Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Another Blank Wednesday

Why does nothing ever seem to happen to make interesting news for Wednesday morning ? I suppose I could infer some paranoid conspiracy in the ruling classes to manipulate news for either early week - to get maximal coverage all week - or bury stories on Friday to weekend oblivion. That would be eisegesis and I'm no dirty eisegete ! I merely interpret what actually happens according to what it really "is" in the sense of its telic immanence , away from the propaganda of La Grande Bouche.

[See what one can think and write when one tries to use these more sophisticated $10, $100 and $1000 words more often.]

OK, here's the translation to the American dialect of the hill country: I tell what I see as I read the signs, stripped of fakery.

Enough preamble. What significant happened ? One thing. We know know that Battleship Ben means business when it comes to ripping out that rotten core of Wall Street excess, namely, paying traders for phony unrealized gains that later cost the firm huge sums. Unlike the eternally co-opted SEC, he intend to force true reform.

From FT: "US regulators have intensified efforts to gather intelligence on banks’ trading positions in a move that could herald a drive to ensure traders’ bonuses are based on real profits rather than unrealised gains. ... The authorities wanted to know what proportion of a bank’s balance sheet was held in more liquid positions and how much was held in derivatives and other trading positions whose profitability might not be known for years, they said.

"New rules could enable an overhaul of the tradition of paying traders bonuses based on paper gains on positions at the end of each year before it is known whether they have made a loss or a profit in cash terms. By determining the extent of realised and unrealised gains, regulators would be able to judge whether traders’ bonuses were in line with the profitability and risk profile of their institution, bankers said.

"“Bankers’ pay has been out of whack for the last four or five years,” said Jonathan Finger of Finger Interests, which owns shares in financial groups including Bank of America. “Traders got the money, but shareholders were left holding the bag.” "

Hallelujah !!! Go get 'em, Ben.

Obviously, hedge fund manager pay should similarly be based on only realized gains. If one wants to pay for paper gains, pay in paper - viz., restricted stock with clawbacks.

Actions

I am doing nothing. Je ne fais rien. Robię nic.

Word of the Day

"Confect" - verb, transitive [$10] literary
Confect means to make by putting together ingredients.
Sentence: As the Senate confects a national health care plan, one cannot help expecting a Frankenstein monster to appear in the end.

Les Mots du Jour

"Appât" - noun, masculine
"Ballot" - noun, masculine & adjective
"Nigaud, e" - adjective and noun, both M, F [NB: pronounced, this word sounds close to a "forbidden" word in American, except as used by Black Americans.]
Appât means bait (literally and figuratively].
Ballot means (noun) 1. bundle, packet; 2. nitwit, dumdum; (adjective) silly, daft.
Nigaud means (adjective) silly, simple; (noun) simpleton.
La Phrases: L'appât ballot des nigauds ... L'appât nigaud des ballots ... L'appât bête des imbéciles.

All translate in modern idiom to Sen. Patrick Moynihan's famous phrase, "boob bait for the bubbas" to describe slogans tossed to the rabble to motivate them or collect contributions for a phoney cause. In my opinion, this is what all the "Tobin Tax" talk is, about putting taxes on all financial transactions.

50 comments:

Spin-em said...

http://www.dailywav.com/program.php?Program=Network



I prefer the long version..lol

Bunkerman said...

hmmm I don't think I've ever watched that movie.

Bud said...

GIS a very good report and ups guidance


congrats Bman............the recession is over...........as you predicted

Bud said...

Ben should not 'go get'em'..............it ain't his job.........but someone like Finger should

he is the owner of the company..............he needs to be more active...........guys like him looked the other way as long as the stock price was goin up.........now after the shares tanked............finger whinin like a baby

Bunkerman said...

actually Bud, you are wrong.

The Fed has statutory authority to regulate bank holding companies.

It is his job to make them operate without creating undo risk to the financial system.

Bunkerman said...

the SEC actively prevents shareholders from working together to cause change through its proxy rules, etc..

Bunkerman said...

The SEC wants to keep shareholders weak and divided so its pals on the Street & CEOs can loot the public.

Why ? They fund the big law firms, etc. who hire its staff at big pay.

Bud said...

GBE


nailed it !! looks like 45 cents........infield single to start the inning


danke vielmals jim !!!!!!!!

Bud said...

JAZZ


nailed it !!! a quick 75c...........i guess that's a blip hit..............man on 1st and 3rd........another hit scores a run


Verstehen Sie mich, Punker ?


danke vielmals jim !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bud said...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz




PS..............makin money sure is tiring

mfl59 said...

Bob isnt Bud so great? so talented? the best trader since Paul Tudor Jones? it is uncanny....man...what a guy!

Frosty said...

can't help feel sorry for Sal...trade the manhood for shark table scraps...I sense he's about to go Mern on us.

Bud said...

go mern on us


LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


ok............that was pretty good frosty..........i guess i have to.....uhhhh


'call off the dogs'

Bud said...

do i have to tell you everyday to stop callin me by my real name ??? you f'ng doucebag !!!!............oh wait.............i called off the dogs.......oops


"sorry"

Frosty said...

Spin you are on swing watch...speed dial 911 at the ready...prepared to "call the cops", Sal is on the ledge indeed.

Spin-em said...

let em hang from the highest paki tree....


mark has my number ya know..pffftttt

make my day mf'r

mfl59 said...

Oh my!!!!! What a call Bob....I just made 8 cents in MSFT....unreal stuff pal...how did you know it was going up???? danke vielmals!!!! man it is boring always being right....I still cant believe we scalped that sucker like that...I am in awe of myself...Spin can you believe it????

Spin-em said...

puts food on my table....a fri night strawberry..."thanks bob"


loooooooooooooooooooooool

Bunkerman said...

Could one of you Spanish speakers tell me how to say, "I am doing nothing" in Spanish.

My Spanish is trailing badly the others.

Uh .. no tricks, I'll check the dictionary.

Merci beaucoup.

Bunkerman said...

gee, I miss mern ... it was such fun to listen to his rants about government numbers.

And then about the toothless teen single mom's in Florida ...

Spin-em said...

Estoy haciendo nada!!!

Bud said...

just got my t-shirts form muzzleloader.com........nice...........but not the rest of my order



lookin forward to the gunsmith from greenville county.............it's the story of the american rifle i believe

Spin-em said...

soy...is "I am" too...mike which one?

Bud said...

mern had the most entertaining posts no doubt Bman...........this blog isn't the same without them


we all know what drove him away.....oh well

Spin-em said...

I miss mern too.....all bs on my part....snap out of it merny

Spin-em said...

he drove himself away..period

Bud said...

Bman are managed futures an assett class ??


this superfund commercial on tv says we all shud be in them

Spin-em said...

he drove himself away...period

Bud said...

frosty just ordered t-shirts from jizzloader .com




PS.........still wanna be friends ???

Bunkerman said...

I'm gonna run an ad asking for money for a new asset class ... virtual stocks.

Bud, you'll send $1 million ?

Bunkerman said...

mern made his own free choice ...

It's easy to ignore people who annoy one ... or hammer them ... or ...

mfl59 said...

Bud do you know how to operate a water gun son?

Bunkerman said...

This virtual stocks asset class will be a great money maker. It'll be all one fund.

I "say" I'm buying & selling stocks or options or whatever, then cross the trades "virtually" so every day they all cancel out.

I take 2% of the gross as a fee from both sides.


The losers ... well, I use the winners money to keep them whole; after all, the net postion is zero perfectly every day.

In the end, I get all the money as the 2% vig works wonders.

Bunkerman said...

hmm maybe I can do an IPO and cap that 2% at 10x ...

Spin-em said...

he made a stupid threat...he can say whatever... bottom line he was embarrassed.....next day ya take care of it..either sorry...or something else...and ya move on, forgotten....period....he didnt..like a pussy...and it is what it is...

Bunkerman said...

thanks Spin ... it looks like using "estoy" is right. One of my books says to use correct form of "estar" + present participle for the present progressive.

mfl59 said...

At what point does the Fed stop penalizing savers with their seemingly perpetual easy money policy? What say you Bunkerman???

Bunkerman said...

hmmm mfl ... balancing the haves vs. the have nots.

Until the jobs start appearing.

The intent is to have those with money take some risks, invest. The fearful are being pushed to put money to work.

Bunkerman said...

perpetual ?

They were way too tight in 2006.

Bud said...

water gun??............i don't think so ace

i'll tell what i do know how to operate............my left jab and right cross


Verstehen Sie mich, Punker ?

mfl59 said...

lol you sure are a glass half-full type of guy Bunky....

keeping rates artificially low to induce people into risky assets...that seems a bit "off" to me good sir

mfl59 said...

lmaoooooo Sal......

fwiw I did not go to an Upper East Side prep school....

Bunkerman said...

there's a time for higher rates, but this is not it.

Bunkerman said...

btw, under the old gold standard, short term "safe" investments hardly yielded anything.

one had to buy long term bonds to get 4%

TIPs give 2% real now LT - that's in the range of fair.

Bud said...

CBAK


nailed it !!! sharkinvesting.com on fire all week..........looks like 50 cents in my pocket.......man on 3rd walks in........man in first waved home.............standup double


danke vielmals jim !!!!!!!!!!!!!




"Bob isnt Bud so great? so talented? the best trader since Paul Tudor Jones? it is uncanny....man...what a guy!!!!!"

Spin-em said...

If I remember correctly...last Fed meeting....it was a bloodbath that Friday.....

mfl59 said...

May I suggest maybe you should go on the Dr.Phil show next week...

the topic of the show..."What to do when you are a douche"

Spin-em said...

Bunk ..how do you say...JIM!!!!.HELP!!!..WHAT DO I DO NOW IN POLISH???

mfl59 said...

no now he'll turn to Bunkerman..."Are you sure the mkt is going up?" "Do you think its a bull mkt?" "Will you buy this pullback?"

Bunkerman said...

Kuba, co robię teraz?

Jim, what do I do now?

[Kuba is the diminutive for Jakub, which is James in Polish.]