News Roundup Wednesday

The market is basically flat for Tuesday, there is a strong case for the market to collapse or rally in the next 3 days. Leading up to options expiration, (Saturday) the games being played is very different. To really make the games interesting, JPMorgan moved their earnings report to Thursday.

The long haul, no matter what doesn't change, read my 2009 view.

News Roundup
Citi to split into a "good bank" and a "bad bank" - Psst, don't buy shares of the bad bank.
Citi announces possible brokerage venture with Morgan Stanley - Citi seems to be re-inventing itself, and fast.
US declares former US banker Weil a fugitive - I'm actually pleasantly surprised that the US is pursuing prosecution, there is hope yet.
JPM Chase Stops Funding Mortgages Through Brokers - Tad bit late
Obama Treasury appointee Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes - The illegal immigrant worker issue needs to be addressed already.
Federal Treasury debt hits 485 Billion in first 3 months. - Some quick math - 485 x 4 = 1.94 trillion. Yikes!
State Pensions’ $865 Billion Loss Affects New Hires - I could post a ranting entry on this topic alone. First all pensions should be halted, no new entries. Second, I feel terrible for those who believe their pensions are safe because its "guaranteed". There will be a wake up call in the next year. For Example, NJ State pension fund will be insolvent (click)
Bush asked for second half of TARP, 350 Billion, for Obama - From Obama speak, 350B is just a start.
Talk of taxing the transactions on wall street, not just prof - Normally I would entertain the idea. Until the market firms up, the government has to be insane to even think of this.
Germany to ban excessive public lending - Those Germans are crazy! Everyone knows how you fix a problem caused by excessive private debt is by excessive public debt! And the US is poised to lead the pack for the "win".
GE may face downgrade by Moody's
China's export decline most in a decade - As stated a year ago, China will not save the world from a depression....it may pull the world out of one.
Ohio's unemployment fund runs out - The conga line of states running out of funding is starting.
England to print money "in secret" - This one news piece deserves a blog entry by itself. If this occurs, kiss the Pound goodbye.
GM expects to lose 500 dealers in 2009 - next year, I would expect GM cars to be pretty cheap. The inventory has to go somewhere.
The bond bubble is an accident waiting to happen - Hold on here, I blogged this recently.


Ben Bernanke of the US Federal Treasury gave a speech today, which I recommend watching.
The speech was much longer than the video below, but the one thing Mr. Bernanke stressed, is that it's CRITICAL for the US to stabilize the banking system. I am impressed that Mr. Bernanke mentioned companies "too big the fail" makes an unlevel playing field for companies, and it needs to be addressed.
Blogger Mish provides a dissection of the speech.