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can anyone tell me why Wells Fargo is weathering the storm?

Buffett has a stake in it.

McDonald’s Deemed More Credit-Worthy than U.S. Government

Of course. I like my Sausage McMuffin more than any clown.

I rememebr that some one here mentioned that WaMu is in deep shit almost an year ago. Wish I had bought some put options it. My bad. I underestimated, probably due to their goofiness, the smartness of the folks here. Can anyone tell me any other banks facing similar predicament. My analysis so far has identified both B of Ameica and Wells Fargo as excellent candidates for failure due to their dramatically lower current assets compared to current liabilities and long term investments. Since these two are holding companies, they keep their assets on their balance sheet at cost insted of mark to market like Morgan stanley or Goldman Sachs. My conclusion is that stock prices of MS and GS have already suffered everything they possibly could and are at their very their bottom. They are the ones who take advantage of $700B bailout plan. Why is hardly anyone worried about Bank of America and Wells Fargo?
Am I missing something here? Please comment.

Yep..bail 'em out. Bail the automakers out. Bail the airlines out. Ban shorting. Keep the deadbeat homeowners in their homes. Negotiate the principal and interest down for the ones who are about to become deadbeats. Fuck people like me who are renting and trying to preserve their capital with 2% CDs in bankrupt banks in the butt - keep the median in the bay area at 780k and jack up the rents to keep up with "inflation".

indianguy - To give you an analogy, the same people will also say that Capital one is in deep shit and rightly so. However, I am getting hammered as it keeps going up like anything. It goes down 2% while rockets 7%.

Maybe a year from now that'd go titty up too, but I'd get a shitload of margin calls before that happens.

The New York Times has a story on a connection between AIG's bailout and Goldman Sachs. Apparently, AIG was a major trading partner with Goldman and if left to fail would have cost Goldman $20 billion dollars. And it so happened that the only Wall street executive at the Fed discussions involving AIG was from Goldman.

Now here we are with Paulson asking for another bailout of his firm.

"As the group, led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., pondered the collapse of one of America’s oldest investment banks, Lehman Brothers, a more dangerous threat emerged: American International Group, the world’s largest insurer, was teetering. A.I.G. needed billions of dollars to right itself and had suddenly begged for help.

The only Wall Street chief executive participating in the meeting was Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Mr. Paulson’s former firm. Mr. Blankfein had particular reason for concern.

Although it was not widely known, Goldman, a Wall Street stalwart that had seemed immune to its rivals’ woes, was A.I.G.’s largest trading partner, according to six people close to the insurer who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. A collapse of the insurer threatened to leave a hole of as much as $20 billion in Goldman’s side, several of these people said.....

A Goldman spokesman said in an interview that the firm was never imperiled by A.I.G.’s troubles and that Mr. Blankfein participated in the Fed discussions to safeguard the entire financial system, not his firm’s own interests."

If you believe that last sentence, I have some great mortgage-backed securities for sale for you.

cortexity: Isn't it all just a huge short squeeze? I thought that Capital One would for sure be on the 799+ ban list for short selling. That's got to kill options trading as well, right?

TOB: Don't you like ravers? I mean really, it's totally cool, in a high school nihilistic kind of way. Unless you're the homeowner, then you're just pissed off, and insurance might not even cover the damage. But party on, right bro?

these are my peeps,

TOB, your sense of humor is too much. I needed a good laugh. Thanks.

Brand - It was not on the original 799 blessed ones, but it was later added along with financial powerhouses like GE and IBM. I think 100 or so companies are added to that list every day. All you've to do is call - just like the zero down interest only mortgage applications back in the days.

deflation - I strongly believe GS is the company they're trying to save. Back in the dot com days NASDAQ fell from 5049 to 1110 no one gave a shit, but when GS fell 50 bucks its the end of the world unless we give them 700B. Doesnt matter every other bank fails but GS has to be saved (i.e. it has to be back to 160s).

I heard on KCBS that the calls to our representatives are a little one sided. One Rep. had 688 phone messages and e-mails with only two in favor of the bailout. Not two hundred-just two. Another had almost a thousand and only twenty in favor of the bailout. The social aspect of this whole mess is going to get very interesting. People are not happy and I think this just may be crunch time for the government. They can't pick and choose a segment of society for support because they have pissed off everyone.

I've said this before. Ron Paul needs to start a Populist party. People are ready for a strict Constitution, limited government with tight (a.k.a. accountable) regulation and an end to "experimental" forays overseas.

cortexity: Look, every company that issues credit in any form is basically a financial company. What are you, one of those retarded econnermists? I don't care about this "provide stock liquidity" rubbish, if you're shorting right now, you're as unAmierkan as Al-Qaeda. And the econnermists. Lobbyin' my constituents, tellin' em to send me nasty e-mails. Ya'll want to topple my golden sacks, and WTFOMGBBQ, that sure as texas ain't gonna happin!

I believe the only reason Ron Paul didn't run away with the race is because of his oratorical skills. That's also the only reason B.O. is in the race.

Hope Now. Because seriously, America is too fucking naive to actually do something.

I agree 100%. Other than the fact that Obama looks good behind a lectern, I can not find a ligitimate reason for him to be in his current position.

On the side: three H1B mexican immigrants are sueing their labor contractor because illegal immigrants took their jobs and the contractor broke the agreement with the legal guys. That's a new one.

"It's not me blowing this up, it's the Republicans." So said Nancy Pelosi this week to Hank Paulson, who was reportedly on bended knee soliciting for his bailout plan.

There's been a lot of theater, but what's really going on is that Ms. Pelosi is trying to make sure that any bailout only passes with conservative Republicans and John McCain fully on board to share the rap. But Democrats have all the votes they need to pass the Paulson plan. If Ms. Pelosi and the White House really believe the financial markets will fall apart Monday morning without a bill, they can deliver one -- as President Bush hinted in his own nonpanicked remarks Friday morning.

H1-B's are not without their sense of entitlement either. As I recently was told by an Indian CIO who doesn't hire Indians in the U.S. -- it's well-known that Indians (most H1-Bs in technology) tend to rush to management because anyone that is not managing others is considered a low-brow because of the sense of hierarchy in the Indian culture (OTOH, Americans are proud of being "flat" organizations).

On the side: three H1B mexican immigrants are sueing their labor contractor because illegal immigrants took their jobs and the contractor broke the agreement with the legal guys. That’s a new one.

People on H1B are not "immigrants", they are here on a work permit, I believed all H1B's are being employed at will, there is never a contract about length of employment. Although it seems unfair when Amercians or legal residents get laid off but their H1B counterparts are retained.

I'm all for the guys that played by the book. I hope they win; set an example.

A group of House Republicans who derailed a deal this week were still holding out, saying the proposal being hammered out between the Democratic leadership and the White House is too costly and makes average Americans foot the bill for poor decisions made by Wall Street investors.

``We will not agree to a bill that bails out Wall Street at the expense of taxpayers,'' said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. The lead negotiator for House Republicans, Missouri Representative Roy Blunt, said the caucus is ``not moving on any kind of artificial time line.''

Luring the support of House Republicans is important because, while Pelosi commands a 235-199 House majority, many Democrats might oppose the bill if Republicans make the bailout an issue in the campaign for the Nov. 4 elections.

Pelosi said yesterday that ``we simply would not have the votes to pass it'' if most Republicans vote no.

cb,

I gues it all boils down to $/hr.. Kinda' sad really.

>> People on H1B are not “immigrants”, they are here on a work permit,

They are chained since they want the employer to file green card.

Why the bail-out for the big 3 in Detroit? The govenment should buy all their inventory and then sell them to us at half-off, I'll take a Corvette off their lot.

If someone is here on a work visa, are they free to work where ever they choose or is always for a certain company?

"is it"

During the tech downturn I worked with a company with a huge H1-B population, they worked them real hard because of the green card. For example, some INS rules required the company to file certain applications within 180 days, our company usually filed them at 179 day so that the H1-Bs are stretched out to the max. Then they asked us to work weekends and most H1B's will obliged, after a while, nobody gave a sh*t since China and India were booming and many of them didn't care anymore.

My favorite one was the guy from India who got his tax refund withheld by his agency. The guy was making $60K for Target as a project manager, I can't believe a 60K project management job demand such specialized skills that no Americans can fill. These big corporations lobby hard to get the visa quotas and Carly Fiornia said our engineers suck.

Richmond - Most of the H1Bs and L1 (let us not forget L1, the evil twin of H1B) come through Indian Consulting (a PC word for bodyshopping) Companies. The victims are then shown the Green Card Carrot and are forced to lie on the resumes and fake their experience. Dumb companies do end up bringing these guys onboard and think that they are paying 80 bucks an hour to them, while the poor souls make about 30. The "consulting company" keeps 50. This carries on, and the longer it takes for the green card, the worse these guys get. In order to get out of this trap, they need to find an H1B transfer, or L1 to H1 change which again is mastered by Indian bodyshops. So its like going from hell 1 to hell 2. A very few of them actually manage to transfer to the real company/the client and achieve nirvana. I do blame them for screwing the job market, but it is the bodyshops who are more to blame than those. Eventually the H1B/L1s get their greencards, start their own bodyshop and the cycle continues. Unfortunately this a huge underground business which is created by the H1/L1 loopholes.

If someone is here on a work visa, are they free to work where ever they choose or is always for a certain company?

Technically they have to work for a certain company (usually for 3 years at a time, total limit is 6 years). You can switch job mid-way but the new company has to be willing to apply for the visa for you then your remaining eligibility is subtracted from the 6 year limits.

Except for carpet-begging Canadians :) They can come on a Free-trade visas which has no total limits and renewable yearly. Although Americans can also work in Canada under similar rules.

Holy shit! I had no idea.

Thanks for the crash course, guys.

cb - whats the free trade visa about? Almost all the indians I asked came here on F1(student waiting to become a slave)/L1/H1(actual slave).

coretexity is right, one time I was on a project and my boss asked me to sort of manage this H1-B who work for the agency. My boss said we are paying them lots of $$ so he should be working hard, but the guy worked for a body shop so he wasn't seeing most of the money we paid him and he actually quit halfway and went to Sony who hired him on a H-1B without the middleman. I have to pick up the entire project and worked extra hours and worse yet, I was an exempt employee just like other code monkeys.

Free Trade Visa are TC-1 (Treaty Canadian) , later TN-1 (forgot what it stands for) . They were enacted around the late 80's and bascially allow American and Canadian to work in each country easily (not sure about Mexico). You would need to have a college degree, a letter of employment stating salary, etc. There is no 6 year limit and is renewable yearly.

A lot of companies do end up hiring them as FTEs if they're bright. This saves the companies lot of $$$ plus it ends up becoming a huge raise to the guy. However, this means restarting the GC process. That is why the H1B/L1 have to stick to their consultant and basically do whatever they want. If the H1B is a java guy and the consultant can fit him at a mainframe client and make more money, they'd fake his resume/experience to get him in. The java guy will underperform, the client will pay a fortune and at the end, the only entity making money in this story is the bodyshopper.

cb - I apologize. I misread 'canadians' as 'chindians' where you mentioned the free trade visa :(

In your guys' line of work the government promotes exploitation. In mine, they ignore it. And in both, it's all about the money. Man!

A lot of companies do end up hiring them as FTEs if they’re bright. This saves the companies lot of $$$ plus it ends up becoming a huge raise to the guy

A lot of the good engineers at our company (mostly Americans) quit and went on to get their MBA's since they had just missed the tech boom. Most of them got jobs at i-banks on Wall Street after graduation. I guess they got burned twice.

A breakthrough on the bailout is reached.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26884523/

Now the country can return to watching football, NASCAR, and don't forget the baseball pennant races.

The plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price.

So bye, bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy, but the levy was dry...