Archive for September, 2008

Politics Intrudes on Economics

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Speaker Pelosi plans far reaching investigation of recent events in the financial markets. It will be a circus and Henry Waxman will reprise the "Cross of Gold Speech". I will ask this rhetorical question: Do you think that she is seeking some universal truth or is she seeking to exploit the ...

AIG Conservatorship?

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Bloombert reporting that the Fed is considering conservatorship as solution for AIG. I am not sure how they do that. Insurance companies are regulated on state by state basis. Off the cuff it would seem as though that would require legislation. This is a politically charged election year environment and ...

Closing Commentary September 16 2008

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Prices of Treasury coupon securities are registering broad based losses in a day dominated by the fortunes, misfortunes and future prospects of AIG. There were many stories and comments about that company but a late in the day story that the Fed was reconsidering their position on aiding AIG sparked ...

Russian Stocks Plummet

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Via Calculated Risk.

AIG Redux Via Bloomberg

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

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FOMC Statement

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

At the conclusion of its conclave on interest rates and monetary policy, the FOMC issued a statement which held the target federal funds rate at 2 percent.Policy makers cited a litany of reasons for the slowdown in growth. They noted that financial markets strains had increased significantly. (They were searching ...

Morning Miscellany

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

CNBC has reported that the Federal Reserve and the Government are discussing some sort of intervention in that matter of CNBC.  I think the term intervention is employed when a group of concerned friends seek to help addicted people. Against that background benchmark, Treasury issues have surrendered most of the flight ...

Morgan Stanley

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Morgan Stanley-MS: CDS Basis Point Jump [MORE] 2008-09-16 12:40:54.710 GMTMorgan Stanley-MS: CDS Basis Point Jump CMA Datavision reported that the 5-Year CDS for the company jumped 128bps wider this morning to 628bps. The stock is also not responding well to a less than hoped for result from its peer Goldman Sachs (GS). MS shares ...

MBS

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Mortgages are lagging Treasuries this morning. The 5 year Treasury is up about 5 /8 of a point while MBS are down a tick or two. That would leave MBS about 12 basis points cheaper to Treasuries.Swaps are 4 basis points to 5 basis points wider. One commentator notes that there ...

IG 10

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

The IG 10 is trading 214/218. That is about 25 wider than the previous close and about 65 wider than the close Friday. CDS on AIG are 47/52 points up front. That quote is about 90 minutes old. If I get a more current quote I will post it.