The "Subprime Crisis of 2007" triggered the "Panic of 2008" and now we're plunging into what is becoming the "Depression of 2009". The Subprime fiasco has roots beginning on Capitol Hill -- CRA of 2007, "red-lining" legislation, Fannie & Freddie, etc., but it is the actions not just of politicians but of (supposedly) independent & non-political regulators who have turned crisis into panic and panic into depression. They were busy in February, so I fell behind in my blog. The following gets me more or less caught up.
JRB
3/1/09
State Debt Ratings May Be Affected by Pension Losses, S&P Says
2009-02-26 17:18 -- Bloomberg News, by Jerry Hart
But S&P (and Moody’s & Fitch) still accepts that liabilities can be discounted at 8% or more. CAPM, Modigliani & Miller, and all the rest of modern finance don't exist in pension-world. Yet cash is cash so, in my world, they must converge. Ah well, it's all too late now. More than just first-mover advantage has been lost.
Also, a separate report came out stating California’s OPEB is over $42 bln. CalPERS alone lost $92 billion on investments this past year.
JRB
2/26/09
Dodd Surprised By Market Response to Nationalization Comments
2009-02-24 19:05 -- Bloomberg News, by Alison Vekshin
What an idiot! He’s chairman of the Senate banking committee, and surely he saw IndyMac get ‘schumered’ just a few months ago.
JRB
2/26/09
Dodd Surprised By Market Response to Nationalization Comments
2009-02-24 19:05 -- Bloomberg News, by Alison Vekshin
What an idiot! He’s chairman of the Senate banking committee, and surely he saw IndyMac get ‘schumered’ just a few months ago.
A few days after this, federal regulators announced their third bailout of Citibank, now all but 100% effectively nationalized. "Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again, expecting a different result" said Bill Clinton, when running for president.
It’s too much to hope for, but the entire House and Senate banking committees should resign in disgrace. As for myself, when Chris “Friend of Angelo” Dodd is up for re-election, I’m writing-in Travis Herold’s name. While it may not be true that ‘a thousand chimps given a thousand typewriters and a thousand years could write Shakespeare’ it appears true that 535 of them can generate 787 billion tons of pork in a matter of weeks. But they’ve been practicing their earmarks for years.
It’s too much to hope for, but the entire House and Senate banking committees should resign in disgrace. As for myself, when Chris “Friend of Angelo” Dodd is up for re-election, I’m writing-in Travis Herold’s name. While it may not be true that ‘a thousand chimps given a thousand typewriters and a thousand years could write Shakespeare’ it appears true that 535 of them can generate 787 billion tons of pork in a matter of weeks. But they’ve been practicing their earmarks for years.
U.S. Bailout, Stimulus Pledges Total $11.6 Trillion (Table)
2009-02-24 Bloomberg News, by Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry
Back in November I gave up trying to keep up with the proliferation of new bailouts. I think Bloomberg may have undercounted.
JRB
2/24/09
Central Banks Sacrifice Independence as Crisis Grows
2009-02-09 12:24, Bloomberg News, by Rich Miller and Simon Kennedy
And none more than our Federal Reserve. The only way to completely remove the cancer of moral hazard is to abolish the Fed and replace it, them, with something else. But what?! Anyway, that’s not going to happen (unless we have The Great Depression of 209), but as it was the moral hazard created by 1984's Continental Illinois bailout created the current global potlatch, how else do we remove it? (Not only were uninsured depositors bailed out, so were creditors and even preferred shareholders.)
JRB
2/9/09
Bernanke Risks ‘Very Unstable’ Market as He Weighs Buying Bonds
2009-01-26, Bloomberg News, by Rich Miller
How can they even contemplate another "Operation Twist" when the PSBR* is into the trillions!? It was a complete failure!
* “public sector borrowing rate” is the UK’s term for “deficit”.
JRB
1/26/09
JRB
2/24/09
Central Banks Sacrifice Independence as Crisis Grows
2009-02-09 12:24, Bloomberg News, by Rich Miller and Simon Kennedy
And none more than our Federal Reserve. The only way to completely remove the cancer of moral hazard is to abolish the Fed and replace it, them, with something else. But what?! Anyway, that’s not going to happen (unless we have The Great Depression of 209), but as it was the moral hazard created by 1984's Continental Illinois bailout created the current global potlatch, how else do we remove it? (Not only were uninsured depositors bailed out, so were creditors and even preferred shareholders.)
JRB
2/9/09
Bernanke Risks ‘Very Unstable’ Market as He Weighs Buying Bonds
2009-01-26, Bloomberg News, by Rich Miller
How can they even contemplate another "Operation Twist" when the PSBR* is into the trillions!? It was a complete failure!
* “public sector borrowing rate” is the UK’s term for “deficit”.
JRB
1/26/09
No comments:
Post a Comment