While the newsflow continues unabated, market engagement remains tepid at best; as noted, many punters (and banks) seem content to limp into year-end. The latest development from the US is, unsurprisingly, a broadening of the firms angling for a piece of the bailout pie. Yesterday AMEX filed to become a bank (and thus receive some sweet, sweet TARP lovin'), while Nancy Pelosi wants to divert a chunk of funding to prop up the US automakers. Jeremy Clarkson's love for the new 'vette notwithstanding, it's not difficult to come to the conclusion that most of Detroit's offerings are <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"[More...]

Few people are familiar with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These NGO's are engaged in providing subsidized public funds to mortgage lenders through its purchases of mortgage assets, and issuing and guaranteeing mortgage-related securities that facilitate th[More...]

Again, sadly, no great setups for me, this patience thing is pretty tough, but it’s necessary for a PennyStocker…good thing it is a beautiful day outside….[More...]

Fabian: Butch, whose bond yield is this?Butch: It's a stock price, baby.Fabian: Whose stock price is this?Butch: Fred's.Fabian: Who's Fred?Butch: Fred's dead, baby, Fred's dead-Pulp Fiction, alternative universe financial versionNow, let Macro Man say right at the outset that he is not intimately acquainted with Freddie and Fannie's balance sheets, and does not run his own models on their capital adequacy/requirements. That having been said, he's been reading stories of their misadventures for years, and could see with his own eyes how they aggressively expanded their balance sheets even as the US housing bubble was inflating and deflating. Moreover, the graph of the share price, which is presumably set by people more intimately familiar with the fi [More...]

The Financial Times isn't exactly known as a quality source of humour. They don't even have a featured "fluff" article such as that with graces the front of the WSJ on a daily basis. So it was with surprise that Macro Man read a little blurb in today's FT [More...]