Does it matter? Who, in their right mind, will believe that c**p.
Does anyone want to see reality? Let us play a game where look at pretend reality and call it the the real thing. What could go wrong?
Does it matter? Who, in their right mind, will believe that c**p.
Ouch! Somebody just poked me in the eye with a green shoot.
I'd like to repost an astute comment made by Tupuli in the last thread:
Early in May you will see in a systematic and coordinated way the transparency of determining and showing to all involved some of the results of these stress tests
Someone really wanted to put "transparency" in a sentence where it doesn't belong.
(the above was written by Tupuli, not by me)
"Early in May, you will see in a systematic and coordinated way the transparency of determining and showing to all involved some of the results of these stress tests,"
Clear as day.
So that's why they've taken so long to release the results. They've been working on a guide!
Does anyone want to see reality? Let us play a game where look at pretend reality and call it the the real thing. What could go wrong?
the transparency of some will be revealed
the thievery of all will not
The doublespeak occurring would make Orwell blush.
----
"no one is pricing in low, mid teens unemployment in any of their assumptions." - Meredith Whitney
......the plan will change at least once before the info is released.
- - - - -
Black 
Ranch
I hate the banks so I need to short them more, its me or them
"You can't hande the truth", without our 'guide'. Careful, there are snakes in that bramble.
The data will change at least once before the plan is developed.
Seriously, are these guys smoking green shoots?
Ok..
1. How can an 'asset' be 'toxic'?
2. How can 30% interest not be usury?
3. How can U3 be considered to be the best measure of unemployment?
...
I'm sure they had a plan to save the Titanic in early May of 1912, as well.
i just can't believe the whole lot isn't crashing down given the uncertainty this whole farce is creating. If you wanted to feck it up this is what you'd do.You'd Invent a public process to create certainty and then change the process and timetable part way through said process.
Mal, (and Tupuli), they keep using that word - "transparency" - but I don't think they know what it means! - CR
:: ::
Inconceivable!
And a guide on how to interpret the results? We don't need no stinkin' guide! Just show us the data.
Who are you going to believe - your own lying eyes or the government interpretation?
Obviously, my understanding of the word "transparency" is completely incorrect.
I think that CR's end paragraph comment "we don't need no stinkin' guide!" shows that he's familiar with that great old film, "Transparency of the Sierra Madre" with Bogart as Tim Geithner.
homedad43
The other day I pulled down my transparent blinds to block the sun so I could nap. It was dark in my room. Those transparent blinds are great.
"Hedges, we don't need no steeenkin hedges!"
Yup, Orwell would be proud.
Now back to my lime rice. If my currency is gonna be mexican, may as well cook mexican.
homedad43
"transparency of determining and showing" - do this sound like English as a second language?
mal wrote on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:07pm.
"Someone really wanted to put "transparency" in a sentence where it doesn't belong."
Great catch. That sentence barely scans as English.
Sexy Derivative wrote on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:11pm.
"Early in May, you will see in a systematic and coordinated way the transparency of determining and showing to all involved some of the results of these stress tests,"
Clear as day.
I think that sentence was intended for one of Obama's speeches.
I'm sure the numbers they come up with with all be double+good, relax Winston.
OT note, but just how twisted have we become when we see great monikers like "Arbitrage Macht Frei" and "Waffen GS"?
homedad43
They aren't healthy if they need the backstops, even if they pay back TARP.
So when Paulson had that Autumn 2008 meeting with the bankers and forced them to take TARP, did he threaten to put their heads in cages holding live rats?
homedad43
If the whole US could be counted on to read calculated risk for the real interpretation of the data, then no, we wouldn't need a guide.
CR may not need a guide, but the MSM does. (and Joe6pack)
Why the whole lot isn't crashing? Never underestimate the human ability to think themselves a special case.
Take the higher ed industry. Today's higher ed world is where the finance world was a year and a half ago. Noting the symptoms but not understanding the disease and certainly not understanding their own vulnerability. Except that deep down, they do. I would say we're in a period of increased frenzied "bargaining" stage in academia. PR offices are pumping out maybe 3-4 times the verbiage that they were a year ago. Expensive new initiatives and centers are still being announced. New campus building projects are still being touted in some places... as if they can spend their way out of what's coming. Bloated administrative staff are still not being cut down to size. There's a certain bug-eyed, frothing hyperventilating quality to it all. This downturn is still being seen as a "blip" -- or, rather, if it's not seen as a blip, that higher ed as it exists today is going to play a "critical role" in "reimagining" things. But it's like an asteroid about to hit and completely change the atmosphere. Many smaller institutions will be extinguished, and there will be some large/expensive institutions that will be set back for decades. It'll get a little more interesting once the class sizes for next year get finalized.
Old fancy footwork: Tap Dancing
New fancy footwork: TARP Dancing
""transparency of determining and showing"
Something like "show and tell," a dog-and-pony show.
It may mean that we'll see (experience transparency of) what they determine to show us.
Doctor "We are going to release some of your tests. These tests will reveal how healthy you appear to be."
Patient "But what about the other tests you don't release? Why aren't you releasing those?"
Doctor "I want you to believe you are healthy. Those other tests might make you doubt it."
Patient "Now I understand. By the way, when I pay you, I want you to believe that I have money in the bank. OK?"
About this time in 1945 Adolf was certain that imaginary divisions would save the day for the Reich, and now the thought is that imaginary division will save the REIC.
the 'guide' is to tell the media how to spin it.
Completely OT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
"BURN THE BOOKS"
The invention of new english/Jas rant words are coming.
Here's some irony for you:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGxHny
I wish someone in the MSM asked the administration how snubbing Krugman and Volker fits into this policy.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________
January 21, 2009
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.
Government should be participatory. Pubic engagement enhances the Government's effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive departments and agencies should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Government.
Government should be collaborative. Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their Government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector. Executive departments and agencies should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration and to identify new opportunities for cooperation.
--
The Zombie Apocalypse begins when U3 hits 15%
dad43...The word used was clone.
Ahhh, for the days of the previous administration when they didn't tell us anything.
OT Note: Mebbe I'm just channeling this stuff adn noticing it more, but there are a bunch more "Zombie" books, etc hitting the shelves at the bookstores. I picked up "Patient Zero" last week and it's a great read...
homedad43
Will the guide tell us how the stress tests provide data beyond what we would obtain by reading rating agency reports, looking at bank stock prices, or looking at how their bonds are trading?
I think the data I really want is the raw data. What kinds of loans, in what geographic areas, at what initial and current loan to value ratios?
I can run that through my models and figure out just how big a hole a particular bank has to deal with. Then, it can be compared to income from ongoing business. Some banks will be able to get out of the hole through future earnings. Many won't.
""[T]he transparency of determining and showing"?"
He means they're going to clearly explain the methodologies of the stress test, and clearly explain the meaning of what was shown.
I spent years as a tech writer and editor. I'm good at unraveling tortured phrasing.
That said, these are weasel words. The deliberate obfuscation gives Obama an out down the line if people raise questions -- such as, "what about the importance of what _wasn't_ shown?" He can reinterpret the phrase to mean something else.
That is what they are saying!
MaryAnn:
"The word used was clone."
Sorry, but no idea what you're referring to.
homedad43
In the end, aren't we just digging a bigger whole to China?
Yesterday, BBerg has a story reporting that MetLife doesn't need TARP funds because it has $5 Billion in extra capital, probably because the value of their UST went to the moon last fall. Today, BBerg runs a story saying that MetLife's bonds are under enormous stress...
Anyone buying FAS/FAZ tonight might as well go to Vegas and put it all on red/black. One could see the short squeeze caused by JPM's 6:30 AM announcement (early tee time, CR) from about a mile away.
Yawn. Back to reading Auden's Letters From Iceland...
Maybe they will release a guide for which we will need another guide for in order to determine and see how transparent the stress tests are.
"[T]he transparency of determining and showing"?
KPMG - We're as strong as can be,
A team of power and energy,
We go for the gold, together we hold
Onto our vision of global strategy!
Repeat Chorus
We create, we innovate,
We pass the ones that are late
A global team... this is our dream of success that we create.
We'll be number one, with effort and fun
Together each of us can run
For gold - that shines like the sun in our eyes.
Chorus x 2
The time is now to lead the way,
We share the same the idea
That may win by the end of the day.
Our strength is here to stay.
Identity, one energy,
One strategy, with sympathy.
These are the words that will lead us into a new world.
Basel,
I think GS and WFC will have the best Q1 results out of the financials for a number of reasons. Expecting others to follow in their shoes is setting yourself up for disappointment.
Remember GS benefitted from AIG payouts + shift to commercial bank
WFC benefitted from enormous refi volumes, and one-time gains due to wachovia acquisition
Not saying JPM can't cook the books too (WaMu acquisition one-timers?), but I think it is going to be harder.
"Early in May you will see in a systematic and coordinated way the transparency of determining and showing to all involved some of the results of these stress tests"
By saying "to all involved", is he not implying that the results are NOT going to be publicly released?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aOdH9vrC5WGc&refer=home
UAW is to be given preferential treatment over bondholders in any GM bankruptcy....unbelievable....
Dummy's Guide to Interpreting Bank Stress Test Results:
Y/N - Bank is sufficiently capitalized for deposits and obligations?
Y - Give them a TARP loan
N - Buy half of their shares at 30% markup over market.
Y/N - Bank owes GS money from bad derivative trades?
Y - Emergency funding so they don't destabilize the financial system.
N - Have the FDIC begin takeover to give them to a bank that plays the game.
Y/N - Timmay is the bomb!
Y - Explosive derivatives.
N - Timmay ate my lunch and gave me a black eye 
Why May? Because first we have to swallow the GM bankruptcy before we ram the banks bankruptcy down teh taxpayer's throat.
Sorry mkillk, didn't know you were a GM bondholder
Does this this commenting section still work? Or is it like a Wall Street projection model?
I found an actual photo insert to the up and coming Stress Test guide:
https://vasbinder.wikispaces.com/file/view/jul3107-joint.jpg
mykillk wrote on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 3:48pm.
UAW is to be given preferential treatment over bondholders in any GM bankruptcy....unbelievable....
Seems smart. We'll just be paying for those retirements out of the public purse if we favor the bondholders. They could all have bought default swaps, they knew what they were getting into. Sorry, the rulebook got thrown out long ago. Things just happen any old way now. Have fun planning.
As a side note, anybody that doesn't think that the PPT, or the program trading desks of the banks are actively pumping this market needs their head examined. It cannot be more obvious.
Scott McClellan look like a genius compared to Robert Gibbs.
word is that JPM's trading desk went nuts Q1, especially their derivatives division. The thing about JPM's numbers tomorrow is that there is no middle ground. Either the market goes nuts (e.g. WFC) or it gets disappointed (e.g. post-GS).
If the results are released on the 1st of May, should we be expecting Pravda or consequences?, comrades
If you let it get old enough and you slice it thin enough and you don't tell anyone exactly what's in it a shit sandwich is still a shit sandwich.
Smoke and mirrors.
Paging Mr. Accountability, paging mr.accountability...........
Beep, beep....The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable.
Go Figure
Gavshire Hathaway (member) wrote on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 3:51pm.
As a side note, anybody that doesn't think that the PPT, or the program trading desks of the banks are actively pumping this market needs their head examined. It cannot be more obvious.
I have taken to calling it "The Global Nice Nice".
Like, you hit a kid while drunk driving, you pick him up, dust him off, say "seeeverythingiscoolrightthereallbetter" and drive off.
In Obamaesque, tranparency == opacity
" you will see in a systematic and coordinated way the transparency of determining and showing to all involved some of the results of these stress tests"
translation: we will pick and chose that data we want, and will present them in a context=model that best limits the damage, in appearance. Announcing a transparent attempt to fudge and hope that the "reviewers" are stupid? I guess none of these people are too familiar with the way scientific methodology works
Mirror, mirror on the wall...
Which bank tells tales that are tall?
"word is that JPM's trading desk went nuts Q1, especially their derivatives division. The thing about JPM's numbers tomorrow is that there is no middle ground. Either the market goes nuts (e.g. WFC) or it gets disappointed (e.g. post-GS)."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Well I'm glad the markets aren't trading on insider information.
Down goes Elmo, down goes Elmo.
GS loses JPM wins, just look for recent news articles about the rats abandoning ship at GS
UAW is to be given preferential treatment over bondholders in any GM bankruptcy....unbelievable....
I don't understand this:
"A United Auto Workers union retiree health-care fund probably will get preferential treatment over other unsecured claims in a General Motors Corp. bankruptcy or restructuring, people familiar with the plans said."
Wouldn't this be determined solely by the bankruptcy judge? I can't imagine PIMCO losing this one without a huge fight.
--
The Zombie Apocalypse begins when U3 hits 15%
Loony stuff starting to come out of Camp Obama.
It's amazing how they don't seem to be able to take a step back from mistakes.
Every day, it's more style-over-substance.
Until the day it catches up with them.
Sounds like the GM's upcoming "bankruptcy" is basically sacrifice the bondholders and give all the money to the UAW.
Just how many lives does the corporategarchy have anyway?
(Black Cat crosses the street)
Rob Dawg (member) wrote on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 2:38pm.
Ahhh, for the days of the previous administration when they didn't tell us anything.
That's funny!
Doctor "I want you to believe you are healthy. Those other tests might make you doubt it."
No point treating the disease when we can just touch up the x-rays.
"Yawn. Back to reading Auden's Letters From Iceland..."
Good Lord! Interesting people who post here. Auden was in Iceland in the thirties, no? He always said he must be Old Norse in origin, because of his name.
GM. The failure of it would obviously be devastating to this country, like an avalanche to mountain climbers. This is a very critical juncture.
I know, you'll say it has already begun, and who is going to stop all those boulders from bouncing and crashing down? They'd better.
Pavel Chichikov
Meryl Streep to play a mature graying Sheila Bair in the tear jerker Gone With The TARP. Abigail Breslin will revive her Little Miss Sunshine role to protray a young precocious sassy Sheila who wins a talent contest singing Super Freak. Welcome to Hell. Link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyTzcYUOrvk
"I can't imagine PIMCO losing this one without a huge fight. "
Bill is far smarter than his adversaries. He knows that a little wailing and gnashing of teeth over a few pennies of detroit crapola serves as a good political distraction from the buckets of ducats he's made by front-running the FNM/FRE backstop.
mykillk wrote on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 3:59pm.
Sounds like the GM's upcoming "bankruptcy" is basically sacrifice the bondholders and give all the money to the UAW.
Well otherwise we buy the pension plan for the PBGC as taxpayers, so, as a taxpayer and a policy critic, I would basically say drop the bondholders in the croc pit and hope that less pension funds go BK that way. Have some equities and shit. A little New year's Eve firecracker that shoots streamers that say "YOU'VE BEEN HAD" maybe, if the unit cost isn't too high. Sorry about your bonds.
And May turns to June, and June turns to late summer, and then wintertime...all will be revealed in wintertime
Anyone who pays taxes is involved in this up the wazoo. Open the books-- I hate to see CR so riled -- stress tests were a great idea co-opted and smothered.
Obama gets himself deeper into the charade week by week.
April is the cruelest month, financially.
1937?
"I guess none of these people are too familiar with the way scientific methodology works"
Why would they be? Economics, especially the pigmy cousin of it that is finance, is as far from a science without being an art as it gets.
Comrades who do not follow THE GUIDE will be shot.
"all will be revealed in wintertime"
yup, the Autumn wind is a raider - rangebound until the leaves turn orange.. then, the horrorshow really starts and SPX targets around 400 begin to be seen.
Never underestimate the subterfuge component of the Dismal Science...
So was today's move due to the JPM rumors?
1937?
No, we're still in the deflationary pre-devaluation phase - which had quite a few sucker rallies.
Wouldn't this be determined solely by the bankruptcy judge? I can't imagine PIMCO losing this one without a huge fight.
This is a statutory provision for priority. general unsecured creditors are the next lowest on the totem pole, above only equity.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode11/usc_sec_11_00000507----000-.html
Feels more like 1931, going nowhere fast.
"Well otherwise we buy the pension plan for the PBGC as taxpayers"
Or we can bailout major bondholders. Pick your poison.
SPG was up 14% today. That's higher than before the dismal retail numbers were released yesterday.
--
The Zombie Apocalypse begins when U3 hits 15%
Wow.
Do they even read this crap before they release it?
This is right up there with "Strategery".
I can't help but have this erie feeling that one day I will wake up and every crooked banker, every congressman, and every member of the executive team will have flown the coup to a non-extradition country and all that will be left is a pile of IOUs and angry creditor nations threatening to blow us up if we don't give them what we don't have.
Wow.
The UAW issue is $48 billion that GM owes to the VEBA (voluntary employee beneficiary association) for the union workers. The intent whent this VEBA was created was to create a fixed liability for the healthcare for GM and thereby offload healthcare cost increases to the union. The problem is that GM hit the wall before they could generate enough net income to complete the payout to the VEBA. Of course, this was all rearranging Titanic deck chairs; but I believe that any BK judge will give the UAW precedence over any bondholders. Employees are generally first in line in BK's. I have no problem with that.
sheshe
I LOVE LAMP
"1937?"
Probably. I feel somehow disinclined to look it up.
I attended a lecture given by him at Columbia not too long before he died. It was about ancient Greek prosody, and I could hardly understand a word. He seemed to want us to write in Greek metrical forms in English as a kind of exercise. I hope he's in a better mood now.
A VISIT TO PURGATORY
They smoke in Purgatory -
Themselves or cigarettes?
It's hard to tell
I offered an ash-tray anyway
Which they received
Complacently and pleasantly
Clouds of blue smoke,
Tendrils drifting, tenuous
I brushed away
Nice were they
But somewhat guarded
Conversation never started
They smiled and kept their peace
Perhaps awaiting, patient, their release
Pavel
April 12, 2009
Pavel Chichikov
FFDIC
1937 is when the government decides the problem is 'cured' because the credit market spreads are OK. They then try to back out of the picture but find that the credit market only looked OK cause everything was government-guaranteed. That's when they finally realized the pain can be endured early or late, but it must be endured.
What I don't understand is how the bonds haven't been completely dumped by investors already and become totally worthless....I mean bankruptcy is basically 100% for sure now...Why would someone want to hold onto them when they know they will get next to nothing for them?
What I don't understand is how the bonds haven't been completely dumped by investors already and become totally worthless....I mean bankruptcy is basically 100% for sure now...Why would someone want to hold onto them when they know they will get next to nothing for them?
----------------------------------------
Same could be said for the US.
If Ben Bernanke had been the captain of the Titanic, John Jacob Astor IV would have lived. He'd have been given a special lifeboat. The women and children would all have drowned, of course.
As long as the UAW has the balls to strike they can force better terms from the Nouveau GM - ever see coupon clippers in the street with picket signs? Well except for a few tea baggers....
"1937 is when the government decides the problem is 'cured' because the credit market spreads are OK."
but we still haven't done the 1933/1934 70% devaluation trick. the script must be followed. and, in any case, methinks this is more like Japan 1995 than 1937 USA (or 1975 USA for that matter).
[ One could see the short squeeze caused by JPM's 6:30 AM anno]
Tough to know. If they treat AIG 1-time timmay gift as operating casino winnings it might look to the buysiders like they can earn their way out of the mess. Who knows, AIG might still be the gift that keeps on giving? Their CC & HELOCs can't be performing too well.
My sense is the shorts already bailed in the last hour. We'll see...
So now that the "worst case scenario" has already come to pass, how will they spin the results?
I mean, they can't point at it and say, "Well, sure, but that was our worst case scenario! We don't foresee things getting THAT bad!"
Which is what they were going to say, you just know it.
Well, now they can't say that.
So what ARE they going to say?
Like, in the official "Guide to Stress Testing Very Large Banks," I mean.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Churchill
Why is the UAW getting preference over the tens of billions of dollars that the government poured into that turd pile?
Banks Have More Than TARP Funds !!!
A table in the article shows that some have received more asistance through FDIC backed bonds than from TARP money! Hello, Goldman Sachs!
Some of my investor confidence is transparently overflowing onto all involved
I'm betting that all the insiders in the financial industry will have this data well before the public, and trade--long, short, sideways; equities or bonds--accordingly while they wait for the public shoe to drop.
...as usual, the public will get the hindmost.
The UAW should get no special treatment. An honest and fair judge will not preside over a BK. OB has already been bought and paid for by the UAW. OB will back the union and control Green car technology and kill GM off. In the end we will eat the retirement cost anyway. Off to a Tea Party.
My sense is the shorts already bailed in the last hour. We'll see... - bearly
:: ::
Gotta luv the way Yahoo! Finance spun the story...
Top Stories:
Stocks Gain in Late Trade After Beige Book Shows Signs of Economic Life- AP
SOME of the results....bwa ha ha ha ha!
At least they are being honest!
Why is the UAW getting preference over the tens of billions of dollars that the government poured into that turd pile?
That was WHY the tens of billions were poured in - GM workers and the workers at GM suppliers [5:1 multiplier at least].
Meanwhile bonds don't vote.
You guys surprised?
China Not a Currency Manipulator, Geithner Says in Turnaround From January
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aM.gruoOIIoI&refer=home
ROFLMAO!
If the BK judge doesn't approve the VEBA deal, then those UAW workers just wind up hitting the PBGC or Medicaid or Medicare. Obviously there's no out for taxpayers generally. We own GM lock, stock, and barrel at this point. It's just a question of how the actual cash flows wind up getting paid out.
sheshe
No, I'm not surprised. I'm just getting very angry now that I've actually thought this out. It's been planned since the very beginning. Use huge amounts of taxpayer money to keep the company alive just long enough to figure out how to do a pretend bankruptcy that funnels most of the money to the UAW.
Chicagonomics at its best!
China Not a Currency Manipulator, Geithner Says in Turnaround From January
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aM.gruoOIIoI&refer=home
ROFLMAO!
Thank you - I needed that. If there was any doubt in my head there was going to be change - that should just about nail it.
WTF...
The Obama administration may not know what they're doing but unlike the previous administration they do know what they're not doing. They are not letting the opposition define the vocabulary. They are working on a new vocabulary to use with banks; a vocabulary without words like insolvent, bankrupt, bank-run, panic, catastrophe, depression. So you see, this is going to take a little time.
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@Tupuli
You mean the same Krugmann that thinks it's bad if the make work programs come in under budget? Eff it, why bother with the whole charade lets just carpet bomb the country with Andrew Jacksons.
Who is to say that TPTB meant this May? For all we know it could be May 2010 or 2011!
You guys are too optimistic!
I would also like to agree w/above poster who wrote that the bigwigs will get this info before us little people and trade this info upside down.
To think otherwise is completely Pollyanna and naive. You can trust me on this one. GS will get insider info first and make a killing. Someone who should go down in flames will make billions and stave off BK because of it.
This system makes me want to vomit!
Excuse me please!!!
Show you the data??!!! You must be mad. If they did that, you might panic. And begin to riot and all sort of things that would disturb the slumbers of Washington in bed with Wall Street.
No, I'm not surprised. I'm just getting very angry now that I've actually thought this out. It's been planned since the very beginning. Use huge amounts of taxpayer money to keep the company alive just long enough to figure out how to do a pretend bankruptcy that funnels most of the money to the UAW.
Chicagonomics at its best!
As for planned - of course it was planned - as for unfair depends on details of the structure. If it is done like an ESOP where the UAW pension liability above and beyond the PBGC promise is swapped for equity in the new co then at least the UAW has skin in the game going forward. If new co fails then pension goes poof too.
If it is just a money dump into UAW then 'yes' - Jimmy Hoffa would be bummed he wasn't alive today. I don't think there is any live cash laying about so that option probably is off the table.
Regardless - the bond holders don't get paid at all unless workers assemble cars and believe it or not a bunch of 30 something marketing and finance MBAs inside 'corporate' can't run lathes or robotic welders. The UAW has a very unique position now that there are so few 'young uns' able to replace them on the line... that wasn't the case 30 years ago when there was an army of qualified mfg workers. That was really the last time the UAW could be broken without blowing up the bond holders and/or equity.
Sorry if this point has been made already...
But once the data is released, anything bad will be covered up with "but that data is months old, our books are totally different now".
"So that's why they've taken so long to release the results. They've been working on a guide! "
They should have done that after they made up the numbers-
"1937 is when the government decides the problem is 'cured' because the credit market spreads are OK."
Didn't they also raise taxes right after the '36 election? Wasn't that what help "kill" the "recovery", as it were?
"Why is the UAW getting preference over the tens of billions of dollars that the government poured into that turd pile?"
Probably so the government doesn't get stuck with pension liabilities. GM's bond holders are already hosed. They just don't know it yet.
How can they spin the net end result of the stress test....
result = "OH F**K THEY'RE COMPLETELY SCREWED"
Test: IGNORE
Amazingly enough, in the midst of this (deflationary) crisis, the military budget rose by about 4%. This is something both parties seem to agree on. Military spending. Pretty soon the military will be the only well run institution in the country.
And to put it politely, eventually, a general becomes president. President Petraus for example ???? Hope not!!
May. Of course.
Wouldn't want to scare people off paying their taxes.
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