Zero Hedge (Blog) – David Tepper Is “Balls To The Wall” Long (But Unlevered) The Fed Of course, Tepper couldn’t resist but talk his book, and providing the most childish and discredited validation for his bullishness: the Fed will do QE in perpetuity. “Either the economy is going to get better by itself in the… Continue reading Are Stocks A “Win/Win”?
Bloomberg.com – Taleb Says Unawareness of Deficit Risk Has Him `Extremely Bearish’ on U.S. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan,” said he’s concerned budget deficits in the U.S. are spiraling out of control and may now represent a bigger problem than in countries such as Greece. “The U.S. is probably the worst of… Continue reading Taleb Still Hates Bonds
Barron’s – Taking the Stress Out of Distressed Debt Why one hedge-fund manager sees bargains in distressed debt. THERE HAS BEEN AN ACCELERATION of distressed debt open for bid, and hedge-fund manager John Jacquemin, who runs Mooring Capital Fund and the Mooring Intrepid Opportunity Fund, sees good value. After the financial meltdown of late 2008,… Continue reading Distressed Debt
The Financial Times – Southwest acquires AirTran for $1.4bn Southwest Airlines said on Monday that it would acquire rival AirTran in a $1.4bn deal that will widen its network of destinations and join two of the biggest discount airlines in the US. The cash and stock deal values AirTran at $7.69 a share, or $1.4bn.… Continue reading Is M&A Back?
The Wall Street Journal – Banks Keep Failing, No End in Sight Since WaMu Fell, 279 Lenders Have Collapsed; Lost Jobs, Curtailed Lending and the Big Get Bigger Some 279 banks have collapsed since Sept. 25, 2008, when Washington Mutual Inc. became the biggest bank failure on record. That dwarfed the 1984 demise of Continental… Continue reading Bank Failures
Bloomberg.com – Fed Model for Treasuries Shows Diminishing Returns This year’s rally in Treasuries has pushed yields so low that a Federal Reserve measure of risk shows U.S. government securities are too expensive. The financial model created by economists at the central bank that includes expectations for interest rates, growth and inflation shows Treasuries are… Continue reading Are Treasuries Overvalued?
The Telegraph (UK) – Gold is the final refuge against universal currency debasement States accounting for two-thirds of the global economy are either holding down their exchange rates by direct intervention or steering currencies lower in an attempt to shift problems on to somebody else, each with their own plausible justification. Nothing like this has… Continue reading Gold
Barron’s – A GOP House? Obama routed the Republican Party in 2008. Now he may be giving them the keys to the House. What that would mean. Few mid-term elections in U.S. history have been as exciting and as pivotal as this one. A huge swath of voters clearly is agitated by President Barack Obama’s… Continue reading The Mid-Term Elections, What Is Expected?
Bloomberg.com – Belgium’s Bond Yields Increase More Than Ireland’s in Political Paralysis Belgium’s borrowing costs relative to those of Germany are rising at the fastest rate in the euro area as a leadership vacuum undermines efforts to cut the region’s third-biggest debt burden. Investors demand a yield premium of 90 basis points to lend to… Continue reading Is Belgium Worse Than Ireland?
The Wall Street Journal – On the Secret Committee to Save the Euro, a Dangerous Divide Two months after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall of 2008, a small group of European leaders set up a secret task force—one so secret that they dubbed it “the group that doesn’t exist.” Its mission: Devise a plan… Continue reading Fixing EU Debt In Secret
Barron’s – Profit From the Absence of Risk Much of the “risk premium” in puts and calls that expire in a month or two has been erased. Now may be a good time to use cheap options to hedge your stock portfolio against a decline. To put it another way, much of the “risk premium”… Continue reading Volatility
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