I have a new sector, a new weapon in my arsenal, an area of the market that I’ve ignored for over 10 years due to the lack of quality pure-plays. I’ve been trading and investing in various gold ideas forever, but a lot has changed with the white metal, and now I’m happy to report…
Federal Reserve
Repaying TARP for a Return to Gluttony
I challenge you to find an article about the major banks wishing to repay TARP that doesn’t blatantly cite compensation as the banks primary motivation. Here’s a taste from Dealbook (NYT): Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase have said for weeks that they want to repay their share of the $700 billion government bailout…
This is the Remix: TRB vs. Geithner
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote an op-ed in the NYT today outlining how the stress tests on 19 of the largest US banks were conducted. This is the remix… THIS afternoon, Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve and the butcher, the baker and…
If the World Runs in Real-Time, Why Can't the Fed?
Look, we’ve had only one soft landing since the Second World War. Basically, we’ve got it wrong every single time. Vivek Ranadivé, Founder of TIBCO Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, turns in yet another juicy discourse, this time on the fact that David beats Goliath more often than you’d think, in warfare,…
Meltzer: Are We Tough Enough For The Coming Inflation Battle?
“No country facing enormous budget deficits, rapid growth in the money supply and the prospect of a sustained currency devaluation as we are has ever experienced deflation. These factors are harbingers of inflation.” Allan H. Meltzer, May 3rd 2009 In Allan Meltzer’s excellent New York Times op-ed piece from May 3rd, we are taken back…
Who Else Got Pushed Around by Hank Paulson?
I just sat down and digested the B of A/Merrill Lynch Merger Investigation letter and I felt like I was reading excerpts from a Godfather IV script treatment. Ken Lewis is no innocent, but Hank Paulson comes off like a f@ckin’ psycho in Andrew Cuomo‘s letter to the SEC and TARP oversight committee. Cuomo basically…
When Its Time To Raise Rates, Will Bernanke Have The Stones?
An article in Bloomberg raises some very interesting questions and I though I’d open up the discussion on these three: 1. Since Bernanke has clearly chosen Keynes over Friedman, pumping in liquidity with the belief that inflation will be held in check, will this “end in tears” as Fed historian Dr. Allan Meltzer believes? 2. …
The New Glossary of Finance Terms
The New Glossary of Finance Terms Bonus: A form of extortion whereby employees of a company extract either shareholder or taxpayer money for their own pleasure regardless of the success or failure of said company. Derivatives: Trading vehicles created by over-educated finance professionals for whom speculating in stocks and bonds was not quite risky or volatile enough. Bulge…
One Year Later: The Fall of Bear Stearns
It was a day many on The Street will never forget and in many ways, we probably shouldn’t. The events of March 17th 2008 will forever be a reminder to me that no one is too big, wealthy, established or smart to fail. The night before, on March 16th, a Sunday, the details about…
AIG's $60 Billion Loss, Buffett's Mea Culpa
Death is Pretty Final I’m Collecting Vinyl I’m Gonna DJ at the End of the World! – R.E.M. And the Deflation Olympics marches on with a more vicious news cycle this morning than usual. First up, the best-run insurance company on earth, AIG, announces yet another staggering loss for the fourth quarter, this time in…
