Joshua M Brown

Get-TARP Hero: Iberiabank

Where is the pride among the community bankers who had avoided the sub prime gold rush and have treated their balance sheets like they gave a damn? Apparently, the pride is in Lafayette, Louisiana, the home of Iberiabank Corporation.  Iberiabank (IBKC) has become the first financial institution out of over 440 to return TARP funds…

"But We Can't Afford to Lose the Talent" and Other Bullsh*t

Attention Wall Street Banks: YOUR EMPLOYEES AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE.  THERE IS NOWHERE FOR THEM TO GO.  PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS ARE SCREWED, REAL ESTATE FIRMS ARE DEAD ALSO…AS ARE MOST HEDGE FUNDS.  STOP THE BONUSES, YOUR PEOPLE ARE STUCK WITH YOU ANYWAY. _____________________________________________________________________________ As B of A/ Merrill‘s Ken Lewis and John Thain continue to play…

I Predict a Reverse Stock Split Explosion

I’m calling it here and now:  2009 will witness a record-setting explosion in reverse stock splits, on both the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. According to Marketwatch.com, more than half of the Wilshire 5000 index is currently trading under $5 per share.  That’s pretty sick when you think about it.  The Wilshire 5000…

February '09 Jobs Report Word Cloud

On March 6th, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the February Non-Farm Payrolls report and it was pages and pages of some of the most mind-numbingly depressing stuff you could imagine. So I thought I’d have some fun with it…here’s a word cloud built with actual text of the report itself: Props to Wordle

Goldman Sachs is a Charity Case, Too.

This is a very big story and will probably piss off taxpayers like nothing else has thus far.  The Wall Street Journal has the list of all the companies that were essentially made whole by the AIG bailout.  Basically, these are the firms that were counter-parties in transactions with AIG, the hedge fund that happens…

The End of Super Secret Swiss Banking?

Bloomberg is reporting that since the day in February that UBS coughed up 300 client names to the US government in a tax evasion investigation, the Swiss bankers and their clients are quaking in their boots. The decision marked the first time Switzerland lifted its banking secrecy laws, allowing UBS to pass on client data…

Hot Links: LOLFed, Bailout Nation & Bill Singer

Hot Links for Weekend Reading I confess, I am now officially a LOLFed junkie.  This week, they gave us the NYSE’s new Dollar Menu, featuring items like Citigroup, Pier 1 and Vonage.  Alyx, you rule. The week started with another bombshell (non) earnings report from AIG, the hedge fund that happens to be attached to…

Will Visa Replace Citi in the Dow Jones?

I did a piece recently, New Candidates for the Dow Jones, and since then, things have gotten even worse for Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and a handful of other DJIA names. While the Index Editor who oversees the Dow, John Prestbo, has gone on record saying there won’t be any changes right now,…

Big Bad Jobs Report…Down 650k, Unemployment at 8.1%

The Non-Farm Payroll report hits at 8:30 this morning. The only question is “How Ugly?” The Labor Department is expected to report that employers cut 648,000 jobs in February, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters/IFR. That would be more than the 598,000 shed in January. The unemployment rate is expected to jump to 7.9…