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Bear Stearns

For All That Seems To Go Right, What’s Always Missing?

By |2018-01-22T19:33:34-05:00January 22nd, 2018|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

On April 29, 2011, the US benchmark oil price (WTI) surged above $113 per barrel. It wasn’t just American oil prices, either, as other benchmarks around the world were on a huge run. It was the highest for crude oil in three years, going back to the weeks immediately following Lehman. At that price, more so the parabolic trajectory, it [...]

The Shadow on the Falling Dollar

By |2018-01-22T13:11:33-05:00January 22nd, 2018|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

On November 29, 2009, the government of Dubai shocked the world with a statement acknowledging trouble with its debt load. Dubai World, a government-owned conglomerate that was the conduit for the country’s oil-fueled debt extravaganza that had literally transformed the nation, asked for a “stand still” from creditors in order to extend maturities until May 30, 2010. It came while [...]

Subprime Is Contained (and other notable statements declaring They Really Don’t Know What They Are Doing)

By |2017-08-09T18:44:37-04:00August 9th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Ben Bernanke, then Chairman of the Federal Reserve, told Congress in March 2007 that subprime was contained. He will rightfully be remembered in infamy for that, but that wasn’t the most egregious example of being wrong. Even putting it in those terms risks understating the problem and why it stubbornly lingers. Being really wrong is claiming that IOER will establish [...]

You’ve Heard of Bear’s Funds, Why Not BNP’s?

By |2017-08-09T14:40:52-04:00August 9th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

When Bear Stearns nearly failed, made to merge, in March 2008 it wasn’t really a surprise. Yes, markets were shocked by the demise of the ancient firm, one of the bulge bracket cartel which suggested surprise over the severity of it more than that things were going bad. For more than a year, starting in early 2007, Bear had been [...]

A Decade of Fallacy

By |2017-07-18T14:19:24-04:00July 18th, 2017|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Ten years ago yesterday, Bear Stearns sent a letter to shareholders of two specific hedge funds that it sponsored. Whenever anyone brings up the name now, you immediately know where this is going. That wasn’t the case in 2007, however. Whatever the world may think of Bear in hindsight, a decade ago it was a highly reputable firm. These two [...]

Searching For 2a7 Comfort In CP And Finding Instead More Confirmation Of The Same ‘Something’

By |2016-09-28T17:10:07-04:00September 28th, 2016|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

With 2a7 money market reform only a few weeks from its full implementation, there should be by now visible shifts in all the places where such reform will directly impact. Prominent among these money spaces is commercial paper, where the ranks of prime MMF’s that once lent in this market have been reduced in the shift toward government funds. As [...]

Unresolved: Nine Years Later Still No ‘Dollars’

By |2016-08-09T19:18:17-04:00August 9th, 2016|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The fact that we are still discussing illiquidity in “dollar” markets everywhere shows just how little has changed despite so much time and effort. It is August 9 again, the ninth anniversary of the day that changed everything. Even though it has been almost a decade, it’s as if “we” learned nothing from the experience. There are indications in 2016 [...]

Reach For Yield Before Counted As ‘Money Supply’

By |2015-07-06T17:25:48-04:00July 6th, 2015|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan and then Ben Bernanke has escaped, largely, responsibility for the panic in 2008 mostly because there is no direct link between monetary policy and the housing bubble. The most stinging criticism that comes out of the era is Greenspan’s “ultra-low” interest rate setting for federal funds, but there is no smoking gun in the [...]

Anecdotes on Eurodollar ‘Money Supply’; A Final Supplement

By |2015-06-29T16:47:02-04:00June 29th, 2015|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

While this was meant to be anecdotal, giving the whole rise and fall of eurodollars an actual feel through actual published bank results, the more abstract collections of the derivatives world conforms very well with those singular sketches in JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. The BIS, for example, publishes its estimates for the give and take of the gross notional [...]

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