Ann Barnhardt Is Calling It Quits

Ann Barnhardt:

Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.
The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.
The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system.
Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.
I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.

'Worse Than Sodom or Gomorrah'

Ann Barnhardt:

. . . because I'm absolutely convinced that this culture, right now, today, is WORSE than Sodom or Gomorrah ever were. Sodom would be a step up.
It is now all over the internet that Sandusky was running a high-dollar pedophile ring, and that "Second Mile" was merely a front and means of recruiting and enslaving young boys who were then pimped to wealthy Penn State donors for sex.
Penn State should be shut down. Not just the football program - the entire university. Shut it down immediately. Any student of Penn State with any sense should be making arrangements to transfer to another university, because graduating from Penn State would necessitate that said person list Penn State on their resume, which will now be a major, major strike against that person. Why? Because they knowingly entered and subsidized a cult that worshiped an old man who "coached" a football team. And, as it turns out, that old man facilitated and enabled a massive pedophile ring. Further, said students, even after learning of this and seeing that "old man" fired, RIOTED last night IN SUPPORT OF THE CULT LEADER / PEDOPHILE RING ENABLER.
TIMELINE:
1998: Sandusky is investigated for an incident involving himself sexually assaulting a young boy in the Penn State showers. Child Protective Services investigate. The university is fully notified.
1999: Sandusky, age 55, is suddenly forced into retirement at his prime, when all previous indications were that he was the heir-apparent to Paterno, who was 72 years old at the time. The retirement package is now thought to have been in exchange for Penn State covering up Sandusky's pedophilia. Sandusky's pedophilia is being called a "poorly kept secret" in the world of Division I football, which explains why one of the top coaches in the nation was not even offered any other position after Penn State.
2000: Despite being retired from Penn State and no longer being in the employment of Penn State or Paterno, Sandusky has unfettered access to the Penn State facilities and travels with the team. In the fall of 2000 a janitor catches Sandusky orally raping a young boy in the football team's showers after hours. Sandusky OBVIOUSLY had keys and passcards which gave him full access despite being no longer "employed" by PSU or Paterno.
2002: Sandusky is caught AGAIN in the showers, this time anally raping a young boy, and is caught by Mike McQueary, who is now an assistant coach. Sandusky STILL has keys and passcards to PSU facilities.
2009: Grand jury investigation begins after a 15 year old boy reported Sandusky to police. Penn State top brass, including Paterno, are called to testify. Sandusky is still seen using PSU football facilities.
Week of 10/30-11/5, 2011: Sandusky is seen working out in a PSU football weight room.
They all knew. Not only that, but Sandusky felt "safe" using the PSU football facilities and showers as his rape room, and was indeed caught repeatedly with zero consequences. Think about that. Sandusky was CAUGHT red handed in the showers sexually assaulting boys in 1998 and 2000, and there was even an investigation as a result of the 1998 incident, and yet Sandusky still felt so "safe" at PSU that he continued to bring boys there to be raped. He continued to hang around the team and be seen in the near-constant company of young boys. Sandusky's confidence is extremely telling.
Penn State should be shut down, and anyone who knew about this should be facing down multi-decade prison sentences. Paterno should die in prison.
Pedophiles should be executed. Justice, in charity, demands it. Find every single participant in the "Second Mile" pedophile ring and let justice be done swiftly upon him.

This just gets worser by the day.

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