As much as I detest instant history and the recent spate of articles recounting the events of the last few months, I have to admit that the WSJ’s article this evening on the death of Wall Street is a pretty good read. For the U.S. securities industry to unravel as spectacularly as it did in […]
Archive for December 28th, 2008
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Playing With Fire
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 28th, 2008
A bad recession in the early 1930’s turned into the Great Depression largely because politicians did what they are wont to do. Legislate badly. We may be staring down the barrel of that gun once more. A short article in the New York Times this evening which deserves to be much longer points out that […]
Tags: GMAC Is Silent On Its Bond-Exchange
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 28th, 2008
Strangely, GMAC is not saying a word about the success or failure of its bond-exchange program. The offer to exchange debt for equity expired Friday night but the company has yet to say if it succeeded or failed. The offer is crucial to GMAC’s transformation into a bank holding company and thus access to TARP […]
Now The Commercial Real Estate Guys Want A Bailout ll
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 28th, 2008
You have to keep an eye on the commercial real estate guys. A week or so ago I wrote a post that drew on a WSJ report that the commercial real estate industry was trying to get in on the bailout gravy train. Now the New York Times has followed up with another article that […]
The Changing Face Of Retailing
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 28th, 2008
It’s no secret that this Christmas shopping season was a disaster for retailing. Sales were off somewhere in the neighborhood of 4%. Since a typical retailer will make upwards of 40% of their annual sales during the holiday season, the fall in sales is nothing short of disastrous. All of this is likely to lead […]
A Case For Less Activism On The Recession
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 28th, 2008
Peter Schiff was one of the guys who saw through the smoke and mirrors of the economy early on this decade and had the courage of his convictions to go public with his thoughts and to position himself economically to take advantage of the downturn. He tends to raise the hackles of a lot of […]
A Buyer For Indymac And A Grim Call From HSBC-Someone’s Wrong
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 28th, 2008
Two interesting developments. One quite positive and the other more than a little disconcerting. The NYTis reporting that a deal has been struck to buy IndyMac Bank. What makes it interesting is that the buyers are all either private equity or hedge funds. Even more interesting is the fact that they have all been sniffing […]
