Free Republic

Good-bye. A few months ago, I posted some information on bank financial strength. The post was a complex table and it took me sometime to make the post. Not long after, I forget but perhaps 10 or 20 minutes, the post disappeared. Figuring I made a mistake, I posted it again. This time I was pretty sure I posted it correctly. It disappeared within a few minutes. To verify that this was what was happening, I posted a third time. It again disappeared immediately. I never received any feedback from FreeRepublic on this matter. It annoyed me, but since I...

Kurt Sonnenfeld : Exclusive interview 9/11 FEMA videographer at Ground Zero goes public As official videographer for the U.S. government, Kurt Sonnenfeld was detailed to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, where he spent one month filming 29 tapes: "What I saw at certain moments and in certain places ... is very disturbing!" He never handed them over to the authorities and has been persecuted ever since. Kurt Sonnenfeld lives in exile in Argentina, where he wrote « El Perseguido » (the persecuted). His recently-published book tells the story of his unending nightmare and drives another nail into the coffin...

This is something going around the trading desks. Suddenly tightening margin credit is a precipitant to artificially steep market declines as those students of the Crash of 1929 will well remember. That is something one does on the upside of a potential asset bubble, not in the decline. If this is true, then there is an obvious need for the Fed to step in and provide credit relief even if on high rates, moreso than propping up a few banks by buying their worthless assets at above market prices. Forced margin selling because of arbitrary private bank policies is going...

While some blame the greed of Wall Street investment bankers and the dangers of a totally unregulated system for the current financial crisis, what can’t be denied is that lives, and lifestyles, have been suddenly changed across the social spectrum and careers built up over a lifetime have vanished in an instant. Apart from the revised $700 billion bailout plan, can the U.S. government do enough to restore confidence and assuage the trauma? The real question is: Who is going to compensate the common investors across the world who have lost their wealth in the resultant market meltdown? The...

From the front page of itulip.com, comes this unsubstantiated rumor: BoA to close credit cards for approximately 60% of customers? “I work in Credit Department at BoA (Senior Level Credit Analysist Boa Bldg 3rd fl, Char, NC). We just received memo indicating that all BoA credit cards are being closed as of 10/1. Credit score and income do not matter, all accounts are closed as of 10/1.” Executive VP Bank of America“This is true, but not as bad as he/she says. We are closing accounts, but only ones with credit scores under 750. We will reopen cards within a year...

Have you ever walked up to a diner really hungry and seen a "closed for business" sign on the door? Welcome to the credit market, folks - it's officially closed. After Lehman, Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), AIG (AIG) and Washington Mutual (WM) debt and preferred holders have been unmercifully tossed under the bus so Jamie Dimon can be given banks, do you really think many want to get in front of this train wreck? Me thinks not.   For what it's worth, I was just offered Wachovia (WB) 5.8% hybrids at $0.10 on the dollar, and I passed. A block of...

Responding to Turbulence (With Reference to Bob Dylan, Alan Brooke, Washington Irving, Anna Fisher and Marcus Nadler) Remarks before the Money Marketeers of New York University New York City September 25, 2008Thank you, John [Partlan]. I haven’t been in these rooms for some 30 years. The Downtown Association used to be a haunt of some of the partners of the firm where I started my career—the venerable, now 190-year-old and still-thriving private bank, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. I went to work there for the legendary Robert Roosa after graduating from Stanford Business School in 1975. He and the partners...

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said the proposed $700 billion rescue of financial institutions backed by Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke would plunge the U.S. government deeper into a fiscal abyss.

It may seem like a long time ago, but it was only on Monday of last week (Sept. 15) that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy; the equally big news was that the Federal Reserve declined to bail Lehman out. I've read several details regarding Lehman's demise and learned some interesting facts. The bankruptcy filing was "pre-dawn" on the 15th, according to Bloomberg. The filing document is available in PDF form on the internet: it names Lehman's largest unsecured creditors, and the dollar amounts of their claims. "Citibank, N.A., as indenture trustee" is listed as Lehman's largest unsecured creditor, with a...

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said on Wednesday Democrats had reached an agreement to stem one of the worst U.S. financial disasters in decades, and that there would be enough votes to pass the measure and send it to President George W. Bush to sign into law. "We now have between House and Senate Democrats an agreement on what we think should be in the bill, and we have a meeting scheduled at 10 a.m. tomorrow to meet with the Republicans," said Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

A massive global rally in treasuries is underway and gold may be headed for its biggest one day advance in history as global systemic distrust sets in. ... Treasury 3-Month Bill Rates Drop to Lowest Since World War II. ... I just happened to be checking on rates exactly as the low was hit. 3 month yields are now .04.

NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 16, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has lowered its principal stability fund rating on the Reserve Funds - Primary Fund, Reserve International Liquidity Fund Ltd., and the Colorado Diversified Trust (CDT) to 'Dm' from 'AAAm' due to exposure to defaulted Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. commercial paper. Additionally, Standard&Poor's has placed on CreditWatch with negative implications the ratings on nine other Reserve Funds (see list below) and has withdrawn their ratings, as CDT will cease to exist effective tomorrow, Sept. 17, 2008. With the exception of the three funds, which paid out less than $1.00...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- [The Reserve] has put a seven-day freeze on redemptions after the net asset value of [shares of its "Primary Fund"] fell below $1.

A Liberal’s LamentTo win, Obama must convince the country that he is a man of substance, not just style. History suggests this won't be easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nA1MwOE86U

Financial Entities On The Brink Lehman (LEH)Washington Mutual (WM)Fannie Mae (FNM)Freddie Mac (FRE)Corus Bank (CORS)BankUnited (BKUNA)Downey Savings (DSL)Wachovia (WB)Regions Financial (RF)MBIA (MBI)Ambac (ABK)

This is an upcoming book, available on Amazon.com for pre-sale,presumably due to release closer to the November 2008 election to do more harm to McCain. Here is the book description, as provided on Amazon: The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Jack Abramoff (Hardcover) by Gary S. Chafetz (Author) Product Details Hardcover: 480 pagesPublisher: Martin & Lawrence Press (September 5, 2008)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 097738988XISBN-13: 978-0977389889 Product Description Gary Chafetz is a liberal Boston journalist who set out to chronicle the scandal involving conservative gun-for-hire and super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Instead he uncovered a Shakespearean tragedy of deceit, betrayal and political...

Derivatives bubble explodes five times bigger in five years Derivatives grew into a massive bubble, from about $100 trillion to $516 trillion by 2007. Data on the five-fold growth of derivatives to $516 trillion in five years comes from the most recent survey by the Bank of International Settlements, the world's clearinghouse for central banks in Basel, Switzerland. To grasp how significant this five-fold bubble increase is, let's put that $516 trillion in the context of some other domestic and international monetary data: U.S. annual gross domestic product is about $15 trillion U.S. money supply is also about $15 trillion...

Credit Tsunami Approaches Shore..... .... while politicians ignore.The economic news of the day is that personal income and spending were quite weak - better than expected, but weak.  Real income, measured with price inflation counted, fell."And the band played on" in political circles.It won't for long.Folks, everyone has said this is a "subprime" problem, then a "housing problem."  People have assumed that prime loans would be "ok."For 30 year fixed mortgages with 20% down payments and 36% DTIs, where no HELOC has taken place, this is almost certainly true.  They will not default in serious numbers.But to think that this...

The shocking death of Tim Russert last Friday has left an entire nation wondering what happened.  He was a model patient, doing everything his doctors asked.  All major media have run articles trying to explain the nuances and difficulties in treating coronary artery disease.  These articles find little fault in Russert’s care, trying to create the idea that his heart attack was just too hard to predict and that all that could have been done for him was done.  I beg to differ.  His death represents the failure of standard medical care to produce a positive result – an occurrence...