Archive - Jul 2009 - Blog entry

Spew of news highlights from the UK and Europe. Lots of things to catch-up on today. GDP forecasts coming out of Eastern Europe, minutes from the Bank of England. I will be covering currencies, German and UK debt market news in the future...

Dear Sirs/Madams:

I get it, I really do: You enjoy your secure, mostly laid-back, relatively well-paying job. Insofar as you possess the capacity, experience, and inclination to comprehend the following though, please, enlighten me: Given this fact, don’t you think its in your best interest to get rid of nonsensical, self-defeating policies like the following (from CalPERS)?

"Counterparty creditworthiness, for non-exchange traded Derivatives (Anal_yst: substitute any asset/asset class here), shall be at a minimum of “A3” as defined by Moody’s, “A-” by S&P and “A-“ by Fitch...?"

Ginnie Mae is growing fast. Are they going to assume the roll of the bankrupt Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Is the 'Shadow System' taking a bank holiday? Are the commercial banks really making new loans?

UK and Europe Highlights - 21 July 2009.

The FDIC has been making noises for a couple of months about a dry-run of the PPPIP for Legacy Loans, where Uncle Sam will provide half the equity and and up to 6 turns of seller-financed leverage for Public Private Investment Funds to buy whole loans off failed institutions. Well, the first run is here. Peek under the hood...

Dear Pension/Endowment/etc Trustees and Investment Committees:

I understand you enjoy your secure, relatively well-paid job, and your forgivable desire to maintain this status-quo for as long as possible. So long as you like your job and want to keep it, don’t you think its in your best interest to get rid of nonsensical, self-defeating policies like the following (from CalPERS)?

Advanta Corp., embattled small-business lender and sponsor of the renowned World TeamTennis league (wtt.com), has been winding down its credit card business over the past few weeks, another victim of the failed wholesale funding model. Today the company announced a dramatic increase in charge-offs on it's credit card lending book. The numbers are shockingly bad.

A comical piece was aired on CNBC this morning, which was similar in composition to horse manure. Take a look at this video right here. Does this guy have any idea what he is talking about?

It seems Hypo is back asking for more money according to the chairman of the oversight board, Michael Endres, in his interview with Welt am Sonntag. Ed Harrison at Credit Writedowns wrote a smashing post on this venerial disease known as Hypo Real Estate (HRE). It extends on latest analysis done by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, which is highlighting tell-tale signs of serious problems in the Spanish real estate market.

Here is a set of articles worth reading and pondering about over the weekend. It seems that Swine Flu has shifted into high gear with an increasing number of people conking out and GSK to make heavy dough in the process. The UK government is lining up vultures banks to flog off its Llyods and RBS stake; handsome cheddar has already been distributed to the punters managing these stakes.

Summaries of the "causes of the crisis" usually devote a trenchant bullet point to the conflicted, procyclical role of the rating agencies in the whole mess. Like the SATs, everybody acknowledges the serious shortcomings of the agencies, but grudgingly accept the need for a common ruler to objectively measure disparate claims of quality.

If you had to create a mortgage that was more toxic and more destructive than a subprime loan, you would have a very hard time creating that product. Yet leave it to creative finance to spawn a devilish product with the unique name of option ARMs.

June held good news for Housing, unless one looks at the full story.

Big buck foreclosures trump green shoots.

Surprisingly this isn't the title of an alarmist book by an obscure author urging you to buy krugerrands and remote arable property. Instead it's a sober, substantive quantitative analysis series by Deutsche Bank's very smart Richard Parkus.