Hank Paulson is keenly aware that his Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and Treasury predecessor, Robert Rubin, helped save the market by encouraging the then-head of the New York Fed to force Wall Street leaders to team up to save Long-Term Capital Management's collapse from taking down the financial markets. Just as George W. Bush needed to recap Iraq, so now does Hank Paulson need to recap that famous meeting in lower Manhattan.

Bloomberg News reports that the meeting -- which took place yesterday afternoon -- involved a rogues gallery of Wall Street executives coupled with Paulson and New York Fed president Tim Geithner. The message these regulators delivered was reportedly a simple one: "You need to solve your own problems, and we're not going to provide any more capital." But Wall Street -- as represented by the likes of "Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C)'s Vikram Pandit, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) 's Jamie Dimon, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS)'s John Mack, Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein, and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.'s (NYSE: MER) John Thain" -- are convinced that the Fed will blink when it comes to the 158 year old Lehman Brothers Holdings (NYSE: LEH).

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) reportedly wants to put in a bid for Lehman contingent on getting government help -- such as the $29 billion JPMorgan got in its Bear Stearns acquisition and its nationalization of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE). After these two precedents, Paulson now wants to reverse himself. He says Lehman is different because people have known it was in trouble for a long time and it can access the Fed's discount window. But I think this could just be a little show for the President who is worried about how this will look to history. He may not realize that he has already opened the Pandora's Box of moral hazard and can't shut it now.

Continue reading Will Lehman lose as Paulson and Wall Street play a game of chicken?

Will Lehman lose as Paulson and Wall Street play a game of chicken? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bloomberg News reports that 10 of the biggest names in investment banking are blocking investors from getting their hands on their share of the $330 billion Auction Rate Securities (ARS) that they were told was as safe as a money market fund.

I first posted about this back in February and now it has 4,325 comments from people trying to get at their money. Bloomberg quotes one victim of frozen ARS syndrome: Franklin Biddar, a 65-year old real estate investor who can't get his $100,000. "I can't do anything," said Biddar, who was so eager to unlock his money that he was willing to accept 11 percent less than what he paid for the securities. "Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) got me into these securities that are supposed to be as safe as a money market, and now they won't get me out."

Here's a list of the banks involved in this money blocking operation and the volume of municipal ARSs they issued between 2001 and 2007:

Continue reading Rogues gallery of banks block investor access to $330 billion

Rogues gallery of banks block investor access to $330 billion originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.