stocksthatpay.com

Presenting The Lehman Bankruptcy Examiner Report

We present the first two volumes (out of 9) of the massive 2,200 page compendium that represents the just declassified examiner's report in the Lehman bankruptcy case.

PIMCO’s El-Erian On The Inability To Grasp The Seismic Changes Currently Occurring In The Developed World

We have now reached a point when a Senator has to write a well-intentioned letter to the very administration he serves, (whose sworn duty is to preserve the wealth of all of its constituents, not just Goldman Sachs), with a cautionary tale that continued lying to the general population combined with a culture of opacity and persistent fraud, will lead to a disastrous effect to the economy and to the very fabric of American society.

Senator Brown Warns Summers And Geithner Not To Fill Fed Vacancies With Yet More Administration Puppets And/Or Idiots

In a letter to Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, Senator Sherrod Brown warns the administration to not simply place more Wall Street cronies in filling the three vacancies at the Federal Reserve, which will open up once Fed vice chairman Donald Kohn leaves this coming June. Instead of mere" maximum liquidity" automatons, Brown wants the new Fed members to be "committed to transparency, consumer protection and lowering the unemployment rate." Furthermore, Brown demands that "we need economic policy makers who possess the foresight to identify harmful economic trends, the courage to speak out about the necessity of addressing these practices before they inflict lasting damage to our economy, and the wisdom to listen even if their views are challenged." Alas, as transparency and rationa thought, coupled with proactive defensive actions means game over for the Fed, these conditions are an immediate deal killer, with the result being that the only affirmative criteria for new Fed membership is the endorsement of Lloyd Blankfein and current Fed Director Jamie Dimon. With the yield curve merely at record wides, there is certainly enough room for the current 2s10s spread of 282 to at least double as the American middle class still has a little money that can be stolen, in space or time, by Wall Street, with the Fed's endless blessings

As Budget Deficit Hits Record High, Interest On US Public Debt Hits Record Low

What is wrong with this picture: the MTS just announced that the February budget deficit was $220.9 billion , after receipts of just $107.5 billion with vastly surpassed by outlays of $328.4 billion. This is a record.

Latest Four Week Auction Indirect Hit Ratio Is Back To Record Highs, Comes At 99.1%

Two weeks after the indirect hit ratio in the 4 week auction came at a record 100%, today it was once again at almost at the all time possible high, with Indirect Bids of just $6.744 billion taking down $6.683 billion, resulting in a 99.1% hit ratio. The chart of the recent Indirect hit ratio in recent 4 week bill auctions is attached. Here is the actual auction result : 4 week prices at 0.11% (nearly double the 0.056% from two weeks ago ) 75.56% allotted at high; Median rate of 0.1%, low of 0.05%; Bid to Cover 3.90, compared to 4.34 last week Indirects take down $6.68 billion of competitives, or 21.8%; Indirect hit rate comes in at 99.1% We provided the following explanation two weeks ago as to why this will likely be an ongoing theme, especially when coupled with aggressive roll offs of Bills by key investors such as China: The implications from this result: the Indirect bidders put the greatest amount of 0.000% or as close to preliminary bids as possible (remember, this means bidding at the highest actual bond price), followed by directs and primary dealers as we approached the 0.055% stop out to fill the $31 billion reverse dutch auction.

Jim Rogers Joins The "Let Greece Burn" Bandwagon, Blasts The Sovereign CDS Fearmongers

While we are not sure how Betty Liu feels about Rogers' invitation to come eat some Wienerschnitzel, what is certain is that Greek PM Papandreou is not too happy with the commodities pundit right about now. When asked should Europe bail out Greece, Jim says: " No, of course not, they should let Greece go bankrupt. It would be good for the euro, it would be good for Greece, it would be good for everybody ." Alas, more true words have rarely been spoken

Fed Announces Expansion Of Revere Repo Program, Adds Money Market Funds To List Of Eligible Counterparties

Over the weekend we posted a very critical paper by the Minneapolis Fed discussing the potential weakness with the various liquidity extraction mechanisms (in the absence of a Fed Funds rate hike). Today, the Fed goes one step further, after noting increasing pressure by its own members to commence a tightening policy, and has announced the expansion of its reverse repo program with Primary Dealers, by adding additional counterparties

Federal Reserve Accused Of Hubris By… The Federal Reserve

Looks like Tom Hoenig's dissension at the recent FOMC vote is starting to generate some serious traction. A paper just released by V.V.

Is Abnormally Profitable Recent Performance On "Mutual Fund Mondays" Indicative Of Market Manipulation Or Just Herding?

With Erik Hane Zero Hedge has previously discussed the bifurcation in market performance when comparing regular hour trading with that of the afterhours session, noting that in the September through December 2009 period, the market would have been flat if one were to strip away the benefit of gains after the market closed. Today, we take a look at a different set of data, namely observing a very peculiar market phenomenon associated with the term coined as Mutual Fund Mondays , especially over the past 6 months

Volcker Rule Amendments To Bank Holding Company Act

As more and more details of the actual Volcker Rule implementation continue to trickle in, we present the following excerpts from proposed additions to the Bank Holding Company Act, first noted in iMarketNews .