Shadow, before selling your Pimco on RSTN, did you send a demand letter to broker to sell your securities at par? Were you able to get over .90 for your Pimco?

Jerry or John ....

I'd love to see the whole text of that WSJ article that talks about brokers getting higher percentages for putting us into ARS. With my SLARS devalued to 32-cents on the dollar (a 68% decline) by UBS, and a great portion of what I'd been living on held there .... I no longer spend money on such things as subscriptions to journals of interest.

Thanks so much, if you are willing and able!

BEWARE OF SECONDARY MKT - should only be if you absolutely need the money NOW!

two very encouraging articles today by michael mcdonald on bloomberg regarding STUDENT LOAN (SLARS). Bush administation is working on plans for refinancing the entire thing.

Bush Weighs Federal Aid to Student Loan Auction-Rate Issuers 2008-07-10 18:45:09.80 (New York)


By Michael McDonald
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration is considering a plan to help spur the refinancing of student loan auction-rate securities five months after the market collapsed, according to Steven Shafran, senior adviser to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Shafran said he is working with Undersecretary for Education Sara Martinez Tucker on a plan to help issuers of student loan-backed securities refinance all their $85 billion in outstanding auction-rate debt. Less than $3 billion of the securities have been converted since February, compared with more than half of the $166 billion sold by municipalities, and 30 percent issued by closed-end mutual funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
``My hunch is that, as we look at this problem, the student loan space is going to have to go through a similar process,''
said Shafran, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who spoke today at an education finance conference in Washington. ``The securities are going to have to get refinanced into something else.''
Student loan auction-rate securities have emerged as among the most toxic of the debt since Wall Street dealers abandoned the $330 billion market in February amid slumping demand and worries that the bond insurers guaranteeing the debt would be downgraded. The periodic auctions held to set interest rates on the securities fail about 99 percent of the time, leaving investors with no choice but to take discounts of up to 35 percent in secondary markets to liquidate their holdings.

Access to Loans

President George W. Bush in May signed emergency legislation designed to ensure that students will have access to federally guaranteed college loans amid a tightening global credit market. Under the measure, the Department of Education can buy federally guaranteed student loans that lenders can't sell to investors.
The law is broad enough to permit the federal government to help the issuers of student loan auction-rate securities by either guaranteeing the existing debt or helping them refinance it, Shafran said. He said he would prefer to see the securities refinanced because the market was ``fatally flawed,'' and is being ``dismantled'' by issuers through refinancing of debt.
The Treasury and Education Departments have been cooperating since the beginning of the year to make sure students are able to get loans for the coming academic year, Shafran said. The emergency legislation the president signed will ensure they get loans, and now officials are turning to other problems in the market, like auction-rate debt, he said.
``Things like the auction-rate market are on the table and are being discussed,'' said Shafran. ``I am looking at this with the legislative tools we have at hand.''

Lani,

Do a Google search for the title and, for some reason, you don't need a subscription to see it.

Search for:

Auction-Rate Probe Grows Over Clarity From Brokers

Did anyone watch the question and answer debate between Congress and Bernanke and Henry Paulson today. Paulson mentioned due to the auction rate securites problems new students were having trouble getting loans. Not a damn thing about how all of these banks and FA's deceived investors into these crooked ARS, they recommended. Jerk Paulson stated that if investors didn't know what they were investing in then maybe they shouldn't be investing their money.

I wish I could have grabbed the micro and told them just where to stick it.

Money Markets, the next big financial failures coming, even though Bernake adn Paulson denie it. Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac. Everyone should read the latest here.

Lois.... OOPS. should have known better. After worrying to or not to sell I went ahead and just did it. I knew better and it just slipped my mind to send that letter. However....back in Feb. I sent a letter to my FA and his branch manager that if I had to sell in the sfter market I would definatrely come back at them for the difference. Not as strong but it is something. Letter will go out to UBS tomorrow for the rest of my ARPs. Would you believe that back then they told me there was no way I would find a market.

Got $.90 on the dollar. Very professionally done.

Lily - What are we supposed to look out for in money markets?

Kathy, just for your information, go to moneyandmarkets.com

Hi Arpsfrozen,
I have been trying to speak with the managers at td waterhouse fixed income and they keep refusing to return my calls. I spoke to Alex at fieldstone a week ago and he said he would buy mine for 901/2 cents if i was ready to sell. Im hoping that given that nuveen is starting to buy them back that this will increase. I really don't want to lose 7500.
Amazing i do a lot of business with waterhouse and this is how i get treated by them. I will probably move my accounts at some point after i've unloaded them. Can i avoid signing the waiver?

I don't subscribe to the Wall street Journal so I can't post the article. I went old school and took a 1.50 and actually bought a hard copy of the newspaper yesterday. Boy am I glad! If you ever go to arbitration, you want a copy of this baby in your hands. Experts stating in print and for attribution that brokers got 3 or 4 times the commissions for selling this crap as for other short term investments. you know what brokers get for putting your cash into a money market? ZERO. That's why you'll never get a call going "Hey I just found this great mnoey market! Can I move your money here?"

The other thing about the article in WSJ: it emphasizes that the possibility of criminal charges will make the brokers solve this. Although I was never excited about pushing for this, now it's time. Call the FBI, call the AGs...

also the article quoted a financial expert that "a broker telling a half truth about an investment, not revealing the entire truth, is criminal fraud." (This is a slight paraphrase, i'm not looking at the article) THIS MEANS IF YOUR BROKER DID NOT REVEAL EVERYTHING HE KNOWS ABOUT AUCTION RATES, HE HAS COMMITTED A CRIME!

And about the Restricted Trade Network: I said a couple months ago these people were legit. I'm glad some of you have come around.

Love this quote from the WSJ we're talking about. Here it is, for everyone's arbitration cases!

"At Credit Suisse and most other Wall Street firms, commissions received by brokers for selling auction-rate securities were three to four times as large as for other short-term fixed-income securities, such as corporate-issued commercial paper or short-term Treasury bills. Credit Suisse brokers typically got a portion of 0.1% to 0.25% for auction-rate purchases, but received no commission for putting clients into money market funds, says a person familiar with the firm."

And here's the one Jerry mentioned:

""You can't tell a half-truth or lie about the nature of an investment -- that's criminal securities fraud," says Christopher Clark, a former federal prosecutor who is a defense lawyer in New York and isn't involved in the Credit Suisse case. "It's fairly common ground for criminal prosecutors because it goes to the heart of confidence in the markets; brokers can't lie about what you're giving them money to buy.""

Credit to the source..."Auction-Rate Probe Grows
Over Clarity From Brokers
By AMIR EFRATI, LIZ RAPPAPORT and RANDALL SMITH
July 9, 2008; Page C1"

What do you expect a joker like Paulsen to say? He came out of that same cesspool.

The poop has really hit the fan...the Gov't will clean the crap off all the crooked bankers and deodorize themselves at the same time. The media will break their silence and spin it as a Bush administration bailout for the rich. But hey...it's all good... whatever it takes to get our $$$,$$$ back!

Kicking ARS and Bill, I couldn't have said it better myself. Wahtever it takes, someone is putting on the heat and I think it is some of the richer folks that are not on the blogging sites. When the wealthy wealthy start complaining it is time for the gov. to step in.

It wll be interesting to see if the media will break their silence. I seriously doubt it. They want to keep this quiet, so that the investors of the world and the public continue to invest in these sleazy investment bank.

Can you believe 5 months of this pure hell and you only see a little ticker about auction rate securities (probes)once a month or so and that is it. How criminal is that?. Hiding the news about the biggest U.S. fraud in History.

This just shows you how honest our fellow Americans are?

Roland... I wasn't "spooked" by the Pimco news. I mentioned it for those who might like a little insight into the possible mindset of Bill Gross. However, it did help my decision making process.
There are many reasons why one might be interested in selling and you haven't come close to mine. For your further info.... I am seriously considering bailing out of all the remaining $350K I have, even one that "promises" 4th qtr redemption. For a starter I wish to get on with whats left of my life. Second I can afford the loss although I don't like it. Third, my health will definately be better off without this aggravation. Fourth, my wife won't have to worry about all this at a later date. Now, for all you Nicholas Applegate holders I suggest you prepare for a long wait. I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.

we hear about how the ARS mess will be fixed when the credit crisis 'abates'. does anyone think it is abating?

"Fannie and Freddie both lost half their value in premarket trading on growing speculation that a government bailout is needed. A collapse of the two financiers would cause further shock to the financial system, and trigger more losses to banks and brokerages with significant holdings of mortgage-backed securities."

i have to think our problem does not exist in isolation. meanwhile, mccain advisor gramm refers to 'a nation of whiners' re the economy.

i see that Morgan Stanley has filed to redeem some of the APS (as announced a long time ago) at the end of july/early aug. an announcement should come shortly from them. they list July 30 and Aug 1 in one of the SEC applications i saw...

KEEP THE FAITH aps holders.

Couple of questions:

1.) Are the auctions still being conducted -- albeit failing -- at the prescribed intervals?

2.) If so, are ANY issues clearing at auction? or does everything continue to fail? In short, is ANYONE getting redeemed at auction?

3.) do the investment banks continue to collect fees even if the auctions fail?

4.) Check out Exhibit 7 on this site (PDF's are numbered) This seems to suggest that UBS FA's continue to get compensated for our frozen holdings, though I am not certain that this is what it means. Does anyone have a different read? Surely this can't be the case . . . ??

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/sctubs2/ubs2idx.htm

5.) What is the industry model for compensation on this product -- commissioned on the sale? at what rate? And if you held an issue for several months that effectively "rolled-over" each week at auction, does the FA get their cut each week? If so, that would support the continuing compensation theory up above... Anyone have any ideas?