John Hempton_

Royal Bank of Scotland: CEO Deathwatch

Mr Like banks - I am not saying that RBS isn't a good speculative buy at GBP1.7. Indeed I suspect it is.
But if you believe even for one second that the company has fully recognised the losses in its vast balance sheet then you are deranged.
It is true that even NET of the minority interests in ABN Amro the bank remains the largest in the world. That is interesting.

MBIA, Ambac and GICs: The Other View

Crocodilan gave the reason why I think Ambac and MBIA might be worth speculation - but other companies are not.

A financial that loses the faith of the markets is usually dead. Witness Indy Mac. What happens there is that their funding disappears.

Ambac and MBIA are NOT FUNDED MODELS. Its a trivial point - but they have issued guarantees. If the market loses faith - so what. Put them in runoff.

If it turns out well then all is well.

But with Indy Mac the market lost faith and the government (aka FDIC) stepped in.

Crocodilian misses point. These do not require faith of the market. If anything faith of the market is a BAD THING because they can buy back some CDS issued at a discount...

J

Fifth Third Bank: Drink Deeply of the Poison

Thanks for the comments. Visit the blog. And if JMF1968 would contact me throught he blog I would be really grateful.

John

Royal Bank of Scotland: CEO Deathwatch

It was purchased for 12 billion. I do not know how the 100 billion came into play. It was perhaps the most painful day of my career as I was short about 1% of Charter One.

John