Yen 'Carries' Equities, Market Continues To Be Totally Busted: GS Up $2.5/Sh As CDS 7 bps Wider!

Here is the reason for the surge: all day everyone sold off yen and bought whatever risk assets they could find. The carry trade is back. Risk on. As equities surged higher, all the new found money had to be put somewhere: just as equity indices stormed higher so HY rushed back to the day's highs. Stocks, bonds, who cares - buy it all. In the meantime credit is once again scratching its head at the lemmingness of stocks. Even with Goldman stock rising by $2.50, its CDS was 7 bps... wider! Nothing makes sense anymore. Sell yen, but whatever crap you can still get your hands on. The crappier the better. Obama said so.

Guest Post: Is Abacus 2007-AC1 Unique?

In the video below, it appears that Steve Liesman of CNBC has access to deposition or other facts in the SEC case. Perhaps he has been talking to Paolo Pellegrini, Paulson’s former head trader who is believed to be a key witness for the SEC. We have found no one else that is reporting on case specifics beyond what was in the SEC complaint. Liesman reports that the Abacus 2007-AC1 deal was somewhat unique in that it was Paulson’s only CDO that used a neutral third party manager to select collateral (ACA management) or “bespoke” deal. Pauslon did other CDO deals where they picked the collateral directly and it was disclosed as such. What is not clear is if Paulson’s economic interest in those deals failing was also properly disclosed. The implication is if Goldman loses this case it will not lead to a precedent that will spread to many other CDOs.

Vote To Prosecute Goldman Was Split 3-2 Along Party Lines

It appears the Democrats at the SEC were hell bent on going after Goldman, even as the Republicans votes against action, in a close 3-2 vote. Some say this is the reason for the most recent surge in the market. As this event has already passed and at this point it will either be settlement (which Goldman has made clear it does not care about) or an actual jury trial, how this disclosure is in any way relevant to move the market is once again beyond us.

A Patriot's Day Call To Arms

"Mr. President, please show the American people the AIG emails. In the wake of the disclosures associated with Friday's government fraud accusations against Goldman, Sachs & Co., one of our nation's wealthiest, largest and most politically well-connected banks, it is inexcusable the U.S. government still refuses to release the thousands of emails that exist between AIG and Goldman Sachs. Unlike the Icelandic volcano, this was no natural disaster. Trillions of dollars have been defrauded from the U.S. taxpayer by a banking scam run by the top 1% of our country." - Dylan Ratigan

Cummings And Defazio Say SEC Should Broaden Probe To Include Goldman-AIG Trades

This day is just getting weirder by the minute, as the floodwall holding all the pent-up Goldman inquiries finally breaks. The latest comes from Hugh Son at Bloomberg who informs that Elijah Cummings and Peter Defazio now insist that the SEC should "widen its probe to determine whether securities backed by bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc. were improperly created." And "should any of these transactions be found to include fraudulent
conduct, any resulting contractual payments from AIG- issued
credit-default swaps could be viewed as ill-gotten gains." We'll be happy with Goldman paying back the several billion over and above what the Fed paid it to make its returns on AIG CDS at par. In other words, any profit that Goldman made by buying CDS on AIG, then covering when it knew full well the government would bail out AIG, constitutes insider trading as we have claimed before, and the $2 billion in CDS-related profits on AIG should be immediately refunded.

Bundesbank Tells Germany Greece Will Need More Aid

Just like the Hekla eruption caused the Dow to surge in complete disregard of cause and event, or, heaven forbid, logic, so this next news should finally force us to start selling the Dow 36,000 hats. Bloomberg reports that Bundesbank President Axel Weber has told German lawmakers that the €30 billion rescue package promised by the EU and the IMF will not be enough. Just how big will the shortfall be? Well, the recent expansion in the IMF's $50 billion rescue facility to $560 billion should provide some color on the matter. It gets worse: according to Bloomberg, "Weber, citing television footage of Greek demonstrators, expressed concern that sections of the Greek population either don’t care or fail to appreciate the seriousness of the situation their debt-laden country faces, the two people said on condition of anonymity because the briefing in Berlin today was held in private." How quaint - did anyone tell the Greek bureaucrats to look up the definition of the term "austerity" in this whole spectacle? As always, look for the American taxpayers to end up footing an ever greater portion of the Greek bailout bill. That's fine - they won't care: they have the brand new double double KFC burger, a new never to be read book downloaded on the iPad, and the GS witchhunt to keep them distracted, even as their taxes prevent the firesale of Santorini.

The Annotated 3rd Edition Goldman Apologist Release

Once upon a time investment bankers were supposed to facilitate capital formation for exciting new businesses. They were trusted advisors looking out for the interests of their investor clients, chaparoning to capital to efficient purposes.

How quant...(pun intended)

Now Wall Street has metastasized into a cesspool of predatory "financial intermediaries" like Goldman, who help predatory financiers like Paulson and Magnatar target suckers and fools in “private placements” of synthetic CDOs to sophisticated idiots. You know suckers and fools like AIG and your pension." - William Banzai