From the category archives:

Credit Crunch

Goldman case thoughts

by Jolyon on 26 April, 2010

Barry Ritholtz at the Think Tank has 10 Interesting Points to make about the SEC case against Goldman Sachs.
I especially like:
7. This is a Complex Case: Again, no. Parts of it are a little more sophisticated than others, but this is a simple case of fraud/misrepresentation. The most difficult part of this case is [...]

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Repo men: Lehman and Ernst & Young

by Jolyon on 21 April, 2010

Will Lehman be Ernst & Young’s Enron?
That is the question everyone is asking after the publication of investigator Anton Valukas’s report suggesting that Lehman may have used an, um, unusual accounting practice — Repo 105 — to make it look as if its leverage was much lower at each quarter-end that in fact it [...]

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The Serious Fraud Office has been investigating whether former Madoff Securities International Ltd. CEO, Stephen Raven, or any London employee of Madoff had knowledge of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Those familiar with the investigation have commented that the U.K. is unlikely to prosecute anyone at Madoff’s London operation because the SFO does not currently have enough [...]

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Im Seehaus

by Jolyon on 2 June, 2009

Last week I was a speaker at the Financial Institutions Insurance conference in Munich, sharing the platform with Dr. Philipp Wassenburg, Global Head of Casualty Treaty Global Clients/North America, and Alexander Stampf, 
Head of Financial Institutions, both of Munich Re.
Philipp and Alexander are both great guys and have that wonderful and particularly European sense of [...]

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Credit crunch villains

by Jolyon on 26 January, 2009

A quick round-up from the Guardian on 25 people who lead us down the road to ruin.
First up, no surprises — Alan Greenspan. His ideological heroine was the dubious Ayn Rand whose book, Atlas Shrugged, was influential on a range of businessmen such as Greenspan and which was condemned when first published over 50 [...]

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Madoff investors may have to repay cash

by Jolyon on 15 December, 2008

From the WSJ via Clusterstock, it seems that even investors who cashed out of Madoff’s schemes ahead of time may have to divvy up.
[B]ecause Madoff is thought to have run a Ponzi scheme, investors could get money back from other Madoff investors who already took money out,” said Brad Alford, who runs Atlanta-based investment adviser [...]

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Swiss Re sees rates pick up

by Jolyon on 30 November, 2008

CEO Jacques Aigrain told Swiss daily NZZ that rates in the reinsurance market are picking up again — “We are seeing that the conditions and margins in the actual reinsurance business are improving.” However, “lower returns on investment should be expected” he went on to say, though perhaps that didn’t really need spelling out.
Swiss Re [...]

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No global IMF

by Jolyon on 26 November, 2008

In an article called Can the US Do An IMF On Itself? Hellasious posits the global financial systems in terms of fire brigade HQs.
Picture the US as the Global Fire Department (GFD). In the last ten years or so the GFD became extremely irresponsible. It ignored the fire safety of its own firehouse, which became [...]

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Pirates to back Citigroup?

by Jolyon on 24 November, 2008

This just in on the e-mail:
Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup. November 20 (Bloomberg) — The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup. The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned from hijacking numerous [...]

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A wave of…D&O

by Jolyon on 14 November, 2008

This article from the NYT does not make happy reading for D&O carriers.
It’s about a mortgage underwriter at WaMu, and is a telling, salutory tale (like so many that are emerging) of corporate greed and, more to the point, stupidity.

“If a loan came from a top loan officer, they didn’t care what the
situation was, you [...]

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