Today’s economics are not for the timid. Above and beyond knowing the basics of how money works, there is another layer which needs to be fathomed. That layer is called by many shadow banking.

To the degree that the population becomes wise to how this works, is the degree to which all of us can avoid the pitfalls of financial oppression.

The warning signs were clear that nothing good would come from the development of Collateralized Debt Obligations, CDOs. I was fortunate to have been in banking and in a group which voiced serious concerns over the development of crazier and crazier esoteric instruments. They were to be peddled as “same as cash” but were in fact far from that. By July 07 the auctions for these began to fail as financial institutions backed away.

For the bankers the bigger fool theory was the rage by then. Systematically, the institutions such as Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia Securities dumped millions of dollars of these into the hands of unsuspecting companies, and even retirees to get them out of their holding before the wheels fell totally off the cart.

When the auctions failed totally in Mid-Feb 2008 300 billion dollars in “same as cash” became illiquid. That is to say they about as far from “same as cash” as you can get.

Those who had trusted that these instruments were really the same as cash found their economic lives grinding to a halt. The regulators of course were flooded by complaints.

Of course, no on e in the industry had really done anything wrong. The result was that at least a number of small investors got back their principal.

Was the press interested? Well, it didn’t boil down to a quick set of soundbytes. Besides, the perpetrators were some of the biggest financial institutions in the country.

Finally, when Bernanke and Paulson held the country ransom for 700 billion dollars the story got media attention.

It is not my ideal of accountability to have the taxpayer pay for the financial excesses of the financial institutions.

The rough condition of the stock market just after the last election was rumored to in part have been due to the rumor that “full bonuses” may not be forthcoming to the architects of the meltdown.

So what kind of bonuses are we talking. Dick Fuld, had in 07 cleared 34 million.

Clearly Rand’s notion of enlightened self-interest did not trump raw greed for the banking industry. For more on Rand, see Objectivism and the 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged”.This all plays nicely into the capital C Conspiracy Theorists who are ready to gloat over the “I told ya so’s”.

These “Too big to fail” are not national institutions. They are international. The idea of a sovereign nation is a thing of the past.

Will the New Vikings prevail? Stay tuned

James Horne has been a financial analyst for over 10 years. He is CEO of Pure Reason LLC, the home of Shadowtraders. His voice has been heard by hundreds of students learning to trade Futures with Shadowtraders online day trading strategies. Before you purchase any trading software, make sure you attend Shadowtraders Monday Night Webinar, and hosted by Barbara Cohen

As it turns out, ETFs are rather tax efficient. Investors don’t have to pay capital gains taxes until the final sale of the ETF. There is no way to avoid paying taxes; however money that would have gone to taxes can be reinvested to generate more wealth by delaying tax payment.

How much any individual investor gains is dependant upon their marginal tax rate along with the rate of return of the investment and also how long they hold onto the investment. ETFs tax advantages are similar to those of tax managed index mutual funds. They are much more efficient than actively managed funds.

Traditional mutual funds take any stocks that have risen in value and allow them to accumulate unrealized capital gains liabilities. When sold, the fund calculates the gain and then distributes the capital gains tax among its members. Any upside from allowing tax money to remain in the fund vanishes, stinting compound growth.

Mutual funds and ETFs both have favorable tax advantages in comparison to actively managed funds. ETFs have dramatically less immediate tax liability than do mutual funds. The more turnover companies experience from trying to pick stocks the more the funds tend to enforce tax payment.

A fact relatively unknown is that the majority of mutual fund investors pay the tax bill for those who evade, more so in a weak market. Before the day of record, those tax evading investors will sell their stock and not receive a bill for their gain so it is passed on to loyal investors. The same dynamic does not exist with ETFs.

There exists a loophole in regulation in which all ETFs are perceived to be created by trading corresponding certificates called an in-kind trade. With the IRS it is the same as trading identical items and does not trigger that same capital gain. When there is an exchange of cash for stock and vice versa, as is the case with mutual funds, a capital gain is realized, giving a huge advantage to ETFs.

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