Finance Folly

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More Trouble On PE Deals Ahead

By The Prince ⋅ February 25, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Now that the Alliance Data buyout is supposedly “back on" (after an attempted shutdown by Blackstone), some in the financial press might anticipate that future private equity buyouts will go more smoothly than the Alliance Data deal.  It would be a mistake, however, to believe that other buyout deals have an easy road ahead.  Many [...]

The Prince’s Monoline Roundup

By The Prince ⋅ February 22, 2008 ⋅ 4 comments

The Prince has come to the conclusion that the financial blogosphere is doing a much better job covering the monoline (i.e. bond insurers) debacle than the traditional financial press.  There has been a plethora of interesting analysis and thought provoking work done on the recent trauma involving bond insurers by bloggers. 
The Prince has contributed [...]

Fitch: Insurers have Enormous Unrealized Losses

By The Prince ⋅ February 21, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

The WSJ is out with an article about how much exposure life insurers have to subprime assets as estimated by Fitch.  The Prince is just smiling as the contagion from the subprime crisis just continues to be felt in new and unanticipated areas and ways.
Excerpt from the WSJ:
Fitch Ratings said U.S. life insurers have an [...]

Missed Signs

By The Prince ⋅ February 21, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

21 Feb 2008 - I guess The Prince can’t really believe anything SocGen says about their knowledge of what their rogue trader was doing.  First, they say they only had 2 warnings and now a report comes out today showing numerous, as many as 75, warnings of Jerome’s acclivities.  Here it is for your enjoyment [...]

Marrying Another Banker

By The Prince ⋅ February 21, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

21 Feb 2008 - Here is an interesting forum thread from Wall Street Oasis on whether a banker should marry another banker.  It contains some really interesting perspectives and is worth a read through.

Speculation and Fraud in Mortgages? A Blind Eye.

By The Prince ⋅ February 19, 2008 ⋅ 9 comments

One angle of the mortgage crisis that has been incredibly under-covered by the financial and mainstream press is the adverse role that fraud and speculation played in the crisis.  The Prince first began to seriously consider the scale and reach of fraud in obtaining mortgages by single home homeowners, originators, originating mortgage brokers, wholesale originators, [...]

Credit Suisse Rolls Over Troubled UBS

By The Prince ⋅ February 14, 2008 ⋅ 4 comments

The Prince does admit that the typical Morgan Stanley v. Goldman Sachs v. JP Morgan commentary does get old.  Bloomberg today drew attention to another rivalry that doesn’t get as much attention in the U.S., the Credit Suisse v. UBS rivalry.  The Prince is trying to block out comparisons he wants to make to college [...]

For Ratings Firms Holding AAA Sacrosanct is Foolish

By The Prince ⋅ February 4, 2008 ⋅ 5 comments

The Prince has been astonished at the recent decisions of the three major credit rating firms (Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P).  In many cases, with their reputations already seriously tarnished, the firms are still foolishly trying to not downgrade mortgage related tranches they originally rated AAA.  The ratings firms would be wise to take a page [...]

Microsoft Finally Goes Hostile on Yahoo

By The Prince ⋅ February 1, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

Obviously everyone and their mother is commenting on the announcement today but the Prince couldn’t resist.  Let the battle begin.  The Prince loves a good M&A battle which will no doubt drag on for months in the financial press.  Found memories of the public battle between the love triangle of Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, [...]

Did SocGen Spark Global Selloff? Fed’s move?

By The Prince ⋅ January 24, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

There is a theory circulating around Wall Street today about why markets got hammered on the 21st of January globally and on the 22nd in the U.S.  It is pretty interesting and may hold some grains of truth.  It also offers some insight into how the federal reserve may act at their up coming meeting.
 
At [...]

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