Lehman Private Equity Survives (WSJ)
Lehman's PE firm Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking has reached an agreement, and been allowed to continue its existence. "The business has $4.5 billion under management, and holds stakes in more than a dozen portfolio companies including a Spanish railcar manufacturer to a U.S. bicycle-components maker."
[...]
"The Lehman estate is also currently running a sales process for two other large Lehman private investment units -- an $800 million venture capital arm and a roughly $10 billion real-estate private equity group. Given the slack market for those businesses, one possibility would to retain interests in those holdings as well, according to a person familiar with those deals."
Icahn Thinks Bankruptcy Reform Would Help Banks (Reuters)
This is Icahn babbling on for roughly four/four and a half hours to the effect that bankruptcy laws aren't as efficient as they could be. His (end) point is a solid one though:
"Private investment is a far more appropriate agent to revive these institutions, yet little is coming in," he said, the reason being that distressed assets on bank balance sheets have artificially low values because of bankruptcy laws."
It's Jobs Day (Bloomberg)
We'll see the numbers at 8:30 today, Consensus is calling for anywhere between -300,000 and -750,000.
Gators > Sooners For BCS Title (AP)
If you have a pulse you should all ready know this; that aside it was a decent game but it wouldn't rate top ten of all time by any means.
TARP Program Under Fire (WSJ)
"The report faults Treasury on a variety of fronts: having no ability to ensure banks lend the money they have received from the government; having no standards for measuring the success of the program; and for ignoring or offering incomplete answers to panel questions."
What's horribly funny about all of this is that the panel thought the banks were taking the loans to lend it back out to the public, and then, for whatever reason, they thought they were going to get these people to answer questions. You just read that paragraph and kind of have to stare at it in a wondrous disbelief, like at any moment fairies and unicorns might pop into reality and everyone on the Hill can just live in their magic happy little land.
In related news, Bloomberg has an expose on how Paulson can't get his dick out of the sand long enough to make some money for the US Government, because apparently that too was the point of the infusion. I have to give it to Goldman though, credit where credit is due and all:
"The Treasury would have held warrants for 116 million shares of Goldman Sachs under Buffett's terms, which would be equivalent to a 21 percent stake when added to those currently outstanding. Instead, the dilution is 2.7 percent under the Treasury plan. Blankfein is the company's biggest individual investor, with 2.08 million shares worth about $178 million today, according to Bloomberg data."
--William Richards
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:10AM
Tim Tebow is a great man. Impossible not to like. Two national championships in his first three years?!? Unreal! And add in his mission trips to the Philippines where he circumcised little boys? He's as close to a hero as we have in the sports world. I'm thinking of heading out to the Philippines just to have Tebow take off a portion of my junk!
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:10AM
too late :)
Seriously, with todays tech we can't know in advance how negative the unemployment numbers will be?
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:11AM
The first half was a shit show for the Gators, Okies should have gone into the half up 10.
USC would have wiped either, Utah would be a coin toss.
BCS eats the ass yet again, matter of fact this might have been worst BCS showing ever.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:13AM
@2- yeah, the numbers are in my ass, reach in and get them.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:19AM
I say 620 for jobs numbers...
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:20AM
Raise ya 680
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:23AM
499k. i say it's on low end
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:24AM
I want an unemployment sign. Kind of like like the national debt digital sign that ran out of digits because GS alumni kept making withdrawals.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:28AM
@4 such hostility - please share your story.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:43AM
hot damn, I was very close. The economy is lookin up!
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:45AM
Hurray!
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:46AM
@9 -
4 here - no hostility - just enjoy a godd fist in my ass. No hard feelings?
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:52AM
wait til they revise upwards by 50k again like november, then i was closer...
@2 - shows how advanced the announcers are themselves
Posted by VOL IS KING , Jan 09, 2009 8:52AM
@10:
Don't be obtuse, companies can only fire people so fast. We're still fucked. And by "we" I mean you. I love this shit.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:53AM
No, that Bloomberg article is wrong and Stiglitz's comments are yet more evidence that the Nobel imprimatur is overrated.
I am absolutely no fan of Paulson and I think he took us from a serious recession to the brink of financial collapse, but the TARP program is the one thing he has done right.
While I entirely agree that taxpayers should make a profit out of this TARP program the terms should NOT be the same as what Buffett got. Why?
1) Taxpayers cost-of-funds is far lower than Buffetts. Right now, the taxpayer is borrowing at 0-3%. Buffett's cost of capital is more than twice that. To make the same return, the taxpayer can give better terms.
2) The taxpayer's deal was a cramdown. Paulson sat in a room with bank executives and told them to take the deal - even if they didn't want it. Buffett may have extracted those terms out of GS, but would not have gotten them from WFC or JPM.
3) Buffet's investment came with a premium because it indicates HE sees value in Goldman and GE. Most people looked at the Treasury investments as a sign of weakness.
4) The taxpayer has an extraordinarily complicated payoff structure in this game because he already had a lot in the game. For example, the taxpayer is already on the hook for billions of CDS's at AIG. Keeping the banks solvent makes those AIG investments more valuable. Then there is FNM and FRE. Same thing - keep a profitable banking system and there will eventually be buyers for those MBS's.
And so on...
I don't have any problem with editorials about Paulson's conflicts and stupidity but attacking TARP because it looks different thank Berkshire Hathaway is disingenuous and stupid. Stiglitz should either return the Nobel because he doesn't understand finance or he should admit he aspires to be a Krugmanesque shill.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:56AM
seen ivanka trump on cnbc? she has totally drunk her father's koolaid. word choice/language exactly the same, only with a female tenor. it's disheartening to realize we're faced with hearing the trumped-up language for another generation.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 8:59AM
@14, I repeat, they need to start teaching sarcasm in the ESL classes.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:03AM
boaz weinstein anyone?
"Deutsche Bank's Boaz Weinstein Is Leaving to Start Hedge Fund After Losses"
now if i were donny deutsch, i'd recommend to boaz to drop the last two words in the headline-- might attract a few more investors that way.
rumors today of more losses on top of the $1billion pile. is db going to make him take his positions with him as settlement?
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:05AM
@15 thanks for the essay - Stiglitz' brain stopped working in the 80's. Now he bleats loudly to get hippies to buy his globalisation books. We've all got to make money in this market somehow... Nobel link irrelevant, he used to be great.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:05AM
@16 - she likely also inherited her father's penchant for losing money but will be less skilled at screwing bondholders. This generation of the Trump dynasty will likely blow the whole fortune and be seen in the background of some successor to Celebrity Rehab.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:14AM
texas wouldve dominated florida
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:18AM
Looks like the number just got revised upwards.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:25AM
usc = overrated. i'd like to see them go through a real season in the sec then that pussy division they are in. gotta respect all the fine ass girls at the school. hottest cheerleaders in the nation
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:26AM
Are Carl Icahn and Mel Brooks related?
Posted by Private , Jan 09, 2009 9:28AM
I think Michigan should have been in the BCS
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:30AM
r u kidding me? Can I have this job?
http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/USC-Cheerleader.jpg
Posted by Private , Jan 09, 2009 9:32AM
@26, great photo, good find, who the hell is that guy? I'm on excel all day and he's fixing teenage girls garters...unreal.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:33AM
@18, think you're right, I've heard $1 billion is conservative. DB leverage makes some hedge funds look conservative, and alot of this is prop.
Posted by financialmarketjim , Jan 09, 2009 9:45AM
my buddy greg got laid off from the RE group and made this video spittin that HATE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m54bAfxgYPw
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 9:46AM
holler holler, its PE Baller!
Bitches.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 10:06AM
20 Don't think so. Much as I like to make fun of dad and his silly hair, the young Trumps seem to be grounded. Supposedly from summers they spent with the grandparents in Austria. No Paris Hilton stuff there.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 10:09AM
Long Ole Miss, short Florida
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 10:40AM
SEC is weak. Pac 10 is lopsided at the moment only b/c USC has vacuumed all the west coast talent. USC's offense is leagues above anything west of the Mississippi- Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas included. A talented running back like Emmanuel Moody hardly got any touches in the talent rich USC offense, but at Florida the dude is a starter.
But, I have to give credit where it's due. Norm Chow was principally responsible for USC's dominating offense under Pete Carroll. The success Sarkisian and Kiffin were having was with using remnants of Chow's strategies.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 10:45AM
33 here- I meant to say East of the Mississippi. I know Oklahoma is not East of the Mississippi. Fuck off geography nazis.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 11:04AM
I don't get this obsession with college football, especially once you're out of school. If most of the guys on this board are the academic ballers they claim to be who gives a s**t about Oklahoma and Florida, I assume you have no ties to these schools. Clue me in to what I'm missing. Is it betting?
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 12:03PM
@23, 33 here, Teams in the SEC fill their scehedule with cream puff teams. A top 10 team shouldn't fill out their schedule with basement dwelling teams or for that matter Division II teams. SEC lacks confidence to play strong out of conference teams. Alabama, LSU, and Florida, the 3 strongest teams of the SEC, filled out their schedules with some of the most undermached opponents possible-Troy, Appalachian State, North Texas, Citadel, and Western Kentucky. Fuck, Western Kentucky? Is that like a vocational technical school? Why not just play Devry or the University of Phoenix and bolster the stats. SEC teams are good, but only when not compared to other conferences. Bunch of wankers.
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 12:18PM
They're wrong about Paulson - although I don't agree with what he did, he is obviously a good ibanker or he brought on a team who is good. Now we have Geithner who has never worked at an ibank or seems to have been able to handle his last job. The major problem with Paulson is that someone who has spent their entire career at GS isn't capable of being objective and fair to other banks even if they're not aware of what they're doing.
"Henry Paulson is getting a better return than most fund managers.
Mr. Paulson took a lot of heat for cobbling together much of the strategy for the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, on the fly. Three months later, however, Mr. Paulson and his team are awash in gains.
New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg estimated that the bailout program has had a gain of about $8 billion in the past three months."
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 1:37PM
@33
teams always play some weak opponents. i would agree this year sec was weak compared to last year and what it usually is but just compare the conferences the sec is filled with power houses. they've now won the national title 3yrs in a row. usc is good but i'd like to see them have to play in any schedule of a sec team.
they don't even have a conference title game. usc's big game was ohio state and then relax all year. UF had 6 ranked opponents to beat
---23
Posted by guest , Jan 09, 2009 1:58PM
My question is how USC leapfrogged over Texas in the AP poll...creampuff PAC 10 schedule where USC's loss was against piddly Oregon St, vs Texas only losing to what was at the time a highly ranked Texas Tech team in the last seconds, as well as a victory over OU? Penn St basically surrendered during the Rose Bowl, that barely counted as a game...sometimes I think I'll never understand college football logic.