Small business, big business, BNK. Everyone wants their own loophole.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Big business pleads for loopholes in financial regulatory reform
Thursday, April 29, 2010
The Abacus trade was not Market Making
GS uses the market maker shield to protect itself. However this was not market making.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Buffet shows his true character
Wanting to exempt his company from the financial overhaul bill, using the familiar
"Can't now, I have a headache" excuse.
Deal Near on Derivatives as Warren Buffett's Berkshire Presses for Eased Curbs - WSJ.com: "Mr. Sokol told lawmakers the Senate bill would force Berkshire to post collateral against good-faith contracts into which it had already entered, for a total congressional aides put in the billions of dollars. Renegotiating those contracts would be a logistical headache, people familiar with his arguments said."
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Goldman Sachs and the Financial Crisis
Lessons in Risk Management.
Emails show the granularity that GS risk managers and even CEO understood risk. Doubtful that any other bank has this type of email trail.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
financial reform
My bet is weak form of 3 or 4 of the six
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Case Against Goldman Sachs - TIME
Sums up my thoughts on this.
The law does not matter but the intentions were so wrong.
GS lied.
On the surface, these deals look complicated. They are. But the alleged fraud at the heart of the case against Goldman and its CDO dealings is one of the simplest and oldest forms of deception: lying. According to the SEC, Goldman told one group of investors they were buying a AAA-rated (by lapdog ratings agencies, but that's another story) high-yield investment put together by an independent firm called ACA Management. But the SEC says the person really picking the collateral was Paulson, an investor whose only interest was: Paulson. What Goldman allegedly sold, like any good snake-oil salesman, was a worthless, well-packaged fake.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1983747,00.html#ixzz0lqmgsrOD
On the surface, these deals look complicated. They are. But the alleged fraud at the heart of the case against Goldman and its CDO dealings is one of the simplest and oldest forms of deception: lying. According to the SEC, Goldman told one group of investors they were buying a AAA-rated (by lapdog ratings agencies, but that's another story) high-yield investment put together by an independent firm called ACA Management. But the SEC says the person really picking the collateral was Paulson, an investor whose only interest was: Paulson. What Goldman allegedly sold, like any good snake-oil salesman, was a worthless, well-packaged fake.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1983747,00.html#ixzz0lqmgsrOD
Paulson and Magnetar are a bit more complex. Agreed that he was a smart guy and did his homework.
But he too could have found other ways to short the market rather than dress up a portfolio of bonds as AAA. He was just greedy and wanted to maximize his profit.
.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Why the Abacus investors weren’t speculators | Analysis & Opinion |
The argument that the CDO's in question had two counterparties , a long and a short does not hold water.
The two investors thought that they were making very different bets. The longs thought they were buying bonds, and highly rated bonds. They did not think that they were betting on the housing market.
The shorts knew that they were betting on the housing market.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Goldman CDO Trade
The Audacity of Synthetics describes the trade.
The trail leads not only to Goldman but to Paulson.
Graphics from the WSJ describing the trade.
From the NYT last fall.
Some of the primary sources:
The SEC complaint.
The trail leads not only to Goldman but to Paulson.
Graphics from the WSJ describing the trade.
From the NYT last fall.
Some of the primary sources:
The SEC complaint.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Michael Lewis on Wall Street
Michael Lewis on Wall Street � The Baseline Scenario: "Barack Obama: “He’s been captured by his banker, just like the ordinary American’s� captured by their stockbroker. He’s been buffaloed by the complexity of it all, he doesn’t have time to sort it out for himself, and he has to trust the people who seem to know."
The single mother's manifesto
J.K. Rowling on why she does not move to evade taxes. She "organizes money around her life and not her life around her money".
A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism. On the available evidence, I suspect that it is Lord Ashcroft’s idea of being a mug."
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Youth
YOUTH
By Samuel Ullman (1840-1925)
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind;
it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and
supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of
the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the
freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance
of courage over timidity of the appetite, for
adventure over the love of ease. This offen exists in
a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody
grows old merely by a number of years. We grow
old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up
enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, selfdistrust
bows the heart and turns the spirit back to
dust.
Sixty or sixteen, there is in every human
being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing
child-like appetite of what's next, and the joy of
the game of living. In the center of your heart and
my heart, there is a wireless station; so long as it
receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage
and power from men and from the infinite, so long
are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is
covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of
pessimism, then you are grow old, even at twenty,
but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the
waves of optimism, there is hope you may die
young at eighty.
By Samuel Ullman (1840-1925)
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind;
it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and
supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of
the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the
freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance
of courage over timidity of the appetite, for
adventure over the love of ease. This offen exists in
a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody
grows old merely by a number of years. We grow
old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up
enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, selfdistrust
bows the heart and turns the spirit back to
dust.
Sixty or sixteen, there is in every human
being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing
child-like appetite of what's next, and the joy of
the game of living. In the center of your heart and
my heart, there is a wireless station; so long as it
receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage
and power from men and from the infinite, so long
are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is
covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of
pessimism, then you are grow old, even at twenty,
but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the
waves of optimism, there is hope you may die
young at eighty.
The Limping Giant:
Not sure whether to laugh or cry about this.
Tax facts, financial reform and voting/supporting against interest
The rich are different from us. This is why they fight over tax rates is so fierce. There is a lot at stake for the people with wealth and power.
"average tax cut per filer of 400 wealthiest taxpayers in 2007 was $46 million"
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Taxes over Time
The tax rate of the highest earners has dramatically declined over time.
Mankiw argues that the declining tax rate might be part of the explanation for the dramatic growth in income of the top earners.
And notes on the top 400.
Hearts and Minds
"Everybody hates them in the valley," Haji Nizamuddin, a tribal elder in Korengal, said of the Americans. U.S. forces "shoot at people, they raid our houses and kill our women and children."
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Killer App of 1900
Early tea baggers warning against socialism:
“Unless we adopt the principles of socialism, It can hardly be contended that It is the province of government, either state or municipal, to undertake the manufacture or supply of the ordinary subjects of trade and commerce, or to impose burdens upon the whole community for the supposed benefit of a few…
Monday, April 12, 2010
China Offers High Speed Rail to California - NYTimes.com
China will spend 300 billion on rail construction and the U.S. 3 billion. I have not seen if this is a ppp number or not. The spread might be even bigger.
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Friday, April 02, 2010
Trendiness
I have jumped on this trend.
Young Trendsetters Streak Their Hair With Gray - On the Runway Blog - NYTimes.com
Young Trendsetters Streak Their Hair With Gray - On the Runway Blog - NYTimes.com
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