Category: Credit Crisis 2008
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Thursday, July 10, 2008
Paulson: Financial Institutions Must Be Allowed To Fail / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
The Crypt is reporting Paulson and Bernanke: Economic Melt-Down "Ongoing"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that their agencies need greater regulatory powers to deal with the current economic meltdown in the financial and housing markets.
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Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Toxic CDOs Renamed ALT-A Garbage Repackaged / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and JulietBloomberg is reporting Toxic CDOs Renamed Re-Remics, Come to Life With Pension Funds .
Collateralized debt obligations that helped drive banks to $400 billion of writedowns and credit losses are finding buyers under a different name: Re-Remics.
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Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Bernanke, Paulson, FDIC Eye Taxpayer Bailouts, More Power / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
Even as PDCF use is waning, Bernanke Says Fed May Continue Lending Into Next Year ."The Federal Reserve is strongly committed" to financial stability and is "considering several options, including extending the duration of our facilities for primary dealers beyond year-end," Bernanke said in a speech to a conference in Arlington, Virginia.
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Monday, July 07, 2008
BIS Plan to Save the Western World By Ending Free Markets / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
Welcome to the weekly report. This week we look at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) latest utterances and look at the chart of a hedge Fund showing unusual price action. We start with a look at some "suggestions" made by the BIS in its 78th annual report. This is probably the most important global macro-economic pointer you will see this year that shows the way ahead:Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 07, 2008
Central Planners Trying to Mask Imploding Credit Cycle / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
With a collapsing credit cycle unfolding before our very eyes, central planners believe they must paint a picture that what's happening is ‘normal' and ‘ordinary', where in the end all will be well. And in spite of evidence this time around things are different, the media would like us to believe that the public thinks this is the case. What's more, the media, led by central planners , would like us to believe the investing public also thinks everything is ‘just fine', with exploding unemployment , collapsing consumer confidence , and an imploding credit cycle nothing to worry about longer-term. All this while problems associated with a collapsing credit cycle are multiplying , with new problems hitting the fan more and more all the time.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Paulson Statement Warns of Imminent Failure of Large Financial Institutions / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
The July 2nd Remarks of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson , on the World Economy and Markets before the Chatham House were quite remarkable. Let's have a look at a few of them.Whether it was Long Term Capital Management in 1998 or Bear Stearns this year, it is clear that Americans have come to expect the Federal Reserve to step in to avert events that pose unacceptable systemic risk. But, as we noted in our Blueprint, the Fed has neither the clear statutory authority nor the mandate to attempt to anticipate and prevent risks across our entire financial system.
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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Credit Conditions Worst in 35 years as US Manufacturing Contracts / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
Not to belabor the point I have made in recent commentaries, but last Friday afternoon's report from the Fed of assets and liabilities of commercial banks in the U.S. showed the sharpest 13-week contraction in bank credit - loans and investments - in the history of the series, which dates back to January 3, 1973. In the 13 weeks ended June 18, bank credit contracted at an annualized rate of 9.14% (see Chart 1 below). Because of current or expected capital inadequacy, banks are reining in their earning assets and, therefore, are not availing themselves of the cheap credit the Fed is offering to fund them at. This suggests that the 2% fed funds rate in the current context does not represent as accommodative a monetary policy as it would if the banking system were willing and able to extend credit to the private sector.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Credit Derivatives Deleveraging End Game / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
Welcome to the Weekly Report. This week we get so bearish that even I worry that my personal sentiment indicator may have reached an extreme. We tie up some loose ends and recap Citigroup.
"The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings." Singing? I doubt there is a bear in the world that isn't humming the Ride of the Valkyries as the charts tell a tale that will scare your grandchildren. It's looking ugly and has the potential to get downright repulsive. That potential shows up when a longer term view of the charts is taken. This week we look at banks, more specifically those banks that participated or later merged/bought/bailed out with banks that helped liquefy the LTCM rescue.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Banks Balance Sheet Destruction and Repair! -Crack Up Boom Part III / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
Introduction: At no time in my career have I seen greater opportunities for investors who are properly informed. The AVERAGE amount of M3 central bank money and credit creation is simply astonishing. It is clocking in at an average annual rate of 23%. Yes, that's right, 23%. Using the rule of 72, that means those money supplies in one form or another are doubling on average every 3.13 years as money does an imitation of confetti.
In actuality, it is fire hoses of hot money being used to underpin the G7 financial and banking systems. Then it is combined with emerging markets throughout the world with dollar pegs and current account surpluses sterilizing their currencies so they do not ROCKET higher against the dollar. It is a powerful cocktail of stimulus for the emerging world, and an inflationary one for us all.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Credit Crisis to Deteriorate on Credit Derivative Debacle / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
Gold closed at $984.40 in New York yesterday and was down 17.30 cents and silver closed at $16.76, down 57 cents.Gold rallied in Asia and in early European trading to recover some of yesterday's sharp losses. Oil has risen to near record highs, above $138 a barrel again this morning and the dollar has given up much of yesterday's gains (1.557 to the Euro) and this is likely leading to gold buying.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Mortgage Equity Withdrawals Slump- Another Blow to Household Cash Flow / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
As my regular readers know - well, it is difficult to have "regular" readers if I don't write regularly anymore - I make a distinction between the wealth effect and the cash-in-hand effect. If the values of your stock portfolio or your house go up, you are wealthier "on paper," but you do not have any extra cash to spend. But if the value of your house goes up and you increase your borrowing against your housing collateral, then you have more cash in hand to spend.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 23, 2008
US Economy to be Hit by Many Credit Crisis Hurricanes with Many Eyes / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
Often times it is not the leading front of the hurricane that does the most damage, it is the backside. Here is the three stage pattern of hurricane damage.
- Winds from the front side weaken but do not destroy structures
- The eye of the hurricane brings a foreboding sense of unnatural calm
- Wind comes slamming from the opposite direction as the eye passes over, shearing structures from the opposite direction
Saturday, June 21, 2008
$2 Trillion Credit Contraction as Consumer Debt Defaults Soar / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
Credit is drying up everywhere. Banks are now concerned (finally), about rising credit card debt. They have every reason to be. The bankruptcy reform act of 2005, which encouraged such reckless lending is now blowing up in lenders' faces.Banks and credit card companies wrote that bill. They got everything they wanted. It goes to show you two things:
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Fed Emergency Liquidity Flood Not Bourn Out by the Facts / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
We constantly hear from the talking heads that the Fed's recent policy actions are creating mammoth amounts of financial liquidity. But have these talking heads bothered to look at the data? If they did, they would have to change their tune.
Let's start with the raw material of financial liquidity created by the Fed - the size of its balance sheet. Chart 1 shows that the year-over-year growth in the total assets of the Federal Reserve System was up 3.85% in the week ended June 18.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Failed States 2008: Mexico and California / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
WHAT UP WITH THE MEXICAN PESO ??At the same time the US Federal Reserve relaxed its rules, expanded it Lending Facilities, and rescued big US bank balance sheets with massive swaps of USTreasury Bonds for impaired private mortgage bonds, the Mexican Peso rose. See the March timeframe. It rose above the 93.5 critical resistance. The target on the rectangular range swing is roughly 4 points, a rise to reach 97.5, which has occurred. With deep trouble south of the border in economic fundamentals, one would expect the MexPeso to falter. Three theories will be offered, each very likely, somewhat laced together.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Central Banks Buying Securitized Debt to Save Banks from Collapse / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
"...Ninety-five per cent of the credit created by UK banks in May went to buying back loans that they'd already sold to other investors..."
BANKS LOOK to lend money. Investors want to get rich. The Pope's been known to attend Mass.
Sounds simple, right? Once you've chosen your wool, just stick to your knitting.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
US Banking Stocks Downward Spiral to Zero / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
On Wednesday, BankUnited Financial Corporation Announced Public Offering of Stock .BankUnited Financial Corporation (BKUNA) today announced the launch of a public offering of its Class A common stock, with gross proceeds of $400 million. The offering is expected to be pursuant to customary underwriting terms for a firm commitment offering of this type.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Banking Sector Earnings Won't Recover / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
Minyan Peter, former bank treasurer at a very large national bank, was writing this morning about the financial sector in general and Goldman Sachs in particular in a post called Immunity. Let's take a look.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 16, 2008
Barclays SWF Cash Call, Nationwide Mortgage Interest Rate Hikes / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
One of Britain's biggest banks, Barclays after weeks of cash call rumours finally looks set to follow the rest of the banking sector in another cash call rights issue that aims to raise £4 billion from investors in an attempt to improve the banks balance sheet in the face of a deepening credit crisis. Barclays may even go so far as using some of the cash raised to bid for Bradford & Bingley which has seen its share price collapse from £4.50 to as low as 60p, however I personally doubt it will.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 16, 2008
Protect Yourselves from the Triple Crisis of Surging Inflation, Unemployment and Credit Contraction / InvestorEducation / Credit Crisis 2008
Martin D. Weiss writes: I've lived through four U.S. recessions, two bouts of surging inflation, and at least two close encounters with a Wall Street meltdown.
But this is the first time in my lifetime — and probably yours — that all three have converged in one time and place.
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