Archive - Jun 9, 2010

You would think if someone is willing to handle the Gulf oil clean-up with equipment and technology not available in the U.S., and finishes the job in shorter time than the current estimate, the U.S. should jump on the offer. But it turned out to be quite the opposite.

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 09/06/10

RANsquawk US Afternoon Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 09/06/10

Some reality to go with your reported fiction?

From the lawsuit: "Goldman intentionally failed to provide correct information regarding the state of the market in Timberwolf and/or intentionally failed to provide correct information concerning Goldman's actual opinion concerning the state of the market for the Timberwolf security and its quality and value. At the time Goldman made these statements to BYAFM, Goldman was actively shorting both Timberwolf and comparable securities because Goldman's internal assessment of the market for such securities was that their value would drop. In order to reduce Goldman's exposure to CDOs, Goldman personnel made false and misleading statements of material fact, knowing such statements were false and misleading... and with knowledge that BYAFM would rely on them in making the decision to purchase an interest in Timberwolf. Moreover, Goldman personnel failed to disclose material information knowing that, by this omission, information that they did disclose was rendered misleading, or they acted with reckless disregard as to whether the omission of the information rendered other disclosures misleading."

Even as the regularly scheduled take down of gold sends the risky FX pairs (but not the EURCHF), and their immediate computerized proxy, the S&P, higher, the truth about Europe's bad and deteriorating liquidity is out there in plain view. The most recent ECB Discount Facility usage just hit a fresh new all time high at €365 billion, 15 billion higher compared to two days ago, and €80 billion higher compared to a month ago. Banks are now openly warehousing every euro bill they can find with the ECB. Compounding the issue, is the continuing grind higher in the EUR Libor, hitting a fresh 2010 high of 0.65%. The primary driver for these adverse development was the earlier news in Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias that Spanish interbank liquidity no longer exists. And while reality is uglier by the day as the double dip reality seeps in, in the realm of rosy mythology, we have Ben Bernanke seeing US economic growth, and the World Bank rising global GDP growth forecasts. Picks your side.

Update: ok, the 10,000 people that just hit the server didn't help.

We apologize for the extended downtime. European server hosts responsible for the crash will be promptly punished when their sovereign CDS shortly catch up with BP's defaults risk (+108 now to 368bps, 27% implied default probability for 5 Y). We are comforted by the fact that Ben Bernanke sees no future crash for Zero Hedge servers, ever again.

All of BP’s efforts to date have really been “Hail Mary’s” doomed to failure. Bring in a small tactical nuclear weapon, or you can kiss BP goodbye.
It’s a lot easier than it sounds, and would probably work. It’s either that, or face the environmental equivalent of Chernobyl meets Katrina. (BP).