Apologies for the thin posts tonight, but a lot of the news isn’t new (I actually spent quite a long time trolling and found not much that grabbed me). More tooth gnashing about Big Auto. How big a move will the Fed make tomorrow? More details dribbling out of the Madoff mess. More speculation about OPEC’s production cut.
China’s economy hits the wall Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Auto bailout could be announced by Wednesday Reuters. Haven’t seen any other times estimates.
FYI – labor contracts by auto company rdan, Angry Bear
AIG sells $39bn of assets to NY Fed fund FT Alphaville
Germany expects less than minus 3 per cent growth Eurointelligence. This may take some wind out of the euro.
The Madoff Saga: Perils of Fraudulent Conveyance Roger Ehrenberg. Must read. Investors who took redemptions as long as two years ago may be subject to a clawback.
On the Prime Solution: Interview with Eric Hovde Institutional Risk Analyst. Starts with a rant from the newsletter about what the Fed is doing wrong. Hovde says that banks are going to take even more losses and gives a scathing review of Fed and Treasury actions.
Antidote du jour:
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Naked Capitalism, can we call the sub-prime mortgage crisis a Ponzi scheme by sub-prime and investment banks? Any comments on that?
I’ll call you on that and raise you that the entire world economy is a ponzi scheme aimed at future generations, No Joke.
Skippy
Jay Leno commented on Bernard Madoff….
“Bernard Madoff admitted to using an elaborate scheme to swindle investors. Yeah, it’s call the NASDAQ.”
What I want to know is when is the human height bubble going to burst? My back hurts. I’m hungry.
I know quite a few people in the mining business here in Australia. Looks like the down turn is just starting to hit home and the slope will steepen more in the coming 6mo.
The news came as the Australian mining industry started laying off more than 500 workers as the global financial crisis bites into economies worldwide.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24809050-5005200,00.html
The fraudulent conveyance issue is real, but overstated by the linked post. “Actual fraudulent intent” is necessary for a clawback to go back 2 years. See http://www.bayoubankruptcy.com/pdfs/press_release/Bayou%20Story.pdf.
Re Hovde: great interview..a good bit:
“Hovde: Look the same economic team that lit this fuse and let this fuse go 12 years ago is now about to come back into power. The same economic team has been floating around through the Clinton Administration, the Bush Administration and now is driving the Obama economic program. It is stunning to me that we are not seeing a wholesale switch-out of these Goldman Sachs participants or their protégés who have driven US economic policies for a good 12 years. It is amazing that they are still in place and still being put into positions of power.”
I believe that we have known all along that Bernanke would reach into his bag of tricks when his conventional remedys to cure the credit woes failed. Now our very expensive entertainment will continue with the new act, quantitive easing.
Excuse me while I go to the lobby for an extra large box of popcorn.
The Hovde interview – note what he says about Lehman, which is that the Fed & Dept of the Treasury couldn't make it solvent, because of the size of the commitment needed to do so.
I’m so very tired of metaphorical panda photos designed to lure people into the same old trap, but at least it is easy (in this case) to see the interplay related to name calling, as it relates to the story at hand, e.g: “In a nationwide opinion survey on the Internet, Chinese people chose the names of “Tuan Tuan” and “Yuan Yuan” for the pair of pandas — which together mean “reunion” or “unification” in Chinese — through an online vote.”
Although Yves often returns to simplified graphic symbolism to call attention to currency intervention and quantitative easing, I question the use of pandas in general, but see the specific reasoning here with the on-line voting, which represents Communist China mocking democracy by offering the mechanical process of voting as a sort of emotional cleansing tool. The process of voting in this case may also be suggestive of how “The Masses” can get it wrong in making choices.
Some may wonder if this panda is also symbolic of the small changes which swept Obama into a position of power, i.e, the conceptual universatility of “change” is an easy concept to sell, embrace and vote for, but how real is the accountability of that change? People use votes like lotto tickets and find themselves caught up in irrational exuberance and work themselves into euphoria which in and of itself becomes a matter of distraction a matter of getting off topic and then not knowing or remembering what you were doing or why a visual metaphor somehow became a path that you got lost on.
Also See: An internal report sent to physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland, has instructed them to restart the giant machine by end of July 2009.
This is fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGn1SeD1-m0
This guy comes up with a negative yield curve about 9 months ago … yuk, yuk, yuk; predicts negative rates, breaks down splines and shows how this is manipulated… never mind…
Yes doc holiday, it is good to have you back. Missed that sharp edge in your soft sell, does the topic know how bad its bleeding after your comment. I think not, till it is pointed out by someone else.
Skippy
Anonymous 8:33:
The intent referred to Madoff’s, not the recipient of the transfer. My understanding of the UFTA is that the “clawback” could apply under the law. Ehrenberg is not exaggerating at all. Read for example California Civil Code 3439, for the UFTA. The recipient need not have any improper intent. If the transferor was insolvent at the time of the transfer and the recipient did not supply equivalent value, the clawback may apply.
For some fun, apply this to AIG and Goldman Sachs.
“I’m so very tired of metaphorical panda photos designed to lure people into the same old trap”
The panda is symbolic of Yin-Yang, the natural imbalance present in the Universe.The Yin being the cute exterior, the Yang the sharp claws.
(Kinda like Yves….)
@anon:6:28. “the natural imbalance present in the Universe” imbalance only exists in the observers mind, hence it’s the observers mind that is imbalanced or the human condition? So sorry but can’t help myself, small snicker.
Skippy
I’ve noted a decline in the quality of fuzzy animal pictures.
I think if we each send her 1 choice picture, at least one should be spectacularly cuddlesome. Although animal on animal aggression (ala the cow chasing the cat) is welcome as well.
Although it would be very interesting to see a cow chasing a panda. I might even pay for that.