Mon 2009-04-06 00:00 EDT

Bill Moyers Journal . Transcripts | PBS

ex-banking regulator William K. Black calls fraud: ``make really bad loans, because they pay better. Then you grow extremely rapidly, in other words, you're a Ponzi-like scheme. And the third thing you do is we call it leverage. That just means borrowing a lot of money, and the combination creates a situation where you have guaranteed record profits in the early years. That makes you rich, through the bonuses that modern executive compensation has produced. It also makes it inevitable that there's going to be a disaster down the road.''

Bill Moyers Journal; PBS; Transcript.

Thu 2009-02-26 00:00 EST

Calculated Risk: Comments on Housing Plan

rewards homebuyers who speculated with excessive leverage

Calculated Risk; Comments; Housing plan.

Thu 2009-01-15 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: Guest Post: "If You Can't Tell Who The Sucker Is...."

by Cassandra Does Tokyo; normalcy; ``what we've seen in leverage and credit growth during the past 15 years is NOT normal, nor is it sustainable - neither relative to history or in absolute terms.''

Guest Post; naked capitalism; suckers; tells.

Thu 2009-01-08 00:00 EST

Inside the influential new world of econobloggers - The Boston Globe

Inside the influential new world of econobloggers, Stephen Mihm, The Boston Globe; Tanta; Naked Capitalism; Yves Smith: ``The real leverage of blogs is that journalists read them''; Calculated Risk

Boston Globe; Econobloggers; influential new world.

Mon 2008-12-15 00:00 EST

Cassandra Does Tokyo: Bernie Comes Out of the Closet

Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme reviewed; ``emblematic of America since Reagan and the Great Leveraging. Something for nothing. Thank you Mr Laffer. But as a philosophy and modus operandi it is quite literally, bankrupt and without merit.''

Bernie Comes; Cassandra; closet; Tokyo.

Tue 2008-10-07 00:00 EDT

De-leveraging -- Fairy Tale Endings

De-leveraging Fairy Tale Endings, by Satyajit Das; ``perceived abundance of liquidity was, in reality, merely an illusion created by high levels of debt and leverage''

De-leveraging; Fairy Tales end.

Tue 2008-08-26 00:00 EDT

The End of the Beginning -- Developments in the Credit Crisis

The End of the Beginning - Developments in the Credit Crisis, by Satyajit Das (Prudent Bear); 2008-05-27; ``limited recognition of the massive de-leveraging of the global financial system that is under way.'' ``The banking systems ability to supply credit is significantly impaired and will remain so for the foreseeable future.'' ``Changes in financial markets will have a significant impact on many companies that now rely on financial engineering rather than real engineering'' Das proposes: ``holdings and values of risky assets held by banks and investment banks must be accurately determined...Risky assets must be valued on a hold-to-maturity basis...Mark-to-market accounting should be suspended...Capital levels should be set on a bank-by-bank basis by regulators...Capital requirements should be eased...government [should] guarantee of all major bank liabilities''

Begins; credit crisis; develop; ending.

Sun 2008-08-24 00:00 EDT

Here comes the downsizing of finance

by Martin Hutchinson (Prudent Bear); auction-rate securities (ARS); credit default swaps (CDS); ``CDS market creates many times as much risk as it hedges or transfers''; GSEs ``leveraged more than would have been possible without the governments quasi-guarantee, lobbied like to crazy to ensure they were not properly regulated and collapsed thankfully into the arms of the taxpayer as soon as ill winds began to blow...by their presence they turned the soundest product in financial markets, the home mortgage, into an obscene speculative casino, causing collateral damage of many times their own losses.'' ``much of the financial services innovation of the last generation was spurious and unsound, and needs to be done away with''

comes; downsizing; finance.

Sun 2008-07-06 00:00 EDT

Jesse's Café Américain: Lessons from the Panic of 1907

Jesse's Café Américain: Lessons from the Panic of 1907: "almost all panics and crashes are preceded by sustained periods of artificial growth, not based on improvements in productivity, but by a false expansion in the money system, aided and abetted by speculators and financiers." "almost all panics and crashes involves relatively small groups of people who seem to be at the heart of the matter, and are closely interlinked into small cartels of corrupted self-dealing, involving the accumulation of enormous personal fortunes." "always the overextension of credit and excessive leverage" "A free and just society is not a prize to be won or a gift that can be bestowed; it is a recurring commitment, an enduring obligation."

1907; Jesse's Café Américain; Lessons; panic.

Wed 2008-04-16 00:00 EDT

Institutional Risk Analytics

Large OTC Markets + Excessive Leverage + Fair Value Accounting = Systemic Risk, by The Institutional Risk Analyst; FAS 157; JPMorgan "an uncapitalized, $76 trillion OTC derivatives exchange with a $1.3 trillion asset bank appendage"

Institutional Risk Analytics.

Thu 2008-04-10 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Ponzi Financing At Citigroup

Citi selling 12 billion leverage loans at big discount

Citigroup; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; Ponzi Financing.

Thu 2008-04-10 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Buyout CLOs Used for Fed Loans

"investment banks are taking their hung leveraged buyout loans and bundling them into collatearlized loan obligations so they can use them as collateral for loans fromt the Fed"

Buyout CLOs Used; Fed Loans; naked capitalism.

Tue 2008-03-25 00:00 EDT

Lehman's Debt Shuffle - Portfolio.com

Lehman's Debt Shuffle, by Jesse Eisinger; "Assets rose. Leverage rose. Write-downs were suspiciously minuscule."

com; Lehman's Debt Shuffle; portfolio.

Sun 2008-03-23 00:00 EDT

[ The Financial Ninja ]: Massive De-leveraging Slams Commodities

Financial Ninja; Massive De-leveraging Slams Commodities.

Tue 2008-03-18 00:00 EDT

Dealbreaker - A Wall Street Tabloid - Business News Headlines and Financial Gossip - Why JP Morgan Did It Leverage Loans and Client Exposure To Shaky Financial Instruments Held By Bear Gave JP Morgan Strong Incentives To Rescue Bear's Portfolio

Dealbreaker - A Wall Street Tabloid - Business News Headlines and Financial Gossip - Why JP Morgan Did It Leverage Loans and Client Exposure To Shaky Financial Instruments Held By Bear Gave JP Morgan Strong Incentives To Rescue Bear's Portfolio, by John Carney

Bear Gave JP Morgan Strong Incentives; business news headlines; Client Exposure; Dealbreaker; Financial Gossip; JP Morgan; Leveraged Loans; Rescue Bear's Portfolio; Shaky Financial Instruments Held; Wall Street tabloid.

Tue 2007-10-02 00:00 EDT

Minyanville -

Bank Earnings 101: Banks are generally leveraged 10:1; by Minyan Peter (2007-09-10)

Minyanville.