Stop bitching. AIG is not a bailout.

captk — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:45:00 -0400

Have you complainers even read the terms of the loan? (yes, loan)

Basically, the Fed agreed to loan AIG up to $85 billion at LIBOR + 850bps. (!) That's about 11% interest. And in exchange, AIG gave the Fed 80% of the company - for keeps. AIG common and preferred get nothing, bonds get pennies on the dollar.

AIG has about $1 trillion in assets. As I understand it, the Fed just received claim to about $800 billion of (albeit illiquid) assets in exchange for LOANING AIG $85 billion. Not to mention that because AIG remains a going concern, the stock will likely appreciate over time as we come out of this mess.

In summary, this is no bailout. No taxpayer money has gone out the door. The loan is secured by the assets of AIG, and the creditor (the Fed) now controls the company, and has authority to cancel any dividends and force asset sales to repay the loan. This is about as safe a loan as I can imagine. If anything, the Fed/Treasury will make a profit on this one.

Lehman Email format

captk — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:36:21 -0400

Does anyone know the Lehman email convention? Trying to reach a friend their to see what's going on.

Wachovia email structure

captk — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:20:46 -0400

Trying to reach a friend in the Lev Fin group. Anyone know the email format over there?

Temporary Blackberry (waiting for the Bold)

captk — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:27:35 -0400

Blackberry question for you guys:

I'm holding out for the Blackberry Bold (being released in July) but I broke my BB (stupid) and need a "stopgap" device to hold me over until I can get the Bold in a month.

What's the best way to go about doing this? Pick up a shitty one second hand on EBay or something and use it for a month? Or just go ahead and get a new BB and put off the Bold until later?

How does after hours trading work?

captk — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:36:41 -0400

This may seem like a dumb question, but nobody has ever explained it to me.

I never understood after hours trading. Isn't the point of the market closing that stocks do not trade until the market re-opens the next day? If you're going to allow after-hours trades, why not just keep the market open until 6pm (or whenever after-hours trading stops)?

Bear Stearns SA and FT - Rumors are true

captk — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:03:06 -0400

JPMorgan will revoke half of Bear Stearns' outstanding undergraduate offers, including nearly all M&A and equities offers.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080404/jpmorgan_bear.html

My condolences to all those affected.

User "Tracking" is Gone!

captk — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:25:23 -0500

I noticed today that the "Track" tab has disappeared from users profile pages. I used that tab all the time to track the posts I was contributing too, and see if there were any new messages in them.

Bring back the "Track" tab!

Fed Cuts Rates by 0.5% - now at 3.0%

captk — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:54:23 -0500

What do you guys think of Bernanke's latest move? [news article here]

Do you think it will go any further than simply bumping the market for a day or two? Is 3.0% the absolute lowest the rate should go? How does this affect the American economy internationally going forward?

Class of 2008 Analyst Salaries

captk — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:57:08 -0500

Now that most everyone has their offers for 2008 Analyst positions, I thought we could get a thread together with some numbers to replace the one that somehow disappeared yesterday.

Make sure to mention your type of firm (BB, MM, Boutique) and your city if you feel comfortable.

Site Rollback/Error

captk — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:02:25 -0500

Did anyone notice that the site was down for most of the day yesterday (1/28/08)? Also, it seems that when it came back online, it has been rolled back by a day or two. There were a couple good threads from yesterday that disappeared completely. My banana count was also rolled back to what it was before I contributed to those threads.