Comments on: Apocalypse Then

By: Major

Major — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:11:35 +0000

Quimby, I do recall a rumor (unverified) of Goldman having provided CIT a $3 billion loan or line of credit. If so, we’ll get another data point on who’s actually behind tossing taxpayer wallets at all those bankers unwilling to live with the consequences of their own bad choices.

CIT, by the way, did advertises its expertise in “Structured Finance.”

By: quimby

quimby — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:13:16 +0000

I think that amount of money that CIT needs (a reported 5 Billion Dollars) is suitable for a Senior Preferred Stock Investment by the Treasury.
It sounds like this is not going to happen – and you have to think that the whole gang of crooks and shysters that we call banks are lining up to get cheap CIT assets and to make expensive new loans to CIT customers.
Gee, the moral of this story is : Make sure that Goldman Sachs is your couterparty if you want a financial rescue…

By: Major

Major — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:10:34 +0000

Thanks to CIT, we’re getting a bit more data on the boundaries are between Paulson’s “Financial Armageddon” at the one end and “Too Big to Fail,” another “Merrill Lynch,” another “Lehman” and a another “GM” at the other

It’s clearly not just a simple matter of annual revenues, annual profits, GDP contribution, Job Losses or any of the other standard metrics of economic policy. Perhaps it’s really as simple as how much ($$) foreign and domestic bondholders — trusting in the soundness of the U.S. economy — would loose?

Any better ideas out there? Anyone? If not, I’d suggest we first try to identify the “too big to fail” dollar threshold and designate it as a new unit of currency — The Goldman. In that case, what’s your bet? One Goldman = $_____ ?

Hmnnn, Fannie and Freddie are clearly each worth several Goldmans. Would GE be bigger or smaller than one Goldman?