Wall Street shenanigans

This Happened Twice Before, And Each Time Stocks Crashed

In 2000 and 2007. The consequences were spectacular. Now, it happened a third time in fifteen years. And it’s forming an increasingly terrifying chart.

The Brutal, Beneath-the-Surface, Slo-Mo Crash of Stocks

Even while the googly-eyed mainstream media celebrate the Dow’s record high, beneath the gloss, thousands of stocks are getting gutted. And the carnage is spreading.

Explosive Hidden Leverage Threatens To Blow Up the Markets

We don’t know what hedge fund manager Steven Cohen will do with the money he borrowed from Goldman Sachs. We don’t even know how much it is, though it’s a lot; the personal loan is backed by his $1 billion art collection. But we know how he’ll use it: cheap leverage.

Banks And Hedge Funds Make Curious Deal On New Structured Toxic-Waste Securities

New regulations force banks to get rid of CLOs. They’re similar to subprime-mortgage-backed CDOs that blew up in 2008. But CLOs are backed by junk corporate loans, including malodorous “leveraged loans.” And they’re booming again. So the banks made a deal.

Biggest Credit Bubble in History Cracks, Trips Up The Smart Money

For years, nothing could slow the tsunami of junk debt. But suddenly, something happened, and investors in leveraged-loan mutual funds, where the crappiest junk debt accumulates, ran scared and started pulling their money out. Consequences were immediate.

Biggest Credit Bubble in History Runs Out Of Time

Yield investors, driven to insanity by the Fed’s interest-rate repression, hold their noses and close their eyes to scrape up even the crappiest paper just to get a little extra yield. “On the way in, there’s insatiable demand.” Alas, “it’s going to be a disaster on the way out.”

“It’s not a bubble,” Retail Investors Are Told As The Smart Money Bails Out

“Biotech Stocks’ Rout Perplexes Analysts” the WSJ headlined the phenomenon, as analysts continue to hype this stuff to small investors. But hedge funds are dumping stocks, and private equity firms are dumping their LBOs. That’s the Smart Money. They’re getting out.

Biggest Credit Bubble in History Flashes Warning: ‘Seek Cover’

Hidden in the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report is a doozie of a chart. “Seek cover, implosion in sight,” it screams. It depicts the bubble in covenant-lite and second-lien loans, the same that helped blow up the banks in 2008. Only this time, they’re even worse.