Yes, you may have lost your job after being duped by Marc Dreier. Yes, Bernie might have made off with all your cash. Yes, you should be worried that the target rate is 0.00 - 0.25%. Yes, you can't make a buck in this market, country's going to hell faster than when that sonofabitch Roosevelt was around... too much cheap money sloshing around the world. The biggest mistake we ever made was letting Nixon get off the gold standard.
There is some good news though. Goldman's effective tax rate will be 1% for 2008, or about $14 million, and we've got that going for us, so that's nice.
Goldman Sachs's Tax Rate Drops to 1%, or $14 Million, for 2008 [Bloomberg]
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 3:57PM
preferably lew mannheim.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 16, 2008 4:01PM
What do you mean can't make a buck in this market? This market is fucking great. Just because your monotonic bets don't pay off don't speak for the rest of us EP. Get with times. Vol is the new treasury, only safe investment in town.
Long Live Stag-Deflation!!!
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:01PM
Imagine all the stimulating I would do if my tax rate dropped to 1%
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:02PM
Money for nothing and your ch(e)ks for free ?
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:02PM
@2 killin em with selling out of the money calls
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 16, 2008 4:05PM
@4:
You have to be a moron to sell out of the money options.
Posted by ep , Dec 16, 2008 4:06PM
@2:
My opinion of you has deteriorated. Re-examine the canon of finance film and report back when you are wise to your bumble.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:06PM
@1, No he lost all his equity in the firm in '73.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:06PM
I'm for the free coinage of silver
Posted by Joseph di Jersey City , Dec 16, 2008 4:08PM
And one of the supposedly most important problems - wealth disparity - is being dealt with even before Obama takes office. Sure it's being done by making everyone poor but you can't have everything.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 16, 2008 4:09PM
@ep:
I know the scene from Wall Street to which you refer. I didn't think it needed comment. I also assumed you shared the sentiment that one could not make a buck in this market.
Posted by ep , Dec 16, 2008 4:10PM
You assumed. 'nuff said.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:11PM
Good ROI on the TARP lending...
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:11PM
Man looks into the Abyss, and there's nothin' staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character, and that's what keeps him out of the Abyss.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 16, 2008 4:12PM
Did you ever try the trading strategy I showed you for Citi, long/short vol, delta neutral, gamma+?
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 4:12PM
Paulson makes me want to puke right now with respect to his Lehman comments
Posted by Gordon Gekko , Dec 16, 2008 4:16PM
EP
Great Caddyshack reference. And as Judge Smails would say, "the world always needs ditch diggers".
Posted by Lowly Assistant , Dec 16, 2008 4:30PM
Agreed. And the Lammma would say, "Goonga...goonga galuunga."
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 5:09PM
Only $14mm in taxes, well they got that "going for them...which is nice".
But dishonorable and stupid. I hope Waxman makes Paulson get our $$ back.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 5:13PM
Only $14mm in taxes, well they got that "going for them...which is nice".
But dishonorable and stupid. I hope Waxman makes Paulson get our $$ back.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 5:22PM
1%!....i'd like to see their accountants
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 5:28PM
Hang them all.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 5:32PM
@6. I don't know VIK, I think that Buffett's whole "sell out of the money Euro-style puts and die before the expiration date" strategy is decidedly unmoronic
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 16, 2008 6:07PM
Yeah, I'm still not convinced that transaction wasn't a put spread. It sometimes makes sense to write ATM options depending on the skew.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 16, 2008 6:11PM
(Selling ATM options makes sense, if and only if you limit your maximum loss by hedging with OTM options)
Which is what I think Buffet may have done. Who the hell knows. The guy's book is so big he can write is own rules. If the Options are too deep ITM the BRK can just buy GS.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 9:15PM
@23, 25, etc.
The crazy thing is that someone ponied up $4.5B for those index puts NOW and can't possibly collect for a decade.
Meanwhile, thanks to GS, that $4.5B is out there working, earning a 10% dividend.
Assuming GS doesn't go bust and Warren can continue to find 10% investments, ten years from now he's going to have turned that $4.5B into ~ $12B.
That's a lot of cushion for what's essentially a bet that the market stays below last year's level for the next 10-15 years (as there should be reasonable hedging opportunities if the market has a rally any time this decade).
And let's face it, if the SPX is far enough below 1500 in 2019 that Buffett loses money, well, we're all pretty screwed.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 9:30PM
Has anyone ever audited the books at GS since their IPO? Even if they haven't done anything illegal, they have way too much influence over economic policy in this country.
Nobody is asking why Blankfein was involved with meetings about saving AIG before they got a bailout - Paulson should not be relying on anyone from his former firm for advice. And Obama was even considering Corzine to replace Paulson - just what we need, more people from GS at our Treasury Department.
Posted by guest , Dec 16, 2008 9:40PM
can this tax break be pinned on the giuliani regime or is someone else helping bring down nyc?
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 17, 2008 5:30AM
@26:
That's such a stupid statement. The index doesn't have to go up at all. I think it should go to zero personally. Stocks are worthless as far as I'm concern. At any rate European options are path dependent the market could be up every day between now and then and still end up expiring in the money at the last possible instant. The level of the index has absolutely nothing to do with reality or how screwed we are or are not. Maybe one day people will smarten up and public equities will go to zero.
That said on presumes GS is making they're money delta hedging that piece. And hedging the default risk. Hilariously Buffet only has to post collateral if BRK is down graded... and he owns 15% of Moody's.
Posted by VOL IS KING , Dec 17, 2008 6:33AM
correction:
European options aren't path dependent, I meant "aren't"