The political theater continues. The New York Times reports in “Bush Prods Congress, as Financiers Are Inspected,” that the Fed and the OCC are giving Fannie and Freddie the once-over: Bank examiners from the Federal Reserve and the Comptroller of the Currency are inspecting the books of the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie […]
Read more...There may be a disconnect between what the brokerage industry is reporting on a temporary rule to ban naked shorts in 19 financial firms, whose common characteristic seems to be that they are deemed “too big to fail,” and what some customers are experiencing. The industry reports that everything is hunky dory now that the […]
Read more...This item came from reader Chris, who passed along a tidbit from Wolfgang Munchau’s Eurointelligence daily newsletter. I can’t provide a link to the story itself; checking around the Eurointelligence site, it seems to be an e-mail only product, and the piece in question is based on a German news story. The proposal is odd. […]
Read more...Charles Wyplosz has a post up at VoxEU that is both clever and informative. He looks at the wisdom of having taxpayers shore up faltering banking systems, using the largely opposed viewpoints of two well-known economists as a point of departure: Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary, who has argued that intervention is necessary to prevent […]
Read more...Um, could someone explain to these folks that the monster rally in bank stocks was due to short covering? No. the bankers would rather live in the illusion that the dim outlook for their industry is due solely to the machinations of evil short sellers, not their mismanagement. Objectively speaking, the downside of a low […]
Read more...I got this far in the Wall Street Journal article, “Capitol Hill Storm Envelops Fannie-Freddie Rescue” and started seeing red: The Congressional Budget Office is expected to estimate the cost of Treasury’s proposals to the federal government to be in the tens of billions of dollars, according to people familiar with the matter. That estimate […]
Read more...Has Goldman gone over the line of permitted behavior, particularly now that the SEC has decided to go after firms who may have contributed a bit too actively to share price declines of troubled brokerage firms and banks? The Wall Street Journal, in “Goldman Is Queried About Bear’s Fall,” says that the CEOs of Bear […]
Read more...The link is here. Main elements: Common and preferred equity wiped out Subordinated debt swapped for equity warrants Current senior unsecured debtholders get per each dollar of face 90 cents face amount of new debt and 10 cents face amount of new equity Equity holders can put common to Feds at face value for first […]
Read more...So much for the notion that the not-quite-a-rescue-plan for Fannie and Freddie would calm troubled markets. Equities gave a raspberry yesterday and overnight, the TED spread widened 11 basis points to 133 basis points (a sign interbank funding trouble may be nigh) and today the currency markets, which initially seemed to take the news in […]
Read more...The time has come to announce the formation of the Banana Republic Club. Membership is open, with the sole requirement being that nominees correctly discern behaviors in advanced economies that resemble those of corrupt developing countries, which for sake of convenience are referred to as banana republics. Members are eligible to receive a Carmen Miranda […]
Read more...The FDIC announced earlier that it will halt foreclosures in IndyMac’s $15 billion loan portfolio. But I found this bit of the Wall Street Journal’s article “IndyMac Reopens, Halts Foreclosures on Its Loans“: In its effort to halt foreclosures, the FDIC has much more flexibility to intervene with the roughly $15 billion of loans that […]
Read more...As both cynics and boosters anticipated, the Freddie Mac $3 billion sale of short term debt went off well this morning. As of this hours, the stocks of the GSEs have fared less well, as the Wall Street Journal notes: Shares of Freddie were up about 20% soon after the market opened Monday but reversed […]
Read more...It seems so long ago that the Treasury’s failed effort to organize an SIV bail-out entity, the MLEC, was regular front page news in the financial press. Citigroup was to be the biggest beneficiary of this operation. Well, the MLEC never came to be, and Citi still has those pesky off balance sheet assets to […]
Read more...I must admit to being hopelessly naive. The Fed opens its discount window to Freddie and Fannie, which is an admission that there is a problem but not much of a solution, since the GSEs are certain not to use it (accessing the discount window is a kiss of death, seen an admission that a […]
Read more...I received an e-mail that contains the text of a letter allegedly sent to Freddie Mac employees this evening (hat tip reader Jeff). On the one hand, I cannot verify its authenticity. On the other hand, it reads like the real deal. Note particularly the claim that the measures proposed by the Treasury are merely […]
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