jstratt

The Decline of Credit Cards

Excellent viewpoint!

Unfortunately most of the people that I see today are unable to control themselves.

Old thinking: Expensive Cars, boats, motorcycles, RV's or huge homes... prosperous

New Thinking: probably broke

The Dog that Ate Ken Lewis's Homework

Judge Rakoff is a hero!

The Securities Extortion Commission (SEC) needs to be obliterated and replaced by a regulatory body.

Seriously the SEC commissioners should be hauled before a court or public body to testify about why they arent a fraudulent group of conspirators. Perhaps they could explain why it only appears they are a fraudlent treasonous body.

What is their thinking?
What are they trying to accomplish?
Are they proud of their achievements?
What recommendations do they have?
How do they think their actions meet public goals?
Do they think their actions allow citizens pensions to be looted?
What do they think about flash trading?
Is allowing an advanced look at trading data and ability to trade to some special entities stealing from the US citizens? Why or Why not?
Do they think they are acting in citizens best interest?

Perhaps the appropriate name is the Securities Extortion Club!

Ken Lewis, RIP

This was an expected occurrence. The only reason this POS lasted this long is because they wait until after a crisis to remove a banking CEO.

To give Lewis a 53 Million severance package is an outrage. The US cannot survive with a middle class when this sort of crap is common place.

The shareholders are fleeced at every turn by managements insulated by hand picked boards. The result is 0 for shareholders and huge bonuses for managements from inside picked boards.

When will people wake up? Doesnt an owner get anything in the US anymore? If you settle for this and the farce of an entity called the SEC you deserve to retire to dogfood.

Ken Lewis deserves to be in Jail.

The BOD needs to be ousted and jailed if they knew of the hidden bonuses.

A severe example needs to be made in one of the most treasonous acts of a company in history

My point is great companies have made it a practice to fleece shareholders by paying the entire gains to management. The result is people are happy with poor retirements while the executives earn huge outlandish salaries and bonuses even when they destroy a company.

Wake up people!

SEC Charges BofA for Merrill Bonuses

Thank god for Judge Rakoff!

The SEC is supposed to serve a great purpose of maintaining a set of free and fair markets. It has deserted its purpose in a treasonous manner.

It is managed by a disgusting set of leaders that need to be expunged, its political overseers need to be expunged and integrity needs to be restored.

The proper penalty for BAC is to pay back the government with an appropriate return added. Merrill Lynch should be seperated and sold off. Finally Ken Lewis and the entire board needs to be removed.

When fraud and graft is accepted in a BAC like manner, the US has downgraded itself to a 3rd world country that cannot be trusted.

The Coming Consequences of Banking Fraud

I am humbly able to see parts of the manipulation of markets that Kim sees. I thought it was interesting that GS had their code stolen and immediately announced how dangerous it could be in the wrong hands.

However Kim could make alot more money if he tried to be another Oliver Stone.

The truth is markets are manipulated to create a better world economy. It serves the world to allow the US to recover faster, or to help Europe or to help the 3rd world to grow at this point for the greater good of all.

In short the world economy is managed. Now go make money!

John Paulson Buying Citigroup Shares?

This article was probably written with good intentions. Unfortunately it would appear to be just a classic pumping of a stock based on rumor.

Private Equity Releverages with a Vengeance

Outrageous again!

Prime Mortgages Are Also Going Sour

I did hear one positive remark today.

Robert Shiller in arguing about bubbles stated that housing affordability is at the best rate in 40 years given prices and financing.

If true that would suggest to me that it is a very good time to buy a house and that we are bottoming or have bottomed.

The Scandal of Overdraft Fees

I normally keep an extra grand in my account and hadnt experienced this in a long time. About a month ago I overdrew by a couple hundred dollars which US Bank honored and charged me $39 on 3 transactions including a $6 lunch.

I have a choice which is to unwind my business activity with US Bank or not. Since charges at that level are nothing more than theft I will move my business.

Many people I assume are unable to generally keep an extra $1000 on hand making this a huge profit center on the backs of poor people. It is easy for a mid life person with a good job to act like they are standing on moral high ground and say dont overdraw checks. That doesnt justify the greed and avarice calculated to take advantage of the youth/young/weak etc.

I dont like it one bit! By the way if you study wealth data from the Fed it is shocking. Money is rapidly flowing away from 95% of the population. Just because I can easily afford these charges doesnt make them right.

Regulatory Tightening: Remember Chuck Prince!

You make a good point!

Regulation will come... just not when it could jeopardize the economy as much as it could at the moment.

A Summary of Q1 Bank Earnings: World, You Just Got Hustled

I appreciate the authors many fine points. When someone provides lots of rationale for their conclusions I listen closely.

At the same time the history of banking crises suggested to me that many of the things mentioned above would happen. Down through history similar steps although not the exact steps have occurred.

It is not in the interest of any country to have a great economic calamity. The world financial leaders seem to have once again stepped in and continue to be prepared to intervene as required to stabilize international trade.

I am not suggesting a boom lies ahead. At the same time $15000 gold and a world economic freefall is not likely.

Paulson Throws Bernanke Under the Bus, Backs Ken Lewis

I still think Lewis wanted MER so bad that he agreed to it without a reasonable knowledge of what he was doing. Afterward when the crisis escalated he wanted to back out.

If I was a regulator I would tell him the same thing. The time for making up his mind was before agreeing to acquire MER not after.
Also if he saw things getting worse he should have had the gumption to terminate bonuses.

The whole episode should create a new verb. In addition to poor decision making I think he got "Thained".

Betting on the Big Banks

On the morning of 3/9 I bought several banks including JPM, USB, BK after seeing a list of the Worlds strongest banks here on Seeking Alpha. I intended to hold those banks for the long term.

Unfortunately the banks have more issues to come. If you take a list of the people who know the most and or have the best track record through this period there is a uniform consensus that banks have much farther to go.

After concluding that I sold all of the above about 10 days ago. My purpose for commenting is that banks are a dangerous investment. They may drop 50% of their gain from the lows now, or they may get crushed in July or October.

Unfortunately bank investments seem likely to get squished again in the future. Kind of like putting a juicy orange in a juicer.

Jonathan Finger Balks at BofA Results, Pushes for Lewis's Ouster

Ken Lewis may or may not survive this attempt. However the writing is on the wall.

One man can do a lot of damage. If they hadnt purchased CFC and Merrill BAC would be considered a strong bank. The board should have understood what was happening with CFC and stopped it. With Merrill I have to think Lewis could have gotten government guarantees.

If he were a boxer I would accuse him of leading with his chin.

Banks No Longer in Crisis Mode

I must disagree with the writer of this article. To come to my conclusion I referenced the best sources of information possible.

Bernanke - 4/17 "the collapse of US lending will probably cause long lasting damage to home prices, household wealth and borrowers credit scores."

IMF - The downturn will be prolonged and the recovery shallow

Roubini - 3.6 Trillion losses from US institutions before it is over.

Buiter - 1.5 Trillion more needed for banks

Meredith Whitney - .5 Trillion of capital removed in 4Q

Mike Mayo - huge writeoffs to follow

An initial sale of CDOs I believe brought 3 cents on the $ and banks are carrying them at 70 cents.

I would suggest the adoption of this authors logic could be disasterous.

It is my opinion that we will see at least 2 more waves much like the waves we saw in July, Oct and Jan. It takes time to deleverage.

Right now the government is offering money for 0% so banks are recovering. Wait until they writedown CDOs and Commercial RE etc.

Banking is almost certainly still in a crisis mode.