PlentyOStocks

Future Gloomy for Ambac, MBIA - Berkshire Likely to Emerge as New Bond Insurance Leader

Buffet was/is charging obscenely high premiums; taking advantage of the crisis. Once premiums go back to normal he will be gone.

You like most people misuse the term insolvent. A homeowner underwater with his mortgage is insolvent; but if he can afford the mortgage payments it really does not matter. Same for Ambac and MBIA. If they can pay their bills, they'll likely be around unless the government panics and takes them over.

Chinese Company Tests U.S. Legal Waters, Sues Best Buy, Wal-Mart

They better hope Best Buy and Walmart do not decide to not sell products made by that company suing them. If most of their sale are through those two companies, they be bankrupt long before the case goes to trial.

BTW, since the mistake appears more than once, I guess you do not know that Acura is a Honda product (Nissan is Infinity).

What's Going to Replace the Dollar?

Fixed Rate Debt as a safe haven.??? Please explain??

If the paper money is worthless, so is debt denominated in that paper currency.

Citi's Flip-Flop on Mortgage Cramdowns: A Really Bad Idea

This is just a continuation of the same thing that created this mess.
First the government pressures banks to lend to unhealthy borrowers.
Now that they cannot pay, the government is pressuring banks to take a write-off while allowing the same unhealty borrower to keep the house.

How does this stabilize the banking sector? It does the opposite. It will only increase bank losses and make capital shrink further.

The banks are not the only lenders. This will cause private investor mortgage pools to disappear.

Does it make anyone feel comfortable buying a house, knowing that the government is artificially holding up prices?

Do you feel comfortable that the government now indirectly has a lien on every mortgaged residential property in the country; and more directly through Fannie/Freddie. In the future the green police will stop by and tell you that you need to plant and maintain more trees or lose your house.

TARP Oversight Panel's First Report: What a Crock

It is all of them not just Ms. Warren. All banks, even the healthy ones were asked to take TARP money so not to expose who the weak ones are.

Bank of America is clearly not one of the weak ones. A few weeks ago they turned down a loan renewal from a Big Three Auto parts supplier putting a lot of UAW workers out of work. Why? Because the company has no money to make the loan payments (other than the loan money itself). BOA is getting pressure from a lot of politicians to to make the loan anyway. Why? Because BOA has no right to turn down the loan because they took TARP money.

We got into this mess loaning money to people who cannot repay it. So now the solution is to take the TARP money and loan those funds to even more people who cannot repay it (homeowners included).

Toxic Bear Stearns Mortgage Paper Performing Well

Tom, the same pathetic bashers I see. It is amazing they spend so much time reading your posts when they claim they are not worth reading. Pretty Sad. I've met many successful people in my life and they are all optimistic and supportive. Only people who have succeeded at nothing are quick to find fault with others.

The mortgages are just like the Bear Sterns paper. The market says they are worthless, but people are still paying their mortgages.

How can the mortgages be worthless and at the same time the Government is on record that they will bend over backwards to make sure no one has to lose their home.? The answer of course is they cannot, and the government backing means most mortgages will remain good.

Kovacevich's Delayed Retirement: Bove's Criticism is Totally Off Base

We need a clueless filter on Seeking Alpha.
Tom Browns bottom on call on the banks was on 7/15/2008
This article is on WFC.
WFC's 52 week low was on 7/15.
Bank of America's 52 week low was 7/15
JPM Chase 52 week low was 7/15
There are many more like this.

The rest of the market tanked in October. The banks were already down.
Just because things don't turn around the next day you all start whining.
If you bought the stronger banks as a group on July 15th you would be up today.

I note that those who like to bash Tom have no opinions of their own. What a bunch of cowards.

Memo to Congress: Please Stop Obsessing Over Bank Execs' Bonuses

You are all pretty laughable. The government forced those big banks to take the money. They did not want it. Now after forcing the money on them they want to dictate how the banks run themselves. This is beyond socialism. It is gangster tactics.

How would you like to be treated this way? Take my money or you die. Now that you have my money I own you. It is just creepy..

News Flash to BofA's Lewis: Demand Isn't Problem - Supply Is

Tom point is demand drives revenue not the current fate of the banks...

The only way demand will go away is if people save up and pay cash for everything and throw their credit cards away. People will also have to just inherit and live in their parents house, so they don't need a mortgage.

They will also have to stop using online banking and debit cards. Are some of you saying we are going back to cash only?

We are not going back to life in the 1930's. The banks left standing will face less competition for quite a while, even if economic activity is down. Lewis did say "for my lifetime" not the next year or two. He was interviewed and gave a CYA answer.

Most of the bigger problems have not been in the banks. Fannie, Freddie, Countrywide, Bear, Lehman, Merrill, AIG are not banks. Wamu was the poster child for Subprime. Most banks are not. All those mortgage securities are mostly in the non-banks.

The banks around here are full of people buying FDIC insured CD's with money taken out of the stock market. This will increase bank capital, not decrease it.

Bank of America paid Zero cash for Courtrywide and Merrill. They diluted stockholders.

News Flash to BofA's Lewis: Demand Isn't Problem - Supply Is

Why does Tom need to call another bottom?
Of the stronger banks like BoA, WFargo, Keycorp, JPMorgan, First Horizon, etc, etc the 52 week low is still July 15.
Yes, we are testing that low, but we are not there yet.

Same for the Credit Card issuers like Capital One; its still July 15.
Amex is at a new low, but it did not go down like the others in July.

Barry Ritholtz's Great Question

The new owners of Dow Jones being Rupert Murdoch.
Hmmm... maybe I have answered my own question...

Barry Ritholtz's Great Question

That Barrons article appears to be a carbon copy of an earlier article published long before the "bailout" package was passed last month.
If so, why would Barrons dust off an old news and pass it off to its readers as current news?
Do the new owners of Dow Jones not have the integrity that the old owners strongly protected for almost a century.

Merrill's Muddled Analysis: Another Reason I'm Bullish on Financials

We've had 8 (eight) bank failures so far.
In the 1980s bank crisis we had 747 failures.
And they call this one the worst since the Great Depression.
They will eventually have to call this one the Great Misconception.

Berkshire: Bond Market Not Always Omniscient - Especially Lately

You're right...he did not say they are crazy. The direct quote is "financial weapons of mass destruction."

I guess I actually understated his comment.

I admire Mr. Buffett's success, but find him very sad. He works all his life building up and counting his money. He never spends any of it, even on himself. He can't even think of anyone to give it to; he is leaving that up to Bill Gates. Think about it; it is the same as Ebenezer Scrooge. At least Scrooge gave money to Tiny Tim.

Dinallo Comes Down on Monoline Bears

Regulators seized one of the bond insurers to protect the capital. You really think that Ambac's management would lose their jobs and wipe out their stock and option grants over a penny dividend if regulators objected to it?

You guys are actually funny. You offer no substantive information to support your points against Tom Brown's opinion; just a lot of put downs and insults. Are you teenage bloggers?