September 17, 2008
Check the following spycam video of Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in disguise in a car. Market-moving moment is 2 minutes in....
It's predictable. Every time there is a financial crisis Warren Buffett's name gets pulled out like he's going to start buying things and save the day. This time around it's been no different, with his naming coming up during...
In a speech tonight at Georgetown University, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a savvy financial guy -- had a few things to say about the current crisis. Here is one that caught my eye: It's not clear who's going...
Great quote tonight on CNBC from Dennis Gartman on the AIG non-bailout: ... I’m amused that everyone is calling it a bailout. I’m sorry but AIG is borrowing money at close to 12%. You can borrow money from Nick the...
I'm not the only one noticing President Bush's wrong-headed reluctance to say anything with respect to the current market meltdown. Check this Dow Jones story. On Tuesday [when AIG news broke], Bush dismissed a reporter's shouted question on AIG. In...
Merger arbitrage funds are seemingly balking at the Bank of America agreement to buy Merrill Lynch. As a result, the difference between the MER share price and the BAC offer is stuck up around 18%, which is very high. Why...
Anyone want to hazard a guess -- assuming we still have credit rating companies after the apocalypse -- whether the credit league table of Aaa-rated sovereign nations (according to Moody's) will look the same in 12-24 months? Here they are:...
I've written before here on watching Ebay markets in failing companies, so this is in that vein, albeit from a political point of view. Here is a graph from Terapeak comparing trends in how McCain-related and Obama-related goods are doing...
With news today that credit default swaps on U.S. government debt have risen to a record level -- essentially meaning that there is growing nervousness about U.S. creditworthiness -- it's time to take a closer look. After all, many are...
Some quick links to things others may find interesting: Bill Gross's Total Return Fund has a done a roundtrip: Made 1.3% on FRE/FNM trade, and lost 1.4% on AIG trade (Bloomberg) Russian market crisis mounts, with markets closed for second...
Many people are irritated that the U.S. is being forced to go alone in bailing out so many broken global financial companies as the shadow banking system falls apart. I'm here to tell you they're wrong. Check the following: Germany's...
Slate has launched a new financial news/analysis site, called The Big Money. It seems fine, has the requisite Slate contrarianism and the design is nice, but I don't immediately see anything there that makes me think I would go back...
Another great installment from the Charlie Rose show, this time with ex-AIG chair Maurice Greenberg. It was done early last night before the AIG bridge deal was announced, but it's still highly worth watching....
"We must walk without rhythm." -- Paul Atreides (from Dune (1975)) People are falling out of trees saying that with AIG the Paulson team at Treasury have crossed a line. First we weren't going to assist, then we...
Sooner rather than later, Treasury and the Fed need an in-house private equity manager. Why? Because it now owns a new, large and growing portfolio of semi-public companies, including Freddie, Fannie, and AIG. And it not only has massive stakes...
Some interesting papers on housing and capital markets were presented at a Brookings seminar last week. The Hatzius, Case, and Caballero et al., papers are all particularly good. Goldman Sachs' Hatzius argues we could lose 1.80 percentage points of GDP...
AIG released a somewhat disordered and incoherent statement late tonight about its just-received Fed bridge/bailout: The AIG Board has approved this transaction based on its determination that this is the best alternative for all of AIG's constituencies, including policyholders, customers,...
In the wake of recent events, this AIG commercial -- market risk? liabilities as nightmare? the strength to be there? -- comes across as considerably more blackly comedic than likely intended. On the other hand, we could hire the kid...
The Federal Reserve held a conference call for reporters tonight, and here (via Dow Jones) are some bullet points on the AIG bridge/bailout: The market was viewed as better able to handle a Lehman bankruptcy than an AIG one. The...
With so many economists explaining so knowingly in recent days how we got into our current predicament, I keep having a quote from Michael Milken going through my head. You get full points for telling me things before they happen,...
