Europeans laugh at United States misfortune? (Check).
Europeans grimly warn this is no laughing matter? (Check).
Europeans discover they have been just as reckless as the United States? (Check).
Europeans deny measures as dramatic as the United States took are required? (Check).
Europeans grudgingly admit they are just as fucked and pony up cash? (Check).
Europeans attempt to deflect blame on U.S. firm that is now powerless to defend itself? (Check).
Lehman Failure Caused $300 Billion Damage: Regulator [The New York Times]
Your Devastating News Of The Day: The Fruits Of Shia LaBeouf's Labor Have Been Put On Ice
Let It Be Known, The CFA Will Not Have Its Name Tainted By Images Of Taints
MBA Candidates Still Into Wall Street, Have Plan Of Attack For Dealing With Haters
Lindsay Lohan Is Suing E*Trade For Basing Whore-Baby On Her Life
Gordon Brown 1
Hanky Panky Paulson 0
Enough said.
Starting the Friday before Lehman failed, I said it was too big to let go. Bought LEH bonds and preferreds in the p.a. Couldn’t believe Paulson was stupid enough to let it go down.
I’m all for wiping out the common (a la Bear Stearns) and dumping the management, etc., but I hope Paulson learned his lesson about screwing over the bondholders, clients, and counterparties, who are in no way being compensated for taking the risk of a major bank failing.
Moral hazard does need to be bled out of the market, but that should be done by making management responsible for their decisions – perhaps their compensation packages should include clawback provisions? But there has to be an underlying level of trust such that one can trade overnight with a major financial institution without have to worry about getting back only 9.2c on the dollar.
Rumor has it that The Beard likes Gordon better than Hanky. And that Mini-me’s 15 minutes are almost up.
@2: What were the yields on thhose bonds? You want more than what treasuries give you, then you get to accept the risk.
Hope is a crappy hedge, and betting on moral hazard is a crappy investment strategy.
2 This is so naive in many ways. One obvious one is that if there was no way LEH were to fail, you would have paid much more for the bonds/pfd than you did. Efficient market theory will tell you that you took a chance that was reasonably priced and it didnt work out. And portfolio theory should tell you that you should never bet the farm on one idea only. Simple as that.
The real objective re govt intervention should be cost effectiveness – tax revenues otherwise forgone, etc. Not is it good for those that bought bonds. Cause otherwise they might think twice in the future.
2: While other posters have made good comments, I would just like to add:
Bwahahahahahahahaha!
Seriously, dude, I hope that post was a joke or a metaphor or something other than a plain old admission of “I used my vast intelligence to arrive at a really stupid conclusion.” ‘Cause that’s what has got everybody else into the whole fix, and if you think you’re going to get anything other than bwahahahas, let alone anything like concurrence or sympathy, you need to either up your dosage or lower it.
There is no better end to the year than to see tumble weeds and those greedy pricks out selling pencils.
The US could never possibly win a Nobel in literature.
@2 is a total loser
Aren’t the European CB’s really using US dollars borrowed from the Treasury?
Sounds like that “debt clock” better get fixed pretty soon, how else are we gonna know how much we owe.
Can we please stop bundling the UK and Continental Europe as the same thing?
The UK has decisive politicians making decisive moves, Continental Europe has a dozen or so ditherers disagreeing with each other and taking their time…
I thought the UK was our 51st State !?
@10 then they would be in debt to us not vice versa
The WSJ is reporting that the remaining families are meeting with Paulson at the Treasury Dept. at 3:00 PM. It’s a smaller group than the one that met just before LEH got busted. This time it only includes Blankfein, Dimon, Pandit, Kelly, Lewis, & Mack. And expect Mini-me to be there also.
So who’s getting whacked today? Anybody?
This is what happens when you try to screw the poor with crappy mortgages, part of the problem but still making money off of poor people invites God’s wrath in any society. It does not matter what you believe.
Greedy people usually get what they deserve.
15: Um, making money off poor people is pretty much the definition of “society.” If this really invited God’s wrath a certain warehouse in the middle of Rome full of priceless art (which happens to also have a few offices for priests) would have been hit by a comet by now.
#15. They aren’t getting “what they deserve”, they have their money out of the country or they sold their house and went to all cash more than a year ago.
The middle class, as usual will bear all the burdens.
@9 – the guy made a bet – took risk and lost – you on the other hand sound like some envious wannabe lurking financial sites to be a playa – take some risk and get a life -
18 Not 9 here, but with regard to “guy made a bet, took risk and lost”: that’s not exactly end of story. What you fail to point out is that he also came here and started whining about it. Which is why he’s being called a loser.
# 9
@hole
15 moron
15 moron
15 moron
19 jackoff
15
You can thank Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for pushing through legislation “encouraging” FNM and FRE to buy crappy mortgages just to “help” the little guy . They were the biggest enablers of a flawed ideology , to give the American dream to people who can’t afford it
People who can’t afford homes should rent , there’s nothing wrong with that.
And ,
Quit blaming Wall Street for all of the woes in the world . Without the help of Frank and Dodd , and the Republicans who allowed the B/D’s to change their leverage and not regulate these idiots , the whole mess wouldn’t have happened.
This is as much a Washington, D.C. screwup as it is a Banking , Wall Street , and Mortgage broker problem — and of course , the CHIMPS who received these mortgages knowing that they could/would never pay them back are innocent ?!?!?!?
24 Actually a lot of those “chimps” didn’t know that. They had no problem carrying the loan at the beginning of it life. The later step ups are what killed them. Do you honestly think they clearly understood the range of possible outcomes? If not, then the lending was deceptive. And in the meantime, those that extended the loans and those that packaged them and sold them made a fortune.
germans are apportioning about 400 billion euros for their banking bailout.
If you convert that to dollars, and then adjust for the relative size of the US economy vs. Germany… it comes out to about the same as if we were ponying up $2.7 trillion.
anyone know the German word for schadenfreud?
@24
I do not think you read that much. probably none at all. These crappy loans called toxic, were made on crappy houses that were over valued, then agreed by people that had no business buying a house.
This is similar to the practice of check cashing outlets that charge a high fee to cash a check, then also charge 300% for a payday loan. These places are probably franchised by the same people on WALL Street that sold this toxic crap around the world
Again, God punishes people who get rich on poor people. Its a universal law, either you will get it now or later, your choice.
What is this all about? Everybody knows the world revolves around the US
@16 But it is such a pretty warehouse.