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The Eerie Echo Of 2007: It Really Is Bear Stearns, All Over Again
While there are numerous and often conflicting opinions about the underlying causes that lead up to the Great Financial Crisis, most agree that the proximal catalyst which finally exposed all the overvalued, illiquid "cockroaches" and confirmed that subprime "is not contained" in the process unleashing the chain of events that culminated with the collapse of Bear, Lehman and AIG, was the failure of one of Bear Stearn's credit-focused hedge funds in the early summer of 2007.
Here is how the conventional wisdom recalls this development:
On June 22, 2007, Bear Stearns pledged a collateralized loan of up to $3.2 billion to "bail out" one of its funds, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Fund, while negotiating with other banks to loan money against collateral to another fund, the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund. CEO James Cayne and other senior executives worried about the damage to the company's reputation. The funds were invested in thinly traded collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Merrill Lynch seized $850 million worth of the underlying collateral but only was able to auction $100 million of them. The incident sparked concern of contagion as Bear Stearns might be forced to liquidate its CDOs, prompting a mark-down of similar assets in other portfolios. Richard A. Marin, a senior executive at Bear Stearns Asset Management responsible for the two hedge funds, was replaced on June 29 by Jeffrey B. Lane, a former Vice Chairman of rival investment bank, Lehman Brothers.
The rest is history.
We bring up this part of ancient financial history, because while looking at Stone Lion Capital Partners - the first hedge fund that gated investors as reported last night (Third Avenue's likewise gating high yield fund was technically a mutual fund) - something curious emerged.
Here are the founders of Stone Lion Capital: Alan Mintz and Gregory Hanley. Those names sounded awfully familiar... and then we remembered why:
- Alan Jay Mintz, CPA, a co-founder of Stone Lion Capital was Co-Head of the Distressed Debt and High Yield trading group at Bear Stearns
- Gregory Augustine Hanley, a co-founder of Stone Lion Capital was Co-Head of the Distressed Debt and High Yield trading group at Bear Stearns
In fact, the co-founder of the now-gated Stone Capital Alan Mintz, is perhaps best known for his infamous locker room showdown with Bear 's CEO Alan Schwartz. The WSJ recalls this 2008 incident vividly:
Twelve hours after agreeing to sell Bear Stearns Cos. for $2 a share, Alan Schwartz wearily made his way to the company gym for a much-needed workout. It was 6:45 a.m., March 17, and Bear Stearns's chief executive had slept little since hammering out the ugly details of his fire-sale deal with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
When Mr. Schwartz, already dressed in his business suit, trudged into the locker room, Alan Mintz, still in his sweaty gym clothes, made a beeline for the boss.
"How could this happen to 14,000 employees?" demanded the 46-year-old senior trader, thrusting his face uncomfortably close to Mr. Schwartz's. "Look in my eyes, and tell me how this happened!"
Two and a half months later, Mr. Schwartz still isn't quite sure. To Mr. Mintz and others, he has blamed a market tsunami he didn't see coming. He told a Senate committee last month: "I just simply have not been able to come up with anything, even with the benefit of hindsight, that would have made a difference."
Seven years later, the former Bear Stearns distressed/high yield trading head Alan Mintz' own investors will be looking into his eyes and asking "how it happened" that their monthly performance reports, which were showing just a modest loss, were in fact grossly misrepresenting the underlying performance, and more importantly, liquidity (ahem Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Fund), of the hedge fund.
As for Alan's partner, Greg Hanley, what we do know is that reason why he rushed to start Stone Capital alongside Mintz, (initially with Tudor's support), is that there would be no place for him at JPM. From 2008:
Bear Stearns' leveraged finance division - which includes high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and distressed debt - is expected to contribute as few as two senior salesmen to JPMorgan out of an estimated 75 executives who reported to Greg Hanley, head of the division, according to people who worked in it. Hanley, who did not return calls to his mobile phone, is also not planning to join JPMorgan.
Instead Hanley, alongside Mintz, exited the rubble of the insolvent Bear Stearns and joined Tudor to create Stone Lion, which ultimately became an independent entity with $2 billion in AUM.
And now, in a supreme twist of irony, Bear Stearns is back - maybe not the firm itself - but the people who were in charge of its distressed and junk bond trading group, and just like the summer of 2007, it is an ex "Bear"-run hedge fund that was the first to gate, just as the credit cycle is turning and the default cycle has begun, as we explained last week, just one day before everyone's attention finally focused on junk debt with Third Avenue's gating.
* * *
So much about the past, now what about the future, because while we know that the avalanche of redemptions is only just starting, a more pressing question is what was Stone Capital invested in, how will its "gating" impact the market, and what is the most immediate contagion pathway.
For the answer, keep your eyes open on Puerto Rico, where Stone Capital was a rather aggressive hedge fund investor in in the past year. Here is the Caribbean Business with its profile of a hedge fund that "raised $500 million to invest in Puerto Rico"
A prominent New York-based hedge fund has raised around $500 million to invest in opportunities in Puerto Rico, according to CARIBBEAN BUSINESS sources. The $2 billion Stone Lion Capital Partners LLP has created the fund to invest in "credit structures, loan portfolios, alternate financing and private assets," according to official documents obtained by CARIBBEAN BUSINESS.
"Stone Lion is one of the few hedge funds with a mandate to invest in Puerto Rico. Its team saw an opportunity, given the depreciation in asset prices and the lack of liquidity on the island. The fund is a source of capital that could partner with Puerto Rico's public and private sectors," said one source, who attended recent presentations made by the fund.
Reached by telephone, Stone Lion officials declined to comment on the fund. However, Stone Lion representatives unveiled their plans in meetings with lawmakers, government officials and local financial executives over the past month, the sources said. Participants in the meetings included Government Development Bank officials, prominent lawmakers, private bank officials as well as Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) and Aqueduct & Sewer Authority (Prasa) officials.
Besides participating in government- bond deals, Stone Lion is also analyzing alternatives to provide financing to Prepa and Prasa as well as private companies on the island, the sources said. The hedge fund is in discussions with a commercial bank regarding the potential purchase of a troubled loan portfolio and is analyzing the possible purchase of real estate, they added.
Stone Lion is a member of the Ad Hoc Group of hedge funds that publicly back the Puerto Rico government's fiscal efforts, which entail making the public corporations self-sufficient and shoring up central government finances. There are 20 members with more than $240 billion combined under management and holding about $4.2 billion of Puerto Rico securities. Other members include Brigade Capital Management, Fir Tree Partners, Monarch Alternative Capital LP and Perry Capital LLC.
Besides the Puerto Rico fund, Stone Lion runs an $835 million Opportunistic Credit Hedge Fund and a $625 million Liquidation Focused Fund.
Stone Lion was founded in 2008 by Alan Mintz and Gregory Hanley, who have more than 20 years' experience in credit investing, and previously served as global heads of the distressed credit and research groups at Bear Stearns & Co. The firm has vast experience in debt reorganizations and has worked on both the Detroit and Jefferson County, Ala., bankruptcies, the biggest in the U.S. municipal-debt market so far. It also has experience dealing with bond insurers, with some of Puerto Rico's outstanding debt insured.
Looks like the experience was only "vast" as long as the market was going higher. The second the bottom fell off, however, and the former Bear Stearns professionals pulled a, well... Bear Stearns.
However, we reserve judgment to declare that the second coming of Bear Stearns has truly come until we hear some iteration of this:
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I always confuse Gartman and Cramer.
Which one of them idiots is in the video? ;-)
Looney
'Cramer reads your emails!'
Great.
'Go fuck a donkey Cramer'
Bullish for lampposts and rope.
Are there any Lampposts and Rope manufacturers left in the USA? ;-)
Looney
I hear Italy has some left over. Military surplus.
Hang down your head, Benito...
Its time for government defaults.... and fuck corporations in this day of age.
"I always confuse Gartman and Cramer" - Alas, Chosen all look alike - lol (but NOBODY COULD HAVE EVER SEEN IT COMING!!!)
Could this be the critical mass default event we’ve been waiting for? Doubtful considering its size but with how overleveraged this sham of an economy is you never know.
The $2 billion Stone Lion Capital Partners LLP has created the fund to invest in "credit structures, loan portfolios, alternate financing and private assets,"
Birds of a feather get screwed together. Alternate financing? lol We have a system built on debt that is glaringly insolvent.
The reason this is far from over, and the reason these credit financeers don't see the structural problems, is that a financial system that is built on debt needs two things to survive: Infinite growth and constant liquidity priced at something of value. Not more debt.
The incredible blindness about this event that is coming is the absolute neglect about how the banks' financial books have been marked to fantasy. If we were to ever get close to how loans were valued 10 yrs ago, Mintz and Hanley would have blown up Stone years ago.
It's my belief these financial engineers are very short sighted individuals and truly not that smart. Unfortunately, they are the ones (the Fed) controlling billions of lives.
It was a run on the fund!
In one form or another, I've been around here for years. What the fuck does "gate" "gating" and "to gate" mean??? I've tried looking it up- no luck. If you're going to toss out neologisms, please fucking at least give us some context to be able to suss out the meaning of the new made-up verb.
My best guess: "to gate" means "to close one's doors for trading." But this is JUST a FUCKING guess.
This might help
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gateprovision.asp
I always confuse Gartman and Cramer.
I always mistake Cramer and Kudlow.
Gartman isn't even on my radar.
It's the Wall St version of 'Thunderdome'. Two go in, one comes out. So basically, "May the Schwartz be with you"
If these two idiots don't suffer personally, walk away without jail time, don't get lynched and wind up with millions in the bank....why not?
Somebody please tell me these two chumps also happen to have a large silver short position to boot. I need the shits and giggles.
considering the entire new world paper planet was created with the printing of the first dollar I don't doubt it, hell Stone Lion could have rehypothicated the mens room hand dryer into a cool 3.5 million.
We are such a fucked up country today - example
Lyrics to the song "Stardust" - 1927 by Hoagy Carmichael
""And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart"
Lyrics to the song "Stupid Hoe" - Nicki Minaj 2012
"You a stupid hoe, you a you a stupid hoe
You a stupid hoe, you a you a stupid hoe
You a stupid hoe, you a you a stupid hoe
You a stupid hoe, you a you a stupid hoe
You a stupid hoe, yeah you a you a stupid hoe
You a stupid hoe you a you a stupid hoe
You stupid stupid, you a stupid hoe
(Stupid, stupid)"
Don't believe me? Google it.
Now that is pretty damn sad, and extremely fucking hilarious.
No I didnt believe you so I did google it. Fuck you and your fucking 'song', WTF was that shit?! Why the fuck do you even know it exists? Why not reference a video of barbara boxer and feinstein scissoring/masturbating for the increased shock value? Why the fuck do I even bother with a computer?
FUCK this world and everyone in it, including myself. We all deserve what is coming (but at least we allowed mutlicultural shit right?).
Because in the good old days, less than good songs were never produced and absolutely did not exist.
True, but "Progress" took care of that problem. Evidenced by progressive "critics" falling all over NWA and young Eminem's "raw honesty". Eat the bullshit and drink the venom, the party is just starting.
I prefer piano wire to rope.
It sings a nice melody in the wind to accompany the knee-jerking.
Here's some vacation pics:
http://www.custermen.com/ItalyWW2/ILDUCE/Mussolini.htm
Those are heartwarming pics, but the reality is that the "masterminds" behind all the deceit and fraud have the means to fly anywhere in the world at a moment's notice and thus will never get the punishment they deserve.
Still, it is nice to have dreams...
I like to think they all end up on Ken Lay's private island. After a while they bust out and end up taking work wiping down the seats at the local sea kayak livery.
One extra reason to have a piano!
I'm not sure these guys quality for swinging from a lamppost quite yet, but it is far past the time to start perp walking these fuckers and locking them in prison so they get to enjoy the term "prison sex" first hand.
The lamp posts should be reserved for Fed board members including Mr Yellin as well as the TBTF bank CEO's such as brother Dimon from the Silver Scam bank JPM, and representing the giant vampire squid muppet crushers GS is brother Lloyd B.
Hanging may in fact be far too kind for these fuckers, I'm thinking its time get get some pipe hittin' niggers with a blowtorch and a pair of plyers to go to work on the Holmes here ....
+1 for Pulp Fiction reference...
Zed's dead baby... Zed's dead.
Sorry, baby, but I had to crash that Honda.
Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.
"Are there any Lampposts and Rope manufacturers left in the USA?"
Not any that make their rope out of HEMP!
I've been teaching myself, and a couple of children, how to make rope out of cedar. It's a manual process that takes combined threads and twists and wraps them successively. Doing more than ten feet however, is too exhausting for the kids. But ten feet of cedar rope made by these kids is stong enough to snap a neck.
Not/biggest since Lehmans, which is soon to be known as "the good old days". Can we kill GS this time???
Don't be silly. That's just silly. The Fed will break every law of man and physics to keep that from happening again for a long long time. There was a semblance of a market in 2007. Now there are only "markets".
Yikes, this is one scary article!
Whenever my kids want to hear a super scary story we come and read some of the frightening fables published here daily. It's a veritable fright fest!
Then I remind them that Zero Hedge has been telling variations of these same stories for many years now and they're just for entertainment purposes (well, that and all the ad revenue).
10 minutes later, they're fast asleep!
Looks like Cramer got an account again.
Sure am glad those kids won't grow up to be "silly." No silliness allowed working at McD's.
BOO- YA!!!!
Time for you to put everything you have into Stone Lion Partners.
Have no fear, it's gated, like a gated community. All is well!
Limited access means limited egress.
Yeah. Join your gated community today, PutinLover.
It...it...it is just like PRISON.
And the best part is that bullets and rockets fly over the walls. Yeah. Trapped in a cage.
Best to get some umbrellas made of Passports as may be raining shards of hot lead.
And those Blackwater Mercs will not put their lives on the line for you after the collapse, when you cannot pay them.
(If he has any money ebworthern, he would not put his money where his mouth is. He is just trollin'. He hates the fact that we hate his corrupted and fraudulent system that is raping the lifeblood out of the Republic. He is just as morally corrupt as those who he supports. He has no valor or honor, or honesty,)
Put the fear of God into somebody? GOOD.
That is the reality about Gated Communities.
You opted for "safety" and placed yourself within some prison walls. You traded your Liberty of free movement in order to have the illusion of safety.
I did not do that. YOU DID.
And when the shit goes down the wealthy are going to be the PRIMARY TARGETS of the hungry and maurading masses.
Willie Horton was asked why he robbed Banks. He replied that it was because that is where the money was at.
So just where in the hell do you think that the maurading masses will go? To other people who have nothing of value?
There is NO SAFETY...EVER.
And all of the junks on any of my posts will not change that fact...not one iota.
Willie Horton - Out on furlough murderer
Willie Sutton - Bank robber
I never downvote you...you are the philosopher of the coming apocalypse.
Thanks for the correction...
Prison.
Anyone else here gone to prison?
I did, but not as a convict, as a volunteer to give mock job interviews.
Prison is NOT like a gated community. When I got there I had to go through security into a secured "locked" facility. That wasn't prison, that was the gated community. Then I had to go to a second place, after a short ride, where I had to go through a second secured "locked" facility, then was sent to a third place, where I got a hand stamp, sent into another area that was secured "locked", could not proceed until I proved I had the hand stamp, then walked to a fourth area where we met a door thirty feet high and had to stand until someone recognized the warden and remotely opened the door.
A weird experience interviewing people. What did you do previously? I was a bank robber. Really, any money in that? No, that's why I'm here.
I have to ask you, you were in prison, why? I beat the fuck out of this guy. Why? He ratted me out for beating the fuck out of him the first time.
There are different levels of security,
I am in my open air prison. The guards just constantly monitor all of us here in Lakeside.
When someone commits a minor infraction (e,g. illegal camping...or as you would know it as being homeless) then they are just relocated to jail, which is just a higher level of security.
ZH telling variations of these same stories for many years while you have been a member for all of two weeks. Just trying to determine whether you are a silicone- or carbon-based disinformation agent.
His name was AmerikanPatriot....amongst others.
Awwwwwww...He does not like being exposed.
I will not expose everybody.
e.g. ~~~
I expose just the dishonest.
Your exposure's a bad link.
And the Fed can do this until the public loses all faith in the US Dollar - in other words for a long time to go!
Given historical hyperinflationary episodes, it's very difficult to put a time frame on these things. We've also never had an economy of this magnitude and structure blow up before. If 2008 and the 1930s are any guide, though, we can go from normal to totally fucked in under two months.
I don't think you can bank on either a long time or a short one -- we'll know it when we see it, which will be followed by "oh shit!" within a couple weeks at most.
If by "long" he (and others) mean years and years – fuggettaboutit.
Almost certainly months, not years.
I think it's years but not a decade by any means. My money is on 2018-2019 with a pretty bumpy ride leading up to that.
But as I said -- the reality is this thing can turn very quickly. Most of the fun in 2008 happened in just two weeks, though there were definitely foreshocks happening in the month prior and aftershocks for the 7 years post.
You'll be able to knock me over with a feather if it doesn't unfold in earnest by the end of next year.
My view is that the systemic stresses that are currently rattling the system are the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Unless you believe that trillions more bits and bytes, coupled with negative interest rates, will allow them to keep the balls in the air, I can't see how it doesn't implode soon.
And that's not even taking possible exogenous shocks into account.
I agree with seek that it's years, but not decades. I'd put an upper limit of before 2020 on it.
The systemic stresses rattling the system have basically been present since mid 2007. The GFC occurred because they still didn't lie about everything at that time. They will/are now.
What hard limits does the US have, which would not allow them to continue lying:
Water? Not at all.
Food? No.
Energy? Not currently, and not in the near future.
Environmental issues? Don't make me laugh - only according to the Globull Warmers.
Production? Somewhat, if the Chinese stop exporting to us.
"Allies" starting to despise for our lies? Not likely, especially as most are effectively vassal states, not allies.
Militarily? Hard to say, as there are no real challenges. So far.
So the only domestic thing is when it becomes visible to the vast majority that they are being short-sold on the promises given to them.
I see no indication that is starting to happen, or will soon.
Which means the Chinese/Russian partnership is the only one. The only hard limit to our elite's craziness. We're lucky it has formed.
I'd put an upper limit of before 2020 on it.
Possilby, but I don't believe they will let it go on that long-even if they could which at this point is doubtful.
Next year is it. Get ready. Get armed and get some food and some friends.
Popcorn will be in short supply.
Agreed. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste....talking about the Obama administration. A collection of depraved ignorant scociopaths like this have never made up such a large portion of government ever and most likely never will. We are down to a matter of months to trigger this.
I'm even more negative. With the fed expected to hike rates, this week...even with Christmas shopping, this year will prove dismal for retailers, and we could see collapse by the end of Fedurary.
I always confuse Gartman and Cramer.
Gartman or Cartman?
Jimmy Cayne is still relevent to today.
Jimmy is in New Jersey smokin a blunt and playing bridge with the Daughters of the Confederacy planning a come back.
Why bother to identify.
You properly identified them as idiots
Tyler
Quite the impressive expose'....
May these bastards be trampled by their own equine
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
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I would but this massive cold sore on my tongue is so painful I couldn't perform as expected.
whoever gets their investment advice from cramer deserves the raping.
I guess you missed the clip where he told you to buy yellow?
The result of Cramer's man-crush on Bill Zollars.
A name as cheesy as Stone Lion wasn't a big enough tell how it would end?
Stone-faced Lyin' might have been more apropos.
Besides the Puerto Rico fund, Stone Lion runs an $835 million Opportunistic Credit Hedge Fund and a $625 million Liquidation Focused Fund.
The oportunistic credit hedge fund, LOL
They should be in Government.
They will be. Either in prison, or in the Cabinet/CONgress. They are all interchangable.
Vast, as in very agressive stealing tactics, looting experience thrown in as a bonus.
Don't people do a smidgen of due diligence these days before turning over their hard earned money to be "poofed?"
Most people don't even click on links to verify the veracity of a story. As long as they have something to spout about (and it agrees with their preconceived notions) around the water cooler.
As someone who used to ghost write and rewrite a lot, I was often forced to visit sites I had no personal interest in viewing. The net result is that I finally set up a second computer strictly for the purpose of doing so, since the sites were always some funky thing. The internet equivalent of walking through a bad neighborhood at night during a power outage. Malware-R-Us.
Since many of the links I see around here are the same sort of funky places, I often avoid the pleasure of their company. Or the pleasure of putting my name on the list of those who regularly access sites that are either honey-traps for the weak-minded, or are carefully monitored as active gathering places for serious malcontents. ZH is about as far as I'll go in that regard, and I am always careful to make my objections to various ill-advised schemes and commentaries known.
The cops don't hang out in front of the church at 2 am.
Hover and check the status bar.
That doesn't matter if you want to see what the opposition is really saying. You have to wade into their waters and land on their beach and take all their shit just to see what they think. I junked my old computer I used to do my research after 2008.
Not vast experience, half-vast.
LOL, upvote.
The rate increase is saving the bond market and all those pension funds, insurance companies, and banks that are choking on low interest debt. Now that will have the equity markets in a snit, as the Fed makes the call to save the bond market over the equity market, capital will in theory move to save havens like the bond market. In reality money will not no where to go as all avenues reek, stagnation and more deflation will continue to spiral asset values into the ground.
The trick is to pick the asset that will retain purchasing power, not necessarily $ value. Precious metals, land, and any solid non-paper asset will retain purchasing power, currencies and bonds may well not. Holding a piece of paper means that you're relying on someone else to perform, and that is not control for the individual. Get control folks, quick.
Just stunning. When criminal behavior goes unpunished, it continues.
Had to laugh that, having run their funds into the ground---twice---they now claim "vast experience in debt reorganizations."
They're not wrong.
They should have vast experience behind bars in a true and just world. But we all know that after this great implosion of their company, each man will still be worth 9 figures. Consequences? Integrity? Shame? They don't teach those words at prep school or Ivy League colleges.
Third time's a charm.
hell's the charm
Plus much more debt. Subprime autos and Student loans are defaulting.
Gonna need a much larger QEs each time.
Pile on the debt Federal Reserve banksters until there is a currency crisis.
Stuck at 0% and ever larger deficits is going to hit hard at some point.
yah, hmm, I think they are going to have a real hard time dealing with a 250 trillion dollar QE. They may not be able to rescue the ship this time.
The system has been running on fraud for a very lengthy time. A lot of people refer to the fed in 1913, and they are correct, it was the next upward stage of the ongoing bankster-dc fraud of the time. We have shifted through the systematic fraud "gears" since then. After the fed and dc figured out in the 60s and 70s that they could print whatever they wanted to do whatever they wanted with no political price - they hit the accelerator on the fraud (see money printing and fake asset buying to support wall street and welfare/warfare state) and here we are each second experiencing a new frontier of the fraud. We are full bore in the highest gear available and our dc/wall street paymasters are looking for the next gear. These fucking loons think they are so smart. We'll see - it is all up to who writes the history books - probably not us. Do your best to enjoy your time - do not allow your cognizance of this bs to ruin your days.
Great story here, thanks for writing.
This time, it's sovereign debts .. it'll make the subprine mortgages look like lunch money loses.
A lot of these players deliberately bet on risky sovereigns secure in the knowledge that they could reap huge interest rates while the scheme worked and have the taxpayer pick up the tab once it went south. This explains their big bet on Puerto Puerco.
Can't get those yields in any rational investment, So they look like geniuses and see their names at the top of the Best performing Lists, which brings in more marks, and pumps up their bonuses.
Now they are screaming not-very-nice things at Congress since they seem disinclined to bail out Puerto Puerco, which upsets the keystone of their business model in this one glaring case and no doubt adds to the unease about all of their other bets.
Everybody knows the world financial structure is on shaky ground-- but they all flatter themselves into thinking that they have the fastest mouse click in the West and can get out before everyone else does.
Boot Hill is full of the last crop.
Yeah, but then we get a TARP 2.0, a couple thousand more wake up and get pissed, and the rest ignore it all as they can still get facebook on their obamaphones, and order take-out on their EBT.
Exactly. I'm guessing by an order of magnitude.
Two words..... Glass-Steagall.....Oh,I meant four.....Kredit-Anstalt...
I smell a big BAIL-IN coming around the corner.Grab your IRA while ya can.
Puerto Rico,The gift that keeps on giving....
I heard with all that debt Puerto Rico was going to tip over and fall into the ocean.
Just in case there are some new ZHers who haven't seen the video of Guam tipping over...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q Behold the wisdom of your elected officials!
somewhere back in time they broke the glass-stegall ceiling.
Criminal putin regime jailed peacful activist for his political stand against corrupt criminal putin regime. This is how criminal putin regime wants to spread fear in people never ever to doubt criminal putin regime crimes and never to stand up even as one man protest in public.
Russia step by step transform in hitler nazi regime / north korea style.
READ: Russia: Peaceful activist sentenced under repressive new law must be released
Here is Moscow people celebrates "Constitution day" which allows them to gather and speak their mind. Of course there is no constitution power under criminal putin regime rule:
https://youtu.be/BRUICrNeEXA
The hatred of our President because he is black has turned many here treasonous in their unquestioning support of Putin.
The race card? LOL...yeah, that's it!
No potato for you today.
lmao. Ya, the race card is only used to disparage someone, not the other way around. F'n trolls are stupid.
https://youtu.be/ZAHDGmupr4E?t=2m36s
dupe
I do not dislike Obama because he black (which he really isn't anyway.) I dislike him because he is an incompetent stumble bum. Much like you, I would imagine.
Wow. Is he black?
Zinu,
Get back to your Latvian beet farming before the Comisar finds out you are wasting bandwith on the internet.
You Ukie/Latvian trolls can suck my hairy balls.
That is one fine ass picture. But she probably keeps her hairy balls in a jar in the closet. Like my avatar should talk, right?
The man who most carefully watched the rise of Putin is obviously Erdogan, since he is traveling down the same road to Strongman Rule.
But I would offer one sincere piece of advice to you-- which is to take a broader interest in things and comment on topics other than this one.
People should live complete lives, rather than saving all their fire for one topic. What does the average ZHer know about you? You're from Latvia and worry about Putin. Rightly so in my opinion, not so much in the opinion of others.
But what else moves you? What do you think about commodity moves in China or the Baltic Dry index? Being on the Baltic, you might be expected to have at least some parochial pride in such a thing.
Speak up about other things. The world is not entirely about what a luciferian tool Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin is. Which they both are, again in my opinion. Build some greens by letting people know that there are things where you do share an interest, as opposed to relentlessly burning yourself out by constantly challenging these people head on.
We see little input from your area of the world. It might be nice to hear about some of the other financial and economic developments taking place over there. To use a basketball analogy, you might want to round out your game a little. Work on passing and rebounding, as well as the jump shot.
But a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous New Year both to you and the ordinary Russians on the other side of the line. Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Men. Not Rulers. Men.
The world is not entirely about what a luciferian tool Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin is. Which they both are, again in my opinion.
But a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous New Year both to you and the ordinary Russians on the other side of the line. Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Men. Not Rulers. Men.
How can I possibly disagree with that? I can not, nor will I.
Ditto for the muppets and the zombies, and the working people over here in America, Europe, and the rest of the World.
I bet you didn't test well for infantry, either.
And just in time to crush Christmas sales for the small businesses who rely on Facebook to attract customers, Facebook has started a new page blocker. If you scroll below the first entry on a business Facebook page, a rolling page blocker (In ISIS black & white) quickly covers the entire page. The only choice to see the page is to login or create a Facebook account. Those of us who refuse to have a Facebook page, even under a made up name, cannot see the Facebook business pages, even when running ad blockers.
You gotta sign up to find out whats in it? Sounds familiar....
At least the ad blocker is working. Fuck facebook. I go there to post zerohedge articles.
I guess they will be starting a multi billion dollar fund for the Illinois school systems and Illinois in general. They already have billions in Detroit. Can I get in on their Venezuela fund or is it too late?
How I remember Jim fast money Cramer advising a caller that Bear Stearn was rock solid. A week later it folded.
I got a cold call from Bear Stearns that week to my desk asking if I wanted to invest in something. It was quite strange really. The next week they folded.
How were they able to do this while serving life terms in prison for their Bear Stearns crimes????
We see an AVALANCHE of doom port on ZH. This smells different to me. Is this the 4 month fuse? I got ass-hammered in 08 with the credit lockup so i remember that pain very well. If it happens again we are toast. You will see stuff like utilities not be able to get fuel to keep the lights on.
Yes, that's it. The first crisis hit the financial underpinnings...the next will start to take out the actual physical supply-chains, as the defaults begin.
When company A goes out of business, it doesn't just mean they stop paying their dividend. It means they stop making and delivering their product.
Times thousands and thousands of businesses all across the spectrum.
"vast experience in debt reorganizations." They always forget the word "personal".
"vast personal experience in debt reorganizations."
Mintz.....Schwartz....damn those Catholics!
...Bring your poor, tired, huddled, masses of assets, yearning to be plundered, stolen and gated...
Bare Stearns.
I see a pattern here,with them going for distressed debt and then being the lone holdout
such as with Argentina."Pay up or we screw your credit rating" Tee hee....
Looking to get to the front of the line when the IMF Bailout talks start (YES IT IS THOSE GUYS AGAIN!)
Puerto Rico defaults and there is a massive migration to the US (Someone ring DONALD quickly!!).
airy structure of the artificial prosperity collapses https://mises.org/library/economic-consequences-cheap-money … Ludwig von Mises on cheap money
They better start filming The Big Short 2. It's going to be much bigger than 2008.
Monday the markets must first tend with the Paris Climate deal that saved the world. That's the next distraction.
from somewhere back in the shadows of the alleyway, "pssst, hey buddy, we got ur prime carbon for sale".
Maybe Putin will bomb one of these high-minded meetings and show us all who's boss?
All hail the Supreme Soviet!
fuck Pootin
I think you got it wrong....
You are suppose to fuck Putang.... NOT "POO"TIN.... you sick fuck!
THIS REMINDS ME OF SHARKS CIRCLING A WOUNDED WHALE,SMELL THAT BLOOD!
Lookup LTCM for the last big bailout of a hedgefund. Took a highly leveraged position on Russian bonds,
and then those darn Russkies defaulted.LongTerm Capital Management had a dozen or so Nobel Prize-winners
on their staff (Question: How many economists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? etc. etc.)
I thought the oil hedgies would be first to scream for a bailout.Oddly enough when the other sharks find one
of their own in trouble,they pull the credit lines,and start enforcing margin calls.Funny that,frozen out of the
liquidity markets.Isn't that what they are trying to do to these sovereigns (Argentina),enforcing Parra passu in
New York courtrooms. Just jump you bastards...
Is this the Sad Sack Golden Bull Club meeting spot?
I'm a new member, but I came to commiserate with y'all and nurse my wounds over the halving of the gold price that's occurred just as stocks have doubled and tripled.
Here's a hanky. There, there....
The S&P closed Friday below its French Massacre lows and is more than 50 points down for the year, genius.
You write in post 6914713, above, that, and I quote, (Click on the number and see it for yourself)
Then I remind them that Zero Hedge has been telling variations of these same stories for many years now
Then you write in this post that
I'm a new member
You cannot even keep your lies straight in the Comment Section of the same thread, you dishonest, fucking dishonorable prick.
You are just too damned stupid and too easy to spot, AmerkanPatriot.
You are most definitely NOT a patriot and only serve to illustrate the depths to which the moral fiber of the USA has declined.
That is the DAMAGE which you are doing to the Nation for which you proclaim your love.
(To everybody else...all Amerians are not as he is.)
A fundamental wealth extraction by the means to save banking institutions through a Climate Change Hoax.
Cannot use TARP deux.
MM210 - Climate Change - 1970 - 2014 - YouTube
Best video I've seen in a while. The dominoes have started to fall...again.
Here's what my computer's dictionary says for 'mad:' "(of a person, conduct, or an idea) extremely foolish or ill-advised." Got it. Cramer's Mad Money. Makes sense.
were in fact grossly misrepresenting the underlying performance, and more importantly, liquidity...
liquidity my ass. there is liquidity out the ass. i get so sick of hearing those maggots blaming liquidity. they don't have a liquidity problem, they have a price problem. everything has a price, and everything is liquid. sometimes the price is zero, but that too is a price. janet sets the price for everything, even junk bonds. those maggots will get bailed out again and everyone knows it. $13T in bank deposits alone and those assholes blame liquidity after they corner the market. saying liquidity is just the maggot way of begging for MOAR.
please sir, i want some MOAR. [/twist]
the price is wrong bitch. [/happy gilmore]
the benefit of ltcm(a measly 3.5 bil that was going to collapse the system) was they had a prototype for 2008-9. a bear stearns moment now would only be a three day event.
What ever happened to Douche Bank?
-->..<--
_____
Nah. Can't happen again! The "proximate cause" has been fixed:
"...concern of contagion as Bear Stearns might be forced to liquidate its CDOs, prompting a mark-down of similar assets in other portfolios."
There is no mark to market any more, hence, no contagion.
See? All is well.
/sarc
exactly. extend and pretend my friend.
Yes and no. Sure, asshats like these guys who rely on Fed artificial asset price inflation and employ pump and dump schemes obsess with finding a bagholder. Thus they are manic about liquidity. And you are right they abuse the term as a euphemism for "bad price" on their crappy investment. [Puerto Rican bonds? Oof.]
If you define liquidity as "able to sell at some price," then yeah, everything is always fully liquid and the term has no meaning. Obviously, people use the term "liquid" as shorthand for "relatively small spread and relatively good market depth compared to other stuff."
Even a genuine investor can need cash or want to get out of an investment for good reasons. Liquidity to minimize transaction costs is a legitimate concern for anyone.
Anyone who ever needed to buy and then turn around and sell again an obscure item on eBay, or sell his house to buy an equivalent one during a downturn, understands why liquidity matters.
The Times or Mintz probably invented the locker room showdown, it just sounds stupid.
Ten years a piece being involved in what would become a corruption induced financial gambling catastrophe affecting millions qualified these fuckers to ever touch anyones money again how? How are they going to play ignorance about messing with distressed debt this time around? Effing vulturing Puero Rico too!
We live in an lunatic asylum.
DOW 36,000!
hahaha...
I will assume that is just a sarcastic note,
but from everything we have seen the last 7 years, that might just happen.
Everyone is talking about helicopter drops instead of bail outs next time, with Finland already planning to give her citizens approx. $900/month. If we're going to engage in that sort of lunacy, we can inflate the money suply enough to get the Dow to 36,000 or to the moon or to Alpha Centauri, you name it.
If I could just make one little request, please. Don't bring mine by helicopter. I want C-130's dropping pallets of cash to me, please. I said 'please'. And I promise I won't let ISIS grab it.
.