"Lord, Just for Today (and maybe tomorrow) Give Me the Strength...From James B. Stewart's New Yorker piece, The Eight Days:
...to short gold and buy broad equity indexes."...
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18Chris Cox--worst SEC Chairman ever.
You can sort it out later!
The Fed group reconvened at six-thirty that morning. They had decided the night before that repetition would be helpful, so Bernanke started on the same lecture. Thirty seconds into it, Paulson interrupted. “Ben, Ben, Ben . . . ” Bernanke stopped talking. “I’ve done some thinking,” Paulson said. “You and I should go see the President and then go to Congress tonight and ask for more authority.”...MUCH MORE
...Paulson had just heard that Bank of America was temporarily pulling back on credit lines to some McDonald’s franchisees, slowing a McDonald’s expansion into upscale coffee drinks to compete with Starbucks. (Bank of America disputes this account, but McDonald’s did issue a memo urging franchisees to find other sources of credit, according to Bloomberg.)...
...At the meeting that night, the S.E.C. commissioners were informed that the Treasury and the Fed supported urgent action. In light of this, and the fact that the U.K. had taken a similar step earlier that day, the commission voted unanimously to temporarily ban short selling in seven hundred and ninety-nine financial stocks....
What we were posting (I'm not sure what's up with the multiple '4:09 a.m.' timestamps, for example I know the Berkshire bid for Constellation was during the market):
4:09 a.m.
Stocks Closer to Fair Value
And the beatings will continue until...4:09 a.m.
This should not be thought of as a timing tool (for that we use our proprietary "What's on TV" timing model*) but rather, as a reality check. Bear markets are as much about stocks trending sideways as earnings grow (multiple contraction) as they are about price declines. Remember the quote attributed** to Keynes (who turned into a pretty fair trader), "The market can stay irrational for longer than you can stay solvent"....
Ex-SEC Official Blames Agency for Blow-Up of Broker-Dealers
4:09 a.m.
Société Générale: Prepare for the Great Unwind, part Deux
...Some of our earlier posts on SocGen:4:09 a.m.
Sept. 5
"Meltdown"-Société Générale
June 26
Société Générale: “We see a y-shaped global recession. We are going down before looping backwards”
May 8
This Week’s Advice: Canned Food, Guns and a Ham Radio
...*Soc Gen strategists have been bearish for about a decade, as they note in their commentary, as they expected equities to go through a period of “valuation de-rating similar to Japan.” ...
Quarter-Trillion Flood of Money Lifts Derelict* Market 82 Points
4:09 a.m.
China to purchase stocks, 'backstop' market
4:09 a.m.
Bingo! Buffett's MidAmerican Energy to Buy Constellation (CEG, BRK.A)
4:09 a.m.
Utilities rebound on Constellation buyout news (BRK.A: CEG)
A reader asks why we put "Bingo!" in our headline on the MidAm/CEG transaction. No, we didn't own CEG (you'd have had to be pretty nimble to own it so you could profit from the $26.50 price, it only traded below that for four hours in the last five years). Rather, the bingo was for the confirmation of the industry sector. Secondly, the group got a little pop on the news....2:06 p.m.
4:53 p.m. EDT- Washington Mutual: No Bids Yet (WM)
2:59 p.m.
Day 1 of No Naked Shorts
So what are the naked short sellers doing?6:59 p.m.
Probably out on their yachts.
Eatin' high on the hog.
Fat and sassy.
This photo really needs no words. Even the hills or mountains in the background look small compared to this big man in his S.S. Fat Guy boat. From Odd Planet
9:48 p.m. EDT Washington Mutual Update (WM)
8:27 p.m.
Bloggers! Traders! Obsessive Recipe Collectors! Here's the Cray Mini-supercomputer!
