skopros

PPIP Watch: Banks as Bidders and Sellers...Hmm, Remember Enron?

i wish we could get mad and discover some sort of constructive outlet for that anger, some way to actually influence a corrupt congress, a corrupt circle of corporate and bankster raiders and plunderers. i'm fully aware that name-calling means nothing, or venting rage, or hand-wrining about the unfariness of it all is almost useless. the problem is no institutional or community means for really affecting change or reform exist on adrastic enough scale to make a difference. all the rancor and indignation just gets absorbed and diffused into the system's ether.

we need a revolution but there's no repository of energy and action sufficient to change direction of the current flow of events. if we tried drying up the money, depriving Washington and Wall Street of the money to keep the plunder going, they just collude and create more money.

big dilemma (which actually means, no solution, I think)! wish i could suggest a plan, a program or a magnet to attract and amalgamate all this negative energy!? it's really what we need as a people being shorn of our wealth, or power and our national health.

Rating the Top 12 U.S. Banks - From Hidden Gems to Zombies

Martin--i admire and follow your work here and at prudent bear, but i wonder how JPM comes out so strongly in your estimate when in a recent OCC report, it heads the list in table after table of credit risk due to notional derivative values ($175 plus Trillion total for top 25 banks).

it's total exposure seems to be some $87.6 Trillion.

Granted, not all the value falls to zero but isn't this a really worrying level of exposure to derivative risk?

All Big U.S. Banks May Need More Aid in Severe Scenario

this is not a direct subject-related question, but does anyone have a handle on the relative safety--or danger-- of JPM viability, esp. the London branch, as depository for the Proshares currency funds recently mentioned as possible risk in Merkel's excellent SA blog?

Wld appreciate any guidance.

The Hidden Credit Risk in Currency Funds

David--useful info; i came late to it...is the risk to FXF, FXY, FXA, etc., that whatever underlying "value" resides in JMP London is at jeopardy if JMP goes down. Am I reading correctly--that U.S. claims take precedence over UK claims in UK branch of US bank?

And can we know if those actual swiss francs, or yen or kiwis are actually deposited somewhere at JPM, rather than leased or optioned or "lent" out like gold often seems to be.

Martin Weiss recently claimed that JMP was more leveraged (to 400%) on risky "assets" than either Citi and BAC. Does this square with what you know?

Many thanks for your insightful articles and commentary.