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’Look on the bright side of 2012
With so much pessimism heading into 2012, we thought it would be prudent to discuss the possibility of positive surprises.
That’s the festive spirit of the economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
This year’s Halloween favourites
This Saturday is Halloween. If you’re in finance and fancy making an ironic statement — or just want to deflect from being part of ye most hated of trade guilds — then perhaps you might consider some of the following outfits we at FT Alphaville have cherry-picked as favourites for this year’s festivities.
What would a Goldman-Wachovia tie-up have looked like?
Vanity Fair is fast establishing itself a must-read for anyone interested in the back-room dealings of Wall Street and US regulators, and the upcoming November issue is no exception.
Consider the following press release,
[The Lehman Anniversary] The BBC’s Lehman Towers
Did the BBC mean for their dramatisation of the last days of Lehman Brothers to be utterly, cringeworthingly hilarious?
If they didn’t, they certainly did a good job making it look like they did.
In short:
Lehman Brothers: the (BBC) movie
Just in time for the one-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers, the BBC announced on Wednesday it was producing a drama “inspired by” the investment bank’s collapse.
“The Last Days of Lehman Brothers”
Paulson-Blankfein phone-fest fuels more ‘squid’ outrage
It’s hard for us to tell if this is getting more boring, or more fascinating. Perhaps a bit of both. The latest disclosure about the seemingly endless tentacles and influence of “Goldman Squid”, as FT Alphaville dubbed Goldman Sachs after writer Matt Taibbi’s recent takedown of the US investment bank in Rolling Stone (a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”) ,
Paulson grilled over BofA-Merrill deal
Hank Paulson, the former US Treasury secretary, faced hours of Congressional questioning about his decisions at the height of the financial crisis on Thursday, with lawmakers highlighting the collapse of Lehman Brothers and his relationship with Goldman Sachs.
Cuomo confidential
In testimony leaked to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Bank of America chief Ken Lewis suggests that former US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson forced his hand on the Merrill deal.
Lewis had his doubts about the transaction,
Terp-gate, revisited
Remember this – former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson’s dramatic November U-turn on the Tarp?
Paulson abandoned his original Tarp plan to snap up toxic assets in favour of buying (toxic) bank shares.
Breaking Neel down, inter alia
Fox News has heard back from the US Treasury – which has complied with the television network’s freedom of information request and released some 10,000 pages of documents relating to the US government’s bank bailout initiatives.
The Kanjorski meme and the end of the world, redux
It looked on Wednesday last week like Felix Salmon had had the last word on what he earlier dubbed the Kanjorski meme – a little piece of web flotsam alighted upon by a number of blogs, among them FT Alphaville – the gist of which went something like this:
Blind trust
How exciting. Among other things, Hank Paulson gets to find out just how much money he’s lost when he leaves office next week.
Upon becoming Treasury Secretary, Paulson was required to put his wealth into a blind trust.
Policymakers to prop up US housing market
An intensified effort to exploit government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to drive down US mortgage costs and cushion a decline in house prices could start soon. Support is building for a plan to offer government-funded 4.5 per cent mortgages for new home purchases that would be sold by banks,
GAO to Paulson: Must do better
Government Accountablity Office has just published its take on the Tarp, which can be summed up in ten of the GAO’s own words: “Additional Actions Needed to Better Ensure Integrity, Accountability, and Transparency”.
Fall of the Paper Empire
A gripping tale of empire, greed, collapse…
“One of Hollywood’s periodic infatuations with the decadence of Imperial Wall street Rome. After murdering the economy his father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius Commodus drifts into a life of wanton depravity as sovereign wealth funds Gothic hordes gather at the Empire’s borders.
Hedga Fundus Carta
We have seen the Great Charter of the Lord Paulson, sometimes King of the Treasury, our bank-funder, of the liberties of hedge funds in these words: Paulson by the grace of the market, regulators, SEC officials and other our faithful subjects,
Terpology
Here’s one, rather immediate, consequence from Paulson’s changing of the Tarp yesterday.
The decision not to use taxpayer funds to mop up illiquid mortgage assets resulted in this market reaction: ABX indices (based on CDS for tranches of subprime mortgage-backed securities) unsurprisingly cliff-diving,
US Treasury “to bail out everybody”
By Electric Dragon / FT Onion
Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, yesterday announced a far-reaching expansion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Everyone would be allowed access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window and the Treasury would,
The TERP
Hank Paulson, revisionist.
The TARP is no longer the TARP. It is the TERP. That’s Troubled Equity Relief Program. Not to be confused with the Moral Hazard Generation Scheme.
Mortgage assets aren’t even going to be bought anymore.
Boo! Finance!
Want something scarier than your average costume this Halloween? Then how about an “evil” Hank Paulson or Ben Bernanke mask? (Suitcases of money not included).
An enterprising California-based entrepreneur is selling these $80 limited editions:
Bernanke backs new stimulus before year’s end
The prospect of a second US fiscal stimulus package being approved before the end of the year has risen after Ben Bernanke backed the notion yesterday and the White House indicated President George W. Bush was “open to the idea”.
Six degrees of sandwiches
Potbelly Sandwich Works provided lunch for Paulson’s Sunday meeting with nine US bank representatives.
American Securities is a Potbelly Sandwich investor.
American Securities started a fund with a 25-year lock-up.
In defence of hedge funds
…kill the bad HFnds + heavily regulate the rest.
That’s Dick Fuld, recounting the position of the US Treasury towards hedge funds. The phrase comes from an email between Fuld and Lehman’s general counsel,
Paulson’s rescue plan: The FT’s view
It is much better to be a banker in the US than in the UK, says the FT in a Wednesday editorial comment. The US bank rescue plan announced Tuesday is significantly more generous than the UK equivalent.
Paulson’s nine-strong posse
Here’s the text of Paulson’s speech this morning, highlights are our own:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – America is a strong nation. We are a confident and optimistic people. Our confidence is born out of our long history of meeting every challenge we face.
Paulson gets Krugmanned – and Gordon loves it
In his wildest dreams, Gordon Brown wouldn’t be able to pay for this kind of publicity, yet it’s just what Hank Paulson, George Bush, John McCain and other Republicans don’t need right now – the ‘beatification’ of their most trenchant critic,
Bailout Bill passed
Just in from Washington:
(Reuters) – The U.S. House Friday passed a landmark $700 billion financial industry bailout bill, sending it now to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law. Eyeing both the Nov.
Hasta la vista, baby
Forget Iceland. The government of the world’s ninth largest economy is having serious funding difficulties.
Obtained by the LA Times, the below is a letter from Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California,
Paulson’s magic marker
It’s like a classroom project from 1st grade (alright, 2nd).
Assignment: Re-liquidise the banking system.
Method: Re-capitalisation of the banks.
Tools: A magic marker and 300 pads of Congressional notepad paper.
Lex on Paulson’s final plan
Sunday’s breakthrough appeared close to the government’s original troubled asset relief programme, or Tarp, says Lex. Treasury secretary Hank Paulson will get the $700bn he wanted, in slices, with the congressional oversight that he didn’t.