"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Monday, December 15, 2008

Tesco and the Madoff Ponzi US$50 Billion scandal

Just to put the Madoff Ponzi scheme US$50 Bn (£33 Bn) losses into perspective - Tesco owns 1,779 stores in the UK, and employs over 270,000 staff worldwide. Overseas stores account for 20% of group profits and their Market Capitalization today is £25,794m - leaving you with enough over to buy Sainsbury's - £5,307m or Wm. Morrison's - £7,074.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

which does sort of beg the question...

Where did all that money disappear to?

I use the term 'disappear' in only a very loose sense of the word

Everyone seems to be up to speed with what a Ponzi scheme is now. The Long Firm concept is a little less widely discussed

paul said...

Well the early birds were getting double digit returns, I hope they were wise enough to withdraw before last week.
I suppose that's where it went.

paul said...

I do hope mr madoff doesn't develop ken lay style health problems

paul said...

...or Neil Coulbeck style health problems

Anonymous said...

Well the early birds were getting double digit returns, I hope they were wise enough to withdraw before last week.
I suppose that's where it went.


Admittedly, a lot of it would have gone that way. That's the nature of the beast

Nowhere near all of it I'd warrant

ziz said...

Another funny (not funny ha.ha.) bankers death ...

Amschel Mayor James Rothschild was the great-great-great-grandson of N.M. Rothschild and only son of the second family of Victor, third Baron Rothschild, the scientist and head of Sir Edward Heath's Think Tank.

Strangely when the fabulously wealthy banker, married to a Guiness heiress, Amschel Rothschild, 41, is found strangled with the heavy cord of his own towel robe in his hotel room in Paris the French Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac ordered the French Police to close their investigation, and, Rupert Murdoch, instructed his editors and news managers around the world to report it as a heart attack, if they need to report it at all.

He was found hanging by a chambermaid and it was said to be suicide(NYT - http://tinyurl.com/5a8vva) relatives of the 41-year-old Mr. Rothschild refused to give any details of his death, which was originally reported as having resulted from a heart attack.

Google any combination of his name etc., and Google yields virtually nothing.

Anonymous said...

In our first ever public health campaign, we seek to highlight the unexplained and deadly curse that stalks our world - and has left our greatest scienticians baffled!

Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS)

Please alert us to possible sightings and help eradicate this menace once and for all.

Stef said...

Messrs. Coulbeck and Rothschild have already been diagnosed as SADS sufferers

Mr Lay shows all the signs of a suspected case of SANDS (Sudden Adult Non Death Syndrome)

Anonymous said...

@sfnl: I recall Long Firm Fraud from the days when the Krays were partying across E.London.

And just to join in the banking fun, the bungee jumping Roberto Calvi springs to mind.
Dunno if the bouncing Czech counts for this one??

ziz said...

Bouncing or Floating Czech I am never sure - but there are tales of recent sighting of the bulky swindler - althouhg some prefer that like a fellow sailor , Popeye he finally got to Mount Olive.

Incidentally Archbishop Marcinkus (AKA The Pope's Gorilla - who surprisingly came from, Cicero , Illinois one of Chicago's toughest boro's) who somehow was involved with Mr Calvi the bungee jumping banker died in his sleep and in his bed February 20th 2006 aged 84 in Sun City AZ .

Somehow the Holy see managed to be short US274 MN. (when US$274 Mn. WAS US$274 Mn) ...there was also an unresolved U$1.4 billion in “questionable” loans to three of Calvi's, .Banco Ambrosiano’s Latin American subsidiaries.

A murder inquiry was held in December 2002 after a further examination of Calvi’s remains which, Italian prosecutors said, showed he had not committed suicide but had been killed. In October 2005 , 4 alleged Mafiosi, three men and a woman, were charged with his murder and went on trial. Marcinkus was not called as a witness.

In February 2006 a Mafia pentito (Gubment witness) , Francesco Mannoia, (AKA mozarella) told the court by video link from the US that Calvi had been murdered on the orders of Mafia bosses - the reason ? He had lost the Cosa Nostra's criminal proceeds when the Banco Ambrosiano collapsed.

He also he gave evidence against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (for which he was paid US$600,000) and he also claims he helped steal Carravaggio's Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence which, since he stole it in 1969 from the San Lorenzo oratory, Palermo , has never been.

He now lives under a US Witness Protection Plan @ 5046 S. Greenwood Avenue,Chicago,IL 60615 2806.

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish