(NYT) France Defends Its Credit Rating After Moody’s Warning
Yes, blame it on speculators and ignore the risks of backstopping billions of weak debt on a leveraged basis. They really don’t get it… Not at all. On the other hand, they did point out that in the dictionary A is above AAA so it should be the same with ratings 🙂 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/business/global/france-defends-its-credit-rating-after-moodys-warning.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
What To Expect Out Of Europe…
I expect we will see a “grand plan” soon. It will have a massive headline number. It will have all sorts of bells and whistles. It will have caveats. The headline program will sound huge. The fact that most of it is self-referencing, writing insurance on yourself, etc., won’t even be important. It will be […]
The Downside Of “Deferred Comp”
GS had a bad quarter, but still accrued some decent compensation costs. This from the one firm on the street that is not only willing to pay ZERO bonuses to those who “earned” it, but who could still retain talent. So why the big compensation accrual? A part is salaries. Salaries have increased, so all […]
(BN) *BANK OF AMERICA REDUCED BALANCE SHEET BY $42B FROM 2Q :BA
This is the single most important line item. Wonder why credit markets feel heavy? Why Primex of all things is weaker? It is not just European banks shrinking balance sheets. It is not just households. It is some US banks as well. You can improve your capital ratio by raising capital. You can also improve it by selling assets. With […]
A Morning Rant – EFSF, Enron, AIG, CDS Clearing
We are still waiting to see the final form of the “Grand Plan” and what novel ways the EFSF guarantees will be applied to save the day. At the risk of sounding incredibly stupid, I have this feeling that Europe didn’t actually work on any details until this past week, and Germany is suddenly realizing […]
Naked in Europe
So Europe is getting closer to announcing some form of ban on naked CDS. What they hope it will accomplish and what it will actually accomplish are two very different things. First, let’s look at the mindset. It about a ban targeted at entities that buy CDS (go short the credit). It doesn’t target those […]
Any Greek Restructuring Should Be Designed To Trigger A Credit Event
As talk about an actual restructuring of Greek debt increases, the EU continues to think that avoiding a CDS Credit Event is a good thing. More and more stories and leaks indicate that a real restructuring of Greek debt is on the table, with write-offs of as much as 50%. Whether it will be real, […]
Hi, It’s Tim, I’m Stuck In Paris, And Need You To Send $500
This morning feels like a bad Facebook scam. Mr. Geithner continues to remain convinced that nothing bad would have happened had Lehman not gone bankrupt – in spite of a dearth of evidence supporting that view – and has decided that giving more of my money to the IMF will help “solve” things. Solve had […]
Credit Markets – Looking Under The Hood
Yesterday was a busy day in the markets. The new issue market was very busy, 9 issuers came bringing a total of $10.5 billion. GECC was the biggest deal with $3 billion in total. I think the Time Warner bonds were the most interesting as it was $1 billion in total and the largest non […]
Well, if JPM is any indication…
MS is going to have a blow-out quarter, when they mark their debt: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/morgan-stanleys-biggest-asset-their-debt