Joe Biden's Pre-Debate Gaffe meets Jon Corzine's Orange Jumpsuit w/James Koutoulas!

Welcome to Capital Account. The first US vice presidential debate of the 2012 presidential race is a few days away. During the 2008 Obama administration's post-election transition, Biden called former Senator, Governor, and CEO of Goldman Sachs and MF Global, Jon Corzine, for advice. Corzine was at the helm of one of the largest bankruptcies in US corporate history: the bankruptcy of brokerage firm MF Global. Customer money is still missing from MF Global and not a single person has been held accountable. It was a year ago this month that the brokerage collapsed. We welcome James Koutoulas, co-founder of the Commodity Customer Coalition (CCC) and CEO of Typhon Capital Management, back onto the program to give us a long over-due update on MF Global, Jon Corzine, and the status of that 1.6 billion dollars that so popularly "vaporized." Vaporized indeed. Many contend that customer money was actually stolen to meet margin calls on Corzine's risky European bond trades after the firm's credit rating was downgraded. Others believe that these funds were being used on a regular basis to cover margin calls months in advance of the firm's collapse. Gary Gensler, former Goldman Sachs banker, recused himself and the CFTC from handling the bankruptcy, letting SIPC handle it instead, even though there were only 100 million dollars in securities accounts versus $6.4 billion in futures. We tell you about the safe harbor provision that allows derivatives to cut the line in bankruptcy court. We break it down in Word of the Day! And last but not least, the Merchants of Venice want to secede from Italy. Lauren and Demetri banter about the latest calls for independence from Italy by Venetian separatists in "Loose Change." Indipendenza Veneta, a newly-founded pro-independence movement, held a rally in the ancient city on Saturday, calling for an urgent referendum to be held on the issue. Separatists want to carve out a new country in north-eastern Italy which would comprise Venice, the surrounding region of Veneto and parts of Lombardy, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The "Repubblica Veneta", as it would be known, would encompass about five million people. A poll conducted by Corriere della Sera in September found that 80 per cent were in favor of independence.