Money and Finance
One of Wall Street's Riskiest Bets Returns
Investors are once again clamoring for a risky investment blamed for helping unleash the financial crisis: the synthetic CDO.
In a sign of how hard Wall Street is trying to satisfy voracious demand for higher returns amid rock-bottom interest rates, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley bankers in London are moving to assemble so-called synthetic collateralized debt obligations.
CDOs give investors a chance to bet on the creditworthiness of a basket of companies. Basic CDOs pool bonds and offer investors a slice of the pool. Synthetic CDOs pool, instead of the bonds themselves, insurance-like derivative contracts on the bonds.
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Why Buffett Is Steering Clear Of Catastrophe Bonds - By Gillian Tett
Link to article: Why Buffett is steering clear of catastrophe bondsWhen Warren Buffett held his annual shareholders meeting last weekend in Nebraska, investors obsessively discussed everything that the Sage of Omaha said about the equity market and his...
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The Yield Hunt - By Michael Lewitt
Anyone who does not understand that the price of every stock and every bond is being artificially altered by the fact that interest rates are being manipulated by the Federal Reserve should not be risking any money in the markets. Monetary policy has...
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Larry Fink.....contrarian Indicator?
From June of 2008: "We were one of the investors in the Lehman equity offering...Lehman is not a Bear Stearns situation...Lehman is adequately structured in terms of avoiding a liquidity crisis...We believe we're closer to the bottom than another...
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February 2007 Paper: How Resilient Are Mortgage Backed Securities To Collateralized Debt Obligation Market Disruptions?
Executive SummaryThe mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market has experienced significant changes over the past couple of years. Non-agency (“private label”) securities, which are not guaranteed by the government or the government sponsored enterprises,...
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The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep The Bubble Going - By Jesse Eisinger And Jake Bernstein
In late 2005, the booming U.S. housing market seemed to be slowing. The Federal Reserve had begun raising interest rates. Subprime mortgage company shares were falling. Investors began to balk at buying complex mortgage securities. The housing bubble,...
Money and Finance