Congratulations, You Idiots, You Broke the Bond Market
by ilene - July 21st, 2010 5:10 pm
Congratulations, You Idiots, You Broke the Bond Market
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
h/t WC Varones who beat me to it
It smells like Sarbanes-Oxley: a poorly thought-out, bureaucracy-heavy piece of garbage that inconveniences everyone but the legislators who want to get reelected by making it appear as though they are effectively doing their jobs. I’m waiting patiently for someone to say there is a PCAOB of rating agencies buried in this financial reform beast (I still have yet to read the entire thing but hey, I’m probably through more of it than the asshats who voted for it ever got) and not at all surprised to hear that it’s already creating unintended drama.
WSJ:
The nation’s three dominant credit-ratings providers have made an urgent new request of their clients: Please don’t use our credit ratings.
The odd plea is emerging as the first consequence of the financial overhaul that is to be signed into law by President Obama on Wednesday. And it already is creating havoc in the bond markets, parts of which are shutting down in response to the request.
Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings are all refusing to allow their ratings to be used in documentation for new bond sales, each said in statements in recent days. Each says it fears being exposed to new legal liability created by the landmark Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
The new law will make ratings firms liable for the quality of their ratings decisions, effective immediately. The companies say that, until they get a better understanding of their legal exposure, they are refusing to let bond issuers use their ratings.
I remind dear reader that Congress may appear absolutely clueless but actually knows more than we give them credit for. I’m fairly certain the jackasses who wrote the thing knew exactly what can of worms they were opening at the time.
WSJ continues:
That is important because some bonds, notably those that are made up of consumer loans, are required by law to include ratings in their official documentation. That means new bond sales in the $1.4 trillion market for mortgages, autos, student loans and credit cards could effectively shut down.
There have been no new asset-backed bonds put on sale this week, in stark contrast to last week, when
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Health Care: Here Come the Unintended Consequences
by ilene - January 9th, 2010 12:02 pm
Health Care: Here Come the Unintended Consequences
As a general rule, DollarCollapse.com doesn’t get involved in public policy debates. Not because they aren’t important, but because the damage has already been done. The U.S., along with Japan and most of Europe, has passed the point where policy fixes are possible. There’s no magic marginal tax rate or Fed Funds rate or immigration law that will avert disaster. All that’s left is for the current system to implode, one way or another. Then policy will matter again, as we try to fashion a workable new system from the rubble of the old.
But every once in a while a policy-related story comes along that’s too good to pass up, like this from CFO Magazine:
Farewell, Company Health Plans?
Now that health-care reform bills have passed both the House and the Senate, some CFOs are seriously considering whether or not to drop employee coverage.
Alix Stuart, CFO.com | US
December 31, 2009For the past 19 years, Frank Santos, CFO of the privately held, seven-property Rosen Hotels and Resorts in Orlando, Florida, has prided himself on delivering high-quality health care to his employees in a unique and low-cost way.In 1991 the company set up a primary-care clinic in one of its hotels, allowing employees to get basic health-care services during their working hours. By cutting out other primary-care options and contracting directly with hospitals and specialists for additional services, Santos says, the company has been able to offer a full health-care package to its 5,000 or so employees and their families and save at least $10 million a year compared with national averages.Beyond the basics, the company goes to great lengths to keep its employees healthy, including offering them many wellness services, such as exercise classes and serving only healthy foods (no French fries) in its cafeterias.
The current Senate health-care reform bill that passed on Christmas Eve, however, may change all that. “There’s no incentive for someone who has a plan such as ours to keep it,” says Santos. “We currently spend about $2,700 per associate, but the government is going to allow us to forgo that plan and pay $750 per associate,” he says, referring to the $750 per-employee penalty that would be levied on employers whose employees need government subsidies to
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site