Free Republic

VANCOUVER, British Columbia , Sept 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. court has ruled that a case against Barrick Gold Corp. ABX.TO and J.P. Morgan Chase JPM.N alleging they conspired to manipulate the gold price can proceed to trial, court documents obtained on Tuesday show. A Louisiana district court judge ruled last Wednesday that the antitrust case brought by New Orleans-based coin and bullion dealer, Blanchard & Co., against the world's third-biggest gold producer and the U.S. financial services giant can go ahead. Blanchard alleged in a lawsuit filed in mid-December that Barrick and J.P. Morgan Chase made $2 billion in...

You’ve got to understand how important the derivatives business is to J.P. Morgan Chase today -- accounting for 15% to 40% of revenue. That’s not insignificant at a bank that issued a huge earnings warning on Sept. 18, saying that third-quarter earnings would be substantially below those for the second quarter of 2002. Anything that would threaten that revenue stream would be a big deal. To understand what might threaten that revenue, you’ve got to understand something called counterparty risk. When a derivative is created, somebody winds up holding the risk; it’s the other party in the transaction that helped...

IN URUGUAY, A WEIRD MONEY GAME INVITES U.S. BROKERS by Mark Scheinbaum American Reporter Correspondent August 7, 2002 LAKE WORTH, Fla., Aug. 7. 2002 -- I'm not an investment banker in Uruguay nor do I play one on television. But what if - just what if, I'm on to something here? I literally shook my head upon awakening at my usual 4 a.m. the other morning to check international markets, to clear the cobwebs and my ear drums when I heard that U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was enroute to the capital of Uruguay with a $1.5 billion bailout check...