phat cat

Default Risk for Key Financials

These CDS levels are only meaningful if the counterparty who sells it to you are solvent. Just some other levels, UK is at 45, State of Texas is at 78, State of New Jersey is at 135. China is at 119 (they are the largest US treasury holder btw). I saw even US is trading at 30. Who ever is looking to buy CDS on US Treasury is completely nuts, who's guaranteeing the seller?!! While this whole system is breaking down, a lot of things are getting mis-priced. So I really wouldn't pay too much attention to these numbers.

Wall Street Bankers: Rewarding Failure

There is another take on this. As most of these financial stocks have plummeted over 60%, some even more, there's a tax consequence to those who are granted stocks. Assume at a tax rate of 35%, if those bankers have not sold their company stocks, they are essentially paying all the bonuses to the IRS. For those unfortunate ones who's stocks drop below that threshold, they are in negative territory. So everyone should just relax as everything works out at the end.