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Monthly Archives: September 2008
Staying on Top of the News
At 5:01pm, Calculated Risk put up a blog entry with the headline "Report: WaMu Attracts No Bids". At 6:19pm, Calculated Risk put up a new blog entry, with the headline "Report: WaMu has Attracted Multiple Bidders". A little bit later, … Continue reading
Posted in journalism
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A Frazzled Market
I have no idea whether or not the government is going to set up the bailout fund to end all bailout funds — a new RTC which would essentially become one big "bad bank", precluding the need for entities like … Continue reading
Posted in stocks
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Hirst: Only the Russians Didn’t Get the Memo
Liz Gunnison reports that 80% of the buyers at this week’s Hirst auction were Russian. If that’s true, then I’m more convinced than ever that the sale marks a top for the Hirst market. Maybe the point of exhibiting selected … Continue reading
Posted in art
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Volatility Datapoint of the Day
It doesn’t actually particularly matter which this stock this is. The point is that when the intraday range of stock values is larger than the difference between a stock’s 52-week low and its 52-week high, you know that trying to … Continue reading
Posted in stocks
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When Regulators Panic
The range of regulatory responses to the current chaos in financial markets is instructive. The SEC bans naked short selling, the Russians just close down their markets altogether before announcing plans to spend $20 billion on stocks, and the FSA, … Continue reading
Posted in regulation
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Blogonomics: Blodget Poaches Carney
This is not the best time to be looking for work — unless, it seems, you’re a financial blogger. Henry Blodget has just poached John Carney, Dealbreaker’s editor in chief, to run his financial blog, Clusterstock — although Carney says … Continue reading
Posted in blogonomics
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Buffett’s Smart Buy
Amidst the craziness in financial markets right now, there’s only one thing that’s certain: when it comes to valuations, nobody knows anything. Morgan Stanley can be cheap one day at $30 a share and then expensive the next day at … Continue reading
Posted in energy
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Is Wachovia Too Small to Save Morgan Stanley?
Did I say that today’s liquidity injection should at least get us through the weekend? Well, by "us", clearly I didn’t mean "Morgan Stanley". It’s not trading at zero yet, but it’s getting very close, and if the stock continues … Continue reading
Posted in banking
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Breakingviews in the New York Times
Everybody knows that newspapering is a business in desperate straits right now. So why is that financial opinion columns seem to be proliferating? Historically, there was just one, in the FT: Lex. As of next week, Lex alumni will be … Continue reading
Posted in Media
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A Lehman Story
It’s clear now that the European and Asian operations of Lehman Brothers will be liquidated and not sold as a going concern. Barclays clearly doesn’t want them, and at this point they’re like bread or fish: getting staler and less … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bankruptcy
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Idiotic Idea of the Day, SEC Edition
So far, America’s technocrats have held up reasonably well in the face of the hurricane-force winds buffetting the world’s financial system. You can (and many do) quibble with some of the decisions made by Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and Hank … Continue reading
Posted in regulation, stocks
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Bank Megamerger of the Day
While Wall Street has been utterly transformed by this financial crisis, US Main Street banking has not been. Yes, your local Fleet branch is now part of the same empire that owns Merrill Lynch, but it turned itself into a … Continue reading
Getting Through the Weekend
The latest move in the fiscal and monetary response to the global financial crisis has been to flood the world with money. The Fed boosted its U.S. dollar swap line with foreign central banks by $180 billion…. The Fed also … Continue reading
Posted in banking, fiscal and monetary policy
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Wachovia Stanley? Really?
Why on earth did John Mack put out a memo today blaming short-sellers for the decline in Morgan Stanley’s share price? It’s the corporate equivalent of pinning a "kick me" sign to your own back — and it looks like … Continue reading
America’s Ad Hoc Fiscal and Monetary Policy
What is this Supplementary Financing Program, under which Treasury is essentially lending money to the Fed? Does it mean that the Fed’s run out of money, as Paul Murphy would have it? Does it mean, pace Tyler Cowen, that central … Continue reading
Posted in fiscal and monetary policy
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Extra Credit, Wednesday Edition
U.S. one month T-bill yield falls to 0.17 pct The cost of protection on the Street Moral Hazard for Corporations The Economy in Two Minutes or Less: Obama trounces McCain in the battle of the TV ads. Spot prices: Smart … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Morgan Stanley in Distress
The good thing about the fact that both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley just released their quarterly earnings is that we have up-to-the-minute information on what (they say) their book value is. For Goldman it’s $99.30 per share; for Morgan … Continue reading
Posted in banking
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Beware ETNs
The Chinese renminbi is one of the most stable currencies in the world. Its value against the dollar is severely constrained by the Chinese government, and it never moves very far in any given day. But, it’s hard for foreigners … Continue reading
Posted in foreign exchange, investing
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Morgan Stanley in the Crosshairs
Why is the stock market down this morning? Haven’t we just averted catastrophe? Shouldn’t the fears — and shorts — of earlier this week be unwound? Madlen Read of the AP reports: Stocks skidded again Wednesday, with anxieties about the … Continue reading
The $85 Billion Check
Ottorock asks a question: When a gov’t cuts an $85Bn cheque, where do the funds come from? John Jansen hazards a guess at the answer: If the Federal Reserve Bank of New York plans to write an $85 billion check … Continue reading
Posted in insurance
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Reforming the Patent System
It’s easy to miss amid the chaos, but the WSJ has an important story this morning on Nathan Myhrvold and his company, Intellectual Ventures. It helps to counteract the fluffy excitement of Malcom Gladwell, back in May, which always seemed … Continue reading
Posted in intellectual property
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Extra Credit, Tuesday Edition
The K-T Boundary: The best thing yet written on the future of investment banking. Read it. Lehman v Argentina: It looks like Argentina has finally been overtaken as the Biggest Bond Default Ever. Who Replaces AIG in the Dow? How … Continue reading
Posted in remainders
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Libor + 850bp
It’s done. The US government is bailing out AIG to the tune of $85 billion. But boy is it an expensive loan: Interest will accrue on the outstanding balance at the three-month London interbank offered rate plus 8.5 percentage points. … Continue reading
Posted in fiscal and monetary policy, insurance
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Why Bail Out AIG’s Bondholders?
Much as the prospect of an AIG bankrupcy terrifies me, I’m not a fan of an $85 billion government bailout either. Bond investors have already taken enormous mark-to-market losses on their AIG paper; if they realized just a fraction of … Continue reading
Posted in insurance
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