Dysviz I like this

The Monster That Ate Wall Street | Print Article | Newsweek.com

Oct 1, 5:44pm    (2 reviews)  economics, cds, finabce, credit-defaukt-swaps  http://www.newsweek.com/id/161199/output...

From the page: "It didn't start out that way. One of the earliest CDS deals came out of JPMorgan in December 1997, when the firm put into place the idea hatched in Boca Raton. It essentially took 300 different loans, totaling $9.7 billion, that had been made to a variety of big companies like Ford, Wal-Mart and IBM, and cut them up into pieces known as "tranches" (that's French for "slices"). The bank then identified the riskiest 10 percent tranche and sold it to investors in what was called the Broad Index Securitized Trust Offering, or Bistro for short. The Bistro was put together by Terri Duhon, at the time a 25-year-old MIT graduate working on JPMorgan's credit swaps desk in New Yorkâ€"a division that would eventually earn the name the Morgan Mafia for the number of former members who went on to senior positions at global banks and hedge funds. "We made it possible for banks to get their credit risk off their books and into nonfinancial institutions like insurance companies and pension funds," says Duhon, who now heads her own derivatives consulting business in London."

VDARE.com: 09/28/08 - Karl Rove—Architect Of The Minority Mortgage Meltdown...

Oct 1, 7:45am    (1 review)  economics, subprimecrisi  http://vdare.com/sailer/080928_rove.htm

From the page: "This orchestrated push for more minority homeownership wasn't some random caprice of the President. It was part of the master plan of his political Svengali, Karl Rove. As Rove told every reporter who would listen in 2000 and 2001, Bush was supposed to be the new William McKinley, whose 1896 campaign manager Mark Hanna had figured out how to build a Republican coalition combining the business interests with (some) new immigrants to make the Republicans dominant until the Great Depression. In 1999, the Washington Post reported on the McKinley Mania launched by Rove in Republicans Admire Bill … McKinley, That Is: "Marshall Wittmann of the conservative Heritage Foundation explains: '1896 was the year that McKinley and Hanna tried to redefine the Republican Party. Instead of rehashing Reconstruction and the Civil War, McKinley offered an appealing image to new immigrants, rising entrepreneurs and working folks. â€oe'The theory of the Bush campaign,' Wittmann continues, 'with the slogan of 'compassionate conservatism,' is to similarly expand the base of the Republican Party, specifically by appealing to minorities and more centrist voters.'" In 2001, for example, Rove told reporter Ralph Z. Hallow of the Washington Times: "If you're a Mexican-American … if Mel Martinez comes to town and talks about his life story and this administration's policies to encourage homeownership, and you hear Bush talking a tax cut, education and leaving no child behind, and he's seen with Fox, and the first place he goes when in Europe is Spainâ€"you say, 'Hey, Bush gets it. Our community is important to this guy.'" Before the 2004 election, Rove boasted: "[T]here are more people owning homesâ€"particularly in the Hispanic and African-American communitiesâ€"than ever before. This is a result of wise policies instituted at just the right time." At the height of the housing bubble, on Mayday 2007, the day of planned pro-amnesty marches, Rove's protĂ©gĂ©, Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager (under Rove's guidance) of Bush-Cheney 2004, wrote of how the GOP was wooing Hispanics: "There are several steps we can take to ensure that America's fastest-growing and most conservative voter bloc joins the GOP. …Home ownership has always been an important element of the American Dream, and Hispanic-Americans have made enormous progress thanks to the hard work of many families and the innovative policies of the president. Hispanic home ownership is at an all-time high with 50 percent of Hispanics owning their homes.""

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/uploads/drain.png

Sep 24, 10:38pm    (1 review)  politics, dollarcrisis  http://market-ticker.denninger.net/uploa...

The Fed has claimed that this is a "liquidity crisis." Really Ben? Then perhaps you can explain this? Note that this is an intentional drain of "slosh", or liquidity, from the banking system. $125 billion in the last four days drained? You wouldn't be trying to intentionally cause a bank failure or two to bolster your call for the $700 billion "bailout" plan, or perhaps intentionally lock the short-term credit markets, would you Ben? If the market has a liquidity crisis, why would you be intentionally draining reserves from the banking system? Don't you think you ought to explain that to Congress?

Newshoggers.com

Sep 23, 11:16pm    (1 review)  politics, house-of-cards, dollarimplosion  http://www.newshoggers.com/

new dollar bill

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Sep 22, 4:56pm    (1 review)  politics, lies, pitbull, palin  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/215/gallery/5...

what's the diff between a hockry mom and a pit bull?

The New York Times & Log In

Sep 20, 7:53am    (1 review)  multimedia, houseofcards, bankingcrisis  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/busine...

From the page: "Basic questions remained unanswered as of Friday evening, including how much of the mortgage market the administration hoped to buy up. The broader economic questions were even more daunting. What were the dangers in letting the government borrow another $500 billion â€" which ultimately might have to come from foreign investors â€" at the same time the deficit was already skyrocketing? Would this epic bailout lead to the same kind of runaway inflation that plagued the United States throughout the 1970s? But as the stock market zoomed for the second day in a row, mainly in response to hopes of a sweeping bailout plan from Washington, President Bush and lawmakers alike focused on how fast they could deliver as much government help as necessary. â€oeGiven the precarious state of todayâ€s financial markets â€" and their vital importance to the daily lives of the American people â€" government intervention is not only warranted, it is essential,” President Bush said in a speech in the Rose Garden at the White House."

Moraine Lake on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sep 19, 11:48pm  photography, rockies, scenic  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindajp/286...

Picasa Web Albums - pixelviz - garden in sum...

Sep 19, 11:46pm  nature, photography, flowers, garden  http://picasaweb.google.com/vizpix/Garde...

Merrill should have listened to its own advice

Sep 16, 10:51pm    (1 review)  deflation, creditbubble, finacialshake-out, merrill-linch, financialcrisis  http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?...

From the page: "Mr. Rosenberg, a Canadian who started his career on Bay Street, is one of only a few economists who rang alarm bells while the rest of Wall Street whistled its usual "don't worry, be happy" tune. Nouriel Roubini, economics professor at the Stern School of Business and co-founder of economics Web site RGE Monitor has been another prescient bear, forecasting in February that "one or two large and systemically important broker dealers" would "go belly-up." At a stop in Toronto in April, Mr. Roubini called that month's market bounce a "sucker's rally," said the U.S. economy was facing a 12-18 month recession and that commodity prices would sink 20% to 30%. On this side of the border, David Wolf, Mr. Rosenberg's counterpart in Toronto, has been among the most bearish on Canada, predicting the fallout from the United States and a retreat in commodity prices would drag Canada. Scotiabank has also sung a darker song with Derek Holt, vice-president of economics, long arguing the credit unwinding would put the United State through the wringer and hit Canada. It is not so surprising economists missed the boat. Throughout history the "consensus" on Wall Street has never forecast a recession, even on the eve of a downturn. On average, the consensus has predicted 2.5% real U.S. growth just prior to the onset of recession, and not once did it come close. Mr. Rosenberg predicted way back in 2004 that the U.S. housing market was in a classic bubble that would ultimately be popped. At a presentation to a mutual fund in Texas in 2005, he almost got laughed out of the room. "The CFO got up in front of 20 people in the middle of my presentation and said you are dead wrong on the housing market," he said in an interview yesterday. "â€To show you how wrong you are my Nanny just bought a 2500-square-foot split-level house in the suburbs of Houston,' he said. In my mind I was saying â€exactly.'" As in the tech bubble, the mainstream view was that a new era had been reached, this time credit and the democratization of the housing market, Mr. Rosenberg said. In reality it was a bubble like any other, fed by easy money. After realizing the housing bubble would burst, it was not too far a leap to predict credit markets and the financial system would come under pressure too, Mr. Rosenberg said. "Housing is not only the backbone of the household balance sheet but the cornerstone of the assets in the financial system," he said. In June of 2007 he put out a report entitled "Bidding au revoir to the credit cycle." Another thing Mr. Rosenberg bet on? That the surge in inflation from the commodity price rise would not be sustainable. Both commodity prices and inflation have since retreated sharply."

Toward a new North America

Sep 14, 8:57am    (1 review)  politics, integration, nafta, spp  http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news...

From the page: "The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is dead. Long live the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. After NAFTA, the SPP has been the most significant development in North American integration, so its imminent death and potential resurrection seem strangely out of step. Yet this is the only conclusion possible reading "The Future of North America: Replacing a Bad Neighbour Policy," which appears in the July/August edition of Foreign Affairs. Published by the prestigious American Council on Foreign Relations, it is the latest in a series of articles and books written by Robert A. Pastor. The intellectual father of what former U.S. ambassador Paul Celucci has indicated will in 10 to 15 years be a "union in everything but name ..." says North American integration has stalled and that last April's summit meeting between the leaders of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada was probably the last hurrah for the SPP."