A Las Vegas Sun article dated August 27, the first day of classes for the Fall semester, reports;

The College of Southern Nevada is stepping up oversight of maintenance and construction work following reports by the Sun about alleged abuses at the school.
...
Former and current employees have accused [college construction chief Bob] Gilbert of using his position to arrange sweetheart deals with contractors who helped build his personal ranch estate off Kyle Canyon Road. The Nevada attorney general's office raided college offices, Gilbert's ranch and WGDL in June as part of a criminal investigation.
...
Gilbert is now on leave, which college officials say is to recover from shoulder surgery.
...
Interim CSN President Michael Richards said college officials had taken action, including closing some contracts, when circumstances showed that collusion occurred. He would not be more specific.

Richards inherited the problems this summer when former CSN President Richard Carpenter left to take a job in Houston . Carpenter told the Sun earlier this year that an internal investigation into Gilbert's activities found no actionable offense

As of yet, no one has said, "At least I'm not going to jail!" I wonder if Carpenter thought he was pulling an Atkinson-Gates by getting out of the job before an investigation included him. We know we have crooked cops, crooked lawyers, crooked doctors, crooked judges, blatently crooked politicians, crooked developers, crooked hospital administrators, crooked roads, etc. I wonder if I missed something; is there a special class that Nevadans take where some of the students learn to be ruthlessly corrupt and the rest to be unbelievably apathetic?

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the Las Vegas Sun today former Clark County Commissioner, Lynette Boggs, was indicted on felony charges stemming from allegations that she didn't live in the commission district she represented and that she paid a nanny with campaign funds.

She was ordered to appear Sept. 5 in Clark County District Court to answer two charges of filing false or forged documents and two counts of perjury.

At the same time LasVegasNow is reporting that Federal agents have uncovered new evidence about money Michael McDonald received while he was still a Las Vegas city councilman.

The agents have discovered that McDonald, while he was a councilman, was paid monthly by a law firm and received a loan from a catholic priest.

Both the law firm and the priest have connections with former Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo who is now in prison.

And today there was news concerning Rick Rizzolo, when the Crazy Horse Too was seized by the U.S. government after practically bending over to allow Rizzolo to find a "qualified" buyer for the club which recently lost its liquor license, despite efforts by Las Vegas Mayor Goodman, and finally closed.

Plus, former commissioner Yvonne "at least I'm not going to jail" Atkinson is still being investigated for allegedly using her son for her campaign and receiving money back, while former county commissioners Dario Herrera, Mary Kincaid Chauncy, and Erin Kenny are all serving time for their "stellar" performance as public servants for Clark County.

Posted by Zounds Off at 1:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The booming Chinese stock market was responsible for up to half the earnings growth of companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen duirng the first six months of 2007 - a worrying trend that analysts say will exacerbate any market downturn.

After all the booming housing market was responsible for half the rise in our GDP in 2005 and look where the U.S. market is today. Just putting money into something doesn't mean it really increases in value. Because of the fever of investing in the Chinese market, profits increased on average 71 per cent in the first half for the more than two thirds of listed Chinese companies that have published results, but profits from core operations increased only about 35 per cent. This just might mean an upcoming boom of a different sort, namely implosion.

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Monday oil futures prices rose sharply in New York as fears receded about an economic crisis from the meltdown in the US subprime mortgage market as reported on Yahoo News.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, advanced 88 cents to close at 71.97 dollars after briefly topping 72 dollars a barrel. That followed a rise of 1.26 dollars on Friday.

John Kilduff at MF Global said the worst fears about the impact of the credit squeeze have begun to ease.

But today all confidence seems to have evaporated as the stock market plunged as investors grew more uneasy about the economy and whether the Federal Reserve will take the steps needed to prevent credit market problems from spreading further. The Dow Jones industrials fell 280 points.

Financial services stocks were among the hardest hit during the session as investors reacted to not only economic reports that could affect the group, but a downgrade of several major players. Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski cut ratings on Citigroup Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and Bear Stearns Cos. due to concerns about earnings.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-largest investment house, fell $3.47, or 6 percent, to $54.28. Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest investment bank, fell $3.78, or 3.4 percent, to $108.42. Citigroup Inc. fell $1.65, or 3.5 percent, to $46.14.

At the same time the S&P housing report pushed shares of homebuilders lower. It was reported that U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter and when home prices fall, owners have a hard time refinancing, which can lead to more defaults and delinquencies.

All this means to me is that, one:
None of the so-called experts know what is going to happen day to day.
Two:
All of Wall Street wants someone else to bail them out of their poor performance--namely the Federal Reserve, which means the ordinary citizen will pay because the value of the dollar will fall again, causing rising prices, creating a need for more borrowing, creating more lending, creating more debt, creating more crisis--should I stop now?
Three:
Investors spend too much time following the herd and ignoring the facts.

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to an article from Rebel Yell, Brad Lord-Leutwyler a Philosophy professor from UNLV is running to be the next leader of the United States. His platform, "give the people what they want."

From the article:

Last week, Lord-Leutwyler officially launched his independent campaign after his website, www.voteforbrad.com, had received 250,000 hits and his MySpace friends reached nearly the same number as Hillary Clinton's when her page first launched - close to 10,000.

These are impressive numbers for anyone with a background in philosophy. Let's see if he makes it to Steven Colbert.

Posted by pokerprof at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Should be another interesting year for Nevada education. Some of the summer highlights include:

1. CCSN is now CSN meaning that Community College of Southern Nevada is now College of Southern Nevada--not to be confused with Southern Nevada College. As if dropping the word community from the name will somehow make this a "real" college.

2. Clark County School District has announced it's C.A.P.S. program--also not to be confused with a similar sounding program known as Exploited Children Comprehensive Action Program ("M/CAP"), although when it comes to education in the valley, our children are certainly exploited and shortchanged. But with a few fancy letters and some public relations work, we can pretend that something has changed in our public schools, except for failing to educate our students

3. University of Nevada Las Vegas has announced a new program of study in engineering of stage show productions. The course will include hands on experience and internships with Cirque du Soleil shows at Strip venues. Sounds to me like an euphemism for unpaid labor and fewer dealings with unions but on the plus side, UNLV claims that students will actually have to learn some math and physics for a change.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new model developed by a finance professor helps banks test the strength of their investments.

Tim Yeager, an associate professor of finance at the University of Arkansas and formerly an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, is attempting to help banks avoid heavy losses in commercial real estate loans that can wipe out capital and cripple a bank's lending ability.

Yeager, also the holder of the Arkansas Bankers Association Chair in the Sam. M Walton College of Business, developed the model based on reports from northwest, northeast and central Arkansas banks.

The model can be applied to different lending categories and investments at individual banks to see what a shock would do to the overall financial stability of the bank.

After a couple centuries of banking in this country and leading banks having their pick of graduates of the "elite" schools such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. finally someone--and certainly not at an elitist institution--now is creating a model to show that when you make really bad loans, you really screw up your business. I have never used this little colloquialism but here comes...DUH!

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. and AEG announced plans for of an approximately 20,000-seat, privately financed, state-of-the-art arena hoped to be Las Vegas' new home for sports and entertainment events. The site will be one block east of the Las Vegas Strip on approximately 10 acres of land that Harrah's owns.

Oh, boy! A new home for a lack-lustre arena football team and a Barry Manilow comeback tour? Oh, wait...Barry is retreading his act already at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday announced the recall of Chinese-manufactured children's jewelry and toys containing the toxic metal lead, including 250,000 SpongeBob SquarePants address books and journals.

China has poisoned its country; it probably has the largest number of coal fired power plants with the fewest emmission controls, putting the most soot on glaciers around the world; and it has certainly ignored all safety regulations required by the U.S. on products we import. The only major concern China appears to have is the embarassment to China by those officials who weren't savvy enough to not be found out.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

San Diego-based Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., which issued $15.77 billion in home loans last year, said it will cut about 1,600 of its 2,600 positions, close 65 branches, and stop accepting new mortgage applications in the United States as it struggles to stay upright.

Southern California is about 15 major earthquakes behind its quota for the past century, so the lending companies created their own disaster. Go S.C.

And another quake hit the New York area as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the nation's fourth-largest investment bank, announced it is closing its subprime mortgage business, BNC Mortgage LLC, eliminating 1,200 workers at 23 offices.

Maybe these companies should eliminate a few CEO's who were perfectly aware that the lending market couldn't sustain the run; not one company could have created all these bad loans without the CEO's knowledge and/or encouragement. Get rid of one CEO and you can probably save 1200 jobs for what the CEO's pay themselves to have five homes and drink expensive wines and whiskey and run companies into the ground.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dubai World, a holding company for the Persian Gulf state of Dubai, has invested $5 billion which gives it a piece of MGM Mirage and 50 percent of the 76-acre CityCenter complex under construction in the heart of the Strip. Dubai World's subsidiary, Dubai Ports World, was forced to sell its U.S. port operations after an uproar in Congress last year.

Dubai...isn't that where Haliburton has moved to?

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2007 eleven most endangered historic places according to Preserve Nevada include:

1. Sprawl-Free Landscape - Gilcrease Family Properties, Las Vegas
2 . Historic Austin
3. Historic Goldfield
4. Commercial Row, Wells
5. First Presbyterian Church, Carson City
6. Hillside Cemetery, Reno
7. The Huntridge Theatre, Las Vegas
8. Nevada Northern Railway East Ely Shops and Yard, Ely
9. Round Hill Pines Resort, Tahoe
10. Southern Nevada Adobe Structures - Kiel Ranch, Las Vegas
11. Virginia Street Bridge, Reno

Just in case you blinked passing through Goldfield, here is what you missed.

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Capital One Financial Corp. said Monday it will cut 1,900 jobs and close its wholesale mortgage banking business.

The company will close 31 GreenPoint locations in 19 states, after just acquiring them last December when it paid $13.2 billion for North Fork Bancorp Inc. For more go to Capital One slashes jobs, mortgage industry swoons.

Another financial coup by the wizards of high finance. Obviously, they majored in beer drinking during college and not sound investment. What I hope is that Capital stops sending me applications for credit cards every week. I would consider telling them to stop but I figure they would double their attempts just because I noticed the previous attempts. Along with HSBC, these credit card companies are wearing out my shredder. If every telemarketer, unsolicited mailer, and spammer went out of business, do you suppose unemployment would exceed ten percent? Hey companies, the only thing I can't seem to say no to is a good book. How about sending some free samples for reviewing?

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just when more products from China are found to be tainted and dangerous and Hillary Clinton has made China product bashing her global mantra (to "prove" she isn't really a globalist), here comes a product she can really put her foot into--Foot Trolleys of Death and Fireball Suicide Shoes as named by a British website.

Posted on Gizmodo:

Customs officers in Britain have seized 150 pairs of motorized roller blades, amid safety fears. The skates, known as Gasoline Skating Shoes, are fitted with a 25cc motor and have a top speed of 20mph. Since the skates are classed as a motorized vehicle, users would need a driving license, insurance and L-plates, were they legal.

From China, these Foot Trolleys of Death are controlled via a handheld throttle and can burn up to max speed in just a few seconds. Instead of a brakes, there is a shut-off button (probably bright red with "SHIIIIIIIIT" inscribed on it in a nice Gothic script) which acts like an emergency stop--meaning that when the skates come to a brisk halt, you probably won't.

A 10-pound engine encased in a seven-inch box on the heel of the right boot sits above a plastic fuel tank--that will make for some interesting ankle burns in a worst-case scenario--which holds one liter of two-stroke petrol.
Because of its exhaust vent and starter cable, safety officers have likened the Fireball Suicide Shoes to a lawnmower.

I apologize up front but this could be a "hot" item among terrorists.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday that a flawed system designed to rush supplies to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan let a small-parts supplier improperly collect $998,798.38 to ship two 19-cent washers.

The lock-washer incident was the last in a series of abuses by twin sisters running a South Carolina company that bilked the Pentagon out of about $20.5 million in fraudulent shipping costs, federal prosecutors said after obtaining guilty pleas earlier in the day.
The owners of C&D Distributors of Lexington, South Carolina, submitted online bids to the Defense Department to supply hardware components, plumbing fixtures, electronic equipment and other items, according to court papers.

Can I have a contract with the Defense Department? Please!

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Yahoo News First Magnus Financial Corp. has laid off 99 percent of its nearly 6,000 employees nationwide and closed all of its more than 300 offices.

According to a notice filed with the state Friday, the Tucson-based company that originated home loans and then sold bundled loans into the secondary loan market expects to retain only about 60 of its employees.

First Magnus officials said a bankruptcy filing was possible.

Several mortgage companies down and more to come while the Federal Reserve bails out the big boys like Bear Stearns, involved in the subprime mortgage hedge fund investment crisis, and ordinary people lose their homes

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lately, I hear again that unions are complaining about Wal-Mart and its policies on employee health care. Just to let you know, this is an issue that has been around for quite some time.

Wal-Mart health care policy denounced by unions
March 1, 2006

In the second attack on Wal-Mart's polices in Massachusetts in a month, labor unions rallied on the Statehouse steps Tuesday afternoon to protest the alleged tax burdens Wal-Mart's healthcare policies place on state citizens by not providing adequate healthcare for its employees.

In a press conference following the rally, speakers said Wal-Mart's tax contribution to Massachusetts, which was $13.4 million in 2004, falls below what the speakers' consider an acceptable payment.

And:

The Wal-Mart Tax: A Review Of Studies Examing Employers' Health Care Cost-Shifting
March 31, 2005

As job-based health coverage declines and employers shift ever-growing
health costs onto employees, workers increasingly must turn to taxpayer-funded
programs like Medicaid to get health care for themselves and their families.
Meanwhile, Medicaid is wrestling with explosive cost growth, increasing 56
percent since 2000. Medicaid is the second largest expense for most states,
accounting for around 16 percent of state budgets, on average. States' spending
on the program is expected to grow almost 12 percent this year, four times faster
than the increase in states' general fund spending.

Overall health care costs, particularly for prescription drugs and hospital
care, are growing, so it is not surprising that Medicaid costs would rise too. What
sets Medicaid apart, however, is that increased enrollment in the program also
plays a decisive role in driving cost increases. A number of factors account for
growing caseloads, but one reason is that employers--including some that are
highly profitable--are shifting onto taxpayers the costs of insuring their workers.
Recent studies in 13 states have examined the extent to which employers'
workers utilize public health programs to secure health coverage for themselves
and their families. As the following summary of those analyses reflects, in each
one of these states, Wal-Mart ranks at or near the very top of the list of
employers that are shifting to the public the cost of providing health care
for their workers. In so doing, Wal-Mart is directly contributing to the nation's
Medicaid crisis.

That Wal-Mart should play such a prominent role in the Medicaid crisis is
unjustifiable by any measure. Wal-Mart rakes in profits at the rate of $20,000 per
minute; last year, its profits were $10 billion, the largest amount in its history.
The 2004 compensation package for Wal-Mart's CEO Lee Scott was almost $23
million. Five members of the Walton family who are major company stockholders
have a combined net worth exceeding $90 billion, making them half of the 10
wealthiest Americans. And over the last two decades, Wal-Mart has benefited
from at least $1 billion in economic development assistance from state and local
governments, including several states featured in this report

Just another corporation which has figured out how to play the system so they win and the public loses.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Las Vegas Business News:
Carrying placards that stated, "Never have so many owed so much to so few," more than two dozen members of a national community action organization protested what one member termed "unbelievably high" power bills during a demonstration at the West Sahara Avenue headquarters of Nevada Power Co. recently.

"I live in an apartment, and I'm paying $300 a month for power," said Diane Graves, a member of ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. And as the acronym suggests, the national organization intends to bring about changes in the utility scene of Southern Nevada, where scorching summer temperatures drive up usage and power bills to levels that are among the highest in the nation.

In June -- just before the start of summer -- residential power rates increased 11.5 percent, which was the amount granted by the Public Utilities Commission, following the company's general rate case earlier this year.

One of the little secrets of southern Nevada is the higher cost of living here than almost everywhere else in the country. Although, Nevada doesn't have the state income tax that other states have, there is a fairly high sales tax, all kinds of fees, and high food, housing, utility costs, gasoline, etc.

Plus, there is another culprit here but consumers don't seem to be all that interested in this little scam. Here's a little test for all residents in southern Nevada. Go outside your door and rap on the outside wall and listen. If it sounds like a drum, you probably have the bare minimum of insulation for your walls; most likely the builder put up a thin insulation board and stuccoed over it. Common sense would suggest that the more insulation added would lower heating and cooling bills and have the added benefit of reducing the noise from your neighbors. But somehow (?) builders have managed to use the barest minimum and still get their homes rated as energy efficient in Nevada. Interestingly enough, I have lived in some apartments in the past where there was no insulation at all between apartments, yet in several other states, builders are required to build a fire resistant and sound deadening wall between apartments. Another case of making it easier for the developer? You be the judge.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although the Clark County School District has hired nearly 1,800 teachers for this school year, supposedly due only to the valley's growth, as of the week of August 13, the district is still 445 teachers short.

And probably part of the reason the district needed 1800 teachers might be because after working for a failing district many teachers leave each year. And I just can't wait to see the new "crop" of teachers brought into the district by recruiting in Midwest cities that have laid off teachers or that have an abundance of unemployed teachers. If I had to guess, I would say that those available teachers are the ones that have the least experience and poorest qualifications, leaving them unemployed and ready to enter Clark County schools. Perhaps we will end up with 40 percent or more of all teachers only qualified to teach P.E.

Posted by Zounds Off at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Reno Gazette-Journal poll conducted Aug. 14-16 by Research 2000 shows the frontrunners in Nevada both have substantial unfavorable ratings among the general voting pool in the state. Hillary Clinton has a 44 percent unfavorable rating compared to her favorablr rating of 43 percent. Similary, Mitt Romney has an unfavorable rating is 45 percent against a 40 percent favorable.

Probably more disconcerting for Republicans as they look ahead to the general is that only two of the frontrunners have positive favorability margins-- and they're tiny. Fred Thompson has a two-point spread (35 percent favorable to 33 percent unfavorable) and Rudy Giuliani has a one-poit spread (41 percent to 40 percent.)

The only frontrunners in either party to have favorable ratings substantially higher than their unfavorables are Obama, +15 points; Richardson, +13 points; and Edwards, +9 points.

Just seems to show that this will most likely be another contest involving people either simply following the easy route of supporting the frontrunner for the reason they want to say they voted for the winner, or they will cast their vote against a candidate rather than finding one they actually feel they can trust.

Posted by Zounds Off at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Las Vegas Sun reports Nevada's unemployment rate rose for the fourth consecutive month, hitting 4.9 percent in July as the housing slump continued and private-sector employers weren't able to provide a lot of temporary summer jobs.

The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported Friday that the seasonally adjusted rate was the highest since January 2004, and exceeded the national rate of 4.6 percent.

Everything that Las Vegas promised a few years ago has vanished. Jobs, affordable housing, water. The Las Vegas area has now made the top ten for least affordable housing in the country, only behind cities like Los Angeles, New York City, and Boston.

Posted by Zounds Off at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nina Easton of Fortune writes in her article, The China Conflict, that for the Democrats, China -- and its massive trade imbalance with the United States -- has emerged as a favorite parable about the dangers of globalization, especially when this adversary/ally holds more than $400 billion in U.S. Treasuries.

She reports the line played well Tuesday night before an AFL-CIO audience that broke into applause when Illinois Senator Barack Obama said he would "take [China leaders] to the mat" for "manipulating their currency," adding that huge U.S. deficits, financed in part by the Chinese, must end.

"It's pretty hard to have a tough negotiation when the Chinese are our bankers," Obama declared to a cheering crowd.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton added "bad food from China" and toys that sicken children to the list of complaints about the country. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson cited the country's human rights record and failure to "put pressure on the Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur." Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd described China as a competitor but "be careful, it's getting close to adversary."

Unfortunately, this is the same party whose Democratic National Committee took millions in donations from Chinese citizens when Bill and Al were running for office in the 1990's; the party which put a Chinese agent, John Huang, into the Commerce Dept.; the party of Woodrow Wilson, the original globalist who signed into law the creation of the Federal Reserve, a central bank based on European models of central banking, signed into law the first income tax, and created the League of Nations, a failed attempt to move the world in the direction of a world governing body. And now Democrats are against globalization? Only in front of union labor, but in the back rooms of power with international bankers, globalization is the way to go.

Boys and girls, if you support the Republicans, you will get globalization; if you support Democrats, you will get globalization; only the rhetoric on the way will be different.

Posted by Zounds Off at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Regardless of anything else a Candidate says:

"My investments have been held in a blind trust, which means I have not directed where they invest nor do I know where they invest," said the former Massachusetts governor during a swing through Atlanta on Wednesday. "The trustee of the blind trust has said publicly that he will endeavor to make my investments conform with my positions, and I am confident that he will." (ref.)

Candiate: Hello, I'm a highly religious, completely moral guy with strong values.

Candiate's Trust Manager: And I'm the guy that runs this guy's Quarter Billion dollar Empire. I don't always tell him what I'm doing, it's a blind trust. *wink* *wink*

Just because you have confidence in a blind trust does not mean your blind confidence is to be trusted.

Posted by pokerprof at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Market Watch reports Asian stocks dropped sharply Wednesday after Japanese banks, including Mitsubishi UFJ, reported losses from U.S. subprime mortgage defaults, with local concerns sending shares in Indonesia down nearly 9%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index (JP:1804610: news, chart, profile) ended 2.2% lower at 16,475.61, its lowest closing level in 2007. The broader Topix index (JP:1804609: news, chart, profile) slid 2.6% to 1,594.15.
Shares of banking giants led the fall, with those of Mitsubishi UFJ (MTU9.12, -0.32, -3.4%) ending 5.3% lower, on reports that it incurred roughly five billion yen ($42.5 million) in appraisal losses as of July 31, on its portfolio of 280 billion yen in products linked to U.S. subprime loans.

Stocks in Indonesia tumbled the most within the region, with the Jakarta Composite Index slumping 8.8% to 2,043.58 in late afternoon trading.

Elsewhere in the region, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended 3% lower at 5,788, New Zealand's NZX 50 index lost 1.5% at 4,004.46 and Taiwan's Weighted index (XX:1805301: news, chart, profile) declined 3.9% to 8,568.22.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (XX:1815656: news, chart, profile) dropped 3.3% to 3,276.09, in afternoon trading.

South Korean and Indian markets were closed Wednesday for national holidays.

In yesterday's news from Smart Money, some of the largest firms in the $1.5 trillion hedge-fund industry have been hit this month by big losses among so-called quantitative funds, which use computer models to generate trading ideas.

The turmoil reached "historical" proportions last week, according to one hedge-fund executive, but now many of these same firms are saying there's money to be made when dislocated markets recover.

Goldman Sachs (GS) , an investment bank that's also the second-biggest hedge-fund firm, said its $9 billion Global Alpha quant fund is down 27% so far this year, with more than half of those losses coming last week.

Another $3.6 billion Goldman quant fund, called the Global Equity Opportunities fund, lost more than 30% last week. A third known as the North American Equity Opportunities fund has also lost money recently.

I guess what computer models don't predict is what happens to the markets when greed and "cowboy" risk management pollute the model. The managers of these funds are supposed to be the "brightest" of our financial wizards and look what they can do, make bad decisions, ride the wave of optimism--because if they don't, another will and who wants to see profits go to another firm, and wait for the Federal Reserve to pump 90 or 100 billion dollars into the problem so only the American people lose.