‘Slaughter’ fear over poaching rise BBC. This time it’s elephants Decline & Fall of America: JP Morgan Fleeces Alabama Hicks With “Shit Bonds,” National Guard Called In Mark Ames (hat tip reader Joe C). My mother lives in Jefferson County, and the only reason I can fathom why the county has not defaulted or declared […]
Read more...If you think US economic data leaves a lot to be desired, just remember that it looks stellar in comparison to what comes out of China. The latest China fun facts versus relentlessly upbeat official figures roundup comes with the help of reader Michael. First is that China has been reporting decent growth, with the […]
Read more...The SEC desire to self-fund, revealed in an interview of SEC chairman Mary Shaprio in an interview with the Financial Times, is a far bigger deal than it might appear. One of the reasons for the agency’s less than impressive performance in pursuing fraud is that Congress kept it starved. For instance, Arthur Levitt, SEC […]
Read more...The Merrill-Bank of America bonus row took an interesting turn. As readers may recall, Merrill paid bonuses prior to the closing of its purchase by Bank of America, which was earlier than they would have been issued had Merrill remained independent. That timeframe was also when Bank of America was threatening to break the deal, […]
Read more...Served by Jesse of Le Café Américain “Flagrant evils cure themselves by being flagrant; and we are sanguine that the time is come when so great an evil…cannot stand its ground against good feeling and common sense…” John Henry Newman The reporter on Bloomberg television just mentioned as a snide, smirking editorial aside, that Sheila […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Reuters reports that British pension funds have begun exerting pressure to change proposed European Union rules that would impose new regulations on the hedge fund and alternative investment sector: The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and a director at Hermes, manager of Britain’s largest corporate scheme, […]
Read more...As readers may recall, we and just about anyone who understood anything about financial firm supervision saw the stress tests as a complete and utter farce. The authorities had tea and cookies with the 19 banks and then talked about model outputs. The talks sometimes got heated, so were were supposed to take this as […]
Read more...Submitted by Lune. As promised, the following is part II about the legislative process. While the first post was primarily about how Congress gathers information, this post will look at some of the forces affecting Congress’s ability to create good legislation. As you’ll quickly notice, IMHO, the news isn’t very good… Anyone who watches Congress […]
Read more...The Treasury Department seems to be a wits’ end on several front. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Geithner said bad words to banking regulators to try to bring them to heel. A few weeks ago, Geithner also had a chat with bank executives about their failure to do much in the way of […]
Read more...Driver’s escape from horse BBC Chinese survey finds prostitutes more trusted than officials Raw Story (hat tip reader John D) I don’t see why this is surprising. With ladies of the night, you at least get what you pay for. The Wrong Direction Michael Panzner Goldman CEO Tells Employees to Tone Down Spending CBS (hat […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. Below is a post I penned earlier this week about double dip recessions. The Volcker Whip-inflation-now induced double dip in 1980-1982 is the best precedent for today. What could tip us into a secondary relapse? A lot of things: commodity prices, oil, higher interest rates, commercial real estate, […]
Read more...Served by Jesse of Le Café Américain The Atlantic hurricane season is officially from 1 June to 30 November. But according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory AOML, with regard to Atlantic hurricanes there is a “very peaked season from August to October”, with: 78% of the tropical storm days 87% of the “minor” […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. It was a bullish start for markets on the first trading day of August. On Monday, the S&P 500 broke above 1,000 for the first time in nine months and the Libor rate dropped to a new record low. I noted that Bank of America (BAC) keeps […]
Read more...Obama gives powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table Los Angeles Times (hat tip DoctoRx). Hhm, and this was branded as health care reform? Australian June Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall 1.4% Bloomberg (hat tip DoctoRx) Avoiding the Tail Wagging the Dog David Merkel Bank regulators dig in against Obama shake-up Reuters After 6,000 Take […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reports that Timothy Geithner tongue-lashed Federal financial services regulators over their bucking the Obama Administration initiative for the Fed to become The One Regulator to Rule Them All. This comes on the heels of Congressional testimony which showed rather clearly that the key actors were not singing from the same hymnal. […]
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