The Miracle On Ice
One of the Greatest Sports Moments of the 20th Century. What made it amazing was that a bunch of American amateurs defeated a team of Soviets that were amateur in name only. The Soviet Union, whatever the ideals of communism were, had given up on those ideals. Individuals with special talents were given special rewards. […]
Rumor Is That The Plan To Save Europe Is A SPIV?
Rumor is that the plan to save Europe is a SPIV (Special Purpose Investment Vehicle)? Here is the Oxford English Dictionary definition of SPIV. Somehow, it is the most apropos “solution” to this problem. For those who can’t pull up the OED definition, it starts with: A man who lives by his wits and has no regular employment; […]
TMI On PMI
Closer to home (pun intended) is the bankruptcy or receivership of PMI. It is almost hard to believe that they raised over $475 in an equity offering just last April. I don’t expect any material consequences in the CDS markets as it wasn’t in many indices (just the recent HY ones I believe) and it […]
The Check Is In The Mail
So we are still in planning to plan mode. The markets remain calm in spite of the fact that any plan was delayed again, and it is perfectly clear no one in power in the EU had attempted to work out a single detail of any plan until last week. There is so much to […]
The Average Hans
I have no idea what the equivalent of “Joe Six-Pack” is in Germany, but I can’t believe they are going to be happier tomorrow. Most Germans were not happy about bailing out Greece and the other countries that got themselves into debt trouble. The poll numbers show strong support against it and Merkel has been […]
Plan A Summit And Plan B Summit?
The market is rallying on a new summit and a new joint statement. Read the statement closely. If Plan A was going to work, wouldn’t that be done this weekend? If you were moving to Plan B wouldn’t you want that closer to the leader meeting? Ministers of finance may be able to make positive […]
More Summit Headlines, More Rallies On The Same Story
Summit going ahead as planned (we already bought the plane tickets and the rooms are booked, and I told the spouse they could come). Follow up summit would be before next weekend (ummmm, the Summit may last a day or two longer than planned, unless we can figure out some other cool location to host […]
Prudence Versus Reckless Abandon
As much as the current round of negotiations are being framed as “France vs Germany” there is more to the story than that. The battle is forming up along the lines of those who are trying to show some restraint and prudence and are willing to deal with the consequences of that decision against those […]
The EU Bans Reporting Of Any Bond Trade Below Par
Now the Europe finally “gets it” they have banned naked CDS buying, they are banning ratings, and have decided the market would trade a lot better if all those pesky below par bond trades went away. You can still trade below par it just can’t be reported. As mentioned at least a month ago – […]
The Morning After…
Sovereign CDS is tighter and SOVX is a lot tighter. I’m not sure by exactly how much as that products is heading the way of EDS’s (equity default swaps) and binary bonds (100% payout after a Credit Event) or TRS on high yield bond indices. Sov CDS will not look like other interventions. Those typically […]