The Sunshine Report

Archive: Sep 2008

1. Did you see the new currency?

   0 Post on September 29, 2008

       [read full story]

   Posted in: Finance

2. TV Screaming Heads Say “Expand FDIC Insurance Now Or Else!” – Sunshine Says “Wait A Minute, There Are Alternatives. This Isn’t Necessary.”" rel="bookmark">TV Screaming Heads Say “Expand FDIC Insurance Now Or Else!” – Sunshine Says “Wait A Minute, There Are Alternatives. This Isn’t Necessary.”

   0 Post on September 28, 2008

   The newest dis­cov­ery of TV “scream­ing heads” is that FDIC insur­ance lim­its are caus­ing a quiet run on cer­tain weak banks by large depos­i­tors. The scream­ers tell us that sud­denly cor­po­rate depos­i­tors have dis­cov­ered that keep­ing large deposits at weak banks is risky. They shout that BoA, Wells Fargo, US Bank and JP Mor­gan are […] [read full story]

   Posted in: BANKS, FDIC, Finance, Promontory Interfinancial Network

3. Money Supply and Economic Data Weekly Watch – Hold On Tight Cos I’m Afraid Of Heights!

   0 Post on September 27, 2008

   Hold on tight cos I’m afraid of heights and it’s time for blast off. Money sup­ply is on a one way ticket to the moon and we are going along for the ride. After 6 months of real money sup­ply shrink­age, this week’s Fed release of money sup­ply and its bal­ance sheet points to a rapid […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Bush Administration, Credit Crisis, economy, Federal Reserve, Finance, M2, Paulson

4. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – A Guest Blog by Jason Itak

   0 Post on

   If there’s one thing we know about U.S. reces­sions (and even depres­sions) is that although painful, they do even­tu­ally end and the mar­kets and econ­omy grow ever larger as a result.  The spirit of democ­racy and cap­i­tal­ism (and Amer­i­can­ism for that mat­ter) is one of resilience and oppor­tu­nity.  As we do mature as a nation, […] [read full story]

   Posted in: economy, Finance

5. Mark to Market Accounting – It’s Like The Blob; We Need to Kill It Before It Eats Us Alive!

   1 Post on

   We need to kill mark to mar­ket account­ing before it eats us alive. These account­ing rules are like The Blob, an alien life form that con­sumes every­thing in its path as it grows and grows. Both the Blob and mark to mar­ket account­ing crawl, creep and eat every­thing dead or alive in their path. We […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Accounting, FAS 157, FAS 159, FASB, Finance, Mark to market accounting, The Blob

6. Brokers Becoming Banks? The Press Got It Wrong! – A Guest Blog by Winthrop Brown, Partner, Milbank Tweed

   1 Post on September 25, 2008

   Mark Sun­shine here…Yesterday I received the below e-mail from Winthrop Brown, a friend of mine who is a very senior and dis­tin­guished bank­ing lawyer at Mil­bank Tweed.  He was con­cerned about mis­re­port­ing of the Gold­man Sachs and Mor­gan Stan­ley con­ver­sions to bank hold­ing com­pa­nies and e-mailed me a clar­i­fy­ing analy­sis. Appar­ently Win believes that it […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Bank Holding Company, BANKS, Finance, Goldman Sachs, Guest Blog, Milbank Tweed, Morgan Stanley, Winthrop Brown

7. The Government Bailout Wheel Makes Me Dizzy – A Guest Blog by Joseph Healey

   6 Post on

   Remem­ber when you were a kid in the play­ground and your bud­dies caught you on that spin­ning metal wheel? They would spin the wheel faster and faster as you grabbed the metal bars for dear life and screamed Stop! Well I for one am feel­ing that same nau­se­ated feel­ing as I watch Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Paul­son […] [read full story]

   Posted in: BANKS, Credit Crisis, Economic Statistics, economy, Finance, Guest Blog, Joseph Healey, Paul O'Neil, Paulson

8. Evolution And The Extinction of Lehman Brothers – A Guest Blog Article By Glen Stein

   0 Post on September 21, 2008

   The world changed. Lehman went extinct. What hap­pened? There are only 4 ways to increase prof­its: Increase mar­gins, Increase sales vol­ume, Increase lever­age, and Con­trol expenses. Lehman became extinct because it evolved in the wrong direc­tion when its envi­ron­ment changed. How Lehman approached these 4 choices explain its prob­lems. 1.     Mar­gins Lehman’s evo­lu­tion­ary prob­lem was a […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Brokerage, Credit Crisis, Glen Stein, Guest Blog, Lehman

9. McCain: “Fire Cox”; Sunshine: “McCain’s wrong. Fire Cox and then exile him. His family can stay…they aren’t guilty.”

   1 Post on September 20, 2008

   Almost all paths of incom­pe­tence in the cur­rent cri­sis run through the office of the Chair­man of the SEC, Chris Cox. McCain’s solu­tion to fire Cox isn’t tough enough. Exile is bet­ter. For­tu­nately for Cox this isn’t the Stal­in­ist Soviet Union or his fate could be a lot worse. Cox’s fail­ures are too numer­ous to count. […] [read full story]

   Posted in: Accounting, Chris Cox, Disclosure, economy, FAS 157, FAS 159, FASB, McCain, SEC, Short Selling

10. Money Supply and Economic Data Weekly Watch – Smokey the Bear Says, “If you start a fire, put it out. Only you can prevent wildfires.”

    1 Post on

      OK. I admit it. Nei­ther Ben Bernanke nor Hank Paul­son looks like Smokey the Bear (although Smokey does resem­ble my dog, Kelly). But like fire­fight­ers try­ing to save the for­est, the dynamic duo are fever­ishly try­ing to save the U.S. econ­omy from an eco­nomic wild­fire by drown­ing the cri­sis with liq­uid­ity. Every week I […] [read full story]

    Posted in: BANKS, Bernanke, Credit Crisis, Deflation, Economic Statistics, economy, Fannie Mae, Federal Funds Rate, Federal Reserve, Finance, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, Freddie Mac, Great Depression, Inflation, M1, M2, monetary policy, Money Supply, Paulson