They are paying the equivalent of 11% annually. Why not borrow at 0.25% instead?
Your premise is false. They didn't borrow from WB, he invested in BAC. Big difference.Quote from noob_trad3r:
They are paying the equivalent of 11% annually. Why not borrow at 0.25% instead?
Quote from GTS:
Your premise is false. They didn't borrow from WB, he invested in BAC. Big difference.
They could have easily raised 5 billion by offering 6% CD's but that wouldn't have helped their capital situation.
In the end, they needed investment and getting a blessing from WB is worth what they had to give up considering the way the market sentiment was headed prior to the transaction.
Quote from Froglet:
Essentially, BUFFET and his boys invested in BAC via PREFERRED STOCKS and WARRANTS. To simplify, he's basically somewhat of a bond holder and has an option.
Quote from trefoil:
Apropos of 2008, this avenue, of preferred stock to recapitalize a teetering bank, is what the unlamented Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wrecked when he didn't bail out the preferred stockholders of Fannie and Freddie. That Monday, the preferred stock market fell by something like 13%, if I remember correctly. Lehman was closed out of using it, because no one was going to buy the preferred shares of any bank after that, and its death spiral really began on Tuesday, when Fitch lowered its ratings on a bunch of outstanding Lehman paper, not because they thought they were bankrupt, but because they thought it would have a very hard time raising capital. By the next Sunday night it was gone, and the financial crisis was on bigtime.
John Dizard, of the FT, estimated it would cost the Treasury 200 or 300 billion if they didn't bail out the preferred shareholders of Fannie and Freddie. He was off by 3 or 400 billion, as it turned out.
Be grateful BoFA can still use the preferred sharemarket. You really don't want them to be locked out of it the way Lehman was. We're no longer in a position to afford another 750 billion dollar bailout, partially thanks to the hard work of Paulson. All we're in a position for now is a nice big fat depression if 2008 repeats.