MUST READ: A TWO PART CREDIT CRISIS
by ilene - June 9th, 2009 11:30 am
Here’s a must read, courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
MUST READ: A TWO PART CREDIT CRISIS
The latest McKinsey Quarterly is a gem of a research report that details many of the issues I have been banging the drum on for months now. They say this crisis is made up of two parts: a securities market credit crisis and a commercial credit crisis. The first of these crises is likely ending as we speak, but the second portion is only just getting started. Regular readers are familiar with my constant ramblings (and thus far accurate calls) on the banks and the impending credit card losses, ARM resets and commercial real estate losses. These are the issues that McKinsey is referring to when they speak of this “second part” of the credit crisis:
The good news is that we have probably turned a corner in the credit securities crisis that last fall forced big financial institutions into collapse, nationalization, or extreme survival tactics. But the contours of a broader resolution of the crisis will remain fuzzy for some time to come. That’s because what many have been regarding as a single credit crisis is in reality the tale of two closely related but different crises, each with its own pace, duration, and demands on banks to rediscover operational discipline in a harsh economic and regulatory environment.
The first credit crisis was centered in the securities markets and initially manifested itself in the subprime and mortgage-backed securities markets. Because of the fair-value accounting that broker–dealers and investment companies use to mark assets to current market expectations, these firms began to suffer deep losses on mortgage-backed securities long before large volumes of loans started to default. This credit crisis started in mid-2007 and peaked in 2008, resulting in the demise of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch, and forcing Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to become bank holding companies in order to survive. It also heaped huge losses on the securities arms of major US banks and forced government takeovers or mergers on AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, National City, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and others.
The good news is that we appear to be seeing the end of this credit securities crisis. That is in part due to the clarity provided by the stress test exercise and the ongoing commitment on the part
…
 Twitter
|
LinkedIn
|
 del.icio.us
|
|
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Chinese
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