Category Archives: bailout

Raynes on Fed’s “Odd” Arrangement with AIG

R&R Consulting principal Sylvain Raynes is quoted in a McClatchy Newspapers report revealing further details of the Fed’s controversial bailout of AIG. The January 7 report says that in the weeks before Timothy Geithner’s confirmation as treasury secretary, his underlings at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York directed American International Group (AIG) to delay […]

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Raynes on CIT as Bellwether for Larger Economy

Is the financial system stable enough yet to fix itself?” In a Fortune article exploring this question, R&R’s Sylvain Raynes sees the prospect of a CIT Group bankruptcy as a new beginning. “There is still value in CIT that can be picked out if the company files for bankruptcy,” says Raynes. “In that scenario, it […]

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R&R’s Raynes Calls for More Transparency on AIG Sell-off

Public interest journalism blog ProPublica interviewed R&R’s Sylvain Raynes regarding reports that AIG has sold off dozens of subsidiaries in order to repay the $85 billion it owes American taxpayers. “There’s nothing wrong with private transactions between consenting adults,” Raynes said, “But when the government is involved, everything changes.” Raynes noted that the lack of […]

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Waiting for the Big Reboot

A review of Contagion: The Financial Epidemic That Is Sweeping the Global Economy…And How To Protect Yourself From It, by John R. Talbott
John Talbott has established a well-deserved reputation as a financial soothsayer, enjoying an incredible run of spot-on predictions. He called the imminent bust of the dot-com bubble in 1999, and in 2003 he authored […]

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Felix Salmon Tags Rutledge for ‘Chart of the Day’

The revealing and esthetically pleasing chart that R&R’s Ann Rutledge produced to illustrate asset-backed bond default rates is featured by Felix Salmon in his Reuters blog.
Reflecting the value of analyzing the past in dealing with the future, Ann’s presentation on the development of the credit crisis is also recommended on the Zero Hedge blog.
Commenting on […]

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Capital, Not Toasters, Dr. Krugman

It wasn’t Dr. Krugman’s hate-mail treatment of securitization that made my brain go tilt.
(I say this even though we concur with Barry Ritholz’s reasoning in his blog article, “Paul Krugman is Wrong About Securitization.” )
What really got to me was the reference to toaster giveaways.
Toasters! Sylvain paid $5 for ours — used — twenty years […]

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How AIG Bailout Offset Losses at Five Banks: Raynes on Bloomberg

‘Banks can pay bonuses without eroding capital if they were funded from profitable trades that were settled through financing provided by the government to AIG,’ said Sylvain Raynes, a derivative consultant in New York and author of The Analysis of Structured Securities.”
Read the full article: “Treasury Preserves Bank Payday with AIG Rescue Cash,” by Mark Pittman […]

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The Hollow Men of the AIG Debacle

At this very moment, throughout this great land of ours, ordinary people dwelling far away from the chaotic nonsense known as Wall Street are probably wondering how so much money could be wasted by so few people — people who, in fact, live in another country. And when the very same people appear to be […]

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Bailout Requires Reform for Rating Agencies: Ann Rutledge in WSJ

The March 20 edition of The Wall Street Journal quotes R&R’s Ann Rutledge calling for rating agencies to develop new ways to rate debt as they benefit from the government’s bailout program:
“[Rating agencies] are still paid for their ratings by the companies whose bonds they rate, a potential conflict of interest. And much-anticipated competition for the […]

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Raynes on AIG Bailout: "There is no need to spend even one more dollar to bail anyone out"

R&R’s Sylvain Raynes was interviewed by Joe Soucheray on station KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 18, for his views on the AIG bailout. Listen to the podcast on KSTP’s Web site. Sylvain Raynes’s part of the discussion comes about three-quarters of the way through the program.

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