Arctic populations that missed the opportunity to get involved with CDOs and other structured products they had no chance of understanding are getting their prayers for another shot answered courtesy of the PPIP. The Inupiat Eskimos from Alaska’s North Slope are partnering with Oaktree Capital Management to take the natural next step in their diversification away from oil by getting into toxic assets. Taking a break from his duties as a whaling boat captain, Richard Glenn, the vice president of lands for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp explained the logic behind the new push of Eskimo money into structured products.
“We were born in the oil patch but knew we should diversify. Not too many eggs in one basket.”
And soon they’ll be wondering why the puke green egg that says AAA-rated CMBS smells so rotten. Inupiat Eskimos Jump Into PPIP [WSJ]
Don’t get us wrong. We know where our bread is buttered. But, that said, there seems to be a lot of piling on going on. For instance:
George Griffith of the trustee’s office said Dykstra signed a “real property questionnaire under penalty of perjury,” claiming insurance on the mansion did not expire until December. But the court filing says that on the very day Dykstra signed the document, July 14, the insurance was cancelled “for failure to pay.”
“Undoubtedly, the debtor had received prior notices that the insurance would be cancelled if the premium was not paid,” the filing said, calling Dykstra’s actions “dishonest.”
Perhaps we’re just being difficult, but it occurs to us that the policy “expiring” is not at all the same as the policy laboring under the constant risk of termination for non-payment. Of course, we only have CNBC doing translation for us here, so it is hard to tell, but when you are digging through the semantics in this kind of disclosure to try and force a Chapter 7 liquidation, you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Sure, we suppose it is possible that what Lenny really penned on pain of perjury was more along the lines of “…and furthermore, there are absolutely no issues that might threaten, or cause outright, a lapse of insurance coverage at any time during the bankruptcy process….” That seems… thin. Baseball Great Dykstra Could Face Liquidation [CNBC]
Goldman conspiracy theorists must be rejoicing at reports that Hammerin Hank was frequently on the Batphone to GS headquarters during the fun and games of last September. Demonstrating that Goldman alumni in government can play by the rules, HP even went through the formality of getting the required waver before picking up the phone and dialing Lloyd’s digits. Among the things Mad Max just knows went on include Paulson getting the final tally for how much in bailout funds AIG needed to make GS whole and how Goldman would fare if MS lost a game of bankruptcy chicken on Lehman’s heels.
Paulson’s spokeswoman Michele Davis confirmed the telephone conversations with Blankfein took place but denied Paulson had any intention of helping Goldman specifically.
“Suggesting that AIG was saved for the sake of one firm is as ridiculous as saying firemen put out a fire in a skyscraper to protect just one of the thousands of people in the building,” Davis said in a statement.
When the fire chief used to have the corner office in that skyscraper, anything is possible.
Having made it to the last round of the Jeopardy! Tax Evasion Tournament of Champions, UBS is taking its time to come up with the 52,000 responses to the Final Jeopardy answer ‘This individual attempted to circumvent the US tax code and deny the IRS its inalienable right to their money by hiding assets with you’. While the US tax authorities have a deadline for submitting the names of the tax escapees of about a month a go, Swiss authorities are taking their time trying to hold onto some semblance of the secrecy that made them famous.
Settlement talks continue to spin in place in advance of the US’s second attempt to face off against UBS in court on August 17th. On the off chance that date comes and goes without an agreement, the next time the two could find themselves in court is September 21. By then UBS might finally admit that the real reason for the delay stems from their invoking of the mercy rule and prohibiting the US from scoring any more legal victories against the bank until they can bring home one profitable quarter.
The Annual Review of Wall Street Pay (NYT)
Compensation numbers of the top 25 are due in by Thursday, after which, Feinberg will be doing his annual review of who-makes-too-much-loot. Once everything is reviewed and the big F decides who to chastise and who to let be, I don’t see the media getting nearly the response they did on this topic in recent years/quarters/months; the wholehearted flogging of salaries as a subject reached its high water mark and I think it’s safe to say people are fairly sick of hearing about this shit. JP Morgan To Buy Back Warrants In Public Auction (NYPost)
“Unlike the other major banks, which gave warrants to the federal government in exchange for billions in capital under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, JPMorgan is expected to have its warrants sold in a public auction that would be run by the US Treasury. Warrants grant their owners the right to purchase shares at a discount sometime in the future.” U.S. Economy May Be On The Brink Of Recovery (Bloomberg)
“”We may have hit stability, we may be in the beginning of an upturn” based on the latest economic data, Tyson, a member of the White House’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said yesterday during an interview in Kuala Lumpur. Nobel Prize- winning economist Paul Krugman said the deepest slump since the Great Depression may be ending.” The Business Of Pleasure (CNBC)
CNBC will be continuing its in depth porn coverage tonight at 10. Banks Make $38B From Overdraft Fees (FT)
Banks are likely to take a PR hit for charging the average American consumer too much to withdraw money they don’t have; I can see that there’s an argument here to be had from both sides. While anything above $30 seems ludicrous, there has to be sufficient incentive for people not to overextend themselves. Lack of that incentive is what got many of those people in the positions they’re currently in. Rio Spying Cost China $102B (Bloomberg)
“Rio Tinto Group, the third-largest mining company, spied on China’s steel mills for six years, creating 700 billion yuan ($102 billion) in excess charges for iron ore, a report on a Chinese government-run Web site said.” A Few Notes On AIG’s New Fearless Leader (WSJ)
Aside for the MetLife IPO and the 7-10MM he’ll be getting for the AIG gig, what’s important here is he has such soft hands, and the most beautiful tramp stamp. Krugman Thinks Bernanke Should Keep His Job (Bloomberg)
You really have to wonder what the criteria for keeping your job as chairman of the Fed are during a depression, but it would seem chief among them is public perception (not that I agree with this methodology, but we live in a media age). Just so we’re up to date, Krugman and Roubini are for him staying in the seat, and Anna Schwartz appears to be leaning against.
CNN is reporting that the Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner has listed Cocaine as a contributing factor in the death of Billy Mays. Who knew?
The situation is fluid. (Embalming). Autopsy: Cocaine a factor in Billy Mays’ death [CNN]
Related:
A California man was charged Thursday with bilking investors of $3.3 million while posing as an Oscar-winning designer of sound effects.
Investigators say Carrington used some of the proceeds of his crimes to buy a 2003 Lamborghini Murcielago, a 2005 Hummer H2 and a 2006 Mercedes SL500R, with a combined value of almost $500,000, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the cars.
Kenny boy might be a bit down these days with the constant heat from lawmakers who have yet to wrap their heads around the Boone’s induced logic surrounding his shotgun marriage last fall. With the revolving door in senior management at BAC you’d think it would be hard for Lewis find too many people to rush to his defense- or even have a drink with him. Enter Dick Bove. In a client note yesterday, the furry woodland one made it clear that in the New Golden Era of banking, he stands shoulder to shoulder with Hank Paulson’s punching bag.
“The politicians and the press are trying to get Ken Lewis fired for adding value to shareholders’ investment,” Mr. Bove wrote in an e-mail to his clients Thursday. “In this new world where success should be punished this may be a new low point.”
Hopefully KL will celebrate this blooming friendship by sending a clear message to all the naysayers in a language they’ll understand- by taking Dicky B up for a ride in the BAC corporate jet and doing a couple victory laps around DC.
You can just see the stimulus money being counted for this one already. As anybody who lives close to one of GM’s former plants can attest to, toxic assets come in forms other than CDOs. While the new GM goes about its business of doing the UAW’s bidding, the old GM has to clean up the environmental mess left behind by all those plants that turned out the cars nobody wanted. The courts left $1.2b in the old GM’s wallet to wind itself out of existence. Of that, the current (low-ball) estimate for cleaning up the poison the company threw into rivers before its epiphany and subsequent embrace of everything green is $530m.
Through the magic of the 363 process, the new GM has nothing to do with the endless amounts of crap from the old GM which means once the $1.2b is shot, taxpayers stimulus will be funding the rest. Only through the genius of the drive-through bankruptcy process could government officials find a way to make bank bailouts look cheap. GM gets to dump its polluted sites [Detroit Free Press]
The Senate Ethics Panel says so. So there. Ok, they had some other notes to add too, but no one is trying to take the Dream away. No one:
But in absolving Mr. Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Select Committee on ethics said he should have shown better judgment in order to avoid the appearance of wrongdoing.
“Once you became aware that your loans were in fact being handled through a program with the name ‘V.I.P.’ that should have raised red flags for you,” the panel said in a letter to Mr. Dodd dated Friday.
You would think the panel, obviously having not seen Mr. Dodd’s wide collection of VIP emblazoned Hello Kitty coffee mugs, would realize that the reverse is true. If Doddie isn’t immediately granted complimentary admission into the rarest, most exclusive, super-premium, product/service category the vendor (any vendor) offers,
the Subcommittees on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs
get medieval on your ass. Senate Ethics Panel Clears Dodd on Countrywide Loans [The Wall Street Journal]
Arctic populations that missed the opportunity to get involved with CDOs and other structured products they had no chance of understanding are getting their prayers for another shot answered courtesy of the PPIP. The Inupiat Eskimos from Alaska’s North Slope are partnering with Oaktree Capital Management to take the natural next step in their diversification away from oil by getting into toxic assets. Taking a break from his duties as a whaling boat captain, Richard Glenn, the vice president of lands for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp explained the logic behind the new push of Eskimo money into structured products.
