Karl K's Comments RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.comuser/160258/comments http://seekingalpha.com/article/67596/comments?source=feed#comment-123422 123422
Jobs is taking aim at the corporate market, and he's going to get it. ]]> Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:18:29 -0500
Jobs is taking aim at the corporate market, and he's going to get it. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/67104/comments?source=feed#comment-122210 122210
There is a tremendous irony to the Thornburg situation and that is this: than banks seem poised to lead a run on the THORNBURG bank.

Contrast this with the approach to the monolines. The banks KNOW they can't have MBIA and AMBAC endure credit rating downgrades, and with such downgrades, cocomitant asset value markdowns. And what's the argument there? Well, the PV of exposure is a lot less than the notional amount insured. In other words, the argument goes, the assets are a lot better than they look.

In the case of Thornburg, though, the assets ARE in fact better than their putativie "mark to market" price. Everyone knows it. Yet, nothing can be done to stop the accountants from ruling the day and forcing the margin calls.

I was an English major before I went to business school, but to me, accrual accounting struck me as more fictional than many novels.

Shakespeare had it wrong when he said, "Let's kill all the lawyers." He should have said,"Let's kill all the accrual accountants." ]]> Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:50:27 -0500
There is a tremendous irony to the Thornburg situation and that is this: than banks seem poised to lead a run on the THORNBURG bank.

Contrast this with the approach to the monolines. The banks KNOW they can't have MBIA and AMBAC endure credit rating downgrades, and with such downgrades, cocomitant asset value markdowns. And what's the argument there? Well, the PV of exposure is a lot less than the notional amount insured. In other words, the argument goes, the assets are a lot better than they look.

In the case of Thornburg, though, the assets ARE in fact better than their putativie "mark to market" price. Everyone knows it. Yet, nothing can be done to stop the accountants from ruling the day and forcing the margin calls.

I was an English major before I went to business school, but to me, accrual accounting struck me as more fictional than many novels.

Shakespeare had it wrong when he said, "Let's kill all the lawyers." He should have said,"Let's kill all the accrual accountants." ]]>