Kohn Signals Wall Street

Here’s an excerpt from an article on Bloomberg, interesting reading.
Kohn Signals Wall Street May Get Permanent Access to Fed Loans 
By Scott Lanman and Anthony Massucci
May 30 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn raised the possibility of giving Wall Street securities firms permanent access to loans from the central bank, as long as [...]

S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

Comparison of the S&L Crisis and the Current Crisis, courtesy of Mish.
S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

I have been talking about an expected wave of bank failures for quite some time, most recently in Too Late To Stop Bank Failures. Recently I was asked to compare the current crisis to the 1980’s S&L Crisis in regards to to [...]

S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

Comparison of the S&L Crisis and the Current Crisis, courtesy of Mish.
S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

I have been talking about an expected wave of bank failures for quite some time, most recently in Too Late To Stop Bank Failures. Recently I was asked to compare the current crisis to the 1980’s S&L Crisis in regards to to [...]

S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

Comparison of the S&L Crisis and the Current Crisis, courtesy of Mish.
S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

I have been talking about an expected wave of bank failures for quite some time, most recently in Too Late To Stop Bank Failures. Recently I was asked to compare the current crisis to the 1980’s S&L Crisis in regards to to [...]

S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

Comparison of the S&L Crisis and the Current Crisis, courtesy of Mish.
S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

I have been talking about an expected wave of bank failures for quite some time, most recently in Too Late To Stop Bank Failures. Recently I was asked to compare the current crisis to the 1980’s S&L Crisis in regards to to [...]

Citi, Lehman Pointing to Rally?

Banking stocks, relative to market, analysis by Prieur du Plessis, courtesy of Minyanville.
Citi, Lehman Pointing To Market Rally?
Global stock markets topped out on the back of the sub-prime/credit debacle in October 2007. Prices subsequently moved lower until reaching climatic bottoms in January/March this year, triggering rallies throughout the world until a few days ago. The [...]

Sigma Designs Again

And here’s a song to go with it, I’m Sorry.
Sigma Designs In Freefall; Backs Off Old FY ‘09 Guidance
Posted by Eric Savitz at Barron’s blog, Tech Trader Daily.
Excerpt:  Sigma Designs (SIGM) shares are down sharply this morning after the company late yesterday disclosed disappointing results for its fiscal first quarter ended May 3. As Tiernan [...]

Bankruptcy Reform Act

This one’s from Mish.
Bankruptcy Reform Act Finally Blows Sky High

The Debt Slave Act, better known as the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 has at long last blown sky high. We will get to "how" in just a moment but first let’s review some of the provisions of the bill. Lenders asked for [...]

Thoughts on Market

These excerpts are from Bill Cara’s blog, yesterday and today.
Daily Report for Thu, May 29, 2008
"When the price of oil starts to come down there will be some relief to the US airlines. I anticipate some form of government intervention before most of the airlines go bankrupt again. The "New" shares will soon be required [...]

Pharm Facts

Courtesy of Mark J. Perry, at Carpe Diem
Pharmaceutical Facts
Time to develop and market a new drug: 10-15 years
Average Cost to develop a new drug (2006): $1.318 billion
Total R&D spending on drugs in 2007: $58.8 billion

Generic share of market in 2007: 67%
Percent of marketed drugs that cover R&D costs: Only 20%
Total number of drugs approved in [...]

Quick Note on Solars

Weakness in solar stocks, from Notable Calls,
Merrill Lynch cuts Solar Sector
SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) & Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ:ESLR) get cut to Sell from Neutral.
First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) tgt cut to $325 from $360. Maintains Buy.
German ruling CDU party says State support for solar power should fall by 30% in 2009 — Reuters
And from Notable Calls yesterday: 
- Kaufman [...]

Telling Rift

Here’s another interesting article by Mish,
Telling Rift Over Fed Lending Facility

In mid-September the Fed is placing new restrictions on the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, a swap-o-rama with broker dealers as opposed to banks.
The Financial Times picks up the story in Investment banks split over Fed loan facility.
Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs (GS) that have [...]

Mish on Speculation

Here’s Mish’s take on
Commodities Speculation Symptom Of Larger Problem
Definitely worth reading….

With a tip of the hat to Michael Masters, it is possible to Quantify Commodities Speculation. Here is the key chart:
Commodity Index Investment vs. Spot Prices

Chart One shows Assets allocated to commodity index trading strategies have risen from $13 billion at the end of 2003 to [...]

Consumer Confidence

Here’s an article on consumer confidence, courtesy of Alan Brochstein, AB Analytical Services. 
Consumer Confidence Plunges:  Buy!

Falling consumer confidence tends to lead to a falling stock market, but once it is "low", it tends to signal a buy opportunity. Take a look at the 30 year history of the Consumer Confidence Index. You will see [...]

Giant Pool of Money

"I think you can appreciate why the housing mess will not resolve for several more years. Prime mortgages have been sliced and diced and repackaged endlessly with subprime in order to raise the ratings on the entire pool, then these packages have been sold, repackaged, sold, repackaged, etc. etc.

They can’t even figure out who [...]