glassbox

The World's 50 Safest Banks in 2009

A correction to my comment above - except for HSBC.... which only moved its domicile from Hong Kong about 10 years ago???

The World's 50 Safest Banks in 2009

Not a single English bank! This is so sad....

Investment Landscape's Fabric Is Fraying

The market's gone crazy with allowing anomalies which does not help in value building. Equities value are allowed to be brought down unnaturally with the allowance of short sellers (whether borrowed or not) whilst bonds are slightly better with no direct shorting - although one can attempt to set up a proxy exposure via the CDS markets.

At this rate, its no wonder equities have been seeing the 'tail wagging the dog' phenomena - values are being established by a small group of players to the detriment of the larger group that chooses to stick by an investment.

Paulson/Bernanke: $700 Billion at 'Hold to Maturity' Pricing

I am not an American citizen but am interested in what is going on simply because American's financial system is so interwined in this global system that what happens there also happens to where I come from.

I lived through the Asian crisis - right in the middle of it. Whilst small in size vs the current crisis, I am amazed at how lacking a leadership and urgency the American people and Congress has showed in dealing in this whole affair. I watched the hearing last night and it came across that most were more interested in putting blame rather than finding a solution. There is still a lot of self denial going on and intention to fix a blame rather than find a solution.

On just looking on the various articles and comments from SA's forums, it seems like most Americans have lost hope and have turned very cynical. Yes, perhaps its right and natural to turn cynical on misdeeds of the past but with such attitude, how do you expect your regulators and leaders to act in the country's best interest. In fact, I see that many commentators likes to continue to paint a doom and gloom scenario - yes, perhaps its time America went down the drain and perhaps its constituents deserve it - not for the lack of ideas to deal with the current crisis - but for the lack of hope and respect in herself and ability to deal with it in the future and this insatiable need to keep looking back and pinning blame.

At this rate, the US will definitely be in the Great Depression - in fact, with the attitudes I see displayed here at SA, its already here.

Wall Street, R.I.P. Now What?

Boomerang theory - what goes around, comes around. So much for the smarties on Wall Street. You can never beat Mr Market! Nothing beats honest hard work.

Making Sense of the Brokerage Bust

You forgot something - all this busting will mean that 'trust' is going to be scarce commodity. Technology will taken over what used to be 'trusted' but now cannot be trusted. But there will always be one part of the business that needs the human touch.

Mother of All Short Squeezes?

you know why there is such a big resistance to short selling especially on sites like SA and coming from many fund managers, esp hedge fund managers.... Because if rationality and logic has its way, running a hedge fund is going to less profitable, market makers will no longer be able to make as much markets and brokers cannot earn twice on their margin business (first from lending you money and then lending your shares).