EB's blog

BlackRock continues to churn Maiden Lane LLC into its second anniversary, which turns out to be an important date. If it can mark to model the portfolio high enough, JPM could get cashed out ahead of Uncle Sam.

Fresh off his "You own the Red Roof Inn" tour, Alan Grayson gives another svelte performance as he introduces the latest soon-to-be buried-in-committee bill with the help of his trusty easel.

When viewed through the lens of a common street hustler, the global central banking system reveals itself to be just that: a hustle. Learn the hustle and you have a chance at profit. Ignore it, and you will lose.

On the heels of the surprise discount window rate hike late last week, and on the eve of Bernanke’s Congressional testimony, speculation abounds as to the when and where of the next round of tightening. We need look no further than the US Treasury press room, as it has announced today a revival of sorts for its Supplementary Financing Program (SFP).

At the rate things were going in mid-January, the 30 Year yield was set to blast through the June 09 highs. Amazing what a little equities downturn will get you, as...

...when volume support breaks, the cradle will fall.

If this pattern reasserts, watch out over the next week.

Do SunSPARC workstations colocated at the NSYE have a preference as to what day they gap up the market? We attempt to answer this question, in addition to pointing out a very strong pattern on Employment Situation Fridays.

On December 28, 2009, amid the eggnog-sloshed holidays, the Fed solicited comments on a proposed amendment to Regulation D that would create a new Term Deposit Facility (TDF). As we will soon demonstrate, the innocuously sounding facility is nothing more than a de facto debt issuance mechanism that once again pushes the envelope of the Fed’s statutory (not to mention Constitutional) authority.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs set the rumor mills a-grinding with a statement earlier today that may be a preemptive strike against any surprise "uptick" in unemployment. But this would not be the first time the administration made such a leak.

A day before the first revision to Q3 GDP is released, the Federal Reserve tells us it may not be as useful as we've been led to believe.

Remember those wacky CDO’s that Goldman underwrote, hedged with credit default swaps, then promptly collected 100 cents on the dollar for (courtesy the US taxpayer) after lighting up the AIG switchboard with collateral calls? Kindly, the FRNY released only yesterday its quarterly report on Maiden Lane III.

Recently, the Pragmatic Capitalist questioned who the mysterious large buyer of eMini S&P 500 futures (ES) was, when there has not been a corresponding large buyer of SPY ETF shares over the same short periods. We decided this warranted a further investigation to assess whether it is SPY or the ES that has historically had the greatest impact on the S&P 500 cash index. The results were surprising.

We commented yesterday on the absurd (or threatening) hypothesis that the Fed would drain all $1 trillion in excess reserves by the end of March, 2010. Today, we reenter the fascinating world of JPM, Goldman and Pimco Treasury advisors, where inflation is relegated to a mere marketing device, and passing the buck to the last bondholder is a game unto itself.

Is the Fed really considering this maniacal path, or are the PD's just bullying for more QE business?