Category: Finance

Kenneth Lewis Dead Pool

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I’ve kind of thought that the Obama administration’s ouster of Rick Wagoner was primarily a political ploy, but it has created a new question, with people asking why him, and not people like Bank of America’s CEO Kenneth Lewis, whose purchases of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch seem to be ample reason for his firing.

I’m hoping that someone in the White House actually intended this effect.

I don’t generally subscribe to the “Barack Obama has a plan, but it’s too subtle for us to see right now,” thing, but it does seem to me that, intentionally or not, the stage has been set for the firing of a bank president at one of the 5 or so banking giants out there.

It would be the a good thing to do, it would put the fear of God in these “masters of the universe.”

The reason that I am fingering Kenneth Lewis is that the other likely bank to be so target is Citi, but CEO Charles Prince was already forced out and replaced by Vikram Pandit, and BoA is the next sickest bank on the list.

Additionally, Lewis has been unrepentant in his attitude, continuing to (over) use the private jet, and chafing at the TARP restrictions, all while maintaining that he will send back the money “real soon now.”

The final reason for my suggesting that he might be forced out, in addition to my visceral dislike of him, is that he, and his bank, have aggressively lobbied against the EFCA (card check) legislation, and now directly calling for his ouster, which means that Obama picks up some labor credibility without having to go to the mat for the EFCA.

Economics Update

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Note: Red denotes contraction, and yes, this is scary.

I guess that the lede is that the consumer confidence numbers are out, and that they remain near record lows, at 26, just one point above the all time low reported in February.

If that were not enough, we now have a survey indicating that consumer spending may fall by $1 trillion after the recession is over (by way of perspective, the US total GDP is about $14 trillion) according to the AlixPartners Long-Range Economic Outlook Survey.

That’s a 7% haircut on GDP, exclusive of the secondary effects, closed stores, warehouses, etc., once the economy recovers…..Great googly moogly!

In the meantime, I don’t think that a whole bunch of people will be tapping their home equity, as the Case-Shiller home price indices show a 19% drop in home prices, though it appears that defaults are abating, as private mortgage insurers saw defaults, and claims, fall in February, the first decrease since June, 2008.

Additionally, 2nd home sales fell in 2008, down to 30% of total home sales, from 40% in 2005, and more of these buyers are paying cash, which implies that a lot of the contraction in this market is an inability to find mortgages.

In terms of the general state of the economy, the Restaurant Peformance Index is showing the 16th straight month of contraction (h/t Calculated Risk), and the Philadelphia Fed State Coincident indices have shown a decline in all 50 states (pdf), for both the past month and the past three months (again h/t Calculated Risk).

Meanwhile, we have an indication that the Bank of England is looking at significant inflation, they have adjusted their pension investments to account for it, so I think that they expect the £ Sterling to fall, and inflation to increase in the UK.

In any case, we now have the chief economist for the OECD suggesting that the Federal Reserve would take aggressive action against a precipitous fall in the dollar, and work to maintain its position as a reserve currency.

I think that this is more an attempt to talk up the dollar than anything else, because protecting the dollar would, over the long term at least, require higher interest rates, which would have the economy collapsing like overcooked broccoli.

In any case, the dollar was down today, largely because the flight to safety yesterday following Obama’s announcement that GM and Chrysler were on notice is now over.

Oil was up too, though it’s still a bit under $50/bbl.

Now We Know Why Banks Were Profitable Last Month

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Because, using our tax dollars, AIG settled its accounts with the big banks at 100% on the dollar, even while they are refusing to pay on deals with smaller players.

So, not only are we funneling money to the big 5 banks through the TARP, and the TALF, and various Fed facilities, we are also shoveling money in through the back door by way of AIG’s Financial Products Division.

I now have a tough choice….Should I go long in pitchforks, or torches?

Economics Update

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I’ll be going into the automotive news elsewhere, so this is pretty short.

First the Celtic Tiger Kitten has been taken to the vets to be neutered, as S&P lowers Ireland’s rating from AAA to AA+.

Ireland played the “cheap labor with good access to markets” game, and lost to former eastern bloc nations, and played the real estate and building game, which everyone lost.

In the housing market, we have defaults on FHA insured mortgages rising with 7.46% of the loans being 90+ days overdue, in foreclosure, or bankruptcy, up from 6.16% at this time last year.

This means that there is still a lot of inventory out there that has yet to hit the market.

In energy, the concerns over the US auto manufacturers has driven oil below $50/bbl, because nothing says short oil supply like house sized SUV, and the same concerns about the economy have driven the dollar up as traders head for safety.

Friday Night Bank Closings: I’m Scared Now Edition

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Not by the total number of bank closings, there was only one, the Omni National Bank, Atlanta, GA, the 21st of the year. (Full List of closings).

Since I figure that there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 bank closings this year, that is not a surprise.

What is a surprise is Calculated Risk’s report on regulatory actions in California, where 6 more banks have received a cease and desist order from the FDIC, and there are predictions that two thirds of banks in California will be operating under such orders by year’s end.

I honestly cannot imagine that the situation is better in other areas with the largest real estate bubbles, such as Florida, the Las Vegas area, Phoenix, etc.

IMF Economist Compares US to Argentina and Russia

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Desmond Lachman, former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund’s Policy and Review Department writes an OP/ED in the Washington Post todaysays what I have been saying for some time, that we are not tossing out the incumbents who created the mess, and that we are treating an solvency crisis as a liquidity crisis.

Mr. Lachman, a fellow at the right wing American Enterprise Institute (!) basically says that both Paulson and Geithner are handling the situation in a manner consistent with the most corrupt 3rd world nations.

Your mouth to Barack Obama’s ear, dude.

Tell Me How This is Not Fraud and Theft of Services

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It appears that the senior managers at AIG’s Paris division of AIG’s Financial Products, Banque AIG, wrote $234 billion in derivatives contracts so that they would likely be technically be in default if they left the firm:

The executives at Paris-based Banque AIG, Mauro Gabriele and James Shephard, have resigned in recent days but have agreed to stay on for a transition, according to people familiar with the matter. In the wake of their resignations, AIG must replace them to the satisfaction of French banking regulators.

If they don’t, French regulators may appoint their own designee to manage the bank — an outcome that could trigger defaults under the bank’s derivative contracts. The private contracts say that a regulator’s appointment of a manager constitutes a change in control, according to a person familiar with the matter; the provision is often included in derivative contracts where parties want to preserve a way out if something about their counterparties changes.

Seriously, this is fraud. They essentially cooked to books to maximize the possibility that, if they left, there was a real risk of the a technical default.

We need to start throwing these folks in jail by the hundreds, and not a “white-collar resort prison,” they should be going to a, “POUND ME IN THE ASS prison,” to quote Office Space.

Economics Update

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So, the US economy contracted at a revised 6.3% annual rate in the 4th quarter of 2008 and initial jobless claims rose to 652,000 from 640,000 last week, with continuing claims jumped to 5.56 million, another record.

Additionally, we saw New York City’s jobless rate jump by 1.2% in February, from 6.9% to 8.1%.

On the other hand, truck tonnage rose in February, which implies that the requirements for goods and services increased, and the 30 year fixed mortgage rates dropped again.

Meanwhile, in energy, retail gasoline broke $2/gal for the first time this year, and oil hit a 4 month high of $54.34/bbl.

In currency, the dollar rose today.

Jake DeSantis, Go Cheney Yourself

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Mr. Desantis used to work for AIG, but quit, and published his letter or resignation in the New York Times.

So, why am I down on the gentleman? Because anyone who writes such a self-important letter, then goes about having it published in the most influential publication in the United States, and wants us to feel sorry for him, despite the fact that, “I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes,” something in the range of $1.2 million pre-tax, is simply an asshole.

AIG F#@$ed Up Yet Another Perfectly Good Business

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This time, it’s International Lease Finance Corp. (IFLC), the largest aircraft leasing operation in the world, which was fabulously profitable when they bought it from Stephen Udvar-Hazy in 1990, and it looks like they are angling for a government bailout, at that’s the subtext that I read into the article.

Isn’t the idea of successes in their own financial niche moving into areas in which they have no clue such a wonderful idea?

Economics Update

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Well, we have some good news today, with both durable goods orders and new home sales up in February on a monthly basis, though on a year over year basis, durable goods are still down 22%, and home sales are still down 41% year over year, so it may mean nothing, or it may be, to quote paraphrase Churchill, the end of the beginning as opposed to the beginning of the end.

The spike in mortgage applications may reinforce this news, or it may just be a lot of people refinancing their mortgages.

Certainly with California home prices down 41% year over year, this end game is likely to to be ugly anyway.

In the mean time, in the world of government finance, the Fed has started buying US treasuries to further push down interest rates, and across the pond, a U.K. bond auction has failed for the first time in 7 years.

There were not enough buyers there.

In energy, oil was down slightly, and in currency, the dollar was mixed against other major currencies.

Senator Whitehouse Shows Us Why It’s Better to Elect a Democrat Than the Best Republican

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Case in point, Lincoln Chaffee, defeated for the Senate by Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006, and now Whitehouse is putting forward a bill to protect consumers from abusive credit card companies.

Among its provisions in his Consumer Credit Fairness Act:

  • Lenders (not just credit cards, but also payday loans, auto loans, layaway, and overdraft charges) would be prohibited from making claims in bankruptcy if their interestrate were more than the yeild of the 30 year bond interest rate +15%.
  • The interest rate would be figured including all charges and penalty fees.
  • Removal of the means test for bankruptcy that was included in the 2005 “screw the consumer” bankruptcy law.

Electing Democrats make a difference.

Economics Update

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So the latest investor confidence survey is down, no big surprise there, things are still not looking good.

Case in point, Fitch ratings is warning on prime grade residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) created between 2005 and 2007 because so many of the mortgage holders are under water.

In energy, oil fell, though it’s still above $50/bbl, on profit taking from yesterday’s price increase.

In currency, the Dollar rose as people went back to it as a safe haven, and the Yen fell, because yields are so low in Japan.

Banking Industry Threatens Obama Administration

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That’s the subtext of this Wall Street Journal article on how Obama is dealing with the financial industry.

The bankers are saying, “If we don’t get our bonuses, we will destroy our companies and the economy.”

As Ezra Klein notes, patriotism is a joke for the super-rich bankers who run Wall Street:

But whenever it comes up in conversation, I’m shocked at the depth of my own fury. And here’s why: Not to sound naive about this, but the absence of patriotism that galls. The lack of responsibility is sickening. These bankers delivered an almost mortal wound to the American economy. Their actions threw millions out of work and wrecked the retirement savings of tens of millions more. It is no exaggeration to say that they will cost us more than 9/11.

And you cannot negotiate with terrorists.