New treasury secreatary is NY fed reserve head obama's right about getting rid of the culture of lobbyists he did it by cutting out the middleman of corruption they dont need lobbyists anymore
But the jump from $40 billion to $80 billion was the result of those incredibly "accurate" rating's agencies downgrading AIG's debt three notches, all over a weekend.
The management at Moody's, Fitch, and Standard & Poor's need to be held accountable . . . indicted with their feet held to the judicial fire and thrown in prison if need be. In my opinion, throw in SEC Commissioner Cox into that "group" as well.
Wasn't there a rumor (or a bit more than a rumor) that Citi approached GS about a merger earlier this fall? If GS knows citi's position/balance sheets/structure, would it not make sense to wait, just like JPM did? Pick it up for under $5, instead of $20-$30? Now this is pure speculation only, but if you were a MS or a GS, and had the oppty to pick up all that commercial banking business (and jumpstart your own commercial banking-ness) wouldn't it make sense? Important question is this : If one of the above merges/picks up C with a treasury guarantee on the off balance SIV's, what would the new valuation of the I bank holding co be? IMHO, after restructuring costs it would likely be long term bullish. FULL DISCLOSURE: No position in GS, MS, or C at present outside of mutual/closed end funds and who knows what the hell they are holding any more anyways. And I know nothing specific about this stuff.
Citi isn't going anywhere. Remember citi is a deposit bank, so it can't fail. There are two options, it can be sold or the government can take control. CEO comments indicate that he is not going to split up the firm, thus making sale a near impossibility at the given market cap. Government say they won't do an AIG on the firm, nor does management want it because capital is much better than than AIG situation. So my thought is government will do something, but it will be more of a ST situation until confidence returns...
Ohhhh....I don't feel bad for Charlie. I feel bad for Maria B. Those "1000" -- funny how she always makes it a point to say she owns 1000, instead of she just owns -- shares she owns has gone from 50k to almost 0k. The poor girl!
amazing to think of all the things they could have done early. kill mtm, kill the rating agencies, kill the shorts, kill the evil media