No where to run, nowhere to hide.
One of the best Octobers for our markets gave way to a very rough opening in November.
If you’d like to put a name and a face on one reason for the most recent market swoon, look no further than New Jersey’s own Jon Corzine. He’s a former Goldman Sachs senior partner, US Senator and governor of New Jersey and most recently, the CEO of MF Global Holdings.
Boasting of his credentials and connections, Jon raised a lot of money and made huge bets. The markets do not care who you are, as Jon found out. After only 20 months as CEO, MF Global posted a quarterly loss of $192 million, and $6.3 billion in wrong way bets on the infamous European debt. Their $40 billion bankruptcy petition is on the scale of Chrysler’s.
The regulators are left to sort out this filing, and to find an estimated $600 million that is “missing” from customer accounts. The good news is that MF Global is not a bank, will not be bailed out by taxpayers, and has a new CEO. Jon had plenty of help in getting to this bankruptcy, and unlike most politicians, there is nowhere for him to hide. The bad news is that there is always another Jon Corzine waiting in the wings.
