That latest rumor making the rounds is that Blackrockstone is interesting in buying all or a substantial stake in Lehman Brothers (LEH).
The usual nonsensical rumor — that Buffett was going to be the buyer — has become so discredited that a new patsy needed to be named. Blackrock did participate in the now upside secondary, so perhaps they want some more pain.
I wonder when the SEC is going to investigate this steaming pile of enzyme free donkey fazoo . . .
Mer has a sizable stake in Blackrock???
More noise…
Ciao
MS
Lehman Bros. will be playing the part of Mickey O’Neil, and Blackrock will be playing the part of Gorgeous George.
OT:
Went out last night (here in SD) the amount of hedge fund douche’s and the trophy wives is staggering …..
Can’t even get near my favorite beach….
Golf=waste of open space.
Ciao
MS
SEC isn’t going to investigate anything, as long as it benefits the long side.
After all, we are Long Nation.
Guys like Einhorn and Ackman are e-ville shorts and must be vilified, even when they are right. They hate The Baby Jeebus and, by implication, America. And puppies.
The only debate among financial pundits is whether the banks must be bought right now, or whether you should wait until they reach tangible book value and THEN pull the trigger.
BLK, i don’t think so. MAybe BX.
Just when I started to get a little positive..
Senators, US Officials Received Countrywide Deals – ReportLast update: 6/13/2008 11:45:45 AMDOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Two U.S. senators, two ex-Cabinet members, and a former U.N. envoy received loans from Countrywide Financial through a special VIP program that waived points, lender fees, and company borrowing rules, Portfolio.com reports on its Web site. Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Budget Committee, refinanced loans through the Countrywide VIP program in 2003-04, the report said, citing company documents, emails and a former employee familiar with the loans. Other recipients of the VIP treatment were ex-HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, ex-HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and ex-U.N. envoy Richard Holbrooke. Shalala and Holbrooke were in the private sector at the time of their loans, but Jackson was serving as deputy HUD secretary when he received his in 2003. Countrywide often waived at least half a point and lender fees for VIP customers and provided a free “float-down” if rates fell during processing. James Johnson, who had been serving as an advisor to presidential candidate Barack Obama, resigned from the campaign Wednesday after reports surfaced that he had received loans from Countrywide at below-market-rates.
Let’s think this through. Last time I checked, the SEC is part of the Fed Govt. And it’s the Fed Govt, through the Fed and the Treasury, that’s supporting this bogus stock market. So I wouldn’t count on the SEC investigating anything about LEH, donkey fazoo, or anything else that helps support the market.
Now those nasty shorts, that’s something else.
This is standard fare in the age of wildcat finance meets pussy cat politics…
And another thing… color me *completely* unimpressed by Blackrock and Cerberus and Warburg Pincus.
I am thinking it’s like a repeat of the initial post-Nazcrash period. Growth managers had shot the lights out for unending years. After that first big downleg, the guys like Garrett Wagoner piled back in.
The last 5 years can be thought of as a value bubble. 9 of the top 10 industries since the March, 2003 turn were deep, dirty cyclicals.
So now the value guys – the Marty Slim Whitmans, the Warburg Pincuses (Pincii?)are assuming the past is prologue. I think they get their marbles taken this time around.
I think there is some confusion from the grand poobah
BX, not BLK
This is a little different than Buffett/Hovnanian, IMO
CNBC 4:49PM June 12th
Lehman Brothers Holdings CEO Richard Fuld is actively listening to offers for the beleaguered investment bank, including a possible bid by private-equity firm Blackstone for a 20% to 30% stake, CNBC has learned.
Meanwhile, BlackRock, the publicly traded investment management firm, is not interested in buying Lehman, a source said.
Blackstone? That would be too funny. LEH could put up a big banner “Welcome back Mr. Peterson”
“Went out last night (here in SD) the amount of hedge fund douche’s and the trophy wives is staggering …..
Can’t even get near my favorite beach….”
There’s a beach and hedge funds in South Dakota?
Maybe this is why markets are up in the face of uniformly bad news?
Even CNBC is wondering:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25140433
It’s called the trickle down theory… “Feed a bull some hay and you know what trickles down…”
I’m anticipating that a buyer will have his arm twisted at lower levels… LEH can not afford to report earnings again, they’re done. The financing for this deal is going to be very difficult. I can’t imagine how they are going to be able to spin it. This is going to be a Larry Craig moment for Ben and Hank.
Econolicious
BR cursed:
I wonder when the SEC is going to investigate this steaming pile of enzyme free donkey fazoo . . .
critique: I am afraid that I must protest your current mode and method of cursing. It is simply unacceptable.
Point by point, Wondering about the SEC is quite good and allows a multitude of directions for what follows. ‘Steaming pile’ is excellent and always works.
‘Enzyme Free’ sounds like you are going green or holistic on your cursing. There is no such thing as a green or holistic curse. However, it is quite natural and damn funny to curse about tree hugging steaming piles of SEC regulations. Using ‘holistic’ in a good curse is a near impossible challenge, although possibly making an observation about the relief one feels from the building release of some steaming piles of ‘something’ is workable.
‘Donkeys’ are good. ‘Fazoo’ is something that would make a 3 to 5 year old laugh. While making a 3 to 5 year old laugh at naughty sounding words in incredible fun, it’s not suitable for an adult oriented publication such as this. Keep working on that word.
The euro seems to be having problem and might spit up . You think this will force the fed to raise rates ?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/13/cneuro113.xml
Didn’t the Fed participate in the Lehman secondary too? Wasn’t that the game changer-nationalizing the whole debt bubble?
How exactly does an investment bank go under when the Fed is willing to do anything and everything to prevent it?