Tag Archives: Finance
One Small Victory For Mark To Market Accounting, One Giant Leap For Companies Everywhere
OMG, the SEC did something right! They saved mark to market accounting. The recently departed top accountant for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday he refused to suspend mark-to-market accounting rules last year despite intense political pressure. … Continue reading
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Lehman Brothers Declares Q3 Dividend
Lehman issued a press release yesterday announcing a regular dividend of $0.17 per share of common stock for the third quarter of the 2008 fiscal year. Cute.
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Merrill Races For The Bottom With Another Write-Down of $5.7Billion
Less than two weeks after announcing write-downs of $9.7 billion, Merrill Lynch was hit with some more bad news today when its stock plunged 12 percent to $24.33. The brokerage said it will record $5.7 billion of pretax writedowns in … Continue reading
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When The Going Gets Tough On Wall Street
Against the current economic slump, Wall Street’s big investment banks are building their restructuring departments in a bid to provide financial advice and financing to companies in distress–and to earn fat fees along the way. But should they just stick … Continue reading
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The Only Thing Wrong With Lehman Is The Media
While reading about the unconscionable bail out of Fannie and Freddie I came across this line: Such an approach could mean beaten-down investment banks like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) and regional banks must now fend for themselves as they … Continue reading
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The Long and Short of Short Selling
Economist has a typically comprehensive article about short sellers. Naturally, Jim Chanos is quoted defending his profession. A fun fact in the article: in 1995 Malaysia’s finance ministry reportedly proposed caning as a punishment for abusive shorting. Awesome.
Filed under Enron
Chanos To Financial Media: Quit Making Stuff Up
Oooh this is rich. Now Chanos is taking aim at another train wreck: the financial media. In a speech yesterday, Chanos trashed the broadcast and on-line media for breathlessly reporting rumor as legitimate news and called for more regulatory investigations … Continue reading
Filed under Enron
Liquidity Is King
Rome Institute has a good post on why liquidity is critical to the smooth running of trading companies. I gobbled it up like breakfast. You might like it too.
Filed under Enron
THIS Is How You Hide Debt
Bloomberg reports that Bank of America is taking over the financially solvent part of Countrywide Financial (ie, the assets) but isn’t quite so committed to the liabilities. And how they’re going about this cozy little arrangement is fascinating: “Whalen expects … Continue reading
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