As you may know, we’re less than 20 minutes away from Ben Bernanke’s historic (!!!!!) press conference and it’s all people can do not to give themselves strokes over the whole deal. CNBC has rebranded itself the Bernanke Channel and spent the last 6 hours analyzing the event from every angle imaginable. Such as the Fed Chairman sitting versus standing, which Erin Burnett and Melissa Lee speculate is pretty significant.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ Buffett’s Trust in Goldman Sachs Betrayed by Leak, SEC Says [Bloomberg]
$$$ Rajat Gupta: Bigger Than Madoff? [NetNet]
$$$ Charlie Sheen v Muammar Gaddafi: whose line is it anyway? [Guardian]
$$$ Madoff Trustee Seeks $2.1 Billion From Tremont [WSJ]
$$$ Bernanke Says Costly Oil No Threat To US Economy [Reuters]
$$$ CHARLIE SHEEN IS NOW ON TWITTER [Twitter]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ Senate Has Enough Votes to Advance Tax-Cut Extension Plan [Bloomberg]
$$$ Citigroup Lowers Rating on Bankrupt A&P to ‘Sell’ [Deal Journal]
$$$ Bruce Berkowitz: The Megamind Of Miami [Fortune]
$$$ Investors Lose Almost Everything In BlueCrest Fund Of Funds [FINalternatives]
$$$ 1-800-BANKER: Wall Street Upheaval Creates Role For Temps [WSJ]
$$$ Tax Cut Plan Eases Pressure On Bernanke, Fed [AP]
$$$ Ex-Carlyle CFO Interview [FINS]
$$$ Goldman: We didn’t topple Bear Stearns [WSJ]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
John Taylor, Chief Investment Officer of FX Concepts, has been doing a lot of thinking about the economy lately and he keeps coming back to one thing– how similar things are to Europe just prior to World War II and how Bernanke’s actions are eerily reminiscent to those of Adolf Hitler. Sure, the facial hair is slightly different but other than that, Taylor says, “the parallels are ominous.” Really, it’s uncanny! If you aren’t lucky enough to be one of Taylor’s clients, who received the history lesson this morning, please join us as we take a gander at the outside the box “insight” some people apparently pay money to read.
Not too many traders remember ‘the phoney war,’ or the Sitzkrieg, as it happened 71 years ago. After Hitler invaded Poland on the first day of September 1939, Poland’s European allies France and England declared war on Germany, but nothing significant happened on that front until the following May when the German Army rolled through Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium and into France. Although the horror started in Poland in the fall of 1939, for a few months, the rest of Europe was spared that horror, which eventually lasted through the next five years. Strangely, this past September (2010), the US equity market rose by about 8.8%, its best return for that month, since that same September (1939). To me the parallels are ominous. What were those people thinking back in 1939? Could a coming world war have that positive an impact on the economy and on markets? They must have been crazy – of course equities gave up their gains and were cratered in May 1940 when Germany invaded the west. But, what are we thinking of now? A war has just begun. Didn’t Bernanke and the Fed announce in late August at Jackson Hole (and multiple times since then) that the US was going to enter QE2 and debase its currency setting off a currency war. Bernanke, like Hitler seven decades ago, had been warning everyone who would listen for years.
Stay tuned for upcoming reports in which we learn that Bernanke and Kim Jong-il were actually separated at birth.
Market Insight Report [PDF]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ Jim Rogers: Commodities Rally Still Strong, Gold Will Hit $2,000 [CNBC]
$$$ Bernanke Says Fed’s Additional Asset Purchases Can Improve U.S. Economy [Bloomberg]
$$$ Daredevils abseil into the depths of a live volcano boiling with red-hot molten lava [DM]
$$$ Businessperson of the year brackets [Fortune]
$$$ Rajaratnam Lawyer Says Gov.’t ‘Gamed System‘ On Wiretaps [FINalternatives]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ The Abysmal Track Record Of Moody’s Mark Zandi [TBP]
$$$ Bernanke: Economists Haven’t Delivered Recovery [CNBC]
$$$ Lehman Artwork Auctioned Off [TSC]
$$$ Vision Capital Scores Big With Harvard Ties [Reuters]
$$$ Hedge Fund Seizing L.A. Radio Mogul’s Huge Estate [Forbes]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Someone’s gonna be splurging at Jos A. Bank tonight.
The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman’s wealth rose last year, according to financial disclosure forms released Friday by the central bank. As of the end of 2009, Bernanke’s asset holdings were between $1.2 million and $2.5 million, the same as in 2007. That compares with between $850,000 and $1.9 million in 2008, when stocks were walloped by the worst financial crisis since the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Much of the increase in Bernanke’s wealth came from a large-cap stock variable annuity he holds, whose value rose to between $500,000 and $1 million at the end of 2009 from between $250,000 and $500,000 the previous year.
Bernanke’s Bottom Line [WSJ]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ What Does Wall Street Really Want From Ben Bernanke? [CNBC]
$$$ U.S. to Let Tax Cuts For Wealthy Expire [WSJ]
$$$ Geithner Sees `Basic Confidence‘ in U.S. Economy [Bloomberg]
$$$ How To Get A Body Like Beyonce [WSJ]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ How Morgan Stanley Bucked A Trend In Trading [Dealbook]
$$$ Bernanke Sees No Quick End to High Rate of Joblessness [NYT]
$$$ Wall Street’s Wrist Slap [NYO]
$$$ Matthew Simmons: “We’ve now killed the Gulf of Mexico” [Bloomberg]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
The Senate just voted 96-0 to impose a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve’s emergency actions during and after the financial crisis.
Senate Backs One-Time Audit of Fed’s Bailout Role [NYT]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker