vreporter

Too Big to Bail: Lehman Brothers Is the Model for Fixing the Zombie Banks

Sorry, you don't get it! You obviously do not understand "markets." Treasury is somewhere between your leftist suicide agenda and the conservative right that won't lay a finger on the banks.

When your solution is worse than the problem, it's time to keep looking. Get a clue!

Housing: 'We're About to Have a Big Problem'

Deleveraging is a long and painful process. The presented points are part of the corrective process and rosy prognostications about the housing bottom approaching should be avoided as there is little upside benefit for the next decade. Interest rates are enticing but they too will improve with price for a long time.

Nationalizing Bank Losses

More misinterpretation to correct!

Yes, the common consensus is losses totaling 2 trillion.
BUT 1 trillion of it has already been recognized by the banks.
BUT if we are talking about the US banks, only about half (500 billion) of that is attributable. A far cry from the fear-mongering necessity for nationalization.

I might add that there is equal misunderstanding about the "bonus" issue vis-a-vis reality. The President has started an inaccurate sacrificing of the lambs.

Do any of you know what you're talking about?
If you do, where's the debate on mark-to-market accounting, given where we've come from and where we stand now!

Time to wake up to a week of clarification!

Are Citi, Bank of America Pushing Prices Up?

One would assume that an entity like Zacks would have a knowledgeable opinion about the securities it covers. This topic is apparently one out of their league. There isn't enough room here to correct the assumptions undertaken in the above article.

Housing: The Ship Is Turning

Chuck,
You have made many a great call - Manny Hanny style - but I sure hope you are right about this extrapolating into the metro NYC/NJ market. That would imply a trend change in local employment that is still speeding in the opposite direction!

Buying Real Estate in the Aftermath of the 'Perfect Storm'

All I can say is...
Ummmm - NO CHANCE!

Deleveraging just doesn't work this way.

Is Bank Nationalization Still an Option?

It was NEVER an option.
It is an unlikely possibility even as a last resort.
Meanwhile, those very bank stocks have outperformed everything else by MULTIPLES during this ongoing proposal for nationalization.
Well done Felix... you are a true contrarian indicator.

Citigroup Questions

On your credit card issue:

You were not billed in USD. It was converted for display in USD. You were charged because the vendor you transacted with WAS NOT ABLE to bill in USD.

This is definitely the job of the vendor to clarify and you should definitely know who you are purchasing from when making any online transaction.

Your knowledge of such simple matters defies your integrity in covering such important issues in the financial malaise! Maybe you'd do better with a nationalized payment system so that your consumer ignorance was covered by unified regulation!

America's Insolvent Banks

What's the difference between a US investor and a US taxpayer?
Please enlighten us because I get tired of the separation!

Bill Introduced to Reinstate the Uptick Rule

The SEC doesn't need the passage of this bill to enact the rule. They could have done it anytime they wanted. They didn't want to!

Secondly, this bill will have very little lasting impact on the growling bear so don't get too excited about its introduction.

Nationalizing the U.S. Banking Sector: There's No Choice

Aside from doing the nationalization deed which is clearly a worse solution than the problem on a "net effect" basis, it's time we realized that the TAXPAYER and INVESTOR are actually one and the same.

Until we get that right, no nationalistic approach is going to understand WHY its a worse solution than the problem!

I think financial bloggers have found their "optimal traffic impact" topic by pushing this button over and over again. It's getting boring!

What happened to Morgan Stanley's insolvency back in September? They now seem to be the darling with the best prospects!

Bank of America and Citigroup will redirect their business models as well - with a lot of help from INVESTING TAXPAYERS. The result will be another horse rising from the dead.

How Wall Street Keeps Dooming Itself

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)

Insolvent Banks: Why a Debt-for-Equity Swap Won't Work

countrybanker,
Because Lehman result was a mistake! The consequences of which we are digging out of, at a far greater cost than that non-action.

Citigroup result of the same kind would make the former dilemma look like a pin-head next to a globe.

Do you get the picture or do you favor a real depression in place of the fear of one?

Insolvent Banks: Why a Debt-for-Equity Swap Won't Work

All of you nationalization freaks obviously don't understand either the US banking structure or the US impacts of nationalization. You are truly 180 thinkers here. But that's what makes a good market for the stock now!

Are Things About to Turn Around for Housing?

Prices are NOT low in MOST of the country. That's the problem stupid!