Re: [A-List] Is Michael Hudson still here?

[Hudsonmi@xxxxxxx]

Dear Michael,
       the best illustration of companies shifting good investments into their own accounts and bad ones to those of their customers is the infamous Prudential Insurance case c. 1980. the Senate committees hearings on the repeal of Glass-Steagall leading up to 1999 were rife with examples of why the barriers between trust banking and commercial banking should be maintained to prevent this kind of trading.
       The situation was done by Ghanian coffee traders daily. They would buy both "up" and "down" gambles. At the end of the day they would assign the winners to their personal accounts, the losers to the government accounts.
       Regarding floating-rate mortgages, there are a number of real estate advisory firms such as the National Association of Realtors who track this. The Fed should be able to tell you where to get national statistics. FNMA and GNMA have statistics on their particular profiles in this respect.
       Michael Hudson

       Michael