http://www.institutionalriskanalytics.com Welcome to the RSS feed for "The IRA Analyst", the weekly information newsletter of Insitutional Risk Analytics. en-us info@institutionalriskanalytics.com finance RSS 2.0 generation class http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rsshttp://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3931-Nov-2009(This is most recent IRA Analyst edition.) - In this issue of The IRA, we present the views of our friend and mentor Ed Kane of Boston College, who argues that the problem with the financial regulatory framework is not the law, regulation nor even the regulators, but rather the confluence of poorly aligned incentives and financial innovation. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=39128-Oct-2009As we wrote earlier this year regarding the GMAC and GM, the political end game being played by President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress is to keep GMAC, the crippled automaker GM and the United Auto Workers afloat through next year's election.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=39025-Oct-2009The thing that scares me is commercial real estate. These guys were professional borrowers, completely unlike the residential home borrower. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38920-Oct-2009These large flows of fiat paper dollars, I submit, explain the increasingly manic behavior of markets, investors and large banks over the past decade as true investment opportunities are increasingly outnumbered by speculation.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38715-Oct-2009Last month, an IRA reader named Frederick L. Feldkamp sent us a very interesting article on the various cycles in financial markets over the past couple of decades that delved into the swings in interest rate arbitrage, monopoly lower taken by and from the banks, and enabling rules changes at the SEC.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38613-Oct-2009The hearings this past week on reform of OTC derivatives before the House Financial Services Committee run by chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) are a bad joke, even if the bill is amended by the proposal from the House Agriculture Committee. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3854-Oct-2009 If you assume, as we do, that the equity of BAC is a zero, where should bond holders be haircut in order to recapitalize the bank without further financial support from the US taxpayer?http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38328-Sep-2009 And if Americans do not soon get control over the habit of borrow and spend practiced by the Congress and facilitated by the Fed, then end result must be a populist backlash against Washington and incumbents in politics and the corporate world. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38220-Sep-2009The problem is not the models. the problem is the way economic models are used.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38116-Sep-2009Before Secretary Geithner and the G-20 talk further about raising bank capital levels, we first need to find a way - and fast - to stabilize the existing capital base of the banking industry. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=38010-Sep-2009But in all that we at Institutional Risk Analytics do in the world of ratings and financial analysis, we do our best to separate objective measures based upon empirical observations, and subjective analyses that employ speculative assumptions and directives which are often inserted into the very ground rules for the analysis process itself. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3798-Sep-2009The G-20 debate on bank capital may have the pernicious effect of causing investors to flee the large banks and the financials as a sector at just the moment in time when regulators are trying to boost capital and raise private funds for bank resolutions. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3781-Sep-2009Whereas in past years the inclusion of the larger money center banks would skew the risk profile of the banking industry to a more risky posture, today, as zombie GSEs, the top banks make the industry look more conservative.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=37618-Aug-2009Policymaker would like everyone to believe that the recent crises were random unpredictable Black Swan events. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=37513-Aug-2009As of today, we've gathered and rated over 6,900 CDR sourced bank CALL reports for Q2 2009.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3744-Aug-2009The cynical way to look at Washington is as a parallel universe after the Orwellian model. We can also use such examples to predict the form of future crises.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=37327-Jul-2009Whereas last summer the major dealers and rating agencies were unapologetic in defending the status quo, now the French retreat from Moscow seems a more apt metaphor.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=37122-Jul-2009Once the toxic assets have been sold and the company has been restructured via a debt equity swap, C will be the most competitive large bank in the US and will provide an example to other institutions as to the way out of the economic swamp called buying time.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=37015-Jul-2009As and when the bailout of AIG begins to unravel, the twin specters of market and liquidity risk may resurface.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3698-Jul-2009In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we feature another contribution from members of the Herbert Gold Society regarding the role of the Federal Reserve System as risk manager.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=36830-Jun-2009Switching to the main topic of this issue of The IRA, as Q2 2009 comes to a close, we want to showcase a couple of superlative banks to give our readers an example of how we analyze financials for clients of the IRA professional Advisory Service.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=36722-Jun-2009To get some further insight into the world of securitization and cash flows, we spoke last week to Ann Rutledge of RR Consulting. http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=36617-Jun-2009JPM, MS and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) all wish to escape the clutches of the "positive liberty" crowd around President Barack Obama, this even though they have paid their subscriptions in full through 2012. Indeed, we hear a special assessment may be levied before the November 2010 election as part of Wall Street's price of liberation.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=36510-Jun-2009Simply stated, the supra-normal returns paid to the dealiers in the CDS market is a tax.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=3643-Jun-2009To continue the discussion on OTC derivatives and zombie banks, we next feature an interview with Professor Ed Kane, James F. Cleary Professor in Finance, Boston College.http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/Catalog.asp3-Nov-2009IRA has been publishing commentary on banking and finance since 2003. This link takes to you a catalog page of all these articles.http://us1.irabankratings.com/demo/banklooklist.asp3-Nov-2009Look beyond the headlines of Wall Street and see what banks real people are interested in. This link takes to you a page showing the 50 most recently requested bank demo pages on the IRA system.