Quote from lrm21:
Well with the G7 pretty much locked down everything and pledging their currencies it looks like there will be no further collapses.
We had no major failures in the USA in the last week. MS will probably get the Mitsubshi deal under worse terms but they will not fail.
The CDS Auction for LEHMAN showed that everything was being marked down during the downturn and the final writeoff showed no major suprises. In addition there is now a floor of around 8 cents on the dollar on the CDS
If your a shitty bank you got to love the idea of Paulson being a silent partner and give you the guns to take out your honest competition.
Gold and Silver are not going anywhere. If Gold couldnt break 1K with the world on fire in the last two weeks its not gonna happen.
I was very concerned 10 days ago that a major bank run was a remote possibility. I think now its highly unlikely.
The recession is still too come, and of course higher taxes, higher costs but the death spiral in the markets its probably close to the end.
I don't know if we have hit a total market bottom, but I don't think the financial system is going to fall into the abyss this year.
Anyone think I am nuts on this.
You make some good points.
The Lehman Settlement was a huge boost.
Behind that, global commitment to shore up future bankruptcies.
The biggest threat in all this was derivative exposure on CDO's (mortgages) and Corporate Debt (CDS).
Lehman proved derivative sellers continually hedged their exposure as their positions fell in value (Presumably).
While Lehman was allowed to fail, the Government basically said they won't let anymore banks go under.
That should stabilize the derivative sell-off - and ensuing hedging by CDS/CDO writers - to contain or stop their losses.
This is all theory though. I haven't seen the actual numbers on exposure and don't follow CDS spreads, so who knows.
But "in theory", assuming Governments hold true to their word and funnel money to every bank that needs it, we should see the end of bank panics and a slow return of interbank liquidity. Whether the Market bottoms here or not, is still up in air.
What that means for the Global Economy as everyone inflates and hands out blank checks - not good.
Even though CDS sellers on Lehman hedged their exposure as those positions tanked, nobody knows, to date, what their *Total Losses* were.
The head of the derivatives adjudicating body said the last settlement only saw a 2% loss. But it was for ThAT DAY.
Not the total accumulated losses that had been accrued over the lifetime those contracts were outstanding.
What I want to know is - what was the total % loss to CDS sellers on Lehmans CDS insured debt.
If we know that, we can get a feel for worst case scenarios in terms of future writedowns. Even if nobody else goes bankrupt, it could serve as a proxy to estimate losses on hedged CDS debt.
That way, we can better know whats in store for those companies, and in turn, the overall economy.
Even once all this derivative stuff is nationalized or paid off from the FED, its still going to hurt the consumer through currency debasement.
Nationalizing losses only retards future economic growth.
I keep pointing to Japan, but thats the Model we followed. Nationalize trillions in losses. And they lost 10+ years of economic growth and their Market TANKED 75% the entire time.
Even with low rates and Government shoring up.
Its possible the DOW could still drop another 40% from here over the course of the next 3 years.
The overall Recession has only begun.