Steel Owes Thain a Royalty Payment
Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe Robert Steel of Wachovia owes a royalty payment to John Thain of Merrill Lynch. Why? For for...
MBIA DESERVES to Go Belly Up
"DESERVES to go belly up" seems to be our latest new series, but its not. Instead, this is the 2nd — and hopefully last...
Betting on Bear’s Bust
Today’s most talked about article is likely to be this breathless Bloomberg piece on the demise of Bear Stearns: "On March 11,...
Is the Market Still a Future Indicator?
At this point, you would have thought the Efficient Market Hypothesis would have died a quite death. But as is its wont on Wall Street,...
FASB: OK For USA to Turn Japanese
Just when you think there is a glimmer of hope that some of these ne’er do well, lying, cheating, sniveling, cowardly bank CEOs...
Actual Merrill CDO Sale: 5.47% on the Dollar
An active trader pointed us to this very familiar looking off-balance sheet shenanigan found in the following paragraph regarding...
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
A brief review of recent Merrill CEO statements: 1. We don’t need capital; 2. We could use some capital, but we won’t sell...
Merrill’s $5.7B Write-Down, $8.5B Share Issuance
I’m on an earlier than usual train home today, to take the missus out to dinner (she just flew back into NY today). Change at...
Would Benjamin Graham Buy Financials? (No!)
Jason Zweig has an interesting column today in the WSJ: Inquiring minds want to know: What would Graham do? This column, named after...
Have the Financials Bottomed?
Nicely structured reasoning via Barron’s Randall Forsyth: Borrowings at the Federal Reserve’s discount window averaged a...