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Makloda - there are at least two versions of the story circulating. In one GS acted as a one-stop intermediary between Berkshire and the multiple institutions on the other side of the bet. In the other, GS actually took the other side of the bet (and did G-d knows what with it afterwards)...

The billions in premium is one of the few actual facts we have on this deal. So we can come to one of two conclusions - either the people on the other side of Buffet's bet are morons, or the limited information available to outsiders does not accurately portray the risks involved.

He collected nearly $5B in premiums. There has to be something in the terms of that bet that create significant risk for Berkshire.

BAC, I think.

The proper definition of dilutive is any change to capital structure that reduces the per-share earnings assignable to the common. Since the preferreds have an earmark on the first $2.2B of earnings every year, this is without question dilutive. But this is all dancing around the bigger...

Citi is insolvent. Of Citi's deposit base, approximately one-half trillion dollars - that's $500,000,000,000 - are foreign deposits. Those same foreigners are the ones funding the US lifestyle, and if Citi goes under like by all rights it should, it will be financial chaos - financial war - on a...

The $28B in preferred come with a 10% warrant kicker.

$2.2B insurance policy - there are two sets of preferred totaling $28B - same 8% divie on each. Dividend on common is gone. What a stock does short-term on events like this is anybody's guess - but I can see precious little fundamental reason to hold the common at all. Bonds, other...

Are you guys not reading the original text? Double-dilution whammy. The "backstop" wording is...curious. Will protect against "unusually large" losses. Here's the term sheet... http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/bcreg20081123a1.pdf

That number seems far too small. Especially for the amount of rumoring and chatting going on this weekend. Current best guess is Citi management rejected Paulson's terms and this is a very temporary stopgap until either Citi gets even more desperate or Paulson or Congress blinks. Or quite...

Already been announced. See one of the other already existing threads.

Here we go - $20B "equity infusion" - ie dilutive - Congress being "consulted".

"You make me feel... You make me feel.... Like a natural woman..."

Nobody knows what the exact number is anymore, but for certain it is far higher than the official Treasury number as the US has essentially guaranteed a great deal of non-Treasury debt. Adding only the direct MBS stuff the number is already over 100% of GDP, disregarding the possible issues with...

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see it posted above. Unbelievable...

The image that comes to mind is an axe-hewn log of wood shoved where the sun don't shine. With no vaseline.

I've seen brick walls with more transparency than the TARP process.

Citi getting the AIG treatment. http://www.cnbc.com//id/27873985 Company "survives", stock goes to zilch...?

Possibly - but it would be 1929 UK-style, not US-style as roles have changed. This go-round - if indeed we're having a go-round - China gets the treatment the US had post-1929. In the UK the Great Depression was 1919-1922. The 30s were "The Great Slump".

There are all kinds of problems with the article you linked to. For example, comparing rates between old Inuit raised in a traditional environment to young Inuit raised in a more modern is classic survivorship bias (old Inuit with myopia get eaten by polar bears before they're "studied"). Many...