Streetwise Blog submits:
By Tara Perkins
Fairfax Financial (FRFHF.PK) has its fingers crossed that U.S. President Barack Obama won’t bow to pressure to curb trading of credit default swaps.
Archive for the ‘Financial’ Category
Citigroup’s Same Manipulative Tactics, One Year Later
On March - 10 - 2010
Andrew Horowitz submits:
On March 9, 2009, a private letter to Citi (C) employees was “leaked”, helping to drive the stock and markets higher.
Here is a snippet from the St. Louis Biz Journal from March 10, 2009:
Withdrawal of Support Measures May Lead to Downgrade of Some U.K. Bank Ratings
On March - 10 - 2010
Research Recap submits:
As the UK financial sector slowly emerges from the recent crisis, the extraordinary support from which the country’s banking system has benefited is likely to be gradually withdrawn, Moody’s Investors Service says in a new Special Comment.
Moody’s expects that — over the next one to three years — it will phase out the extraordinary support assumptions currently incorporated into the senior debt and deposit ratings of a number of UK financial institutions and revert to its lower, pre-crisis support assumptions. Any resulting rating migration is expected to be gradual.
Don’t Expect Canadian Banks to Start Taking Over Their Troubled U.S. Counterparts … Yet
On March - 10 - 2010
Streetwise Blog submits:
By Boyd Erman
One quarter of (relatively) good news on bad loans in the U.S. is little cause for optimism about the nation’s banks, according to Moody’s Investors Service, which goes some way to explaining why Canadian banks have still not deployed any of their mounting capital reserves.
Lies and Truth on Sovereign CDS
On March - 10 - 2010
Felix Salmon submits:
Rebutting Mish’s Analysis of My Bear Stearns Video
On March - 10 - 2010
Judd Bagley submits:
Nearly one year after its original date of publication, my video, Hedge funds and the global economic meltdown has finally received its first bit of serious criticism, the lack of which, up to this point, had begun to bother me because it suggested that not enough smart people were paying attention.
As I mentioned, that changed this week when Mike “Mish” Shedlock of SitkaPacific Capital Management analyzed the video on Seeking Alpha and managed to make a compelling contrary case.
Financial ETF on Verge of Breakout
On March - 10 - 2010
optionMONSTER submits:
By Bryan McCormick
The Financial Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund (XLF) is reaching a breakout level at the $15.50 area.
Restarting Securitization – Will Amnesia Work?
On March - 10 - 2010
Gary Greenberg submits:
[This is an updated version of what is one of the most popular entries on my blog, written in early June 2009.]
It has been my position since August 2007 that the need for greater transparency and the restarting of the securitization market are inexorably linked, unless governments intend to be the Buyers of Last (Only) Resort far into the future.
How to Deregulate Our Way to Better Payday Lending
On March - 10 - 2010
Karl Smith submits:
By Adam Ozimek
The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency was supposed to regulate payday loans – those extremely high interest rate short term loans – but it now appears that it may not. This could turn out to be a good thing for consumers, since the best way to help payday borrowers might be to deregulate the industry…. Bear with me, I know that sounds ridiculous.
Three Dividend Stories: Main Street, Hercules and Medallion Financial
On March - 10 - 2010
Nicholas Marshi submits:
If you take a big picture view of the Business Development Company (BDC) industry, there is no question that matters are looking up. Stock prices are jumping, dividends are being maintained or raised and balance sheets are being rejiggered to take advantage of the nascent recovery.
Nonetheless, it’s not all easy sailing for investors in this space as the news from three very different companies has underscored in recent weeks. We thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast recent developments at Main Street Capital (MAIN), Hercules Technology (HTGC) and Medallion Financial (TAXI).