Letter sent to MF Global bankruptcy judge by a futures firm:
Dear Judge Glenn:
Our firm is a registered introducing broker with the CFTC. I have written to you previously on behalf of our customers.
Here is a comment this morning from one of our former customers in Europe:“I will never do business in the United States of America again.”
The system to protect futures accounts is broken. And the whole world knows it.
What started as a failure of one FCM that quickly gave a black eye to the CFTC and especially the CME has now made our United States of America a very bad joke to commodity futures traders all over the world.
The problem this morning is not just excess margin equity.
The problem this morning is the reputation of the United States of America.
More than three weeks after the fact the federal government still can’t find where the missing $600 million. They are either incompetent or complicit (meaning they know damn well where it went but aren’t saying, for whatever reason.)
Our regulatory system is broken. Money disappears out of supposedly sacrosanct accounts and the feds are suspiciously useless. We are becoming a banana republic, it seems.
FT discusses the regulatory questions raised by the recent fall of MF Global. Video at the link:
http://video.ft.com/v/1270629043001/MF-Global-puts-pressure-on-regulators
“MF Global puts pressure on regulators
Michael Mackenzie, the FT’s US markets editor, discusses the regulatory questions raised by the recent fall of MF Global with FT colleague Gregory Meyer. Robert Kessler, the founder and chief executive of The Kessler Companies, offers analysis on the situation and Jon Corzine, the former chief executive of MF Global, talks about the globally integrated nature of modern finance in a video interview with the FT filmed earlier this year.”
And since you posted this the amount has doubled:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8e48ee68-1453-11e1-85c7-00144feabdc0.html
“MF Global shortfall doubles to $1.2bn
New figure equal to almost a quarter of client funds”
I think it’s organized crime, whether that be a traditional crime organization or one of the investment banks that launder the money for them.