Post Tagged with: "accounting"
Vicky Ward: On Lehman "we really do need prosecutors to get people into a courtroom"
Vicky Ward, author of "The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers," told Bloomberg that prosecutors need to get going if we are going to get any answers regarding why Lehman Brothers collapsed in a heap in the largest bankruptcy in US history and revealing a massive $150 billion
Links: 2010-04-01 – American Zaitech, Ireland’s banks and more
China’s Debt Bubble: When Will the Ponzi Unravel? « naked capitalism FT Alphaville – Tracy Alloway – The IMF on Germany’s Bank-Asset-Berg Los Angeles, Toledo, Other Cities and States Press Municipal Labor Unions to Cut Pension and Health-Care Costs – WSJ.com Bloomberg on the CDO Shuffle That Helped Break AIG : Ryan Chittun – CJR
Lehman Scandal: Where’s the Follow Up?
This is a post which originally appeared at New Deal 2.0 by Eliot Spitzer and Joshua Rosner. Eliot Spitzer is former governor of New York. He blogs for Slate.com. Joshua Rosner is managing director of an independent financial services research firm. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist — and certainly not an accountant — to
A quick video primer on Repo 105
Here is a good video from Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch explaining the mechanics of the now infamous Lehman Brothers 105 transactions. One or two tidbits, first. Even though Hirsch mentions Lehman undertook these transactions to pretty itself up during the credit crisis, evidence shows they had been doing these sale Repo agreements since 2001.
Links: 2010-03-16 – More on Lehman’s accounting fraud
Lehman Lehman Whistle-Blower’s Fate: Fired – WSJ.com Blogs Beat the Press on the Lehman Brothers Scandal : CJR ABN Amro hielp Lehman bij manipulatie – Het Financieele Dagblad Dealbook Column – At Lehman, Watchdogs Saw It All – NYTimes.com Lehman’s Repo 105: More Than You Ever Wanted to Know – MarketBeat – WSJ Financial News
Just what is the real level of government debt in Europe?
This is a post by Edward Hugh, who also blogs at Global Economy Matters. “If you don’t fully understand an instrument, don’t buy it.” To the above advice from Emilio Botín, Executive Chairman of Spain’s Grupo Santander, I would simply add one small rider: Don’t sell it either, especially if you are a national government
Pension disaster makes states and cities into financial basket cases
Employees of US states and cities have much better pension plans than do Average Americans and this is creating some serious budgetary problems, one reason to be very careful in assessing municipal bonds, particularly general revenue ones. A recent FT article puts some numbers on this problem: The US public pension system faces a higher-than-expected
Pension execs connect pension problems to hiring
While many companies can use the huge increase in market returns to mask a looming pension crisis, the problem is still acute. Because of actuarial accounting, pension funding problems are pro-cyclical. Companies look flush with cash during upswings to the point where the pensions can actually goose earnings. During downswings, this process works in reverse.
On releasing Citi from TARP and banking by accounting subterfuge
Credit Writedowns has made it clear how little will there is in Washington for substantive reform in financial services. But, let’s be more explicit in this post about what policy makers are doing. I will use the recent Citigroup TARP brouhaha and changes to the implementation timetable of accounting rules as the vehicle for this
U.S. forfeiting billions in future taxes to let Citi repay TARP
The Washington Post is reporting that the federal government has quietly decided to exempt Citigroup from a large future tax bill in allowing it to exit the TARP program. This is a backdoor bailout worth billions and is an outrage that demonstrates the lengths to which government will go to gift these organizations taxpayer money.
Reaching for yield in the post-TARP era
When I read Yves Smith’s recent comments on Bank of America’s repayment of its TARP funds, I couldn’t help but think of a post I wrote six months ago called "Asymmetric information and corporate governance in bank bailouts." The gist is of the post is about the same as Yves’ and it was inspired by
Quelle Surprise! Most Big Banks Lack Capital
My post title is an ode to Yves Smith, who likes to feign surprise when the blindingly obvious finally comes into plain view for all to see. The latest sign that underneath the surface weakness remains at large financial institutions comes courtesy of Standard & Poors. According to the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, S&P believes many