Archive - Feb 2009 - Story

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Can someone say selling on the news?

If anyone wants to see a glaring example of the faulty approach the government has applied to "fixing" its failed entities, look no further than the GSEs (Fannie and Freddie). And for pearls of the economic wisdom percolating in D.C.

And the uber-leveraged LBO dominoes keep falling. The spotlight now turns to Clear Channel Communications (CCU) which was acquired a brief 6 months ago in July 2008 for $20 billion in one of the biggest LBOs of recent years.

And the uber-leveraged LBO dominoes keep falling. The spotlight now turns to Clear Channel Communications (CCU) which was acquired a brief 6 months ago in July 2008 for $20 billion in one of the biggest LBOs of recent years.

We were half joking when we said 2 days ago that 2nd largest auto-supplier in Europe Schaeffler-Continental may go bankrupt.

• JPM expects prime-jumbo mortgage losses to double (Bloomberg)
• Obama leaves no room for failure in stimulus plan (WSJ)
• NYT agrees with our requirement for more bailout plan clarity (NYT)
• Record SFr20 billion loss for UBS, to keep investment banking (

The ruble is crumbling. Speculators will put the government's resolve to defend the ruble to the ultimate test. Look for 36.20/30 as a critical barrier; if it is breached Europe will be an ugly place tomorrow.

The ruble is crumbling. Speculators will put the government's resolve to defend the ruble to the ultimate test. Look for 36.20/30 as a critical barrier; if it is breached Europe will be an ugly place tomorrow.

When I started this blog, I was thinking it would be a short-term distraction. However, today, exactly a month after the first post, with well over 100,000 hits and extensive media coverage, Zero Hedge has emerged from obscurity and become my medium to expose so much of the BS that we see in finance every day, to pass on some of my knowledge and to have a lot of fun doing it. Zero Hedge has only been successful thanks to you, repeat reader, and with your readership it can only grow and improve.

Financial Bailout expected to have revised "Bad Bank" after all (CNBC)
Based on details coming out that presentation, the plan calls for:

• Some $100 billion will be committed to new capital injections.
• Another $100 billion will go to the Federal Reserve's TALF program.
• And $50-$100 billion on housing measures, as expected.

Good summary of Obama's stimulus speech (AP)

Developing Story:

Developing Story:

Developing Story:

By the way, that's Nationalization... Just wanted to get that out of the way. So what is so terrifying about nationalization that only the Duo of Doom (Roubini and Taleb) dares to expound on it profusely on prime time CNBC (and engender more boycotts of the otherwise harmless TV station)? Fundamentally, any recapitalization of banks by the government involves stripping or diluting certain asset classes of their value.

By the way, that's Nationalization... Just wanted to get that out of the way. So what is so terrifying about nationalization that only the Duo of Doom (Roubini and Taleb) dares to expound on it profusely on prime time CNBC (and engender more boycotts of the otherwise harmless TV station)? Fundamentally, any recapitalization of banks by the government involves stripping or diluting certain asset classes of their value.