Word: mmm
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...which the electorate has decided the politicians care about nothing but their own re-election and pandering is the rule, Margolies-Mezvinsky has proven the noble exception. In an era in which political commentators bemoan the crisis of leadership paralyzing our Congress, MMM, as her supporters call her, provides the shining example of what politicians should...
...MMM is the handiwork of Sergei Mavrodi, who is in his late 30s. Overweight and partial to expensive Italian suits, Mavrodi called himself an entrepreneur -- the label covers a lot of ground in Moscow these days -- and recently appeared in a newspaper survey as the sixth richest man in the country. He launched the MMM fund in 1992 with 100,000 rubles, worth about $50 today. Like all pyramid-type schemes, his snowballing effort worked well for a time. Shares priced in February at 1,600 rubles (the equivalent then of $1) traded at 105,000 rubles two weeks...
...house of cards began to topple on July 22, when the government, belatedly trying to apply limits, announced that MMM would not be allowed to issue new shares. That triggered a selling stampede. At week's end, as he surveyed the wreckage around him, Mavrodi took the offensive and tried to blame excessive regulation for his troubles. "There is every indication that the authorities have little concern for the interests of shareholders," he wrote in a letter to a newspaper. "What is more important to them is to decapitate MMM." Even as the crowds milled in front of the MMM...
Most Russians were not buying Mavrodi's antigovernment argument: even such opponents of President Boris Yeltsin as Communist Party leader Gennadi Zugyanov and aspiring presidential candidate Alexander Rutskoi remained silent about the debacle and the government's role. The MMM fiasco has already prodded the government into more energetic regulation of the country's unfettered capital markets, but how effective it will be is anyone's guess. The Cabinet announced it would direct the Finance Ministry to move toward establishing regulatory procedures, but that responsibility is shared with the central bank and the State Property Committee. It is far from...
Russian investors learned some lessons of capitalism the hard way: rumors that MMM, the nation's largest stock fund, was close to collapse sent many of its claimed 10 million investors into a panic. Thousands of stockholders lined up in front of MMM buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg clamoring to sell back their shares, once valued at $62 each. On Saturday the company closed its doors. The Russian government has announced stronger market regulation...