Archive - Aug 10, 2009

Who'd a thunk the IRR on the new, and oddly phallic Huntsman Hall would be quite so attractive. Well, it wasn't really positive, but these days down little is the new killing it (absent being too big to fail or too UAWed not to have a 30 day successful and gov't backed stalking horse auction). The Philadelphia university is expected to see it endowment decline by only 15.7% in the fiscal year ending June 2009, a stark contrast to bigger and "smarter" rivals such as Harvard and Yale, which are set to be down 30% and 25%, respectively.

Today, SL Green announced a preliminary sale transaction (subject to assumable financing, an out wider than VaR exclusion loopholes) which is supposed to herald the coming of the new mid-town CRE renaissance. An ebullient SL Green CEO Marc Holliday had this to say: "This is a first, but significant step towards the sale of interests in 485 Lexington Avenue. If ultimately approved, the transaction would demonstrate that the Midtown Manhattan office market continues to stand as one of the world's top locations and that investor interest is once again on the rise." Zero Hedge is waiting with baited breath for the Holliday mirage to dissipate, while in the meantime Class A office space in 767 Fifth Avenue can be sublet for $60/sq foot.

Judge Rakoff demonstrates some brilliant logic which is completely lost to both the CEO of Bank Of America and to the Chairwoman of the SEC: "If they would not have paid out $3.6 billion, they would have had a loss of $3.6 billion less, no?"

In response to turmoil in the interbank lending market, the Federal Reserve inaugurated programs to bolster liquidity beginning in December 2007. Research offers evidence that these liquidity facilities have helped lower the London interbank offered rate, a key market benchmark, significantly from what it otherwise would have been expected to be.

Technicals are a heresy in mainstream investing--they don't really teach them in school--but everyone that comes face to face with that beast called the market sooner or later figures out what they are.

"A U.S. judge on Monday denied a motion by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to quash a request for personnel information on a former computer programmer accused of stealing trade secrets from the firm."

Almost as fun as connecting the dots. Courtesy of NNDB, where readers can add their own nodes. Not much data would be needed for this map to encircle the globe.

The SPY just hit a 2009 low in volume, and markedly below the comparable period last year.

Wild action today, as the dollar rally and cratering of most foreign currencies probably triggered massive margin calls on the 300:1 leveraged GridBot traders hoping that cash would "roll in" each week.

Hedge fund icon Mike Steinhardt voices on what the smartest money on Wall Street is thinking and it is nothing good - fast forward to 3 minutes 25 seconds. Steinhardt is completely correct in saying "You can not talk about valuations readily" in this market.

In June 2009, the Staff of the SEC provided State Street Bank with a “Wells” notice related to the SEC’s ongoing investigation into disclosures and management by SSgA of its active fixed-income strategies during 2007 and prior periods. The SEC Staff has informed us that it is proceeding with an enforcement recommendation to the SEC Commissioners asking the SEC Commissioners to authorize a civil enforcement action against us alleging violations of antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.

Hats off to Wall Street creativity once again. Not all of the old deep thinking has been lost. A potential 'hot deal' runs afoul of the ever diligent SEC.

We have learned that Goldman has retained the exalted law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, to quash the Aleynikov subpoena request. The lead partner on submitted papers is Matthew Friedrich, former assistant attorney general at the DOJ and deputy chief of staff to fomer US Attorney General, Michael Mukasey.

Dear Leader and Minions,

The only thing more un-American, anti-freedom, and hypocritical from this administration, that dared to campaign on the prior administration's respect of the constitution, than your attempt to socialize vast swaths of the American economy, is your new attempt to silence your legitimate critics. You have (collectively with your party) called them Nazis, you have lied about their generally peaceful demonstrations while ignoring the incredible hypocrisy of your own brown-shirt like efforts (New Black panther thugs let off the hook by Holder, Code Pink, SEIU and ACORN vigorously disrupting free speech; and just try to give a speech offending the Left on our academically "free" campuses?). Now this explicit effort to have Americans, who happen to disagree with the current people in charge, inform on other Americans to this email address. You all have no shame.

The facts as reported by the American Bankruptcy Institute: consumer bankruptcy filings reached 126,434 in July, a 34.3% increase year over year, and a 8.7% increase sequentially (116,365 in June). July's number is the highest monthly total since the October 2005 bankruptcy reform aka the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.