Great post, and I concur 100%, even though I do hear what don't is saying, he's probably looking at the "American system" from a certain perspective, and we all know what that one is. Good trading.
As I understand it, in a blast of compassion, they decided to share the wonderment of Auction Rate Securities with the public. So, the Wealth Management Group of this fine FOREIGN firm decided to build money market (s) around this stellar product. Of course, given no one has any money, they no longer are bidders in the market like dry bread and gravy that kept this crap alive. Everybody got a 5% haircut and nobody gets out. Had a million in the mm? Not any more. No liquidity. There may be more, and severe ones at that. I heard brokers crying they were finished and would be defending themselves in court forever. For their part, said firm believes they are the only the first to do this. Everyone else has to do it. Remember, not one of these firms ever has an original thought. Everybody has the same stuff. The attraction, is, how far they'll bend the law. An actual conversation with a prospective Prime Brokerage customer when like this. "Well, if I move to you , will you 'buy me in'???" Answer, "what, if we HAVE to buy you in, we buy you in last.?" Ah, it's so hard to believe, with ethics like this, we're in this mess, isn't it??? I think, as a by product, this is the stuff that causes runs on banks. When the 'safe ' stuff goes, that's the danger. If the SEC did it's job, instead of selling itself to the highest bidder, this could have been avoided. Oh well. I would again suggest Barton Biggs' 'HedgeHogging'. The chapter with Victor??" It's a time for losing..............." He was two years early. All the people on these boards lampooning the suckers. Well, the suckers are going to take their chips and go home. There ain't gonna be nobody to play with. Now. Let's get it over with. Incarcerate the guilty, and get to work rebuilding. Because, if you can't figure this out now, you better hope the auto industry starts hiring, because you don't belong here.
Our main problem is we confuse criminality and bookkeeping slight of hand with creativity. Too much credit given to quants, and other overrated numbers crunchers. Too many thinly disguised Ponzi schemes. Not enough hangings.
sayeth Willie "get all the rope in Texas, find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys hang 'em high in the street, for all the people to see..."
LMFAO I know a guy who got hired by the Wealth Management group ... what you're saying makes perfect sense in the context of his being brought on to push this crap. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. ET = priceless
maybe they're just thinnin out the herds,getting rid of the weak debt, maybe it's the bottom and they want us to sell into it, maybe this news is why lehman traded 47 million shares on fri,maybe they'll come out on tuesday and say that this is not a viable solution and shitcan the whole idea,we just don't have a friggin clue about what is really goin on...when there is a piece of the pie missin in a story,its usually a lie, in this market the whole pie is missing, this is no martha stewart cover up, there are some very serious crimes being swept under the rug