Quite a healthy skewering of the banking executives here on The Daily Show that I thought was worth passing on. Huge bonuses for our “fragile” banks are an awfully counter-intuitive proposition. But if you don’t pay the huge bonuses, you may lose the best talent, ”like professional athletes or movie stars,” says one commenter from Goldman Sachs.
Stewart replies, ”I guess the only real difference between bankers and movie stars is that when Nic Cage lost all his money I didn’t have to bail him out!”
See the video here.
MBS- FNMA 4.5 price: 100-14
10-yr Treasury Yield: 3.74%
Live blogging and video of the heads of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan/Chase testify before Congress can be found by clicking here.
Late finish for me tonight, but it didn’t stop me from finding something unique here:
MBS- FNMA 4.5 price: 100-14
10-yr Treasury Yield: 3.73%
Banking just ain’t pretty these days. But does anyone have sympathy for them? Anyone, Buehler? Anyone?
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama plans to raise as much as $120 billion through a fee on financial institutions to help recoup losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program and reduce the deficit, according to an administration official. Link to article…
Yes, I’m a sucker for the time-lapsed reels…
MBS- FNMA 4.5 price: 100-07
10-yr Treasury Yield: 3.82%
More on interest rates and where the predicting-set think they’re going:
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said Monday that U.S. interest rates may remain low for “quite some time,” easing concerns over the potential for an interest-rate hike and helping to pull the dollar lower against its currency rivals.
“Policy rates are near zero in the U.S. and the rest of the [Group of Seven] countries, something not seen in postwar economic history,” Bullard said in an address to a conference in Shanghai. “Interest rates may remain low for quite some time.” Link to article…
I continue to contend that this is the story of the decade:
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. should “explicitly” regulate derivatives dealers, said Gary Gensler, who has pushed Congress to impose new rules on the $300 trillion over-the- counter derivatives market.
Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has asked Congress to give the commission the power to regulate over-the-counter contracts to police commodity speculation that is outside of regulated exchanges. Link to article…
MBS- FNMA 4.5 price: 100-09
10-yr Treasury Yield: 3.83%
Jeez, are they getting in line for a modification? …. from The Huffington Post:
NEW YORK — The partnership that paid a record $5.4 billion for two of New York City’s biggest apartment complexes is having money problems.
The group led by Tishman Speyer and BlackRock Realty says it wasn’t able to make a full $16 million loan payment that was due Friday.
The companies say the missed payment won’t affect the 25,000 tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan.
Analysts have been expecting the group to default on the loan for several months.
The group bought the complexes in 2006 in the nation’s largest residential real estate deal. Since then, the city’s housing market has cooled considerably.
The partnership says it is trying to restructure debt.
Week 1, January 2010
From this week’s New Yorker Magazine: Raghuram Rajan, an Indian-born Chicago professor, is one of the few economists who warned about the dangers of the financial crisis. In 2005, he said that deregulation, trading in complex financial products, and the proliferation of bonuses for traders had greatly increased the risk of a blowup. In a new book he’s working on, “Fault Lines,” Rajan argues that the initial causes of the breakdown were stagnant wages and rising inequality. With the purchasing power of many middle-class households lagging behind the cost of living, there was an urgent demand for credit. The side effects of unrestrained credit growth turned out to be devastating. The impact of the financial crisis shouldn’t be underestimated, especially for Chicago-style economics. “Keynes is back,” Posner said, “and behavioral finance is on the march.” Also from the article: Now one of the University of Chicago’s leading economics thinkers, Judge Posner, is quoted: “We are learning that we need a more active and intelligent government to keep our model of a capitalist economy from running off the rails. The movement to deregulate the financial industry went too far by exaggerating the self-healing power of laissez-faire capitalism.” I point these out along with this article here, which indicates that the 2000s netted ZERO job growth for the American economy, because I hope Americans will enter the next decade with a new, yet old fashioned, spirit of how we define success. In the coming decade, may we ALL rise together and recognize how THAT is legitimate success.
See here for more on this Chicago School of Economics Mea Culpa
To contact me about financing your dream-home click here.
Weekend Wanderer’s Events
…finding the treasures in your town and beyond.
Two for This Weekend:
Une Grande Curiosité in San Francisco: A quote by the artist Leonor Fini: “It’s hard to define talent. Where does it come from? I think it’s the product of a type of revolt. A strong need to make your mark.” Now that it’s maybe safe to head back to Union Square in San Francisco (just kidding shoppers) it’s a great time to check out this exhibition of paintings by this wonderful 20th century artist. Have a fun visit to the MANY other Union Square galleries too!
Street Utopia North Beach 2010: Saturday in North Beach: Films depicting “livable city” policies around the world; food by San Francisco street –cart vendors; public speakers on urban sustainability and the “public space” movement; artwork displayed by Lutzka Zivny and Chris Ferris; presentation of a variety of utopian designs that reclaim and enhance North Beach streets. Wow! Looks like a good excuse to get down to North Beach to me! Plenty of other fun and great food to be had there too!
Help Your Fellow Living Beings:
One Warm Coat: Their simple mission: Our goal is to provide any person in need with a warm coat, free of charge. Providing this simple yet vital need helps people live productive lives year round. Their origin: One Warm Coat started out in 1992 as a Thanksgiving Weekend coat drive in San Francisco. Since then, more than 1 Million coats have been donated in thousands of local communities across North America. Each coat drive has the same intent — to collect coats that will be GIVEN to those in need. I’m a fan of that. Check ‘em out.
Two Weekends from Now:
In the Name of Love: Musical Tribute to MLK in Oakland: Sunday the 17th you can join in this musical commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Scottish Rite Theatre in Oakland. Acts such as the Oakland Inter-Faith Gospel Choir, Ledisi, and the John Santos Sextet make up the billing and a rousing revival atmosphere is sure to occur. Looks like a great show for a holiday weekend!
Pic of the Week… from my phone camera:
Envisioning the future…
MBS- FNMA 4.5 price: 100-13
10-yr Treasury Yield: 3.81%
MBS- FNMA 4.5 price: 100-09
10-yr Treasury Yield: 3.82%
A little insight on how the Fed sees the government backing of Fannie and Freddie:
WASHINGTON (JEANNINE AVERSA — AP) — Some Federal Reserve policymakers last month were conflicted over whether to expand or cut back a program intended to drive down mortgage rates, bolster the housing market and keep the recovery going, according to a document released Wednesday.
Minutes of the Fed’s closed-door meeting on Dec. 15-16 revealed that a “few members” thought that the Fed’s $1.25 trillion program to buy mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might need to be expanded and extended beyond its current end date of March 31. Such an additional dose of stimulus would be especially needed if the economic recovery were to weaken, they argued. Link to article…