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LOL. Wells Fargo is a great brand, but it had indirect auto and indirect home equity that is it runnning off from its portfolio. One also has to consider the Wachovia pick-a-pay loan (option ARM) portfolio, which is now being liquidated. I believe the total loans in this category from legacy...

I see that, but the article was silent on whether Buffett hedged by buying puts.

Roubini has been 100% LONG the S&P 500 throughout the meltdown.

All anyone can say for sure is that if he did, it was not mentioned in the article.

I believe Taleb's spiel is inflated B.S. It is unlikely that his (or his partner’s) strategy made $20 billion even on an advisory basis, if the advice was simply buying out of the money put options on the stock market. I do not believe there is enough volume available in the traded markets...

Buffett bought 302.6 million shares of WFC in the first quarter. According to the article: Wells Fargo shares closed at $24.87 today on the New York Stock Exchange after falling below $9 in March. Buffett said he was speaking to a class the day the shares dropped that low and told students...

To put a more generous interpretation, perhaps he meant the gain in the fund was 1/2 billion, and the fund advised other outside clients who themselves made $20 billion, but that is a far cry from Taleb making billions. Likewise the "we made $20 billion for our clients" would have to be further...

Thanks, surf, I just found the article, I hadn't realized you were referring to the link; it is on the first page. Taleb is his own Greek tragedy. Not content to be a successful author, he has to hype past claims that no one can verify, and indicators like his Paloma stint and the Empirica...

Again, this is his hype. What the market needs is a better sense of smell. He did it? He was an advisor to the fund, and the fund's managers may feel they are owed the credit. More than that, if there is a "pact of silence," then why is Taleb blabbing? Like the Madoff fund, no one should...

The above was from the "Troubled Company Reporter," so I'd have to see the audited returns from Empirica that prove it didn't bleed to death. Hope he made money on his recent venture. He's worked hard to hype himself, and eventually selling OOM puts would have paid off in this market, but...

This is from battleofthequants.com here in London a couple of years back: Empirica LLC, which owns interests in hedge funds, and operates a research laboratory in London, Empirica Laboratory Limited, and a Hedging operation (no, it is not a "hedge fund" in the common accepted sense as the...

Yes, I may have read the same article, and it was backed up by fund managers I know who were close to the situation. It makes it all the more disturbing that a myth is created around great past performance when all indicators (Paloma, Empirica) suggest the opposite. Taleb's former hero was...

Convertibility, great post.

Here you go: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124224647957816523.html SEC Staff to Recommend Civil Charges for Mozilo WSJ - May 13. 2009 By KARA SCANNELL and JOHN R. EMSHWILLER Staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission have decided to recommend filing civil fraud charges against...

Tavakoli calls 'em like she sees 'em and backs it up by putting her numbers on the record...another thing I cannot do. Right or wrong (as it happens right) you know where she stands and why. Pretty gutsy to challenge Bernanke in August 2007 and put her numbers up. She did that type of thing...

Yes, great point. Even Tavakoli said the funding subsidy is such a huge advantage that the spread will allow a lot of banks to absorb losses as they come in. Saw her on Fox and she said she was redoing her numbers to take into account write-offs to date in the global banking community saying...

Great post, Debaser82. Thanks!

Maybe, but CNBC had Tavakoli on before and after that August 2007 video, and she has been consistent with her message. They had her on again on May 8: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1117887463&play=1 CNBC will have Whitney on again, and they'll have Tavakoli on again.

In this August 2007 video, Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, says people feel they are being lied to and Ben Bernanke should stop letting Wall Street do his homework. His loss figures and then her loss figures are shown on in the video. Tavakoli's were multiples of...

Of course CNBC will invite Whitney back. They have invited Tavakoli back multiple times, and she has said some very specific negative things. For example, in this August 2007 video, Tavakoli says Bernanke should stop doing his hopework on Wall Street and people feel they are being lied to...