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According to CNBC. And this includes the previously mentioned moratorium on state tax refunds. Then again, in December people were saying Cali would be out of cash right now, so the governator seems to have eeked out at least one more month of life for his state.

Apparently Vermont has also joined the Death Watch fray.

Tomorrow the D(istreesed)-3 post their January sales numbers. It will come as no surprise as GM, Ford and Chrysler "shock" the market with the latest batch of horrendous news which may likely serve as a preamble to more Detroit-to-DC panhandling daytrips.

Is anyone else getting tired of all these headlines about how Obama and his learned senators will only give aid to banks (and bail out the Western financial system) if the latter increase lending to consumers and companies? With all due respect, this is really dumb for two reasons: consumers actually don't want debt (kinda goes against the whole increasing savings concept) and companies actually have easy access to credit.

Is anyone else getting tired of all these headlines about how Obama and his learned senators will only give aid to banks (and bail out the Western financial system) if the latter increase lending to consumers and companies? With all due respect, this is really dumb for two reasons: consumers actually don't want debt (kinda goes against the whole increasing savings concept) and companies actually have easy access to credit.

• First aggregator bank plan, now Stimulus bill potentially in tatters (FT)
• Bidding war for future CDS clearinghouse (Bloomberg)
• Violent anti-government rallies all over Russia (

• More on Alvarez & Marsal's intrepid raking in of Lehman billable hours (WSJ)
• Charter Communications to file for bankruptcy any minute (NY Post)
• South Carolina penitentiary inmate No.
  

Restructuring consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal has decided to take the easy way out, and simply give creditors in the Lehman's bankruptcy equity instead of trying to maximize cash recoveries. The bulk of Lehman's residual value (or lack thereof) is contained in its hard to value real estate and private equity assets.

When you have the House Agriculture Committee getting involved in the regulation of the CDS market, it is only a matter of time before it is game over. When both conventional wisdom, and economists-turned-philosophers like Soros claim that credit default swaps are responsible for the downfall of western civilization, presenting any type of factual information is pretty much useless.

Reading some GS equity weekly data. Key charts are presented below.
Note: as have been getting this question quite a bit, GS has the following most recent 2009 and 2010 Earnings estimates for the S&P500 (according to GS equity team; would imagine their credit teams has much different conclusions: see UBS case):

When I discussed the basis trade opportunity, the conclusion was that arbitrage in the secondary (and by extension primary) market exists due to significant dislocations in liquidity. Sure, one can argue that immediate culprits for the arbitrage have to do with counterparty risk and funding costs, which makes sense, but those are merely derivatives of the liquidity disconnects between different brokers, their accounts, and any permutations thereof.

First Geithner, now this. In a developing story, Obama's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Daschle is apparently on the outs with the IRS as well.

Nassim Taleb of Black Swan and fat tail fame, has created a Facebook site called "Make Bankers Accountable." It is feasible that this could become the 21st equivalent of the million man march on Washington. We fully endorse the initiative. Maybe eventually Obama will realize just how angry the general public is becoming.

Nassim Taleb of Black Swan and fat tail fame, has created a Facebook site called "Make Bankers Accountable." It is feasible that this could become the 21st equivalent of the million man march on Washington. We fully endorse the initiative. Maybe eventually Obama will realize just how angry the general public is becoming.