In a refreshing break from stories about Wall Street bankers greed here’s one of greed in the oil patch. Nabors Industries Ltd., an Houston oil drilling concern, has cut the death benefits for its chairman and CEO, Eugene Isenberg. It seems as if Mr. Isenberg’s heirs are going to have to get by on $100 […]
Archive for April, 2009
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Fed Moving To Support Commercial Real Estate Via TALF
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 30th, 2009
The Fed is back to talking about using the TALF to finance commercial mortgage backed securities. You might recall that this was on the front burner early this month only to fade somewhat into the background. Unfortunately, not far enough into the background. The WSJ did a story on this and I did a post […]
MBIA Sues To Get Out Of CDS Exposure
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 30th, 2009
When in doubt kick ’em when they’re down. That might as much as anything might be the rationale behind MBIA’s suit to void credit default swaps it sold to Merrill Lynch. MBIA is seeking to void half of its $5.7 billion of CDS that it sold to Merrill and recover payments made to counterparties. From […]
Senate Kills Mortgage Cram-Downs
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 30th, 2009
The Senate defeated a proposal to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage terms in bankruptcy court. The measure was only able to muster 45 votes in favor, far short of the 60 that would have been needed to override a filibuster. Moderate Democrats, twelve in all, joined with Republicans to block the measure. President Obama […]
Investors To Feds: See You In Court
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 30th, 2009
An obviously ticked off Barack Obama announced this morning that Chrysler would seek the protection of the bankruptcy courts after negotiations with the secured creditors came to naught. The Issues Purportedly all parties had agreed to a recapatilization plan hammered out with the Obama auto task force. A group of secured bondholders holding approximately $1 […]
The Positive Trend In Job Losses Continues
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 30th, 2009
I’m chafing to write about the Chrysler situation but I’ll exercise a little discipline and talk for a minute about the unemployment claims. Actually, there’s probably more significance to these numbers than there is to Chrysler. The news — the four week moving average fell by 10,750 to 637,250. The one week number was down […]
GM Bondholders Think They Deserve More Equity
Posted by Tom Lindmark on April 29th, 2009
Sorry, you’re going to put up with another GM restructuring story. Think positive, there’s only about 30 days left to go. Anyway, the bondholders plan to present a counteroffer to the company and government that is shall we say a bit different than what’s on the table. From the WSJ, here’s the new proposal: The […]
