Headlines, Thoughts and Updates - March 30, 2009
Here are a few headlines, but I had to cut it short this morning. Too much going on. Our client conference call starts at 8:50AM Eastern this morning. The global violence is growing. Prepare yourself for something we have only seen in movies and fiction.
Violence in Pakistan - Here is the third major act of violence in the past two weeks. Why don't we hear about these in the US papers. First, we saw the police headquarters in Islamabad bombed. Last week it was a mosque, leaving 70 dead. And today another 60 dead at the Police Academy. - Mike
60 feared dead as gunmen storm Pakistan police academy - Gunmen have stormed a Pakistan police academy, triggering an intense battle with security forces in which 60 people are feared dead and hundreds have been taken hostage, local news has reported. - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/5075299/60-feared-dead-as-gunmen-storm-Pakistan-police-academy.html - U.K. Telegraph _______________________________________
GM and Chrysler Kaput – We have a zero bet on GM with PUTs, and it will pay off handsomely. They cannot survive, but unraveling this pile of elephant dung will result in elephant dung throughout the US and global economy. It will not be easy. And it will be a devastating blow to millions of pensioners, employees, suppliers and more. - Mike
GM and Chrysler denied extra funds - The Obama administration refused on Sunday night to give fresh bail-out money to General Motors and Chrysler, telling the carmakers to come up with new plans or risk insolvency. GM has received .4bn in government aid and had asked for an additional .6bn. Chrysler has received bn and had asked for another bn. But both companies failed to meet targets on cutting their debt and reducing the cost of benefits paid to workers. The crisis talks between the companies and the administration's auto task force cost the job of Rick Wagoner, chief executive of General Motors, who was asked to step down by the White House after 30 years with the carmaker. Officials said on Sunday night that Chrysler would be given 30 days and GM 60 days to reach agreement with debtholders and unions, with new tougher targets for cost cutting, or they would lose their last chance for a government bailout, almost certainly sending them into bankruptcy. - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a2ede9ae-1cc1-11de-977c-00144feabdc0.html - Financial Times
_______________________________________
Merkel Gets It – Germany has long been a nation of savers, so now it is only logical that they speak up and tell it like it is. Only Merkel has the guts to tell the world . . . stop spending like there's no tomorrow . . . because if we continue on this path . . . there will be no tomorrow. - Mike
Merkel warns on further stimulus - Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, will warn leaders of the world's largest economies next week against pumping too much money into reviving global growth, saying that such action would create an unsustainable recovery. - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eda17b82-1b09-11de-8aa3-0000779fd2ac.html - Financial Times
_______________________________________
Liars Can Figure but Figures Don't Lie – We've seen a lot of numbers over the past two weeks pointing to a recover in housing and all sorts of other areas of the economy. Next month we will probably see revisions. But even if the numbers stand, you can make them look like whatever you want if you selectively choose numbers to fit your message. For those hat believed mortgage defaults were slowing and that housing was recovering, here is a WSJ article that paints a different picture. Moreover, as we have discussed with clients, there are many elements behind the numbers you have seen over the last few weeks.
Mortgage Defaults, Delinquencies Rise Article - Defaults on home mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration in February increased from a year earlier. - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123840821794969275.html#mod=testMod - The Wall Street Journal
_______________________________________
Stocks Fall Sharply in Asia and Europe - Stocks fell sharply in Europe and Asia on Monday, amid signs of chaos in the auto industry and fears that the Group of 20 meeting this week will fail to come up with a plan to revive global growth. In Washington, the White House pushed out the chairman of General Motors on Sunday and instructed Chrysler to form a partnership with the Italian automaker Fiat within 30 days as conditions for receiving another much-needed round of government aid. The moves came just hours after the board of the French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën said it had fired its chief executive. "I'm not sure the worst is behind us," Valérie Cazaban, a fund manager at Stratège Finance in Paris, said. "We're waiting for the G-20 and we're not sure everyone is in agreement on what needs to be done." - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/31markets.html?_r=1&hp - The New York Times
_______________________________________
Officials Prod Banks To Restart Lending, But Who’ll Borrow? - The Treasury and the Federal Reserve are throwing trillions of dollars at financial firms to prod them to lend more. But even if those programs succeed, debt-strapped families probably won’t want - http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=5&issue=20090327 – Investors Business Daily
_______________________________________
Is Calpers Waking Up? – They've finally decided to ask for better terms from the hedge funds that have raped them. Better late than never? NOT. It is far too late for Calpers. They have no hope of ever catching up, unless they put it all on the roulette wheel in Vegas . . . and win. Unfortunately, no one is really talking about the fact that Calpers and many other pension funds have been raped to death. They are in a coma at this point, and they have no clue what is going on around them.
California Pension Seeks New Terms From Hedge Funds - The California Public Employees' Retirement System said the largest U.S. state public pension wants to renegotiate new terms from hedge funds. - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR_cVQn81GTo – Bloomberg News______________________________________
Totally Clueless – Direcotr Heim below actually believes they can hold their heads above water. What do they do if the markets does not recover? In fact, what happens if the markets drop another 10-30%? KaBoom. One final note. Pension funds still have no clue about how little value is left in their real estate joint ventures. - Mike
Pension funds called next big crisis - Click photo to enlargeSteve Wilson color illustration of a hand placing an “IOU” into the pensions piggy bank. The national economic collapse is battering municipal and state pension plans, and that means taxpayers will likely dig deeper into their pockets to pay retirees. “It’s a ticking time bomb,” said Trumbull Finance Director Lynn Heim. “Unless the market takes off, we will just be holding our head above water." - http://www.connpost.com/ci_12019394 - Connecticut Post
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder