March 2009

Today, I want to make the case for seeing writedowns as central to this global downturn. To do so, we need to rewind and compare what is going on today with what we have experienced in the past. Drawing on this comparison, I can…

Marshall Auerback here. I have a few thoughts about AIG and what it means politically and for American banks. The episode may have already made it much harder to get any support in Congress for bailing out more banks in the future. The…

The dishonest "Blame Dodd" scheme from Treasury officials - Salon The AIG 2008 Employee Retention Plan - Tyler Durden President Barack Obama: Perhaps he can't fix it. . . - Telegraph Slaughtering sacred cows: it’s the turn of the…

This comes via the Financial Times. The Swiss National Bank’s decision to intervene to weaken the franc has left currency investors with one less haven from the financial crisis. Its move comes at a time when there are also questions…

Quantitative easing is now the main policy course for the U.S. Federal Reserve. The U.S. Federal reserve is buying $300 billion in long-term U.S. government debt in order to keep interest rates low. As a result, the rally I in Treasuries…

The U.S. dollar is getting hammered today. It is now trading near 1.34 to the euro, 1.42 to Sterling, 96 to the Yen and 1.14 to the Swiss franc. These are huge hockey stick style moves. from 1.30 to the euro, 1.39 to the pound, 98 to the…

Recently, I have highlighted the comments of a number of investing gurus, most of whom are fairly positive on the market. This includes Jeremy Grantham, Marc Faber, Bill Fleckenstein, Fred Hickey, Marty Fridson and Steven Leuthold (Louise…

This video from the Charlie Rose show should give one a fairly complete view of most of the relevant finance and political issues surrounding the AIG situation. (hat tip Calculated Risk) Participants include bank analyst Meredith Whitney…

While most people have their attention tuned to the spectacle over at AIG, financial institutions in Europe are having their own difficulties. In the last day, I have seen news stories of European banks looking for ways to raise capital in…

As I mentioned in my post, "TALF: A bailout if one reads the fine print" the TALF is not a program ONLY for U.S. institutions. It is a vehicle for re-starting the U.S. asset-backed securities credit markets. In fact, the first recipient…