RCA

JPMorgan Beats: For Banks, This Is as Good as It Gets

My sentiments exactly! My first thought when I read the title of this post was, "What?!"

It is disingenuous and misleading to declare, "JPM Beats..." without some context. They certainly didn't beat expectations of a few weeks ago, and they certainly didn't beat prior year or prior quarter. In fact, in every meaningful way, they did NOT beat anything!

On Jan 15 08:47 AM Jarret wrote:

> It is a bit crazy to say they BEAT estimates when in fact 2 weeks
> ago consensus estimates were .31 cents a share. They beat the "new
> lowered" estimates that Wall Street scambled to provide prior to
> today.

Citibank: Too Big to Fail?

Additionally, it seems that the crux of the problem is not whether any companies are too big too fail. The more interesting issue is whether our government is too big to succeed. Much like the situation where the blind is leading the blind, I fear that we now have the inept gargantuan trying to nimbly save the unrepentent titanic.

Citibank: Too Big to Fail?

On Dec 01 10:05 AM helplessobserver wrote:

> This idea of getting "too big to fail" organizations safely resized
> is actively discussed in the hallways and other informal meeting
> places at policy meeting coffee breaks everywhere. In time these
> informal discussion items will become crystalized and placed on the
> policy agenda for action.

You are correct, sir. However, the operative phrase in your comment, "in time," is at the heart of the problem. The latency will render these policies moot before they get implemented. Policy makers are always behind the curve. It's like trying to steer a battleship based on location, speed, and drift data that was current yesterday.

Why Can't Bank Executives See in the Mirror?

> perfectly good companies are falling 40% in one day...

Where have you been the last three months! These companies are anything but good! Many are, in fact, the embodiment of evil. They are anything but good in their business model and they are anything but good in their behavior.

> What is the matter with banning
> short sales temporarily, say for a year, to get a more orderly market?
> Or perhaps you like disorderly markets because you like to short
> stocks, along with all the rest of the greedy bastards who care more
> about their own pockets than they do for their own country's welfare.

That's rich! It is the egregious, immoral greed of the management at companies like AIG, Lehman, Countrywide, Citigroup, and on and on... that created this crisis! Now you want to ignore that colosal greed, and whine about short sellers being greedy?

Did any of the executives at those companies put the country's (let alone the stockholder's) welfare above their greedy self interests? Now they want the people they cheated (the taxpayers) to bail them out with billions of dollars and protectionist, socialistic legislation!

The only way to restore confidence in the markets is for the public to see that evil fails. A complete washout of the perpetrators of this crisis is absolutely needed for the good of the economy and the country. You should be directing your pox toward the evil companies and the evil men in charge of doling out $700 trillion+ of taxpayer money to try to save them.

Paulson and his cronies are responsible for causing this mess. Now this unelected fox has been put in charge of the chicken coop to ensure that the poor slobs who have done no wrong and pay their taxes will get fleeced to save his evil pals.

His goal is not to save America. His goal is to save the greedy bastards who are destroying America and the free markets. His goal is to perpetuate the sytem which allows evil and greed to triumph over honesty and forthrightness. His goal is to ensure that the greedy rich stay rich and the middle class and poor are held accountable for ensuring that it succeeds.

Who Will Take Over Citi?

Speculation has been a well-utilized journalistic conceit for many years, especially on the op-ed pages. it is designed to get the reader to think, not to offer a black-and-white, definitive answer to complex issues.

However, many people these days need to be spoon fed and their brains are not at all engaged by this implicit request to do some thinking. Subtlety and conjecture are lost on those who are incapable of analytic thought.

Felix, I don't always agree with you, but I am always appreciative of your willingness to put your ideas out for public consumption (and, regretably, for purile criticism). You'll notice that the most obstreperous of your critics never have anything useful or enlightening to offer -- only vapid vitriol.

What is Hank Paulson Thinking?

Thank you, Emerald!

We can whine and lament 'till we are blue in the face. We can curse the thieves and liars and play the blame game (I, too, can see a lot of malfeasance and corruption, and don't mind calling a spade a spade). But, at the end of the day (most likely this one!) we have to roll up our sleeves, do what we ought to do as Americans, and start bailing out this sinking boat.

It is not going to be fun and it is not going to be pleasant. It is going to be anything but fair and neither is it going to be easy. But unless we get our priorities straight (salvation instead of damnation) we are headed for economic meltdown and possibly anarchy.

Markets need to be as free as possible, but a little oversight is a good thing. It’s like the US doctrine during the cold war: Trust! (But verify). Our markets over the last decade could have benefitted by some appropriate oversight. But they had little, and now we are in a crisis.

I have been a republican all of my life (borderline libertarian!) but I also realize that the undeniable and inescapable consequence of absolute libertarianism is anarchy. At this juncture I'm not ready to face that, and I am betting that, nihilists notwithstanding, I am in the majority.

Complaints are dime a dozen and totally worthless unless they engender a motivation to fix the problem. Discontent is a natural human reaction to dire circumstance, but discontent without a commitment to action and sacrifice is useless at best, and cowardly at worst.

The America I grew up in and the America I love was created out of discontent, but was built by courageous men of action, not whiners.

I'm not suggesting that the many bright people who have offered intelligent rebuttals to Paulson' plan are in that latter category. Quite the contrary. The more well-reasoned alternatives to the Paulson bailout that can be proffered to congress, the better our chances at avoiding catastrophe.

We truly are at a watershed moment in American history. We can rise to the challenge and work at salvation of our economic system. Or we can degenerate into whining malcontents and work toward the damnation of the perpetrators. That latter course would certainly be morally satisfying. But the satisfaction would be short-lived as we find ourselves rushing into economic destruction and the mother of all depressions.

America, we are about to see what you are made of. Will you whimper and whine, shrinking away from hard choices into self-destruction? Or will you dig down deep into the inner core of commitment and fortitude that has been our hallmark at every critical juncture up until now?

I am optimistic.

Things Aren't Good - Fast Money Recap (9/4/08)

RE: "The Wells Fargo news is scary because it proves the banks can't raise capital."

What Wells Fargo news? Reference please!