Archive - Feb 2009 - Story

The proud owner of 218 million shares of Citi was down almost $200 million at one point today on his Citi position alone. Luckily he only has another $400 million to lose before the garbage heap becomes a problem of the taxpaying masses, most likely at 5 pm this Sunday.

The end of the good banker times is here. From elimination of first class airplane seats, to no more $1000 bottles of wine, to car service which actually has to compete based on price, the perks of being a banker are now a fond memory. Full bloomberg article is useful to give an idea of the carnage:

US CDS mid passes 100 basis points (full market 95/105)... obviously historic event. Some traders call this the doomsday count up as the higher it goes the dumber you have to be to buy it (as you will never collect on any insurance), and the likelier it is that the end of the world is nigh. If this had to be quanitified in terms of colors, the equivalent would be a deep shade of burgundy.

Law firm Sidley Austin was humiliated today, when Tribune Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey publicly chastised Sidley's bankruptcy practice for blatantly representing the stereotype of greedymoneygrubbing lawyers, demanding the highest known legal hourly fee ever of $1,100 per hour and limited the company to a maximum hourly

Law firm Sidley Austin was humiliated today, when Tribune Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey publicly chastised Sidley's bankruptcy practice for blatantly representing the stereotype of greedymoneygrubbing lawyers, demanding the highest known legal hourly fee ever of $1,100 per hour and limited the company to a maximum hourly

As was discussed previously, the impact of recent $75 billion Homeownership Stability Initiative will most definitely have a very limited impact on improving delinquency and foreclosure statistics. Where before we focused on some theoretical musings, not we present a a more concrete example of why the HSI may impact at most one third of at risk homeowners.

As was discussed previously, the impact of recent $75 billion Homeownership Stability Initiative will most definitely have a very limited impact on improving delinquency and foreclosure statistics. Where before we focused on some theoretical musings, not we present a a more concrete example of why the HSI may impact at most one third of at risk homeowners.

A few tightening names, curious among these Ladbrokes which with its toxic Hilton Hotel contingent liability exposure is due for a major push wider. AIG leads the blow out parade, 75 bps wider, followed by a whole slew of banks. Today won't be any different. In sovereigns, US risk is about to surpass Japan.

A few tightening names, curious among these Ladbrokes which with its toxic Hilton Hotel contingent liability exposure is due for a major push wider. AIG leads the blow out parade, 75 bps wider, followed by a whole slew of banks. Today won't be any different. In sovereigns, US risk is about to surpass Japan.

Japanese rumor of the day - most Shinsei executives received their marching orders today with only few receiving option to stay. At least one trading head who was among the latter, decided to exit and get deferred bonus money ahead of likely upcoming merger with Aozora which would likely reprice exit equity much lower. Probably not good news for Aozora main stakeholder Cerberus.

Yet another soap opera is developing. Yellowstone Club, near Big Sky, Montana, which during the good times used to be the ultra-exclusive and ultra-expensive escape of a select few such as Bill Gates, Dan Quayle, Bob Greenhill, Steven Burke and Peter Chernin, is becoming the hotbed for one of the most acrimonious luxury resort legal battles in modern history.

Yet another soap opera is developing. Yellowstone Club, near Big Sky, Montana, which during the good times used to be the ultra-exclusive and ultra-expensive escape of a select few such as Bill Gates, Dan Quayle, Bob Greenhill, Steven Burke and Peter Chernin, is becoming the hotbed for one of the most acrimonious luxury resort legal battles in modern history.

• CPI reading 0.3% in line with expectations, core up 0.2%
• Swiss bank shares tumble on UBS tax probe (Reuters)
• GM unit SAAB files for bankruptcy in Sweden (Bloomberg)
• Switzerland threatened with bankruptcy (Credit Writedowns)
• Financiers' views on Wall Street's future (

• UBS blocks US client details, sets up for confrontation with US government (BBC)
• Sir Stanford owned $100 million aircraft fleet, castle, yacht, etc.
  

We believe in cross collaboration, especially with smart, insightful bloggers. Today we focus on TraderMark who runs Fund My Mutual Fund, and is one of the most followed authors on Seeking Alpha; we have picked a post of his on a topic that is near and dear to our heart.