When some deemed the Fed’s move today to expand its balance sheet by as much as a trillion dollars plus as “shock and awe”, I recalled that when that term was first used, at the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq. The notion was a display of superior force would lead to quick capitulation. […]
Read more...Submitted by Lune Roll Call is reporting (subscription required) that the House and Senate are taking up measures for taxing bonuses paid out by companies in 2009 that accepted bailout money: House and Senate leaders moved at breakneck speed Wednesday to turn outrage over bonuses at American International Group and other bailed-out companies into retribution, […]
Read more...Watch a bit of jousting during the hearings on AIG today: Now one can take the position that Grayson is merely trying to score points, but I don’t see it that way. Instead, he is trying to make a response to a basic and unanswered question: Who were these people who wrecked AIG and other […]
Read more...Submitted by Rolfe Winkler, CFA, publisher of OptionARMageddon.comThe Charlotte Observer deserves a big fat Bronx Cheer for prostituting its pages. Today the paper published excerpts of an “interview” with hometown CEO Ken Lewis of BofA. The quotes read like the standard puffery one finds in corporate press releases. If the interviewers asked any tough questions, […]
Read more...Chernobyl ‘shows insect decline’ BBC Harlan Ellison ANGRILY Sues Paramount Over His Old “Star Trek” Script The Fiction Circus. I am a long standing Ellision fan (how many of you have read The Glass Teat, for instance?). A mighty fine rant. A Little Flab May Weigh Heavily on Life Expectancy, Study Shows Bloomberg. The definition […]
Read more...Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns Edward Harrison here. Today, I want to make the case for seeing writedowns as central to this global downturn. To do so, we need to rewind and compare what is going on today with what we have experienced in the past. Drawing on this comparison, I […]
Read more...A good article in tonight’s Financial Times gives useful detail about the Swedish response to its early 1990s banking crisis. As readers may know, Sweden (along with the less touted Norway) is considered to have been particularly effective in mopping up a banking crisis. We and others have observed that the US is engaging in […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal tells us tonight something that is pretty obvious: hedge funds were often buyers of AIG credit default swaps, either directly, or indirectly, by purchasing structured products that had AIG guarantees, such as collateralized debt obligations. While this report falls in the camp of peeling away yet another layer of AIG’s practices, […]
Read more...Canadian dig yields tiny dinosaur BBC Wolfram Alpha Computes Answers To Factual Questions. This Is Going To Be Big TechCrunch (hat tip Ed). If this works, it is a major threat to Google. Stay tuned. AIG refuses to hand over workers details Times Online Fed Plans For TALF Stymied Clusterstock The Button-Down Mafia: How the […]
Read more...I know one can maintain outrage for only so long, and I find it deeply disturbing to look at the inability to rein financial industry pay in despite horrific results. If these people are so valuable, let them go to boutiques and prove it, where you eat what you kill rather than feed off a […]
Read more...Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. After rallying for four days, stocks gave up early gains and the rally fizzled this afternoon: Analysts said Monday’s pullback after a four-session surge didn’t necessarily signal that traders were reconsidering their newfound optimism about financial stocks, a main driver behind last week’s advance. In fact some […]
Read more...We have been saying from the first time the idea that Team Obama floated the idea of having a “public private partnership” buy toxic bank assets, that it was merely a very costly way to disguise overpayment. Henry Paulson tried twice to find a way to hoover up bad bank assets, the first time via […]
Read more...William Black, now a professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri (Kansas City) was a senior bank regulator during the savings loan crisis (his claim to fame was his pursuit of Charles Keating of Lincoln Savings, in which he was removed from the initiative and more management friendly investigators were assigned, and […]
Read more...Monkeys ‘teach infants to floss’ BBC Women opt out of math/science careers because of family demands Science Codex. Please tell Larry Summers. AIG Bonuses – It Gets Worse Bruce Krasting. This post is NOT about AIG bonuses, but about other less than stellar ways your taxpayer dollars are being put to work. Railroad Bailout May […]
Read more...Too much corn pone personal story, not enough real interview. But I must say, Bernanke is either an astoundingly self contained man or is on the best meds modern science has to offer. Paul Kedrosky thinks this appearance is either wildly bullish or wildly bearish, and is somewhat inclined to the former view. I see […]
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