Tavakoli Structured Finance LLC

Finance Articles by Janet Tavakoli

Early Public Warnings

 

About this page: This page is comprised of finance articles written by Janet Tavakoli. See also the press section for articles in which Janet Tavakoli has been interviewed and quoted, and see video interviews from 2003 to present. For commentaries written by Janet Tavakoli from 2003-2014 see Archives of Public Commentaries Authored by Janet Tavakoli.

Structured Finance Definitions and Concepts

Clear and Present Danger: Foreign Investment in U.S. Debt

Clear and Present Danger” – TSF – Oct 31, 2011

Hidden Bank Risks Drive Investors to Productive Assets, U.S. Treasuries, and Gold” – TSF – Dec 16, 2013

Synthetic CDOs, STCDOs, and Credit Derivatives

CDO Evolution Creates New World of Risk” – GARP Risk Review aka Risk Professional – Nov/Dec 2003 Issue 15

“Synthetic CDOs: Analyzing Risks and Rewards” (Invisible Hedge Funds: STCDO Arrangers’ Correlation Books) – Risk Professional – July/Aug 2004 Issue 19

“The Trials of Tranching” – International Financing Review (IFR Magazine) Issue 1556, October 25, 2004

Ultimate Leverage: Collateralized Fund Obligations” – HedgeWorld‘s Accredited Investor – June 2004

VIDEO: Janet Tavakoli’s Address to the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. – IMF – April 2005

CDOs: Caveat Emptor” – Risk Professional, Sep/Oct 2005 Issue 26

The Elusive Income of Synthetic CDOs” – Journal of Structured Finance – Winter 2006 Volume 11, Number 4

Mon Ami ISDA: Crisis in Credit Derivatives” – Reuters HedgeWorld – May 22, 2006

Are You Sure You Made a Fortune Shorting the ABX (or TABX)?” Reuters HedgeWorld – December 7, 2007

AIG and Goldman Sachs: Bailouts and Cover-Ups

“In Subprime, AIG Sees Small Risk; Others See More” (subscription) by David Reilly – Tavakoli says AIG failed to disclose material losses on credit default swaps on supersenior tranches of collateralized debt obligations. Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2007

Goldman’s Lies of Omission” – TSF – October 28, 2009

Letter from Congressman Issa to William C. Dudley on Circumstances Surrounding AIG Bailout” (pdf) – Congressman Darrell E. Issa – Oct 30, 2009

Goldman Sachs: Reasonable Doubt” – TSF – November 2, 2009

I Apologize to David Viniar and Goldman’s Lawyers” – TSF – Nov 5, 2009

Goldman’s Undisclosed Role in AIG’s Distress” – TSF – November 10, 2009

Factors Affecting Efforts to Limit Payments to AIG Counterparties” (pdf – 2.19 MB) – SIGTARP – Nov 17, 2009

I Retract My Apology and Call for More Regulation of Goldman Sachs” – TSF – November 22, 2009

“Congress Exposes Potential Profiteering in AIG’s Deals: Delay Enabled Further Cover-Up” – TSF – January 28, 2010

Goldman Sachs: Spinning Gold” – April 7, 2010

Credit Rating Agencies: Phony Ratings for Structured Products

Landesbanken: Even Lower Ratings May Be In Order” – Financial Times, December  1, 2003

Investors Are the Gullible Ones If They Rely on Ratings as Indicators of Robustness” – Financial Times, December 29, 2003

Structured Finance: Rating the Rating Agencies” – Risk Professional – Jan/Feb 2005 Issue 22

“TSF Comments on SEC Proposed Rules on Rating Agencies” – TSF – Feb 13 2007

Tavakoli Structured Finance Revokes the Credit Rating Agencies’ NRSRO Designation” – TSF – July 26, 2011

Systemic Fraud and Systemic Risk

Subprime Mortgages: The Predators’ Fall” – GARP Risk Review aka Risk Professional March/April 07 Issue 25

Greater Global Risk Now Than At Time of LTCM” – Financial Times, May 7, 2007

Dicey Deals Done Dirt Cheap” – TSF – January 3, 2008 (Ambac, MBIA, FGIC, et.al. with credit derivative exposure to CDOs)

Dead Calm: No One Trusts You” – TSF – July 30, 2008 (Merrill’s built-to-fail synthetic CDOs)

Bank of America’s Shareholders Should Reject Bonus Plans” (serious disclosure issues) – TSF – Jan 12, 2010

Wall Street’s Fraud and Solutions for Systemic Peril” -Summary of Presentation to the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. – TSF – Sept 21, 2009

Repairing the Damage of Fraud as a Business Model” – TSF Presentation to the FHFA in Washington – Dec 8, 2010

Wall Street and the Financial Crisis”  (pdf – 5.57 MB)  – United States Senate (Committee chaired by Senator Carl Levin) – April 13, 2011

Comment Letter to the SEC Re: File no. S7-11-13 – TSF – February 24. 2014

Euro: Privatization of Gains, Socialization of Losses

Euro Endgame” – TSF – June 1, 2011

Standard’ Credit Default Swaps on Greece Are a Sham and It’s Not a Surprise” – TSF – Oct 27, 2011

MF Global Looted $1.6 Billion of Customers’ Money

MF Global Revelations Keep Getting Worse” – TSF – Nov 11, 2011

Representative Marcy Kaptur’s Special Order on MF Global – TSF – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur – December 14, 2011

JPMorgan: Commodities, CIO Unit, Credit Derivatives Trading, and Failure to Supervise

Enron, J.P.Morgan and Offshore Special Purpose Vehicles – TSF – April 10, 2003

JPMorgan’s and Blythe Masters’ Debacles in Commodities” – TSF – August 9, 2010 – Updated February 6, 2014

“A Risk Manager’s Impossibility?” – Risk News and Resources – September 24, 2013

“Volcker Blames Models, Dimon Blames Policymakers” – TSF – February 24, 2009 Updated February 18, 2014

China (Early Warnings from Others)

Chanos Crash: Timing China’s Financial Meltdown” – TSF – Dec 6, 2011

Oil

Oil and Power: Iran Approach Must Avoid Past Mistakes” – HedgeWorld (Reuters) – June 12, 2006

Oil Pressure: Fallout from the Iraq Study Group Report” – HedgeWorld (Reuters) – December 14, 2006, Updated February 13, 2014

Sovereign Credit Default Swaps and Gold: Credit Derivatives

Washington Must Ban U.S. Credit Derivatives as Traders Demand Gold (Part One)  – March 8, 2010

Credit Derivatives on United States: Games and Gold (Part Two) – March 8, 2010

Gold

How to Corner the Gold Market” – TSF – March 30, 2010

Gold Game Changer: J.P. Morgan Accepts Gold as Money” – Huffington Post – February 7, 2011

Financial Media Circus

Taleb Kills $20 Billion Mythical Swan” – TSF – June 1, 2009

Gasparino’s Glass Jaw is No Audience Draw” – TSF – July 22, 2009, Updated January 2014

Where Were Drama Pundits When It Mattered?” – TSF – July 29, 2009

Rick Ungar Gives Barry Ritholtz a Lesson in the Law” – TSF – refrers to April 24, 2010 – posted April 24, 2014

Michael Lewis: Wall Street’s Smart Aleck Apologist” – TSF – March 15, 2010

Financial Journalism: ‘Sometimes Being Responsible means Pissing People Off‘” (LIBOR scandal) – TSF – July 3, 2012

Municipal Debt and The Great Recession

“Third World America: Fast Tracking to Anarchy” – Huffington Post – August 23, 2010

“The Middle Class is Drowning in Debt and Choking on Lies” – Huffington Post – June 24, 2011

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