Meriwether assured the Investors that "steps have been taken to reduce risks now, commensurate with our level of capital. "But this was a rather misleading comment, given that Long-Term had done little in the way of selling and that its leverage had bolted to 55 to 1 -a fact that Meriwether omitted. The kindest explanation 1s that Meriwether, under the strong influence of Hilibrand and Haghani, did not consider the core trades to be all that risky. "We see great opportunities in a number of our best strategies, " he noted. In the meantime, J.M. asserted, the fund was "quire liquid "-a point that was true but that failed to address the serious cash flow problems developing LTC M, the partners' management company.