Archive for April 2nd, 2009

More Evidence The Banks Might Abuse PPIP

I was going to put up a post about the IMF and their new found riches but that will have to wait til tomorrow. This is just too good to pass up. The FT is reporting that the major banks may be planning a daisy chain to scam the PPIP and drive up the prices […]

FHA May Be Next In Line For A Bailout

For seventy five years FHA has been making loans and never has it had to ask the U.S. taxpayer for a dime. That may be about to change. Rising defaults are seriously depleting the agencies reserve fund. About 7.5% of its loans are seriously delinquent versus 6.2% a year earlier. Its reserve fund is down […]

Why The Banks’ Legacy Securities Aren’t Illiquid

I don’t know much about Linda Lowell who writes occasionally for HousingWire but she sure does a good job of cutting through the fluff on issues. For the past month or so she’s put out some of the best work I’ve seen on mark-to-market accounting (thanks for the education, Linda) and today has a great […]

Triad Guaranty Ordered To Reduce Payments On Claims

HousingWire has an article thas spells out some bad news for banks. Triad Guaranty, a mortgage insurance company, has been ordered by its state regulator not to pay out more than 60% of the amount of any claim in order to preserve capital. The remaining 40% of the claim is paid via an IOU. Triad can […]

Bridgewater Opts Out Of PPIP

Bridgewater, one of the biggest and most highly regarded hedge funds, has decided not to participate in Geithner’s PPIP. Clusterstock has the best report I’ve seen so flip over there for more complete information. Here’s a sample of what he has to say: Additionally, quite frankly, the plan isn’t straightforward. Essentially it is to let […]

FASB, Unemployment, Factory Orders And A Raging Stock Market

According to some of the pundits the equity markets are surging on the news that mark-to-market accounting so far as banks are concerned has been shuttled off to history’s dustbin. In other words, the market values opaque accounting, which is another reason that I fully admit I have no clue as to what drives stock […]