Frontrunning: February 18

• Greece bail out cost: $441 billion (Bloomberg)
• Dollar rally drives euro near nine month lows as metals retreat (Bloomberg)
• Greece or California: who would you rather be? (LA Times)
• Germany's Merkel she's got the whole euro in her hands (BusinessWeek)
• States must fill $1 trillion pension gap (NPR)
• Bernanke chooses to exit through the eye of a needle (Green Faucet)
• Weil: BofA's new settlement with SEC smells even worse (Bloomberg)
• SEC, Cuomo may face off over BofA (WSJ)
• Roubini: an IMF rescue for Greece (Forbes)
• South Carolina lawmaker seeks to ban federal currency (CBS, h/t Charles, Deadhead)
• It's Greek to Goldman Sachs (Nation)
• Japan prepares to introduce Tobin tax (Bloomberg)
• Obama-Dalai Lama meet shows U.S., China stay rivals (Bloomberg)
• Hedge fund herding into Citigroup (Immobilienblasen)
• Obama takes deficits to new frontier (IBD)

Comments

[Daedal]

Greece bail out cost: $441 billion

Greece's GDP is <$390 billion. When is USA getting $15 trillion bailout, and from whom?

[Anonymous]

Ben is printing it as we speak. Everyone gets a pallet of $100 bills - a week before the November election.

[Anton LaVey]

Yup.

Make sure you also read LEAP take on Greece:

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-42-is-available!-Second-half-of-2010-Sudden-intensification-of-the-global-systemic-crisis-Strengthening-of-five_a4294.html

Highlights:

1. As we stated in our anticipations for 2010, which appeared in the last GEAB issue (GEAB N°41, the Greek problem will have disappeared from the international media’s radar several weeks from now. It is the tree used to hide both a forest of much more dangerous sovereign debt (to be precise that of Washington and London) and the beginning of a further fall in the world economy, led by the United States (2).

And:

3. Ango-Saxon leaders and media are using the current situation (just like last year with the so-called banking tsunami coming from Eastern Europe which was going to carry the Eurozone away with it (5)) to hide the catastrophic progression of their economies and public debt and attempt to weaken the attractiveness of the Eurozone at a time when the USA and the United Kingdom have increasing difficulty in attracting the capital which they so desperately need. At the same time Washington and London (which, since the coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty is completely excluded from any management of the Euro) would be overjoyed to see the IMF, which they control completely (6), brought into Eurozone management.

I think these guys are mostly right, even if I do not share their optimism about the Eurozone pulling it off. Food for thought anyway.

[Anonymous]

AIG (AIG) changes its mind about the sale of a derivative portfolio from its Financial Products unit, opting to keep derivatives with a notional value of $300B-$500B because of potential upside now that markets are improving.

Can someone explain why we hear about AIG making a deal to sell some unit of it's business every couple of months, but why these deals never go through for one reason or another?

Fishy Fishy Fishy

[MsCreant]

Metals retreat. Riiiight. Metals don't give a fuck. Gold keeps getting hit and getting up. The truth will set us free.

Sorry. Getting some kind of collapse fatugue here.

[MsCreant]

[In my best bonzi kamakazi scream]

Gooooold Bitcheeeeeez!

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

eeeeaaaaaahhCOMPANY Yeeehaww!

Silver snitches ;)

[Careless Whisper]

ohhhhh boy, now the italians are pissed at jp morgan.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870344480457507135232995461...

i'm smellin' movie deal on this one. maybe george clooney to play jamie?

http://www.spike.com/video/oceans-thirteen/2832774

[THE DORK OF CORK]

I think Jamie should play Jamie - these guys are better actors then any smuck from Hollywood.

IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME THE POWER NOW THIS BLACK BOX IS GOING TO BLOW .....

cue the action sequence and the digital clock counting down to zero

[BernankeCo]

When folks finally see that they can’t just get someone else to pay for all this, there will likely be a huge tax rebellion
which will cause more short term problems, but may in the long term (hopefully) have the effect of getting the government to manage our money better. In the meantime, let’s hope we don’t have too many large national disasters, military conflicts, pandemics or the like to deal with. This country is in a lot of trouble and we need to start thinking like Americans instead of Republicans or Democrats if we’re going to get through this mess……Meanwhile experts say the market will crash sometime this year..
Fasten your seatbelts...

[Paul S.]

States reported 5,797,875 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Jan. 30, an increase of 304,748 from the prior week.

[Oso]

I stopped out of my TLT over the last two days, essentially flat.

Yields going up cannot be sustained.  Money will have to come out of risk or interest burden becomes immediately crushing. 

This is uncharacteristic of Bernanke-san.

[Anonymous]

Everyday is a new day
I'm thankful for every breath I take
I won't take it for granted (I won't take it for granted)
So I learn from my mistakes
It's beyond my control, sometimes it's best to let go
Whatever happens in this lifetime
So I trust in love (So I trust in love)
You have given me peace of mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOESyEljmFE

-MobBarley

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

Diversify your bonds, sucka!

[glenlloyd]

Ah the SEC, still fishing around for the right dollar amount to fine. I can't wait to se what Rakoff says about this latest attempt.

[Anonymous]

President Obama, Bernanke, and Jim Cramer are in a MOVIE about hedge funds called "Stock Shock." Even though the movie mostly focuses on Sirius XM stock being naked-short-sold to near bankruptcy (5 cents/share), I liked it because it exposes the dark side of Wall Street and reveals some of their secrets. DVD is everywhere but cheaper at www.stockshockmovie.com

[Tom123456]

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