Is this the beginning of Act II of the Obama drama? The one where daddy puts the rebellious teen over his knee, spanks a bit, and then grounds the kid for the rest of the decade?
Days like today I just look at the tape and laugh. Fundamentals, reason, and logic went out the window a long time ago. At some point it becomes so insane, that you almost want to stoke the insanity, because hey, why not? hahaha HAHAHAHA muhahahaha
Do you hear us up there in the Ivory Snow (tm) Pavilion?
The mandarins are all out in the main courtyard, shouting and throwing inkpots at the eunuchs.
Even the ministers are out here.
Better get out here and put all the cream of the administrative talent in your empire under arrest, or listen to what we have to say. We're not going to shut up and go home, we're much to educated for that. Most of us are finance professionals or queer obsessives and this IS home.
Fail the insolvent banks.
Fail the insolvent banks.
Fail the insolvent banks.
How many MORE billions will we waste before we do the right thing? How much MORE will the eunuch parasites siphon away from the altars of soil and grain?
This is what should have been done all along. None of you mealy-mouthed rubberspines in power -- and I know you're reading this -- had the fortitude to admit it and look where we got. Now get out there and do what needs to be done so this can go from the fall of the Han Dynasty back to being a financial crisis.
The irony is that the stress tests treat actual banks that make actual loans to actual customers much worse that Wall Street Banks that make phony synthetic deals amongst themselves using incomprehensible derivative contracts.
See, the regulators understand loans, and have some independent ability to tell when the loans aren't going to get paid back. The regulators don't understand the derivatives, so they just take the Wall Street Bankers' word on valuation.
km4: don't forget the worthless stock certificate paper that is only good for post-defecation cleanup. They play havoc on the sewer lines and treatment plants.
How to keep the unwashed masses medicated while disposing financial toxic assets down the sewer
Drugs found in drinking water AP: Drugs found in drinking water - USATODAY.com
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Gavshire Hathaway (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:12 pm
A: How many more have ya got?
Oh I know, but I am not going to miss my chance to deliver a good upbraiding to some deserving ears. Be as rich a you want, money can't turn aide a well-aimed satire. Guards can't protect you from the opinions of people you're compelled to mix with because they're your intellectual peers. These guys deserve a good jeering-at.
JimPortlandOR (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:15 am
km4: don't forget the worthless stock certificate paper that is only good for post-defecation cleanup. They play havoc on the sewer lines and treatment plants.
Sound like a massive Roto Rooter job for the US economy
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones
Well, I had a terrible infection last month, WFC news sends me into convulsions, my moods swing wildly, and I'm horny all the time. Our water must be pure.
If somebody sees that dingbat Jeremy Siegel, let him know that long term treasuries have outperformed stocks for the past 40 years. At a minimum, Siegel's book needs an addenddum. Worse stlil, absent the government bailouts, the S&P 500 would likely be trading in the double digits.
How come Buffett isn't discussing these inCONvenient facts/issues.
We know many in the community have questions about the railcars located on Central California Traction Company (CCT) track. To address concerns, we are responding to your frequently asked questions.
Why is Union Pacific storing cars at CCT?
No one is more interested in moving stored rail cars than Union Pacific. However, movement of stored rail cars will depend on the economy and industries' demand to move products on the railroad in those cars. The rail industry as a whole is dealing with this issue. As a matter of fact there are 100,000 plus cars stored nationwide from various rail companies.
What type of actions is CCT and Union Pacific taking in conjunction to the stored railcars?
As rail cars are being temporarily stored, they are being safely secured. CCT and UP railroad police inspect the area on a weekly basis. We make sure to avoid blocking any authorized private and public crossings.
So I'm assuming when we read last week that the govt was trying to decide 'how' to release the stress test results.. they came up with a plan to leak everything?
I said it in an earlier thread, if we the taxpayer give more money to WFC after what Buffet said this weekend,
"Buffett, who has said he values lenders partly on their ability to acquire funds from depositors, told shareholders today that he’d “love” to buy the entire bank and is unable to do so because Berkshire wouldn’t get permission from regulators." Berkshire’s Buffett Calls Wells Fargo ‘Fabulous’ Bank (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
then our government is a complete and utter joke, a group of people being lead around by their balls.
timmay is dressed like a real pard: red bandana, shirt with mother of pearl buttons, levi 501's, boots with the little doagies on the sides, 15 gallon hat covering that massive forehead
timmay is practicing his lassoing on a couple of pigs that are running around his office in treas.
timmay to tarpy: that guy in KC is harshing my buzz
tarpy: don't worry, he's being named the next ambassador to sweden
Gavshire Hathaway (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:21 pm
Is that the popular term for a beheading these days?
I wouldn't want to do that without some kind of court. It's bad practice to just lop off heads without authority, it gives people ideas in their private disputes.
Cut some kind of paperwork so it is not just a killing spree, I will bring my own chest-waders and double-bitted axe.
Wells' stock is up 11.5% from Friday's close at the moment, near the high of the day. All news is good news. Market may be pricing in inflation, so it may go to $50 by the end of the year.
It seems so many are so desperate for the return of their faux wealth that we are now willing to ignore our CONstitution and allow the bankers to impose a form of financial martial law.
The sad part is that in the end, the majority will be worse off.
Oh god, I just went to grab some lunch and on the radio I heard an ad for Dr. Phil's show this week on relationships in recessions...quotes: "I have two college degrees and can't find a job." "Did I hear you correctly you loved your husband when he had a job." I was laughing so hard I almost ran off the road...If Dr. Phil is doing a show, maybe we are turning around. What a time we live in. I love all the ads about being sensitive to the economy too. We make your dollar go farther etc... Never miss a trick.
Gavshire Hathaway (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:31 pm I no longer believe this situation can be resolved peacefully.
If I can give you some advice, never try to overthrow a large state. Small states are different and ruled by personality. Large states are ruled by mechanism. You will get crushed by the lack of a bureaucratic mechanism. It will be like the War of the Roses. Wait til the state fails or gets so illegitimate and shaky it will let you by a license for a militia or has to call your civil defense force a "regiment" and give you paperwork to make you bona fide.
Taxation and bureaucracy are the name of the game.
Look at Israel in 48, printing stamps to sell to numismatists for forex as they were constituting the state. It needs to be like that -- public health clinics and public works leading the guns. It's just a matter of getting revenue streams, you need to be a legitimate, effective government to get the tax streams going and sustain them. Thus the mandate of heaven.
This restructuring -- in what former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls “the Great Recession” -- is causing some economists to reconsider what might be the “natural” rate of unemployment: a level that neither accelerates nor decelerates inflation. This state of equilibrium is often described as “full” employment.
Fallout from the recession implies a “markedly higher” natural rate of unemployment, says Edmund Phelps, a professor at Columbia University in New York and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in economics. “It was 5.5 percent; maybe it will be 6.5 percent, maybe 7 percent.”
That has implications for policy makers as well as workers. The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are counting on the jobless rate to fall to a medium-term equilibrium of about 5 percent as the economy recovers. A natural rate significantly above that would drive up the annual budget deficit -- which will top $1 trillion for the first time this year -- by reducing tax revenue and pushing up spending on unemployment benefits.
This is more relevant to this morning's post on Krugman and wages...but here goes anyway:
Volker guided the US, under Reagan, out of the prior 9-yr (1973-1982) structural transformation of the economy with its concurrent permanent job and destruction of career tracks for many tens of millions in the manufacturing sector. Volker also saw how it took 2 additional years for job growth to commence in 1984 ...AND I think he’s willing to admit that no one in 1973 was steering the US economy to transform into a Service Economy and also jettison its manufacturing base to the degree it did in those 2 decades.
'Obama-The Mild’ as the WSJ’s Holman Jenkins refers to him, strikes me as a CEO who likes to have his surrogates float trial balloons and test out the airing of ‘strong’ ideas or commentary. I wonder if The President asked Volker to air the following commentary and awfully LATE realization (if Volker's comments are new 'news' to Team Obama, or even up for administration debate, we should all be quite concerned):
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Post-recession America may be saddled with high unemployment even after good times finally return. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have vanished forever in industries such as auto manufacturing and financial services. Millions of people who were fired or laid off will find it harder to get hired again and for years may have to accept lower earnings than they enjoyed before the slump. This restructuring -- in what former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls “the Great Recession”
Lucifer (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:35 pm
BZ,
So you too are in my guillotine and incinerator camp?
I'm a slave to the Republic.
We need to give them a fair trail before we murder them and it needs to be some kind of legitimate court. There's been to much rule by the Big Man lately. Let's prove they were guilty of conspiring to suborn the state and then stretch them for that. No need for Guantanamo treatment, that's part of the error that led us here. They violated plenty of real laws, our statutes are plenty draconian. We just need political will.
Obama to Wall St - I provide you with trillions in bailout $$$ and in return you pump up the market ( the ole lipstick on the pig ) to create illusion of change and false economic prosperity.
Southern in SF,
If he wants the thing let him have it.
I hear ya ... Buffett's blatant & obscene market manipulation needs to be stopped. Someone should put his foot where his mouth is.
Basel Too (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:32 pm reply
I no longer believe this situation can be resolved peacefully. What situation are we talking about?
Anybody looking to trade Wells Fargo 2x need only look at Fifth Third. 6 weeks, 400%. Insane doesn't cover it.
Well, my news ticker does say that Fifth Third was named "Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace in America" by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. That must be why.
America today is mostly about false statistics, illusions, hype because most Americans do not have acumen with critical thinking skills to discern REAL from fake. So US gov, Wall St, and Global 2000 companies take full advantage of the rubes !
The PPT is pumping this market like a motherblubber. The end-game? They're trying to get things to the point where Joe Retirement decides it's safe to jump back in. And then WHAM. They're sick of playing with just their own money. They know the fall is coming hard, and they'd rather suck some more profits out of the public first.
Gubbmint Cheese (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:28 am
So I'm assuming when we read last week that the govt was trying to decide 'how' to release the stress test results.. they came up with a plan to leak everything?""""
exactly, they needed to diffuse the selling pressure over a longer period of time.
Byzantine_Ruins (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:37 am
If I can give you some advice, never try to overthrow a large state. Small states are different and ruled by personality.
Like California?
Joking aside, you are correct. Wait for the vacuum and fill it. Except for that guy in front of the tank it doesn't pay to be the tip of the spear.
Also, if you think the market is going to do anything but balloon to the moon on the stress test results, you're crazy. They're getting all the bad results out of the way first through these leaks. When the actual news is released, it's basically going to be "15 out of 19 banks are lock-solid mountains of finance" and it's off to the races.
supposedly MER is laying off all their brokers and replacing them strictly with golden retrievers
this will result in significant economies because bonuses will be paid in kibble
government debt, which used to be all there was in the fed balance sheet, is over supplied, so it's price will decline.
Look at it like this: the fed is diversifying out of Treasuries with mouse clicks.
This model probably has limited days. They are getting out of the fiat regime while the getting is good, utilizing the credit implosion black hole to create mouse click fiats with wild abandon and going on the shopping spree of all time.
What if the fed is not going to remove liquidity, later, eventually, as expected but keeps it all to use as a stake for a goldman-like proprietary trading account?
Danny,
I believe the market will tank on the stress test news. Maybe not immediately -- it could shoot up 500 points. But then it is going to reverse and tank, because nobody actually believes in the bullshit they're spewing. But investors are concerned that others believe it. If the market rallies on the "news", you will never see a juicier short in your lifetime. And the smart money knows it.
I don't know how many of you follow the think tank studies on the future of the military, but a few years ago a lot of paper was passed around questioning whether career military (read officers outside the Pentagon) would support the government if constitutional issues arose. Specifically whether the oath to the constitution over-rode the oath to the commander-in-chief. The papers also looked at the increased number of military brats who enter the service and the generational growth of the military family. These new generations continue to have less and less to do with the civilian world and see things in more narrow terms. Conclusion was this poses a risk to the republic.
The Chicago Sun times (I think ) had a monkey pick stocks for the last five years and he beat the market every year until 2007. They might b on to something
Gubbmint Cheese (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:47 pm
Otis..
WHAT selling pressure? Its been all straight up.. all day.. every day!
Why doesn't Warren buy "all" of Wells Fargo?
BRK Market Cap: $144.58B
WFC Market Cap: $92.22B
Because he cannot afford it! Why does anyone think this guy is any better than any other major investor?
When it comes time to hand them more money I don't expect him to buy the whole thing, but he better be in front of the line with checkbook in hand.
"Our cebus monkey, resident of Animal Rentals Inc., 5742 W. Grand, has beaten the market for four years running. So far this year, he's even with the major indexes."
Sanity test:
Say you woke up this morning with a message from God. That message was; "Wells Fargo will be told to raise $10b additional capital today after the market open. I am God and this is true." What would you do? Exactly.
Conclusion; there is no God.
Corollary: there is a Devil.
Citigroup is in the process of converting as much as $52.5 billion of preferred, including $25 billion held by the government. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, will change $25 billion to $45 billion of preferred shares into common to raise capital, said Richard Staite, an analyst at Atlantic Equities LLP in London, in a report to clients last week.
Wells Fargo & Co., based in San Francisco, and three smaller rivals -- BB&T Corp., SunTrust Banks Inc. and Regions Financial Corp. -- also may have to turn their preferred shares into common as a result of the stress tests, according to analysts at New York-based Creditsights Inc.
To entice investors to accept common shares, companies may offer preferred holders a premium to the current price, said Phillip Jacoby, a managing director of Stamford, Connecticut- based Spectrum Asset Management Inc., which oversees $6 billion. Citigroup is offering holders of the $2.04 billion 8.5 percent Series F preferred $21.70 worth of common shares, 24 percent more than their price of $17.48 as of May 1.
Tangible Common Equity
By exchanging preferred for common, banks would be able to increase their tangible common equity, or TCE, a measure of how much capital a firm has to withstand losses. The financial yardstick strips out intangible assets, goodwill -- the premium above net assets paid for acquisitions -- and preferred stock, including shares issued to the U.S. Treasury.
Regulators want TCE to equal about 4 percent of assets, up from an earlier target of 3 percent, people with knowledge of the situation said last week. Seven of the banks under review have ratios of less than 4 percent, company reports show.
It took Wells Fargo almost two months to get my refinance together. The agent from the title company who visited the house on Sunday says he has been busy everyday this year - only five days off...
WF didn't seem to be in a big hurry to step the mortgage down to 4.5%. This sort of thing can't be helping them at all.
The Chicago Sun times (I think ) had a monkey pick stocks for the last five years and he beat the market every year until 2007. They might b on to something
Cramer was with the Sun Times before he joined CNBC?
One thing I've learned is that the big money is made betting we'll do the wrong thing.
Big money is made betting with other people's money. Betting with leverage is even more profitable as you are betting with futture money (credit) that has yet to be earned. So in essence, leveraged investments are attempts to transfer future money to the present. Is it any wonder our financial system is teetering on the abyss? We leveraged future earning that don't exist and handed them out as banker bonuses. The real money was looted from the vault and rep[laced by bogus paper and derivatives.
The biggest swindle in history. And the fed is trying to legitimize the fraud.
An interesting way of looking at it, but wouldn't it be more correct to refer to the government as the political wing of GS instead of the other way round?
This whole market is getting ridiculous and would be funny if it wasn't so damn serious. I mean seriously, who wants to buy Wells today when they know (or should know) that dilutions is imminent? We've taken pump and dump to a whole new level...
An interesting way of looking at it, but wouldn't it be more correct to refer to the government as the political wing of GS instead of the other way round?"
Financial operations do not lend themselves to innovation. What is recurrently so described and celebrated is, without exception, a small variation on an established design . . . The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version
otishertz (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 2:05 pm reply Ignore user 100 points up from here in SPX and RUT! stupid high valuations, negative earnings, dismal prospects and no volume.
there are cracks in the dam.
will the government buy everything soon before someone big blinks and sells hard?
or
will the trading arm of the government short their technical rally and buy everything after it goes on sale?
Dear God! I hope you're not asking me ... I'm still struggling with that 1960s cigarette ditty:
Wells' stock is up 11.5% from Friday's close at the moment, near the high of the day. All news is good news. Market may be pricing in inflation, so it may go to $50 by the end of the year.
Well that's ultimately the key - if we do get severe inflation a nominal rise in stock prices is justifiable (even though actual values may get clobbered).
If we successfully get an inflationary re-bubble that's going to benefit anything that represents a claim on real wealth vs. nominal wealth.
The government has made it clear that its intent is to create more bubbles and inflation at any cost.
Obama and Geithner announce (MSNBC video link) plan to crack down on overseas tax hiders, remove subsidies from creating overseas jobs, and add 800 IRS agents to enforce the tax laws on corporations and wealthy overseas tax shelter 'investors'.
This will not be received well by the financial oligopoly (mild conclusion, heheh).
"Not One Cent, you are correct the officer's oath doesn't, brain fart with the enlisted oath."
Neither the Officer nor the Enlisted mention the President. Both oaths address the Constitution. The Officer oath (did) provides for disobeying an unlawful order.
So...if you have a mortgage with Wells Fargo, are there any precautions you can take? I mean it's not like a bank account where you could move it to another bank or credit union.
no need to release the Stress Test results, the leaks are spilling over the damn Denial.
Is this the beginning of Act II of the Obama drama? The one where daddy puts the rebellious teen over his knee, spanks a bit, and then grounds the kid for the rest of the decade?
boyz, we need the horses bridled to the stagecoach, we're razin' capital
Told ya the results couldn't be contained.
WFC +10%
You mean Uncle Warren is just pumping his own companies? Hoocoodanode?
Buried under the unmarked grave next to Archie Stanton. Jus' waitin' to be dug up.
Rob Dawg: perhaps the WFC rocket is the delayed reaction to Buffett's praise last week (among those who don't follow each news release)?
If so, the CBNC report might kick in on Tues?
No problems here.. Warren said he'd buy ALL of Wells if he could..
Or, GS was 'paid' by WFC to pump their stock today so they can do a stock offering at a higher, less diluted price?
Days like today I just look at the tape and laugh. Fundamentals, reason, and logic went out the window a long time ago. At some point it becomes so insane, that you almost want to stoke the insanity, because hey, why not? hahaha HAHAHAHA muhahahaha
Reposted from the bottom of the last thread:
Do you hear us up there in the Ivory Snow (tm) Pavilion?
The mandarins are all out in the main courtyard, shouting and throwing inkpots at the eunuchs.
Even the ministers are out here.
Better get out here and put all the cream of the administrative talent in your empire under arrest, or listen to what we have to say. We're not going to shut up and go home, we're much to educated for that. Most of us are finance professionals or queer obsessives and this IS home.
Fail the insolvent banks.
Fail the insolvent banks.
Fail the insolvent banks.
How many MORE billions will we waste before we do the right thing? How much MORE will the eunuch parasites siphon away from the altars of soil and grain?
This is what should have been done all along. None of you mealy-mouthed rubberspines in power -- and I know you're reading this -- had the fortitude to admit it and look where we got. Now get out there and do what needs to be done so this can go from the fall of the Han Dynasty back to being a financial crisis.
what they just said?
"up your A$$-sets"
so the WFC book of 2nd mortgages might not perform very well, worst case scenario
shocked, i'm shocked
GS: "our standard rates for stock pumping are on a sliding scale that considers the percent boost desired and the current stock price"
Q: "How many MORE billions will we waste before we do the right thing? "
A: How many more have ya got?
The irony is that the stress tests treat actual banks that make actual loans to actual customers much worse that Wall Street Banks that make phony synthetic deals amongst themselves using incomprehensible derivative contracts.
See, the regulators understand loans, and have some independent ability to tell when the loans aren't going to get paid back. The regulators don't understand the derivatives, so they just take the Wall Street Bankers' word on valuation.
Yahoo news headline: Sewers are among popular projects vying for stimulus dollars.
I mean why not being that BB is printing money and taking on financial toxic assets like crazy.
Gotta dispose this shit somewhere !
"Or, GS was 'paid' by WFC to pump their stock today so they can do a stock offering at a higher, less diluted price?"
As I recall, Mr. Buffett is a fairly significant investor in Goldman Sachs.
Sewers are among popular projects vying for stimulus dollars.
hate to think how those are going to get stress tested
More capital for WFC ? No problem! W Buffett has all sorts of cash to pour into this black hole for the benefit of his happy BRK holders.
Senility has crept in.
km4: don't forget the worthless stock certificate paper that is only good for post-defecation cleanup. They play havoc on the sewer lines and treatment plants.
Gubbmint Cheese (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:08 am reply Ignore user
No problems here.. Warren said he'd buy ALL of Wells if he could..
Lol! By Selling his AIG? AXP?
IMO Wells Fargo is just a real bank but still with nearly all of Countrywide's problems.
Buffett cannot buy all of Wells Fargo which places his claim in further doubt. He has shares to sell not positions to buy.
Precautionary.....Move Along.....
Not to worry, Buffett has his own stress test - If BRKA owns it, it is too big to fail.
That's capitalism in the plutocracy.
How to keep the unwashed masses medicated while disposing financial toxic assets down the sewer
Drugs found in drinking water
AP: Drugs found in drinking water - USATODAY.com
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Hmmm. WFC needs capital. Investors react by bidding the stock up 10%.
Apparently, I'm too stupid to be an investor.
Gavshire Hathaway (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:12 pm
A: How many more have ya got?
Oh I know, but I am not going to miss my chance to deliver a good upbraiding to some deserving ears. Be as rich a you want, money can't turn aide a well-aimed satire. Guards can't protect you from the opinions of people you're compelled to mix with because they're your intellectual peers. These guys deserve a good jeering-at.
Rob Dawg (homepage, profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 5:07 pm
Buried under the unmarked grave next to Archie Stanton. Jus' waitin' to be dug up.
How's your digestion now?
Sound like a massive Roto Rooter job for the US economy
Gee let's call Joe the Plumber
$8.5 billion coupon pass today didn't hurt the markets any.
Did the stress test include China not buying Treasuries anymore?
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones
Well, I had a terrible infection last month, WFC news sends me into convulsions, my moods swing wildly, and I'm horny all the time. Our water must be pure.
"These guys deserve a good jeering-at. "
Is that the popular term for a beheading these days?
If somebody sees that dingbat Jeremy Siegel, let him know that long term treasuries have outperformed stocks for the past 40 years. At a minimum, Siegel's book needs an addenddum. Worse stlil, absent the government bailouts, the S&P 500 would likely be trading in the double digits.
How come Buffett isn't discussing these inCONvenient facts/issues.
Welcome to the the kleptocracy.
Rob Dawg (homepage, profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:05 pm
Told ya the results couldn't be contained.
WFC +10%
--
Wow ... could this be a first?
For once it really wasn't 'priced in'?
(WFC +10.6% @ 1:20 pm)
Who has their finger stuck on the GOOSE button ?
Shouldn't we bury them? A bird has got to eat, same as worm.
Did buffet not find enough money under his sofa cushions?
No thanks, we'll pass - Wells Fargo
FYI: Union Pacific looking to bring back a rail line closed for 10 years to be used as "rail car storage."
Open letter to Communities on rail car Storage (pdf)
We know many in the community have questions about the railcars located on Central California Traction Company (CCT) track. To address concerns, we are responding to your frequently asked questions.
Why is Union Pacific storing cars at CCT?
No one is more interested in moving stored rail cars than Union Pacific. However, movement of stored rail cars will depend on the economy and industries' demand to move products on the railroad in those cars. The rail industry as a whole is dealing with this issue. As a matter of fact there are 100,000 plus cars stored nationwide from various rail companies.
What type of actions is CCT and Union Pacific taking in conjunction to the stored railcars?
As rail cars are being temporarily stored, they are being safely secured. CCT and UP railroad police inspect the area on a weekly basis. We make sure to avoid blocking any authorized private and public crossings.
Selling KOL and XLB no more longs...
We've got to save wall street to save Warren Buffett's reputation.
Yes
"No one has ever made money long term being short America" The Oracle of Omaha
So I'm assuming when we read last week that the govt was trying to decide 'how' to release the stress test results.. they came up with a plan to leak everything?
what happened to non-public info?
jesus.
what an absolute joke.
I said it in an earlier thread, if we the taxpayer give more money to WFC after what Buffet said this weekend,
"Buffett, who has said he values lenders partly on their ability to acquire funds from depositors, told shareholders today that he’d “love” to buy the entire bank and is unable to do so because Berkshire wouldn’t get permission from regulators." Berkshire’s Buffett Calls Wells Fargo ‘Fabulous’ Bank (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
then our government is a complete and utter joke, a group of people being lead around by their balls.
If he wants the thing let him have it.
Max, Nice article. I'm bullish on rail car storage.
Oh look. The market is up.
I no longer believe this situation can be resolved peacefully.
timmay is dressed like a real pard: red bandana, shirt with mother of pearl buttons, levi 501's, boots with the little doagies on the sides, 15 gallon hat covering that massive forehead
timmay is practicing his lassoing on a couple of pigs that are running around his office in treas.
timmay to tarpy: that guy in KC is harshing my buzz
tarpy: don't worry, he's being named the next ambassador to sweden
Gavshire Hathaway (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:21 pm
Is that the popular term for a beheading these days?
I wouldn't want to do that without some kind of court. It's bad practice to just lop off heads without authority, it gives people ideas in their private disputes.
Cut some kind of paperwork so it is not just a killing spree, I will bring my own chest-waders and double-bitted axe.
I no longer believe this situation can be resolved peacefully.
What situation are we talking about?
Wells' stock is up 11.5% from Friday's close at the moment, near the high of the day. All news is good news. Market may be pricing in inflation, so it may go to $50 by the end of the year.
It seems so many are so desperate for the return of their faux wealth that we are now willing to ignore our CONstitution and allow the bankers to impose a form of financial martial law.
The sad part is that in the end, the majority will be worse off.
What a sham(e).
Oh god, I just went to grab some lunch and on the radio I heard an ad for Dr. Phil's show this week on relationships in recessions...quotes: "I have two college degrees and can't find a job." "Did I hear you correctly you loved your husband when he had a job." I was laughing so hard I almost ran off the road...If Dr. Phil is doing a show, maybe we are turning around. What a time we live in. I love all the ads about being sensitive to the economy too. We make your dollar go farther etc... Never miss a trick.
Why doesn't Warren buy "all" of Wells Fargo?
BRK Market Cap: $144.58B
WFC Market Cap: $92.22B
Because he cannot afford it! Why does anyone think this guy is any better than any other major investor?
BZ,
So you too are in my guillotine and incinerator camp?
there is something ironic about china quarantining food from mexico...
next time i get asked for spange i'm gonna tell the bum to go raise capital!
"Wells Fargo Asked to Raise Capital "
US gov't asked to raze Capitol
Gavshire Hathaway (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:31 pm
I no longer believe this situation can be resolved peacefully.
If I can give you some advice, never try to overthrow a large state. Small states are different and ruled by personality. Large states are ruled by mechanism. You will get crushed by the lack of a bureaucratic mechanism. It will be like the War of the Roses. Wait til the state fails or gets so illegitimate and shaky it will let you by a license for a militia or has to call your civil defense force a "regiment" and give you paperwork to make you bona fide.
Taxation and bureaucracy are the name of the game.
Look at Israel in 48, printing stamps to sell to numismatists for forex as they were constituting the state. It needs to be like that -- public health clinics and public works leading the guns. It's just a matter of getting revenue streams, you need to be a legitimate, effective government to get the tax streams going and sustain them. Thus the mandate of heaven.
Anybody looking to trade Wells Fargo 2x need only look at Fifth Third. 6 weeks, 400%. Insane doesn't cover it.
"you loved your husband when he had a job"
didn't have the jerk sitting around all day interfering with your affairs?
OT, but interesting
Apologies if already posted
‘Great Recession’ Will Redefine Full Employment as Jobs Vanish - Bloomberg.com
This restructuring -- in what former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls “the Great Recession” -- is causing some economists to reconsider what might be the “natural” rate of unemployment: a level that neither accelerates nor decelerates inflation. This state of equilibrium is often described as “full” employment.
Fallout from the recession implies a “markedly higher” natural rate of unemployment, says Edmund Phelps, a professor at Columbia University in New York and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in economics. “It was 5.5 percent; maybe it will be 6.5 percent, maybe 7 percent.”
That has implications for policy makers as well as workers. The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are counting on the jobless rate to fall to a medium-term equilibrium of about 5 percent as the economy recovers. A natural rate significantly above that would drive up the annual budget deficit -- which will top $1 trillion for the first time this year -- by reducing tax revenue and pushing up spending on unemployment benefits.
Just hit that 900 mark already. This market is a sham - make it official.
This is more relevant to this morning's post on Krugman and wages...but here goes anyway:
Volker guided the US, under Reagan, out of the prior 9-yr (1973-1982) structural transformation of the economy with its concurrent permanent job and destruction of career tracks for many tens of millions in the manufacturing sector. Volker also saw how it took 2 additional years for job growth to commence in 1984 ...AND I think he’s willing to admit that no one in 1973 was steering the US economy to transform into a Service Economy and also jettison its manufacturing base to the degree it did in those 2 decades.
'Obama-The Mild’ as the WSJ’s Holman Jenkins refers to him, strikes me as a CEO who likes to have his surrogates float trial balloons and test out the airing of ‘strong’ ideas or commentary. I wonder if The President asked Volker to air the following commentary and awfully LATE realization (if Volker's comments are new 'news' to Team Obama, or even up for administration debate, we should all be quite concerned):
‘Great Recession’ Will Redefine Full Employment as Jobs Vanish
Bloomberg News
‘Great Recession’ Will Redefine Full Employment as Jobs Vanish - Bloomberg.com
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Post-recession America may be saddled with high unemployment even after good times finally return. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have vanished forever in industries such as auto manufacturing and financial services. Millions of people who were fired or laid off will find it harder to get hired again and for years may have to accept lower earnings than they enjoyed before the slump. This restructuring -- in what former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls “the Great Recession”
I think Volcker meant to say, "the Great Pre-Recovery."
Double to0p anyone????
Amusing commentary on the WFC message board:
Google Finance: Wells Fargo & Company
Lucifer (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:35 pm
BZ,
So you too are in my guillotine and incinerator camp?
I'm a slave to the Republic.
We need to give them a fair trail before we murder them and it needs to be some kind of legitimate court. There's been to much rule by the Big Man lately. Let's prove they were guilty of conspiring to suborn the state and then stretch them for that. No need for Guantanamo treatment, that's part of the error that led us here. They violated plenty of real laws, our statutes are plenty draconian. We just need political will.
Obama to Wall St - I provide you with trillions in bailout $$$ and in return you pump up the market ( the ole lipstick on the pig ) to create illusion of change and false economic prosperity.
What a country !
And why do you think they delayed releasing the results of the stress tests? To give them more pump time.
"We just need political will. "
Now there's an oxymoron.
Southern in SF,
If he wants the thing let him have it.
I hear ya ... Buffett's blatant & obscene market manipulation needs to be stopped. Someone should put his foot where his mouth is.
Basel Too (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:32 pm reply
I no longer believe this situation can be resolved peacefully. What situation are we talking about?
Dunno ... maybe Nepal?
JP says, "Apparently, I'm too stupid to be an investor. "
yeh, me too. stupid and crazy.
i need to get with the program on this trick economy because people will truly buy anything.
Anybody looking to trade Wells Fargo 2x need only look at Fifth Third. 6 weeks, 400%. Insane doesn't cover it.
Well, my news ticker does say that Fifth Third was named "Best Adoption-Friendly Workplace in America" by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. That must be why.
America today is mostly about false statistics, illusions, hype because most Americans do not have acumen with critical thinking skills to discern REAL from fake. So US gov, Wall St, and Global 2000 companies take full advantage of the rubes !
The PPT is pumping this market like a motherblubber. The end-game? They're trying to get things to the point where Joe Retirement decides it's safe to jump back in. And then WHAM. They're sick of playing with just their own money. They know the fall is coming hard, and they'd rather suck some more profits out of the public first.
Gubbmint Cheese (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:28 am
So I'm assuming when we read last week that the govt was trying to decide 'how' to release the stress test results.. they came up with a plan to leak everything?""""
exactly, they needed to diffuse the selling pressure over a longer period of time.
Byzantine_Ruins (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:37 am
If I can give you some advice, never try to overthrow a large state. Small states are different and ruled by personality.
Like California?
Joking aside, you are correct. Wait for the vacuum and fill it. Except for that guy in front of the tank it doesn't pay to be the tip of the spear.
We need to give them a fair trail before we murder them...
LOL... quote of the day.
Also, if you think the market is going to do anything but balloon to the moon on the stress test results, you're crazy. They're getting all the bad results out of the way first through these leaks. When the actual news is released, it's basically going to be "15 out of 19 banks are lock-solid mountains of finance" and it's off to the races.
Otis..
WHAT selling pressure? Its been all straight up.. all day.. every day!
km4
As David Simon put it, its all about 'juking the stats'.
"Apparently, I'm too stupid to be an investor. "
supposedly MER is laying off all their brokers and replacing them strictly with golden retrievers
this will result in significant economies because bonuses will be paid in kibble
Wells' stock up another few percent ... now right about 14.5% !!!
ooga booga.
government debt, which used to be all there was in the fed balance sheet, is over supplied, so it's price will decline.
Look at it like this: the fed is diversifying out of Treasuries with mouse clicks.
This model probably has limited days. They are getting out of the fiat regime while the getting is good, utilizing the credit implosion black hole to create mouse click fiats with wild abandon and going on the shopping spree of all time.
What if the fed is not going to remove liquidity, later, eventually, as expected but keeps it all to use as a stake for a goldman-like proprietary trading account?
Danny,
I believe the market will tank on the stress test news. Maybe not immediately -- it could shoot up 500 points. But then it is going to reverse and tank, because nobody actually believes in the bullshit they're spewing. But investors are concerned that others believe it. If the market rallies on the "news", you will never see a juicier short in your lifetime. And the smart money knows it.
I don't know how many of you follow the think tank studies on the future of the military, but a few years ago a lot of paper was passed around questioning whether career military (read officers outside the Pentagon) would support the government if constitutional issues arose. Specifically whether the oath to the constitution over-rode the oath to the commander-in-chief. The papers also looked at the increased number of military brats who enter the service and the generational growth of the military family. These new generations continue to have less and less to do with the civilian world and see things in more narrow terms. Conclusion was this poses a risk to the republic.
Elmer Fudd
The Chicago Sun times (I think ) had a monkey pick stocks for the last five years and he beat the market every year until 2007. They might b on to something
Gubbmint Cheese (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:47 pm
Otis..
WHAT selling pressure? Its been all straight up.. all day.. every day!
I prefer the technical term:
"Inverse Wal-Mart Pricing"
Why doesn't Warren buy "all" of Wells Fargo?
BRK Market Cap: $144.58B
WFC Market Cap: $92.22B
Because he cannot afford it! Why does anyone think this guy is any better than any other major investor?
When it comes time to hand them more money I don't expect him to buy the whole thing, but he better be in front of the line with checkbook in hand.
New book title ?
"The Opacity of Hope"
Michael Milken for DEBT CZAR - financial alchemy 101 - how to turn toxic waste into AAA gold
i need to get with the program on this trick economy because people will truly buy anything.
You read the post about cluster houses in CA w/no yards selling at $700K are going like hotcakes, and this surprises you?
Monkey Manager
Monkey swings with stocks
Monkey swings with stocks :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Monkey Manager
"Our cebus monkey, resident of Animal Rentals Inc., 5742 W. Grand, has beaten the market for four years running. So far this year, he's even with the major indexes."
From Avl Dao's Bloomberg link above:
Post-recession America may be saddled with high unemployment even after good times finally return.
Logic. Processing. Damaged.
(Dated reference: Kirk short circuits ancient alien computer in "Mudd's Women")
"Cebus Capital Management"
Sanity test:
Say you woke up this morning with a message from God. That message was; "Wells Fargo will be told to raise $10b additional capital today after the market open. I am God and this is true." What would you do? Exactly.
Conclusion; there is no God.
Corollary: there is a Devil.
Officers do not take an oath to obey the president.
Q: "How many MORE billions will we waste before we do the right thing? "
One thing I've learned is that the big money is made betting we'll do the wrong thing.
Otis..
WHAT selling pressure? Its been all straight up.. all day.. every day!'''''
the selling pressure that would have occurred if the results were released at once vs leaked out in dribs and drabs.
most observers see forced short covering as the primary driver of the bull(shit) market.
easier to whack-a-mole than stand before a tsunami of selling.
stress tests were just a ruse to manage the descent
found out today from a friend whose house is pending. the 8K first time homebuyer credit is refundable
"The Mendacity of Hope"
Basel Too (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 1:35 pm
there is something ironic about china quarantining food from mexico...
How true.
"the 8K first time homebuyer credit is refundable "
Basel too: what do you mean?
Basel Too
Buy a cheap condo for 50k qualify for the tax credit then walkaway?
If you had $6k taxes owed, the government pays you $2k cash (I believe).
Bank of America Leads List of U.S. Banks Needing Capital: Table - Bloomberg.com
Citigroup is in the process of converting as much as $52.5 billion of preferred, including $25 billion held by the government. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, will change $25 billion to $45 billion of preferred shares into common to raise capital, said Richard Staite, an analyst at Atlantic Equities LLP in London, in a report to clients last week.
Wells Fargo & Co., based in San Francisco, and three smaller rivals -- BB&T Corp., SunTrust Banks Inc. and Regions Financial Corp. -- also may have to turn their preferred shares into common as a result of the stress tests, according to analysts at New York-based Creditsights Inc.
To entice investors to accept common shares, companies may offer preferred holders a premium to the current price, said Phillip Jacoby, a managing director of Stamford, Connecticut- based Spectrum Asset Management Inc., which oversees $6 billion. Citigroup is offering holders of the $2.04 billion 8.5 percent Series F preferred $21.70 worth of common shares, 24 percent more than their price of $17.48 as of May 1.
Tangible Common Equity
By exchanging preferred for common, banks would be able to increase their tangible common equity, or TCE, a measure of how much capital a firm has to withstand losses. The financial yardstick strips out intangible assets, goodwill -- the premium above net assets paid for acquisitions -- and preferred stock, including shares issued to the U.S. Treasury.
Regulators want TCE to equal about 4 percent of assets, up from an earlier target of 3 percent, people with knowledge of the situation said last week. Seven of the banks under review have ratios of less than 4 percent, company reports show.
Citizen Scotto
Means the government will pay you if say you owe 3k in taxes, they will pay you 5k.
It took Wells Fargo almost two months to get my refinance together. The agent from the title company who visited the house on Sunday says he has been busy everyday this year - only five days off...
WF didn't seem to be in a big hurry to step the mortgage down to 4.5%. This sort of thing can't be helping them at all.
Not One Cent, you are correct the officer's oath doesn't, brain fart with the enlisted oath.
The Chicago Sun times (I think ) had a monkey pick stocks for the last five years and he beat the market every year until 2007. They might b on to something
Cramer was with the Sun Times before he joined CNBC?
Yalt,
LOL see the link above
"Means the government will pay you if say you owe 3k in taxes, they will pay you 5k. "
ok, thanks Tim waiting
Buy a cheap condo for 50k qualify for the tax credit then walkaway?
If you're going to walkaway, why stop at just the credit? you might as well buy your friend's house at 150% of market price.
what's the statute of limitations on FHA fraud?
"Hundreds of thousands of jobs have vanished forever"
Those jobs didn't vanish.
I know exactly where they are now!
While CNBC remains upbeat...in the face of looming disaster at least for taxpayers...
Basel
They might ask for money down. Might
100 points up from here in SPX and RUT! stupid high valuations, negative earnings, dismal prospects and no volume.
there are cracks in the dam.
will the government buy everything soon before someone big blinks and sells hard?
or
will the trading arm of the government short their technical rally and buy everything after it goes on sale?
Basel forget the FHA. What about an IRS tax audit.
tim:
i'm sure your friend wouldn't mind putting down the 3% if you're going to buy his house at 150% of market.
i'm sure that kind of transaction never occurred. cough DAP cough
One thing I've learned is that the big money is made betting we'll do the wrong thing.
Big money is made betting with other people's money. Betting with leverage is even more profitable as you are betting with futture money (credit) that has yet to be earned. So in essence, leveraged investments are attempts to transfer future money to the present. Is it any wonder our financial system is teetering on the abyss? We leveraged future earning that don't exist and handed them out as banker bonuses. The real money was looted from the vault and rep[laced by bogus paper and derivatives.
The biggest swindle in history. And the fed is trying to legitimize the fraud.
What a sham(e).
trading arm of the government
An interesting way of looking at it, but wouldn't it be more correct to refer to the government as the political wing of GS instead of the other way round?
Basel
OH I see what you mean.
Fresno, California comes into it's own!!!
They're the Raisun Capital of the world.
This whole market is getting ridiculous and would be funny if it wasn't so damn serious. I mean seriously, who wants to buy Wells today when they know (or should know) that dilutions is imminent? We've taken pump and dump to a whole new level...
"trading arm of the government
An interesting way of looking at it, but wouldn't it be more correct to refer to the government as the political wing of GS instead of the other way round?"
two wings, same bird.
YouTube - Let the Eagle Soar **FAST**
Let The Mighty Eagle Soar!
they all need to raise capital for Goldman Sachs.
Can we cure the sins of excess liquidity with more liquidity? We (they) are trying to cure a hangover by getting drunker.
Financial operations do not lend themselves to innovation. What is recurrently so described and celebrated is, without exception, a small variation on an established design . . . The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version
John Kenneth Galbraith
without exception
otishertz (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 2:05 pm reply Ignore user 100 points up from here in SPX and RUT! stupid high valuations, negative earnings, dismal prospects and no volume.
there are cracks in the dam.
will the government buy everything soon before someone big blinks and sells hard?
or
will the trading arm of the government short their technical rally and buy everything after it goes on sale?
Dear God! I hope you're not asking me ... I'm still struggling with that 1960s cigarette ditty:
Do I want good grammar or good taste"?
Wells' stock is up 11.5% from Friday's close at the moment, near the high of the day. All news is good news. Market may be pricing in inflation, so it may go to $50 by the end of the year.
Well that's ultimately the key - if we do get severe inflation a nominal rise in stock prices is justifiable (even though actual values may get clobbered).
If we successfully get an inflationary re-bubble that's going to benefit anything that represents a claim on real wealth vs. nominal wealth.
The government has made it clear that its intent is to create more bubbles and inflation at any cost.
Obama and Geithner announce (MSNBC video link) plan to crack down on overseas tax hiders, remove subsidies from creating overseas jobs, and add 800 IRS agents to enforce the tax laws on corporations and wealthy overseas tax shelter 'investors'.
This will not be received well by the financial oligopoly (mild conclusion, heheh).
"Not One Cent, you are correct the officer's oath doesn't, brain fart with the enlisted oath."
Neither the Officer nor the Enlisted mention the President. Both oaths address the Constitution. The Officer oath (did) provides for disobeying an unlawful order.
So...if you have a mortgage with Wells Fargo, are there any precautions you can take? I mean it's not like a bank account where you could move it to another bank or credit union.