At yesterday’s close, the S&P 500 was off roughly 30 per cent from its Oct. 2007 peak...but is still almost 45 per cent ahead of its Oct. 2002 low. Survey says:
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At yesterday’s close, the S&P 500 was off roughly 30 per cent from its Oct. 2007 peak...but is still almost 45 per cent ahead of its Oct. 2002 low. Survey says:
September 30, 2008 in Reader Polls | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Neuberger Berman, based on comparisons with other asset management firms, is valued at $6.5 billion by Standard & Poor's equity research and $13 billion by Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. The business is worth $8 billion according to Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller. Hintz, a former chief financial officer at Lehman who rates Lehman shares “market perform,” estimates the unit’s value at $7 billion.
September 30, 2008 in Core competencies | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 29, 2008 in FlimFlam Update | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Bye-bye 157. The Andy Fastow Rules are back
September 29, 2008 in DisCredited, FlimFlam Update, Regulators | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
His attorney, Norman Moscowitz, said Lauer is not guilty...
September 29, 2008 in FlimFlam Update | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 29, 2008 in Shorting Controversy, Unsolicited opinions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I think we’ve reached the point where somebody really needs to go to jail. And 85 Broad would be an excellent place to start rounding up a few of the usuals.
Behind Insurer’s Crisis, a Blind Eye to a Web of Risk
by Gretchen Morgenson
The New York Times Sep. 28 2008
*Cockney Rhyming Slang: Porkie = Pork Pie = Lie
September 27, 2008 in DisCredited, Regulators, Today's reading, Unsolicited opinions | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Let’s step back. Wall Street’s greed and short sightedness, and the consumers’ real-estate bacchanalia, was certainly a big part of recent events, but the biggest drivers in creating the current crisis were (IMHO) not the fault of private enterprise but, as usual, of the government...
There is nothing wrong with Government coming to the rescue of financial institutions where mismanagement has caused risk of failure in a way that jeopardizes the stability of the entire financial system. What is wrong, and is both a violation of public trust and a display professional incompetence, is to contribute taxpayer money in a way that enriches management and the owners of these mismanaged companies rather than the taxpayers.
September 27, 2008 in Core competencies, DisCredited, Regulators, Shorting Controversy, Today's reading | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Metal Bulletin this week runs 1850-or-so elegantly arranged pearls, assembled by yours truly under an assumed name, on the general theme of commodity hedge funds, their beatings in August and year-to-date, and what it might mean for their future.
It probably seemed a good idea at the time, but naming a commodity hedge fund after a solitary bird of prey turned out to be new proof of the old adage that birds of a feather flock together.
Ospraies and Red Kites were not alone in being savagely plucked by summer’s turmoil in the stock and commodity markets, but their spectacular losses set off a rather louder-than-usual dawn chorus of squawks and screeches...
Flight Or Fall
by Greg Newton
Metal Bulletin Sep. 22 2008
September 26, 2008 in Commodities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Not that anybody noticed.
We, the unknowing, are throwing
you, the unwilling, under the bus,
to save the unconscionable. We
have messed up so much,
for so long, at such great
cost, we are now qualified todo nothing with everything
Go read the whole damn thing.
September 26, 2008 in DisCredited | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 26, 2008 in Unsolicited opinions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 26, 2008 in Off the beaten track | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 25, 2008 in DisCredited | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Morons’ Moron Guide to Economic Salvation
SPEAKER: PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Good evening. This is an extraordinary period for America’s economy.
We’re (word that rhymes with) plucked.
We’re in the midst of a serious financial crisis, and the federal government is responding with decisive action.
We’re clueless, but that won’t let that stop us taking decisive action.
Most importantly, my administration is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets.
We, the unknowing, are throwing you, the unwilling, under the bus, to save the unconscionable. We have messed up so much, for so long, at such great cost, we are now qualified to do nothing with everything. (© Mother Teresa.)
This rescue effort is not aimed at preserving any individual company or industry. It is aimed at preserving America’s overall economy.
I repeat, this crisis is strictly contained to housing. OK, a teensy bit leaked through but only to commercial real estate, the automobile industry, retail, credit cards, gas guzzlers, and the job export industry. Other than that, tightly contained.
First, how did our economy reach this point? Well, most economists agree that the problems we’re witnessing today developed over a long period of time. For more than a decade, a massive amount of money flowed into the United States from investors abroad because our country is an attractive and secure place to do business. This large influx of money to US banks and financial institutions, along with low interest rates, made it easier for Americans to get credit.
The war on drugs is working out as well as the war on terrorism. Damn furrn’uhs.
Unfortunately, there were also some serious negative consequences, particularly in the housing market. Easy credit, combined with the faulty assumption that home values would continue to rise, led to excesses and bad decisions.
Greenie, you did a heckuva job.
See, in today’s mortgage industry, home loans are often packaged together and converted into financial products called mortgage-backed securities. These securities were sold to investors around the world. Many investors assumed these securities were trustworthy and asked few questions about their actual value.
Moody’s sprayed gold paint on wet newspapers, so we could meet margin calls on the the cocaine bill.
September 25, 2008 in Advice to live by | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Right about now, a whole bunch of people should be sweating buckets.
Washington, D.C., Sept. 24, 2008 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based investment adviser and its owner with fraud for failing to disclose a material conflict of interest when recommending that their clients invest in a hedge fund...
The SEC alleges that WealthWise LLC and its principal Jeffrey A. Forrest recommended that more than 60 of their clients invest approximately $40 million in Apex Equity Options Fund, a hedge fund managed by Salt Lake City-based Thompson Consulting, Inc. (TCI)...WealthWise and Forrest failed to disclose a side agreement in which WealthWise received a portion of the performance fee that Apex paid TCI for all WealthWise assets invested in the hedge fund. From April 2005 to September 2007, WealthWise received more than $350,000 in performance fees from TCI. Apex collapsed in August 2007, and WealthWise clients lost nearly all of the money they invested.
“Today’s action demonstrates that investment advisers will be called to account when, as we allege here, they receive undisclosed kickbacks for putting their clients into investments,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “We will aggressively pursue advisers who seek to line their pockets at the expense of their clients.” [Emphasis added]
September 25, 2008 in Core competencies, Due diligence, Regulators | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
NYSE-Arca, Susquehanna, got ’splainin’ to do
In the context of today’s unceasing trench warfare between massed armies of manipulators, it was little more than a bar-room brawl between off-duty corporals. But wild swings last week in the Market Vectors’ Remnimbi/USD exchange-traded note (CNY) showed the peril that awaits the unwary in placing market orders on thinly traded ‘stocks’ in violent markets.
September 25, 2008 in Annals of Dubious Causality, ETFs, Regulators, Unsolicited opinions | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 25, 2008 in Commodities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 24, 2008 in Shorting Controversy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The Federal Reserve, unleashing its latest attempt to inject more cash into the nation's ailing banks, loosened longstanding rules that had limited the ability of buyout firms and private investors to take big stakes in banks.
the banking industry will watch closely to make sure the new policies are strictly enforced to prevent “activist investors” from doing an end run around the Fed's scrutiny.
September 24, 2008 in Regulators, Unsolicited opinions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The specific section of the TARP Act about which the estimable Ms Tavakoli doth protest so much reads:
(c) DIRECT PURCHASES.—Where the Secretary determines that the purposes of the Act are best met through direct purchases from an individual financial institution where no bidding process or market prices are available, the Secretary shall pursue additional measures to —
(1) ensure that prices paid for assets are reasonable; and
(2) share potential benefits of the purchase to the financial institution, including, but not limited to, warrants or other similar mechanisms.
Such measures are not required where purchases are made from an individual financial institution for the purpose of gaining greater control over a particular issue of securities for the purposes of facilitating loan work-outs.
Or, as it’s thought of here, the great, big eff-you Mr Market, I can drive a semi-trailer, make that a 200-car coal train, through that and my buds John and Lloyd and Dick (whooopth, too late) and Fred’s pals Ken and James, and their friends...will be just fine. No, really. And when Ken gets his hand on the tiller at Merrill, that’ll leave my mortgage banker consigliere John Thain...
The TARP Bill
(which somehow seems to have escalated from three pages over the weekend, to a svelte 42 pages now).
Shock and Awe? Try Shockingly Awful
by Randall W. Forsyth
Barron’s Sep. 23 2008
September 24, 2008 in Regulators, Unsolicited opinions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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