Archive - Feb 2009 - Story

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.