Recent comments by Agronox
sdtfs wrote:
Incidentally, the first ARM loans we got were indexed to the Fed 11th District rates, from '95 on it was all LIBOR.
Do you remember the rationale for that? Because LIBOR was more transparent. 
Mr Slippery wrote:
To me, what is shocking is that no one really cares. Slap on the wrist, token fine, shrug of the shoulders.
Well, hold on. (Before I become a Barclays shill.)
LIBOR took out the Chairmain and CEO of the company. Was there any other bank that wasn't nationalized that had such turnover at the top? The fine was something like $460 MM... not quite a slap on the wrist if you ask me.
Remember, Barclays was first to come out, and apparently one of the better banks about this.
More to come.
Well. This is drunken chat, but what the hell.
The enchilada cart at the corner of Beverley and E. 16 still knows how to bring the heat. Holy god.
Wait, bank(s), CR? That's a pretty crucial plural, and so far as I know the only bank to suffer for this is Barclays. And they seem to be ahead of it. There's probably much more to come out...
Pair trade, I'd buy BCS and short the bank ETF...
mp wrote:
If you look at the PPI internals, you'll see deflation in the pipe.
Yes. And seemingly no authority, at least in public, is sounding any alarms.
In private I have to think Bernanke is one frustrated man.
bot 2 QCOR 44 straddles expiring in a week for $3.60 each
this is a dumb hobby but it's house money
Rob Dawg wrote:
Soylent Corporate Green are people!
"I don't make the profit. The syndicate makes the profit. And everybody has a share."
-- Milo Minderbinder
sm_landlord wrote:
Speaking of JPM, the LIBOR scandal makes the GATA claims seem pretty darn believable.
Did you see this? Anonymous sources, but the Torygraph seems to believe it:
Revealed: why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at a knock-down price – Telegraph Blogs
JP wrote:
Edit: Whatever that means...
It means that "maintain 8" has failed. This is pretty awful news and there's going to be a lot of sweating in Beijing. (oh yeah also coal and metals miners)
Mike_PNW wrote:
Offer a 100% corporate repatriation holiday...zero taxes owed on any profits repatriated...provided you pay them out as dividends within six months.
so fed gov gets $350 billion ($2 trillion * 15% div tax rate)
states get maybe half that..$175 billion in new taxes
As an AAPL shareholder I'd love this, but I don't think it's in the cards.
All that money coming home would push up the dollar and possibly cause problems for our exporters. And who knows what kind of knock-on effects would come from a possibly much weaker Euro, Yen, or CNY...
Comrade Troyski wrote:
(Insert frenetic Phillip Glass music here.)
HCN is on it!
TREASURIES-Bonds rise ahead of 30-year bond auction
| Reuters
This outlook stoked robust bids at an auction of $21 billion
worth of 10-year Treasury notes on Wednesday, despite their
rock-bottom yields. Direct bidders, which include big investment
funds, bought a record amount of 10-year notes.The record direct bids "caught a lot of people off guard,"
said Bret Barker, portfolio manager at TCW in Los Angeles, which
manages $127 billion in assets.
Yep, no bidders showing up, the invisible bond vigilantes are at it again, lol
Former Idealist wrote:
Plenty of folks don't even show up for the auctions anymore.
They aren't selling, but they sure as hell aren't buying.
Hahaha you couldn't be more wrong. You check out the last 10 year auction?
dryfly wrote:
Keep reminding yourself he is a genius and its good for you.
That's how I got through one of Minsky's books.
Veblen, well, you can tell he actually has a sense of humor, but it's so dry and deadpan that I'm not sure what to think sometimes...
dryfly wrote:
FTR wiki does Schumpeter better than Schumpeter. Reading Schumpeter is like drinking paint.
I just started reading some Veblen myself and it's a bit of a slog.
dryfly wrote:
Signs of doom - when HCN advertisement bar at the bottom is for dog food...
They must have an awful targeting algorithm. I'm unemployed and getting an ad to "REFLECT MY SUCCESS" with a new Amex card...
Made some decent lunch money with QCOR straddles today, but I can't pretend it's anything other than gambling...
Whiskey wrote:
Midtown. Before I moved, someone I know told me you're better off living in the city if you can, because then you don't spend hours commuting every day. Honestly, though, I'd probably be happier in Brooklyn.
It can be tough. It's quieter here, there are a lot of trees, and it's more relaxed. But for me to get to the Financial District is about 35 minutes each way (Q to 5 train). It's also much more difficult to get people to visit.
If I was younger I'd hate this neighborhood.
sdtfs wrote:
But he insists on pointing out the stupidity of the GOP austerity plan,...prima facie evidence.
But how fair is that?
I guess the question is, do the economics lead him to the political belief or do his political beliefs lead him to the economics? With CR I think it's the former.
Besides, what would people have him do? Suggest nothing that conflicts with one of the party's platforms?
Whiskey wrote:
My experience with the area is limited to driving on Caton Ave. It's nicer there than it is to the east, I can tell you that right now.
How about yourself? Where in NYC?
Comrade Kristina wrote:
They seem to be trying to out crazy us (which is kinda crazy in itself) out there. I drink bottled water, btw.
Why does New Mexico seem to have its act together so much more?
It's right next door but you never hear much crazy coming out of New Mexico.
Former Idealist wrote:
Calculated Risk favors Blue Team .
So far as I know he's studiously avoided coming out on one side or the other politically.
Comrade Kristina wrote:
What is wrong with you people in Arizonastan? Seriously?
I like to think of Arizona as "Florida West."
Whiskey wrote:
Brooklyn is a happier place than Manhattan in general. Where abouts?
Ditmas Park. Been here for a little over five years but resisted the temptation to buy a co-op when I arrived.
Whoops.
Whiskey wrote:
Early-to-mid-30's. Of course, it's New York, and no one here is happy.
I'm in that same demographic, and same locale, and I'm pretty happy.
Well, Brooklyn anyway...
Hmm. QCOR gets hit with a report from Citron but is starting to bounce back.
Time for some reading.
Yancey Ward wrote:
An easy question-
Which would you rather have:
An income in 1968, or the same stagnant income in 2012?
When would you rather buy a house, today or in 1968?
These questions are easy because they are meaningless.
Comrade Kristina wrote:
I was referring to wages and quality of life not innovation.
So was Stiglitz, but apparently that's not going to stop people...
Cinco-X wrote:
So basically, America has been stagnant since JFK took office...I call BS...
You actually read the quote, right, and not just the headline?
"If you look at the income of the typical male worker in the United States today, it's the same as it was in 1968. Almost half a century of stagnation," Stiglitz argues."
This does not strike me as particularly wrong.
Fellow speculators!
What the heck is the deal with Sunshine Heart (SSH)? Something like $3 two weeks ago, and now around $13.50.
Not that I would trade such a thing. I'm just wondering what this new product is that has the stock going up 30% every day.
"The Friedman Unit, or simply Friedman, is a tongue-in-cheek neologism coined by blogger Atrios (Duncan Black) on May 21, 2006. One Friedman Unit is equal to six months, specifically the "next six months", a period repeatedly declared by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to be the most critical of the then-ongoing Iraq War even though such pronouncements extended back over two and a half years."
It bears some resemblance to the "second half recovery" over here.
Eric wrote:
Rob Dawg's favorite time period!
Why, that's half a Friedman Unit!
Dow might be down another coupla slumdogs by then...
Eric wrote:
Other way round.... "look, I'll quit and forgo this year's pay.... if you pig-fuckers try for a clawback, I'm sending this USB stick to wikileaks".
Hmm. Yeah, actually something like that sounds more probable. He probably has a good deal of dirt on other banks', FSA, BBA, and BoE complicity.
azurite wrote:
Diamond nobly "gives up" his bonus, but will receive his munificent salary (everyone should have such--and apparently unbreakable--employment contracts)
I wonder: what's the quid pro quo? Since he's not fighting for his money--and he seems like the type who would--is there something else going on?
"Go quietly, Mr. Diamond, and we won't prosecute?"
Scary stuff. Most of my meager wealth is in an Interactive Brokers account. They seem solid, but people were probably saying that about MF Global too.
lawyerliz wrote:
ALL CATZ MEOWING BRISKLY.
God's in his heaven
all's right with the world
Comrade Kristina wrote:
The only thing worse than being part of a family business is working for one. Been there, done that.
My dad has stories.
I'm glad that business wasn't around when I was a kid.
curious wrote:
Michael Baum took every substitute teaching job he found and has sent out hundreds of resumes since graduating from college two years ago. He never got a full-time offer and works as a waiter in a pizza parlor in Chicago, earning $650 on a busy week.
Structural unemployment rears its ugly head again. The nation clearly has too many teachers and not enough pizza parlor waiters. I'm glad this guy landed on his feet.
Pretty boring day in Our Glorious Markets.
I wonder if NOK is ever worth buying as a turnaround play.
Anyone with a Windows Phone here on HCN have an opinion?
greenchutes wrote:
The cancellation of mortgage debt is trivial compared to the neverending firehose of public debt.
Who cares? Much of it is being monetized at zero cost of increased inflation. Free money!
(I'm not even sure if this is or not)
tacticaldefault wrote:
The BofE and the Fed relied on the Libor as an indicator of liquidity. Once the banks figured this out, they ran the Libor up and extorted the central banks and central governments for free money by threatening a panic.
No offense but this is crazytalk. No one needed to threaten a panic because there absolutely WAS a panic. The GSEs and Lehman scared the shit out of everyone.
poic wrote:
I get that occasionally when running Firefox with Adblocker. Just kill your browser sessions and start again.
Yeah, seems like Firefox is kind of a turd now. I've been having a lot of problems with Flash now too.
sdtfs wrote:
This does not accord with what I know of truck driving. So I have to wonder why they are desperate to hire trainees, rather than licensed truck drivers.
I think trucking might be part of the "microwave burrito" economy that dryfly talks about.
I know truckers that are suffering in a lot of places, but back in my home town the natural gas and construction industries are hiring truckers left and right.
Comrade Kristina wrote:
I have no health insurance and between my husband and I we make less than 50K combined. I would say we are the general public.
That would put you in the 53% percentile for US household income.
Can't get much more middle class than that.
homedad43 wrote:
Both of 'em are gifted actors and makes me wonder what they've got in the water that we haven't.
To be fair to us, they probably only send the best stuff for export.
mp wrote:
Ah. The SS method.
I'll pass.