Yesterday’s frantic activity at the Treasury produced no news but there is widespread speculation that an announcement about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be made in the near future. What do you think?
After the jump, take the reader poll.
Reader Poll
Lehman Brothers chief financial officer Erin Callan this morning faced what was perhaps the biggest challenge of her career: explaining Lehman’s losses and need to raise capital to the markets. She began by lowering expectations–saying the Q&A on this morning’s conference call would be limited because this was a preliminary announcement and more granular numbers were still being worked out–and wound up answering many questions in great details.
She’s getting mixed reactions. Many are impressed by her confidence and competence with talking about Lehman’s large asset sell-off and deleveraging. Others, however, aren’t sure that Lehman really has a enough of a grip of the risks faced by its portfolio. So we decided to ask the experts, you.
After the jump, our poll on Callan’s Monday morning performance.
If you are totally confused why DealBreaker has been doing so much politics this week, we’re now ready to reveal the secret: it’s fat Tuesday. We’ve been drunk all week in advance of our annual observance of Lent! Drink early and often.
Also, people are irrationally voting all around the country today. But don’t vote at the official voting spots–it only encourages them–vote right here. Make your voice heard. Or at least your click.
(And, yes, we realize the poll should ask “whom do you support” but that sounds too mannered for a political poll.)
Just in case you missed it last night, we’re bringing the reader poll on today’s Fed decision back to the top of the page. There’s about an hour left to vote for this before we shut down the poll and start gearing up to cover the aftermath.
Following this morning’s economic reports the widely expected 50 bps cut from the Fed became a little less widely expected, with the futures showing a drop from 86% to 72%. An internal poll at Morgan Stanley, however, showed the opposite, with 73% of respondents predicting only a 25 bps cut, according to an email sent to clients this afternoon.
Our own polling, which had over 1,700 respondents, showed almost an even split between a 25 bps cut and a 50 bps cut. No other position got a significant number of votes. So we’re asking again, with just two options.
Our polls have an excellent track record of correctly calling the Fed’s interest rate moves. The masters of the economy meet again this week, so it’s time for another reader poll!
The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meets tomorrow and is widely expected to cut rates. When we polled readers last week, a plurality of 34% predicted a 25 basis point cut. The second favorite was a fifty bip cut, garnering 22 percent of the vote. Close behind, however, were those who predicted no cut: 19%.
Have expectations moved over the last couple of days? Will the continuing story of credit driven write-downs from major financial institutions push the Fed into an even greater cut? Or does the dollar’s recovery this morning indicate that the Fed is going to hold the line on interest rates? Cast your vote below.
Incidentally, our polls have a very good record of predicting Fed moves. Later today we’ll make it more challenging by asking readers to predict any changes in the discount rate.
It feels early to start talking about next week’s Fed meeting but we won’t let that stop us. Let’s tell the Fed what to do.
We are closing in on 2 p.m. now. Our official plan was to close up shop and retire to lunch for the rest of the day an hour ago. But we can procrastinate about everything, even not working.
But what are you still doing at work? Why are you reading the internet instead of finishing up and getting out of there? Don’t you know it’s the day before Thanksgiving? The airports are already insane and the trains are packed. If you don’t leave now, you’ll never get back to Wisconsin tonight.
Actually, it’s kind of comforting to know that so many of you are still out there, staring at your computers, hitting refresh and hoping Bess posts one more thing before she shakes her moneymaker over the Hudson for a holiday in the homeland. We’d like to know why you are still there.
After the jump, take our poll on why you can’t leave work early today.
Let’s assume for a moment that the rumors (and CNBC’s Bob Pisani) are right and the board of the New York Stock Exchange is holding an unscheduled meeting right now. Views about what is happening are divided, so we figured we’d go to the experts: our readers. What do you think is going on at the NYSE board meeting today?
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