H. Rodgin Cohen's (Failed?) Quest To Backstop Every Bank... Ever (And Usurp Geithner's Throne)
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/05/2009 - 09:11Over the past two weeks many banks issued press releases and opened up the PR spigot to indicate just how stable they all are now that a few have managed to pay down their TARP commitments. This of course, is nothing but a complete farce, and simply yet another chapter in the "consumer confidence" game played by the administration and its financial underlings. In order to see just how much the banking system depends on the continued unlimited wallet of taxpayers and Geithner's printing presses, and how much certain law firms continue to depend on the somewhat less limited wallet of Wall Street, I present an October 31, 2008 letter recently obtained by Zero Hedge, in which Sullivan & Cromwell, Wall Street's #2 favorite law firm (or is that #1: I am sure Wachtell Lipton would have a few choice words with regard to that particular league table rating, although it may be hard pressed to match S&C's $241,975 in donations to the Democratic National Convention), goes to town to make sure that its well-deserving clients including Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo get to not only have the taxpayers' cake (in perpetuity), but eat more and more of it each day.
"Would You Like To Buy Some Magazine Subscriptions?"
Submitted by Marla Singer on 07/04/2009 - 08:41After days of configuring, we've finally managed to get subscriptions working properly. If you checked your email box you already know this because you likely received 900 emails at once as all the notifications queued up over the last week were batch-sent in one massive climax of SMTP server intercourse.
Sorry about the mess.
To configure your subscriptions, go to the "My Account" menu on the left and select the "Subscriptions" tab.
Weekend Readings
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/04/2009 - 02:44- More on StevePerkinsGate: PVM taking a page from the oldest playbook in the world (FT)
- India joins China, Russia in questioning USD dominance (Bloomberg)
- Palin to resign as Alaska governor, will not seek reelection (WSJ) [not even worth discussing the Republican due diligence process]
- Ignoring prophetic predictors (Nader)
- Staffer at SEC had warned of Madoff (WaPo, h/t dartmont)
Who Is Selling Wholesale Vol And Why?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/03/2009 - 15:36
The chart below indicates that while the market is exactly where it was in early December 2008, the VIX has droped by almost 60%.
Please Welcome RAN Squawk to the Zero Hedge Family
Submitted by Marla Singer on 07/03/2009 - 07:28We are very pleased to offer Zero Hedge readers access to the RAN Squawk news feed. RAN Squawk delivers real-time voice and text based feeds targeted to the needs of traders, brokers and financial professionals.
Taibbi Goes On The Air
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 16:54
Taibbi in his first TV interview since the "Squid" was let loose. Hat tip Calgary Schmooze
FDIC TGI Failure F... er... T
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 15:42Failure Friday is early today: the first bank shooting green all the way to the grave is John Warner Bank, from Clinton, IL. Likely more to come today.
NYSE Extends Closing To 4:15 PM, Cites "System Irregularities"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 14:59
Tsk Tsk. Those pesky SPARCs. Anyone remember March 2007? In other news, Sky Net will be nominating a robo-president for 2012 shortly.
ECB poised for some mid to late year QE?
Submitted by Cornelius on 07/02/2009 - 14:28Shockingly, the 1% line hasn't been enough to get credit flowing in Euroland - interesting times in Euro long rates coming up.
Slow Afternoon News Roundup
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 12:37Goldman Sachs Responds To Zero Hedge
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 11:16It seems quite a few individuals noticed our post attempting to justify some very peculiar language in not just a certain Goldman Sachs Internet disclaimer, but also the strange wording prominently featured in critical GS-client agreements. One happened to be Goldman Sachs itself. We take this opportunity to present the response by Goldman Sachs' spokesman Ed Canaday
Nigaz: The Return
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 10:37We know this is the one you have all been waiting for. Ever since we first reported on the Nigaz JV, our proverbial phones would have been ringing off the hook, of course, if we had any listed phone numbers. The upside - many sleepless nights at the NSA...
So we are considering it. In the meantime, some late morning amusement courtesy of the Daily Mail. Little commentary is needed... suffice it to say "Nigerians No Nigaz" is likely soon to eclipse "Dennis Kneale Idiot" as the most popular rising term in Google
REIT Liquidity Update: Hold The Applause
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 10:28If anyone had told us a year ago that Fitch would at least attempt to be a voice of reason, while Merrill Lynch, which has gotten destroyed on real estate, would be a CRE permabull, we would have punched them in the face. Alas, this seems to have become the case. While readers are all to aware of Zero Hedge's coverage of the Merrill REIT team's follies in "analysis land", a Fitch piece from last week has some surprinsgly insightful commentary on REIT. In a report titled "U.S. Equity REIT Liquidity Update: Hold the Applause" the rating agency paints a much more detailed and credible picture than i) expected and ii) than the 20 brand new analysts at ML/BofA could come up with.
When Irish Eyes Are Downgraded
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 09:23Moody's sees likelihood of further gradual deterioration of Irish creditworthiness. Other things that will increase the sodium chloride and recycled beer and whiskey content of the Liffey include:
- Does not see any further changes to Ireland’s rating likely in short-term.
- Irish fiscal steps broadly appropriate, more spending cuts crucial.
- Ireland’s bad bank scheme positive measure.
- Sees less pronounced contraction in Irish economy in 2010, growth in 2011.
- Sees signs Ireland’s economic downturn may be bottoming out.
Toxic Equity Trading Order Flow On Wall Street
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2009 - 09:03Lots of readers interest yesterday following Joe Saluzzi's Bloomberg interview. I present a White Paper by Themis Trading in which Joe elaborates on many of the concepts that may have flown over the heads of some of the more "beginner" readers. Additionally, I recommend readers search for specific concepts within Zero Hedge - we have covered the topic of program trading and liquidity extensively here over the past 3 months.
