Archive - Oct 31, 2009

Some 18 months ago, Verizon wired the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, for FiOS, the fiber optic service that supposedly includes telephony, Internet access and, yes, high-speed HD television. But despite the fact that the Village of Croton has been wired for fiber for more than a year, no TV. Indeed, it now appears that VZ may be thinking of dumping the TV offering entirely.

The more observant and aesthetically sensitive ZH reader will have already noticed that Tranche 1 of the Lehman Brothers Collection (hereinafter known as the LBHI Creditors Committee ["LBHI-CC"] Collection) (warning: 50+ MB .pdf) will come under the hammer tomorrow at noon.  The 300+ lots include significant works by Bernar Venet, Willie Cole, Arturo Herrera, Pouran Jinchi, Louis Lozowick, Roy Lichtenstein, Louis [sic] Bourgeouis, Terry Frost, Bernice Abott, Bernard Cathelin and Herbert Brandl.  (No word yet on the various return tiers on the CAOs (Collateralized Art Obligations) that Goldman is underwriting next month.

Studio Zero's costume party gets revved up after the rest of the evening's events start to wind down.  We'll pipe the feed into Radio Zero live as soon as it gets going.  Join us for dark beats and light silliness into the wee hours and the (always present) possibility of a cameo drop-in from an A-lister.

Listen here: http://cdo.zerohedge.com:8000/listen.pls

Or pick up our West Coast Mirror (with 1000 slots) here: http://72.13.86.66:8000/listen.pls thanks to the mind-blowing generosity of EGI Hosting.

Chat up the DJ (send your .mp3 files) here: radiozh.

Or... join the real Radio Zero nerds on our IRC server at chat.zerohedge.com #radiozh.  If you just can't be bothered with an IRC client, we've provided one for you here. Otherwise, consider getting mIRC.

Shenanigans to begin sometime after 10 ET and before 11ET (maybe).

The Empire strikes back...

Calling politicians prostitutes is inaccurate...

(Compliments of Zero Hedge's native, one-panel satirist: John).

The attached presentation, from John Taylor of Stanford and John Williams of the SF FRB, prepared in the weekend before the Lehman bankruptcy, and thus in the eye of last year's hurricane, provides some additional insights into money markets, the Fed's TAF program, OIS spreads, and how everything can gospectacularly wrong at mere whiff of that greatest black swan of all, and the one concept all in the financial business take for granted: counterparty risk. With the Fed now actively pursuing the extraction of capital out of money markets instead of primary dealers, the potential liquidity imbalance will be a major threat to the system and will be activelymonitored by Zero Hedge. If the Fed's soothing admonition that it has things in control serves any purpose, it is that sooner rather than later risk flaring and six sigma events will once again be a dailyoccurrence.

Ah, the perils of not being totally broke. Ford labor unions rejected contract changes that would have allowed Ford, the healthiest of the "Big Three" to cut labor costs consumate with its bankrupt domestic competitors. Even if the competiton is broke... Sometimes, bankruptcy has its benefits.

This week's link fest has a common theme: the unintended consequences of government actions. I include the US Fed in the government category for obvious reasons. Between Greenspan’s beliefs in efficient markets, Bernanke’s Great Moderation, tax credits for housing and the Fed’s current unlimited money printing, it is amazing how much damage can be done by the wrong ideas and policies.

"How much of the rebound in real GDP was due to the fiscal stimulus, and where do we stand in terms of the effects of stimulus thus far? Although precise answers are impossible at this juncture, several aspects of the report are consistent with our estimates that the fiscal package enacted in mid-February as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would have accounted for virtually all of the growth reported for the third quarter." - Goldman Sachs

In the first half of October, NYSE short interest as reported staged a moderate comeback, rising by 2.8% sequentially to 13.4 billion shares on October 15th, from 13.1 billion at the end of August, and a 1.1% decline from the 13.6 billion shares short on October 15, 2008. The short interest represented 3.51% of total shares outstanding.

I'll admit it to everyone, I am absolutely disgusted with my investment performance over the past two quarters. I came into the second quarter up nearly 500% for the two years running thanks to top notch research across myriad sectors and loss about half of that profit fighting the bull rally that I easily saw coming but severely underestimated the length, depth and breadth of.