Archive - Apr 2010

Senator Ted Kaufman strikes at the heart of the problem in a fin reform proposal, that is leaps and bounds ahead of the Wall Street co-opted bag of concentrated excrement that is the Dodd proposed "Bill", (which incidentally is also dumber than a bag of hammers in terms of actually regulating any of the really salient risk factors - the thing does not even account for the GSE's $6 trillion in debt for god's sake) whose only purpose is to make sure banks can blow themselves up once again and this time so spectacularly that only Mars would be able to bail out not only America but the world, in the process wiping out all of America's wealth. As Kaufman notes: "The prudent solution is to shrink these institutions to a manageable size at which they can actually be effectively regulated." We completely agree. It is time for this president to actually do something instead of just looking all grave when reading from a teleprompter, pretending he cares about Main Street - and the right thing is to enact the Kaufman-Brown proposed legislation into law immediately. Our only addition: demand that the DOJ look over the trading books of every bank and determine which ones pass a monopoly threshold designation. If Holder and Varney need help in doing their job properly, we will gladly volunteer our services.

If you ever needed confirmation that the airline industry is gambling with everyone's lives just so they can stop the profit bleeding and resume flight, here is the Telegraph confirming that airspace over Europe is anything but safe: "Flight training on RAF Typhoon jets was ''temporarily suspended'' today after safety inspectors found deposits of ash in one of the fleet's engines." And yes, these are sturdy military jets:we wonder how fragile passenger jets with GE turbofan engines are faring in their flights.

That is why the fat lady has sung and the SEC has acted. It is not that Goldman is the ogre that has broken the rules. Everyone has followed this same path, and there weren’t any rules either. There is only one critical difference between Goldman and the others: Goldman is the best, the most efficient. Because it is the best of the breed, the political focus will fall on them. The others will be tried only in the shadow of Goldman, after the show trial is over. Although the public relations team of Goldman came out with a very well reasoned document making their case to those of us who use the firm’s services. Of course, this has gotten great play in the financial press, but it is all beside the point. The issue is not the actual case brought up by the SEC but the entire structure of Wall Street – the fact that a 31 year old derivatives salesman is sometimes paid more than 100 times more than a manufacturing executive in Peoria. The inequality of the system is the issue or, putting it another way, the jealousy of the lunch-pail voter is the political dynamite that cannot be ignored.

Is this the 4th time this merger gets "soooo close" and fails? 5th?

In true fashion Moody's wakes up the day of bankruptcy. The new rating? A whopping A3.

EURUSD drops right back below 1.33.

RTRS-GREECE MAY GET SHORT TERM BRIDGE LOAN BEFORE MECHANISM IS ACTIVATED- SENIOR GOVT SOURCE

Euro shoots above 1.33, as everyone forgets that all 1) this has been tried many times already and 2) this is just a DIP loan and all the existing debt gets primed. Congrats Greece - you are now officially bankrupt

The euro just got slammed, and is at 1.3287, a mere 10 away from the 2010 low of 1.3268 on March 25. This support will be promptly taken out and the flight to lack of quality will resume, forcing the great Chairman to uncover new and exciting ways to dismantle the US currency and gun the market to new and record highs. Next support levels for the soon the be defunct european currency are somewhere in the 1.2s. Obama may need to reconsider his plans for the next "export-led" US Golden Age.

Here's one for the history books - this is what a semi-inverted yield curve looks like. The reason for the shaded area, and why the curve isn't inverted off the bat: the IMF has pledged your money, dear Americans, to make sure Greece can at least roll its immediately maturing debt. Americans, via the IMF and Ben Bernanke's Frankensteinian printing press are now guaranteeing the differential between 10% and 5% on Greek <1 year debt. And why? Is it going to prevent a Greek default in the end? Of course not, but at least US taxpayers can enjoy some of the the great moral gratification that being a part of the Komintern provides.

Informative report from Bloomberg which highlights that if you are a baker, waiter, hairdresser, or radio presenter in Greece you qualify for early retirement. Taxes optional along the way. Oh, and throw in the most generous pension system in Europe: 11.6% of GDP goes to pension coverage, and one can see why every IMF involvement will bring the country closer to civil way. Why are Greece bonds not yielding 300% again? Oh yeah, cause between pensions and interest, you should see about 100 times GDP paid out to fund interest expense and retirement each year.

To all Goldman clients - our condolences: "Unfortunately the Eur was not able to squueze higher to our sell target of 1.3475 , so we have had to stick with the core rather than build an increased position . Eurostat 2009 estimates suggesting bigger budget defecits for Greece and other peripherals have accelerated the move out in Greek and other spreads . This in turn has led the euro lower but FX still has some way to go to catch up with the move in cds . As we sit here at 1.3335 the risk I think is still weighted to the downside . The chance of a test and break of the years low (1.3267) ahead of the weekend is high and I would still advocate playing from the short side . Resistance to the topside should now be strong between 1.3425/50 indeed given the current pressure a recovery back above 1.3400 would be disappointing . Any further fresh negative news or indeed a break of the lows could lead to an acceleration to the downmove and the prospect of a move to 1.30/1.31."

Move along, Greece is still "contained." There's probably 5 corporate names in all of the US that are yielding that much right now. And to add jet fuel to the flames, Handesblatt reports that a German party member says Greece should institute "further austerity measures or leave the eurozone." Goodbye euro.

All hell is breaking loose in Europe on the just released EuroStat report which presents an "objective" look at various countries' realistic debt and budget deficit pictures sans governmental propaganda and lies. And while Greece is getting pounded for good reason, another country where the discrepancy between estimates and reality was even worse is Portgual, whose deficit EuroStat disclosed at -9.4%, on expectations of a -8% number. In the meantime Goldman is reaping a veritable bonanza trading 1 Year Greek CDS (which is at 900 bps) which now has a 200 bps bid/ask spread! Other entities getting bushwhacked as a result include Ireland, which is 23 wider at 173 bps (nothing flattering about the Irish in the EuroStat report either), and Banco Comercial Portugues SA which is 38 bps wider to 297. PIIGS are officially in freefall after the truth has finally set them free.

WSJ reports that Isreal is investigating a pre-dawn launch of "at least one Katyusha rocket which landed near the Jordanian port of Aqaba." Jordan notes the report with passing indifference, and goes back to buying ES and AMZN using Redi and Sigma X.

Yesterday we found out that North Korea had, as everyone was well aware, in fact attacked South Korea by sinking its ship using a submarine torpedo, heating up geopolitics in the peninsula. Today we find out that Iran's Revolutionary Guard has started large-scale war games in the strategic Straits of Hormuz via Reuters. Surely, Israel will note this with passing indifference and go back to buying US consumer retail and REIT stocks in bulk, especially after watching Steve Liesman's latest "breaking" expose on Goldman by Goldman.

• Asia stocks decline, Yen gains on concern over Obama financial reform plan.
• Greek bond yields surged to new crisis highs, a move that coincides with a slump in volumes.
• Massive fire on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico left 11 workers missing.
• Russia, Egypt seek to raise $8.5B in return to overseas bond market.
• Singapore to review Hedge, PE funds rules as regulators increase oversight.
• Altria Group's Q1 earnings rose 38% to $813M on market share gains. Revs up 27%.
• AMR Corp.'s Q1 loss widened to $505M on higher fuel costs. Revs up 4.7% at $5.07B.
• AT&T's Q1 profit fell 21% to $2.48B, largely on a health-care charge. Revs flat at $30.65B.