Post Tagged with: "shortselling"
Beggar thy neighbour: Martin Wolf is singing from my songbook
Obviously, the FT’s Martin Wolf has been listening to the same preacher I have because he is singing my song. In today’s FT he writes about the recent Beggar-my-neighbour eurozone policy and how the policy response in Europe has caused him, like me, to question his previous position that the Eurozone would never break up
Gold hits all-time record high
Gold hit a record high of $1,044.30 an ounce, beating the previous record of $1,032.35 set back in March and up a monster $26 on the day. The impetus is the crashing dollar, brought down by a report (later denied) that OPEC states and the Chinese were organizing a secret abandonment of the US dollar
Chanos: I warned Brown and Geithner of financial calamity
Evidence is now surfacing that Timothy Geithner and Gordon Brown were among policymakers warned in April 2007 of an impending financial crisis. Famed fund manager and shortseller Jim Chanos met with the policy makers at the time, along with several other hedgies during the G-8 Summit in Washington, D.C. Their worry: an impending financial crisis.
Geithner to shortsellers: take your profits and go home
Oppenheimer has a research note out today that calls Tim Geithner an “evil genius.” The genius moniker comes from the steady creep up the capital structure, giving Geithner access to huge pools of money as the Treasury dials for dollars. The evil part has everything to do with the pain this strategy is going to mete out to preferred shareholders and, eventually, bondholders
Mea Culpa: The Fed is not going to buy treasuries
Judging from recent events, the bond vigilantes are right to suspect that Ben Bernanke is all talk and no action when it comes to keeping long-term rates low. If you recall, I had actually believed the Fed would support bonds because it was concerned about long-term interest rates. This is part of the reason I believed that Treasuries would rise despite being in bubble territory but it looks unlikely
Massive short covering at VW and massive losses for hedgies
I ran across a very disturbing news item today that is getting a lot of press in Germany. Apparently, the leveraged finance community is getting routed at the German Automaker VW. The crux of the situation is that Porsche, which controls VW, upped its stake in the company causing shares to rise. For whatever reason,
Jim Chanos: short sellers are heroes
I just watched a great clip of an interview Jim Chanos, the famous head of hedge fund Kynikos Associates, did with the FT’s Gillian Tett (Hat tip FT Alphaville). Chanos does a very good job of arguing hat short sellers are being unfairly victimized by government. Basically, he and other hedge fund managers like John
Everyone wants in on the short sell ban list
Firms are being added left and right to the list of companies that cannot be sold short due to the market meltdown. GM, GE and Ford wanted in. Blackrock now has in too. If there is one feature about the new crisis protections put in place by the Fed, the SEC and the Treasury that
Australia bans short selling too
It seems incredible – this rollback of the free markets. But, six countries have now banned short sellers of financial shares as if they are solely responsible for the market meltdown we suffered in the wake of the Lehman bankruptcy. The latest to join in the curbs is Australia. The country has yet to see
Definition of the day: the law of unintended consequences
Given the fact that the regulatory authorities in the U.S. and the UK have taken the unusually manipulative step of banning all short sales of financial institutions outright, it bears remembering that all actions have consequences, both intended and unintended
Short-selling financial shares is now illegal
The latest government intervention into the capitalist system is the move by the UK and U.S. governments to ban short-selling of all financial stocks outright. In the wake of the severe market turbulence unleashed by the failure of Lehman Brothers, the government has decided to insert itself into the marketplace and prop up share prices
Too big to fail?
Recently, the SEC restricted short selling on a list of 19 stocks because of turmoil following the Fannie-Freddie worries last week. In effect, the SEC was signaling that these institutions are too big to fail because a number of these companies were not subject to rumors of massive losses while a number of institutions not