CRAP

UPDATE: CARNEY DENIES NYT REPORT: "THERE IS NO DEAL" 30 Year plunging

Just breaking news from the NYT for now. 30 Year surging.

Here in the US we prefer BS numbers to no numbers at all. The US ALWAYS reports data (unless it’s regarding someone on Wall Street or our Fed Chairman breaking the law). And if the real numbers are too ugly we use seasonal adjustments, birth/death ratios, survivor biases, and other ridiculous adjustments to make the data just palatable for publications.

We have now officially gone full circle. Even as CMBS delinquencies are at all time highs, Wall Street's scramble to generate yield on other people's money (which will be completely lost once the liquidity tsunami ends) is back in 5th gear, as securitizations backed by commercial mortgages are flying off the shelves. It is so bad, that even S&P (!) is questioning the sanity of all those using LP capital to sign the dotted line in pursuit of a few quarters of yield. “There’s some crap getting done,” David Jacob, an executive managing director at credit-rating company S&P, said today during a panel discussion at the American Securitization Forum trade group’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. “It’s surprising to me this early in the cycle that some of that could be happening.” Don't be surprised David, after all it is your company that is rating it AAA (we realize you, too, have to eat), and never ever forget that if this was merely an indication of unseen market exuberance the Chairsatan would have long since popped the latest (and luckily last - after this one, there will be no one left to bail out the world) bubble. And someone else scratching their head at the current round of irrational exuberance that would make the dot com era look like dress rehearsal for "Spiderman: The Musical" is none other than some guy from Blackrock. "It’s been surprising how quickly investors have returned to
accepting transactions with numerous AAA rated classes, said
Blewitt, co-head of securitized assets at BlackRock, the world’s
largest money manager. Some bond buyers may not be scrutinizing
offering documents closely enough to find “hidden” dangers, he
said. “I don’t think we’re going back to the Ponzi finance
excesses that we had in 2006 and 2007 just yet, but when I get a
little bit scared is when I see the old game of, ‘These are not
your droids, look over there, not over here." Blewitt is right: the current round of 'Ponzi finance excesses' is like nothing ever seen before. But then again we have QE2 (then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc) to mask just how enamored with droid chasing we all are. When this last bubble pops, it will be monumental.

All those who thought only our brilliant financial alchemists had the ingenious idea of sweeping all the toxic assets plaguing bank balance sheets under the rug of taxpayer bailouts "until things get better," are in for a surprise. It appears that recently insolvent Spain is not only as big an offender in this regard, but has been ahead of the curve for a several years. In an attempt to pretend all was good, Spain's banks, which are now locked out of financial markets for good reason, onboarded worthless mortgages as long ago as two years back. This was done with the hope that sooner or later (but definitely in under two years) prices would pick up and these homes could be sold for at least one dollar of equity. Alas, something happened on the road to financial nirvana: the Keynesian model collapsed, and the properties are now worth less than they ever have been, are generating the same amount of cash as they did two years ago (none), and now, finally, banks are forced to start accounting for these loans in a manner at least marginally close to reality. The result: a scramble to reflate the housing bubble like never before, in the hope to get at least a few mortgage payments out of the newest batch of greater fool. As the WSJ reports: "Banks are piling on incentives. Midsize Banco Espanol de Credito SA offers deferred deposit payments and 100% financing "for many of our houses," according to its website. Larger lender Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and smaller Banco Pastor SA offer generous financing and lower teaser rates, as well." In other words, all the ingredients that were present in the creation of the first housing bubble are here once again. And just to be safe, Spain has decided to multiply the dosage by a factor of ten. When this little scheme implodes, which it will, the consequences for the economy will be comparably be about 10 times as bad. 

Don't fall for 'ye ole divide-and-conquer strategy ...

Yawn

The ECB is finally realizing that Greece will be a major issue for years if not decades to come. Which is why Jean-Claude Trichet finally put the debate of whether his bank will accept BBB- rated collateral beyond 2010 to rest. The answer is yes. This also takes out Moody's ridiculous A2 Greek rating out of the equation: finally Moody's can vote with its conscience. "It is the intention of the ECB's Governing Council to keep the minimum credit threshold in the collateral framework at investment grade level (BBB-) beyond the end of 2010. In parallel, we would introduce, as of January 2011, a graded haircut schedule, which will continue to adequately protect the Eurosystem." Considering how well the Eurosystem has been protected to date, we can't wait to see just how well this experiment will play out.

The FDIC has just announced that it has closed the sale of $1.8 billion of Notes backed by RMBS "from seven failed bank receiverships." The value of the actual aggregate balance: $3.6 billion. And somehow banks still keep their RMBS books marked at par. Furthermore, "the timely payment of principal and interest due on the notes are
guaranteed by the FDIC, and that guaranty is backed by the full faith
and credit of the United States. Sure enough, smelling this insane deal, the vultures came out to snack on the taxpayer's corpse: "The transaction was met with robust investor demand, with over 70 investors participating across fixed and floating rate series. The investors included banks, investment funds, insurance funds and pension funds. All investors were qualified institutional buyers." Just how many of these "banks, investment funds, insurance funds and pension funds" are viable to begin with, courtesy of the FDIC's permission for every failed bank to continue existing is an amusing question, and Zero Hedge will attempt to get an itemized list of the participating buyers.

Over the past year there have been some phenomenal moves in stocks, which some call high beta names, but which for all intents and purposes can be called "crap" companies (we use the term generically in the fashion it has been previously used by the mainstream media). So Zero Hedge decided to do a more in-depth analysis of just which names have benefited by the unprecedented equity rally, and whether their fundamentals justify the record moves from the stocks' 52 week lows.