Mbuna

21 Comments

    • ON: Mon Oct 6th 22:57 PM
      Commented on:
      Comparing Value-at-Risk to Crash-and-Burn
      The assumption that clear headed thinking can prevail in an asylum full of financial lunatics leaves me wanting. Okay, okay, they're financial deviants not lunatics. Yes, if people paused to think before the feeling of just wanting that little more overtook them it could do some good, But that is certainly NOT the Wall Street of these past few years and at the very least some parental controls are called for and even possibly some electroshock therapy to cure that deviant behavior.
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    • ON: Mon Oct 6th 18:13 PM
      Commented on:
      Global Cardiac Arrest
      It remains to be seen whether this is a global cardiac arrest or is it the Titanic sinking and the only real option is to abandon ship!? Now that the economy really is global there is no longer any real freedom for provincial financial and economic thinking. Someone better start to re-examine the fundamental assumptions about fiat money systems. Just because something worked for 50-60 years doesn't mean it's going to work forever. Who will start thinking outside the box?
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    • ON: Fri Oct 3rd 17:28 PM
      Commented on:
      Bank Default Risk Decreases from Apocalyptic to Merely Catastrophic
      Lol, well said
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    • ON: Tue Sep 30th 02:34 AM
      Commented on:
      -777.7: Where Do We Go from Here?
      "Next, we are working without a net. Washington has no credibility on Wall Street at the moment."
      That may be true but ultimately it is beside the point. The point is that Wall Street has no credibility, period. The only way that Washington can change the lack of credibility on Wall Street is to nationalize it. That may bring in another set problems, hehe, but if you want change....
      Otherwise the bailout is doomed to failure anyway because too many people are trying to hold on to the Titanic thinking they cannot or simply will not live without it. That is hardly creative thinking. Personally I think we are going to find out what we can live without and it may not be pleasant.
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    • ON: Wed Sep 24th 15:05 PM
      Commented on:
      Bill Gross on the Bailout Plan
      {I estimate the average price of distressed mortgages that pass from "troubled financial institutions" to the Treasury at auction will be 65 cents on the dollar,}

      And how do you arrive at this estimate? Your argument is willing risk everything on this estimate and yet, like Paulson, you are saying, trust me. Does your financial record indicate you can be trusted?
      Does your record of financial investment with these very toxic mortgage instruments indicate that your estimates are correct? I think not. If you look at what banks have been selling this stuff at, there is no way you can construe 65%. Give me full disclosure please. How much do you have to gain from this? The more I hear about all of this the more I get the feeling that Wall St. is holding a gun to Main St. This nothing more than a giant extortion scheme. You say the "need for speed is clear. This time there really are weapons of mass destruction...". I say your need for speed has to do with the limited amount of time that this extortion plan has before everyone will start to see more of what is really going on here. If this is such a dire situation then real steps need to taken to insure that it never happens again and yet nowhere, and I mean NOWHERE do I see anyone even interested in such topics, another pointer that self interest is king here.
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    • ON: Wed Jul 23rd 21:59 PM
      Commented on:
      Fannie and Freddie at the Congress Drive-Up Window: One HELOC To Go, Please
      "Maybe we should call it a NELOC -- a national equity line of credit. Good thing the U.S. still has some."

      Unfortunately, not for long. Hmmm.... could that be the ulterior motive all along?. If you siphon all the money out of the government won't that eventually result in less government? Plus, you'll have all the money to boot. Sounds like plan.... stay tuned....
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    • ON: Tue Jul 15th 18:42 PM
      Commented on:
      Little To Fear But Fear Itself
      A George Bailey moment is never a bad idea. However, your article underhandedly presumes to preserve the status quo without any call for responsibility to change how this situation came to be in the first place. FDR initiated profound changes and the lack of call for such in this article is suspect. I'm sensing a member of the "privatize gains, socialize losses" cartel here which makes the real underlying message to be "Pipe down and be quiet!, Can't you see we're busy taking your money!"
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    • ON: Tue Jul 15th 15:52 PM
      Commented on:
      The Real Cost of the Agency Guarantee
      Excellent article Mr. Salmon! It appears to me that Dan Gross is advocating a point of view that I find all too rampant in the financial world currently. I would describe it as a sense of "entitlement"... and more often than not "self entitlement". You see those GSE shareholders are "entitled" to their free insurance from the US government at the expense of the common taxpayers who are not "entitled" and who should be thankful for what (crumbs) they do get.
      This is all pretty much taken for granted as how things are supposed to work. I do wonder however whether Mr. Gross is simply thick and unconscious about this or whether he is a slick devil consciously advocating his cause. Either way there are far more 'Socialism for the rich" advocates out there than you think.
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    • ON: Mon Jul 14th 12:12 PM
      Commented on:
      U.S. Government Is Heading for a Slippery Slope
      Let it go down in history and be said that for those who advocate socialism for the rich, this was "their finest hour!"
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    • ON: Mon Jul 14th 01:39 AM
      Commented on:
      Why the U.S. Government Is Using Your Money to Help Fannie and Freddie
      "And just like that, the house of cards which is the US financial system built purely on trust would come tumbling down." I must say I am shocked and at the same time relieved to see a moment of honesty here. A house of cards it is indeed and tumbling down it will come in any event. At this point it is simply a matter of time before the brewing financial storm blows it all away. Better to face the reality now and learn from it than create incredible complications by trying to avoid the inevitable. Who can start thinking outside the box we are in? Who has the strength of character to face the reality? Paulson and Bernanke are in over their heads and have a boatload of "socialism for the rich" constituents to adhere to so I don't expect any real help coming from that direction.
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    • ON: Sun Jul 13th 05:52 AM
      Commented on:
      The Great GSE Meltdown: Market Adding Fuel to Fire?
      "This will totally impair the ability for Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), and Lehman Brothers (LEH) to raise capital." These 3 companies were clearly insolvent 6 months ago IMO as a result of the gathering of the perfect financial storm which has cut off any possible escape route. The only drama playing out now is how long they can artfully hide their insolvency. Everyone is in over their heads and Bernanke and Paulson can do little more than put bandaids on to try to protect the interests of their constituents. No one is thinking outside the box they are in. As for the GSE's, they were a convenient vehicle for propping up the housing market for a time but as we all can see that time has ended. I think it better to start thinking about the fact that the US government is well on its way to losing its AAA credit rating. At least you have seen that there is the possibility of there being no winners in this game. For most players that is unthinkable.
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    • ON: Sun Jun 29th 06:42 AM
      Commented on:
      MBIA's GIC Exposure Could Trigger a Liquidity Crisis
      It's nice to see a little dose of reality here but I wonder what it will take for someone with a larger platform start to speak out on the culture of lies and denial that is now so prevalent in the financial sector. There are so many white elephants in the room it is practically a frickin stampede! One example- it has been clear for around 6 months that Citibank was insolvent. Where was (is) the press coverage of that fact? The facts are there if you wade through the BS but there is some kind of taboo about telling the truth. Everyone knows all these quarterly reports are anything but truthful. It has reached the point of absurdity in my opinion. Just look at this person trying to defend MBIA. Does anyone actually believe he is sincere? Was he put up to it by someone else? All that anger indicates someone has a lot at stake here. His point number 2 is classic- suffering the heartbreak of "alleged corporate fraud". How much more cartoon like will this all get? What will it take for everyone to get over their denial?
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    • ON: Wed Jun 25th 14:40 PM
      Commented on:
      Jim Chanos: A Short Seller Speaks
      Revealing, compelling and confirming, nice article!
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    • ON: Thu Jun 19th 15:48 PM
      Commented on:
      MBIA vs. Smith and Jones
      The most telling thing about this article is what it fails to address- anything remotely resembling responsibility for how this mess came to be in the first place. This article exemplifies a lot of what is wrong with todays financial world- a complete lack of morals and total unwillingness to assume responsibility. Everyone is so willing to
      put a band aid on it so the gravy train keeps running. Let's take for example the subtle dig at Yves Smith for attempting to bring some moral outrage to the situation. Sam Jones is "more balanced". Therefore Yves Smith must be unbalanced. Yeah someone that shows some moral fiber must be unbalanced. What is unbalanced is the suggestion that creating a new subsidiary with that $900 million is an elegant solution. Well lets see here, take this company which has lost billions of dollars as a result of simple corporate greed, let them create a new subsidiary and leave all that old mess behind and even though they still have that same greed, and will likely do more funny business so they can make more money and will likely be fleecing those investors from all that capital they raised, they are really good boy scouts so therefore we should just trust them. And that is in fact what you are suggesting Mr. Salmon. No new regulations, no government oversight, nothing. Until people like you start to speak up about actually changing the current mess nothing is really going to change and I suspect that is how you really want it be anyway.

      My final point here is that just as political reporters these days have shown to be far too entwined with their government sources to be trustworthy I wonder if the same isn't true of business reporters (and bloggers) as well. No one really wants to upset the apple cart because its too mutually beneficial. So Mr. Salmon who is buttering your bread?
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    • ON: Fri Apr 4th 04:13 AM
      Commented on:
      Proposed Regulatory Overhaul: Why are the Foxes Designing the Hen House?
      Insanity, well of course, that is norm when you have free market hypocrites (Soros calls them (free) market fundamentalists) masquerading as free market ideologists until everything goes wrong. Then of course their true colors become a little more obvious as you may have noticed. Although someone else here on Alpha came up with this phrase I think it is a great way to frame the current mindset of those that hold the financial reins- "privatize gains, socialize losses". It remains to be seen whether this mantra will hold out till the end of the current administration or whether things will get bad enough that there simply won't be enough smokescreen left to be able to feed it to the public.
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