Submitted by Swedish Lex, who helped unwind Sweden’s imploded banks in the 1990s: The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury appears to be close to proposing a Faustian bargain that, seemingly, will involve considerable Government subsidies towards a limited number of economic operators. In return for the sacrifice – the creation of massive moral hazard – […]
Read more...Submitted by Rolfe Winkler, CFA, publisher of OptionARMageddon.com According to the NYT, the administration is considering all kinds of new rules in the wake of the AIG bonus scandal. These include tougher rules for mortgage lenders, new oversight powers for the Fed, and a new exchange/clearinghouse for derivatives trading. Most interesting in terms of intra-governmental […]
Read more...Finches choose sex of offspring BBC The Big Takeover Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone (hat tip Crocodile Chuck). Wonderfully well written and some eye opening details. Financial sector must feel pain Aline van Duyn, Financial Times (hat tip reader carping demon) Washington Mutual sues FDIC for over $13 billion Reuters McKinsey Strikes Again Independent Accountant Try, […]
Read more...Submitted by Tyler Durden, publisher of Zero Hedge As I dug a little more into the mystery of the amended Bloomberg headline discussing FDIC’s travails, some interesting facts came up. On September 25, 2008, Bloomberg staff reporter David Evans (not to be confused with U2’s The Edge) came out with a piece called “FDIC May […]
Read more...Hoisted from comments: Say I am SAC Capital. I get to be one of the bidders on bank assets covered by the program Citi holds $100mm of face-value securities, carried at $80mm. The market bid on these securities is $30mm. Say with perfect foresight the value of all cash flows is $50mm. I bid Citi […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Earlier this week, Michael Hudson wrote an excellent comment in counterpunch, The Real AIG Conspiracy: It may seem odd, but the public outrage against $135 million in AIG bonuses is a godsend to Wall Street, AIG scoundrels included. How can the media be so preoccupied with the […]
Read more...US birds in ‘widespread decline’ BBC Pink elephant is caught on camera BBC New Particle Throws Monkeywrench in Particle Physics Universe Today Brutalizing The FASB’s Attempts At Piglipsticking Tyler Durden New Deficit Forecast Casts Shadow on Obama Agenda New York Times Save the Credit Unions! Felix Salmon. Those big “corporate” credit units seized tonight are […]
Read more...The New York Times seems to have the inside skinny on the emerging private public partnership abortion program. And it appears to be consistent with (low) expectations: a lot of bells and whistles to finesse the fact that the government will wind up paying well above market for crappy paper. Key points: The three-pronged approach […]
Read more...This blog has been saying for a while that financial fraud is more pervasive than the officialdom wanted to acknowledge. We believe it is not uncommon at big firms (see last night’s discussion of Merrill, including comments), but no one wants to open that can of worms. However, small fry (even biggish ones, as long […]
Read more...Full disclosure: I am normally a fan of the Financial Times’ Gillian Tett, but her latest piece reveals she has been co-opted by the industry she covers. While there are matters of substance I take issue with (we’ll get to those soon), the whopper is the positioning. How can Tett possibly depict Gordon Gekko as […]
Read more...Slaughter of the seals in Russia is stopped by Vladimir Putin Times Online. So Putin can save cute seals, but Team Obama won’t save wolves (note the issue is that the population has to be much larger to have the needed genetic diversity, and a judge last year made a preliminary ruling supporting that view. […]
Read more...The irony is rich, even if the consequences to both credit card issuers and borrowers are painful. Many readers no doubt know that the October 2005 bankruptcy law changes were a long sought, hard lobbied for win for credit card companies. It considerably restricted access to Chapter 7 bankruptcies which allow borrowers discharge the debt […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Before delving into tonight’s topic, a few words about the AIG bonus blunder. The New York Times reports that many in government knew weeks ago about AIG bonuses: The question was direct and prescient. Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, asked the Treasury secretary in an […]
Read more...An interesting tidbit in the Financial Times: Bank of America was not blindsided by the Merrill writedowns (although Ken Lewis no doubt still wanted to walk from the deal). Its CAO was deeply involved in making them (boldface ours): Bank of America was directly involved in markdowns that contributed to Merrill Lynch’s $15.3bn loss in […]
Read more...Global crisis ‘to strike by 2030‘ BBC Fintag Comment Fintag (hat tip reader Richard). Excel is the cause of the crisis. No, seriously. Shell dumps wind, solar and hydro power in favour of biofuels Guardian Suze Orman Says Build Up Emergency Cash As Much As Possible Consumerist. Zeitgeist watch. Dissecting the A.I.G. Bonus Contract Steven […]
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