Financial, Real Estate, Stock Markets Trends and Current Affairs

The JP Morgan Q1 2010 review and analysis is available to download for all paying subscribers: JP Morgan Q1 2010 Review. Just this morning I posted an article describing how much of the mainstream media suffers from diminishing revenues due to the fact that they simply rubber stamp soundbites and produce reports that are simply cardboard cutouts of what is pushed out by Reuters and the AP.org. Well, JP Morgan's latest quarterly earnings release is a perfect example. Before you go on, I recommend reading "Are Blogs Truly Competitive With the Mainstream Media in Terms of Quality of Content?".

A scouring of the news from last week yields (and this is from the cream of the crop, may I add):

WSJ J.P. Morgan Earnings: A Beat!

We're off to another day of earnings and the big one of the day comes courtesy of J.P. Morgan Chase, which beat earnings expectations from Wall Street analysts on both the top and the bottom lines in its report out earlier this morning... Importantly, a big part of the better-than-expected performance on the bottom line came from J.P. Morgan socking away less cash to cover loans it expects to go bad. Dow Jones reports that J.P. Morgan’s managed credit-loss provisions were $7.01 billion, down from $10.06 billion a year earlier and $8.9 billion in the previous quarter... As we mentioned before, onlookers are hoping that this earnings season brings a bit more clarity to weather the worst is over for the banks, and J.P. Morgan’s results are a good sign.

J.P. Morgan Earnings Takeaways

Short version: We’re at an inflection point for the loan losses that have dogged banks... Just as a refresher, better credit trends can translate into better earnings for banks, as they move some of the cash they socked away to cover the losses they previously expected, and move that money back into the earnings column.

Reuters JPMorgan earnings set bar high for U.S. banks

JPMorgan Chase &  Co (JPM.N) reported quarterly profit that beat forecasts and set a high bar for rivals, as investment banking earnings gained, loan losses slowed and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon sounded an atypically optimistic note about the prospects for a strong U.S. economic recovery.

NYTimes.com: JPMorgan's Profit Soars Despite Downturn

Jul 17, 2009 ... A new order is emerging on Wall Street — one in which Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are starting to tower over former financial titans.

Now, here are some excerpts from my reader's subscriber material (JP Morgan Q1 2010 Review):

Here is another smattering of news from the weekend past, as well as our take on it and a decent dose of realistic analysis to cast a light on the real issues at hand...

Beijing Reports a Trade Deficit: BusinessWeek

• China reported its first trade deficit in over 70 months as the prices of raw materials imports climbed
• Analysts are stating that a stronger Yuan is needed to deter increasing domestic inflation
• China has the impossible task of balancing an ever increasing asset price bubble with US demands for a revalued Yuan in order to fuel President Obama's manufacturing jobs utopia
• Subscribers should reference China Macro Discussion 2-4-10 (Global Macro, Trades & Strategy)

And speaking of Beijing,,, China's Economic Growth Accelerates to 11.9%, May Prompt End of Yuan Peg - The Overheating has arrived???

After having just stating in an interview earlier this week that although many banks are probably guilty of what Lehman was caught doing with Repo 105's pursuing those actions based upon semantics may be fruitless (it may be called depo 106?), Reuters comes out with this interesting story: Major US banks masked risk levels: report

(Reuters) - Major U.S. banks temporarily lowered their debt levels just before reporting in the past five quarters, making it appear their balance sheets were less risky, the Wall Street Journal said, citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The paper said on Friday 18 banks, including Goldman Sachs Group , Morgan Stanley , J.P. Morgan Chase Bank of America and Citigroup , understated the debt levels used to fund securities trades by lowering them an average of 42 percent at the end of each period.

The banks had increased their debt in the middle of successive quarters, it said.

Citi, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

Excessive leverage by the banks was one of the causes that led to the global financial crisis in 2008.

Due to the credit crisis, banks have become more sensitive about showing high levels of debt and risk, worried their stocks and credit ratings could be punished, the Journal said.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal (see their interactive model) and ZeroHedge broke a similar storty with some meat behind it to justify the allegations. Ahhh!!! The return of real reporting, and not just from blogs!

From Banks, Brokers, & Bullsh1+ part 1:

A thorough forensic analysis of Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers has uncovered...

Let’s get something straight right off the bat. We all know there is a certain level of fraud sleight of hand in the financial industry. I have called many banks insolvent in the past. Some have pooh-poohed these proclamations, while others have looked in wonder, saying “How the hell did he know that?”

• Is this the Breaking of the Bear? It wasn’t hard to see Bear Stearns collapsing 3 month before bankruptcy. Why didn’t our regulators see what I saw?
• As I see it, 32 commercial banks and thrifts may see the feces hit the fan blades It wasn’t hard to see that nearly all of these 32 banks would be facing the threat of insolvency. Why didn’t our regulators see what I saw?
• The Commercial Real Estate Crash Cometh, and I know who is leading the way! It wasn’t hard to see that commercial real estate was ready to implode and that GGP was about to collapse under its own weight. Why didn’t our regulators see what I saw?
• Yeah, Countrywide is pretty bad, but it ain’t the only one at the subprime party… Comparing Countrywide Countrywide and Washington Mutual’s collapse were visible AT LEAST a year in advance!
• The Next Shoe to Drop: Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and Counterparty Risk – Beware what lies beneath! ‘Nuff said…
• … and even Lehman Brothers: Is Lehman a Lying Lemming?

The list above is a small, relevant sampling of at least dozens of similar calls. Trust me, dear reader, what some may see as divine premonition is nothing of the sort. It is definitely not a sign of superior ability, insider info, or heavenly intellect. I would love to consider myself a hyper-intellectual, but alas, it just ain’t so and I’m not going to lie to you. The truth of the matter is I sniffed these incongruencies out because  2+2 never did equal 46, and it probably never will either. An objective look at each and every one of these situations shows that none of them added up. In each case, there was someone (or a lot of people) trying to get you to believe that 2=2=46.xxx. They justified it with theses that they alleged were too complicated for the average man to understand (and in business, if that is true, then it is probably just too complicated to work in the long run as well). They pronounced bold new eras, stating “This time is different”, “There is a new math” (as if there was something wrong with the old math), etc. and so on and associated bullshit.

So, the question remains, why is it that a lowly blogger and small time
individual investor with a skeleton staff of analysts can uncover
systemic risks, frauds and insolvencies at a level that it appears the
SEC hasn’t even gleaned as of yet? Two words, “Regulatory Capture”. You
see, and as I reluctantly admitted, it is not that I am so smart, it is
that the regulator’s goals are not the same as mine. My efforts are
designed to ferret out the truth for enlightenment, profit and gain.
Regulators’ goals are to serve a myriad constituency that does not
necessarily have the individual tax payer at the top of the heirachal
pyramid. Before we go on, let me excerpt from a piece that I wrote on
the topic at hand so we are all on the same page: How
Regulatory Capture Turns Doo Doo Deadly

First off, some definitions:

• The Doo Doo, as in the Doo
  Doo 32: A  list of 32 banks that I created on May 22, 2008 which set the stage for my investment
  thesis of shorting the regional banks. At that time, I was one of the
  very few, if not one of the only, to warn that the regional banks would
  hit the fan.
• Regulatory capture (adopted from Wikipedia): A
  term used to refer to situations in which a government regulatory
  agency created to act in the public interest instead acts in favor of
  the commercial or special interests that dominate in the industry or
  sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is an
  explicit manifestation of government failure in that it not only
  encourages, but actively promotes the activities of large firms that
  produce negative externalities. For public
  choice theorists, regulatory capture occurs because groups or
  individuals with a high-stakes interest in the outcome of policy or
  regulatory decisions can be expected to focus their resources and
  energies in attempting to gain the policy outcomes they prefer, while
  members of the public, each with only a tiny individual stake in the
  outcome, will ignore it altogether. Regulatory capture is when this
  imbalance of focused resources devoted to a particular policy outcome
  is successful at “capturing” influence with the staff or commission
  members of the regulatory agency, so that the preferred policy
  outcomes of the special interest are implemented. The risk of
  regulatory capture suggests that regulatory agencies should be
  protected from outside influence as much as possible, or else not
  created at all. A captured regulatory agency that serves the interests
  of its invested patrons with the power of the government behind it is
  often worse than no regulation whatsoever.

About a year and a half ago, after sounding the alarm on the
regionals, I placed strategic bearish positions in the sector which
paid off extremely well. The only problem is, it really shouldn’t have.
Why? Because the problems of these banks were visible a mile away. I
started warning friends and family as far back as 2004, I announced it
on my blog in 2007, and I even offered a free report in early 2008.

Well, here comes another warning. One of the Doo Doo 32 looks to be
ready to collapse some time soon. Most investors and pundits won’t
realize it because a) they don’t read BoomBustblog, and b) due to
regulatory capture, the bank has been given the OK by its regulators to
hide the fact that it is getting its insides gutted out by CDOs and
losses on loans and loan derivative products. Alas, I am getting ahead
of myself. Let’s take a quick glance at regulatory capture, graphically
encapsulated, then move on to look at the recipients of the Doo Doo
Award as they stand now…

A picture is worth a thousand words…

fasb_mark_to_market_chart.png

So, how does this play into today’s big headlines in the alternative,
grass roots media? Well, on the front page of the Huffington
Post and ZeroHedge, we have a damning expose of Lehman
Brothers (we told you this in the first quarter of 2008, though),
detailing their use of REPO 105 financing to basically lie about their
liquidity positions and solvency. The most damning and most interesting
tidbit lies within a more obscure ZeroHedge article that details
findings from the recently released Lehman papers, though:

On September 11, JPMorgan executives met to discuss significant
valuation problems with securities that Lehman had posted as collateral
over the summer. JPMorgan concluded that the collateral was not worth
nearly what Lehman had claimed it was worth, and decided to request an
additional $5 billion in cash collateral from Lehman that day. The
request was communicated in an executive?level phone call, and Lehman
posted $5 billion in cash to JPMorgan by the afternoon of Friday,
September 12. Around the same time, JPMorgan learned that a security
known as Fenway,which
Lehman had posted to JPMorgan at a stated value of $3 billion, was actually asset?backed
commercial paper credit?enhanced by Lehman (that is, it was Lehman,
rather than a third party, that effectively guaranteed principal and
interest payments). JPMorgan concluded that Fenway was worth
practically nothing as collateral.

Hold up! Lehman was pledging as collateral allegedly “investment grade”,
“credit enhanced” securities that were enhanced by Lehman, who was
insolvent and in need of liquidity, itself. For anybody who is not
following me, how much is life insurance on yourself worth if it is
backed up by YOU paying out the proceeds after you die bankrupt? Lehman
was allowed to get away with such nonsense because it was allowed to
value its OWN securities. Think about this for a second. You are in big
financial trouble, you have only a $10 bill to your name, but your
favorite congressman (whom you have given $10 bills to in the past) has
given you the okay to erase that number 10 on the $bills and put
whatever number on it you feel is “reasonable”. So, when your creditors
come a callin’ , looking for $20 in collateral, what number would you
deem reasonable to put on that $10 bill.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the short paragraph above, we have just
encapsulated the majority of the mark to market argument. Let’s delve
farther into the ZH article:

 

By early August 2008, JPMorgan had learned that Lehman had pledged
self-priced CDOs as collateral over the course of the summer. By August
9, to meet JPMorgan’s margin requirements, Lehman had pledged $9.7
billion of collateral, $5.8 billion of which were CDOs priced
by Lehman, mostly at face value. JPMorgan expressed
concern as to the quality of the assets that Lehman had pledged and,
consequently, Lehman offered to review its valuations. Although JPMorgan
remained concerned that the CDOs were not acceptable collateral, Lehman informed JPMorgan that
it had no other collateral to pledge. The
fact that Lehman did not have other assets to pledge raised some
concerns at JPMorgan about Lehman’s liquidity

 

Hmmm!!! Three day old fish has a fresher scent, does it not? So where
was the SEC, the NY Fed, or anybody the hell else who’s supposed to
safeguard us against this malfeasance? Even bloggers picked up on this
months before it collapsed. The answer, dear readers: REGULATORY
CAPTURE!

Again, from ZH:

 

The SEC was not aware of any significant issues with Lehman’s liquidity
pool until September 12, 2008, when officials learned that a large
portion of Lehman’s liquidity pool had been allocated to its clearing
banks to induce them to continue providing essential clearing services.
In a September 12, 2008 e?mail, one SEC analyst
wrote: Key point: Lehman’s
liquidity pool is almost totally locked up with clearing banks to cover
intraday credit ($15bnjpm, $10bn with others like citi and bofa). withThis is a really big
problem.

 

BoomBustBlog featured several warnings starting January of 2008!

One would think that after all of this, the problem would have been
rectified. To the contrary, it has been made worse. Congress has
pressured FASB to institutionalize and make acceptable the lies that
Lehman told its investors, counterparties and regulators. That’s right,
not only will no one get in trouble for this blatant lying, the practice
is now actually endorsed by the government – that is until somebody
blows up again. At that point there will be a bunch of finger pointing
and allegations and claims such as “But who could have seen this
coming”.

Do you not believe me, dear reader. Reference

About the Politically Malleable FASB, Paid for Politicians,
and Mark to Myth Accounting Rules: the nonsense is unfolding and
collapsing right now, even as I type this sentence.

The next place to look??? Who knows? Maybe someone should take an An
Independent Look into JP Morgan .. or maybe even an unbiased
gander at Wells Fargo (see

The Wells Fargo 4th Quarter Review is Available, and Its a
Doozy!). After all, If
a Bubble Bubble Bursts Off Balance Sheet, Will Anyone Be There to Hear
It?

More on Lehman Brothers Dies While Getting Away with Murder: Introducing Regulatory Capture:

The IMF has recently released the results of their staff consultations with Greece. Some may find it interesting, particularly where it intersects with relevant BoomBustBlog research. Let's not mince words here. Greece is going to effectively default on its debt, one way or another, and it is probably going to do it relatively soon. Shall we walk through the IMF findings from LAST YEAR and how they are actually optimistic compared to the facts that my team and I have dug up?

IMF Consultation: Greece (2009)
Context:

· After joining the EU, the income gap between Greece and the Eurozone fell on lower interest rates and the resulting “demand boom”
· Through the boom, fiscal deficits stayed at >95% of GDP, fiscal condition continues to aggravate 10 year spreads & contributes to credit downgrades (arguably a lagging indicator)
· Private Greek debt is below the Eurozone average, as is the case for non-financial corporations (governments and financial services therefore must be the source of Greek leveraging)
· Even as output has dropped, Greek wages have remained comparably high, and saw a 12% nominal increases in from 2008 - 2009
· Quality of assets on Grecian balance sheets continues to erode with end of credit based consumption in Southeastern Europe (SEE)
· Household and corporate credit growth has slowed, probably due to rising interest rates causing the opportunity cost of taking on new debt to be unmanageable (directly causing revenue shortfall at the government level)

Projections:
· IMF forecasted uncertain, and potentially negative growth from 2009 through 2010 on stagnant trade and policy based mistakes
· The EU had a much rosier forecast, citing a rise in tourism, lower dependency on trade, and government based infrastructure projects (that are paid in money taken from bond offerings and paid to construction workers at far greater than average Eurozone wages)

I have sourced the accuracy of both the IMF and the EU's forecasting in "Lies, Damn Lies, and Sovereign Truths: Why the Euro is Destined to Collapse!. If your well being relies on this stuff, you would be well served to subscribe to our research services. Let's take a visual perusal of what I am talking about in regards to Grecian GDP, the IMF and the EU.

image005.png

The EU/EC has proven to be no better, and if anything is arguably worse!

image031.png

Here are our considerably more realistic forecasts (premiums content: Greece Public Finances Projections).

Implied volatility for the big banks is down across the board, just about where it was before the system went into convulsions. This implies the coast is clear, as do the share prices of many banks.

Hard core forensic and fundamental analysis implies otherwise. So does the Fed's actions, which still incorporates ZIRP policy, as well as the waffling at FASB. We will either have smooth sailing from this point on out or there is a nasty surprise waiting (on and off balance sheet) for bank investors in the near future. I invite readers to weigh in with their opinions.

image001.png

As you can see, we are just about where we were in 2007 in terms of average volatility.

From Capital.gr: Moody's Downgrades Five Greek Banks

Moody’s Investors Service said Wednesday it downgraded the deposit and debt ratings of five of the nine Moody’s-rated Greek banks due to a weakening in the banks’ stand-alone financial strength and anticipated additional pressures stemming from the country’s challenging economic prospects in the foreseeable future. [Moody's is late to the party, but their logic is solid, see "Greek Crisis Is Over, Region Safe", Prodi Says - I say Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire! followed by our forecast of the weaker vs. stronger Greek banks (premium content subscribers only) - Greek Banking Fundamental Tear Sheet]

The affected banks are: National Bank of Greece (to A2 from A1), EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA (to A3/Prime-2 from A2/Prime-1), Alpha Bank AE (to A3/Prime-2 from A2/Prime-1), and Piraeus Bank (to Baa1/Prime-2 from A2/Prime-1). Moody’s has also downgraded the deposit and debt ratings of Emporiki Bank of Greece SA (to A3/Prime-2 from A2/Prime-1), but as a result of a reassessment of the credit enhancement associated with systemic support for this institution. The outlook on all five banks’ ratings remains negative. This action concludes the review of these banks initiated on 3 March 2010. [It looks as if Moody's peaked at the blog's subscription content :-)]

A recent ZeroHedge article (Bank Of America Can Not Deny It Used Repo 105, Response From PricewaterhouseCoopers Pending; The BofA QSPE's ) probes the possibility of BofA engaging in Repo 105-like activities in regards to their QSPEs (off balance sheet vehicles). ZH does seem to uncover a lot of dirt these days. After reading the article, I think it is worth blog fans time to delve deeper into the off balance sheet world of BofA. Here are some older blog posts that ask the hard questions and raises some additional ones.

And the next AIG is... (Public Edition, and yes, I know there is a typo in Mr. Tizzio's name) Free registration required to access the naked swap note.

I will start posting more news topics of interest and welcome readers to forward research and investment ideas at will. Here is the crop from last week. I will post topics from the weekend later on today, and as usual will randomly comment on daily news events.

From Alliance Bernstein:

• Core Intermediate Producer Prices have taken 6 months to rise 5.2% annualized, recession of 2002 took 2 years to reach same level
• Operating Rate hit low of 65.4% last year and has only risen to 69.4%, still short of historical threshold causing rise in raw material prices (74%)
• Increases in foreign operating rates have started to indicate US may now be a price follower instead of price leader
• The Fed cited lack of resource utilization as reasoning for maintaining record low rates, as these concerns begin to wane Alliance Bernstein sees easing of emergency Fed policy

Bloomberg.com:

• Christina Romer, Peter Orszag, and Tim Geithner have predicted unemployment will settle in 2010 at around 9.7%, citing poor job conditions
• Federal deficit projections for 2011 & 2015 are $1.5 trillion & $751 billion respectively, White House officials cite Bush's medicare and income tax cuts for allowing deficit insanity

I have warned my readers about following myths and legends versus reality and facts several times in the past, particularly as it applies to Goldman Sachs and what I have coined "Name Brand Investing". Very recent developments from Senator Kaufman of Delaware will be putting the spit-shined patina of Wall Street's most powerful bank to the test. Here is a link to the speech that the esteemed Senator from Delaware (yes, the most corporate friendly state in this country). A few excerpts to liven up your morning...

Mr. President, last Thursday, the bankruptcy examiner for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. released a 2,200 page report about the demise of the firm which included riveting detail on the firm’s accounting practices. That report has put in sharp relief what many of us have expected all along: that fraud and potential criminal conduct were at the heart of the financial crisis.

... Only further investigation will determine whether the individuals involved can be indicted and convicted of criminal wrongdoing.