Opening Bell: 09.05.12
ECB Plan Said To Pledge Unlimited, Sterilized Bond-Buying (Bloomberg)
Under the blueprint, which may be called “Monetary Outright Transactions,” the ECB would refrain from setting a public cap on yields, according to the people, and a third official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The plan will only focus on government bonds rather than a broader range of assets and will target short-dated maturities of up to about three years, two of the people said.
Facebook Plays Defense (WSJ)
In a regulatory filing Tuesday, Facebook said Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg won't sell any stock in the company for a year, and that two of its directors—Marc Andreessen and Donald Graham—have no plans to sell their personal holdings beyond the amount needed to cover their tax liabilities. Facebook also detailed how it will essentially buy back 101 million shares when it issues previously restricted stock units to its staff in October. At recent prices, it would spend roughly $1.9 billion to keep those shares off the market.
Spain Seeks To Stem Bank Crisis (WSJ)
It's on the to-do list.
Banks Faces Suits As States Weigh Libor Losses (NYT)
The scandal over global interest rates has state officials like Janet Cowell of North Carolina working intensely behind the scenes to build a case for suing the nation’s largest banks. Ms. Cowell, the state’s elected treasurer, and several of her staff members have spent the summer combing through the state’s investments trying to determine how much the state may have lost because of suspected manipulation of Libor. “We think this could be as big as the mortgage crisis settlement, that this could be a really high impact situation and that we should be aggressive on this,” Ms. Cowell said, referring to the $25 billion settlement that the nation’s biggest banks entered with state attorneys general.
Socialite In Traffic Bust On LI, Husband Shouts From The Sidelines (NYP, related)
Lisa Falcone pleaded with the owner of the Mercedes she hit, Bob Cohen, and Verizon worker Fred Ledermann not to call police, “saying her husband would pay for everything,” the witness said. But Ledermann did call. soon arrived and shouted at cops to wait for a tow truck. A Southampton Town officer got so fed up with the billionaire’s bellowing that he ordered him to the side of the road and called for backup, the witness added. Because she smelled of alcohol and was staggering, the officer asked Lisa Falcone to take a Breathalyzer, according to a police report. From the side of the road, her still-simmering husband yelled, “Don’t take it!’’ When the cop threatened to arrest her because of the refusal, Phil changed his advice to “Take it! Take it!’’ according to the witness.
SEC Charges China Firm With Falsifying Earnings (WSJ)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged China Sky One Medical Inc. with falsely inflating its earnings, a rare action by the regulator almost two years after doubts about the accuracy of disclosures by small Chinese firms sent U.S. investors fleeing their stocks. In a statement published on its website Tuesday, the SEC said that Sky One Medical, which makes Chinese medicine and was once listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, created about $19.8 million worth of phony export sales over the course of 2007 and 2008.
Lehman’s Detroit Escape Means 90% Loss On Properties (Bloomberg)
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has said it plans to be patient in selling real estate holdings four years after filing the largest U.S. bankruptcy in history. In Detroit, it’s willing to accept less than 10 cents on the dollar to get out while it can. Lehman is selling a 251,000-square-foot (23,000-square- meter) office property in suburban Farmington Hills. In June, the bank offered it at auction for $10 a square foot, which would have recovered less than 10 percent of the $27.5 million mortgage it extended in 2007. It’s also selling 1 Woodward Ave., a tower overlooking the city’s riverfront and border with Canada that’s 44 percent vacant.
Gross: Fed Is Harming, Not Helping Economy (CNBC)
In his latest investment outlook, the co-chief investment officer of Pimco said the level of "carry" or spreads that banks and investors can make has fallen to such lows that it was now hurting investments, exacerbating the deleveraging process already underway in the economy. “A lender will not easily lend money to an obese over-indebted borrower — that much is clear — but she will also not extend a check when the yield, carry and return on investment is so low that it cannot compensate for historic business model overheads," Gross said.
‘Joy ride’ cops took the looong way (NYP)
The NYPD cops who blew a red light in a suspect’s impounded Mercedes nearly doubled the length of their trip from Harlem to Queens by taking a circuitous path through Brooklyn. Cops drove at least 33 miles in the seized, $50,000 vehicle rather than taking a more direct route. Officers got their hands on the sleek sports car at around 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 3 — seizing it from driver Rashad Lewis outside Bloomingdale’s on the East Side after they allegedly found bogus credit cards inside. A police spokesperson said the cops drove the car to a secure lot on West 126th Street in Harlem where more valuable vehicles are taken. The cop who took it out to an impound lot in Springfield Gardens, Queens, the next day appears to have milked the time behind the wheel. It was driven down the West Side Highway, where the cop blew a red light at 34th Street and got Lewis, 25, slapped with a $50 traffic-camera ticket. The officer kept going south and took the Battery Tunnel en route to a property clerk’s office on Gold Street in Downtown Brooklyn...Lewis said the bizarre, three-borough trip supports his claim that police took his wheels on a “joy ride” — though the NYPD insisted yesterday that cops did nothing wrong. “You don’t go from the Upper East Side to Springfield Gardens via 12th Avenue in Manhattan,” fumed Marvyn Kornberg, Lewis’ lawyer. Lewis also said the car was in perfect condition when it was seized, yet had scratches and a busted window when he got it back.