Welcome to the Tuesday After Lunch Money Memo Archives

TAL Money Memo 4-28-09: A Non-Coffee Coffee Break

Andrew Cuomo, in a letter to Congress, wrote that in an interview with his Office, in early 2009, former Secretary of the United States Treasury Paulson largely corroborated Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis's account that he was blackmailed into finishing the merger with Merrill Lynch. (Reported by Henry Blodget, April 23, 2009.)

Another Mystery Dept: It was a dark and lonely night in late 2008. "Heavy Henry" Paulson leaned into Bank of America CEO "Square Pants" Ken Lewis, and said, "You's goin' tru wid dis Merrill deal or my boys'll rub you and your board out, see?"

Square Pants whimpered and said, "But, but there's been a Material Adverse Change in Merrill. They're broke. I don't want to buy them. My North Carolina Boys would be displeased. You can't make me."

Heavy Henry leaned in further and repeated: "You's buyin' em. Stan O'Neal loaded em up wid CDOs, and got away clean. Thain will rig da bonuses good. Tings is good. Buy em, and der's TARP money for all of you... or you all git di ax."

"Golly Gee, that deescalates things. I guess I can do it", said Square Pants.

TAL Money Memo 4-22-09: Banks and the Banksters Who Run Them

Last night, I'm browsing along at my favorite Pay to Play website, www.lemetropolecafe.com, where I read about Ellen Brown's observation of an April 7, 2009 article in The London Telegraph entitled "The G20 Moves the World a Step Closer to a Global Currency." In that article, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote:

"A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders amounts to revolution in the global financial order."

TAL Money Memo 3-18-09: Murphy is a Money Manager

Mr. Murphy's Law says, "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong"
(Sometimes known as the Introduction to Samuelson's book on Economics).

1st Economy Amendment
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage to the economy will be the one to go wrong.

2nd Wall Street Amendment
If you realize that there are three possible ways in which Wall Street can screw something up, then a fourth, unprepared-for way, will miraculously appear out of thin air from the Treasury Department.

TAL Money Memo 3-10- 2009: The Daily Show vs CNBC

You can't make this stuff up.

Just when you get totally discouraged about any sort of reality entering into the financial "TeeVee" space in our living rooms, John Stewart and the no-doubt motley staff of Daily Show mavens show up. And Stewart and his crew do it with just enough satire to constitute true petard hoisting.

TAL Money Memo 2-24-09: Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? Ten Top Forecasters Who Apparently Can

Not everybody gets it right. On Wall Street, the banks, the brokers, the government and most media shills have lathered themselves in incorrectness and embarassment the past couple of years. A safe rule of thumb would have been Nassim Taleb's quip that anybody wearing a coat and tie, predicting economic stuff was lying. The guardian picked 25 scallywags who helped crash the world economy, with a slight nod to a few who got it right. http://tinyurl.com/bwrl8l
But, seekers, a few did - about the same percentage of forecasters that nailed the crash of 1987. My objective today is to ask who these far-seeing seers are, and talk about them. Because, those that have been accurate in the past two years might certainly be worth a listen in the days of 2009. Here's my arbitrary, alphabetical list of famous, findable folks to follow.

TAL Money Memo 2-04-09: Groundhogs Versus Wall Street Prognosticators

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - America's most famous groundhog declared on Monday that the country will have six more weeks of winter.

Punxsutawney Phil, the latest in a line of rodents that have been "prognosticating" on the length of winter for 123 years, saw his shadow in the morning -- considered an omen of how long winter will last. [Technically, Phil is a large member of the squirrel family, but let's not be picky.]

TAL Money Memo 01-29-09: Heartland Payment Systems (HPY) "OOPs"

News Update: Ever heard of an outfit called Heartland Payment Systems? You may be hearing about them a lot.

TAL Money Memo 01-21-09: Edgar Allen Poe, Gold Bug

"We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation - to make a point - than to further the cause of truth."
—The Mystery of Marie Roget, by Edgar Allen Poe

TAL Money Memo 01-14-09: Horror Films Reflect Horrible Economics

Hollywood studio executives (possibly an oxymoron in more ways than one) tend to reflect the feelings and zeitgeist of their time. When economic times are good, Hollywood cranks out flicks that fit the joyous mood of the times - Herbie movies, and recent hero epics like Superman, Batman, and Iron man.

TAL Money Memo 1-07-09: Dilbert Interviewed by Barron's

I'm not sure, but when Barron's begins interviewing cartoonists for their opinions on investing, it tells me that all of their alleged financial experts have fallen into a ditch. Somebody at Barron's probably said, "Hey, since Soros, Buffett and God Himself lost money in 2008, why not talk to the funny office satire guy."