Buffett Says European Bank(s) Have Asked Him For Money

While Buffett hemmed and hewed in his usual populist rhetoric, discussing how multi-billionaires can afford to be generous with other people's tax rates, all of it completely unremarkable and highly hypocritical, the Octogenarian did release, whether by accident or on purpose, something quite critical, namely that European banks have approached him with requests for money.  From Bloomberg: "They need capital in their banks, in many of their banks," Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu on "In the Loop" today. "We would not be a good prospect," he said in an interview from the New York Stock Exchange. He's received "very, very few" calls about putting capital into European banks. "Not quite none at all," he said, declining to name any institutions."And that, as they say, is a word out of place, because while one my pretend that borrowing $500MM from the ECBs Fed swap line is really just an (inverse) arb on Libor or some other useless excuse, a bank begging for Buffett to take a bath can not be explained away.

Debt Solutions: The Scandinavian Way Versus The Japanese Way

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 1 hour ago

"It was painful. It was extremely painful for Scandinavia back then. But they did it and the alternative was what the Japanese did at the same time. The Japanese propped up everybody with zombie companies and zombie banks. The Japanese have two lost decades now. The Japanese stock market is 80% where it was 21 years ago. Sure. You can do it or try to do it the Japanese way. I prefer the Scandinavian way. You make some mistakes, take your losses and start over. By the way, the Koreans did it the Scandinavian way, the Russians, the Mexicans - various people did it the Scandinavian way... more » 

 

 

 

 

 

Presenting Eastman Kodak's Main 'Value Investors'

As EK is halted on news that it is considering patent sales and potential bankruptcy (very much in line with the expectations CDS markets have had for a while), we present the professional falling-knife-catchers (sorry value investors) who owned the most at the end of Q2. Has anyone heard from Bill Miller today? Largest holder was LMM LLC (yes that Legg Mason). Or is Bill Miller preparing for a speech at some Value Investing Shindig?

RANsquawk Weekly Wrap - Stocks, Bonds, FX – 30/09/11

Submitted by RANSquawk Video on 09/30/2011 - 14:58 RANSquawk

 

 

 

 

 

POMO.... It's BAAAAAAAAACK

You didn't think the Fed would let more than a few months pass without the much beloved and dearly missed near-daily POMOs now did you. The FRBNY's Brian Sacksters just released the October schedule of $44 billion in long-dated purchases, and $44 billion in short-dated sales. Since the net effect to banks is one of derisking, the offsetting rerisk will be implemented in the form of more stock purchases. Hopefully their prop desks (which no longer exist, right, after all the whole Volcker Rule thing and the UBS fiasco...) will know how to trade Netflix this time around better than last time.

Margin Stanley, China, And High Yield: Mix It All In, And Let Simmer (With An Aussie Accent?)

This week's trifecta of key financial developments, that go far deeper than superficial headlines, namely China, Morgan Stanley (and European bank exposure in general) and the equity-credit disconnect, just got another major push. CNBC just interviewed Tim Backshall (of Capital Context) to discuss the dramatic moves in MS credit risk (which we mentioned earlier) and in an undeniably convincing accent (British, Aussie, South African?), he managed to bring many of our broader concerns into focus including global financial contagion, bank funding, Chinese growth, and high yield credit. We also learned that ZeroHedge is a blog.

In The News Today

September 30, 2011, at 12:15 pm
by Jim Sinclair in the category In The News |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

If you do not like how the inflation rate reads just change how you calculate it.

Eurozone inflation rate jumps to 3% in September 30 September 2011 Last updated at 07:18 ET
The eurozone inflation rate increased to 3% in September, up from 2.5% in August, according to the first estimate from the EU statistics agency.
No breakdown was given, but Eurostat said its initial forecasts were usually "reliable".
Separate figures also released by Eurostat showed the eurozone unemployment rate unchanged at 10% in August from the previous month.
The number of people unemployed fell by 38,000 compared with July.
The unemployment rate in Spain, the highest in Europe, rose slightly to 21.2%, with youth unemployment hitting 46.2%.
However, the jobless rate for those under 25 in the eurozone as a whole fell slightly, to 20.4%.
Falling shares
Analysts, who had expected a small rise in inflation, pointed to technical changes in the way price rises are calculated as a contributory factor in the sharp increase.
"It’s not a nice number, but I wouldn’t panic that the high inflation which some have warned about for years is finally here," said Martin Van Vliet at ING.
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Jim’s Mailbox

September 30, 2011, at 11:49 am
by Jim Sinclair in the category Jim's Mailbox |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

Bullard: Fed will act if economy weakens further CIGA Eric




 
QE to ∞ (infinity) = QE(1)+QE(2)+QE(3)…QE(n) as the economy weakness and social unrest organizes across the globe.

Headline: Bullard: Fed will act if economy weakens further
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve will act if the economy weakens further and has the tools to do so, a top Fed official said on Friday.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he expects the economy to grow modestly over the next year — though the sluggish pace leaves it vulnerable to shocks.
"Should economic performance deteriorate, monetary policy will respond," Bullard said, according to slides of a presentation he was scheduled to make . "The Fed is not now, or ever, ‘out of ammunition’."
With interest rates near zero, Bullard said, the Fed can support the economy through inflation and inflation expectations and asset purchases are a "potent tool".
Source: finance.yahoo.com
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