Bailout

Varley?s flexible views on Basel

Posted on October 19, 2010
In the UK, it seems, the revolving door from big private banks into a grandee's public-sector role doesn't turn quite as smoothly as it does in the US. And so sometimes it needs a not-so-gentle shove:

Client 9

Posted on October 19, 2010
The tag line of Client 9, Alex Gibney's new film about Eliot Spitzer, is "you don't know the real story". But the fact is that we do -- or I did, at least.

Some people really need organizations. Like Marty Peretz, for example

Posted on October 19, 2010
Marty Peretz was a great magazine editor (or at least hirer of magazine editors). He's a horrible blogger. A plea for letting people stick to what they're good at.

Congress forces Bank of America to offer better service

Posted on October 19, 2010
Remember back when the big banks were telling us that re-regulating consumer finance with legislation such as the CARD Act and Dodd-Frank bill would severely disrupt the banks? business models, and lead to horrible outcomes for ordinary Joes? Well, in Bank of America?s event-packed earnings call this morning, executives laid out how, exactly, the company?s consumer finance business [...

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The BofA tail-risk discount

Posted on October 19, 2010
Here's a chart of what tail risk looks like, in the stock market:

Getting the band back together

Posted on October 18, 2010
I'm a big fan of two-handed blogs: there aren't very any of them, but the ones that there are tend to be fabulous.

The mortgage bond scandal FAQ

Posted on October 18, 2010
Here's a FAQ on the mortgage bond scandal to keep you tided over, since there seems to be a lot of confusion out there.

Counterparties

Posted on October 18, 2010
How JP Morgan lent its clients' money to the doomed Sigma SIV, losing them millions -- NYT

Apple?s day of earnings glory, iPad disappointment

Posted on October 18, 2010
Why did iPad sales disappoint? Maybe because everybody's waiting for the iPad 2.

Is culture to blame for poverty?

Posted on October 18, 2010
Is culture to blame for poverty? A growing number of academics thinks so. Here's why we should be worried.

Why didn?t people in finance pay attention to Benoit Mandelbrot?

Posted on October 18, 2010
Benoit Mandelbrot was one of the founding fathers of modern quantitative finance. So how come so few people in finance paid attention to him?

The historical echoes of the mortgage bond scandal

Posted on October 16, 2010
What did Wall Street used to be like, before the Securities Act of 1933? Michael Perino's new book on Ferdiand Pecora, which I reviewed here, reminds us.

Counterparties

Posted on October 15, 2010
John Cassidy on the blogonomics of Gawker -- TNY

Signature debit refuses to die

Posted on October 15, 2010
I took the subway downtown from work today, since it was raining rather heavily, and saw an ad for something called Chase Commuter Cash.

The Daily Caller vs the banks

Posted on October 15, 2010
Joseph Tauke has a monster 5,600-word excoriation of the mortgage industry.

Why financial stocks haven?t fallen much

Posted on October 15, 2010
Bank stocks didn't do so well this week, what with foreclosuregate coming to a boil.

Regulators have known about the mortgage bond scandal for three years

Posted on October 15, 2010
Clayton isn't the only company doing due diligence on mortgages: another company doing the same thing is Allonhill.

How much money is flowing to mortgage bonds?

Posted on October 15, 2010
If bankers are good at anything, surely it's counting money. If there's a cashflow, anywhere, bankers will surely be able to quantify it and report it. Or, not:

Mortgage datapoints of the day

Posted on October 15, 2010
Just how bad is the mortgage mess right now?

Counterparties

Posted on October 14, 2010
Bloomberg TV host: "Are you buying? Adding more gold to the collection?" Mr T: "The highest weight I carry is 45lbs" -- YouTube

SEC unblasted on Goldman

Posted on October 14, 2010
Remember the WSJ front-page headline saying ?SEC Blasted on Goldman??

Where?s today?s hellhound of Wall Street?

Posted on October 14, 2010
My review of Michael Perino's new book about Ferdinand Pecora, The Hellhound of Wall Street, is up now chez B&N.

The law that was broken in the mortgage scandal

Posted on October 14, 2010
After my post yesterday on the mortgage bond scandal, a lot of commenters said that it looked like a violation of Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act -- the bit that prohibits trading on material nonpublic information. Well, it may or may not be a violation of 10b5-1...

Mortgage mess TV

Posted on October 14, 2010
You've heard of the foreclosure mess. Here's a mortgage-bond mess to layer on top.

Hindsight and investment advice

Posted on October 14, 2010
Cullen Roche today revisits his advice from a year ago, which was published in New York Magazine, on how to buy toxic assets.

Counterparties

Posted on October 13, 2010
Everything you ever wanted to know about MERS -- SSRN

USAID?s PR problem

Posted on October 13, 2010
Foreign aid is a much cheaper way of conducting a country's foreign policy than the military -- and in many cases it can be much more effective, too.

Geithner?s bizarre foreclosure logic

Posted on October 13, 2010
Politico has the transcript of Tim Geithner's appearance on Charlie Rose last night:

The enormous mortgage-bond scandal

Posted on October 13, 2010
You thought the foreclosure mess was bad? You're right about that. But it gets so much worse.

Felix TV

Posted on October 13, 2010
Felix Salmon is about to make his online video debut. Tell him your ideas.

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