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Nate C
58 Comments
Gold's Finest Hour: How to Buy Now
If you want a real inflation hedge buy timber. Historically it has provided returns 4-6% higher than inflation. Sure beats gold's record.
Will 'Dark Pools' Be the Capital Markets' Next Black Holes?
Breaking Up With Jamba Juice
While I avoided Jamba, I did get sucked into Sun Microsystems in 2002. We all make mistakes, and that is when you are able to become a better investor. First rule is to always sell if the stock drops 10%. It is always hard to take a loss, but that is better than a 85%+ loss I suffered with Sun Micro.
I never made that mistake again!!
Adding Wood to Your Portolio: A Worthwhile Investment
Vietnam Suspends Gold Imports, Follows FDR's Great Depression Lead
Six Quotes from Fannie Mae on the Mortgage Industry
1. Fannie Mae currently has $40 billion in available capital
2. Fannie Mae currently holds $74 billion in loans with FICO scores of less than 620 (subprime).
3. Fannie Mae also owns $196 billion in ALT-A loans (basically loans with no documentation where people lied about how much money they make)
4. According to Michael Mayo at Deutsche Bank (a very credible analyst) the default rate on subprime mortgages is estimated at 30-40% and a loss rate of 40-50% on subprime mortgages. This would mean losses for Fannie Mae of between $29.6 - 37 billion.
5. Fannie Mae’s AlT-A porfolio could see losses of between $19.6- 39.2 billion assuming a 10-20% loss rate (which is conservative) The real number is closer to 33%.. Many of these loans were given to subprime individuals who lied about their wages to justify the loan.
6. Fannie Mae faces losses of between $49.2-76.2 billion even though they only have $40 billion in capital. This means at the very least, Fannie Mae would have to raise $9 billion in outside capital to remain solvent. At the worst Fannie Mae would have to raise upwards of $36 billion. It is becoming more difficult for companies to raise new capital. Previous capital injections from foreign governments and private equity have all lost money, making many investors hesitant of investing in financial companies (just ask Warburg Pincus about their Mbia investment).
7. But doesn’t Fannie Mae hedge portions of their mortgage portfolio. Short answer is yes, but to do this Fannie enters into various swap agreements with bond insures like MGIC, PMI, etc. which exposes them to enormous counter-party risk. Many of these companies are themselves on the verge of bankruptcy (PMI trading at $1 a share) and face impending credit downgrades from Moody’s and S&P. Fannie Mae could be in the unenviable position of making money on their hedges but unable to collect the money from their counter-parties.
8. But won't the government save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from bankruptcy? The short answer is yes, but that does not mean that shareholders will be pleased with the outcome. When Fannie and Freddie get near bankruptcy, the US government is more likely to nationalize the firms then simply giving them more capital. This scenario is more likely if Senator Obama is President. When the government nationalizes a company, shareholders often receive next to nothing (think JP Morgan buying Bear Stearns for $2).
The End of the Line for the Busch Family
Weyerhaeuser: Returning to Its Roots
I think they should divest of their homebuilding segment. Homebuiling has never been a great business (excpet during boom times), it is capital intensive and low margin. IF WY did get rid of this segment (maybe to private equity) they would be closer to a pure play on timber, which makes a great long-term investment. I also wish they would have chosen to become a REIT.
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The Sorry Story of Jefferson County's Sewer Bonds
And by the way, who the hell enters into interest rate swaps with JP Morgan as the counterparty? They would never enter into an agreement that could lose them money. They only do deals with chumps like Jefferson county.