Parrot's All Chime In Together
See 04/15 Would I Lie to You? in which 3 CEO's profess the end of the crisis is nigh...
Today, the Oracle of Omaha and Hank Paulson parrot these CEO's. Warren Buffet:
"The worst of the crisis in Wall Street is over. In terms of people with individual mortgages, there's a lot of pain left to come.
The worry was that there would be contagion; it was a very real worry.
If Bear Stearns had gone, the next day, somebody else would have gone. It could've been a very, very, very chaotic situation.
As I understand it, Bear Stearns had $65 billion due on Monday and I didn't have $65 billion.
I couldn't get my mind around that situation in the required time."
Meanwhile, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said profit plunged 64% to the lowest since 2005
as falling rates cut returns from insurance operations and the company marked down the value of derivative contracts.
Berkshire, which owns National Indemnity, General Re and Geico, typically gets about half its profit from insurance. Profit from underwriting insurance policies fell 70%.
Berkshire recorded $1.7 billion of unrealized losses from contracts that protect fixed-income investors,
and from options sold on the value of the S&P500 Index and three other stock indexes.
Berkshire wrote huge puts to insure in the event of a catastrophic market collapse.
The earliest Berkshire would have to pay on any of the equity index puts is 2019,
and Buffett gets to invest the $4.88 billion Berkshire received for writing them in the meantime.
Chiming In... Hanky Paulson: "We are closer to the end of this problem than we are to the beginning.
Even with headwinds and despite some of the things that we're going through, this economy is still growing, albeit modestly.
There inevitably will be some more bumps in the road before we get through this credit turmoil, we're in a tough quarter right now."
White man speak with forked tongue...
"I'm a strong dollar man, we have a strong dollar policy.
Our long-term economic fundamentals compare very favorably when I look around the world, and I think they're going to be reflected in the value of our currency."
The Nattering One muses... Sure thing Hank, we love your lip service, under the Bush administration:
Mid 2000 1 Euro = .85 US Dollar; Today 1 Euro = 1.55 US Dollar, for an 82% debauch in 8 years.
Speaking of being two faced... aside from taking the largest market put ever on four different indexes, thus insuring against a large market crash...
At least Buffet could "get his mind around" the script that all the parrot's are now reading from.
I think its time to throw a blanket over their cages, don't you? Hattip to Bloomberg.
Today, the Oracle of Omaha and Hank Paulson parrot these CEO's. Warren Buffet:
"The worst of the crisis in Wall Street is over. In terms of people with individual mortgages, there's a lot of pain left to come.
The worry was that there would be contagion; it was a very real worry.
If Bear Stearns had gone, the next day, somebody else would have gone. It could've been a very, very, very chaotic situation.
As I understand it, Bear Stearns had $65 billion due on Monday and I didn't have $65 billion.
I couldn't get my mind around that situation in the required time."
Meanwhile, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said profit plunged 64% to the lowest since 2005
as falling rates cut returns from insurance operations and the company marked down the value of derivative contracts.
Berkshire, which owns National Indemnity, General Re and Geico, typically gets about half its profit from insurance. Profit from underwriting insurance policies fell 70%.
Berkshire recorded $1.7 billion of unrealized losses from contracts that protect fixed-income investors,
and from options sold on the value of the S&P500 Index and three other stock indexes.
Berkshire wrote huge puts to insure in the event of a catastrophic market collapse.
The earliest Berkshire would have to pay on any of the equity index puts is 2019,
and Buffett gets to invest the $4.88 billion Berkshire received for writing them in the meantime.
Chiming In... Hanky Paulson: "We are closer to the end of this problem than we are to the beginning.
Even with headwinds and despite some of the things that we're going through, this economy is still growing, albeit modestly.
There inevitably will be some more bumps in the road before we get through this credit turmoil, we're in a tough quarter right now."
White man speak with forked tongue...
"I'm a strong dollar man, we have a strong dollar policy.
Our long-term economic fundamentals compare very favorably when I look around the world, and I think they're going to be reflected in the value of our currency."
The Nattering One muses... Sure thing Hank, we love your lip service, under the Bush administration:
Mid 2000 1 Euro = .85 US Dollar; Today 1 Euro = 1.55 US Dollar, for an 82% debauch in 8 years.
Speaking of being two faced... aside from taking the largest market put ever on four different indexes, thus insuring against a large market crash...
At least Buffet could "get his mind around" the script that all the parrot's are now reading from.
I think its time to throw a blanket over their cages, don't you? Hattip to Bloomberg.
Comments