With a new Administration in the wings, and the financial crisis, if not resolved, somehow moving into a state where we can think about something besides today's Dow Jones, thought leaders are starting to emerge with suggestions on lessons learned and what to fix. Some of the most interestin ... Read more
Financial services, as a sector, has been clobbered. Bankruptcy, forced takeover, government support -- no news here, the situation is dire. Basically, if a firm is associated with subprime or CDS or, now, consumer credit, the news is horrible. I'm not telling you anything you do ... Read more
CIT Group, Inc. (NYSE: CIT) has had a lot of news this week. A lot this year for that matter. Last night there was word that it had reached a loan agreement with Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS). And even earlier this week came challenges from Carl Icahn over the removal of management and [...] ... Read more
Here is an interesting clip from a very outspoken Former Assistant Treasury Secretary on the bailouts, the dollar, and Goldman Sachs. .... Craig Roberts: Bank bailout was a fraud and it won't succeed. Don't not know what sort of stupidity the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve will re ... Read more
Goldman Sachs (GS) has now paid back the TARP fund which removes the firm from what it must consider the government’s most draconian pay restrictions, those applied to companies living on taxpayer bailout dollars. Goldman still has to face an angry Congress which is considering  ... Read more
It's time to breakup Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and for that matter any bank or holding company deemed too big to fail. It's not just the "too big to fail" hazard that is troubling, it's also the power these corporations have and the potential to abuse that power that is also troubling. ... Read more
Our government paid $173 billion for 80% of AIG, . Our Congresspeople are outraged over $165 million of bonuses. There's a lot more to be outraged over -- like who got the $173 billion. At the top of the list -- surprise, surprise -- is Goldman Sachs, the same place our previous Treasury Secretary H ... Read more
Just to follow up, the odd put volume from yesterday in AAPL, GS, FCX, and AMZN that I mentioned earlier did not translate into much increased open interest.Generally just a bump of 1000-2000 contracts. So I suppose it was trading volume up and back. Rather large I would note. Speaking of larg ... Read more
So AAPL and GS trade pretty close to 95. Close enough to say the near month straddles are comparable. Well, with AAPL going out at $95.60, the March 95 straddle closed at about $4.80. Meanwhile, with $GS closing at $93.88, the March 95 straddle there closed at $7.10 or so. Is there a trade th ... Read more
Goldman Sachs (GS) reported Q4 results and of course lost money. If they had shown black ink no one would have believed it. Take a look at compensation costs as a percentage of revenues. In this business you have to pay your people for results. The question becomes are they deleveraging their people ... Read more