Archive - Jul 22, 2009

In the latest German episode of "Dynasty" Porsche and VW just may very well be able to do "the nasty" now and merge now once and for all...

The Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia destroys any last germinating green shoots.

"Green shoots are a very simplistic way to look at the world." Why is it no surprise that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke came up with it. 

CG: Hey Zero Intelligence whatchu got?

ZI: What I got is GE is in discussions to swap out its equity stake in CNBC with a 100% investment in Wall Street Pro.

Anything that starts with "We are now in the early stages of a depression" is a must read.

VWAP consistently at yesterday's closing price. T-1000 sells 100 GMCR shares to C-3PO, who promptly forces a margin call on Johnny 5. The latter covers by buying from WOPR which fries a vaccum tube and sets HAL9000 off on a short covering rampage before killing all the drunk traders at the NYMEX.

Falling long yields and some fun head and shoulders action in the mix

Fundamental analysis at its best.

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.

Must watch clip. Rantings about the Fed and the credit card industry.

More to follow

If you missed Fed, Wall Street and CNBC public enemy #1 yesterday, here is your chance to see him live again. Neil Barofksy, the scourge of all crony bankers (crony is redundant in the last phrase) and "honest answer-conflicted" Fractional Reserve Banking system executives, will be testifying at 2:00 PM before the House Committee on Fin Services. The hearing will consist of two panels, with Herb Allison dominating the first one, and sure to provide extensive entertainment as per usual.

Goldman Sachs has redeemed those pesky TARP warrants that have been generating so much consternation to PR offices across bailed out Wall Street. Well, van Praag scratched his head on this one, and this light bulb came on: I know, we will put a subheader for what a great benefit to taxpayers out inability to repurchase the warrants for 1 cent was.

Yet someone (or much more likely something) keeps pushing it higher. A chart of the market's divergence index indicates the most exhausted uptrend witness in years. Divergence Index: ((10 Day Momentum * 40 Day Momentum)/Variance 40 Day Price Changes). Not surprisingly, large positive values indicate an exhausted trend.

Tommy Mottola must be considering signing a record deal with the lately omnipresent Ron Paul.

Incidentally, from Ben Bernanke's ongoing presentation to the House committee, when asked "How does providing factual info on Fed discussions compromise the Fed", Bernanke had this highly illogical reponse:

1. It would inhibit discussion.

2. It would inhibit the provision of information.

3. It would implicity provide the sense that Congress was second-guessing or trying to overrule the FOMC's decisions.

Did Wall Street chip in for the prompter on this response? The absurdity of Bernanke's answer would likely provide Lewis Black with hours of stand up entertainment fodder.

In what will likely be the flame war de jour for at least the next 24 hours, Gasparino responds to Tavakoli via Dealbreaker.

"I generally don't respond to people who don't matter on Wall Street.
But any rational, sane person who hasn't been either hitting the bottle
or smoking a joint would watch what I said about Goldman Sachs and come
away with two things. 1) I am very tough on them-- they always complain about what I say.
and 2) In the so-called 'caving' clip I was letting them give their
side of the story because that's what journalists do. If someone named
Janet thinks I'm selling out, she's entitled to her opinion, which I
hate to break it to her, really doesn't matter.

Zero Hedge doesn't want to get in the middle of this, but would like to inquire just what question was it that Charlie had posed to Lucas that was tough on Goldman? Was Charlie specifically inquiring about Goldman's provisioning of liquidity? When is the last time that Charlie even uttered the word liquidity on air, at least when it did not involve vodka? Is Charlie aware that Goldman dominates over 50% of NYSE's principal-based program trading? But like I said, we are not getting involved in this one.