Insiderman

Open Letter to SEC: Wall Street's REIT Bait-and-Switch

You are correct. They should not have allowed it to be issued.


On Apr 22 10:12 AM wobatus wrote:

> A picayune point, but the compliance department doesn't issue a report.
> They may bless it. Perhaps they were side-stepped, duped or brow-beaten
> (the last 2 hardly good defenses). But yes, the firm is to blame.
>

Open Letter to SEC: Wall Street's REIT Bait-and-Switch

There is simply NO WAY a firm's compliance department should issue a market moving research report within 48 hours of an issue.


On Apr 22 09:31 AM oddsneds wrote:

> Weingarten is one of the better REIT's, I have followed it for more
> than 15 years. Their ability to sell sizeable stock so as to replace
> debt is a good sign and that alone is worthy of an analyst reconsidering
> their viewpoint as to the company's prospects. I don't know the analyst
> or her age, experience, reputation etc. so I wouldn't necessarily
> consider her opinion too highly on my reasons to buy or sell. I also
> think occasional conflicts of interest are inevitable and don't mean
> collusion or some secret plan to defraud us poor unsuspecting investors.

Open Letter to SEC: Wall Street's REIT Bait-and-Switch

Sounds to me like Jeffrey Donnelly, CFA needs to review the CFA Institute Research Objectivity Standards:

4.0 (a) ii. Ensure that investment banking objectives or employees do not have the ability to influence or affect research or recommendations;

Seeing Through Bank of America's Earnings; Ousting Ken Lewis

You don't suppose Lewis wants to bounce earnings, give back TARP, and write up assets just to get a bonus? Maybe?

Interpreters of Data Should Exercise Care to Get Facts Right

Mauldin's analysis in this case was about as on point as Keynes' analysis of savings and investment, entrepreneurs deciding how many people to hire and what to pay (ex ante actually deciding how to produce a product) and many other mistakes and causality reversals in the "General Theory."

But yet, they still use Keynes.

Why Banks Write Down but Don't Sell Subprime Loans

Wow. That was easy. The only problem is that with a CDO you don't necessarily know what assets are in it. Recall that the CDO may be built using MBS, ABS and just about anything else the originator throws in to enhance credit quality.

Therefore, you don't know what the credits are that are in the CDO. Since CDSs are built to offset risk of CDOs, you don't really know how the CDSs should be priced.

Now, think about the logic of your spreadsheet. The discount rate for each cash flow stream should be adjusted for risk.

Makes it a little more challenging, and that ain't the half of it.