Archive for April 27th, 2009

Another Ponzi Scheme

From the NYT, another Ponzi scheme was busted today. This one involved mortgages. Four people were indicted in what prosecutors said was a $70 million Ponzi scheme that promised more than 1,000 homeowners that their mortgages would be paid off within seven years. A fifth person was named in a criminal information, which usually means that person […]

An Adult Analysis Of The Waterboarding Controversy

I don’t want to wade into the argument about prosecuting those involved in waterboarding. Like everyone, I have my own views but, oddly for me at least, it’s not something that I feel compelled to nor comfortable with writing about.  I’ve read others writings on the subject and usually they serve more to expose their […]

Ponzi Scheme Of The Week

The WSJ is reporting that the SEC has frozen the assets of Danny Pang and alledges he stole hundreds of millions of dollars from his investors. No other details yet. Here are a couple of links to previous WSJ articles on this one. Links: here and here

The Problem Is Distressed Borrowers Not Distressed Properties

An interesting comment on CNBC regarding commercial real estate caught my attention. The guest (I wasn’t paying close enough attention to catch his name) suggested that the problem with CRE isn’t so much distressed properties rather it is distressed borrowers. This makes a lot of sense, though I think it might be a mistake to […]

Is Sheila Bair Now Proposing A New RTC?

Maybe I’m wrong but it seems as if Sheil Bair, Chairwoman of the FDIC, is proposing that we go back to the future. “Under this scenario, you’d take over the troubled firm, imposing losses on stockholders and unsecured creditors,” she said. “Viable portions of the firm would be placed into the ‘good bank’ using a […]

GM Lays Out Its Restructuring/Post Bankruptcy Plan

GM is out with its latest survival plan. Actually, it appears to me to be more of a blueprint of what they would like the company to look like when it emerges from bankruptcy. Among the proposals to make the company viable are:   Reduce U.S. plants from 47 to 34, cut the workforce by 21,000 […]