Not surprisingly, it appears increasingly unlikely that private parties are wiling to take on a company that is pretty certain to have negative net worth, particularly when the point of a deal is to have someone, anyone take on the liabilities. But the Fed and Treasury are equally unwilling (at least as of now) to […]
Read more...Taxi drivers ‘have brain sat-nav’ BBC. Not certain you can generalize from London cabbies on this one. IPhone Takes Screenshots of Everything You Do Wiredl Palin Denies Denying Human Role in Global Warming Washington Post Cats against Palin Paul Krugman. I somehow missed this. Warning: 30 airlines will go bust this year Independent U.S. Holds […]
Read more...The Financial Times tells us that a consortium, Bank of America, bank investor JC Flowers, and Chinese Investment Company are pursuing a joint bid for Lehman. At least on paper, this makes far more sense than a solo BofA bid. The bank already has a garbage barge on its hands in the form of Countrywide, […]
Read more...Washington Mutual, which has long looked wobbly, is moving beyond the point where it can survive in its current form (cynics might say in any form). Moody’s lowered the bank’s rating on its deteriorating financial condition and the difficulty of raising sufficient capital on viable terms. From Reuters: Washington Mutual Inc. was downgraded to below […]
Read more...I have been naive enough to have believed we live in a democracy, although the evidence contradicting that view is more obvious with every passing day. Michigan Republicans plan to challenge the eligibility of voters whose homes have been foreclosed. Talk about adding insult to injury. From Michigan Messenger (hat tip Credit Slips): The chairman […]
Read more...Two stories on Bloomberg discussed how the world’s export powerhouses, China and Japan, are feeling the effects of the global slowdown. First on China, which seems inclined to weaken the yuan to defend growth. That’s a mixed blessing for the US. A stronger dollar hurts the export sector, the one sunny area of the economy, […]
Read more...News reports appear to be converging on the hoped-for end game for Lehman. Whether that will come to pass is another thing entirely. First, the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all report that the Fed and Treasury are brokering a deal, but are trying to avoid the use of public funds. […]
Read more...Charles Gasparino of CNBC has reported that a ource at Goldman has told him the firm is not willing to buy Lehman. This is at odds with what a source, a former senior officer who has been accurate about past Lehman-related matters, told us earlier today via e-mail. Ah, but are the two stories necessarily […]
Read more...We noted a few weeks ago that between large amounts of short term financial firm debt maturing in the third and fourth quarters, banks still leery of lending to each other, and liquidity always lower at year end (banks pull back from the market to square off their books), this November-Decemeber looks to be even […]
Read more...I heard this rumor from two sources, that Lehman is in its final day or two and Goldman is willing to buy the firm, and the second source, who volunteered the information, is sufficiently well plugged in that I trust the reading. This came from a former senior employee: A couple friends of mine from […]
Read more...Lehman’s survival as an independent firm looks increasingly in doubt, yet the shape of an end game is not yet clear, although, per T.S. Eliot, it likely to conclude with a whimper. The market’s reaction to Lehman’s way worse than expected earnings announcement of $3.9 billion in loses due to $5.6 billion in writedowns was […]
Read more...Pollution ‘hinders heart pacing’ BBC Protecting Our Banks The Onion Rationality Quotes 17 Eliezer Yudkowsky Cash Crunch Looming? Michael Panzner Wall Street tax avoidance ‘gimmicks’ rebuked Financial Times. What is particularly interesting is not just the list of Wall Street perps, but the fact that the IRS chose to ignore questionable strategies and Congress is […]
Read more...One of the factors we had mentioned that appeared to be contributing to the oil price runup of the first half of this year was China stockpiling gasoline, particularly diesel, in preparation for the Olympics. That notion was not well received. This article from Reuters says that China is unlikely to return to its pre-Olympics […]
Read more...We had said a couple of days ago that while the conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie looked to be a credit event for credit default swaps, meaning they would trigger payment, we did not see this being a financial event (presumably there would be no loss, with the Treasury assurance to prevent a negative net […]
Read more...Note the not-pretty pattern. The flow of funds out of emerging markets has reached the high-water mark of the period leading into the Asian, then Russian financial crises of 1997-1998. However, after recovering from the damage of this period, emerging markets as a whole enjoyed a period of strong growth. In theory, their economies are […]
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