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Idiot’s Guide: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Who are those farm children anyway, and why are they in trouble?
Posted 07/14/08 in Daily Intel : Intel
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Merrill Lynch CEO Addresses Internet Riffraff in Conference Call
Merrill Lynch takes another subprime hit, but don't go predicting its demise on your blog just yet.
Posted 04/17/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Spitzer–Mortgage Industry Connection
Amid all the vengeful glee on Wall Street, the Ashleymania, and the coverage that has accompanied Spitzer’s fall, one aspect of the story has been underexplored, according to journalist Greg Palast: Could the Lonesome Gov’s fall have had something to do with the Fed's $200 billion bailout of the subprime-mortgage industry, which Spitzer conspicuously opposed and which coincidentally occurred on the same day as his resignation? It was a federal investigation which uncovered Spitzer, Palast points out, and his outing could be seen as unusual.
Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, paid Washington DC prostitutes to put him in diapers (ewww!), yet the Senator was not exposed by the US prosecutors busting the pimp-ring that pampered him. Naming and shaming and ruining Spitzer — rarely done in these cases — was made at the ‘discretion’ of Bush’s Justice Department.
Palast, a cult hero in underground journalism circles (he’s the winner of six “Project Censored” awards), doesn’t really unload any evidence as much as speculate at sinister motives, but it's interesting, and better than watching Ashley’s maddeningly chaste dance moves on some scrub’s cell-phone camera. —Josh Ozersky Eliot’s Mess [Greg Palast] Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime [WP]Posted 03/14/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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No Snow for Angelo: ‘Recent Events’ Cause Countrywide to Cancel Ski Vacation
Countrywide executives were supposed to be entertaining bankers this week at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch ski resort, a fairy-tale lodge nestled in the mountains near Aspen, Colorado, where rooms start at $725 and a Spago restaurant offers $140 caviar and Kobe steaks, served with a side of wasabi mashed potatoes, for a mere $105. But alas, it is not to be. This morning, Countrywide decided to cancel their getaway, in light of "recent events," a spokesman told the Times. They didn't specify which recent events. Was it poor snow conditions? Too much work? Or, oooooh, pressure from Chuck Schumer, perhaps? "This brings new meaning to 'snow job,'" the senator said over the weekend, when he urged the company to "call off this shameful ski getaway and put all [the] company's resources into refinancing the borrowers Countrywide took advantage of," in a written statement. Then there was the Post story headlined, "Let Them Eat Kobe." And lest we forget! CEO Angelo Mozilo is scheduled to testify in front of Congress next week, where he'll be asked to justify his ginormous salary in light of the ginormous losses that Countrywide suffered in the past year ($422 mill in the fourth quarter!) and layoffs of 11,000 employees. Just those kind of events. Nothing major. Countrywide Puts an End to Ski Junket [NYT] Congress to grill Mozilo, O'Neal, Prince over pay [CNN]
Posted 02/25/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Jane Fonda's Vocab Malfunction Might Affect FCC's Ruling on Janet Jackson's Nipples
LAW • Jane Fonda's vocabulary malfunction on NBC's Today show last week might influence the legal battle between CBS and the FCC over Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction in her 2004 Super Bowl halftime appearance. [Legal Intelligencer] • New York City criminal-defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz receives support for representing the accused murderer of a 7-year-old girl. [NYT] • Are television shows the reason lawyers get a bad rap? [Law.com]
Posted 02/19/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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UBS Replaces Old Jerk With New Jerker
Jerker Johansson, a 22-year veteran of Morgan Stanley and a close ally of former Morgan Stanley co-president Zoe Cruz, who was fired in December, was named the head of UBS's investment-banking operations this morning. He takes over from Huw Jenkins, who left in October after write-downs due to the subprime crisis, and CEO Marcel Rohner, who was serving as the interim head and who last month had the pleasure of announcing the largest-ever quarterly loss by a bank. Also, he is Swedish. Okay, let's face it: Dude will be based in London, so it's not like we care about him that much. We just wanted to say, Jerker. Jerker, Jerker, Jerker. Heh. UBS Names Johansson Chief for Investments [WSJ]
Posted 02/13/08 in Daily Intel : White Men With Money
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Warren Buffett Will Save Us All
Just now in a phone call to CNBC, warmhearted gagillionaire Warren Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway would help out troubled bond insurers by offering a second level of insurance on up to $800 billion in municipal bonds. The holding company already made the offer of reinsurance, he said, to insurers Ambac, MBIA and FGIC, all of whom have had problems with subprime mortgages and other loans and are in danger of losing their AAA credit ratings. One firm rejected the offer, and he is still waiting to hear from the other two. The offer is designed to make Berkshire Hathaway money, he added; it's not just "a good deed." Warren Buffett Offers to Reinsure $800B in Municipal Bonds [CNBC]
Posted 02/12/08 in Daily Intel : It Just Happened
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Have You Heard? There's a New Economic Freak-out Happening!
FINANCE • William A. Ackman of Pershing Hedge Funds got everyone freaking out about bond insurers by issuing a report yesterday afternoon predicting that MBIA and the Ambac Financial Group might just lose $24 billion on mortgage investments. “Here comes Ackman at the 11th hour upsetting the apple cart,” Douglas M. Peta, chief market strategist at J.& W. Seligman & Company, told the Times. “I don’t think anybody has really thought it all through, but we all understand the implications of real trouble in the bond insurers could be far reaching.” [NYT] Related! MBIA announced a $3.5 billion write-down this morning. [CNN] • Wharton is still the number-one place in the universe to pick up an MBA. [FT] • Following in the steps of other CEOs with giant mortgage-related losses, Merrill won't give its top brass any bonuses. But they will give them stock options "to promote the continuity of the management team as they continue to navigate through challenging market conditions in 2008." That's one way to hang on to staff. [Reuters]
Posted 01/31/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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