No Fish © fintag

News comments:
So lets get real. The banks are holding assets at an unfair value. This is true. You see, they have lots of toxic stuff like CDOs, illiquid structured products and real estate that is worth 10 cents to the dollar but have been valued at regulators prices which is about $1.

Having been allowed to create artificial prices for these assets, along with being forced to buy triple A but soon to be junk sovereign debt with taxpayers bailout money, the banks are in rude health. Unlike the UK which is so shot to pieces, the gay couple at number 10 [Editor: Surely some mistake] have an almighty tricky problem: where to cut first.

Health? Education? Defense? Fishing? Civil Servant pensions?

But that is dull. Why is it the Credit Rating Agencies have escaped censure for causing the global crash and the banks are being attacked for providing them with dud data? Because the banks have bigger balance sheets and can pay huge fines.

Last night I attended the event of the year. The people were exciting, the giving extraordinary and the hobnobbing with the great and the good (and the weird) made it a triple A event. Thankfully I avoided being mugged and am here to tell the tale.

Today's shorts:
Ivy Capital Catches Madoff Cold (wall street journal)
Hedge Funds To Leave Mayfair In Their Droves (ft)
Hedge Funds Are History (dealbook)
Despite Low GBP UK's Trade Gap Widens (times)
Coalition to introduce 100% tax rate (guardian)
Brown Defies Fintag And Mixes With The Plebs (bbc)

Today's longs:
Swaggering Asians Swagger (bloomerg)
Goldman Stanley Denies Goldman Stanley Contagion (emii)
Anarchy At The Greek Branch Of Goldmorgan Stanley (new york times)

Gossip:
Goldman Sachs to be renamed Cuddly Kittens.