SEC Folds Like A Lawn Chair, Will Not Seek Charges Against BofA Individuals
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 17:32More theater, more injustice, more kickbacks. We demand Mary Schapiro's immediate resignation for gross dereliction of assigned duty.
- SEC Won't Bring Charges Against BofA Execs In Merrill Deal
- Such Charges 'Are Not Appropriate'-SEC
- Decision Covers 'Individual Officers,' Directors And Attorneys For BofA
- SEC Proceeding With Revised Lawsuit Against BofA
- U.S. Judge Has Pushed SEC For More About BofA Execs' Role
- Comments: 68
- Reads: 2,857
SEC Seeks To File New Charges Against BofA On Merrill Deal, Full SEC Letter Attached
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 16:07Dear Judge Rakoff
In accordance with the Court's instruction, we respectfully submit this letter on behalf of Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission to seek leave, to file a Second Amended Complain. The SAC adds a count under Section 14(a) of the SEC Act of 1934, and Rule 14a-9 thereunder based on the failure of Bank of America Corporation to update the merger proxy statement, before the December 5, 2008 shareholder vote, concerning extraordinary losses that were sustained by Merrill Lynch & Co. prior to the vote
- Comments: 15
- Reads: 2,200
VIX-VXV Spread At 3 Year Lows
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 15:57The massive squeeze in VIX has pushed the volatility index to level unseen since 2007. As the chart below indicates, a drop of a few more points will push the VIX to a level indicative not of the Great Recession but of Greenspan's Great Moderation, a time where vol was so law, it effectively killed th swaption market in CDS (green box). This is troubling as it indicates market complacency about risk is dangerously high. Yet even more troubling in terms of market positioning, is the VIX (1 month) - VXV (3 month) spread. That particular relationship has now revisited lows last seen in 2006. It appears that in addition to assuming "all clear" for the bond and inflation market, yet not so much clear down the line, the same line of thought is migrating to equities. Could near-term volatility be underrepresenting the true amount of risk on a normalized basis?
- Comments: 17
- Reads: 4,397
The Fed Prepares For A Surge In New Primary Dealer Applications
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 14:52These days Primary Dealers are the new black. Being a Primary Dealer is defacto insurance that one is Too Big To Fail, even if that is hardly the case. Having unfettered access to the discount window, to the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, to various repo facilities, and all other mechanisms that Liberty 33 has come up with to make goosing the market a formality, is a guaranteed way to achieve record profits and a wet dream for many a bank CEOs. In many ways this is comparable to the rush by everything with a heartbeat to purchase a home using New Century loans back in 2005, with the Fed of course in the role of the now bankrupt subprime lender.
Today, the Fed issued new guidelines for capital requirements for the line of banks that are willing and able to join the ranks of their infinitely bigger market monopolist brethren such as Goldman Sachs, on the receiving end of the taxpayer bailout trough. And because the Fed is certainly taking this risk "seriously" it has made becoming a PD ever so much more difficult: now instead having $50 million in net capital, PD wannabes will need to show $150 million of capital to the Fed kleptocrats. Prudence defined.
- Comments: 12
- Reads: 2,973
What Happens If Bernanke Is Not Reconfirmed By January 31?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 14:32With Bernanke's reconfirmation getting dangerously close to not being reality by the January 31 deadline, courtesy of a few non-Wall Street captured politicians in the Senate who are doing all they can to delay the process, a key question asked today is what will happen to the Fed Chairmanship position on February 1. The WSJ Blog provides some perspective on why this could be a destabilizing event to the tranquility that has gripped all trading desks, where conviction that the guy who is allegedly gobbling up futures without respite, may soon became scarce.
- Comments: 57
- Reads: 5,655
We Nominate The Following SEC Comment Letter For An Oscar
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 13:38Subject: File No. S7-23-09
From: William T McGonagall, III
Affiliation: Dungeon MasterNovember 23, 2009
I don't reckon none of them asset backed securities oughta be accounted for at alls. I reckon we ought not to mark them to market or anything. We oughta mark 'em to my butt
Sincerely,
William T. McGonagall, III
- Comments: 35
- Reads: 5,441
Cuomo Demands Bonus Details From 8 Big Bailout-Beneficiary Banks
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 13:22From a conference call that just ended, NY AG Cuomo is taking aim squarely at bank bonuses and is now demanding extensive info on bonus pools, bonus allocation, clawback provisions and vesting period data, from the 8 original bailout recipient banks. Did Hamptons real estate prices just drop 10%?
- Comments: 20
- Reads: 2,480
$24 Billion 91-Day Bills Auctioned Off At 0.041%; Window Dressing Theory Fail
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 13:16
New year window dressing was responsible for the micro yields on bill auctions pre-New Year. Or so the theory went. So why did we just have another effectively zero bill auction? And no, the Lehman scramble for risk-free parallel is oh so very inappropriate here - after all funds have to window dress their Dec. 31 2010 results... Granted, a little early. So we ask, again, who is buying stocks when real money is willing to accept zero returns to park their cash in "risk-free" equivalents. Liberty 33 - once again, the podium is all yours.
- Comments: 27
- Reads: 4,610
More Observations On The Federal Reserve Buying Stocks
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 12:41
TrimTabs' Charles Biderman makes another appearance, this time on BNN, discussing "circumstantial evidence" of the Fed's goosing of stock markets. And yes, the debate of who is buying futures consistently takes front and center position. Liberty 33 - your move: feel free to refute any and all claims presented by the TrimTabs CEO.
- Comments: 70
- Reads: 12,927
Insider Selling/Buying Ratio At 62.3x To Start Off 2010; Insiders Can't Thank The Fed Enough For Inflated Stock Prices
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 12:212010 has started off with a bang. Insiders purchased $4.5 million worth of stock (and yes, this does not include the end year transaction by such individuals as Nelson Peltz who acquired nearly 10 million shares of Legg Mason on the last day of 2009), in the period from January 4. It should, however, comes as no surprise that in the same period selling did not moderate, and insiders offloaded $281 million in shares (yes, this accounts for double counting between various corporate entities). Net result: an insider selling to buying of 62x to kick off 2010. And still the quants are chasing momentum ever higher. There is no way this will end in anything but tears.
- Comments: 23
- Reads: 5,741
Albert Edwards Takes On Payrolls, P/E Expectation Divergence And The "Barrage" Of M&A Deals Just Around The Corner
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 11:58Albert Edwards is back and spreading evil, vicious realism as usual.
- Comments: 12
- Reads: 6,568
NY AG Cuomo To Make Statement Monday On Banker Bonuses
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 10:58Well now you've done it Lloyd - the New York Attorney General has just gotten involved in banker bonus deliberations. Look for a formal announcement at 12 noon Monday.
- Comments: 29
- Reads: 2,452
John Taylor Rips Apart Bernanke Claim That Fed Policy Did Not Cause Bubble
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 10:38A must read op-ed from John Taylor, the Stanford professor best known as the inventor of the famous Taylor Rule, rips apart Bernanke's recent defense of Fed policies in the 2002-2005 period, which claimed that the Fed was not responsible for the housing bubble. Bernanke, who pushed the blame for the bubble on indefinite interpretations of the implications of the Taylor Rule, and whose chairmanship of the Fed will be lost should he not be formally reconfirmed by the end of January, loses ever more credibility when considering Taylor's response that the Chairman "said that international evidence does not show a statistically significant relationship between policy deviations from the Taylor rule and housing booms. But his speech does not mention that research at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in March 2008 did find a statistically significant relationship." Furthermore, Taylor blasts Bernanke's catch-all solution that new regulation will prevent such bubble in the future: "it is wishful thinking that some new and untried macro-prudential systemic risk regulation will prevent bubbles."
- Comments: 40
- Reads: 5,932
Frontrunning: January 11
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 09:55- Federal Reserve seeks to block release of U.S. bailout secrets (Bloomberg)
- Dubai's first foreclosure may open floodgates in worst market: Dubai’s housing rout sent prices
down 52 percent in the past year, prompting some homeowners to
abandon their cars and mortgage payments and flee the country.
Not one received a foreclosure notice. Until now. (Bloomberg) - Geithner has support of Obama, Democratis lawmakers, aides say (Bloomberg)
- Trichet may signal central bankers' risk concern: European Central Bank
President Jean-Claude Trichet, who warned investors against taking on
too much risk two years before the financial crisis started, may be
about to sound the alert again.( Bloomberg) - Bernanke bond spread most since 2007 shows decoupling (Bloomberg)
- Financial crisis panel seeks bankers' testimony (WaPo)
- Disappointment ahead for UK - and big test for euro (TimesOnline)
- Comments: 9
- Reads: 1,971
The Patriarchs Of The Collapse Discuss Wall Street's Record Bonuses
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/11/2010 - 09:31If you have always wanted to hear John Thain and Rodgin Cohen, the people who benefited for ages from the bubble and were among the complicit architects of the collapse, discuss bonuses, here is your chance. "The numbers when they do come out will be subject to criticism and public outrage." Oh yes. Cohen claims looking for the individuals responsible for the crisis is a non-starter. This is ironic as Cohen himself has been implicated by many as a primary culprit in perpetuating a status quo which would ultimately result in the Wall Street collapse.
- Comments: 13
- Reads: 2,145
