Russia Is Trying to Shore Up the Ruble By Giving Banks Money to Bet Against the Ruble
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 5th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Or something like that.

Russia’s central bank is exacerbating the ruble’s 35 percent plunge since August, even as it struggles to defend the exchange rate, by providing loans to banks that speculate on the currency, say Alfa Bank and UniCredit SpA.
Bank Rossii lent 7.7 trillion rubles ($214 billion) in overnight and seven-day loans secured with bonds or other collateral in the 16 trading days last month, about double the 4.8 trillion rubles provided in so-called repurchase auctions in December, central bank data show. The ruble lost 18 percent against the dollar in January. It weakened today beyond the lower limit that the central bank said it will defend.
“A significant amount, if not all, of the speculative attacks on the ruble are funded by the central bank itself,” said Vladimir Osakovsky, Moscow-based economist for UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised the central bank’s “gradual devaluation” policy in a Bloomberg Television interview Jan. 25, saying it avoided a repeat of the financial crisis a decade ago when the ruble plunged as much as 29 percent in a day as the government defaulted on $40 billion of debt. Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said today that Russia has become “unstable” and may break apart. He’s considering betting against the ruble because of central bank mismanagement.
Policy makers are trying to stop speculators from driving down the currency, which makes it more expensive for borrowers to pay back debt and fuels inflation, at the same time it seeks to hold down interest rates to keep the economy from contracting for the first time since 1998. Russia’s inflation rate rose in January for the first time in five months to 13.4 percent as the weakening ruble pushed up the cost of imports.

Slate’s Curious Economics
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 5th, 2009 at 10:42 am

In Slate, Dan Gross attacks “nutso” claims the government doesn’t creates jobs. He singles out Michael Steele’s for saying, “Let’s get this notion out of our heads that the government create jobs. Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job.”
Gross writes: “These claims are so peculiar that it’s hard to know where to begin. Contrary to Steele’s assertion, in the history of mankind, the government has in fact created many, many jobs (including the one he held for a few years: lieutenant governor of Maryland).”
This is news to me. This morning, the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims rose by 35,000 to reach 626,000, a 26-year high. So let’s make all those folks the lieutenant governor of Maryland.
Problem solved.

Trouble With Double Negatives
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 4th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

“One cannot underestimate how widely admired Tom Daschle is in Washington for his integrity.”
– David Gergen
Think about that statement for a bit. Gergen says the exact opposite of what he means to say which would have been a false statement that would have been ironically true.
After that, the sentence disappears into a post-modernist vortex.

Fiserv’s Earnings
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

Fiserv’s (FISV) earnings took a big hit last quarter due to a loss on the sale of part of its business. Fiserv made 39 cents a share compared with 58 cents a share for last year’s fourth-quarter. Once you toss out all the charges and one-time stuff, FISV made 85 cents a share which was just a penny below the Street’s estimate. Revenues dropped 4% to $1.06 billion from $1.11 billion.
For the year, adjusted EPS was up 23% to $3.29 compared with $2.67 in 2007. For this year, Fiserv sees adjusted EPS rising 10% to 14% which works out to a range of $3.61 to $3.75.

The stock has basically followed the stock market even though its earnings outlook is far brighter.

Quote of the Day
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 4th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

David Viniar, Goldman’s CFO:

“I would not pick up the Wall Street Journal every morning looking for the big Goldman Sachs acquisition because I think you will be disappointed,” he said. “We don’t really like or know the retail business and I don’t expect that to change too much.”

I think he could have expressed the same thought without saying he didn’t like retail brokerage.

A for Effort
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 3rd, 2009 at 4:05 pm

Maybe I’m wrong, but I admire this.

A bumbling New York Post reporter was busted Saturday after he tried to sweet-talk his way into Bernie Madoff’s upper East Side penthouse, police said.
Josh Saul, 25, claimed to be a real-estate broker when he entered the Ponzi scheme swindler’s building at 133 E. 64th St. around 1 p.m., police said. “He misrepresented himself,” a police source said.
Saul was escorted upstairs by a doorman and was near the front door of the $50 billion scam artist’s $7 million duplex when he was unmasked, cops said.
The hapless hack’s weekend at Bernie’s did not end with the exclusive interview he was angling for. Instead, he was arrested, charged with trespassing and issued a summons.
Saul, 25, of Greenwich Village, has been working at the Post for about a year. He is also the dubious star of a Web site that includes photos of him dancing in his underwear, chugging beer from a keg, wearing a woman’s wig and balancing objects on his head.

Well, that part could damage the credibility of our media.

Happy Boycott CNBC Day!
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm

Stock Twits has declared today to be Boycott CNBC Day!

We are boycotting CNBC on Tuesday February 3, 2009 and ask you to join us.
We are boycotting CNBC because of what we perceive as a gross lack of accountability and editorial judgment.
We are boycotting CNBC because they produce shows with personalities who take zero responsibility for stock picks and markets calls which misinform viewers and distort the severity of the economic crisis.
We are boycotting CNBC because they trot out so called expert guests who have cost investors millions without warning viewers and allow these guests to pump themselves up without demanding the disclosure of performance.
We are boycotting CNBC because we want to send a message that such asshat behavior is unacceptable to us, their viewers.
Please help us spread the word by retweeting or reblogging and let them know you will not be watching.
Thanks,
– @StockTwits

Apparently, Denny’s is honoring the boycott with a free Grand Slam Breakfast.

Sysco & AFLAC
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 3rd, 2009 at 5:51 am

We had two more earnings reports yesterday. Sysco (SYY) reported Q2 EPS of 40 cents which was down 10% from last year but still two cents above Wall Street. The company’s COO said: “Though not in line with our historical performance, our results for the quarter were solid given the difficult economic conditions,” Revenue dropped slightly to $9.1 billion. In November, the company raised its quarterly dividend from 22 cents a share to 24 cents a share, which translates to a yield of 4.1%. The shares rallied 5.6% yesterday. I expect Sysco to have a flattish year this year and next, which isn’t bad considering the environment.
AFLAC (AFL), a company that’s been under a lot of scrutiny lately, reported Q4 EPS of 42 cents which is a 48% drop from last year. But with insurance companies, it’s better to look at operating earnings. There, AFLAC earned 98 cents a share which was two cents below expectations.
The company’s investment losses were pretty big, $262 million. Nearly half came from investments in Icelandic banks. AFLAC also took a major bath in certain collateralized debt obligations.
Despite criticisms from Wall Street, the company has defended itself and said that its balance sheet is strong. AFLAC also said that it expects operating earnings growth of 13% to 15% this year, which means $4.51 to $4.59. AFLAC currently yields nearly 4.9%.

Madoff’s Judge Hit Wife: Cops
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 pm

Ugh.

The federal judge overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s collapsed investment firm was arrested for smacking his wife around in their Park Avenue apartment, sources said yesterday.
Bankruptcy Judge James Peck, 63, was charged with attempted second-degree assault and harassment following a Saturday-afternoon tiff with his wife, Judith, 64.
Peck, who’s also handling the massive bankruptcy of failed Wall Street giant Lehman Bros., was released on his own recognizance.
“We’ve been married 42 years,” the judge told cops who arrived at the tony building following a 911 call by Judith Peck, according to the sources.
“We love each other very much. I have never hit her before. This was not about tonight.”
Judith Peck, who complained of pain and suffered some bruising to the jaw, was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital for evaluation.
Neither the judge nor his wife answered a message left for them at the front desk of their building.
Cops arrived to find Peck and his wife in separate rooms, the sources said.
Peck allegedly told police that the blowup began over his wife’s late arrival at the house from the Hamptons, where she’d been earlier in the week.
Peck said his wife slapped him first, as he was taking a ladder out of his closet.
“She slapped me,” the judge told police, according to the sources. “I put the ladder down. I slapped her. Then we started slapping each other back and forth.”
Remorse apparently set in quickly for Peck, when he told cops, “I will never do it again. We need to go to counseling.”
Peck was appointed to the federal bench in 2006.

Zimbabwe removes 12 zeroes from currency
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 2nd, 2009 at 2:57 pm

Here’s a way to cure inflation. Just divide everything by 1 trillion:

Zimbabwe slashed 12 zeroes from its currency as hyperinflation continued to erode its value, the country’s central bank announced Monday.
“Even in the face of current economic and political challenges confronting the economy, the Zimbabwe dollar ought to and must remain the nation’s currency, so as to safeguard our national identity and sovereignty. … Our national currency is a fundamental economic pillar of our sovereignty,” said Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
“Accordingly, therefore, this monetary policy statement unveils yet another necessary program of revaluing our local currency, through the removal of 12 zeroes with immediate effect.”
The move means that 1 trillion in Zimbabwe dollars now will be equivalent to one Zimbabwe dollar.
The old notes — with the highest being 100 trillion dollars — not enough to buy a loaf of bread — will remain valid until June 30, after which they will cease to be legal tender. One U.S. dollar is trading above 300 trillion Zimbabwe dollars.
This third attempt to lop off zeros comes barely six months after the Zimbabwe government last adjusted its currency as it continues to lose value.
World-record inflation estimated to be in the billions of percent — but officially at 231 million percent as of July last year — has quickly eroded the currency’s value again and again. The highest note on the new set is 500 Zimbabwe dollars.
Many Zimbabwean traders have stopped accepting the local currency, preferring foreign currency due to the hyperinflationary environment. Last week, the country’s acting finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, allowed the use of foreign currency by everyone else.
Despite the use of foreign currency, the Zimbabwe dollars are in acute shortage, resulting in many people sleeping outside their banks hoping to get money the following day.
Regarding the cash shortages, Gono blamed Germany for dropping a contract that helped the country print money.
“The country has suffered bouts of cash shortages, which have disadvantaged both the corporate and household sectors,” he said.
“As a country, we have come to terms with this stubborn reality that we were put under economic sanctions by Germany, which unilaterally cut a 50-year-old contract to supply us with currency printing paper, machinery, spare parts and inks without notice in July last year.”