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The Council on Foreign Relations has done a great independent analysis of who has been buying U.S. Treasuries in 2008. In a nutshell, the US managed to place $1.3 trillion of USTs with non-Chinese investors.

As we surmised as recently as two weeks ago in our Death Watch summary, Smurfit Stone container finally caved and early this morning filed for Chapter 11. Surprisingly, the company managed to procure a $750 million DIP financing. Granted of this $400 million is merely a replacement of the existing A/R securitization facility, but it is still an impressive accomplishment even though the company does have a lot of hard assets.

NY Post has broken the news that the bank which is currently suckling on $45 billion of taxpayer money has just completed the purchase of a Dassault Falcon 7x jet for $50 million. We can just smell the Barney Frank hearing on this one.

NY Post has broken the news that the bank which is currently suckling on $45 billion of taxpayer money has just completed the purchase of a Dassault Falcon 7x jet for $50 million. We can just smell the Barney Frank hearing on this one.

In a desperate attempt to post the funniest thing this morning/pander excessively, S&P has decided to keep GE's and GE Capital Corp's pristine AAA rating. The "rating" agency notes the AAA debt rating is not "immediately affected" by the most recent earnings. However, it does note that there are signs that 2009 will be even more difficult than when S&P had looked at the two previously on Dec. 18.

Maria Bartiromo is trying to steal Gasparino's thunder by posting the latest update in the Thain commode saga. Per an internal memo, the former Merrill CEO is finally being contrite and will pay back the $1.2 million that he spent on the office renovations. He couches it by saying this the expenses were incurred over a year ago "when it was a different environment", and included, in addition to his office, two conference rooms and a reception area... not sure how that makes it better per se...

• Caterpillar stock plunges 20% premarket after outlook and job cuts (Bloomberg)
• ING Group laying off 20,000 (NY Times)
• Barclays says all good despite $10 billion writedown, we don't need your stinking bail out (

• Pfizer Offers $66.8 Billion for Wyeth (Bloomberg)
• 8x levered auto supplier at 16 pts up CDS anyone?
  

The liquidations of Circuit City and Linens 'N Things are just the beginning. As we discussed recently, the dea(r)th of distressed financing will crimp the plans of any companies who plan to brave the current crisis through traditional Chapter 11 bankruptcies.

As CDS traders are aware, two months ago, or about the same time Chris Cox wanted to turn everyone that had even the remotest connection to trading CDS into soap, the DTCC started disclosing everything it knows (not all that much) about the CDS market on a weekly basis. At Zero Hedge, we are starting a weekly column that looks at the net additions and reductions, and ergo, net change in the CDS market, from both a notional and contractual point of view, based on DTCC data.

As CDS traders are aware, two months ago, or about the same time Chris Cox wanted to turn everyone that had even the remotest connection to trading CDS into soap, the DTCC started disclosing everything it knows (not all that much) about the CDS market on a weekly basis. At Zero Hedge, we are starting a weekly column that looks at the net additions and reductions, and ergo, net change in the CDS market, from both a notional and contractual point of view, based on DTCC data.

In a bet gone very bad, that if true would make Jerome Kerviel's $5 billion loss at Soc Gen seem like amateur hour, the WSJ reports ($$$ link with hat tip to portfolio.com) that the main reason for Merrill's massive $15 billion Q4 loss was due to some very large basis trades gone horribly wrong.

In a bet gone very bad, that if true would make Jerome Kerviel's $5 billion loss at Soc Gen seem like amateur hour, the WSJ reports ($$$ link with hat tip to portfolio.com) that the main reason for Merrill's massive $15 billion Q4 loss was due to some very large basis trades gone horribly wrong.

Zero Hedge makes fun of sell side research often. After all who doesn't. But sometimes we are pleasantly surprised, such as when we read Goldman's weekly economic analysis piece for the week of January 23. Several issues discussed in the report include an overview of the remaining arsenal of governmental responses to the mega crisis we are in, both in the fiscal and monetary realm, a sober estimation of just how bad the real troubled asset situation in the U.S. may be if we remove the wool from our eyes, as well as what needs to be considered before making an appropriate policy move.

Zero Hedge makes fun of sell side research often. After all who doesn't. But sometimes we are pleasantly surprised, such as when we read Goldman's weekly economic analysis piece for the week of January 23. Several issues discussed in the report include an overview of the remaining arsenal of governmental responses to the mega crisis we are in, both in the fiscal and monetary realm, a sober estimation of just how bad the real troubled asset situation in the U.S. may be if we remove the wool from our eyes, as well as what needs to be considered before making an appropriate policy move.