Total value of the shadow banking system (unregulated and unsupervised): $516 Trillion. US GDP ~ $13.86 Trillion (PPP).
Tag: finance
BEAR STEARNS CHEAP
Counterparty
the Fed has officially turned the US government into the counterparty to the US financial system by letting securities dealers borrow directly at the discount window.
wow
Payday Loans
Small Loans, a predatory lender owned by Money Tree, Inc, gave a $200 “payday loan” to a disabled, elderly, illiterate man and thereafter took in his benefits check for him and paid him a small “allowance” out of it, less the money they deducted as “repayment” on the loan. They took 1000s from the man over a period of years, bleeding him so badly that he ended up homeless, begging for power to run the machine that treated his chronic lung infection.
if the us banking system were not so decrepit this would not be an issue
Earnings Call Hoaxer
“This guy, Joe Gutterman, every conference call this quarter, he logs on as somebody’s name and asks these crazy efficiency questions. So going forward keep in mind you should just disconnect him when he dials in. This is like the 6th call in a row he’s done that. It’s really annoying.” Mr. Schmitz speculates that Mr. Herrick is “some minion” at a consulting firm trying to do clandestine research on companies’ use of 6 Sigma techniques.
Andy Kessler
Andy Kessler is a former hedge fund manager turned author who now writes on technology and markets.
Bank Consolidation
Expect consolidation to start now. The real winners on Wall Street will be the ones with huge stockpiles of capital who listen to the market, and who are fleet of foot enough to smell out and deploy their capital creating instruments that global growth companies need, rather than false profits from eating their own sausage. The Big 5?: Goldman CitiSachs, House of Morgan, Bear of America, Fortress Lehman Lynch and Blackstone Suisse.
how about finally getting rid of all those useless and costly branches?
Transparent Mafia
When it came down to business, Cosa Nostra could always count on fear. No more. In a rebellion shaking the Sicilian Mafia to its centuries-old roots, businesses are joining forces in refusing to submit to demands for protection money called “pizzo.”
they need some better accounting down there
E-commerce with Chinese characteristics
in 2007, users of online-payment systems exceeded the number of credit-card holders
Replace Traders with Actors
Call it a cost of doing business, but the only people who really need the sturm and drang of traders anymore in this algorithmic & automated world is television.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 