Archive - Mar 20, 2010 - Story

Even as the Lehman scapegoating campaign is on in full force, there is little doubt that the man who somehow was in the middle of virtually everything, was not Dick Fuld, or any of the bevy of rotating Lehman CFOs, but Lehman's very much under the radar Global Product Controller, Gerard Reilly. Reilly was the point man on Repo 105, the point person for E&Y's "investigation" into the Matthew Lee whistleblower campaign, Lehman's Level 2 and Level 3 asset valuation, the brain behind the idea to spin off Lehman's commercial real estate business, Lehman's Archstone investment, and likely so much more. Reilly stayed on at Lehman, solid as a rock, even as the CFO's above him rotated one after another. Tragically, on December 29, 2008, a 44-year old Gerald [sic] Reilly died while skiing alone on New York's Whiteface mountain, while on a trip with his wife, 4 small children, and two other families.

Crony Capitalist tendencies do not discriminate with respect to "side of the aisle."  The left has been as busily handing out delicious treats to its favored students as the right.  Tacking on a reverse bill of attainder cleverly (or not so cleverly) disguised in prose designed to deter key word searches and in order to slip cash to a friend of a friend is as American as reality shows.  Accordingly, the somber faces of Zero Hedge readers should register exactly no surprise whatsoever on learning that the Health Care Swill harbors a series of such glory hole surprises.

"Given the volatile sideways nature of the marketplace, the S&P 500 has the
potential to be above 1,400 points and below 900 points at least one more time
over the next 3 to 6 years. To date we have witnessed two bear markets with
gyrations of approximately 47% and 56%, and would expect at least one more bear
market to arrive before it may be safe to fully venture out unprotected in the woods
again." - Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund

Bernanke's ludicrous monetary policy has forced financial companies to relever to mid-2000 levels. A recent CLO has broken the 12 month quiet period in the structured finance universe, and finally made it all too clear that bankers and asset managers have no idea what to do with all the free extra money lying around, earning nothing on the short end of the curve. Furthermore, with rampant M&A rumors every day (of which 90% are patently false) private equity must be getting nervous. As we all know, with great free money comes great irresponsibility to do really dumb things, better known as LBOs. We analyze the imminent tidal wave of going private deals, which, if Bernanke keeps ZIRP for another year as is widely expected, is just around the corner, and that the record TXU LBO of 2007 will be promptly surpassed, in both size and idiocy. Oh well, if you can't beat them, join them. We present some of the most profitable ways to play the LBO wave of 2010, and no, it does not mean tracking down Moody's Deep Shah and buying stocks 24 hours ahead of the announcement, in expectation of a 20% pop.

All the pretty charts to summarize last week's action and highlight Goldman's optimistic view on the economy.