Yesterday we pointed out that the freeze-up in auction-rate securities could lower demand for equities as many individual investors found their investment assets essentially locked into these suddenly illiquid bonds. But it's not just the clients of brokerages who are facing a cash squeeze—the brokers and executives at investment banks are facing the squeeze as well
After the major accounting firms ruled that auction-rate securities were not cash-equivalents, many corporate investors began to reduce the use of these instruments for cash management purposes. But executives at banks such as Citi, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs continued to use the auction-rate securities. For many, the extra two-dozen or so basis points they could earn by holding the securities rather than a true cash-equivalent made them irresistible. For the men and women who manage money and put together complex financial transactions for a living, achieving maximum returns in every part of their portfolio is often a point of pride.
Now that many of the auctions have begun to fail, they find themselves without access to their assets. Ironically, this pain for the professionals may wind up helping their clients. If the auction failures continue, executives on Wall Street may pressure the banks to take action to revive the market. It's one thing if the clients cannot buy fuel for their yachts. It's quite another if the broker cannot.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 9:00AM
Notice Citigroup banning withdrawals of your money in a hedge fund. What person in their right mind would do business with such a company?
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 9:04AM
As a long time reader of DB....I want to compliment your on the new face. I think it makes reading abundantly easier and faster. Thanks John, Bess and the Big guy with the suit. Watchmen.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 9:08AM
This upgrade is too nice .... you scared me with this , good job
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 9:09AM
This upgrade is too nice .... you scared me with this , good job
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 9:19AM
Nice new look...good work!
Posted by AJ , Feb 15, 2008 9:27AM
Not too bad, not too bad. Carney we need a post pointing out all the cool new features! (or something like that)
Posted by AJ , Feb 15, 2008 9:28AM
One serious comment. Can we make the text real black and not this gray-ish color? It's harder to read.
Posted by TheUnrepentantGunner , Feb 15, 2008 9:31AM
pictures? you realize this will lead to tremendous amounts of unintentional humor. anal_yst ganking JF Page has his own, im definitely taking Crabhands, etc etc.
Posted by Anonymous , Feb 15, 2008 9:37AM
Carney,
If you are selling ad space to Circuit City, make sure they pay you up front.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 9:50AM
what the hell is going on db?
Posted by Yo , Feb 15, 2008 10:07AM
Will Bess still be funny in this new serious font?
Posted by Debter , Feb 15, 2008 10:11AM
Good look, bad font color, other username WAS NOT F'IN VALID for some reason. Like it.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 10:16AM
Hate the new look w/the left justified text.
Posted by Debter , Feb 15, 2008 10:16AM
Good look, bad font color, other username WAS NOT F'IN VALID for some reason. Like it.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 10:23AM
yeah my username was not valid either. i think it would not except the special character .
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 10:23AM
If you don't need the liquidity, the auction fails create a real opportunity for investors... I just purchased 7.5% AA NYC muni bonds at par. The bonds will be refunded within a year. It's a no-brainer.
Posted by Anonymous , Feb 15, 2008 10:31AM
10:23:
Famous last words....
Posted by Anal_yst , Feb 15, 2008 10:35AM
Give it time kids, dont be so quick to judge
(however after "time", judge to your heart's content)
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 10:41AM
@10:23 dumb question but how did you even buy them? ameritrade is not being helpful in letting me find these securities to bid
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 10:45AM
This new serious format severly detracts from the site's intended humor.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 10:55AM
Guys, I think you should really consider to take off the italics font. It's really hard to read.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 11:15AM
Anyone have any trouble registering? It won't send me a confirm email.
Help a brotha out if you know something.
1-2
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 11:17AM
maybe somebdy already registered your name
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 11:45AM
Don't like the italics. Don't like the left-side justification. Don't like the login policy. I agree with the commenter who said he or she didn't need more junk email. The old freewheeling system lead to plenty of merriment. Regular commenters, post your tag at the end of your comment!
Other than that, I like it.
Posted by miami , Feb 15, 2008 11:48AM
Grey italics font is COVER-YOUR-EYES AWFUL.
I had 3 of my ARS auctioned yesterday, they all went off no problem. Crisis [mostly] averted.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 11:49AM
Anal_yst, did you get a confirm email immediately?
1-2
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 11:57AM
My eyes. If I wanted to read something in times new roman, I would have picked up a CIM
-Gin&Tonic
Posted by dd , Feb 15, 2008 12:04PM
@ 10:41; I participated in an auction through my broker (my firm forces me to make all my trades through our high priced professionals). you probably have to call a broker-dealer if you want to get in.
Posted by guest , Feb 15, 2008 12:42PM
dd thanks that is helpful
ps, who has registered the username anonymous! i will pay handsomely for it.
also, for keith hahn.