Free Republic

In the 1980s Michael Milken made a vast fortune and name for himself issuing and trading high yield corporate debt securities popularly known as junk bonds at Drexel Burnham Lambert. By the time BHO through is mismanaging the federal budget, U.S. government debt securities including T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds are going to have the same level of safety and security as junk bonds, perhaps even worse. In the investment world, U.S. government bonds have traditionally been considered the safest of all investments. Safer than stocks, mutual funds, high grade corporate and muncipal bonds. The problem is the first thing we...

There was a newsflash this morning on Reuters that "Mark to Market is NOT going to be suspended", allegedly sourced from someone at the SEC. MTM was put into place after ENRON due to the amazing abuses on their balance sheet with asset "valuations" in an attempt to prevent re-runs of that debacle. It has been circumvented to a large part by "Level 3" assets, which are in fact marked to model (same thing as non-MTM eh?) So why the furor? Let's say you are a bank and have $1 billion of some bond issue that was stuffed to the...

Can't Rush and Sean afford to buy them now?

The state Republican Party has launched a television ad attacking state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi for mishandling the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Co. The ad targeting Garamendi, a Democrat running against Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, for lieutenant governor, began running Aug. 28 in the Sacramento and Los Angeles media markets. (snip) ANALYSIS: The GOP advertisement attempts to weaken Garamendi, a former gubernatorial candidate and statewide officeholder, by exploiting what is perhaps his greatest political vulnerability. Garamendi has long been dogged by criticism for allegedly mishandling the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Co. In 1991,...

Ford Motor Co. shares took a hit Wednesday, pressured as Standard & Poor's pushed the automaker's credit rating deeper into junk status... At last check, shares of the second-biggest U.S. car manufacturer were down 13 cents, or 2%, at $6.41 -- just 3 cents above their lowest level in nearly 13 years. The ratings agency downgraded $151 billion in Ford debt by one notch, to a B+ rating, and thus put the rating four levels into speculative-grade territory, with a negative outlook. "Notwithstanding its multiyear plan to turn around the performance of its North American automotive operations, " S&P said,...

LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Servicecut its credit rating on Tribune Co. (TRB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) one notch on Thursday, sending its debt to "junk", because of the U.S. publisher's plans to increase its debt load to return cash to shareholders. The publisher and broadcaster's plan to buy back stock had already prompted downgrades from Moody's, and rivals Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings to the lowest level of investment grade at the end of May. In a statement, Moody's said it cut its rating on Tribune to Ba1 from Baa3 and assigned a stable outlook. The downgrade...

(English-language translation) Moody's degraded Puerto Rico's credit rating today, thus aggravating the crisis that has left 90,000 public employees in the island without a job. "This action reflects Puerto Rico's tense financial situation, the continuing political conflict, and the lack of agreement to [take] the necessary measures to end years of financial deterioration by the government," Moody's stated in a release. The majority of the bonds, which were [originally] classified "Baa2", decreased to "Baa3", which is the limit for bonds [considered] healthy for investment. However, according to Secretary of the Governor's Office Aníbal José Torres, the ratings firm degraded some...

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Thursday cut both Knight Ridder Inc. (KRI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and McClatchy Co. (MNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to junk status, citing McClatchy's acquisition of its bigger rival newspaper publisher. In mid-March, No. 9 U.S. newspaper publisher McClatchy said it would buy Knight-Ridder Inc. for $4.5 billion to become the second-largest U.S. newspaper chain. Downgrades, particularly to junk, tend to raise a company's borrowing costs. Moody's cut both Knight Ridder and McClatchy's bond ratings to the top junk level of "Ba1" from the bottom investment-grade rating of "Baa3." The new combined...

Dear Barry, You've just resumed your chase on history, going after a record some thought would never be touched, and I'm with you every step of the way. I know you have taken a lot of heat over the years, and with all the recent news about a new book whose goal is to bring you down, it seems like that disdain isn't about to go away. And I don't know why. While many people seem to take joy in expressing the amount of distaste they feel for you, I come as a friend, a light in the dark who...

Seven home runs shy of passing Babe Ruth, this should be a time of unbridled joy and excitement for Barry Bonds. Not so, he says. ''My life is in shambles. It is crazy,'' Bonds said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. ''It couldn't get any crazier. I'm just trying to stay sane.'' Then, clearly joking, he went for shock value: ''Go to the Empire State Building and jump off, commit suicide and people can say, 'Barry Bonds is finally dead.' Except for in San Francisco,'' he said. ''I'll leave something for them.'' Despite those pronouncements, the 41-year-old Bonds...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds' lawyer says he'll ask a judge to order that the authors of a new book detailing the Giants' slugger's alleged use of steroids turn over any profits they make. Notice of the lawsuit came today in a letter from attorney Michael Rains' office to the agent for authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. They are reporters for The Chronicle and authors of the book "Game of Shadows." The book, published today, concerns the Bay Area laboratory known as BALCO and the athletes, including Bonds, who allegedly were illicitly supplied with performance-enhancing drugs. According to the...

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons...*SNIP* ...By 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGwire's single-season home-run record (70) by belting 73, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the Cream and the Clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast-acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle. BALCO tracked Bonds' usage with doping calendars and folders -- detailing drugs, quantities,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Barry Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone, for at least five seasons beginning in 1998, according to a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters. An excerpt of "Game of Shadows," which provides details of the San Francisco slugger's extensive doping program, appears in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated. Bonds, who testified before a San Francisco federal grand jury looking into steroid use by top athletes, repeatedly has denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Phone messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment from his attorney and...

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal. The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that...

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal. (An excerpt of Game of Shadows that details Bonds' steroid use appears exclusively in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, which is available on newsstands beginning on Wednesday. The...

SACRAMENTO — Coming off a losing campaign to curb state spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a statewide public works program that may be financed by a bond sale so large it would dwarf previous state borrowings. The governor hopes to join with Democratic leaders and businesses to address Californians' growing frustration with clogged roadways, polluted water, hospital shortages, overcrowded schools ... Schwarzenegger is seizing an issue with wide bipartisan support in an effort to restore his image as a moderate, although his plan threatens to cause tension with some conservative allies who have long warned against more government borrowing....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out a $700 million punitive damages award won by the state of California in a lawsuit stemming from the takeover of failed insurer Executive Life by French investors. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz concluded Tuesday that the state's Department of Insurance was not entitled to receive the $700 million awarded by jurors in July as part of their judgment against French company Artemis SA, according to a summary of the order posted on the court's Web site. "This order addresses only the question of whether plaintiff (Insurance Commissioner) John...

The joylessness of Barry Bonds is immutable now. His return in pursuit of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron is made of radioactive stuff. His undertaking is hard to embrace. It smacks of wrong. The fun is absent amid the clearing of throats. Bonds now lives in his imaginary bunker to ward off the slings and arrows of the BALCO scandal. He is the victim, of course. He is both the victim of BALCO and an unsympathetic national press that sees his exploits through the lens of race. His is an understandable gambit. What else does he have to play? More...

The state's giveaway sale of Executive Life and the insurer's fat portfolio of junk bonds is the gift that keeps on giving - political headaches, that is. State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who seized the troubled insurer in 1991 and then approved its sale, desperately wants to deflect the onus for the multibillion-dollar debacle that left tens of thousands of disabled and retired annuitants twisting in the wind. But try as he might to shift the burden onto the French buyers, it appears they will at most cede only a tiny fraction of their huge profits from the transaction. A...

<p>If Michael Milken is feeling nostalgic about the good old days of hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts, he might consider heading to Tokyo. Junk bonds are suddenly getting big in Japan.</p> <p>With Japanese stocks at their lowest levels in two decades, and the yield on 10-year government bonds well under 1 percent, investors are seeking higher -- and riskier -- returns. That's driving a sizeable increase in junk bond issuance, and the world's second-biggest economy could be better off for it.</p>

U.S. junk bond inflows jump, giving record quarter Friday April 4, 11:50 am ET By Dena Aubin (Recasts lead, adds background, details) NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Investors' love affair with U.S. junk bonds shows no sign of cooling off as returns barrel higher and the risk of default decreases, prompting a record inflow of cash for the first quarter, new data showed. Funds that invest in the bonds pulled in $1.2 billion in cash in the week ended April 2, the sixth straight week of robust inflows, according to AMG Data Services. The funds, which had pulled in...

<p>Sacramento -- Fueled by California's giant cash shortfall, a third major rating agency on Wall Street will lower the state's creditworthiness, State Treasurer Phil Angelides predicted Thursday.</p> <p>Angelides and top officials from Gov. Gray Davis' administration met with two credit agencies in New York Thursday and will meet with a third today to try to convince them that California has a realistic plan to erase its cash gap.</p>

How did executives obtain such drastically increased compensation over the last 10 years? Why did boards allow it? The answer lies in regulatory and court decisions that have impeded hostile takeovers over the last 12 years. These decisions took away one layer -- a most important one -- from the checks and balances controlling boards' and CEOs' behaviour. The elimination of this layer and its unintended consequences were, in themselves, unintended effects of events in previous years, especially some taking place between 1982 and 1992. Following the Williams Act passed by U.S. Congress in 1968, American states passed so-called "first...

<p>AOL has been through the wringer since announcing its marriage to Time Warner in January 2000. Now its bonds are trading at junk levels.</p> <p>July 9, 2002 -- With its stock already under siege, AOL Time Warner's bonds have sunk to new lows, suddenly trading as though they were junk.</p>

Filed at 3:09 p.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Corp. (T.N) on Wednesday saw its credit ratings, affecting $25 billion of debt, cut to two notches above ``junk'' status by Moody's Investors Service, which said the company faces ``weakened revenue prospects'' and rising competition in its core business. The cut triggers a rise in interest costs for the New York-based long-distance phone company, the nation's largest. AT&T became the latest big telecom in May to suffer a credit rating downgrade. Its largest rival, WorldCom Inc. (WCOM.O), was cut to junk status by all leading U.S. rating agencies, while Qwest...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Adelphia Communications Corp.ADLAE.O said on Friday that it is being investigated by grand juries in two states and it missed $44.7 million of debt and dividend payments, signs that a bankruptcy filing is imminent and amid a possible Nasdaq delisting. "Their actions and disclosure are indicative of a company that plans to file for bankruptcy," said Harold Rivkin, president of H. Rivkin & Co. in Princeton, New Jersey, a distressed debt brokerage that trades Adelphia bonds. "Today's announcement confirms everyone's worst fears. It looks like the whole thing is unraveling." The No. 6 U.S. cable TV...