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Enough for me - closed the last of my "looking for sub-$100" bet. Close to the only green line item in my portfolio today! :)
So how does one lose money shorting a 0% T-bill?
OT: Man, you're just like Blue, a huge part of the reason Dem's can't win the White House (and will fail again this fall) but so insistent to blame anyone and everyone else.
Believe what you like. I'm done.
OT: Congress apparently has no say in appropriations any more
Of course they do. Congress could raise a s***-storm on this issue in less time than it takes to get murdered in DC - if they wanted to.
But they won't, because they are complicit.
You know as well as I that the conference version vote is a formality...
I 100% disagree with this. The ONLY vote that matters is the last one - because that's the one that decides whether something becomes law or not. The votes before that are subject to all sorts of other horse trading and face-saving - hell, sponsors of legislation will even vote against it to keep it alive for later revision - but that final vote is where the political will meets the road.
Let's be blunt - a major reason politicos will vote one way and then the other is so that - no matter what happens - they can claim to have voted in whichever direction the political winds blow come re-election time.
Bottom line - 90 senators - including a hell of a lot of Democrats and almost all the Republicans - voted to support the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
...why can't you just own the fact that Phil Gramm and his party have royally f*cked this country up?
Are you incapable of reading? I was the one who brought up Gramm/GOP culpability to begin with. What I consider either completely dishonest or naively partisan is the notion that the Dems aren't just as guilty of creating this mess.
It's that kind of politicking that blew up in the Dem party's face last time out over the Iraq issue, here's hoping Obama finds a backbone and doesn't repeat the same mistake.
The deal says straight out the business will NOT be run for profitability or in support of common stock. They've turned Freddie/Fannie into gov't controlled source of economic stimulus.
Not really sure how much more obvious they can make it.
That is not what the government laid out in its plan.
Sure it is, it's written there in black and white. For a contrast, take a look at the details of this evening's AIG announcement.
Now THERE is a "bailout stock" worth taking a risk on.
...JOE...
You're asking the wrong guy, I started building long term position in XHB couple weeks back. And I took some AIG on the after-hours "conservatorship" whacking, so I'm clearly not of sound mind or judgement. :)
Speak well of me when I'm dead...
That was the vote for Senate's original version of the bill. The Dems in the Senate who voted against it originally were not against the repeal - they were upset over some CRA implications.
The conference version - IE, the one that actually became law - passed with 90 votes in favor in the Senate, and over 350 votes in the House. There are very few definitions of "bipartisan" such an overwhelming vote doesn't meet.
Thanks for the welcome. It's been a busy couple of years - startup got bought out - finally clawing back the space for a personal life! :)
Red Sox looking good for the playoffs and armageddon in the financial markets - what an entertaining autumn this is setting up to be! :)
Have you thought about the possibility of the Red Sox meeting Manny, Torre and the Dodgers in the World Series?
That would be a GREAT series!
May 5, 1917 - Ernie Koob - St Louis Browns no-hit the Chicago White Sox
May 6, 1917 - Bob Groom - St Louis Browns no-hit the Chicago White Sox
EXCEPT - May 6 was a double-header and the second no-hitter happened in the late game.
I love baseball. :)
OT: [Rubin] a chief architect in the repeal of Glass-Steagall...
Anybody recall the name of the bill that did the actual repeal? It was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act.
With Gramm as the economic idealogue for McCain and Rubin serving the same role for Obama I really don't see how either major candidate is likely to do the right or rational thing. So why are tens of millions of supposedly angry citizens going to vote for them?
OT: For both. No question, Dodgers got the better end of the statistical stick. Manny is special. With the trade preamble though it was starting to look like there'd be nothing coming back but a bag of scuffed balls.
And mood-wise - are you watching the Sox play? They're acting like a team out there, again. Like they actually like hanging and playing with each other. That's gotta be worth something come crunch time...
Do I have to repeat myself? YANK HIM!
Um....it doesn't appear to have helped. :)
It gets worse...
And worse again. It was bound to happen - losing last six at TB, Sox were overdue for laying on a whooping.
OT: It would be interesting to get inside Theo's mind to see what logic convinced him Jason Bay would be a suitable swap for a future HoFer like Manny - 'cause it's working out brilliantly.
If anyone has a cogent explanation for why Merrill Lynch announced a $29 buyout yesterday and is trading at $17 today, I'd be delighted to sit and listen.
-6.72
You blinked. Got as far as -8.27. Big Softie also down nearly 3% - no prisoners today!
OT: And now the shoe is on the other foot...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives plans to debate legislation this month to inject another $50 billion of stimulus into the faltering U.S. economy, mostly with the goal of creating new jobs, a senior House Democratic aide said on Monday...
Let's see just how many self-described "fiscal conservatives" in the GOP stand up against this New Deal like proposal.
The Mini is also the only one missing from the Refurb offerings. May mean something, may mean nothing...
"Brick" sounds like a Mini replacement. Certainly doesn't connote something you'd carry around - at least to me. :)
Curbs, not "curves". The markets had trading curbs, also referred to as circuit breakers.
To the other poster - the overnight gap down going into Black Monday was ~3.6%. There were a couple of 4% gaps during the '02 bust, but in general the Dow retreat was relatively orderly.
Gonna have to defer to another poster on that one...
[It means] there are a bunch of thoroughly constipated corporate jet crews sitting in coffee shops around Washington right now, looking at their watches and drinking lousy coffee.
Privacy screens have gone up around the white house entrance. EOM.
MER was trading at $26B on Friday. Seems like a really healthy premium, given the current state of affairs. Is there something we aren't being told yet?
My broker (and presumably other direct-access brokers) are increasing intraday margins as of right now. No longer accepting what pops out of the standard VAR models (SPAN, TIMS, etc).
"...we recommend that traders examine their portfolios to consider their exposure under extreme-move scenarios."
It's (almost!) hard to imagine a right proper market tanking tomorrow, what with everybody and their aunt now expecting it.
More details on how the Fed is involved in the LEH/MER situations...
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20080914a.htm
"The collateral eligible to be pledged at the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) has been broadened to closely match the types of collateral that can be pledged in the tri-party repo systems of the two major clearing banks. Previously, PDCF collateral had been limited to investment-grade debt securities.
The collateral for the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) also has been expanded; eligible collateral for Schedule 2 auctions will now include all investment-grade debt securities. Previously, only Treasury securities, agency securities, and AAA-rated mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities could be pledged. "
That all loans should be at 30 year fixed with a reasonable interest rate.
Well that's a bit's of a problem, eh? There is no such thing as a "reasonable interest rate" for 30 year mortgages. Such a mortgage doesn't exist without gov't involvement in the market, which is precisely how the current mess got started.
Where you aware that nobody in Canada has 30 year mortgages? 30 year amortizations - yes - but longest fixed term until recently was 5 years (and even now is only 10 years) and then it's a balloon payment rolled into another mortgage - which must be qualified for and the house must be suitably appraised for. A big old reset for all parties involved, every 3-10 years.
The reason is simple - nobody in their right mind would offer a fixed rate for half a lifetime on such a volatile asset without assurances from Big Brother that their asses were covered. I mean - think about it - who is going to eat the cost of the 6% "forever" mortgages being handed out the past few years when interest rates do what they've always done - go back up, a lot?
It'll be taxpayers. Which means the current situation isn't even the end of the Fannie/Freddie bailout - it's just the beginning. This is going to take a good five years to play out fully.
I think sub prime and ARMS type home loans should be banned.
Virtually every 30 year mortgage on the books is "subprime" because nobody in the US is paying the true cost of such a long credit term.
Lehman has announced it will file before midnight.
http://www.decklog.com/sounds/klaxon.wav
But it seems like there's still a chapter left in this story...
"...the Federal Reserve has agreed to accept lower-quality assets in return for loans from the government."
Have to give credit where it's due - Paulson appears to be showing more backbone than you generally see from this administration. That the president's own brother is a Lehman advisor makes it that much more noteworthy - unless there's a sibling hate-on that we don't anything about.
Hard to believe the rumored price on the BAC/MER deal - a premium, in this market?
Meanwhile Bob Brinker has apparently told the millions in his radio audience to pull their deposits out of WaMoo ASAP. Wheeee.....!
ETA:
YM (Dow futures) just opened down 300 points
ES (S&P futures) down 39 points (over 3%)
NQ (NDX futures) doing relatively well, only down 46 points, or 2.6%
You should take a wander through the archive - Enron, Worldcomm - they all had guys like this haunting the boards long after reality set in with the rest of the planet.
Looks like Lehman will join that club tonight, too.
Back to the markets - looks like Wall Street is asking to see Paulson's hand - all potential deals for taking care of Lehman quickly and in an orderly fashion appear to be DOA unless Mr. Gov't backstops.
If plays out like this, it means a bankruptcy filing (probably tonight) and another penny stock for people who don't remember Enron and Worldcomm to chase (like they're chasing Fannie & Freddie).
In a whacky twist, it appears one of the Lehman suitors - B of A - is now prepping a bid to buy Merrill Lynch.
According to my limited reading on the subject, the NFIP appears to be massively in debt to the Treasury (ie, to taxpayers) and is maybe one good storm from not having sufficient premium revenue to pay the interest on that debt to taxpayers.
Do I have that wrong?
Any mistatements in this article?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Program
As critics predicted, the NFIP encourages people to locate in areas more susceptible to flood damage. Prior to the NFIP's existence, insurance coverage for flood losses was not provided by any private insurance carriers. Insurance losses stemming from flood damage were largely the responsibility of the property owner, although the consequences were sometimes mitigated through provisions for disaster aid. Today, owners of property in flood plains frequently receive disaster aid and payment for insured losses, which in many ways negates the original intent of the NFIP. Consequently, these policy decisions have escalated losses stemming from floods in recent years, both in terms of property and life.
The "Adam Smith" answer is that since everybody knows that part of the country is at high risk for weather calamities and nobody is actually forced to live there - people should damn well take care of themselves.
I mean, it's a choice, right? Why create a moral hazard by privatizing the profits of living their while socializing the costs?
Hey B - do you or the guys you hang with have a recommendation for a recording mixer to feed multitracks to Logic? An example of the "minimum" would be an Alesis Multimix 8, and the 16 would be the upper end of what I need.
It seems the mixer dudes are also moving away from firewire to USB2 - does the multitrack output across USB2 actually work well?
Wouldn't be so sure about that. :) The lack of desire for the individual states to actually control who can and can't vote is incredible - at one point I was registered to vote in 3 separate states and I wasn't even a citizen!
There is apparently a $5B bid on the table for the asset management part of Lehman from a private equity firm. Which is apparently ~$5B less than Lehman is asking for. Given the incomprehensible mess that passes for accounting transparency in investment banks these days, what impact this would have on LEH common stock is completely unclear.