(BN) *BANK OF AMERICA REDUCED BALANCE SHEET BY $42B FROM 2Q :BA
This is the single most important line item. Wonder why credit markets feel heavy? Why Primex of all things is weaker? It is not just European banks shrinking balance sheets. It is not just households. It is some US banks as well. You can improve your capital ratio by raising capital. You can also improve it by selling assets. With […]
A Morning Rant – EFSF, Enron, AIG, CDS Clearing
We are still waiting to see the final form of the “Grand Plan” and what novel ways the EFSF guarantees will be applied to save the day. At the risk of sounding incredibly stupid, I have this feeling that Europe didn’t actually work on any details until this past week, and Germany is suddenly realizing […]
Naked in Europe
So Europe is getting closer to announcing some form of ban on naked CDS. What they hope it will accomplish and what it will actually accomplish are two very different things. First, let’s look at the mindset. It about a ban targeted at entities that buy CDS (go short the credit). It doesn’t target those […]
Any Greek Restructuring Should Be Designed To Trigger A Credit Event
As talk about an actual restructuring of Greek debt increases, the EU continues to think that avoiding a CDS Credit Event is a good thing. More and more stories and leaks indicate that a real restructuring of Greek debt is on the table, with write-offs of as much as 50%. Whether it will be real, […]
Hi, It’s Tim, I’m Stuck In Paris, And Need You To Send $500
This morning feels like a bad Facebook scam. Mr. Geithner continues to remain convinced that nothing bad would have happened had Lehman not gone bankrupt – in spite of a dearth of evidence supporting that view – and has decided that giving more of my money to the IMF will help “solve” things. Solve had […]
Credit Markets – Looking Under The Hood
Yesterday was a busy day in the markets. The new issue market was very busy, 9 issuers came bringing a total of $10.5 billion. GECC was the biggest deal with $3 billion in total. I think the Time Warner bonds were the most interesting as it was $1 billion in total and the largest non […]
Well, if JPM is any indication…
MS is going to have a blow-out quarter, when they mark their debt: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/morgan-stanleys-biggest-asset-their-debt
As the DOW and NSDQ Race To Go Unchanged on the Year
You have to be impressed with their resilience (or think they are insane). With all the things going on here and abroad, the disappointing economic data, the debt crisis, the growing trade tensions with China, it is an impressive showing. Very little seems better than it was back on January 1st of this year, and […]
Volcker Rule – Not Worth Reacting To
The Final Draft of the Volcker Rule was published for comment at the end of September. Even skipping our traditional rant about government bureaucracy, it is a document over 200 pages long, in which the word “exemption” occurs on no less than 100 pages (it is used 426 times in total). At a quick glance, […]
A Butterfly n Japan and a Banker in Belgium
Chaos theory states than in complex systems, a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan can cause tornadoes in California. Whether or not that is true, a Banker in Belgium buying Greek bonds can impact the lives of factory workers in Germany. Europe continues to head down the path of making the system more complex than […]