PROXIMO

A Summary of Q1 Bank Earnings: World, You Just Got Hustled

Nice post Naufal.

Why This Rally Is Unsustainable

Your profile lists your age as 19. Your grasp and understanding of economics and business is impressive, given your youth.

BlackRock: Goldman's Q1 Profit Non-Recurring and a Result of AIG Unwinds

Goldman/AIG situation reeks of backroom payoffs, fraud, corruption, and deception at the highest levels. Goldman's early "profit" earning release is absolutely transparent, yet the investing public is swallowing it whole. I am not sure there is a lot of difference between some of the big banks derivative games and what Madoff did. All the criminals should be prosecuted and sent to prison with a jar of vaseline. The on-the-take executives at the ratings agencies should be charged and sentenced with the bankers.

Geithner's Financial Reform Is Doomed to Fail

Agreed---Geithner's in over his head.

10 Reasons Why We Still Haven't Hit Bottom

"this recession is affected peoples lives", "They've handing over their money to the 'professionals' for years," ----Someone ought to proof these articles before they are posted.

What, If Anything, Are CDS Spreads Telling Us?

Can't help but wonder if there wasn't, at some level, some reciprocal agreements between the rating agencies and the larger financial institutions. Hard to believe the rating agencies would have failed that badly unless they were on the take.

Stocks with the Largest Short Positions

Good luck with your Citi short. I doubt Citi makes it through the Spring.

America's Insolvent Banks

Good ideas in your proposal.


On Feb 16 06:40 PM goldenhinde wrote:

> Proposal: It is time that we eliminate the privatization of profits
> and the socialization of losses.
>
> Summary (one page)
> US taxpayers are being asked to incur massive debt to recapitalize
> insolvent financial institutions. While a sound banking system is
> required to drive economic activity – HOW we implement this rescue
> is critical. If the rescue of these institutions is adopted as proposed,
> (the “good” bank / “bad” bank proposal) we will recapitalize the
> same management, Board of Directors and oversight structure that
> created these catastrophic circumstances in the first place. If
> adopted, this proposal will effectively shield them from having to
> bear responsibility for their actions. In addition, it will impose
> a debt upon us that is so burdensome it will strangle our capacity
> for economic growth, threaten our liberty and diminish future opportunity
> for our children. There is no measure of maturity, honor or decency
> in encumbering our children with massive debt to pay for our generation’s
> mistakes and the inept management of our affairs. We must demand
> an alternative course of action from our government. This Proposal
> offers such an alternative.
>
> In this Proposal we citizens propose that in exchange for US taxpayer
> infusions of capital all of the securities representing the ownership
> of these businesses (see Provision #3 for the exception) will be
> treated as though the business had actually made a bankruptcy filing.
> When US taxpayers recapitalize the insolvent institutions, a new
> class of shares shall be issued. Those securities will: (1) become
> the property of the US taxpayers and (2) be deposited into a Trust,
> called the Social Security Trust, for the benefit of all Social Security
> system participants.
>
> As the business activity of the citizenry revives the economic vitality
> of these institutions, the value of shares in those rescued institutions
> will increase. As they increase in value they will become the financial
> backbone for the Social Security system – a system that now has no
> real assets but for the social security taxes taken from future payrolls.
> The SST shall be managed by a FIDuciary Oversight Board (seekingalpha.com/symbo...)
> whose members shall; be experienced investment fiduciaries, report
> directly to the President of the United States and be subject to
> oversight by the General Accountability Office. When there is clear
> evidence that the rescued financial institutions are stable, the
> FIDOB may examine the prudence of selling the securities to the highest
> bidder in the marketplace. While such a program would require the
> President’s and GAO’s approval, the proceeds from a sale will remain
> as SST assets.
>
> By implementing the actions proposed in this Petition, we citizens
> of the United States will:
> • recapitalize the financial infrastructure of the country,
> • employ market-based principles consistent with the intent of our
> laws,
> • substantially alleviate (not solve) the financial burden upon our
> children of paying for Social Security benefits we have promised
> to give ourselves,
> • create a governance model grounded in and guided by an authentic
> fiduciary standard of care (not how banks or bank regulators operate
> now),
> • establish a Trust with real assets that serve as a financial backbone
> for Social Security, and
> • exemplify our President’s call for individual responsibility.

>
>
> Please visit sociallyresponsibleres... to read the entire
> 7 page Petition and sign it.
> Pass it along to friends, family and colleagues. Thank You.

How Wall Street Keeps Dooming Itself

Nice try at a positive spin, but the greedy, thieving, incompetents in the Big Banks are utterly undeserving of any defense.

On Jan 31 11:19 AM vreporter wrote:

> While I'd be the first to join this bashing on greed, many of us
> seem to be falling for some bad perspectives on the situation - yours
> included.
>
> Please correct me if I'm wrong but:
> 1) We seem to be making much out of the term "bonus" whereas in majority
> on Wall Street it is a "salary" that's apportioned for various accounting,
> tax, savings plan issues - as a bonus. I know many back-office and
> support staff who work for 40k a year at some of the names you have
> mentioned. The large "percentage" bonus they receive still barely
> puts food on the table when one accounts for their metro NYC cost
> of living. So total compensation is actually quite modest and the
> bulk (not all) of these announced bonuses do apply here.
>
> 2) In making comparisons to prior years, I ahven't seen any of these
> arguments back up with the change in number of workers. I find it
> hard to believe that Wall Street employed the same number of workers
> in 2008 as they did in 1985. That would make your math on comparisons,
> not only poor, but possibly inflated in the wrong direction.
>
> So, living in the metro NYC area is expensive, in general.
> The change in the number of workers doesn't correlate with the likely
> change in bonus totals being scolded.
> And the definition of total compensation seems to be lost in the
> definition of bonus.
>
> Clarifying these points will probably bring you to a better conclusion
> on this topic. I'm sure there are still many who did receive outrageous
> and undeserving payments. But those numbers probably wouldn't make
> the headlines currently underway.
>
> (a consultant to Wall Street on other unrelated matters)

Great Depression Not Imminent, But Inevitable

The only arrogant and "hubric"(as you call it) assumption is to take a Wikipedia article at face value, when there is far more reliable information available on the walls of any public men's room.


On Dec 21 12:54 PM Ricard wrote:

> This is the most complicated and non-user friendly article I've read
> about derivatives and the marketplace. Seems the author's premise
> is that the demise of the viability of these derivatives will "cause"
> the predicted depression. Given the wikipedia article posted earlier
> about this guy, I'd say that is one incredibly arrogant and hubric
> assumption by this author.
>
> I agree with various posters on this article - it's not the demise
> of the derivatives that are at the heart of the problem, but the
> stupidity of those who traded them, those that placed zero value
> on the risk that ultimately proved to be much more than that, and
> those that leveraged this false assumption to the hilt.

Great Depression Not Imminent, But Inevitable

Since when is the Wikipedia website sacred? There are at least two sides to every story and three sides to some. Sometimes in the absense of all the facts it is prudent to reserve critical comment.


On Dec 20 01:28 PM User 323351 wrote:

> Always investigate the author before making a judgement on someone's
> view. See link below and you will understand why the author has such
> a position. I'm not Marxist, I believe in capitalism, yes it's perfectible,
> but all the stimulus we see from our goverment and others will prove
> the Marxists how wrong they are.
>
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Great Depression Not Imminent, But Inevitable

ANOTHER GREAT DEPRESSION MAY OR MAY NOT BE INEVITABLE IN THE NEXT YEAR OR SO, BUT IT IS NOT IMPLAUSIBLE. AT THIS POINT IT IS NOT HARD TO THINK OF CATALYSTS FOR A CRISIS; A PANIC ON WALL STREET, ANOTHER 9-11, TOP LEVEL POLITICAL SCANDAL, MORE SOVIET MILITARY AGGRESSION, FURTHER MELTDOWN OVERSEAS, ETC. ANOTHER WELL-REASONED TERRIFIC ARTICLE AS USUAL BY SAXENA.