Bloomberg has come across some correspondence with the SEC that sheds light on Goldman’s much commented upon “net short” subprime position. Note, despite the fulminations of certain members of the media, it is not at all clear that being short creates any liability whatsoever, regardless of whether customers may feel “had” or not. On secondary […]
Read more...Every cloud has a silver lining, and one in this market downturn is option trading. Bloomberg reports that stock option volume has increased considerably. And in another sign of market stress (or maybe just random stupidity), jck at Alea reports a “mass order error” on Globex led to a big order imbalance, a lot of […]
Read more...The Real Deal: On John Thain and ‘Goldmanising’ FT Alphaville Tyler Cowen, Apologist for Fraud? The Big Picture. Ooh, this is good fun! How low will Ben go? James Hamiltion, Econbrowser Leading bias researcher turns out to be… biased, renounces result Overcoming Bias. At least try to be on a first name basis with your […]
Read more...Wolfgang Munchau provides nice succinct overview of some of the recent debate surrounding a source of financial system risk that has suddenly captured the popular imagination: credit default swaps. For those new to the concept, credit default swaps are effectively insurance. A protection seller (think insurer) takes the risk of default on a reference entity […]
Read more...Ooof, I am in possession of a hefty and detailed presentation on MBIA and Ambac by an investor that is short the stock of the two holding companies. I believe it is kosher to summarize its findings, particularly since it is all derived from public information. And you probably didn’t want to something that long […]
Read more...I call your attention to this Wall Street Journal story, “Countrywide Draws Ire of Judges,” for three reasons. First is Countrywide schadenfreude. I freely admit to having what may be called a bias. I have read and been told enough about Countrywide to be persuaded that it is a corrupt organization, even if it manages […]
Read more...Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has the reputation of having a sharp mind (and occasionally sharp tongue) and it shows in this Financial Times comment piece. The article makes a two pronged attack against the rightward economic drift of the last 30 years, noting that deregulation has not been the panacea […]
Read more...The Darwin Awards are out! As the website reminds us: Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it. Here are some of the runners up for this year (the winner is Coitus Interruptus and there is a host […]
Read more...Today, Ben Stein, in his New York Times column, “Larry, Curly, Moe and the Economy,” uses the Three Stooges as metaphor for the Fed’s actions: the central bank, like the celluloid comics, keep hitting the wrong person on the head. According to Stein, the Fed is unduly preoccupied with inflation and it should instead engage […]
Read more...Taiwan and China Will Join in This Decade! Culture of Life News. On the completely unreported (here) and very significant victory of the Kuomintang Party in Taiwan (in an upset, it won 72% of the parliamentary seats) which is keen for closer ties with mainland China (for instance, this Bloomberg story is silent on the […]
Read more...In a front page story, the New York Times reports that state attorney general Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation of whether “exception” mortgages, meaning ones that fell outside the lender’s guidelines but were nevertheless approved, were adequately disclosed when bundled into mortgage backed securities. Connecticut’s attorney general is working on a similar, cooperative review, […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reports that Prince Al-Waleed, who salvaged Citi in the early 1990s (its stock was at $9 on its way to zero) is expected to pump equity into the bank again. Note there are some disparities between the Journal’s story and the one in the Financial Times. For example, the Journal says […]
Read more...Believe it or not, I found this less downbeat than most economic news du jour. Things are not yet as bad as they have been in past downturns, at least according to the Economist’s house measure: The Economist’s informal R-word index is also sounding alarms. Our gauge counts how many stories in the Washington Post […]
Read more...Greenhouse ocean may downsize fish PhysOrg US Video of Iran Speedboats Doctored; Iranians Charge Fabrication Informed Consent (hat tip Angry Bear) The Fraud of Voter ID Laws American Prospect. For a more colorful treatment, see Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary Greg Palast. Windows Vista, Office 2007 Expelled From British Schools Information Week Fed […]
Read more...The Fortune article by Allan Sloan, “BofA’s awesome Countrywide tax break‘ was more blunt, pointing out that we taxpayers are helping subsidize Bank of America’s purchase and Mozilo’s payout. The tax savings are reported to be worth a half a billion over the first five years after the deal close, due to Bank of America […]
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