September 2009

They Won't Have Ken Lewis To Kick Around Anymore

The big breaking news this evening is the resignation of Bank of America‘s embattled CEO Ken Lewis (damn, I’ve had to type the phrase “embattled CEO” a lot this year) which will take effect on January 1st. There was plenty of speculation that this would happen as investigations into the Merrill acquisition scandal began to…

Bearslaughter: September '09 Ends True To Form

We’re at midday so anything can happen, but as of right now, September of 2009 looks to be going out on a fitting note, a nasty upside reversal after an ugly triple digit sell-off. This is extremely frustrating action to those who held/ pressed their shorts throughout this month, as stocks seemingly defied gravity. A…

The Sugar Trade

While everyone is reading that New York Post article about how many times a day Hank Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein call each other, the story the Post picked up on sugar trading from Bloomberg this morning was way more interesting to me. From the NYP: Sugar is the new crude oil for investment-hungry hedge funds,…

Hot Links: Live From New York

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Topsy turvy: Banks rescue the FDIC with massive prepayment of assessments.  (NYT) Morning Markets:  Dollar Down, Stocks Up, That’s the Way We Like to ____.  (Bloomberg) The trashing of Alan Greenspan‘s rep, book by book.  (FloydNorris) This one seems like a stretch:  The Goldman memo on naked shorting was turned…

Unlucky Sevens: Bespoke on the 1 Year Anniversary

One year ago today, the world looked and felt like it was coming to an end on Wall Street.  The Dow dropped 777 points which was actually a larger point drop than the day the market reopened after the 9/11 attacks. Bespoke Investment Group does a great job reminding us of what was going on…

Abnormal Returns Sees Risky Business

We all know that no one puts together a daily links post like Tadas at Abnormal Returns, but this morning he did something that I though was exceptional – a compendium of evidentiary posts and articles that show how the “risk culture” has made a comeback: Just a year ago the Dow plunged 777 points in…

I Have a Dream…About Financial Media

Much has been made recently about the distinction between financial bloggers and mainstream media journalists and whether or not there should even be one.  I hope that one day, we are all judged by the quality of our insight and integrity, rather than by our majors in college. With the deepest respect for the words…

Hot Links: Wild Street

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Andrew Ross Sorkin: We ♥ Mergers.  (DealBook) Mr. Juggles translates Las Vegas Sands‘ conference call from corporatespeak to English.  (LongOrShortCap) Guess which pro athlete just nudged himself over the billion dollar mark in terms of career earnings?  (Forbes) Byron Wein’s making a comeback…sees the rally continuing.  (Bloomberg) 50 Common Mistakes…

New York Magazine on the Financial Blogosphere

Wall Street’s Digital Underground A few of the more prominent financial bloggers.   Illustrations by Matthew Woodson    The Amiable Skeptic Barry Ritholtz was a pioneer when he launched the Big Picture in 2003 using the beta version of blogging software, Word Press. He’s a levelheaded bear with a knack for seeing through the statistical…