Fed’s BS Core Inflation Data~ Ron Paul Hearing on Inflation LIVESTREAM
CSPAN linky here. Hearing has begun.
Finally. Yeah the ‘core’ number is total BS and Jim Grant, a witness, will testify to just that!
ZeroHedge has it:
..The much anticipated hearing on “The Relationship of Monetary Policy and Rising Prices” chaired by Ron Paul..
witness list consists of:
- Mr. Lewis E. Lehrman, Senior Partner, L.E. Lehrman & Co.
- Mr. James Grant, Editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer
- Professor Joseph T. Salerno, Pace University, New York
Inflation is the 500 lb bear in the room
What do you do for $:Fed reveals partial data on emergency lending facilities, still mum on discount window
Update: Well, it would appear absolutely EVERYONE got a bailout except the middle class. And I do mean everyone.
Zero Hedge breaks down the 35 foreign banks that the Fed bailed out here.
…$1.27 trillion in agency MBS was traded by foreign banks…
led by the $410 billion by German-based Deutsche Bank ..
…the $382 billion by the Switzerland-based Credit Suisse.
Other highlights of the disclosure include that GE among other commercial endeavors got $ from the Fed, and that the Fed has essentially been taking all the polluted assets from everyone with a pulse (again, except for the US middle class consumer/homeowner who has been lectured about ‘moral hazard’ and whose house has been foreclosed upon):
.the Federal Reserve purchased $1.25 trillion in agency MBS from all participating banks.
Goldman Sachs borrowed 84 times from Fed’s dealer facility (PDCF) from Sept. 15 to 11/26/08 for amounts ranging from $100m to $8b
Bank of America borrowed 118 times from the PDCF from Sept 18 2008 to May 2009, in amount ranging from $375 million to $11 billion.
And even CA Pension funds got in on the bail out action, per ZeroHedge:
Looking at the TALF data, we see that the biggest borrower by subscription is Calpers, with a total of about $5.4 billion
Federal Reserve data breakdown and press release here. More from WSJ here
…The data released Wednesday include short-term liquidity moves for financial institutions and companies made as part of the Fed’s traditional role as lender of last resort, liquidity injections directly to borrowers and investors in key credit markets and financial support for Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. (See all the data from the Fed)
Fed officials reported details on more than 21,000 transactions from December 2007 to July 2010. The emergency programs caused the size of the Fed’s balance sheet to swell. (See a history of the Fed’s lending)…
The Next Shoe Drops ~ The Fed launches QE2, departure at 2:15pm ET
Update : FOMC announces $600B targeted toward the ‘long end’ 5-6 yrs, if they do it all yr + the reinvestment of previous purchases per NYFRB they should hit 1 Trillion.
ElErian says it will backfire and lead to QE3, PIMCO seems pixxed.
Update 11:15am ET: Gold is getting absolutely hammered. Down $25 to $1331.70. Appears the street thinks the Fed will pull its punch and disappoint. You know what I say? Good time to buy!
Were I the Fed I would move big now before Rand Paul takes my money printing machine away. Of course I think we should end the Fed at this point, they are propping up TBTF balance sheets and killing the middle class.
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QE2 is expected to depart the Federal Reserve steaming toward the TBTF balance sheets at a clip of $500B and further purchase announcements ‘as needed’ at 2:15 pm ET!
All Aboard for falling US Dollar and rising commodities!
I for one cannot WAIT for Ben Bernanke to face the righteous wrath of Senator Rand Paul on this monetizing and taking on worthless paper to bail out TBTF.Senator Paul will no doubt ask where Bernanke thinks he gets this authority and how it helps fulfill his dual mandate of price stability and full employment, which it does not.
Since the Dems were letting the middle class go down I say we all go down or not on our merits. Let the chips fall where they may, Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Let the TBTF frakkers fail~
As the guys on the street say, we need Potted Palms on the Trading Floor now that we are monetizing the debt a la Argentina pre collapse~
And the TERRIBLE AWFUL economic data continues to roll in. What will Team Obama do now?
Video: Chris Whalen – more on MBS FraudGate, Pension Fund suits, Securities Law and the markets need to restructure these TBTF banks
The risks are high, and Mr Market is asleep, methinks that Uncle Sam has given the TBTF the all clear, leaving taxpayers holding the bag, again.
Courtesy of Market-Ticker:
“This is cancer – this isn’t a sudden crisis that is going to erupt out of the ground.”
“We’re going to wait until well-into this, and then we’re going to do the right thing – which is restructuring.”
“MBS…. are calling their lawyers. Trustees may or may not have the note.“
“There are a lot of investors out there who don’t know what they own… they may own unsecured loans….. trustees that were supposed to do things under state law (and didn’t)… even Fannie and Freddie have issues with this.”
“…. this is not minutia; this is the letter of the law.“
“The dealer has to deliver to the trustee the notes (under NY State Law)”
The Old Man and the Street -modified Volcker Rule survives FinReg negotiations ~ the Good, the Bad & the Ugly…
Dems did quite a hatchet job in the wee small hours of the morning. Here are the major provisions, they have left most of the implementation to regulators, (the heretofore Eeeevil Federal Reserve gets the Consumer Protection Agency!) and there is a 5 yr window on most changes
(…)VOLCKER RULE: Would curb propriety trading by the largest financial firms, though banks could make de minimus investments in hedge and private-equity funds. Those investments would be limited to 3% or less of a bank’s Tier 1 capital. Banks would be prohibited from bailing out a fund in which they are invested.
Scott Brown R-MA got this 3% for the mutual funds in MA. I cannot wait to hear the JPMChase conference call on earnings in July to see what Jamie Dimon has to say about this. He thought he had killed the Volcker Rule at least twice. The Tall Man always comes back!
DERIVATIVES: Would for the first time extend comprehensive regulation to the over-the-counter derivatives market, including the trading of the products and the companies that sell them. Would require many routine derivatives to be traded on exchanges and routed through clearinghouses. Customized swaps could still be traded over-the-counter, but they would have to be reported to central repositories so regulators could get a broader picture of what’s going on in the market. Would impose new capital, margin, reporting, record-keeping and business conduct rules on firms that deal in derivatives.
So this is the big exciting deal for Chicago! A whole new trading desk to establish, a clearinghouse. (FD-We hold CME shares). Looking to see what the deal is on Warren Buffet’s Berkshire holdings-does he have to put up capital or what? He lobbied HARD against it via Ben Nelson
DERIVATIVES SPIN-OFF: Would require banks to spin off only their riskiest derivatives trading operations into affiliates, in a late-night compromise struck to scale back a controversial provision championed by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.). Banks would be able to retain operations for interest-rate swaps, foreign-exchange swaps, and gold and silver swaps among others. Firms would be required to push trading in agriculture, uncleared commodities, most metals, and energy swaps to their affiliates.
Okay so JPMChase’s silver position is still in the game, they called in like 15 people to surround Blanche last night pushing her to cave, impressed she got anything to go through on this frankly, the pressure was enormous.
CONSUMER AGENCY: Would create a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve, with rulemaking and some enforcement power over banks and non-banks that offer consumer financial products or services such as credit cards, mortgages and other loans. The new watchdog would have authority to examine and enforce regulations for all mortgage-related businesses; banks and credit unions with assets of more than $10 billion in assets; pay day lenders, check cashers and certain other non-bank financial firms. Auto dealers won a hard-fought exemption from the Bureau’s reach.
Yes Auto Dealers are exempt. Cuz used car salesmen are known far and wide as honest individuals looking out for the consumer -HA HA! And of course it is seated within the Fed.
BANK CAPITAL STANDARDS: Would set new size- and risk-based capital standards, including a prohibition on large bank holding companies treating trust-preferred securities as Tier 1 capital, a key measure of a bank’s strength. Would grandfather trust-preferred securities for banks with less than $15 billion in assets, enabling them to continue treating the securities as Tier 1 capital. Larger banks would have five years to phase-out trust-preferred securities as Tier 1 capital.
Now this provision was raised to $15b to cover one Arkansas bank for Blanche. Hey this needed to be done, Tier 1 should really be Tier 1.
Here is a twofer, they gutted the most important part IMO
MORTGAGES: Would establish new national minimum underwriting standards for home mortgages. Lenders would be required for the first time to ensure that a borrower is able to repay a home loan by verifying the borrower’s income, credit history and job status. Would ban payments to brokers for steering borrowers to high-priced loans.
Well! What a novel idea! VERIFYING INCOME, CREDIT AND EMPLOYMENT before underwriting a mortgage! Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner? Frakkin maroons.
SECURITIZATION: Banks that package loans would, broadly, be required to keep 5% of the credit risk on their balance sheets. Would direct bank regulators to exempt from the rules a class of low-risk mortgages that meet certain minimum standards. Regulators could permit alternative risk-retention arrangements for the commercial mortgage-backed securities market.
They do NOT have to retain 5% of the credit risk on ‘plain vanilla mortgages’. Listen IMO they should ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO RETAIN A MINIMAL EXPOSURE ON EVERY SINGLE MORTGAGE THEY WRITE. Skin in the game for them as well as the home buyer. Ya dig? But noooooo…
The details are left to the regulators throughout, so the fox is guarding the henhouse again – regulatory capture baby. This TBTF issue is alive and well as we enter the second leg down in housing and UE remains elevated at 10%. Our stress tests did not foresee the continued decline in housing values coupled with extended prolonged 10% UE. These guys need more capital. Treasury wanted authority to do bail outs and it looks like they still have it.:
NEW REGULATORY AUTHORITY: Gives federal regulators new authority to seize and break up large troubled financial firms without taxpayer bailouts in cases where the firm’s collapse could destabilize the financial system. Sets up a liquidation procedure run by the FDIC. Treasury would supply funds to cover the up-front costs of winding down the failed firm, but the government would have to put a “repayment plan” in place. Regulators would recoup any losses incurred from the wind-down afterwards by assessing fees on financial firms with more than $50 billion in assets.
FINANCIAL STABILITY COUNCIL: Would establish a new, 10-member Financial Stability Oversight Council, comprising existing regulators charged with monitoring and addressing system-wide risks to the nation’s financial stability. Among its duties, the council would recommend to the Fed stricter capital, leverage and other rules for large, complex financial firms that are judged to threaten the financial system. In extreme cases, it would have the power to break up financial firms.
We wait for further drill down on details and regulatory implementation timelines. JPMChase seems to have taken the biggest hit IMO, and ha ha ha since Jamie Dimon LOOOOVED him some Obama. Maroons.
Meredith Whitney: Goldman has lost its edge & housing double dip still ahead…
Update: Housing prices fall, Case Schiller is having a hard time with their price series due to enormous jumps in seasonality this go around,
…After reviewing the data, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index Committee believes that, for the present, the unadjusted series is a more reliable indicator and, thus, reports should focus on the year-over-year changes where seasonal shifts are not a factor. Additionally, if monthly changes are considered, the unadjusted series should be used….
this is unlike any other housing drop, in terms of severity and government intervention, so any series cannot capture where prices are going..
…On an unadjusted basis, prices dropped 0.9 percent in February, worse than the estimated 0.3 percent decline and following a 0.4 percent downturn in January….
…The report suggests more price erosion is possible before prices start rising on a sustained basis, S&P said. The price improvement can be attributed to momentum from the federal homebuyer tax credits, which expire on April 30, and prices could be pressured further by foreclosure sales….
More on falling prices from First Logic via Calculated Risk:
…On a month-over-month basis, the national average home price index fell by 2.0 percent in February 2010 compared to January 2010, which was steeper than the previous one-month decline of 1.6 percent from December to January…
Best financials analyst on the street Meredith Whitney’s latest comments on financials and housing via CNBC:
Beleaguered banking giant Goldman Sachs has lost much of the edge it had over competitors due to the recent government charges and is a stock investors should avoid, analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.
…(GS) faces a future in which its brand has been tainted and it will lose business to small competitors, said Whitney, who doesn’t have a “buy” rating on Goldman or any of the other big banks…
…The company’s stock should trade around book value, Whitney added, which would place the price just above $120….
Reasserts the double dip in housing-
…On other issues, Whitney called proposed new financial reform regulations “squishy” but said the result will be banks shrinking their balance sheets and consumers forced to seek predatory lenders for credit.
She also renewed her prediction that the housing market would see a double dip as more inventory is forced back onto the market.
Financial collapse and housing: WaMu execs testify before Senate
Update: CSPAN3 livestreaming the hearing here
The Senate seems to have quite a bit of evidence suggesting the WaMu team deliberately securitized bad bad bad loans as ‘great!’ loans..
WSJ live blogging it here
“The worst managed business I had seen in my career.” That is how Washington Mutual’s former president described his company’s home loan division.
The mortgage lending practices at the Seattle thrift take center stage at a Senate hearing this morning.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says WaMu did little to stop the loan fraud and generally risky and highly defective securitization practices in its mortgage businessWaMu’s defense? Former CEO Kerry Killinger says he reigned in his company’s mortgage business and blames his thrift’s collapse on unfair and biased regulators who were willing to save Wall Street firms, but not his own
- 7:11 am
- by Michael Corkery
- Add a Comment
Levin: Killinger made $11 million to $20 million a year, from 2003 to 2007. He was paid $25 million when he stepped down in 2008, as his thrift was going down the tubes. Killinger may have complained about not being part of the Wall Street club (see earlier Deal Journal post). But he sure was paid like one of club.
