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Investors such as hedge funds and mutual funds that are investing in U.S. mortgage backed securities in the hope of returns in the range of 6-12%. With the recovery in prices since 2010 some of these mortgages bundled into securities are going for about 70 cents on the dollar.

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Mr Iksil, a trader in Chase's CIO London office made such massive bullish bets on CDX-IG-9 index of 121 companies by selling credit default swaps, to the point where it cost less for protection on the index than for the individual components of the index. This worked in Jan-Feb 2012 with hedge funds on the other side having paper losses. In subsequent months hedge funds realized that Iksil would have to unwind some of these bets to avoid large losses. As a trader at Bank of America put it in a memo, at that point "Fast money smelled blood." The result is that hedge funds accelerated their bets against Mr Iksil's bullish positions, leading to the large $2 billion losses at CIO unit of Chase- losses on depositors money from aggressive bets in a volatile market. Mr Iksil is a French born trader, who has worked for Chase since March 2007. He has earned $100 million each year for Chase. He travels to London from his Paris home each week, and works from home Fridays. Two junior traders work with Iksil, primarily placing bets for complex trades in credit markets....

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NYT exhortation for Congress to resist the lobbying pressures of the banks to weaken regulation for a Consumer Protection Agency and derivatives trading on exchanges. The first by amending legislation for a Consumer Protection Agency so that no states can pass tougher consumer protection laws, something that prevented states from protecting consumers from abuses in the mortgage business. The second to propose legislation for derivatives trading that allows corporations and hedge funds to trade derivatives privately. NYT editorial says Congress should require all derivatives dealers and users -banks, hedge funds and corporations- conduct their trades on exchanges where they are reglulations and public scrutiny. NYT responds to the banks and corporations that say this would raise their transaction costs to hedge any given risk, by saying that this is debatable. Greater transparency should reduce costs but even if there were some higher costs it would be outweighed by the larger benefits to the banks themselves and the country through the lower systemwide risks. ...

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As early as June 15, 2007, internal J.P. Morgan documents show, high-level risk management officers at Chase's investment bank sent e-mail to colleagues to report that Madoff was suspected to be running a Ponzi scheme. In Feb 2006, a risk analyst at Chase reported to his superiors that the returns of the Madoff Fund did not make sense, as it did far better than the securities reportedly in the portfolio. A lawsuit is being filed by the bankruptcy trustee of the Madoff Fund against Chase for allowing Madoff to bring billions of dollars of investor's cash into and out of his Chase bank accounts right upto the day of his arrest in Dec 2008. At the same time Chase had withdrawn $241 million of the $271 million it had invested in Madoff-linked hedge funds.

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The Chief Minister of Kerala writes about the Kochi Water Metro project to be inaugurated by pm Modi. The project was built at a cost of about $150 million with state funding and a loan from KfW, a German development bank that funds climate green infrastructure. 78 electric boats powered by batteries will transport people in Kochi between 38 terminals spanning 10 islands on the Arabian Sea.

The boats are built at Cochin shipyard with cutting edge design, light weight boats of aluminium hull and FRP superstructure. High court to Vypin on the first phase takes 20 minutes with tickets costing Rs. 20. Kochi One cards can enable seamless travel on Kochi Water Metro to Kochi Metro with weekly and monthly passes,

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Different versions of renewal America for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania, one from head of investment firm Bridgewater Associates Dave McCormick, with assets over $100 million, and Bob Casey Jr. representing working class voters and rural voters left behind in three decades of Reagan trickle down economics and lack of government support to industry, workers and farmers under prior administrations of Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump. Both president Joe Biden and Bob Casey are from Scranton, Pennsylvania, a iron and steel town from the 19th century, and Casey lives in Scranton, close to working class families of northeastern Pennsylvania, many of them of Irish descent from earlier immigration waves in American history. Bob Casey Jr is unique as he sees America coming back in steel. Harris thinks so as she said in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon, steel is back, not just Chips and Science. Instead of outsourcing investment as the large hedge funds have done in China, and outsourcing jobs overseas, making right here in America and delivering as Biden is doing with one trillion dollars of investment.  ...

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Hedge funds, private equity and other investors are showing interest in providing a $2 billion loan to Puerto Rico at yields approaching 10%. This is almost twice the rate a highly rated city pays in the municipal debt market. Moody's rates Puerto Rico one notch above junk.

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Lightsquared which invested about $4 billion in developing a new wireless network is facing huge losses as U.S. regulators block the proposed wireless network. Federal regulators say it will interfere with Global Positioning System devices. Investors in Philip Falcone's Harbridge Capital Partners had provided most of the funding. Before Lightsquared Philip Falcone made successful bets against the subprime mortgage market. Falcone used lobbying firms to press his position, to no avail because the GPS issue was a serious one for the federal government, as it would interfere with aircraft systems and military devices. Harbinger's biggest funds have also lost money in other fields, losing 23-27% in 2008 and Falcone had to suspend redemptions by 2009. In that situation Falcone increased his investment in LightSquared in 2010-2011. In 2011 Harbringer lost 47% in its biggest fund. Harbinger's assets declined from $26 billion in 2008 to $4 billion by Jan. 2012. The S.E.C. is now investigating his hedge fund for possible market manipulation....

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Panel of withnesses including hedge fund managers and oil analysts think oil prices would fall significantly with stricter regulation as Congressional committee questions experts on oil prices and speculative forces.

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A trader at JP Morgan's CIO London office made massive bets by selling credit default swaps for the 121 companies on the "CDX IG-9 Index," essentially betting on the financial health of companies on the index. The result was paper losses for hedge funds on the other side of the bet and gains in January and February for Chase CIO's portfolio of assets of about $350 billion, funds depositors had given to Chase and were not loaned out. This gradually reversed turning into large losses for JP Morgan.

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The top three books in Vanguard's recommended reading list for serious investors say its not more profitable to get into complex investments and strategies- simple investment approaches of putting money in Vanguard core funds or mutual funds of Vanguard and Fidelity are more likely to produce good performance. 2013 was another year in which this proved to be true, and to a remarkable degree. Hedge funds and complex strategies did worse than investing in broad index funds that produced about 29% in returns similiar to the rise in the broad market averages. Malkiel and Ellis suggest the simple approach in Elements of Investing. Swensen in Conventional Investing, and Bernstein in Four Pillars of Investing provide evidence of the wisdom of such an approach for serious investors. All four authors are financial experts who have followed the stock markets for six decades since 1950.

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In commenting on Rishi Sunak, a former hedge fund manager's sudden rise from anonymity three years ago when Boris Johnson became prime minister to leadership of the Tory party and prime minister, The Hindu cautions that it is of limited symbolic value, this kind of connection between India and the UK. The Tories are a house divided against itself, with many factions. Truss was brought down by Gove and others on the backbench who were not included in the government. Other Conservatives on the backbenches today, and Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg, represent factions that are not represented in this government as was evident in questioning by Opposition leader Starmer in QA in the House of Commons. Other problems remain also evident in Starmer's questioning for Labour in parliament, including questioning about non domicile status in the family for tax purposes. Privileged Tories with connections to free markets such as Jacob Rees Mogg or Sunak without an awareness of the pain of ordinary working families, are not what a country with a cost of living crisis sees as leaders who can point to the way forward for Britain. As The Hindu points out he faces the same difficulty that Johnson with his style and personality was able to sidestep, that Truss naively tackled with quick unraveling of tax cuts for the upper incomes, and which Sunak with his experience with financial hedge funds may appear to have grasped but find escaping his grasp. This is the difficulty of matching traditional Tory policy of tax cuts and austerity, at a time when all major countries of Europe and the US are providing significant cost of living assistance to working families. Even small bits of austerity policy, or lack of conviction to help working families may now be seen by the Opposition, Labour, and even within some part of the Tory party and the vast majority of working families as oppressive.  Starmer is keen to remind working people of where Sunak stands as he did with the question in parliament Q&A about the comments made by Sunak at a small gathering that he had transferred money from poor districts to more affluent Tory districts. Would Sunak correct these erroneous funding formulas, Starmer asked. The Hindu also mentions Suella Braverman's appointment as Home Secretary only weeks after her resignation. It was poor judgement shown by Johnson in an appointment that cost him Tory support a few weeks before his resignation. Starmer brought this up from the beginning of parliament Q&A- asking whether a deal was made for her appointment to get far right wing Tory support from Braverman's faction in the party. For India and the Indian people there are so many genuine connections with Britain and the British people, some set when Mohandas Gandhi won the hearts of English working families during his visit for negotiations with the British that are are a better basis  and that will be remembered forever in the hearts and minds of the British people. ...