User 68127

Fixing America's Banks: Geithner Doesn't Have the Right Answer

Rather than the aggregator bank, run by the government, why not just get rid of mark to market? Then the banks could keep, modify, or foreclose their own pool of loans without having to start the death spiral of writedowns, capital raising...

I hate to say it, but I think even the banks are better equipped than the government to work out these loans. If only the govt would get out of the way with their misguided regulations. But then they would not be able to control the world and use their policies and threat of policies to buy votes and impose a utopian socialist world view...

'No Bank's Books Are Trusted': Bloomberg's Weil is Imagining Things

Maybe the accounting distorts reality. But given the choice between believing the market and believing Tom Brown, I will take the market!

Tom Brown: "financial stocks bottomed on 7/15/08." (Intraday low on the XLF of $16.77)

The market: XLF now threatening the low since his call of $12.79 on XLF. That's a drop of 20%+ in 4 months for anyone drinking the Tom Brown kool-aid.

Merrill's Muddled Analysis: Another Reason I'm Bullish on Financials

Tom "Bagdhad Bob" Brown and Bill Miller should get together for their own "I'm smart and the market is stupid" convention...

Merrill's Muddled Analysis: Another Reason I'm Bullish on Financials

Merideth Whitney has been right on the financial stocks the whole time Tom Brown has been wrong.

Plus, she is smarter and better looking. Probably richer too, if Tom has been "eating his own cooking" in his long-only hedge fund.

It is no wonder he is jealous.

Market Analysis: Merrill Lynch and the Economy In Focus

Thain argues that everything he previously said was true "at the time." So...if you do in fact need capital a few days or weeks later, it was not a falsehood?

Thain is either not truthful or not competent. His defense shows that he prefers to be viewed as incompetent rather than dishonest. (Actually, he appears to be both!)

Financials: The Dangers of Zero Weight

Ultraman,

If there are home equity loans or piggyback loans in the portfolio, they are probably worth zero. Simply put, if the borrower is underwater on their home, the first lien takes a loss but gets whatever they can for the property and the second lien gets nothing.

Also, what if the appraisal was unrealistically or fraudulently high? In that case, even a first lien could get next to nothing. Are you beginning to get the idea?

Roger: a ten-fold move in C would imply $180/sh some time in the next ten years. Of course, with a lower earnings base now, there is no guarantee that C will even reach its prior peak in EPS within ten years...much less have the kind of PE expansion that would be necessary to reach this level...

What Can Go Right for the Financials? Quite a Bit, Actually

"Bank executive talk about stability..." is an indication of a bottom?

Tom, are you really this gullible? What did John Thain recently say about no more need for capital? Lehman didn't need any more capital either. Has ANY happy talk or reassurance from financial executives proven accurate over the past year?

And please, dispense with the "victory dance" about the bottom being made on July 15. Two weeks of being correct after months of being wrong constitute bragging rights? Very amateurish. Let's see how your prediction looks in a couple months...

Financials: How - And When - We Reached the Bottom

Bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter! I suppose Tom Brown considers himself one of the "fallen legends" who is about to be vindicated?

XLF Volume Spikes 3.3 Standard Deviations Above Mean Yesterday

Well, you certainly nailed it for at least one day!