Thursday, February 28, 2008
From Bobsguide: ”Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has warned that a credit rating agency’s plans to introduce new rules for grading collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) could harm the market to the tune of $150 billion.
Fitch Ratings has proposed a separate system to grade these types of securities, which it plans to put in place […]
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Mathematics- In mathematics, decoupling refers to the rearrangement of systems of equations so that they are independent of each other.
Physics - In physics, decoupling is the general phenomenon in which the interactions between some physical objects (such as elementary particles) disappear.
Economics - In economics, decoupling refers to the lessening of correlation or dependency between variables.
Decoupling […]
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Bring on the “plain english”… yes… from SEC Chairman Cox’s testimony to the House Small Business Committee…
…”Of course, while you are leaders in this effort, you are not the first mavericks in Congress to take up the battle for clearly written legal rules. In fact, the very first reported appearance of the word “gobbledygook” […]
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Wall Street Journal is reporting about Citigroup’s trading book losses and other highlights from their just released annual report.
Citi is the 800 pound gorilla in global fixed income and currency markets so 15 days of $100 million losses is no surprise… When you are “the market” it’s hard to win when odd market […]
Friday, February 22, 2008
I think we can say a corner has been turned in the credit freeze… When investment banks start to use disclosure as a competitive advantage the thaw may have arrived… from the Economist …
“For all the embarrassment, Credit Suisse has still performed better during the crisis so far than UBS, its Swiss rival, which […]
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
On an artistic note … outstanding exhibit opening at the Guggenheim Museum on Feb 22.
Known for his gunpowder drawings and explosion events, Cai Guo-Qiang turns the Guggenheim into a carnival of stuffed wolves and dangling cars…
Saturday, February 16, 2008
What a giant step forward…Transparency linked with accuracy, simplicity and elegance… retail investors win!
“Washington, D.C., Feb. 15, 2008 — Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox today announced the launch of the “Financial Explorer” on the SEC Web site to help investors quickly and easily analyze the financial results of public companies. Financial Explorer […]
Friday, February 15, 2008
In theory it should be possible to move the auctions of the “auction rate securities” to the Bonds platform at the NYSE.
NYSE Bonds has approval to sell muni securities
The “opening spin” process which determines the “Indicative Match Price” (IMP) on the Arca platform is like a “dutch auction”
From Wikipedia… “In a dutch auction, a […]
Friday, February 15, 2008
Congratulations to Lace Financial. Lace becomes the 9th rating agency to be approved as an NRSRO. Their press release states that they provide ratings for over 20,000 institutions incorporating insurance companies, corporates, ABS, sovereign issuers and municipals.
The SEC wrote an Exemptive Order as part of the NRSRO approval process. This relates to their concentration of revenue […]
Thursday, February 14, 2008
SEC Chairman Cox testified today at the Senate Banking Committee. He followed Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke.
Although I haven’t had a chance to review the full replay of the testimony and the questions from members of the Banking Committee I have read Chairman Cox’s written statement.
I am thankful that we have […]
