Wall Street

Jim Cramer: Exposed

March 13, 2009

Someone is actually holding Jim Cramer responsible for some of the advice he has given, and also for the fact that CNBC has “morphed” into an entertainment channel.

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Mark to Market Accounting: a basic analogy

March 12, 2009

Banks (and brokerage firms) that own mortgage backed securities have been required — since November 2007 — to use mark to market accounting on these securities. Coincidentally, this was just around the time these mortgage securities started dropping precipitously in value. 2007 saw many mortgage firms get wiped out, and brokerage firms and banks holding these assets started realizing the volatility of these assets.

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Mark-to-Market Hearings Today

March 12, 2009

By re-inflating the value of many securities on hand at banks, this will automatically raise the capital ratios at these banks.

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Bank Nationalization and Mark to the Market

March 3, 2009

Mark to Market is a topic I have written about previously. You can read about them here. I don’t like changing the rules of the game in mid-stream, but something drastic needs to be done. A terrific opinion piece was written in the Wall Street Journal recently by Peter Wallison. If you click on his [...]

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Mark to the Market

February 24, 2009

Throwing good money after bad into these banks is not the answer. Now, I don’t like changing the rules in the middle of the game. But I still believe the almost-immediate fix for this entire mess is suspending “mark to the market” regulations. Read this statement from news sources today: Citigroup declined to comment on [...]

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Retention Bonuses

February 21, 2009

There have been several articles written recently regarding stockbrokers and retention bonuses. If you are outside the industry you may not know when brokerage firms are merged or acquired, the brokers (the salesforce) are sometimes awarded bonuses merely for staying. The reason behind the bonus is the broker/salesperson may face a drop-off in business, the [...]

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Revisiting Mark to the Market

February 15, 2009

What is left in the governments bag of tricks to get the banks back on track? One topic that I wrote about — 5 months ago — has popped up this past week with more and more frequency. We are finally starting to hear more and more chatter about relaxing “Mark to the market” regulations. [...]

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Rep retention awards may face scrutiny on Hill

January 25, 2009

Brokers and TARP Money Looks like others are starting to learn the story. Your individual stock broker — getting TARP money — is just plain wrong. And the size of these retention bonuses is extreme. But believe it. It is happening right now. Merrill brokers are getting their TARP money right now. What’s even more [...]

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Spin Cycle

January 24, 2009

When I was in college, I loved listening to a local college radio station (WFUV, Fordham) that had a sports-talk show on Sunday nights. The show featured something new: phone calls from listeners! This was more than 25 years ago, before WFAN in New York, ESPN Radio and all the other sports outlets we have [...]

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Is Your Stockbroker Getting TARP Money?

January 17, 2009

This may be enlightening. Guess what? In some cases, Your Stockbroker is Getting TARP Money. Not just the brokerage firm, YOUR stockbroker himself or herself is getting TARP money. Last week, Citigroup announced a deal to sell Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley. In my opinion, a very dumb decision, but hey, they are panicking over [...]

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