LEH: Its All Good Now!
By Barry Ritholtz - December 21st, 2010, 10:35AM
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Now that we have gotten that little Lehman thingie behind us, we can concentrate on what really matters: Bonuses!
You see, we only like free markets when they go up. We hate government intervention during those periods. But when these excesses cause market problems, that’s when we want the government to intervene, to spread their socialist love to bankers, to swing that BSD federal largesse. We love the warm embrace of the taxpayers during times of crisis.
The rest of the time, keep your damned interventionist noses out of our business. You are killing confidence and destroying jobs.
<Sarcasm Off>
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December 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
Yes, its all sarcasm
December 21st, 2010 at 10:46 am
Sorry, but that observation fits Larry Kudlow to a “T”. In fact the wonks at CNBC pulled his show during the crisis and then have brought it back afterwards. Maybe if we could get just an ounce of integrity there we’d be okay.
December 21st, 2010 at 11:33 am
Obviously, we have now arrived at the point where those that sense things still are not right will receive no audience.
So, we can talk to ourselves until the next bad thing happens.
Sadly, any effort to continue reform or seek prosecution of crimes will be a waste. E&Y is a sham. Pay a fine, admit no guilt. Move on.
But I applaud BR for continuing the good fight.
December 21st, 2010 at 11:44 am
Private gain, public loss – it’s the American way!
December 21st, 2010 at 11:47 am
Well…. their balance sheet probably isn’t nearly as leverages as it was before. Thanks Uncle Ben!
December 21st, 2010 at 11:53 am
“…we only like free markets when they go up. We hate government intervention during those periods. But when these excesses cause market problems, that’s when we want the government to intervene, to spread their socialist love…”
That’s pretty much how I see it. Now if somehow everyone could notice the blatant hypocrisy…
December 21st, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Whew! What a relief! For a moment I thought Lehman couldn’t make good on the three bucks I loaned them on a dime’s collateral.
December 21st, 2010 at 12:03 pm
In our economic system, for the good of the country, is there really anything that a steadily growing S&P 500 can’t fix?
Pension plan holdings go up. Retiree benefits are better because of it. Financial concerns relying on that pension plan’s holdings get better pay for their “performance”. Bigger bonuses. Spend more on cars, tv’s, suits, shoes, bar hopping, hookers, etc…Everyone wins!!
As long as the S&P is headed up, all is well.
December 21st, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I went all in today. Finally time to buy!!
December 21st, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Barry – did you read the Tyler Cowen essay “The Inequality That Matters”? http://www.the-american-interest.com/article-bd.cfm?piece=907
From the 02/11 issue of The American Interest Online. He suggests income inequality is so great because the financial industry has figured out how to “game the system”. Exactly as you post here.
December 21st, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I believe that it’s very hard, very hard for regular American middle-class folks to understand why the big banks (TBTF) imploded the world economy, took $1 trillion in taxpayer money to bail themsleves out — and today pay many of their people $multi-million bonuses — when they all should be out of a job.
And I also believe that there’s a lot of anger over taxing our grandchildren, becasue of a $trillion bailout — so a banker can buy a new Ferrari, and that those chickens have not yet come home to roost.
Finally, I do, really believe, that those chickens WILL come home to roost someday.
.
December 21st, 2010 at 12:38 pm
AIG, C, BAC, MS have not fared so well …
and the other’s WFC, GS, JPM does not reflect the massive PR campaign (CNBC) and bonuses
and with so much of the toxic crap from the above sitting on the FED balance sheet, if we were able to evaluate the FED balance sheet how would that look ….. can you say “big smokin crater”
December 21st, 2010 at 12:44 pm
@ashpelham 2:
“Retiree benefits are better because of it”
Really. Got any evidence of that?
December 21st, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Finally, we can stop hearing about closing the “Lehman Gap”.
~~~
BR: Agreed!
December 21st, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Why bother having a blog if you don’t get to ocassionally drip sarcasm from your keyboard? And this is well-deserved. Everything’s better. Meaning nothing’s changed. Meaning financial system crisis Act II is just around the corner. But by all means, bet the farm on Facebook when it finally IPO’s.
December 21st, 2010 at 1:40 pm
[...] The best (and worst) performing industry groups since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. (Bespoke also Big Picture) [...]
December 21st, 2010 at 1:43 pm
@hammerandtong2001
I’ve been saying that (to myself) for the past two years. But I can’t help but wonder, if not now…when?
There just doesn’t seem to be any real appetite for justice.
December 21st, 2010 at 3:43 pm
“I do, really believe, that those chickens WILL come home to roost someday”
That is unlikely considering that most people don’t even understand what happened and why. The banks basically had a gun to governments head leaving them with choices between a 5 trillion depression or a 1 trillion bailout. The result of last month election suggests that the people have absolutely no clue as to who brought us to the point where banksters could have the strength to pull off such blackmail.
December 21st, 2010 at 4:01 pm
[...] LEH: It's All Good Now! (TBP) Tweet [...]
December 21st, 2010 at 4:08 pm
It’s amazing how whenever a bearish chart pattern or major resistance level becomes popularized across the blogosphere, it’s then soon breached on zero volume. (or should I say pre-market futures activity) I am of the opinion that Timmay! and The Bernank have become obsessed with the stock market and are using it to prove their policies are correct. This would only be true of course if the debt they’re creating in its place didn’t matter.
So why are we messing around with such puny resistance levels? Let’s start throwing around some big numbers. Let’s get the blogosphere on board with the 2007 highs. Are you listening Timmay! -? Heck, while we’re at it let’s really go for it… I see the 138% extension of the 2003-2007 rally as 1866 on the S&P. Are you really a man, Timmay! -? Bernank?
Provided we have a correction in early 2011, then continue on to the squid’s target of 1300 on the S & P for next year, we can assume about 23 SPY points cost 600 billion dollars. (QE2) So for us to hit 188 on SPY we’ll only need roughly 1,692,000,000,000. About 1.7 trillion dollars. How ’bout it, Timmay!-? Show us what you’re really made of!
December 21st, 2010 at 5:22 pm
And, gas is back above $3/gal, too. Woo hoo!