zero hedge Wed 2010-02-03 20:00 EST
Must read piece from David Fiderer, first published on Huffington Post How Paulson's People Colluded With Goldman To Destroy AIG And Get A Backdoor Bailout
AIG; collusion; epic proportions; Goldman Sachs Proper; Goldman's; Treasury Branch; Zero Hedge.
zero hedge Thu 2010-01-07 18:52 EST
The credit collapse and the accompanying deflation and overcapacity are going to drive the economy and financial markets in 2010. We have said repeatedly that this recession is really a depression because the recessions of the post-WWII experience were merely small backward steps in an inventory cycle but in the context of expanding credit. Whereas now, we are in a prolonged period of credit contraction, especially as it relates to households and small businesses (as we highlighted in our small business sentiment write-up yesterday).
David Rosenberg's 2010 Outlook; Depression; really; Recession; Zero Hedge.
naked capitalism Mon 2009-12-21 15:58 EST
...to-do about President Obama's fat cat remarks and his meeting with bankers exhorting them to lend...we are getting a bunch of populist rhetoric which is pure politics to induce banks to lend recklessly and save the economy when basic economics would tell you that there is a deficit of lending capacity and demand for credit. It is the absurd kabuki theater of depression economics...David Rosenberg...sees something altogether more cynical -- an orchestrated campaign to shame and bully banks into going against their fiduciary responsibility and lending irresponsibly again!...Easy money is not the solution, it is the problem. Jobs are the solution...fiscal policy is more effective than monetary policy in a depressionary environment. Quantitative easing is overrated.
fat cats lend; naked capitalism; Obama s demands; Ode; Samuelson.
naked capitalism Fri 2009-11-20 09:42 EST
David Einhorn, who enjoys his considerable reputation for hard-fought battles against firms with shaky finances and dubious accounting (Alliance Capital and Lehman), has taken aim at a new and equally deserving target: credit default swaps...CDS are a means of extortion...CDS speculators win if companies die...a credit default swaps clearinghouse is not a viable solution...CDS serve the interests of the financial sector at the expense of the real economy...
Thu 2009-11-19 10:14 EST
What few people knew was that bank executives crafted a radical new business strategy in 2003 that was intended to boost profits. The new WaMu used huge sales commissions and misleading marketing to hawk risky and overpriced loans to borrowers. In short, WaMu became one of the nation's biggest predatory lenders. The strategy eventually failed, not only bringing down Washington Mutual but deceiving borrowers, costing thousands their homes. In particular, the bank promoted as its "signature loan" a complex product known as the option ARM. This adjustable-rate mortgage, much like a credit card, gave borrowers the choice of making low minimum payments. But that option didn't cover the interest and only dug them deeper into debt.
business; Hometown bank turned predatory; part; Seattle Times Newspaper; Technology; WaMu.
Fri 2009-10-23 08:55 EDT
(Goldman Sachs, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, John Rogers, John Whitehead, AIG, Neil Barofsky, Troubled Asset Relief Program, Morgan Stanley, Hank Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein, John Thain, Lehman Brothers, Standard & Poor's, Tim Geithner, JPMorgan Chase, Jon Winkelried, David Solomon, Richard Friedman, Jamie Dimon, Robert Rubin, Dan Jester, Eric Dinallo, Hank Greenberg, Edward C. Forst, Neel Kashkari, Edward Liddy, Stephen Friedman, Sidney Weinberg, TARP, Joseph --Stiglitz, Lucas van Praag, Frank Suozzo, Mike Morgan, Matt Taibbi, Edith Cooper, Byron Trott, Warren Buffett, Barney Frank, John Thornton, Michael Lewis, Larry Summers, Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Robert Hormats, Eliot Spitzer) Inside Goldman Sachs, America's most successful, cynical, envied, despised, and (in its view, anyway) misunderstood engine of capitalism. [2009-07-26]
2009-07-26; Goldman Sachs evil; good; just; New York magazine.
Calculated Risk Mon 2009-10-12 09:56 EDT
``I don't think it's a bad thing that the bad loans occurred. It was an effort to keep prices from falling too fast. That's a policy.'' Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee on recent FHA lending.The quote is from David Streitfeld and Louise Story's article in the NY Times: U.S. Mortgage Backer May Need Bailout, Experts Say
Calculated Risk; day; FHA; problem; quote.
Tue 2009-09-29 11:10 EDT
An options play suggests somebody expects the G20 to hatch a scheme to stabilize currencies. Duct tape for the dollar?...Reports John F. Brady, futures expert at MF Global, there was a big seller of "volatility" in the euro versus the dollar Thursday...What's curious, Brady explains, is that vols on the euro already are low, so it's hard to see them going much lower...Which got me to wondering if the volatility seller was thinking the G20 would do something to force volatility lower -- that is, stabilize exchange rates...Notwithstanding the calls for a replacement of the dollar as the main reserve currency, gold isn't it, according to long-time market observer David P. Goldman,..."Even a rather wobbly reserve currency is better than gold," he writes as his alter ego, Spengler, whom he "channels" for Asia Times (www.atimes.com.) "Gold is far less liquid than U.S. Treasury securities, costly to store and insure, and above all more volatile in price...gold isn't an investment but an insurance policy against a breakdown of the function of the world financial system."
Barrons; com; currency deal; Pittsburgh; steel; Wall Street Daily.
Tue 2009-09-22 08:39 EDT
The sun is setting on the US dollar as the ultra-loose monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve forces China and the vibrant economies of the emerging world to forge a new global currency order, according to a new report by HSBC..."The dollar looks awfully like sterling after the First World War," said David Bloom, the bank's currency chief.
zero hedge Thu 2009-09-17 09:42 EDT
David Rosenberg notes M1, M2 and MZM have commenced contracting at an alarming rate: M1 fell 1.0% in the August 24th week and over the past four weeks is down at a 6.5% annual rate. M2 has contracted in each of the past four weeks too and over that time has slipped at a 12.2% annualized pace, which is a near-record decline. We see the same trend in the broad MZM money measure -- off at a 15.8% annual rate over the past month. Bank credit also remains in a fundamental downtrend -- contracting at an epic 9% annualized pace over the past four weeks. So for the first time in the post-WWII era, we have deflation in credit, wages and rents, and from our lens this is a toxic brew that in the end will ensure that the focus on capital preservation and income orientation will be the winning strategy over a strict reliance on capital appreciation.
Bruce Krasting Fri 2009-09-04 19:11 EDT
In the Week in Review section the NY Times had a piece by David Streitfeld titled ``When Debtors Decide to Default''. I thought it was an important story. The NY Times put the issue of Debt Repudiation on the table. Exactly where it belongs. The author also contributed a new adjective to describe many of America's troubled borrowers, ``Ruthless Defaulters''. This definition comes to us from the ``lending'' side of the equation. I think that is a misguided definition by the industry. I don't think they know what they are up against. Yet...Debt repudiation is the biggest systemic risk we face...the default rate on mortgages in excess of $500k is going to explode this fall...the CC numbers would follow. Broad based debt repudiation is a distinct possibility.
Thu 2009-07-30 00:00 EDT
-- David Roche ``the securitization of debt, and creation of derivatives amounted to a huge virtual printing press, primarily fueled by a massive increase in risk appetite which allowed for a huge expansion in the value of claims on financial assets and goods and services...the Fed has little to no control over this "printing press" at this point, which at last count was responsible for over 90% of the liquidity in the system''
Dollar-Euro Short Squeeze Race; Exuberance Glut; Zero Hedge.
Fri 2009-07-24 00:00 EDT
-- John Dunbar, David Donald; top 25 subprime lenders; wall street backers; banks that financed subprime industry collecting bailout billions
article; blames; economic meltdown; Financial Crisis; rooted.
Mon 2009-05-04 00:00 EDT
Flawed Credit Ratings Reap Profits as Regulators Fail, by David Evans and Caroline Salas, Bloomberg.com; ``As the U.S. has spent, lent or pledged about $12.8 trillion in efforts to revive the slumping economy...no one has taken steps that would substantially fix a broken ratings system.''
Tue 2009-02-24 00:00 EST
The Big Banks vs. America: A Roundtable with David Kotok and Josh Rosner; Institutional Risk Analytics
America; big banks; David Kotok; Institutional Risk Analyst; Josh Rosner; Roundtable.
