THE MOMENT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL DAY - KUDLOW ON BEAR STEARNS
Following on Jim Cramer, Kudlow is crying, like Pagliacci, that Bear was "buried by the Fed".
Uh, Bear Stearns called the Fed, not the other way around.
They had months to save themselves.
7:03 Kudlow is on the verge of tears - "They should have changed it nine years ago!" "Why was Fed so delinquent?" (referring to the notion that the repeal of Glass-Steagall should have made the Fed the lender of last resort for brokerage risks, leverages 20 and 30 to 1 ... Sure)
7:05 "Fed is so far behind and this is the part that is unfair to Bear Stearns" [uh, the other brokers didn't have access, did they? What about comparative leverage, too?]
7:06 Guest: "A lot of people are going to be out of a job to no end" [oh, no, a bunch of socialist angst!]
7:07 "The Fed's terrible discount policy"
7:08 "The treasury department really pressured JPM to make a very, very, very low bid."
7:09 "Denied the window, which The Law should have given them!"
7:10 Calls on "Alan Schwartz" (instead of Art Laffer) to explain how opening up the window to brokers would have changed emerying, indicating that Schwartz has 'been on my mind'.
7:11 "Can this deal be re-opened?" [TOLD YOU so!] "I think that is still very much on the table."
7:12 Guest: "I think you are right. The stock was at three bucks" [uh, no, the deal was stock-for-stock, that is why the $2/shr didn't hold throughout the day, for the most part]
7:14 Guest: "There were at least XX other bidders who walked away."
7:15 "They [the Fed] had nothing in their heads." Otherwise they would have changed the discount rate access years ago.
7:16 "Huge ramifications to the families of the staff of that company" [since when was free market capitalism concerned with more than 'prosperity for America'? Everyone's inner socialist always comes out when the Feds show up... everyone]
7:17 "It's like a bubble of pessimism going on here. I don't believe it. "
7:22 "One of our guests calls the Fed moves the last acts of desperate men" Stay tuned
7:23 "I think that Bear Stearns was mistreated under the law" as well as the central bank.
[amazing how quickly 'let the market work' morphs into 'made an example of']
7:35 Guest: "You are double counting on the $600 billion and I know you know that."
7: 37 Monetary policy is like sex. Thrill upfront, but results don't show for nine months.
7:38 "They [family in Peoria defaulting on $200K loan] are going to be so thrilled that the Fed bailed out J.P. Morgan" [bitter?]
Monday, March 17, 2008
Blame the Fed! Version 101.457
