Bulls, Bears & Bucks #57: ING 793 miljoen verlies & Duitse 'bad-bank'

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Op maandag 11 mei 2009 20:53 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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I see rotting brown shoots
KLM

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Balance Sheet Transactions

Posted by Tyler Durden at 3:05 PM
This video is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand just how "effective" the Fed is at safeguarding taxpayer money. Apparently nobody at the Federal Reserve has any clue where the trillions of dollars that have come from the Fed's expanded balance sheet have gone. Additionally, nobody there seems to have any idea what the losses on the Fed's $2 trillion portfolio really are.

As for the pittance of $9 trillion in Fed off-balance sheet transactions over the past 8 months, well, yeah, that's also somewhere out there... Just don't ask the Federal Reserve where.

Rep. Alan Grayson summarizes it best "I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve is keeping track of anything."

(P.S. Zero Hedge uses the term "anyone" generically, with the presumption that the Fed's Inspector General should traditionally receive most memos on memorandum items that deal with a dollar sign and +/- 12 zeros after it).

Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?

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Op maandag 11 mei 2009 22:41 schreef Dinosaur_Sr het volgende:
2 wtf's in een minuut. Als dat geen omen is

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Op maandag 11 mei 2009 22:39 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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Kijk en huiver. Dit is de Inspector general van de FED
Wtf!!!

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Op maandag 11 mei 2009 22:39 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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Kijk en huiver. Dit is de Inspector general van de FED
Wtf!!!

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Op maandag 11 mei 2009 22:39 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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Kijk en huiver. Dit is de Inspector general van de FED
Wtf!!!

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Op dinsdag 12 mei 2009 13:45 schreef Richie_Rich het volgende:

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Huh

En ook gewoon doen alsof het een futiliteit betreft

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Chinese exports fall sharply

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Published: May 12 2009 05:31 | Last updated: May 12 2009 05:31

Chinese exports fell steeply year-on-year in April, raising fears that the worst is not yet over for an economy that has shown signs of bottoming out in recent weeks.

The total value of Chinese exports fell 22.6 per cent from a year earlier in April to $91.9bn, a faster rate of decline than the 17.1 per cent year-on-year drop in March, which many analysts and officials took as a sign that external demand for Chinese goods was starting to recover.

Imports fell 23 per cent in April from a year earlier to $78.8bn in what some analysts said was a sign that domestic investors were still unwilling to invest in new capacity.

On a more positive note, the government said on Tuesday that fixed-asset investment in Chinese urban areas rose faster than expected in the first four months, jumping 30.5 per cent from a year earlier.

State-backed infrastructure projects intended to boost flagging growth appeared to account for the majority of the investment, but an apparent bottoming out in house prices may have contributed to a resumption of real estate development.

Chinese urban property prices fell 1.1 per cent in April from a year earlier, compared with a fall of 1.3 per cent in March but on a monthly basis prices rose 0.4 per cent in April, compared with a monthly rise of 0.2 per cent in March.

In the last decade, China’s rapid growth has relied heavily on fixed asset investment – primarily in factories that make cheap goods for export and in real estate to house the increasingly affluent masses.

A collapse in both exports and real estate has cut year-on-year GDP growth in the country from 13 per cent in 2007 to 6.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year and prompted the government to launch a series of economic stimulus measures.

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US Treasury yields soared on Thursday after a 30-year government bond auction saw poor demand, highlighting the balancing act facing central banks seeking to keep interest rates low while selling record amounts of debt.

The investor appetite for relatively safe government bonds has diminished as US stocks have rallied on signs that the pace of the downturn has slowed. However, the rising rates threaten central banks’ efforts to encourage people and companies to borrow and thereby stimulate growth.

The 30-year Treasury yield rose to 4.30 per cent on Thursday from 4.10 per cent the day before after bids at the government auction came at lower prices than expected. The 30-year Treasury is now at it highest level since last November. The rise in bond yields has raised questions about whether the Federal Reserve will step up efforts – which began in March – to keep yields down through direct purchases of government bonds.

“It was a terrible auction,” said Tom Porcelli, economist at RBC Capital Markets. “In an environment where markets are pricing in a better macroeconomic backdrop, it is harder to sell bonds at low yields.”

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DETROIT (Reuters) - Shares of General Motors Corp plunged nearly 20 percent to a 76-year low Tuesday, a day after a group of GM executives disclosed they had sold shares in the struggling automaker.

Six GM executives, led by former GM Vice Chairman and product chief Bob Lutz, disclosed Monday they sold almost $315,000 in stock and liquidated their remaining direct holdings in the automaker.

GM is headed for either a bankruptcy filing or an out-of- court restructuring that would wipe out current stockholders by flooding the market with new shares to pay off creditors.

The automaker's stock could be worthless in a bankruptcy or worth less than 2 cents per share if it proceeds with its plans to issue shares to creditors led by the U.S. Treasury, the company has said.

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ING: wij draaien geldkraan helemaal niet dicht

Bankverzekeraar ING herkent zich niet in het beeld dat banken de geldkraan dichtdraaien naar het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven.

Meer uitgeleend
ING heeft in vergelijking met een jaar geleden zelfs meer geld uitgeleend. Dat stelde een woordvoerder van de bank dinsdag in reactie op een artikel in de Volkskrant.

Minder
De krant meldde op basis van cijfers van De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) dat banken op hun geld zitten. Uitstaande kredieten van alle Nederlandse banken bedroegen in maart van dit jaar dik 260 miljard euro, ruim 7 miljard euro minder dan in augustus 2008.

Tendentieus
"Tendentieus'', stelde een woordvoerder van ING. "Wij vergelijken liever op jaarbasis, omdat er dan geen seizoensinvloeden zijn. Het uitstaande krediet bij ING was in maart 13 procent hoger dan in maart vorig jaar. Dat betekent dat bij ons de loketten dus niet dicht zijn'', aldus de zegsman.

Uit de DNB-cijfers blijkt dat de hoeveelheid uitstaande kredieten fluctueert. In maart vorig jaar bedroegen ze dik 277 miljard, in januari van dat jaar ruim 265 miljard euro.

DNB
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) kan zich ook niet vinden in de conclusie dat banken op hun geld zitten. Een woordvoerder verwees naar een persbericht van DNB eind april, waarin de toezichthouder concludeert dat de nieuwe kredietverstrekking aan bedrijven op peil blijft.

Uit gegevens van DNB zou wel blijken dat banken kritischer zijn bij het verstrekken van leningen. Volgens de ING-woordvoerder is daarvan geen sprake. "Wij hanteren nog steeds dezelfde criteria. Dat betekent dat je naar verschillende dingen kijkt zoals: wat zijn de economische prestaties van het bedrijf, de toekomstverwachting, de economische omgeving en wat voor mensen het bedrijf leiden. Die punten zijn niet veranderd.''

Strenger
Wel kan het volgens de woordvoerder zo zijn dat een bedrijf wegens de verslechterde economische omstandigheden op basis van dezelfde criteria nu minder gemakkelijk een lening krijgt. ,,Dit is bijvoorbeeld geen goede tijd om een vrachtwagenpark uit te breiden of een riskante overname te doen'', aldus de zegsman.

ING heeft in Nederland op het gebied van kredietverstrekking een marktaandeel van 11 procent. Bij het midden- en kleinbedrijf (mkb) bedraagt het marktaandeel 21 procent.

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There are approximately 1.2 million register lawyers in the United States. 1.1 million of them saw this headline today. The 100,000 lawyers who did not see it were on vacation and will be aware of it soon enough.

The net of this story is that Goldman has agreed to pay the state of Massachusetts $60 million to settle a dispute regarding Goldman’s “predatory lending” practices in and around Boston. $50 million will be made available to reduce the loan principle on 714 individual mortgages. Of note is that the agreement called for reductions in principal of as much as 30% for traditional mortgages and up to 50% on second mortgages. Also of note is that the State of Massachusetts gets to keep $10mm for their efforts. Not bad for Attorney General Martha Coakley.

This means next to nothing for Goldman Sachs. However, a very dangerous precedent has been set. In the critical years 2005-2007 Goldman was ranked 15th in the League Tables for sub prime and Alt-A origination/securitization. Goldman’s management must be pleased as punch with that poor showing today. Those that ranked high on that list are no doubt consulting with their attorneys.

If Goldman gets its hand slapped for $60mm over 714 mortgages what does this mean for Countrywide Financial? They were very big in Boston. Merrill Lynch was at the top of those securitization tables. That is what got Stan O’Neal fired. If the settlement in Boston is representative of what will be forthcoming then Bank of America is going to be facing a very big number. And that is just Massachusetts. The AGs in the all of the other states, especially Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California must be licking their chops at this news.

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Op donderdag 14 mei 2009 08:43 schreef pberends het volgende:
Toch maar even deze gepost, hij blijft leuk:

Fed raakt 9 biljoen dollar kwijt

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Op donderdag 14 mei 2009 08:43 schreef pberends het volgende:
Toch maar even deze gepost, hij blijft leuk:

Fed is 9 biljoen dollar zoek

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May 14 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission employees are under investigation by federal criminal authorities for allegedly using insider information to trade stocks, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

A report by the SEC's internal watchdog alleges that the two SEC lawyers traded in stock of a large financial services company despite being told by another SEC employee of ongoing investigations of that company, CBS News reported.

The SEC inspector general report said one SEC attorney under investigation works in the Office of the SEC's Chief Counsel and has access to a tremendous amount of nonpublic information, CBS News said.

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Op vrijdag 15 mei 2009 07:57 schreef Perrin het volgende:
Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’
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Goh.

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Op vrijdag 15 mei 2009 11:30 schreef Zero2Nine het volgende:

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Vreemd dat hij het dan zelf alleen maar erger maakt met die "stimulus packages".

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Op vrijdag 15 mei 2009 15:34 schreef SeLang het volgende:
Een lang stuk, maar 'leuk'/interessant om te lezen:

My Personal Credit Crisis