P.S. I for one am sad to hear the king of pop is no longer with us. First tape I ever bought was Thriller. Say what you will, but that album was pop genius.
thank god, this may mean BB's reign of idiocy (and terror in terms of shotgun bank weddings) is over.
hope this tanks the market hard, but who knows, these days. maybe the PPT will be taking the morning off and meeting with their respective legal teams...
as for MJ - i always though he was a powerful example of what happens when you make a little kid work like a man. he was great until the aliens abducted him in '84.
he made an incredibly graceful transition to manhood as a vocalist - but joe fucked his mind up good, he hated that 'man in the mirror' something fierce... so sad.
and, yeah, SM, the quincy/MJ collaboration especially on OTW is probably the all-time peak of the LA session musician world, which doesn't exist at all now.
"today being the worst"
not sure about that - making a 6-year old work the chitlin' circuit when he just wanted to get some sleep at home and hang out with some toys - and then hanging a billion-dollar empire around his neck a few years later... so wrong.
6 months after these emails, the M2M and foreclosure moratorium have done nothing more than delay the inevitable return and ultimate crescendo that BAC and others are truly insolvent....right now they are Zombies, much like the bad actors in the Thriller video currently on to honor the late MJ
In looking through the PDF's I had two observations:
1. This is like the "napkin" scene in Spinal Tap
2. 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag
Seeing how they knew BAC was a POS (the capital ratios are pure fantasy IMO) they were chosen simply because they were willing...
The other thing that struck me is the leveraged asset "valuations". These are documents reluctantly handed over...I want the real ones...the ones that say "holy shit..BAC is completely dependent on short term funding and they are the receiver?"
If BAC is/was this bad I can only imagine what JPM and C are like.
Got Pigged-- "But then I liked THX1138, George Lucas' first film."
Prophetic film."
A girl friend was teaching at USC, so I hung out there quite a bit in the 1970's. Pretty boring place, until I found the film school. To make a long story short, directors would come and show us movies (they never figured out I was not a student) Everything from the Factory in NY to Lucas, Carpenter, etc.
Duel and THX1138 were early classics.
Lucas showed us American Graffiti, asked us what we liked about the film, what we would change before release.
He mentioned that they wanted him to do this film first, but he really wanted to do the this space trilogy.
Fed couldn't bail out MER without an FHC conduit. BAC was in no position to object. Ken Lewis was unfortunate to be a Wall Street outsider. sorta like Wachovia.
What's the meaning of Page 17? You mean it's like a big circle-jerk of banks who providing funding to banks?
Page 18: "He (Lewis) confirms his willingess to drop the MAC and to work with the government to develop whatever support package might be needed for earnings announcement dates around Jan 20"...
From same e-mail (I hope this is an attorney!?): "He said now he fears lawsuits from shareholders for NOT invoking the MAC, given the deterioration at ML. I don't think thats very likely and said so."
So is Scott Alvarez the right person to be giving/taking legal advice at the BoFNY?
so who was 'deep throat' at the fed? there's no way they would have released this material willingly. can we give him/her a congressional medal of honor?
i guess this effectively ends our debate of many moons ago as to whether this was a deal or a forced merger. Ken was dumb enough at first, as is his style, but the light came to him eventually it seems, followed by the hammer
On more thing from the 5 minutes of Fed testimony I saw:
Kaptur asked BB for the valuation methods of Blackrock or something like that. I believe she wanted to know how they valued MBS. BB replied with something like "that information is proprietary". Well can't Congress still see it and not disclose it; and if it really is proprietary it stays so. If "proprietary" is just a curtain to hide behind... they are in trouble...
I imagine their proprietary MBS valuation goes something like this:
MBS Holder: Hey, can I sell this to you for 50-cents on the dollar?
Blackrock acting for Fed: What is the valuation you have it on your books?
MBS Holder: Book value is 60 cents on the dollar.
Blackrock acting for Fed: I'll tell you what; we'll give you book value + 10%... 72 cents. Just, whatever you do, don't pump the excess into the stock market... knowwhattimean-wink-wink-nudge-nudge?
MBS Holder: Absolutely, and a wink-wink-nudge-nudge back to you!
I guess technically a valuation of MBS holder book value + 10% could be "proprietary" right?
Here's my take. The Banana Republicans just want a little leverage on all the money being tossed around. A few back room agreements and this issue gets swept under the rug. Mutually assured destruction as a negociating tactic makes sense for the minority party. They have little to lose and much to gain - trillions to gain actually.
The corruption and shams will CONtinue. The majority is SOOOOOOOO screwed. Enjoy your dpression.
CR,
My take as well. It still reads like the Doug and Dimsdale Phirana Brother Monty Python skit.
Seriously, BAC was one of the pillars of American finance and they were clearly back on their heels and don't even appear to know it at the time. Lends credence to all the talk of our being at the precipice.
monte's ankle
yes quincy jones did a fantastic job on the album. and gettng boris karoff to do the overvoice/voiceover? on triller was great thinking.
may michael rest in peace.
I wouldn't mind some special assistance, but I'm sorry Congressman Issa, I don't recall if I either threatened Mr. Lewis or if he needed special assistance.
Fork at the ready, lean forward, stab. There, that didn't hurt so much at all.
"if the new GOP is a one-issue party devoted to cleaning up and shutting down the Fed, it sounds like i've finally found a home."
Well the one issue is "cut income and cap gains taxes." while ignoring payroll taxes. I do not think you will be seeing an "abolish the fed plank" in any future platform. That is more of a Ron Paul thing. With the way they treated him on the campaign trail I would bet that they do not want to get a taste of the "I told you so"'s they have coming. I sure hope Paul runs for the Senate.
HollywoodHack (homepage, profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Thu, 6/25/2009 - 4:12 pm
"They have little to lose and much to gain"
if the new GOP is a one-issue party devoted to cleaning up and shutting down the Fed, it sounds like i've finally found a home.
The New American Apathy Party is glad to have you wash up on our island. Welcome. We've always been here. It is in our nature to wait. Two centuries of random fortune have made it clear that activist governance is never a good idea.
"I do not think you will be seeing an "abolish the fed plank" in any future platform."
obviously, they're desperate for an issue, any issue, with legs. if they accidentally stumble onto the single best thing congress could do for the republic, that's fine with me. let's hope that smell of populist ire wafting through the halls as BB sweated it out this morning goes up the right noses.
"Jackson had the highest selling album, Fawcett the highest selling poster. Interesting... "
I'm already hearing the "celebrity deaths come in threes" meme in the shallow end of the media pool. So if some washed-up sitcom star from 40 years ago (Bob Denver? Max Baer Jr.?) drops dead in the next three weeks they'll say SEE? SEE? and get a few more column inches out of it. Beats honest work, I guess.
"I'm already hearing the "celebrity deaths come in threes" meme in the shallow end of the media pool. So if some washed-up sitcom star from 40 years ago (Bob Denver? Max Baer Jr.?) drops dead in the next three weeks they'll say SEE? SEE? and get a few more column inches out of it. Beats honest work, I guess."
"if they accidentally stumble onto the single best thing congress could do for the republic, that's fine with me."
Seems like a hard sell, given they pretty much had complete control of all branches of government for six years and only added fuel to the fire the whole time. They would have no credibility and any opponent that they run against would just rub their noses in it.
How about John Thain. Merrill's losses are ballooning, the company is about to go under and he's spending a cool million redecorating his office. The guy spent $35K on a toilet with legs for crying out loud!
I guess Thain got CONfused when he heard about getting the best and brightest at Merrill. Apparently, he thought they were talking about CEO offices and bathrooms.
Page six of the first document is very interesting, yet I have not seen anybody discuss it, perhaps because it seems so self-serving.
From one of the Fed's lawyers:
"I agree we and Treasury gave our views on what we thought the likely effects would be of not proceeding, but that's different than ordering Lewis to proceed. We don't take the decision out of his hands or threaten punitive supervisory action if didn't proceed. I want to avoid the Fed being the centerpiece of the litigation. Lewis needs to have every incentive to analyze the facts and document and justify his deciion. If he thinks he can rely on us, he'll assert there was nothing he could do and he can be reckless--not the right incentive."
There's more.
Think whatever you like about the Fed, but don't let that stop you from recognizing that Ken Lewis is a crook all on his own. The discussion on page 8 that CR refers to starts with an indication that the Fed believed that BAC may have been reckless in their due diligence of ML (which was what led to the valuation of the pending losses). Deborah Bailey asks "How do you pay a premium and now ask for help?" This is what the "pound of flesh" discussion was about: dealing with bad behavior of BAC, which you don't want to reward.
Speaking of dead celebrities, are we allowed to use George Carlin's 7 words on this blog? I'm about to blow a gasket with all this corruption and fraud.
That's a good reply. But apparently his death has already passed from the great mirror-like emptiness that is the collective cultural consciousness of the YEWESSAY.
It did none....how can you be reckless with something that wasn't performed?
Lewis is not that smart..he didn't overvalue it because he merely relied on ML's own valuations....and didn't question them. Thinking that a bigger pile of shit would be TBTF.
Hence my comment above that he was willing.
So we have yet another instance of information released way after the fact that pretty much proves what most thought all along. What the hell is going to be done about it?...
From page 11 of the second collection of documents:
"The earnings guidance provided by the firm to the investor community does not infer that 4Q performance at either organization will be as negative as we have been told."
Boy, isn't that a bit problematic for BAC?
The first page of the second collection sheds further light on first collection of documents. The first page is an e-mail dated after the e-mail I refer to in the comment above, and is the e-mail that says "I think the threat to use the MAC is a bargaining chip."
A very easy case for the Fed to make using just these documents is that: (1) BAC had agreed to pay a premium for ML after doing some sloppy due diligence, (2) after digging in BAC realized the losses would be a lot worse than anticipated, (3) Lewis came whining back to the Fed demanding the Fed (or somebody) make up the difference, and threatening to invoke the MAC if they didn't, (4) the Fed, a bit apalled by the brazen behavior of Mr. Lewis considered among themselves what to demand from BAC in exchange for bailing them out of their own recklessness in the purchase of ML (this is the "pound of flesh" discussion), but (5) in the end, the Fed said "no mas" and decided to conduct the negotation by helping BAC to understand the potential consequences of wrongly invoking the MAC (which the Fed did not believe BAC could succeed in doing). In other words, the Fed called BAC's bluff. This is the kind of thing that happens in negotiations all the time.
What is interesting here is that the sequence of event shows that it is BAC that tried to coerce the Fed by threatening invocation of the MAC.
Today's market: Never have I seen lamer excuses for a 2% rally. Bernanke's successful lying to congress, bed bath and beyond having a good quarter, GDP revised from worst ever to worst ever by a little less, extension of fed programs that were destined to be extended... sheesh.
Kenny, if you saw the PBS special, met with Thain and Thain told Kenny what he wanted. Kenny, smelling blood, gave him a low ball number. Thain, being a dipshit dumb ass took the deal. Kenny congratulated himself, bought some cheap champagne with a screw cap and held a celebration.
Fucking buzzards circling the carcass, that's all BofA ever was. And now Kenny gets a bit of a comeuppance. So will Thain. And also, so will Bombs Away Ben. Hide and watch.
O has Summers where he wants him. When Ben steps aside (which he will willingly) O will offer the Fed Chair to Larry 'Girls Say Math Is Hard' Summers and O will never have to worry about Larry again, since he will become the very last ever Fed chairman.
"child molester dies, america weeps
proud day to be an american
please dont ban me, i will stop now"
Not trying to give you a hard time, but the guy was never convicted of molestation, was he? Even if the Constitution is being shredded, at least here we can agree that until convicted, we consider the guy innocent.
not in a classic M&A deal....no way in hell. Lewis knew that acquiring ML (don't forget he had CFC to deal with) would give him the leverage to dictate terms to the Fed. What he didn't count on was the way the Fed and Treasury tag-teamed him into forcing the deal once he had some idea of what he truly was getting.
There is a whole world of difference between innocent and not guilty. As much as we were able to divine that the I-Banks are largely insolvent without a conviction, MJ's behavior and settlements, lead me to believe he was far, far from innocent.
"just another short squeeze - like so much of april and may. really nothing more to it."
If so, that was the broadest short squeeze I have ever seen. My portfolios were 99% green today.
I think it's portfolio dressing for the upcoming quarter end. No one wants to have to explain why they were in cash for the biggest percentage run-up in umpteen years.
but the guy was never convicted of molestation, was he? Even if the Constitution is being shredded, at least here we can agree that until convicted, we consider the guy innocent.
fried,
Innocent? Only in the CONtext of huge out of court settlements. And you forgot to mention that O.J. is innocent. And since there have been no CONvictions, there was no fraud on wall street during the recent housing boom.
Voting doesn't mean squat. Counting the votes is what matters (paraphrased from Stalin)
The CONstitution is useful only when CONvenient. Expediency! Time is money. Well, actually debt is money.
sm_landlord (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Thu, 6/25/2009 - 4:58 pm
"just another short squeeze - like so much of april and may. really nothing more to it."
If so, that was the broadest short squeeze I have ever seen. My portfolios were 99% green today.
I think it's portfolio dressing for the upcoming quarter end. No one wants to have to explain why they were in cash for the biggest percentage run-up in umpteen years.
I am currently working on keeping natural gas prices down.
Shale gas is screwing over many traditional natural gas producers.. There is much more shale gas than traditional natural gas. Now technology makes it economical to tap shale gas.
//Lucifer, did you have something to do with that natural gas deal?//
Best comment so far from constantnormal at 4:23 pm
This fits in perfectly with Matt Taibbi’s excellent Goldman Sachs piece in Rolling Stone. Volcker is just window dressing, a figurehead brought in to capture some fiscal conservative appeal for a while, then discarded when his figurehead status is no longer useful. Summers and Geithner are the ruling figures in this administration, at least so far as economic and finance go, and Obama is knowingly giving them full rein, in his role as the Chicago pol in residence at the White House.
If you step back and clear your head of all the fine speechifying, and instead look at his actions, the mirage clears and you see a talented Chicago politician, dancing with the money and influence, without a shred of a goal of his own. This explains the lack of any sort of credible national health care, the wanton destruction of the economy by the banksters (with tacit approval from the White House), the continuation of the mortgage mess with no substantive programs being presented to alter its course, the complete avoidance of any acknowledgment of the serious problems with Social Security or Medicare.
It’s why Obama DESERVES the middle initial of W. He is the instantiation of the third term of George W Bush, with the exception being that quite possibly Dubya was cluelessly manipulated by those around him, while Obama is acquiescing to the influence of money with full knowledge and awareness.
Those who voted for Obama (as did I), expecting change, have been fooled. The only change has been for the worse.
OMG, can we please do something about Dennis Kneale? It's like Cramer without a "charitable trust" to defend. Think about that. Cramer actively tradess ahead of recommendations for his "charitable trust" where he gets paid to invest for the "charitable trust." GMAFB.
Complete insanity, maybe a short squeeze. I have no explanation for why they are not bankrupt.
Maybe the auto rental companies were a short squeeze as well? But a 24.45% pop for DTG? That's more than just a short squeeze, that's a bearburger.
I just don't see how almost everything runs up together because of a short squeeze. Timmay would need thousands of monkeys just to push all those buttons at once.
So I guess they were sort of nationalized after all.
Did they have many redactions?
They got a CAMELS of 2?
Wow, that is quite a revelation. I thought it was all but impossible to get CAMEL scores out into the light of day...
a huge conglomerate like BofA should never, ever be anything other than a 1
but hey, maybe that's why they wanted a pound of flesh...?
Ben is lucky that lying to Congress is no more egregious than lying on a loan application. Or a due diligence merger assesment for that matter.
P.S. I for one am sad to hear the king of pop is no longer with us. First tape I ever bought was Thriller. Say what you will, but that album was pop genius.
RIP Michael Jackson. Thriller sold over 100 million units. No other album has sold even half that. Crazy, but good in his hey day.
actually, I think Britney got right up to or even passed Thriller. ugh.
thank god, this may mean BB's reign of idiocy (and terror in terms of shotgun bank weddings) is over.
hope this tanks the market hard, but who knows, these days. maybe the PPT will be taking the morning off and meeting with their respective legal teams...
as for MJ - i always though he was a powerful example of what happens when you make a little kid work like a man. he was great until the aliens abducted him in '84.
Did BofA finance Neverland?
Wow! I love the handwritten notes on page 2 regarding ML's 4Q results. That was one heck of a revision!
ML: original forecast break even Q4
in last month losses grown
3.5b to 5b --> 12.5b
pretax about 18b losses
"Say what you will, but that album was pop genius."
I visited the studio when Michael and Quincy were making that record.
It was very sane compared to many projects of that time. Lots of real pros like David Foster contributed.
It's really a shame what happened to Michael, today being the worst, of course.
YouTube - The Jacksons Variety Show 1977 "Never Can Say Goodbye"
he made an incredibly graceful transition to manhood as a vocalist - but joe fucked his mind up good, he hated that 'man in the mirror' something fierce... so sad.
and, yeah, SM, the quincy/MJ collaboration especially on OTW is probably the all-time peak of the LA session musician world, which doesn't exist at all now.
"today being the worst"
not sure about that - making a 6-year old work the chitlin' circuit when he just wanted to get some sleep at home and hang out with some toys - and then hanging a billion-dollar empire around his neck a few years later... so wrong.
"There will be quiz later ..." - CR
Question 1: "What did you know and when did you know it?"
Question 2: "Do you want a blindfold?"
Frontline: Breaking the Bank had some great background, commentary and insight on this very issue. E. Warren's comments were particularly pointed.
Jackson was one hell of a talent odd, and strange, but that is what makes us individuals.
Rest in Peace Michael, and thanks for the music.
6 months after these emails, the M2M and foreclosure moratorium have done nothing more than delay the inevitable return and ultimate crescendo that BAC and others are truly insolvent....right now they are Zombies, much like the bad actors in the Thriller video currently on to honor the late MJ
I know nothing!
In looking through the PDF's I had two observations:
1. This is like the "napkin" scene in Spinal Tap
2. 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag
Seeing how they knew BAC was a POS (the capital ratios are pure fantasy IMO) they were chosen simply because they were willing...
The other thing that struck me is the leveraged asset "valuations". These are documents reluctantly handed over...I want the real ones...the ones that say "holy shit..BAC is completely dependent on short term funding and they are the receiver?"
If BAC is/was this bad I can only imagine what JPM and C are like.
Ciao
MS
deleted.
I love page 1-5...stay classy... also I probably would've made better notes for half the price...
It appears if you want to be a banker/financieer type than you have to conduct your business in a most unprofessional manner?
Got Pigged--
"But then I liked THX1138, George Lucas' first film."
Prophetic film."
A girl friend was teaching at USC, so I hung out there quite a bit in the 1970's. Pretty boring place, until I found the film school. To make a long story short, directors would come and show us movies (they never figured out I was not a student) Everything from the Factory in NY to Lucas, Carpenter, etc.
Duel and THX1138 were early classics.
Lucas showed us American Graffiti, asked us what we liked about the film, what we would change before release.
He mentioned that they wanted him to do this film first, but he really wanted to do the this space trilogy.
Finance capitalism is a sham. A pyramid scheme camoflaged by the fed.
There are two economies. One produces real goods and is competitive. One produces ponzi debt and is a cartel.
Rust never sleeps. And neither does the need to create credit to pay interest.
Shamflation.
A-B-C, 1,2,3...
That's how easy love can be.
R.I.P.
Seems the reason BAC was chosen was because they were also insolvent and thus in no position to object.
Someone explain how welding two boat anchors together re-floats the Titanic.
Jackson had the highest selling album, Fawcett the highest selling poster. Interesting...
Breaking News:
The Fed is a corrupt organization.
Fed couldn't bail out MER without an FHC conduit. BAC was in no position to object. Ken Lewis was unfortunate to be a Wall Street outsider. sorta like Wachovia.
i dont't get all the MJ sadness
meh
What's the meaning of Page 17? You mean it's like a big circle-jerk of banks who providing funding to banks?
Page 18: "He (Lewis) confirms his willingess to drop the MAC and to work with the government to develop whatever support package might be needed for earnings announcement dates around Jan 20"...
From same e-mail (I hope this is an attorney!?): "He said now he fears lawsuits from shareholders for NOT invoking the MAC, given the deterioration at ML. I don't think thats very likely and said so."
So is Scott Alvarez the right person to be giving/taking legal advice at the BoFNY?
TJ and The Bear (profile) wrote on Thu, 6/25/2009 - 4:02 pm
Jackson had the highest selling album, Fawcett the highest selling poster. Interesting...
China the highest Treasury purchases. Is it too much to hope?
who's michael jackson?
so who was 'deep throat' at the fed? there's no way they would have released this material willingly. can we give him/her a congressional medal of honor?
daveinsv (profile) wrote on Thu, 6/25/2009 - 4:07 pm
who's michael jackson?
A bankrupt Santa Barbara real estate investor.
Rob Dawg, yeah, it looks like BAC was in deep trouble. I think this explains the different views of Bernanke and Lewis.
Lewis says he was threatened with something like: "The Fed will replace you and the board if the deal doesn't go through".
Bernanke says Lewis was told essentially "The Fed will replace you and the board if the deal doesn't go through AND you need special assistance"
To Lewis, both sentences are the same - because it appears BAC was going to need special assistance with or without the deal.
best wishes
"A bankrupt Santa Barbara real estate investor. "
he actually played the music publishing world like a fiddle - bought the beatles and sly stone catalog at very good prices.
i guess this effectively ends our debate of many moons ago as to whether this was a deal or a forced merger. Ken was dumb enough at first, as is his style, but the light came to him eventually it seems, followed by the hammer
On more thing from the 5 minutes of Fed testimony I saw:
Kaptur asked BB for the valuation methods of Blackrock or something like that. I believe she wanted to know how they valued MBS. BB replied with something like "that information is proprietary". Well can't Congress still see it and not disclose it; and if it really is proprietary it stays so. If "proprietary" is just a curtain to hide behind... they are in trouble...
I imagine their proprietary MBS valuation goes something like this:
MBS Holder: Hey, can I sell this to you for 50-cents on the dollar?
Blackrock acting for Fed: What is the valuation you have it on your books?
MBS Holder: Book value is 60 cents on the dollar.
Blackrock acting for Fed: I'll tell you what; we'll give you book value + 10%... 72 cents. Just, whatever you do, don't pump the excess into the stock market... knowwhattimean-wink-wink-nudge-nudge?
MBS Holder: Absolutely, and a wink-wink-nudge-nudge back to you!
I guess technically a valuation of MBS holder book value + 10% could be "proprietary" right?
Please tell me this isn't my imagination...
Here's my take. The Banana Republicans just want a little leverage on all the money being tossed around. A few back room agreements and this issue gets swept under the rug. Mutually assured destruction as a negociating tactic makes sense for the minority party. They have little to lose and much to gain - trillions to gain actually.
The corruption and shams will CONtinue. The majority is SOOOOOOOO screwed. Enjoy your dpression.
he actually played the music publishing world like a fiddle - bought the beatles and sly stone catalog at very good prices.
...only to piss the whole thing away years later
...like every other american...now i see the idolization
CR,
My take as well. It still reads like the Doug and Dimsdale Phirana Brother Monty Python skit.
Seriously, BAC was one of the pillars of American finance and they were clearly back on their heels and don't even appear to know it at the time. Lends credence to all the talk of our being at the precipice.
"They have little to lose and much to gain"
if the new GOP is a one-issue party devoted to cleaning up and shutting down the Fed, it sounds like i've finally found a home.
Not so much idolization as lamenting a great talent gone sadly astray.
"China the highest Treasury purchases. Is it too much to hope?"
US being the highest seller of treasury instruments is probably a better analogy.
"if the new GOP is a one-issue party devoted to cleaning up and shutting down the Fed, it sounds like i've finally found a home. "
I think you'll have to settle for supporting Ron Paul.
"...like every other american..."
yeah, well, we can't all be serge gainsbourg or cliff richard, can we?
Michael Jackson, rot in hell
monte's ankle
yes quincy jones did a fantastic job on the album. and gettng boris karoff to do the overvoice/voiceover? on triller was great thinking.
may michael rest in peace.
"and gettng boris karoff"
jesus, people. VINCENT PRICE.
wow bad position for my post.
I think in Goodfellas it was called "busting out".
Financial Mafia.
Load that biz up with as much theft and debt as possible and then torch it.
I'm sure we'll be hearing about MJ sightings at 7-elevens. Maybe we'll even get dual sightings - MJ & Elvis drinking slurpees.
Yeah, nobody did a sinister laugh like Vincent.
I wouldn't mind some special assistance, but I'm sorry Congressman Issa, I don't recall if I either threatened Mr. Lewis or if he needed special assistance.
Fork at the ready, lean forward, stab. There, that didn't hurt so much at all.
"if the new GOP is a one-issue party devoted to cleaning up and shutting down the Fed, it sounds like i've finally found a home."
Well the one issue is "cut income and cap gains taxes." while ignoring payroll taxes. I do not think you will be seeing an "abolish the fed plank" in any future platform. That is more of a Ron Paul thing. With the way they treated him on the campaign trail I would bet that they do not want to get a taste of the "I told you so"'s they have coming. I sure hope Paul runs for the Senate.
child molester dies, america weeps
proud day to be an american
please dont ban me, i will stop now
HollywoodHack (homepage, profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Thu, 6/25/2009 - 4:12 pm
"They have little to lose and much to gain"
if the new GOP is a one-issue party devoted to cleaning up and shutting down the Fed, it sounds like i've finally found a home.
The New American Apathy Party is glad to have you wash up on our island. Welcome. We've always been here. It is in our nature to wait. Two centuries of random fortune have made it clear that activist governance is never a good idea.
we gonna bust a cap on those good ole boys from Charlotte, yep, dats what we did
hollywoodhack
sorry vincent price.still good idea
"I do not think you will be seeing an "abolish the fed plank" in any future platform."
obviously, they're desperate for an issue, any issue, with legs. if they accidentally stumble onto the single best thing congress could do for the republic, that's fine with me. let's hope that smell of populist ire wafting through the halls as BB sweated it out this morning goes up the right noses.
"Jackson had the highest selling album, Fawcett the highest selling poster. Interesting... "
I'm already hearing the "celebrity deaths come in threes" meme in the shallow end of the media pool. So if some washed-up sitcom star from 40 years ago (Bob Denver? Max Baer Jr.?) drops dead in the next three weeks they'll say SEE? SEE? and get a few more column inches out of it. Beats honest work, I guess.
@ Volker
This whole "crisis" seems like some two bit financial mafia act.
Sing along time:
Elephants and Asses
Trampling the Masses
Does it matter who steals from you?
Red or Blue?
o if some washed-up sitcom star from 40 years ago (Bob Denver? Max Baer Jr.?) drops dead in the next three weeks they'll say SEE? SEE?
Ummm. David Carradine?
"and then torch it. "
or steal the inventory with an insider third-party (see: GS 2008 short activity)
"I'm already hearing the "celebrity deaths come in threes" meme in the shallow end of the media pool. So if some washed-up sitcom star from 40 years ago (Bob Denver? Max Baer Jr.?) drops dead in the next three weeks they'll say SEE? SEE? and get a few more column inches out of it. Beats honest work, I guess."
Ed McMahon is the third one.
"SEE? SEE? "
i more see it as the lofty, unimpeachable sacred-cow status of the fed as being the third celebrity to die today
Financial Mafia.
Time for some RICO action on these punks!
@ Asterisk
Right you are, sir!
don't over value your purchase gnome
"if they accidentally stumble onto the single best thing congress could do for the republic, that's fine with me."
Seems like a hard sell, given they pretty much had complete control of all branches of government for six years and only added fuel to the fire the whole time. They would have no credibility and any opponent that they run against would just rub their noses in it.
"let's hope that smell of populist ire wafting through the halls as BB sweated it out this morning goes up the right noses."
We can hope, but I'm afraid that those noses are all numb from the marching powder of power.
How about John Thain. Merrill's losses are ballooning, the company is about to go under and he's spending a cool million redecorating his office. The guy spent $35K on a toilet with legs for crying out loud!
I guess Thain got CONfused when he heard about getting the best and brightest at Merrill. Apparently, he thought they were talking about CEO offices and bathrooms.
What an incompetent @ss.
deleted as repetitive.
remarkable that the fed chair would sit still for the grilling bombs away ben took today
has to be a watershed of some sort
Sad. What a showman
Anyways, The documents are only from Dec. What about September & Oct?
Page six of the first document is very interesting, yet I have not seen anybody discuss it, perhaps because it seems so self-serving.
From one of the Fed's lawyers:
"I agree we and Treasury gave our views on what we thought the likely effects would be of not proceeding, but that's different than ordering Lewis to proceed. We don't take the decision out of his hands or threaten punitive supervisory action if didn't proceed. I want to avoid the Fed being the centerpiece of the litigation. Lewis needs to have every incentive to analyze the facts and document and justify his deciion. If he thinks he can rely on us, he'll assert there was nothing he could do and he can be reckless--not the right incentive."
There's more.
Think whatever you like about the Fed, but don't let that stop you from recognizing that Ken Lewis is a crook all on his own. The discussion on page 8 that CR refers to starts with an indication that the Fed believed that BAC may have been reckless in their due diligence of ML (which was what led to the valuation of the pending losses). Deborah Bailey asks "How do you pay a premium and now ask for help?" This is what the "pound of flesh" discussion was about: dealing with bad behavior of BAC, which you don't want to reward.
Speaking of dead celebrities, are we allowed to use George Carlin's 7 words on this blog? I'm about to blow a gasket with all this corruption and fraud.
everything before the holidays is classified
so shut the fuck up and thank me for saving all my rowdy friends
@ Volker,
You talkin' to me?
You talkin' to me?
I don't see anybody else here, so you must be talkin' to me...
yes, but in the best possible way gnome 8)
@ Volker
Well sit on down and have a drink then
BB
please publish all of Issa's e-mails to the FED like asking for certain special treatment for banks in his district?
HomeGnome == Juvenal Delinquant
"Ummm. David Carradine? "
That's a good reply. But apparently his death has already passed from the great mirror-like emptiness that is the collective cultural consciousness of the YEWESSAY.
It was like, so three weeks ago.
Really, folk, we're scarewed.
Ford aims to halve number of suppliers
Ford aims to halve number of suppliers
| Reuters
"They would have no credibility "
that's a given (not like it mattered in 2004, when folks were still fat and happy from the home-as-ATM dynamic).
but this is a chance to be a party with no credibility BUT a defining issue with some momentum.
@ lucifer
I looked for the Neo passport thingie (Sept 10, 2001) and couldn't find it.
YOu sure that's what you saw, oh dark one.
there is no momentum, only entropy
Party? Credibility?? Um, I fail to see any connection.
OT:
New Reality Show
Hanging with Carradine...
I'll be here all week folks.
Fixed that for you..
http://ristorantemystica.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/12665matrix22jpgnl8.jpg
//I looked for the Neo passport thingie (Sept 10, 2001) and couldn't find it.//
"BAC was reckless in it's DD of ML...."
It did none....how can you be reckless with something that wasn't performed?
Lewis is not that smart..he didn't overvalue it because he merely relied on ML's own valuations....and didn't question them. Thinking that a bigger pile of shit would be TBTF.
Hence my comment above that he was willing.
So we have yet another instance of information released way after the fact that pretty much proves what most thought all along. What the hell is going to be done about it?...
Not one effin' thing.
Sad world we live in.
Ciao
MS
Bad day to be a star... reading now that Jeff Goldblum has died of a fall, on set.
Now we have three!!!
//Bad day to be a star... reading now that Jeff Goldblum has died of a fall, on set.//
HomeGnome,
Look at the updated link to a high resolution screen capture..
"Lewis is not that smart..he didn't overvalue it because he merely relied on ML's own valuations....and didn't question them."
And, when he tried to back out Paulson made him an offer he could not refuse... "You are either with us, or against us..."
My immediate thought, reading this on ZH and here, is that BA and the Fed understood far less about the situation than we did here.
From page 11 of the second collection of documents:
"The earnings guidance provided by the firm to the investor community does not infer that 4Q performance at either organization will be as negative as we have been told."
Boy, isn't that a bit problematic for BAC?
The first page of the second collection sheds further light on first collection of documents. The first page is an e-mail dated after the e-mail I refer to in the comment above, and is the e-mail that says "I think the threat to use the MAC is a bargaining chip."
A very easy case for the Fed to make using just these documents is that: (1) BAC had agreed to pay a premium for ML after doing some sloppy due diligence, (2) after digging in BAC realized the losses would be a lot worse than anticipated, (3) Lewis came whining back to the Fed demanding the Fed (or somebody) make up the difference, and threatening to invoke the MAC if they didn't, (4) the Fed, a bit apalled by the brazen behavior of Mr. Lewis considered among themselves what to demand from BAC in exchange for bailing them out of their own recklessness in the purchase of ML (this is the "pound of flesh" discussion), but (5) in the end, the Fed said "no mas" and decided to conduct the negotation by helping BAC to understand the potential consequences of wrongly invoking the MAC (which the Fed did not believe BAC could succeed in doing). In other words, the Fed called BAC's bluff. This is the kind of thing that happens in negotiations all the time.
What is interesting here is that the sequence of event shows that it is BAC that tried to coerce the Fed by threatening invocation of the MAC.
@ Lucifer
Thanks.
I was in a hurry this afternoon and missed it.
I feel a little weird now.
I would say I owe you one, but you know how that goes...
MS
Do you really think BAC even thought about acquiring MER? I think the Treasury solicited BAC.
"Bad day to be a star... reading now that Jeff Goldblum has died of a fall, on set."
Weird, he was just on Colbert the other night.
Trifecta on Star Expiration Thursday... still time for a hambone.
Today's market: Never have I seen lamer excuses for a 2% rally. Bernanke's successful lying to congress, bed bath and beyond having a good quarter, GDP revised from worst ever to worst ever by a little less, extension of fed programs that were destined to be extended... sheesh.
Kenny, if you saw the PBS special, met with Thain and Thain told Kenny what he wanted. Kenny, smelling blood, gave him a low ball number. Thain, being a dipshit dumb ass took the deal. Kenny congratulated himself, bought some cheap champagne with a screw cap and held a celebration.
Fucking buzzards circling the carcass, that's all BofA ever was. And now Kenny gets a bit of a comeuppance. So will Thain. And also, so will Bombs Away Ben. Hide and watch.
O has Summers where he wants him. When Ben steps aside (which he will willingly) O will offer the Fed Chair to Larry 'Girls Say Math Is Hard' Summers and O will never have to worry about Larry again, since he will become the very last ever Fed chairman.
As I have always said.. conjecture until demonstrated otherwise.
//Weird, he was just on Colbert the other night.//
@ Zack
Got a link
I dunno, seeing no corroboration. The Goldblum thing is looking to be some twitter bs.
"child molester dies, america weeps
proud day to be an american
please dont ban me, i will stop now"
Not trying to give you a hard time, but the guy was never convicted of molestation, was he? Even if the Constitution is being shredded, at least here we can agree that until convicted, we consider the guy innocent.
not in a classic M&A deal....no way in hell. Lewis knew that acquiring ML (don't forget he had CFC to deal with) would give him the leverage to dictate terms to the Fed. What he didn't count on was the way the Fed and Treasury tag-teamed him into forcing the deal once he had some idea of what he truly was getting.
The bluffer got bluffed.
Ciao
MS
McMahon
Fawcett
Jacko
"Never have I seen lamer excuses for a 2% rally"
just another short squeeze - like so much of april and may. really nothing more to it.
"we consider the guy innocent."
There is a whole world of difference between innocent and not guilty. As much as we were able to divine that the I-Banks are largely insolvent without a conviction, MJ's behavior and settlements, lead me to believe he was far, far from innocent.
Mutually assured destruction as a negociating tactic makes sense for the minority party.
AS: that has worked really, really well in Sacramento. The only thing worse that the California Republican party is the California Democrat party.
This is posted over at ZH already but here's the original link..
BBC NEWS | Business | Gazprom seals $2.5bn Nigeria deal
Gazprom And State Of Nigeria Create JV Named "Nigaz"
Just defies description....
Ciao
MS
Thanks MS, I needed a real laugh...
MS
That needs to be seen to be believed. Imagine the sponsorship deals...
Thank god they dropped the other g.. as in 'Niggaz'
//Gazprom And State Of Nigeria Create JV Named "Nigaz"//
I think the Goldblum story is a fake. Quirky Jeff is destined to be around for a long time.
after today's happy dow shit I think we all do.....
How about Gazni??..no that would too simple
on that note...goodnight "nigaz"..
Ciao
MS
Man, Goldblum killed dinosaurs and stuff.
Lucifer, did you have something to do with that natural gas deal?
"just another short squeeze - like so much of april and may. really nothing more to it."
If so, that was the broadest short squeeze I have ever seen. My portfolios were 99% green today.
I think it's portfolio dressing for the upcoming quarter end. No one wants to have to explain why they were in cash for the biggest percentage run-up in umpteen years.
"There is a whole world of difference between innocent and not guilty."
Excellent point. But describing him as a molester, when in fact, he was never convicted of same, strikes me as unfair.
but the guy was never convicted of molestation, was he? Even if the Constitution is being shredded, at least here we can agree that until convicted, we consider the guy innocent.
fried,
Innocent? Only in the CONtext of huge out of court settlements. And you forgot to mention that O.J. is innocent. And since there have been no CONvictions, there was no fraud on wall street during the recent housing boom.
Voting doesn't mean squat. Counting the votes is what matters (paraphrased from Stalin)
The CONstitution is useful only when CONvenient. Expediency! Time is money. Well, actually debt is money.
sm_landlord (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Thu, 6/25/2009 - 4:58 pm
"just another short squeeze - like so much of april and may. really nothing more to it."
If so, that was the broadest short squeeze I have ever seen. My portfolios were 99% green today.
I think it's portfolio dressing for the upcoming quarter end. No one wants to have to explain why they were in cash for the biggest percentage run-up in umpteen years.
Explain Lennar.
I am currently working on keeping natural gas prices down.
Shale gas is screwing over many traditional natural gas producers.. There is much more shale gas than traditional natural gas. Now technology makes it economical to tap shale gas.
//Lucifer, did you have something to do with that natural gas deal?//
"And you forgot to mention that O.J. is innocent."
Naw, OJ was convicted...of kidnapping, extortion, et. al. Doing time as we speak.
one of BR's better posts....Volcker: We Need Radical Regulatory Reforms
Volcker: We Need Radical Regulatory Reforms | The Big Picture
Best comment so far from constantnormal at 4:23 pm
This fits in perfectly with Matt Taibbi’s excellent Goldman Sachs piece in Rolling Stone. Volcker is just window dressing, a figurehead brought in to capture some fiscal conservative appeal for a while, then discarded when his figurehead status is no longer useful. Summers and Geithner are the ruling figures in this administration, at least so far as economic and finance go, and Obama is knowingly giving them full rein, in his role as the Chicago pol in residence at the White House.
If you step back and clear your head of all the fine speechifying, and instead look at his actions, the mirage clears and you see a talented Chicago politician, dancing with the money and influence, without a shred of a goal of his own. This explains the lack of any sort of credible national health care, the wanton destruction of the economy by the banksters (with tacit approval from the White House), the continuation of the mortgage mess with no substantive programs being presented to alter its course, the complete avoidance of any acknowledgment of the serious problems with Social Security or Medicare.
It’s why Obama DESERVES the middle initial of W. He is the instantiation of the third term of George W Bush, with the exception being that quite possibly Dubya was cluelessly manipulated by those around him, while Obama is acquiescing to the influence of money with full knowledge and awareness.
Those who voted for Obama (as did I), expecting change, have been fooled. The only change has been for the worse.
"If so, that was the broadest short squeeze I have ever seen. "
you know that line about "give me a long enough lever..."
I am currently working on keeping natural gas prices down.
i only have one position open right now, i am RIDICULOUSLY long UNG
i would appreciate it if you would run your A/C 24x7
thanks in advance.
OMG, can we please do something about Dennis Kneale? It's like Cramer without a "charitable trust" to defend. Think about that. Cramer actively tradess ahead of recommendations for his "charitable trust" where he gets paid to invest for the "charitable trust." GMAFB.
they are pumping everything..... here's another example:
AMER GREETINGS CL-A Share Price Chart | AM - Yahoo! Finance
Effin greeting cards up 40% in two days!!
Guess everyone went out and bought "Sorry you lost your job" cards.
Ciao
MS
"Explain Lennar."
Complete insanity, maybe a short squeeze. I have no explanation for why they are not bankrupt.
Maybe the auto rental companies were a short squeeze as well? But a 24.45% pop for DTG? That's more than just a short squeeze, that's a bearburger.
I just don't see how almost everything runs up together because of a short squeeze. Timmay would need thousands of monkeys just to push all those buttons at once.
Hmmm... where's Nemo been today?
walter cronkite seriously ill
ARTS, BRIEFLY; Cronkite Is Seriously Ill - NY Times
Read this:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/tomhanks.asp
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/tomhanks.asp
1: Col. Ed McMahan, USMC (not a BIG star, but a helluva long-term gig)
2: Farrah Fawcett
3: Michael Jackson
"and gettng boris karoff"
jesus, people. VINCENT PRICE.
Karloff would have been more impressive as he was already dead....................over 20 years before