What we wonder is why Goldman needed to be made whole at all if its exposure to AIG was hedged? And why did Goldman get paid US$14 billion for its securities when the market value was around $8 billion?
April 15th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 36 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "Financial Times"
Investors’ Objective: To Make Money
Stocks did indeed rally. The Dow rose 497 points…putting some bounce back in the bounce. We’ve been expecting a healthy rebound. Normally, after such a long and steep sell-off, you can expect a rebound that recovers 30%-50% of the losses. We have not had such a rebound…yet. Maybe this is it.
March 25th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 1 comment | Continued
Free Market Capitalism, The God That Failed
Free market capitalism is the “god that failed,” writes Martin Wolf. Thus does Financial Times lead off a feeble chorus of lament in its “Future of Capitalism” series. What do we do now? is the question. Can capitalism be tamed? Can it be harnessed? “Yes we can!” says America’s president.
March 23rd, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 9 comments | Continued
Feds to Buy Government Debt
Yes, dear reader, when Richard Nixon cut the link between the dollar and gold, the world has been using a money system that is, to put it in its best light, experimental. The last experiments of this sort – on anything like this scale – were conducted in the 18th century. The Banque Generale was set up by that rogue, John Law, to buy up the debt of France – of which there was plenty.
March 20th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
What Did the Feds Think When They Gave AIG Money?
One member of Congress – Senator Grassley – retreated from his call for AIG executives to commit suicide. It would be all right with him if they just showed a little contrition, he says now.
But all over the world – and especially in Washington DC – the mobs are out in the streets with liquor on their breath and ropes in their hands.
March 19th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
Daily Reckoning Plan to Save the World
But there was no container large enough to hold the subprime losses. Each time one was set out, it quickly overflowed. The latest reports tell us that the bilge is now 500 times deeper than the Fed head forecast…and still rising. And this comes after $11.7 trillion has been committed in the US alone to pumping it out. Whether the plumbers are plain idiots or clever rogues, we can’t say, but it should be obvious after two years of watching them, their pumps don’t work.
March 16th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Geithner Ex Machina
After all, this was “the gravest global economic crisis in a half-century,” as then-World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz called it before today’s global crisis showed up. So you needed the best minds, from the biggest and brightest international bodies, to jet in…survey the trouble…prescribe a solution (while signing a check)…and then jet out again, back to whichever hushed corridors they had just emptied.
March 13th, 2009 | Adrian Ash | 0 comments | Continued
Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels
Besides, the gigolo gives value for money. A woman gets little thrill or merit from landing a Wall Street hustler; no matter how rich, he is almost always boorish and preoccupied. But the gigolo brings refinement and taste to a woman; he makes her feel exceptional because he is exceptional. To a woman of a certain age, his attentions are a welcome as bad lighting.
March 11th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
The Essence of Darwinism
Right now, we are sitting on the veranda of the Rancho Santana clubhouse. The sun is bright and hot over the ocean…a sea breeze cools the air…the palm trees sway…the waves crash onto the shore, spinning the surfer’s head over heels.
February 18th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 26 comments | Continued
