Sitemap - 2008 - John Hempton's Newsletter

Hookers that still cost too much – some comments on the IMF and Latvia

Santander also caught in the due diligence lie

Bramdean Alternative’s solvency problems

New World Capital Managment - a follow up...

Gentle understatement

Weather and subprime mortgages

Robust and thorough due diligence is back

Criminal charges for Nicola Horlick now?

Nicola Horlick is a silly silly girl

My delayed Nicola Horlick post

Bronte Capital calls for a new French Revolution

By no means the scale of Madoff

Must read Cassandra - on Madoff

A post-script: climate change from the left and another plea for investments...

Conservatives, climate change and investing

Is this the seriously smart money?

Weekend edition: iphones and Galileo

The bull in the china shop

Great interviews in finance

Goodbye Tanta - I will miss you...

Weekend edition: surf lifesaving as a spectator sport

Even Krugman doesn't get how plainly irrationally bad it is out there

Proof we are not in Kansas any more

Arguably the best proxy disclosure of the year

Reaction to the bailout

The Brad DeLong question - and how to design a bailout that works

I risk being detained by the Latvian secret police

Tax benefits, Wells and Wachovia

A more sensible idea: A Citigroup pre-pack bankruptcy

Why Sheila Bair must resign

Sheila Bair and seizing Citigroup

Remember Sheila Bair wanted to sell Wachovia to Citigroup

The Mark Cuban charges – and the economic purpose of insider trading laws

William Buiter has written up the London as Reykjavic idea for the FT

Citigroup, Whachovia, Sheila Bair and a post I didn't make...

Iceland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Jordan and countries with banks that are too big to bail out

Getting your duration and diversification offshore – how bond market crises and currency crises intertwine

Naked Capitalism on AIG

Weekend edition: things that get easier and harder every year

A Krona Problem

Global diversification – an Australian perspective

AIG - thy name is opaque

The Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner lets Ambac have its 3 billion

Berkshire Credit Default Swaps

Ambac: A surprisingly liquid after-market

My number 2 blowup

Walmart: Where is a statistician when you need one?

It is surprising how few people got the joke...

The only responsible trade...

Is the New York Times giving us a bad read on the newspaper business?

A new disclosure "Magically" appears

It's about the real economy now

Why Lehman mattered

The 1934 Securities Exchange Act and all that

Fred Goodwin hangs tough

Bakkavor Group, an Icelandic follow up...

Iceland denies the airbase link

British deposits in Icelandic banks

Funny reaction as to the prostitution comment

Iceland the absurd

The Bronte Capital thesis breaks down

Geopolitics and financial crisis

Sir Fred not quitting

Sir Fred Goodwin deathwatch - hopefully final edition

Dumb things I did not do for real

Royal Bank of Scotland – some comments

The Sheila Bair disgrace sequence

Its amazing how bad Sheila Bair looks now

Did Sheila Bair force the confiscation of a solvent bank?

Irish government guarantees the bank debt (not the bank equity)

How to make the bailout work

Who lied to who and who told who what

The end-goal of any bailout or government takeover

In praise of the FDIC

Monday September 29, 2008

The reckless, irresponsible seizure of Washington Mutual: please read in Washington DC

Wachovia next

Illiquidity and insolvency and the takeover of WaMu

Is this one of the most extraordinary government actions ever?

Lehman and WaMu failures

WaMu explanation number 1

Just to rub salt into the wounds

Stuffed that one up

WM preferred versus common

The Motley Fool puts me in my place!

Washington mutual takeover news

Jeff Matthews on Buffett and Paulson

Comment deletion policy

The FDIC and WaMu

The oil price spike

How much does it take to get the FDIC to take over a bank?

WSJ on WaMu

Paulson stops thinking, starts acting

Things you can’t do with the short-selling rule

Ambac’s shocking press release

SEC tries to bankrupt Wall Street

What comes around goes around

Constructive uncertainty redux

Bailouts - past and present

Private Equity is like so yesterday

Where is a trillionaire when you need them: too big to bail out

Am I meant to say something smart here?

Weekend edition: Merrill Lynch and a guy who admits killing an underworld hitman

Funny – it is working!

Mortgage insurers and the bailout

This blog’s evolving view on Fannie Mae

Some quick analysis of what the Frannie bailout means

The Reality Based Community and Frannie

Getting it wrong again! Phoney and Fraudy edition

The problem with blogging: WestAmerica Bancorp

Weekend edition: A call for the beauty disadvantaged

Bank customer service – some follow up

Epistemology for beginners:

Google – the evil identity theft company

Suing Dell – a follow up

Bank customer service

Explaining the brokers – Part III

From the comments - believing in Magic

Ripping off two charts – Moodys mid year residential mortgage backed security performance update

Reducing post frequency

Counting and double counting – a comment on losses and accounting standards esp FAS 159

Does anyone have a good estimate of losses recognised to date?

This week's bank collapse

Berkshire risk aversion - a follow up

Some depressing thoughts

Risk aversion – Berkshire style

Market puzzles - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

I blame the one child policy: explaining the brokers part II

Rick's rats on its clients

Rick’s Cabaret – a Gentlemen’s Establishment with a private jet

Explaining the brokers Part I

Weekend edition: the somewhat cooler Hempton

Foreigners selling Fannie and Freddie debt

Extra credit Jeff Matthews: great blog posts of yesteryear

Estonians trash their flash cars: can't make the lease payments

Article in Portfolio magazine on British banking

Things that make you go hmmm...

The crudest of models for Fannie Mae cumulative losses – (Fannie Mae Part III)

Losses recognised to date - and where to look for more

I was considered a scaremonger with my Swedbank post

Insolvent versus profoundly insolvent – Fannie Mae Part II

Recollections of Alt-A

From the comments - property prices on the California beach

Estimating losses for prime mortgage books

Some corrections on statutory capital requirements

Another blog milestone

From the comments: more on Magic

One email comment - about reserving at MTG

Do you believe in Magic? [Fannie Mae part IA.]

Covered bonds as a panacea – or a recipe for the FDIC to kick in more taxpayer money

From the comments:

A correction on mortgage trends

Jamie Dimon – it is time to pay up

Felix Salmon steals my thunder

What if the problem was mainly fraud?

Just some comments on the email I am getting

How people find my blog

Picking apart Fannie Mae – PART ONE

Fixed currency and bankrupt states - Estonia next

New Fannie - just like the old Fannie

From the comments section - Latvian bank deposits

Wachovia will walk-over-you

The Latvian mess

I used to be a public servant - but I couldn't have written this!

Yesterday's post: a short version

Further comments and corrections on yesterday’s post

Hookers that cost too much, flash German cars and insolvent banks: an introduction to Swedbank’s Baltic homeland

Interesting - and negative for Ambac

WaMu sub debt

Subprime improving

A stroppy social experiment

Second weekend edition: Le Tour

Weekend edition: A daft funds of hedge funds

Dell and warranty issues

The Dick Bove problem and an investment idea

Selling volatility in the sports betting market

CINFIN admits defeat on Fifth Third

It's the economy stupid

Whoa – here come the Japanese

The Oops Slide

Whose definition of subprime?

Changing tone on MBIA

Interest rate risk, credit risk and a comment on bank margins

Babe – I can’t find a vein

Things I got right and wrong

Thing that stuns me - Natixis: French turds and raisins

Mistakes

The peculiarity of Fannie and Freddie’s market cap

The Norwegian bank collapse – a fixed currency model with a current account deficit

Santander buying Alliance & Leicester

Newsflash: Spain looks dicey

Deflation and bank bailouts in Japan

The Trading Post – a story of slow technological adoption

MBIA and GICs - a follow up

Reggie on GE

MBIA holding company credit default swaps

Can someone explain why Fifth Third started taking brokered home equity loans?

Christmas in July: a falling US dollar is just a bowl of cherries

A blog milestone

A correction on Sydney Airport

So the weather channel is worth 3.5 billion

Weekend edition: having a whale of a time

Mish comments on finance for machine tools

Time to hide the valuables under the mattress and buy a shotgun

A not so encouraging dead link

Somthing to say for getting old - or just ignoring survival bias

Things I once wrote

Things I stuffed up – edition one - Interest rate risk versus credit risk

GIGs and Ambac

Wachovia and negative amortisation

Bond insurer – has airport to sell

Whitney Tilson on MBIA

Drink deeply of the poison: another look at Fifth Third Bank

Citigroup thinks Barclays needs more

The Associates - Sandy Weill's greatest miss

A slight difference in statements: Chart Industries and Energy World Corporation

Saving a General with a fresh set of batteries

Why Bronte?

Sydney Airport: waiting for a (financial) crash landing

The preposterously expensive WestAmerica Bancorp

A piece of a company can go bankrupt - Mish on MBIA

Things that stun me: Fifth Third Bancorp

Steve and Barry's and what the #$%@#% is GE doing

Getting oil on my shirt: Energy World Corporation

Why don't people buy AAA strips at 80c in the dollar? Top five reasons by request

In praise of fraudulent accounts

Its time for a short version of yesterday's post

What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? A comment on General Electric’s corporate lending business

Barclays in denial

Stephen Cooper - a follow up

Stephen Cooper's Business: The past is prologue

Short post today: Barclays and fraudulent hedge funds

Barclays - strange, stranger and truly opaque

You must forgive me my tactlessness: New World Capital Management - a follow up

Australia is different: Macquarie Bank edition

My old notes on Northern Rock

Its a sh-t business - but hey - the dollar is falling

Joe Gutnick: a first follow up OR Why pay stock shills when you can have News Corp for free

A colourful charachter stoops to paid stock shills

Will General Electric get its advanced materials back?

Royal bank of Scotland and Charter One - a first follow up

Fun and games in hedge fund land (or what does it take to go to prison?)

Australia really is another country

Sir Fred Goodwin death watch: Part 1

Japanese regional banks - a mirror on America

Scoping the mortgage crisis

A hope to emulate Jeff Matthews - and not make it up