Should Citi Be Nationalized as a Warning to Others?

Andy Spero | November 21, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

Note: We’ll likely expand and edit this post in the morning, but wanted to circulate the idea before bedtime.

We’re rather diligent–but not obsessed– about keeping up with financial new.1  We’ve heard many financial firms announce lay-offs and have read how at a few, like Goldman, senior managers have decided to forgo bonuses.

As we recall, most banks have announced withdrawals from subprime mortgage origination and loans, which seems like a wise move, but given the magnitude of their errors and mistakes, we’re very surprised that we haven’t read… Read the rest

Idiosyncratic and Concentration Risk, Again.

Andy Spero | October 2, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

It is already Thursday, and we’re just getting around to writing about a few articles in Wednesday’s (October 1) edition of The Wall Street Journal.  They are worth mentioning because they are closely related to our post on Tuesday, Bigger Is Not Necessarily Better, which warns about additional concentration risk as the largest banks continue to grow larger.

One is a very small article in Deal Journal, entitled Big-Bank View: Getting Bigger! that we can’t find online and… Read the rest

Bigger Is Not Necessarily Better.

Andy Spero | September 30, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

Today’s (September 30) Wall Street Journal contains a front-page article, Industry Is Remade in a Wave of Mergers, which reports that the three largest banks now control over 30% of the nation’s deposits.

We’re writing because we take issue with the paper edition’s blurb: “For the economy and government officials, the very size of these banks means they should be better insulated from big shocks…”  In our mind, there seems to be an implicit, but unjustified, diversification-benefit argument behind such statements.

We see no evidence that massive… Read the rest