Economy Blog

$$$ At Goldman, there is such a thing as free lunch… [footnoted]

$$$ Mark the Mark to Market Provisions [Going Private]

$$$ Financials Exhale …
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DealBook has compiled a seemingly exhaustive list of the groups and individuals it believes are currently thanking God they splurged on the extra pins for those voo-doo dolls with the unusually prominent ears. Were you overlooked? Now’s the time to speak up.

The Spitzer Hit List [DealBook]

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Vacuum Cleaner
Nightstand
Dog
Cat
Boxer
B…
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Treasuries have been hit hard today, thx to the Fed.
2 and 5 year yield up more than 25 bp, biggest move in 4 years.
5-year TIPS in negative real yield territory in recent days have bounced back to positive 5 bp.
Most interesting statistic of the day is the net change in “Total factors supplying reserve funds” which were the impact of increased liquidity would show up.
Millions of dollars
At the first TAF: 925,560
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I don’t think too many of you will disagree with me when I say you’re psyched that Eliot Spitzer fucked a hooker and got caught. And that’s cool, I don’t begrudge you your satisfaction in seeing the bane of Wall Street’s existence taking it up the A. I imagine it feels pretty good. But I’m envious. I have to write about it, and while it’s a pretty funny story, I don’t have the same personal connection/vendetta. Sure, I was talking with my father earlier, and he reminded me that we stayed at the Mayflower Hotel, where things between Client 9 and Kristen went down, when I was in third grade, along with two of my grandparents, both of whom were in the Holocaust, and one of whom has since passed, I guess to try and make me feel better, but that’s not really a big D. Who gives an F? But speaking of A? We just received word that Heidi Fleiss agrees with m…
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We were worried that Governor Eliot Spitzer might step down too hastily, depriving us of the opportunity to mock the horny toad. But the Spitzer sex scandal is the gift that keeps on giving, and Spitzer’s aides are now spreading the word that the guv’s not going anywhere.

A top aide to Governor Spitzer said today Mr. Spitzer has not made up his mind about whether to step down, the New York Sun reported this afternoon.
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Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has had some weird pronouncements before, but this one in a speech to the American Bankers Association is particularly odd. “If you’re in the financial services industry and you either need capital or you might, it’s very important to go get it while it’s available,” he said. Umm?thanks?
Here’s a bit of sunny news out of Smithers & Co., a…
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Today was the best day for the S&P 500 in five years.

Date……………Gain
11-Mar-08…….3.71%
17-Mar-03…….3.54%
13-Mar-03…….3.45%
18-Sep-07…….2.92%
13-Nov-07…….2.91%
28-Nov-07…….2.86%
2-Apr-03……….2.61%
17-Aug-07…….2.46%
6-Aug-07………2.42%
21-Mar-03…….2.30%
16-Jun-03……..2.24%
1-Oct-03……….2.23%

T…
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We hate to interrupt yet another rendition of the Wall Street chorus singing “Happy Days Are Here” again but today’s rally could use a little sobriety. We’re sure it is wonderful news that the Federal Reserve has convinced the central bankers of the world to cooperate with its plans to snatch, well, something or other from the jaws of recession. But no amount of coordination, no amount of monetary injections, no new levels of central bank creativity is likely to solve the underlying problem of mispriced assets.
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Once again, shares of Bear Stearns are dropping, an outlier in the financial sector, which is rallying on the news of the Federal Reserve’s newest efforts to preserve liquidity in the financial markets.
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Paulson & Co’s credit strategy is up 8 percent so far this year, while its event-driven strategy has made something between 5.5 and 10 percent. This is such huge news that even the most reserved among us, typically staid financial publication HedgeFund.Net, went with the can’t-keep-it-in headline, “Paulson Still Kicking Ass!” And that’s what they were *allowed* to run—not fit for a family periodical rejections include:
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Congressman Peter King let loose on Eliot Spitzer today, warning that the governor of New York had left himself open to blackmail. It’s a point we made here yesterday but it seems to be catching on.

“Spitzer himself was very severe going after prostitution rings that had to do with white collar crimes. He was very hard-nosed with his tactics,” King told David Freddoso of National Review. “To leave himself open to blackmail — putting himself and the state in a compromised position like that — it’s just awful.”
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Several analysts threw in the towel today on Wellpoint, downgrading shares after the managed care company lowered its earnings expectations for the quarter and for 2008. The company startled investors with its warning, and they’ve reacted by selling shares of Wellpoint and other health insurance companies.
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In the clip above, Fox Business Contributor Father Morris and FBN anchor Alexis Glick shoot the shit about the Vatican’s seven new mortal sins, “some of which relate to business.” Obviously “accumulating excessive wealth” (and the many CEOs who’ve recently done so) was going to be the hot topic but we were extremely disappointed that SpitzorSwallows didn’t at least get s…
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Our intrepid “fly on the wall” buzzed into London for a major conference on hedge fund replication. He reports from his fly-sized Blackberry….
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Look. If our governor is renting out expensive whores, is there really any speculation that is too far-fetched and irresponsible? We’re going with “no.” So let’s take this to a new low.

Last night we were talking the Spitzer case with a former federal prosecutor who is now in private practice. It was late, and we were having something of a wake for Jimmy McNulty, the protagonist of the recently concluded HBO series “The Wire.” Of course the Jameson’s, McNulty’s poison of choice, was flowing freely and pretty soon the tongues were wagging. The prosecutor offered two bits of insight (also known as “irresponsible speculation.”)
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Once again, the Federal Reserve has reached into its bag of tricks. The initial reaction has been a positive one, but of course the market has been through this before.
In its announcement today — along with several other central banks world-wide — the Federal Reserve has put together a term lending facility t…
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Steve Schwarzman, 5’6”, who donated $100 million of his own money to a $1 billion expansion of the New York Public Library system, nervously smiles from the inside of the West 115th Street branch. Terrified that any second, they’re going to ask him to turn the pages of a book for photo-op purposes which, a…
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The baffling refusal of Eliot Spitzer to resign after his dealings with a high-priced prostitution ring were exposed by the New York Times has some experts worried that Spitzer might be destroying documents or other evidence of wrong-doing. On Wall Street, where Spitzer once posed as town Sheriff, fired employees or those under investigation by authorities are often escorted immediately from the office. One reason for this is to prevent them from destroying emails or other electronic paper trails.
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UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is plunging today on news that WellPoint (WLP) has cut its earnings forecast. If you recall, UNH is company that does nothing but make huge profits and awful headlines.

For the record, UnitedHealth has said that it expects 2008 EPS of $3.95 to $4 a share. The company has publicly made this estimate n…
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