herbert hoover

No more Sir: Texas financier Allen Stanford is being stripped of his knighthood in Antigua and Barbuda, for embarrassing the nation with charges he defrauded investors of $7B.

Jesus, can we strip Geithner of the title "Treasury Secretary" now that he's totally embarassed himself and his country?

After trading largely higher in the morning on a positive data dump, stocks spent the lunch hour headed straight for negative territory. At midday, the Dow -0.2% to 9,690. S&P 500 -0.3% to 1,033. Nasdaq -0.4% to 2,037. Crude +1.4%. Gold +1.7%.

Who believes the government statistics?


On Nov 02 01:09 PM TKO wrote:

> still plenty of skeptics out there despite the data.
> either that, or profit taking -- though it seems rather excessive
> over the past few days.

September Construction Spending (.pdf): +0.8% to $940.3B/year vs. consensus of -0.3%, and 13% below the year-ago estimate. August estimate revised down to $933B from $941.9B. In the first nine months, spending was $715.2B, 12.1% below the same period in 2008.

Welcome to ObamaWorld


On Nov 02 10:18 AM User 496182 wrote:

> Wait a minute. They revise the previous month >1% down, and then
> report a +.08% increase?

Goldman Sachs (GS) is in talks to buy up to $1B in tax credits from Fannie Mae (FNM) for an undisclosed amount, but the government - which controls Fannie - is reluctant to approve a deal that would allow Goldman to reduce its tax bill "given the animus held by many lawmakers toward big Wall Street firms in general, and Goldman in particular."

Why should GS pay taxes?

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. money managers are bullish on stocks through the middle of next year, Barron's fall survey finds. Money managers expect three sectors to outperform: tech energy and health care. They're bearish on financials and consumer cyclicals, and netural on oil. Top stock pick: Microsoft (MSFT).

This too will change.

With $770B of the $1.4T in commercial mortgages maturing in the next five years currently underwater, FDIC revises its rules (.pdf) to allow banks to keep loans on their books as 'performing' even when the underlying properties no longer cover the outlay.

And this delay will make the ultimate bank closure all the more expensive for teh government in the long run. This is merely another "kick the can" down teh road and hope for the best strategy that the Fed, Trasury and FDIC are using throughout the current crisis


On Oct 31 08:37 PM Karen Consumer wrote:

> The banks have already denied credit to those consumers (the prime
> and employed) able (and willing) to pay, so why would they suddenly
> change for businesses, especially those banks that are only servicing
> the debt?
>
> This isn't for the banks, its for the FDIC, so they can push back
> the number of bank failures for a bit to replenish their own coffers.

How big is the coming CRE crash? "Huge," says Wilbur Ross, who recommends "extreme caution" before putting money in. "All of the components of real estate value are going in the wrong direction simultaneously. Occupancy rates are going down. Rent rates are going down and the capitalization rate - the return that investors are demanding to buy a property - are going up."

You know what would clear this up? If the government did stress tests to determine if banks were solvent! Yeah, that's what we need to do...LOL

Rep. Darrell Issa writes NY Fed President William Dudley and AIG (AIG -7.3%) CEO Robert Benmosche demanding e-mails, phone logs and term sheets related to last fall's haircut-free CDS settlements that may have overpaid banks by $13B. Issa says the payments may "amount to nothing less than a backdoor bailout of AIG’s creditors." (yesterday: NY Fed's explanation)

Where the f*ck was this guy last October? Oh yeah, there was a Republican in the White House so it was OK. They are all whores.


On Oct 30 04:02 PM MarketGuy wrote:

> Go Issa Go!

[[AIG]] says it will not sell its two Japanese insurers, AIG Edison Life Insurance and AIG Star Life Insurance, reversing its decision from a year ago at the height of the crisis. AIG says the two have a very firm financial base and strong sales network.

Why is this company still in business?

Early weakness in stocks has given way to a sudden turn for the worse as energy and basic materials lead the way down. The Dow now -1.2% to 9845; S&P 500 -1.3% to 1052; Nasdaq -1.1% to 2075. Crude -1.8%. Gold -0.7%.

reality sets in

China's Nasdaq-lookalike ChiNext stock market launched trading Friday with strong gains. An initial 28 companies listed, and shares gained 46-123% from their IPO prices, in line with expectations. The listees priced their IPOs at a hefty 56x 2008 earnings.

That people are paying too much for the stock? The bubble in Chinese equities makes our stock market look tame


On Oct 30 09:48 AM Tony Petroski wrote:

> If shares gained 46-123% from the IPO prices since Friday, what Chinese
> investment banking firm mispriced the offerings? I know China has
> a great future and all that but what am I missing about this?

In a rare response to media reports, NY Fed's general counsel explains why it directed AIG (AIG) to pay top dollar on credit-default swaps: "In its negotiations with its counterparties, AIG just didn't have the same bargaining power that it did with the Federal Reserve standing in the background. The only sensible outcome was to give them what they were legally entitled to."

Now shut up and pay your taxes. That's what little people do. And that's the last time you will question Your Federal Reserve!

The Dow's now up 190 points as stocks continue drifting upward on marketwide strength. With an hour to go, the DJIA +2% to 9,953; S&P 500 +2.2% to 1,065; Nasdaq +1.9% to 2,099. Crude +3.2%. Silver +2.4%. Gold +1.6%.

This is hilarious. The same people who wee selling yesterday at 9800 can't buy enough stock at 9950. On Monday the'll be selling again at 9700. What a waste of resources

Assuming the correction continues to play out, the question becomes at what point institutions find prices too hard to resist, IG Markets analyst Ben Potter says. "This will really test the 'sidelined money' and 'buy on dips' philosophies that have been bandied around by commentators in recent months."

The interesting part will be How quickly will they sell? This is going to get uglier before it gets better. Buy. Buy. Buy

GDP Is 'Better'

Instead of moaning about the government's lying, why not buy some shorts?