The student loan industry is resigned to disappointment. President Bush signed a bill Thursday that cuts subsidies and increases grants. The bill will reduce profitability at all student loan lenders.

It is a prime reason why the buy-out of Sallie Mae (SLM) by a group led by JC Flowers is facing rocky times. The terms of […]

During the days of maximum fear around Thronburg Mortgage (TMA), I bought some of the common and some of the preferred of this mortgage REIT after hearing the CEO give what I thought was a very honest and detailed appraisal of their losses. He impressed me. Honest, humble CEO’s always do.

I realized […]

I last wrote about First Marblehead (FMD)
in early August at the height of the liquidity crisis as funding was
drying up for nearly every lender and investors were worried about loan
assets that might be impaired or overvalued on balance sheets. Since
the fed cut the rate at the discount window and then cut the primary Federal Funds […]

Bear Stearns raised about $1 billion Thursday afternoon with an enthusiastically received surprise sale of 10-year bonds. On Wednesday, Bear shares gained 8% on speculation the firm was in talks to sell a 20% chunk of itself to an outside investor (full story). Bear chose to capitalize on that momentum and put $1 billion worth […]

There seems to be a pricing anomaly going on with the Countrywide and preferred B
shares.
At first glance, both issues seem similar- the B shares seem
superior if you only look at the numbers, but they have recently been
trading at a discount to the As. Of course the numbers are not the
whole story in this […]

Sallie Mae shares jumped Thursday on new speculation the education lender will renegotiate the terms of its buyout deal with J.C. Flowers. On Wednesday, Flowers, whose investment groups include Bank of America and JP Morgan, informed Sallie Mae that it would not go through with the $25 billion transaction it had originally agreed to (full […]

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FactSet Research Systems Inc. (FDS)

F4Q07 (Qtr End 8/31/07)Earnings Call

September 25, 2007, 11:00 AM ET

Executives

Peter G. Walsh - CFO and Sr. VP

Philip A. Hadley - Chairman and CEO

Michael F. DiChristina - President, COO

Michael D. Frankenfield - Sr. VP and Director of U. S. Investment Management Services

Kieran Kennedy - Director of Investment Banking and Brokerage Services

Analysts

Peter […]

When I first talked about the Goldman Sachs’ (GS) slicing of third-quarter
earnings estimates on CNBC’s Power Lunch last week, the key part, of
course, was that Goldman was including its forecast of a
“multibillion-dollar write-down” tied to mortgages, leveraged loans and
collateralized debt obligations.
But the most intriguing part of that,
as I pointed out, is that Merrill (MER) […]

Three reasons why Im not jumping at the investment banks at present:

There are still significant areas of concern that have
not unwound yet residential housing exposure will increase as housing
prices fall further, including lawsuits which will eventually prove not
meritorious, and CDO exposure.
It is my firm belief that their
hedges hold in minor moves, but not major […]

Do you remember when commercial banking was all about knowing your client and
your clients’ industry and having strong relationships and parking billions
of dollars in loans in some dusty old part of the balance sheet which never
got marked to market or even really looked at? Neither do I, frankly. But […]