt, and converted to a current value, as follows:
40,000 Talents of uncoined bullion, or raw silver
10,000 Talents of gold coins, which I will assume is expressed as the equivalent in silver
50,000 Talents – haul at Susa, estimated by Prof. Holt
400 years wages per talent, for a skilled laborer, adjusted for Great Enrichment at a factor of 40; could be as high as 80 or even 100
20,000,000 years wages
200,000 centuries of wages for an average worker
$70,000 – average annual compensation package for a skilled construction worker today, calculated here
$1,400,000,000,000 – really rough approximation of current wages today for skilled construction workers which would be vaguely comparable to loot hauled off from Susa
Today, the 16th, is the last day for voting on the proposal of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA with CPA) to merge with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to create a new Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA with professional instead of pubic) that will promote the interests of CPAs and management accountants.
Yes, this would produce two AICPAs, with operations of the AICPA, the AICPA, and the CIMA all being conducted out of the AICPA office in North Carolina.
My worry is this will dilute the effort of the current AICPA to pay attention to the world of CPAs.
Street sign for Wall Street and Broad Street, the heart of the Financial District of New York City. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
I am building some reference points for my ongoing learning about ancient finances. (If you couldn’t tell, I’m have a lot of fun. This learnin’ thing is cool.)
Here is the value of all the stock listed on the market in the G-20 economies. This is the total capitalization of the companies in those countries.
Data is from this site. A lot of other sources could be used and other years might give different results. The accuracy of the valuation of Alexander’s loot is only accurate to one or two significant digits. The needed estimates and assumptions will leave any comparisons accurate to only one significant digit. Actually, by the time my calculations are finished, the amounts will probably be accurate to maybe overestimating 20% or perhaps underestimating by 100% or 200%.
Thus, more precision in the market capitalizations is irrelevant.
Why bank regulators not disclosing the criteria for evaluating “living wills” causes more systemic financial risk
Enforcement efforts on two interest-rate manipulation fiascos
Here is how you get caught for trading on inside information
6/10 – Francine McKenna at MarketWatch – How NASDAQ watches for insider trading – Deep background on how NASDAQ monitors all the trading in the market for suspicious activity. They have a variety of tools and techniques to identify anomalies and drill down to eventually reach the individual trades.
As a general concept these ideas apply to every business and charity. Getting ready in advance of a media firestorm will improve your chances of surviving the onslaught.
I was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force a mere four years. I never got within 3,000 miles of hostile action against American forces. To top it off, my small contribution was decades ago.
As a result, I am squeamishly uncomfortable accepting the appreciation when someone tells me “Thanks for your service.”
It took me a few years to get to a place where I could accept those comments.
I now graciously and proudly accept those expressions of appreciation from my fellow Americans, not because of what I did so long ago, but on behalf of all those soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who do not have someone looking them in the eye, shaking their hand, and saying “thanks.”
So for all those troops pulling alerts, standing watch, scheduling logistics, or taking fire, please know that vast numbers of Americans are grateful for your service.
I pass on to you their thanks.
You are there, not here, so many people have thanked me instead. It is you they are really thanking.
While today we remember with gratitude those who did not return, I hope those who are serving today hear the appreciation.
A hurdle that keeps popping up when the U.S. or other governments take a banker to trial is being able to prove the case in court. Now the pesky issue is surfacing of having a case survive on appeal.
A few articles that have caught my eye on varied aspects of the overall range of banking fiascos in play:
4/14 – New York Times – How Regulators Mess With Bankers’ Minds, and Why That’s Good – News the previous week was that many of the huge banks failed their ‘living will’ test. Each bank that is labeled as having ‘systemic risk’ must submit for approval a plan on how they would wind down in the event of failure. The purpose is to show they would not take down the entire financial system.
This article points out the banks were not told what their living will should contain or what it should look like.
As an expected result, likely intentional, the banks’ plans failed the test. When you don’t know how the test will be scored, or even what will be on the test, you are unlikely to pass. Sort of like having to turn in a term paper without know what topic the professor will select.
Again, this article thinks it is wonderful that the banks are evaluated on criteria that are not disclosed to them.
If you are curious and want to follow along, I’ll be spending a bit of time looking at some details of ancient finance.
If you are already somewhat familiar, feel free to either roll your eyes as I flounder along or chuckle on how slow I am to catch on. If your knowledge of ancient finances is comparable to mine, that is to say approximately zero, please feel free to join me on a journey to learn a few details.
Article in Wikipedia says some economists and historians say one drachma in the 5th century (let me do a mental calculation – – that would be from about 499BC to 401BC) was about US$25 in 1990 or US$46.50 in 2015.
Classical historians give a different read for the 5th and 4th centuries (okay, mental math time, so that would be from around 499BC to 301BC, the 400s and 300s). In that time, one drachma would be around one days wages for a skilled worker or a hoplite. So that would not be minimum wage, but more along the line of a carpenter or mason.
The professors suggest the following premises for what a trade association would look like if the goal was to advance the profession and the interest of its members. I will quote their comments:
