JPMorgan Chase last night alerted attorneys that employees in its foreclosure operations unit may have signed affidavits without personally reviewing the documents, the same issue that has recently plagued GMAC Mortgage, according to a memo obtained by HousingWire…Chase is requesting that the courts not enter judgments on pending foreclosure cases until it completes the review in the next few weeks. [HW via BI]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
JPMorgan Targets WaMu Funds (WSJ)
In a series of previously undisclosed letters sent to the FDIC, the nation’s second-largest bank by assets warned it could seek billions in legal protection from the FDIC receivership that liquidated the Seattle-based thrift two years ago, people familiar with the situation said. To the FDIC, the J.P. Morgan letters amount to more than $6 billion in claims, which would dwarf the $1.88 billion J.P. Morgan paid the receiver in September 2008, according to people familiar with the situation.
Ken Fisher Dubs New Normal `Idiotic,’ Sees `Great’ Decade Ahead (Bloomberg)
The next decade will be as good for investors as the 1990s, said Ken Fisher, the billionaire chief executive officer of Fisher Investments Inc., dismissing notions that developed economies face below-average growth. Fisher said the concept of a “new normal” is “idiotic,” pitting him against money managers including Mohamed El-Erian, the CEO of PIMCO. “We are chimpanzees with no memory,” Fisher said at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney. “The next 10 years are going to be just as good as the 1990s. The problems in this current environment we think are so different, and so new and so unique. It’s the same stupid old normal we’ve always had. We’ve got a great future.”
Bank Regulators Delay “Too Big To Fail” Reform (Reuters)
They just need a little more time.
Man Group Sees Pre-Tax Profit Down 55% (MarketWatch)
The UK hedge fund manager estimated that its fiscal first-half pretax profit fell 55% to $135 million due to lower management fees and higher one-off costs. The firm said funds under management at the end of September stood at $39.5 billion, compared to $38.5 billion at the end of June, as gains on investments and a boost from foreign exchange rates more than offset $600 million of net withdrawals during the period. “The last six months have seen further mixed macro signals across global economies and continued uncertainty in markets,” said CEO Peter Clarke.
Moelis Said to Plan Acquisition of Gracie Credit to Add First Hedge Fund (Bloomberg)
The $2 billion Gracie, headed by founder Daniel Nir, will operate independently of Moelis. The deal price wasn’t known.
Brazil In “International Currency War,” Says Prime Minister (FT)
“We’re in the midst of an international currency war, a general weakening of currency. This threatens us because it takes away our competitiveness,” Mr Mantega said.
Genius Gets Its Own Reward (WSJ)
A honey-bee breeder, a jellyfish scholar, a stone carver and an Emmy-winning screenwriter were among 23 people awarded $500,000 “genius” grants Tuesday by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. While most aren’t well known outside their fields, this year’s crop includes David Simon, the Baltimore author and screenwriter responsible for such popular shows as the Emmy-winning HBO television series “The Corner,” as well as HBO dramas “The Wire” and “Treme.”
HSBC Picks Boxer Turned Risk-Manager Gulliver as CEO (Bloomberg)
Gulliver, named chief executive officer last week, worked his way up over 30 years from treasury department roles in London and Asia, where he learned to manage funding, liquidity and interest-rate holdings. That training in risk helped him steer HSBC’s traders through the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s and allowed the securities unit he oversees to survive the subprime bubble with smaller losses than competitors including Barclays Capital. “You should not expect a significant change,” Gulliver, 51, told reporters on a conference call last week. “It’s important to take away from this that the processes that Mike has started and Stephen has started I will continue.” Staying still may not be enough. Gulliver, a boxer at Oxford University, faces calls from investors to boost revenue from Asia, where it lags behind competitor Standard Chartered Plc.
Depression up 25 percent on Gulf after oil (AP)
Good job, BP.
Bronx art teacher Melissa Petro blabs about exploits as stripper, hooker (NYDN)
At open-mic events.
Charlie Gasparino Thinks Barney Frank Is Making Excuses (NYP)
“Rep. Barney Frank & Co. are getting set for yet another hearing this week on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage lenders. Once again, they’re not after the truth — they’re looking to conceal it. The House Financial Services Committee chairman and his brethren on the left want you to believe they’re making a good-faith effort to figure out what went wrong with Fannie and Freddie — what mistakes led to their failure and takeover by the government during the 2008 financial collapse, and how to fix both institutions for the future. In fact, what they’ll deliver is more hot air from so-called “housing advocates” obscuring just how much Fannie and Freddie contributed to the housing bubble, the 2008 financial collapse and the Great Recession. It’s all meant to give lawmakers an excuse not to do what’s necessary and prudent — namely, kill Fannie and Freddie before they come back to do it all again.”
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Lehman Brothers Defies Bankruptcy to Become a Business Again (Bloomberg)
The defunct New York-based investment bank, being run by Bryan Marsal, has almost $20 billion in cash and a monthly payroll of up to $45 million for managers and advisers. Hard-to- sell investments are being managed by 400 employees, and the firm is spending tens of millions of dollars on litigation set to stretch to at least 2012.
PIMCO Makes $8.1 Billion Bet Against ‘Lost Decade’ Of Deflation (Bloomberg)
“We think the possibility that the U.S. goes 10 years with stagnant or falling prices is remote,” Mihir Worah, the head of Pimco’s real return portfolio management team, said in an e- mailed response to questions. “The options were priced at rich levels to the underlying” risk, added Worah, whose funds invest in Treasury inflation protected securities.
Real IRA Says It Will Target UK Bankers (Guardian)
In an attempt to tap into the intense hostility towards the banks on both sides of the Irish border the group branded bankers as “criminals” and said: “We have a track record of attacking high-profile economic targets and financial institutions such as the City of London. The role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain’s colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed.
Wilbur Ross, Carlyle To Buy Troubled Irish Bank (CNBC)
“Ireland has been a real miracle … then everybody there got too crazy with real estate speculation,” Ross said. But the Irish government shows “dedication to get their act together,” he added. “They’re getting their deficits under control, so eventually they’ll reduce their debts,” he said.
Berkshire Hathaway #2 Charlie Munger: US Economic Pain Not Over (CNBC)
Munger, Berkshire’s vice chairman, said the job market is likely to stay “lousy” for an extended period, and that he doesn’t see anything that would prompt employers to hire in the immediate future. Munger also warned that the pain is not over in many sectors, citing timber and commercial real estate as two sectors where there is “more pain to come.”
Money Never Sleeps: Wall Street, Stoned (NYO)
“We didn’t make it too complex,” Oliver Stone said last week. “It’s just so fucking difficult.” In the same interview, Mr. Stone claimed that Eliot Spitzer was the one who told him that Goldman Sachs was betting against the housing market at the same time it was creating mortgage deals. “This was before it made the news!” he said. “That woke me up, and I said, ‘My God, that’s some story.’”
Europe Proposes Rules To Help Steady Markets (NYT)
Michel Barnier, the commissioner for the European Union’s internal market, said clear rules were needed in the area of short selling to defend vulnerable economies and to reassure markets that Europe was operating under a single rulebook. Regulators would “gain clear powers to restrict or ban short selling in exceptional situations,” said Mr. Barnier. The measures were “a further step towards greater financial stability in Europe.”
How A Street Watchdog Got Its Bite (WSJ)
Pennsylvania State University Prof. John Liechty last week gave an exam to his marketing class. Far from campus, another of his projects faces a much bigger test—and all of Wall Street is watching. Mr. Liechty, 44 years old, has helped design an electronic safety net to assess systemic financial risk in a bid to prevent another banking calamity. The project—formalized as a new federal office in the financial-regulation act—is called the Office of Financial Research. Supporters compare the scientific challenge to the Manhattan Project, the Apollo space program or hurricane-warning systems. The OFR will have the ability to vacuum up and analyze Wall Street’s most confidential trading and lending data in a bid to broadly warn of financial risks.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Barclays Taps Diamond As CEO (WSJ)
In an unexpected shake-up, the giant London-based bank announced Tuesday morning that Mr. Diamond, Barclays’s president and investment-banking chief, will replace current CEO John Varley. After serving as CEO since September 2004, Mr. Varley will step down on March 31. Mr. Diamond will assume the title of deputy group CEO on Oct. 1. The announcement comes as a surprise, since Mr. Varley hasn’t previously indicated he has plans to retire. The 59-year-old Mr. Diamond, an avid golfer and die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, is four years older than Mr. Varley, who is 55. He lost out to Mr. Varley for the CEO job in 2003.
Obama Plans Business Tax Relief, Spending to Spur Growth (Bloomberg)
Obama will announce an expanded tax incentive to encourage business investment, an administration official said on condition of anonymity. Obama also will urge Congress to extend permanently and expand a research-and-development tax credit for businesses, costing about $100 billion over a decade. He began the rollout of initiatives yesterday in Milwaukee, calling for $50 billion in the first of a six-year program to fix roads, railways and runways and modernize the air-traffic control system. “All of this will not only create jobs now, but will make our economy run better over the long haul,” Obama said, announcing his public-works program. “It’s a plan that history tells us can and should attract bipartisan support.”
No Defense Against Double-Dip-Recession, Roubini Says (Telegraph)
“The US has run out of bullets,” said Nouriel Roubini at the annual Ambrosetti conference on Lake Como. “More quantitative easing (bond purchases) by the Federal Reserve is not going to make any difference. Treasury yields are already down to 2.5pc yet credit spreads are widening again. Monetary policy can boost liquidity but it can’t deal with solvency problems,” he told Europe’s policy elite. “There is a 40pc chance of double-dip recession in the US, and worse in Japan. Even if it is not technically a recession it will feel like it,” he added.
Burry of `The Big Short’ Bets on Farmland, Gold After Profits on Subprime (Bloomberg)
Michael Burry, the former hedge-fund manager who predicted the housing market’s plunge, said he is investing in farmable land, small technology companies and gold as he hunts original ideas and braces for a weaker dollar. “I believe that agriculture land — productive agricultural land with water on site — will be very valuable in the future,” Burry, 39, said in a Bloomberg Television interview scheduled for broadcast this morning in New York. “I’ve put a good amount of money into that.” Burry, who now manages his own money after shuttering the fund in 2008, said finding original investments is difficult because many trades are crowded and asset classes often move together. “I’m interested in finding investments that aren’t just simply going to float up and down with the market,” he said. “The incredible correlation that we’re experiencing — we’ve been experiencing for a number of years — is problematic.”
Cameron lines up HSBC’s Green as trade minister (FT)
Stephen Green is expected to announce on Tuesday he is standing down as chairman of HSBC to become trade minister, ending David Cameron’s long search to find a high-profile business figure to fill the role.
Bounties Spur Surge In Fraud Tips (WSJ)
The Dodd-Frank financial law passed in July provides for the larger bounties, with the hope of fingering wrongdoers such as Bernard Madoff before they swindle thousands of people. People who supply “original information” about large frauds could net as much as 30% of the penalties and recovered funds collected by the SEC, which could add up to a multimillion-dollar payout. Lawyers who represent whistle-blowers have been spreading the word about the new incentives. “We’ve gotten some very high-quality tips,” said SEC official Stephen Cohen.
Why You Can’t Beat Wall Street (NYM)
The current economic malaise would cause trouble for whichever party is in power. But having helped open the valves of anti-Establishment fervor, the Democrats may have not only failed to harness the energy they unleashed, but lost what capitalist allies they had as well. If there is still such a thing as an Establishment, the Obama administration increasingly faces the prospect of alienating it while still getting pilloried for being it. That’s a political perfecta no one was looking to pull off.
Flight Attendant, Jet Blue Part Ways After Dramatic Exit (CNN)
JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin told CNN on Saturday that Steven Slater no longer works for the airline. She said that the separation occurred last week, but declined to elaborate how Slater and the company parted ways.
Buffett, Gates to Take Philanthropy Trip to China (CNBC)
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates will reportedly travel to China later this month to “learn how to do philanthropy” in that nation. China’s Economic Observer newspaper says Gates and Buffett have invited a “select group” of 50 to 60 members of the nation’s “business elite” to a “private party” in Beijing. Some of those invited, however, have declined to attend, apparently over concerns they’d be asked, or even pressured, to make a donation pledge at the event.
Europe’s Bank Stress-Tests Minimize Debt Risk (WSJ)
An examination of the banks’ disclosures indicates that some banks didn’t provide as comprehensive a picture of their government-debt holdings as regulators claimed. Some banks excluded certain bonds, and many reduced the sums to account for “short” positions they held—facts that neither regulators nor most banks disclosed when the test results were published in late July.
Bankers Gather To Assure Industry Is On The Right Track (NYT)
Top executives from some of the world’s leading banks are due to gather for a conference in Frankfurt later this week as lenders seek to avoid what they see as overly harsh regulation following the global financial crisis. Two years after Lehman Brothers’ collapse heralded the global financial system’s breakdown, chief executives at Morgan Stanley, Unicredit and Commerzbank are expected to try and convince the audience at the “Banken im Umbruch” conference that they have done their work to stabilize their banks and should not be thrown back by new banking rules.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
SEC Vows More Action Against Wall Street on Crisis (FT)
US regulators told the Financial Times the SEC’s contentious civil fraud case against the Goldman Sachs over the sale of mortgage-backed securities was an example of the type of high-profile action its revamped enforcement division was working on. “Deterrence works in the white-collar world. Financial institutions look at cases like Goldman and review their own practices and risk-tolerance and think about how risky behaviour affects their brand,” said Robert Khuzami, SEC director of enforcement. Senior SEC officials said the regulator had a significant number of potential enforcement actions against banks and insurers still in the pipeline.
Private-Public Investment Program Reaps Rewards (NYT)
Nine months into the program, the eight investment funds chosen by the Treasury Department have generated an estimated return of about 15.5 percent for taxpayers, according to an analysis of their results through the end of June by Linus Wilson, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Two of the investment funds — one operated by an Angelo, Gordon-GE Capital consortium and another by BlackRock — have gotten off to even stronger starts, posting returns of more than 20 percent.
Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis (ProPublica)
“Over the last two years of the housing bubble, Wall Street bankers perpetrated one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history. Faced with increasing difficulty in selling the mortgage-backed securities that had been among their most lucrative products, the banks hit on a solution that preserved their quarterly earnings and huge bonuses: They created fake demand. A ProPublica analysis shows for the first time the extent to which banks — primarily Merrill Lynch, but also Citigroup, UBS and others — bought their own products and cranked up an assembly line that otherwise should have flagged.”
El-Erian Says `Alarming’ Data Show U.S. Economy Slowing (Bloomberg)
Unemployment is high, consumer credit is shrinking and small companies are having trouble obtaining bank lines of credit, wrote El-Erian. Increased government spending and additional debt purchases from the Federal Reserve are unlikely to spur a rebound, he wrote. “Throughout the summer, data signals have become more alarming,” wrote El-Erian. “Current policy approaches here and abroad are unlikely to deliver a durable and robust U.S. recovery.”
Tiger + Divorce = Six Strokes Under (WSJ)
Well, well, well, well, well, well, well. Not going to make too big a deal about this. Could have just been a fluke. He was due to break out soon—it’s been a messy slog of a summer. Despite everything—the self-inflicted personal crisis, the maddening inconsistency on the course—he’s still the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world. Technically. Which means he’s, you know, good.
Baby Tiger Found Stuffed In Bag At Thai Airport (AP)
Authorities at Bangkok’s international airport found a baby tiger cub that had been drugged and hidden among stuffed toy tigers in the suitcase of a woman flying from Thailand to Iran, an official and a wildlife protection group said Friday. The woman, a Thai national, had checked in for her flight and her oversized bag was sent for an X-ray which showed what appeared to be a live animal inside, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring group.
Krugman: This Is Not A Recovery (NYT)
We can safely predict what he and other officials will say about where we are right now: that the economy is continuing to recover, albeit more slowly than they would like. Unfortunately, that’s not true: this isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters.
BofA Economist: Bernanke Must Be Clear On Objectives (CNBC)
“In its recent statements, the Fed didn’t explain its actions after modestly changing policy,” Bank of America Chief Economist Mickey Levy told CNBC. “He (Bernanke) needs to lay out what the Fed’s views are on inflation by saying the objective is one to two percent. Implicit in that will be an understanding that it’s going to avoid deflation.”
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ Burned Out Swiss Bankers Get Counseling From Insurers [Bloomberg]
$$$ Cody Willard Calls The Housing Bottom [MarketWatch]
$$$ SEC makes ousting board members easier [WSJ]
$$$ Janitors v. JPMorgan [CNBC]
$$$ A quick programming note: tonight, in order to speed up things on the back end of his here site, they’re going to be moving something things over that affect comments. Not really though. All of the comments will remain in the database, all of the old comments will get imported over to Disqus (the new system). Those of you with regular handles will have to re-register, which shouldn’t be a cause for bitching because it’s NBD (and this will also eliminate the theft of handles, which some have griped about).
If you don’t want an ID and would prefer the default “anonymous,” you can just throw in any old fake email address when you get the first prompt upon commenting (it can be anything, as long as it’s formed like an email address, i.e. acertainsomeonescollie@petco.com will work). Alternatively, you have the option of logging in via Facebook and Twitter and while I doubt you will it would certainly add an interesting element to things.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
$$$ BofA, Ken Lewis Deny Fraud Charges [WSJ]
$$$ Larry Summers, lookin’ good [Rortybomb]
$$$ Goldman Sachs Is About To Go Nuclear [NYP]
$$$ Paulson Makes New Housing Bet [CNBC]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Around these parts, we’ve talked about Tim Geithner’s housing troubles at length. The Treasury Secretary and his wife Carole bought a Larchmont Tudor in 2004 for $1.602 million. Then buddy boy got a gig in DC and they tried to sell it March for $1.635 million. When that didn’t take, the price was dropped to $1.575 million. No dice. T. Geith was then reduced to renting the place out for $7,500/month, which many helpfully pointed out probably didn’t even cover the li’l fella’s mortgage payments. For perhaps not having a good read on the housing market and for also thinking anyone would pay over a mill for a ghastly-looking bathroom in desperate need of a re-tile, Geithner took a lot of shit. But hey! At least he had the good sense to not then take out, say, a mortgage on a second home he couldn’t afford before selling his Westchester palace, right, instead choosing to bunk rent free with a college buddy living in the District, which some people are now giving TG shit for, because his ex-roomie just took a gig at JPMorgan.
JPMorgan Chase, has just rehired one of Geithner’s oldest and dearest friends, Daniel Zelikow, as a top executive, only a year after the Treasury secretary moved out of his rent-free accommodations in Zelikow’s $3.5 million Washington townhouse. Geithner lived with Zelikow’s family in the six-bedroom house, which is next door to the residence of the ambassador of Monaco and not far from the home of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during most of his first eight months running the Treasury Department. At that time, Geithner was overseeing the bailout of several huge Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan, which received $25 billion in federal rescue funds from the TARP program. Zelikow, a friend of Geithner’s since they were classmates at Dartmouth College in the early 1980s, begins work this month running JPMorgan’s new 12-member International Public Sector Group, which will develop foreign governments as clients.
Geithner did not, technically speaking, break any rules by accepting the free housing. He disclosed his living arrangement, ran it past the Treasury Department’s ethics officers—who approved it—and moved out of the house before his friend was hired back by JPMorgan. And the bank last December completed repayment of the government’s bailout money. But…Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who is a specialist in government ethics and author of a leading textbook on legal ethics, described Geither’s original decision to move in with Zelikow last year as “just awful”—given the conflict-of-interest problems it seemed to create. He tells The Daily Beast that Geithner now needs to avoid even the appearance of assisting JPMorgan in any way that suggested a “thank-you note” to Zelikow in exchange for last year’s free rent. “He needs to be purer than Caesar’s wife—purer than Caesar’s whole family,” Gillers said of the Treasury secretary.
Right, and he also needs to be a man of his word. That word being– and I’m just paraphrasing here– “You scratch my back with dinosaur sheets, a race car bed, a packed lunch in the morning, a net and some neighborhood kids on which to practice my jump shot, I’ll scratch yours with a gig at any bank you want.”
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s Wall Street Conflict Of Interest [TDB]
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
HSBC, BNP profits top forecasts as bad debts tumble (Reuters)
Half-year profits for HSBC hit $11.1 billion, more than double the $5 billion of a year ago and above the average forecast of $9.1 billion from eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. BNP Paribas said net profit rose 31 percent to 2.1 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in the second quarter.
Goldman Details AIG Valuations (WSJ)
Goldman’s memo acknowledged that “a certain degree of judgment was necessary” in valuing the CDOs because they were so thinly traded. Goldman said its prices were based on bids and offers and trades in “comparable instruments,” as well as valuations it used for residential mortgage-backed securities and other assets that made up the CDOs. It also factored in the lack of liquidity in the credit markets and the complex make-up of many CDOs, which it said made the CDOs worth less.
Goldman Sachs faces public anger over plan to replace shops with designer restaurants near HQ (Telegraph)
Apparently delicious meat isn’t “attractive” to the people who live near Goldman Sachs: The bank appears to be falling foul of its neighbours’ demands for basic services such as a supermarket and a hardware store. Out will go a DSW shoe shop, a recently closed New York Sports Club gym, and a pizza takeaway from buildings attached to 200 West Street, of which Goldman is the landlord. In will come a trio of restaurants run by Danny Meyer, including a Blue Smoke, as well as a new ballroom and conference centre, attached to the hotel which will be upgraded. In addition, the bank plans 5,000 square feet of retail units. “It appears that Goldman has no intention of replacing this retail tenant with one more attractive to the community,” said long-term area resident Tom Goodkind of the closing of the shoe outlet at a meeting of the area’s community board last week. “This loss of space seems to break the promise made to our community,” when Goldman originally got permission to purchase the building four years ago, he added.
Alan Greenspan: Economy Is ‘Touch And Go’ (CNBC)
The US economy is in the middle of a pause in a modest recovery that feels like a “quasi-recession,” Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said Sunday. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Greenspan said if home prices start falling again, we could be facing a double-dip recession. “It’s touch and go,” the ex-Fed chairman said. Greenspan said that if prices stabilize, “then I think we will skirt the worst of the housing problem.”
Is Andrew Cuomo Ready To Take Over The Family Business? (NYM)
When Mario served as lieutenant governor, he decided to live part-time with his son, then at law school in Albany. I asked Mario if he roomed with Andrew for the fun of being together, which is how that time is often characterized. He seemed surprised by the question. “Our family couldn’t afford to do a lot of things for fun,” he said. The lieutenant governor had to provide his own housing; sharing an apartment was a way to save money. For Andrew, his father’s motives were simpler still. “He was just trying to slow down my bedroom activity,” he says. (Mario, a virgin when he married, hung a Virgin Mary in the apartment.)
German Minister Calls for Bailout Repayment (Dealbook)
The German economics minister Rainer Bruederle told the financial daily Handelsblatt that Commerzbank, the second-largest German lender after Deutsche Bank and the recipient of an 18 billion euro bailout, ought to pay the government back within three years. “There’s almost nothing worse than a government stake in banks,” Mr. Bruederle, an economic liberal, told the newspaper. “That has to stay an absolute exception.”
UBS to Hire Goldman, BofA Execs (Reuters)
The bank said on Sunday it plans to hire executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp to build its mortgages and lending business in the U.S.
Emirates to Cut Data Services of BlackBerry (NYT)
“In their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the U.A.E.,” said the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, a government body in the Emirates.
Lindsay Lohan released from jail (NYP)
The actress was released from Los Angeles County jail at 1:35 a.m. PST after spending 14 days behind bars. Lohan was apparently able to avoid the throngs of paparazzi staked outside the jail by not exiting through the front entryway.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker
Moody’s Chief McDaniel Says Company’s CDO Ratings `Deeply Disappointing’ (Bloomberg)
McDaniel said the collapse of the housing market and subsequent financial crisis were of a magnitude “many of us would have once thought unimaginable,” according to written testimony submitted to the FCIC before a hearing today in New York on credit ratings. He said he is proud of Moody’s reputation and the firm’s record of 100 years of rating trillions of dollars in debt. “However, the performance of our credit ratings for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities and related collateralized debt obligations over the past several years has been deeply disappointing,” he said. “Moody’s is certainly not satisfied with the performance of these ratings.”
Ex-Moody’s Employees Testify (WSJ)
In written testimony to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Mark Froeba accused Moody’s managers of having “deliberately engineered a change to its culture intended to ensure that rating analysis never jeopardized market share and revenue.”
Buffett to testify before FCIC on Moody’s, ratings agencies this morning (Marketplace)
The Oracle provided no prepared testimony– he’s doing it live!
SEC Seeks To Bar Steve Rattner (NYT)
Apparently that would be not good: “It would be the most severe penalty for any of the Wall Street executives ensnared in the wide-ranging pension investigation, and it would carry a significant stigma for Mr. Rattner, whose rise in high finance catapulted him to the top of New York’s social and political hierarchy.”
“I Can Plug The Oil Leak,” Says Long Island Genius (NYP)
Alia Sabur calls the plan the “seabed retread.” “It’s not completely out there, considering that tires are used for everything and they’re expected to withstand a lot,” Sabur, 21, told The Post. The idea came to her while watching television reports of the failed attempts to plug the hole last week, she said. And she had it all worked out in a just a few minutes, sketching it out on paper.
Set Aside Fears of Inflation — Just for Now (Barron’s)
Ray Dalio: “As Europe’s economy weakens and its debt crisis worsens, the printing of money does not mean that it will produce an accelerating inflation because simultaneously there is also less being purchased, and the surpluses are already causing deflationary pressures. That is why, contrary to almost everybody’s belief, I believe the bonds in countries that can print money will be good investments.”
Porn Stars in 3-D Lure Consumers to New Sony, Panasonic TVs (Bloomberg)
Really make that snuff film come alive in your living room.
Short-Selling Ban Highlights German, French Split (WSJ)
Germany and France continued to draw apart on regulatory changes Wednesday, when the German cabinet approved an extended ban on certain short-sales of securities. France had been caught by surprise when Germany first announced its plan and Wednesday said it wouldn’t follow suit. In another apparent policy disagreement between the two countries, France also said that it was siding with the U.K. to use a bank levy for general budget purposes rather than for a European Union bank-bailout fund, a step favored by Germany and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. Berlin has tried to play down this split with Paris, saying that separate approaches in France and Germany are the result of constitutional restraints on how tax proceeds can be used.
Iran to Change 45 Billion Euros for Dollars, Gold (Reuters)
Iran’s central bank will sell 45 billion euros from its reserves to buy dollars and gold ingots, a report on the website of state-owned Press TV said on Wednesday.
Article courtesy of Dealbreaker