January 2010
7 posts
Man. U bonds fall as European investors fret
Talking with Kai Ryssdal on Marketplace today about two of the subjects closest to my heart: Manchester United and the bond market.
United beat City and are now in the Carling Cup final. So performance on the pitch is OK, but in the boardroom it leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, United got its bond deal done. But as The Financial Times site Alphaville notes, not only did it have to sell the...
FHA farce
There’s an interesting debate a-brewing on Scott Jagow’s blog about the Federal Housing Association and its support for the housing market.
The debate was triggered by an investigation into lenders dealing in FHA loans, ie loans essentially insured by the federal government. Some of these lenders are seeing high levels of default. Not surprising, given the sector of the population...
Here we go!
Manchester United is tapping the bond market! I love it when football teams go to the market, and I especially love it when it’s my team.
United needs 500 million quid ($802 million, according to Bloomberg).
Looks like the money will go to refinance the loan that the club arranged back in 2006. That GBP575 million loan refinanced much of the deal that the Glazer family did in 2005 to buy...
Will he or won't he?
I got a call this week from the office of the president of my new bank, OneWest.
If you’ve been keeping track of me, you’ll know that OneWest took over my bank, First Federal, at the end of last year when FF failed. We did a piece about it on Marketplace, and the prez of OneWest, Terry Laughlin, called a few days later.
Mr Laughlin said he’d like to develop a relationship, and...
You know it's bad when...
…”topless clubs” run to the law and ask for protection. A report in the Las Vegas Sun says a club called Sheri’s Cabaret recently did just that. Now if this was 1967, you’d be thinking wiseguys in sharp suits and bulges under their armpits. But this is 2010, baby, and that means bald guys in pinstripes and bulging briefcases.
That’s right, Sheri’s Cabaret...
CRE crunch
At Marketplace we’ve been banging on about the problems in commercial real estate for, oh I don’t know, maybe two years now. And we’re not the only ones: I’ve read articles all over: in the Journal, in the Miami Herald, even in TIME!
Still, government types have only recently started to really sweat this stuff. Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo told congress in...
WatchWatch out below!
Commercial real estate is giving Ben Bernanke a big headache. Here’s a quick explanation of why CRE is such a threat to the economy.