madasiwannabe

Are Big Banks Too Big to Fail?

Fannie and Freddie were well regulated... The regulators were right there to ensure they had enough liquidity to take on mortgages as the bubble grew. When they ran low, the regulators reduced their capital requirements. When the banks were taking on too much risk with Sub-primes, the regulators had the GSE's drop their bar and take some of that paper off their books. When things went south, they were right there to place the blame. Now the same regulators that are legally responsible to protect the companies assets and return them to profitibility want to use them as toxic waste dumps to clean up the balance sheets of greedy banks.

We need more of these guys around to make sure things go hopelessly wrong next time.

What Happened to the Fed's $1.816 Trillion Lifeline?

The damage was already done to both of these guys months ago. The shorts were already bought into both WB and WM long before the ban. What finally brought them down was long selling due to lack of confidence and fear.

It wasn't a secret that both of these guys were bloated with loan portfolio's in the two hardest hit areas, Florida and California. Once WM fell, it was only a matter of time before WB followed.

Moody's, Fitch, S&P, SEC Are All Useless

The credit rating agencies are all masters of the obvious. Downgrading a company after it falls says it all. Where were they 6 months ago when the market figured it out.

SEC is very good at sitting on their hands. Naked shorts are not killing stocks, bad policy and greedy companys are. As you alluded to, LEH was a victim of long selling, not short. Also include Paulson's confidence building backstop scheme. All it really did was make everyone question the real health of the market. You know it's time to worry when everyone tells you not to.

Stunning Reversals: Is This a Market or a Casino?

This is an " I told you so" day. The market realized the bailout was BS and nothing really changed (except GSE investors got scalped and the taxpayers got the bill). The banks still have $7 Trillion worth of toxic CDO's that are not covered by the GSE bailout, LEH & WM are still in denial, Uncle Sam has maxed out the credit cards and no one is buying treasuries, the rising dollar is killing exports (which was the only economy strength) and dismal financial quarterlies are still coming out this week.

Welcome back to reality.

ARS Buybacks: Wachovia Follows the Herd

If the GSE's are sneezing, the banks have pneumonia. Billions worth of ARS buybacks added to the loss column of their balance sheets can't be a good thing. Many are already struggling with subprime bloated portfolio's and because the property values have fallen against an originated 125% LTV combined mortgage, the housing bill is not going to help. Rolling deliquency filings from 3 months to 12 only prolongs the inevitable.

Soon to add to the problem is the news that most are looking at the house of creditcards coming down. If I was going to pick a winning horse in the financials I would go with Freddie and Fannie. They seem like they are high risk, but truth is, if they collapse, a black hole will form and suck the rest down anyways.