Democrats Set Bailout Conditions as Treasury Chief Rallies Support (NYT)
There’s like $1.5 trillion on the line with this new bailout plan — really, the mother of all spending schemes. This is lobbyist and special interest heaven, and you’d be negligent to not get try getting something of that for your pet cause. But it’s a game of sorts… the Democrats want to push their agenda as far as it can go, without being held responsible if the deal (and then the economy) collapses. We’re hopeful that the Dems push too far in their demands for stuff like “no more Wall St. bonuses for the next 10 years” etc. Not that that’s technically what they’re proposing, but still.
Nomura reportedly gets Lehman’s Asia business (MarketWatch)
Another snappy asset sale… this time Lehman’s Asia ops are going to Nomura for $225 million. Nothing official — all based on folks familiar with the matter.
What Would Hayek Say? (Organizations & Markets)
Hint: It has to do with the notion that injecting cash into the economy is not the way to solve a problem borne by too much easy money.
The housing meltdown: Why did it happen in the US? (EconBrowser)
A new paper takes a stab at the question. It arrives at one conclusion several have already pointed to: That a concerted effort to expand homeownership to people previously not served by the mortgage system (read: the poor, the less credit-worthy), as well as an effort to expand homeownership efforts outside of the GSE system, a direct response to the well-known accounting issues Fannie and Freddie had been facing.
The housing meltdown: Why did it happen in the US? (EconBrowser)
A new paper takes a stab at the question. It arrives at one conclusion several have already pointed to: That a concerted effort to expand homeownership to people previously not served by the mortgage system (read: the poor, the less credit-worthy), as well as an effort to expand homeownership efforts outside of the GSE system, a direct response to the well-known accounting issues Fannie and Freddie had been facing.
World stocks rise on proposed US bailout (AP)
Gotta say, we’re pretty shocked by the relative calm of the world overnight. Sure China was up 7.8 percent, but that’s China. Other Asian markets were up too, but not anything crazy. And in Europe markets seemed basically flat, which we thought never happened anymore. And really, besides the Goldman/Morgan news, looks like an eerily quiet morning, no?
Oil rises as investors mull US bailout (AP)
That’s the problem with this perception of a recovery. Oil just keeps going up.
Microblogging Meet The Press (AVC)
It was a big day on Meet The Press yesterday. A bunch of folks talking about the economy, for once, something that matters, even if their words do not. Missed it? Fred Wilson live-Twittered the blow-by-blow, and then reposted the whole thing into a regular blog.
The Still-Evolving A.I.G. Loan Terms (Dealbook)
“Third, and most important, A.I.G. is backtracking from its statement that there will be a shareholder vote on the issuance. As I wrote earlier, if there is a vote, this puts A.I.G. in a race where it can conceivably avoid federal government control by obtaining an alternative loan before the vote. After all, as I said, the loan is at approximately 11.5 percent with a 79.9 percent interest in A.I.G. and security over A.I.G.’s unregulated assets. The market in normal times should be able to provide this loan.”
This crisis happened in the US because of China’s currency policy (which I use as a catch-all for many emerging-market currency policies of which China’s is the most egregious). One of the most interesting features of this decade’s macroeconomic environment- the massive reserve accumulation of dollars by the world’s central banks- depressed US bond yields and thus created the incentives that inflated the bubble. That’s what’s different this time. Greed and fear are nothing new and speculation is as old as the hills.
Don’t forget all the off balance sheet leverage created by CDOs there’s a reason the Fed has a reserve requirement.
Anyway, Europe is having stagflation, and in another 20 year they’ll all be Turkish. The chinese have been selling us goods for years in exchange for wampum, now they have so much wampum they can’t admit its wampum without ruining their wampum based economy. The Saudis can’t defend themselves. The Russian are the Saudis but some how they think they’re the Chinese.
The US wins again! Remember boys this is the worst system… except for all the rest.
foreign investors fucked up russia so bad they had to close down the stock market for two days. USA! USA!
Since when did Russia need foreigners to fuck it up? Fucking up Russia is what the Russians excel at.
When are we going to see the Bank of Haagen-Dazs or First Pizza Hut Commercial or Credit Nike? I’m just a dumb energy guy in another country looking for someone to esplane things to me.
–Calgary Schmooze
Regardless of what happens, Hammerin’ Hank will go down in history as the Ballsiest. Motherfucker. EVER.
Get it or not, nobody will ever top him sending a three-page extortion note to the US Congress that essentially said, “Give me a blank check for $700,000,000,000.00 or your economy gets it right between the eyes!”
Win or lose, he was swingin’ for the library steps.
We need more Republicans like him – pro choice, pro business, pro environment (big supporter of Nature Conservancy). Oh yeah and smart too. McCain and Palin should crawl back into whatever holes they came out of. On a related note, been reading that Palin’s son was quite the meth head up in What-ever-TF-silla they’re from.
We need more Republicans like him – pro choice, pro business, pro environment (big supporter of Nature Conservancy). Oh yeah and smart too. McCain and Palin should crawl back into whatever holes they came out of. On a related note, been reading that Palin’s son was quite the meth head up in What-ever-TF-silla they’re from.
Calgary,
Bank of Macrohard just announced they are buying back 40 Big Ones worth of stock.
We just have to wait until the Bank of Exxon or Bank of SU to get jiggy…
~SEG
#6 FTW
If AIG does vote on the issuance, they could get a much, much better loan – since they will be able to get a piece of that $700b bailout pie, they should be able to get pretty good terms on a loan from the private sector.
Those comments stink.