Fri 2010-07-16 18:30 EDT

On Pelosi's Duplicity and Apparent Sandbagging of Elizabeth Warren <<; naked capitalism

Yves Smith

Despite her longevity as a California pol, house speaker Nancy Pelosi is looking like every bit as much of a dyed-in-the-wool financial services industry backer as the Congressmen on the New York-Boston corridor...So why are we pointing a finger at Pelosi in particular? The next chapter is her appointment of one Richard Nieman to the Congressional Oversight Panel...Nieman is the New York Superintendant of Banks. He helped Goldman set up its bank holding company...Nieman fell out with the other Democrats and wrote a joint opinion with John Sununu...to anyone with a passing acquaintance with the facts, the dissenting views are absurd...I can't imagine that Nieman would have fallen in with the Republicans without at least as a courtesy informing Pelosi in advance...So Pelosi is at a minimum sitting this one out (which I deem unlikely) or on board with the program to undermine Warren. And let us not kid ourselves, the knives are coming out...[2009-04-26]

Apparent Sandbagging; Elizabeth Warren; naked capitalism; Pelosi's Duplicity.

Credit Writedowns Thu 2010-06-03 17:56 EDT

Guest Post: The 2004 Fed Transcripts: A Methodical, Diabolical Destruction of America's "Wealth"

Frederick Sheehan

The Federal Reserve releases transcripts of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings with a five-year lag (as required by law, the Fed would like to burn them). Transcripts for 2004 meetings were released on April 30, 2010...FOMC transcripts in 2004 confirm the Fed was afraid of markets...The FOMC seemed most concerned that higher rates might interfere with the carry trade. In the sad tale of The Financialization of the United States, the carry trade deserves a chapter...By 2004, the carry trade was a mammoth enterprise of hedge funds and banks. The too-big-to-fail banks were, by now, leveraging their own internally managed hedge funds, managing their own proprietary trading desks, and also lending to highly leveraged hedge funds. Leverage, and, the belief that access to rising levels of credit would never end, pushed up asset values on bank balance sheets -- whether real estate, bonds, stocks, or private-equity. This increased the banks' lending capacity which encouraged banks to lend more...Markets believed asset prices would only go up for many silly reasons. Belief in the Greenspan Put may have been the silliest but also the most influential...Federal Reserve Governor Donald Kohn...told his confreres that Federal Reserve policy was to distort asset prices. He also said this was deliberate and desirable. In other words, distorted asset prices were not an unfortunate consequence of such-and-such Fed policy. The Fed's goal was to distort asset prices...Consumer spending exceeded consumer income...This strategy of fixing asset prices at an artificially high rate to fool the American people into spending money they did not have was diabolical...The manipulation of markets and of the American people has grown worse under Bernanke's chairmanship...

2004 Fed Transcripts; America's; credit writedowns; Diabolical Destruction; Guest Post; Method; wealth.

Wed 2010-02-03 19:45 EST

Bankruptcy Judge Invalidates Securitization Payment Structure >> HousingWire

A federal bankruptcy court judge in New York ruled earlier this week that long-held assumptions about payments owed to a counterparty in securitization deals cannot be enforced under US Bankruptcy Code, in a decision set to upend the securitization market. The decision was handed down by Judge James Peck, the judge overseeing the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy proceedings, who said that certain contractual provisions in a Lehman collateralized default obligation (CDO) are unenforceable under Chapter 11.

Bankruptcy Judge Invalidates Securitization Payment Structure; HousingWire.

zero hedge Sun 2009-10-11 16:17 EDT

€300 Million Later: Deutsche Bank's Invoice On The Remains Of The Jefferson Smurfit Group

...in a span of 10 years, DB has made almost half a billion dollars while the underlying assets have deteriorated so much that the American business has had to file for Chapter 11, while the remainder is stuck picking up the pieces at a deplorable return to shareholders.

Deutsche Bank's Invoice; Jefferson Smurfit Group; later; remains; Zero Hedge; €300.

Tue 2008-09-02 00:00 EDT

EconLog, Freddie Mac: My Chapter, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty

``I was "present at the creation" of Freddie Mac's risk management culturethe Foster...Van Order approach to pricing mortgage default risk. That was the approach that [Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron] rejected''

Arnold Kling; Chapter; econlog; economic; Freddie Mac; liberties; libraries.

Tue 2008-08-05 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: WCI Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: homebuilder WCI Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Chapter 11 bankruptcy; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; WCI Files.

Tue 2008-06-24 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: SEC Takes Chapter From Pontius Pilate on Rating Agency Regulation

SEC avoids question of rating agencies' culpability in the credit crisis

naked capitalism; Pontius Pilate; Ratings Agency Regulations; SEC Takes Chapter.

Wed 2008-05-07 00:00 EDT

The Institutional Risk Analyst: An Involuntary Transaction: Why BAC + CFC May Never Close

Involuntary Transaction or Why BAC+CFC May Never Close, by Institutional Risk Analytics; Reis and Flynn, False Security; historic resemblence to 1920s; BAC is unable to close the CFC transaction due to uncertainty regarding CFC liabilities; CFC debt holders urged to pull Chapter 7 bankruptcy trigger!

BAC; CFC; closed; Institutional Risk Analyst; Involuntary Transaction.

Mon 2007-10-08 00:00 EDT

Adam Smith - An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - The Adam Smith Institute

(Book Five, Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth. Chapter III, Of Public Debts; "In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies."

Adam Smith; Adam Smith Institute; caused; inquiry; nation; natural; wealth.