Comments on: Bloggers @ Treasury

By: klhoughton

klhoughton — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:32:25 +0000

“But Treasury has a somewhat weird policy of “maximizing touch” and therefore not repeating any blogger.”

Ah, good. So when they get to holding the 92nd such meeting, which cookies should I snarf quickly?

By: DanHess

DanHess — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:14:28 +0000

Felix, you are right that a lot of people are making a lot of mistakes trying to understand CDSs with respect to Greece. But if you are a journalist and not merely a commenter, can you dig into the real question, which is, who are the CDSs counterparties? It would really be great if you could get your hands on copies of a few of these contracts and bring light to the world.

CDS counterparties are rumored to include banks in Greece (according to BNP Paribas, as cited in Bloomberg), which would mean that they certainly cannot pay. Their value comes in part from the hope that should Greece go bust, taxpayers will take over these banks and make these payments. That was what happened last time and the world did not end, so it looks to policymakes like a great plan.

Greek CDSs are grossly mispriced. They are at like 160 basis points over the safest debt which would mean that CDS pricing is based on merely about an 8% chance of Greek default in 5 years.

Why? Who is insuring at such prices?

By: EmilianoZ

EmilianoZ — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:04:49 +0000

FS: “Again, I think they’re just trying to make the best of a bad situation — that we’re still months away, in a best-case scenario, from a bill actually reaching the president’s desk, and that by then (fingers crossed) the crisis will be more of a distant memory than ever.”

You must be joking. I can assure you that for every person who has lost his job and won’t find another one anytime soon, the crisis will not be a “distant memory”. The anger will be as strong then as it is now and as it was in 2008.

“The past is not dead, it’s not even past”

By: maynardGkeynes

maynardGkeynes — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:02:02 +0000

…”there does seem to be some kind of PR offensive going on.”

Ya’ think????

By: sashae

sashae — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:17:36 +0000

Felix,

Do you find it interesting that non-corporate indie bloggers are no longer welcome at Treasury? Seems like a hell of a lot more of a “get out the message” meeting than trying to solicit for opinions/ideas.

By: Sandrew

Sandrew — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:57:18 +0000

What’s your sense of Treasury’s angle in holding these meetings? Is it just a matter of inflating these bloggers’ sense of self-importance in the hopes that the goodwill created thereby might translate into more favorable coverage of the reform package?

Or are they simply looking to co-opt like-minded, influential mouthpieces? (“Listen, here’s what we want to fight for re: financial reform. If you’re on board, help us spread the good word.”) Seems to me these blogger@Treasury meetings are more than just another part of a vanilla PR blitz. I mean, why embargo any meaty quotes if you’re trying to get word out? So what then? Did anyone ask the question, “Why are we here?”