The Volkswagens still beat the McLaren...

Bugatti Veyron vs Lamborghini Aventador vs Lexus LFA vs McLaren MP4-12C - Head 2 Head Episode 8 - YouTube

For many, alarm bells went off... when it was revealed that Bank of America has moved a big chunk of derivatives from its failing Merrill Lynch investment banking unit to its depository arm.

This means that the investment bank's European derivatives exposure is now backstopped by U.S. taxpayers.

Today, the notional value of all the derivatives held by Bank of America comes to approximately $75 trillion.

If you add up the value of every stock on the planet, the entire market capitalization would be about $36 trillion. If you do the same process for bonds, you’d get a market capitalization of roughly $72 trillion.

This occurred back in October - obviously pre gaming the Greek crisis. The intent, I guess, is to prevent a bank run in the event that BAC goes bankrupt because Merrill Lynch sold too many bets on European solvency.

The FDIC doesn't have 75 trillion dollars. Not even close. In the worst case scenario this could break the US dollar.

But, one can see that it might be stabilizing - in the event of a multi-billion dollar CDS event there would be no reason for depositors to run on the bank, and if they don't, BAC can probably cover that event with its own assets.

I guess we'll find out if Greece goes sideways and all the bets come due.

The Coming Derivatives Crisis That Could Destroy The Entire Global Financial System | ZeroHedge

The analysts cut their estimates because a Facebook executive who knew the business was weak told them to.
Put differently, the company basically pre-announced that its second quarter would fall short of analysts' estimates. But it only told the underwriter analysts about this.
The information about the estimate cut was then verbally conveyed to sophisticated institutional investors who were considering buying Facebook stock, but not to smaller investors.

If this allegation is correct, someone is going to prison.

EXCLUSIVE: Here's The Inside Story Of What Happened On The Facebook IPO - Business Insider

Until our state can offer amendment questions straightforwardly, or at least provide a voter information website explaining the potential impacts, costs, and/or the legislative intent in common language that voters can more easily comprehend: When in doubt, just vote No.

Georgia Trend

Diana Botutihe was born at sea. Now in her 50s, she has spent her entire life on boats that are typically just 5m long and 1.5m wide. She visits land only to trade fish for staples such as rice and water, and her boat is filled with the accoutrements of everyday living – jerry cans, blackened stockpots, plastic utensils, a kerosene lamp and a pair of pot plants.

The last of the sea nomads | Environment | The Guardian

I felt that watching this series helped put some of this stuff in perspective. A lot of it is review if you've been following, particularly episodes 2 and 3, but 1 and 4 included a lot of information that I wasn't aware of.

Money, Power and Wall Street | FRONTLINE | PBS

Republicans have sought to delay or dismantle key provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, calling it a prime example of this White House’s over-regulation of private markets. Romney has said he would repeal the law and replace the new regulations with a more streamlined approach.

House Republicans recently approved budget reductions that chisel away at certain elements of Dodd-Frank, and they have particularly targeted the funding needed to operate a new consumer protection bureau.

Obama is about as interested in regulating wall street as he is in defending civil liberties. But what choice does one have but to vote for him?

Romney is calling for Dodd-Frank to be rolled back - we go through the most dangerous financial crisis the world has ever seen, pass timid legislation that does the absolute minimum to prevent some of the regulatory arbitrage that led to that event, and two years later this guy is out there arguing that we gotta get rid of that legislation because its too much a burden?

If I thought he had a snowball's chance in hell of winning I would be very afraid. I don't.

President Obama uses JPMorgan loss to defend Wall Street regulations - BostonHerald.com

piggish

Graphic: Comparing FB with other Tech IPOS | The Big Picture

One thing that makes the JPMorgan trade look especially foolish is that it’s nearly the same sort of recklessness that AIG exhibited: selling derivatives against zero reserves. As Doug Kass, who heads the hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management, explained: “Under the knowledge of Dimon, the JPM investment office sold massive amounts of CDS [credit-default swap] premium on large U.S. corporations in 2011. Like AIG, they accumulated a large amount of reported profits in the three-year period ending 2011. In an equally familiar manner, the principals of the London investment office were handsomely rewarded. And so was Dimon.”

JPMorgan’s debacle, and its parallels to AIG - The Washington Post

Five years ago, housing values in Atlanta were comparable to those in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver and Cleveland. In fact, Atlanta was a close second to Denver among those five. But as the chart below documents, that’s no longer the case.

I don’t think you can look at that data and shrug it off as a momentary blip. It’s also not the inevitable consequence of the larger national economic situation. This is a long-term problem, and it’s a metro Atlanta problem.

At least munich has a good beer festival.

Metro Atlanta housing prices plummet | Jay Bookman