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Frontrunning: December 23
- In Former Soviet Republics, Dollar trades you on black market. (We score high in Uzbekistan though) [gallup]
- Congress: sucks; Obama: starting to suck; Economy: sucks; Life: sucks. (Thank god we have experts to tell us these things) [gallup]
- BankAmerrilwide starts Dollar General coverage with a "Buy." (Target price under a dollar?) [dow jones]
- Blackberry outtage slows U.S. messaging to crawl (Inlaws celebrate renewed interest in pre-christmas stories by young guests) [reuters]
- Bernanke enjoys 3-1 "in favor" ratio in Senate. (Senate also enjoys 3-1 "in favor" ratio in Senate) [bloomberg]
- Blame Canada: Even Canada is finally sick of U.S.'s shit. China and Russia to buy Canadian dollars (according to Canada). [bloomberg]
- Buffett downgrades Moodys. ("In former Soviet Omaha....") [bloomberg]
- Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's arrest ruled illegal, continued imprisonment just fine. ("In Former Soviet courts....") [wall street journal]
- November new home sales hit seven month low. ("Flip This House" Saturdays on A&E. "Flip That House" Saturdays on TLC) [reuters]
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My dear, you have a gift for the headlines. I do hope this FR gig is permanent, as I don't remember it inspiring as much mirth when (those) Tyler (fellows) provided it. Well done.
+1
Marla, go ahead and take Christmas off. And New Years day as well. We'll need you back, stronger than ever, for 2010
Cheers!
Ooo... I like it when Marla does "Frontrunning"!
More please!
agreed
Champagne and Caviar dreams.....Marla...
You are the best!!!
Get Down On It
Cubans love disco music. Who knew.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8424125.stm
Did anyone else get their Holiday Greeting card from The Whitehouse?
I'll share mine with you. You can just print it out and hang it over your fireplace mantle.
http://i49.tinypic.com/i4q1hz.jpg
Lloyd would never pose with the hired help.
Marla, thanks again.
In the link
look at the hangover from the earlier destruction of the ruble: 13% of Russians say "It is not profitable to have money savings". U.S., UK and other western residents: see your future.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
“Body Count From Goldman Actions Crosses Into Criminal Territory”
While she is very knowledgeable of this market, perhaps she is unaware of the full extent of the wrongdoings Goldman committed by getting themselves paid on the AIG bailout. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury aided and abetted Goldman Sachs in committing financial and ethical crimes at an astounding level.
She notes, accurately, that Goldman used AIG to hedge its bet on CDO’s, either for itself with the Abacus deals, or for its clients, with the Davis Square deal. Had AIG failed, Goldman would have been on the hook for the losses: to execute the CDO with synthetic mortgage bonds, Goldman went “long” the CDS and then turned around and went “short” with AIG, effectively taking the risk of the mortgage bonds defaulting and then transferring it to AIG.
But Ms. Tavakoli fails to note that the collapse of the CDO bonds and the collapse of AIG were a deliberate strategy by Goldman. To realize on their bet against the housing market, Goldman needed the CDO bonds to collapse in value, which would cause AIG to be downgraded and lead to AIG posting collateral and Goldman getting paid for their bet. I am confident that Goldman Sachs did not reveal to AIG that they were betting on the housing market collapse.
It is bad enough that the creators and sellers of the CDOs, such as Goldman, BlackRock and TCW, have not been held to account for selling worthless bonds while representing them to be of AAA quality. Most of these influential power brokers have succeeded in blaming the victim (investors and insurers who believed their lies about the quality of the bonds) for the financial crisis to distract from their own questionable activities.
Goldman goes quite a few steps further into despicable territory with their other actions and the body count from Goldman’s actions is so enormous that it crosses over into criminal territory, morally and legally, by getting taxpayer money for their predation.
http://tinyurl.com/yadatdu
Well Ive got news from the horses mouth while catching up with old friends who both happen to be in commercial real estate leasing. One in San Antonio Texas says no calls last year, one north of Los Angeles rented 50,000 square feet all year where he used to do more than that in a month.
Whats that all mean Mr Wizard? Im no economist but seems like more proof that recovery is just a term used on Wall St. that when translated looks like a middle finger held up at middle America saying "I got mine where's yours? Dont look at us for your recovery"
The physicist in me tells me you cant swim in a mirage but you have government printing presses that can make a mirage look liquid enough unless you view it from the real world perspective.
Commercial real estate, buckle up.
Rewarding a Catastrophe
Bernanke and the Corruption of Washington Culture
The second tool that the Fed could have pursued was to crack down on the fraudulent loans that were being issued in massive numbers at the peak of the bubble. It is absurd to claim that the Fed didn’t know about the abuses in the mortgage market. I was getting e-mails from all over the country telling me about loan officers filling in phony income and asset numbers so that borrowers would qualify for mortgages. If the Bernanke and his Fed colleagues did not know about these widespread abuses, it is because they deliberately avoided knowing.
But, in Washington no one is ever held accountable for their performance. The economic collapse is treated like a fluke of nature – a hurricane or an earthquake – not the result of enormous policy failures.
So, it is the 15 million unemployed that go without work, not Ben Bernanke. Instead, the senators praise Bernanke to the sky and thank him for his service. The running line in the Senate is: “it could have been worse.”
That is the way Washington works these days. And, everyone should be very very disgusted.
http://tinyurl.com/yfs6hkj
“I would expect countries looking around the world to invest in market currencies that are reliable.”
I love Canadians. So understated and polite.