PrefBlog

If Dealbreaker is anything to go by – and I think it is – the latest plan to stimulate an artificial market for highly illiquid and distressed securities will go the way of all the others:

Is it not enough that we are already providing what are effectively failed institutions unbearably low cost capital while the likes of Berkshire Hathaway must wallow in high rates?

It is more than despicable that, now that the PPIP looks like it may be an abject failure even before bids have hit the screens, we should see the attempt to throw the problem onto the “dumb money” of the retail investor, while collecting fees, we might add.

Dealbreaker also brings to my attention an adulatory piece on Bernanke’s management style. Bernanke amazes me. There he was, an academic with experience on the board of the Fed, quietly doing his research on the Depression … normally he could look forward to a life of rewarding work and the the respect of a few dozen of his colleagues who knew and understood what he was talking about. Suddenly, he’s in the hotseat, doing the job he’s been training to do all his life, knowing that every decision he makes will be fodder for academia for the next hundred years … lucky man! And we’re lucky to have him.

Another strong day on the market with increasing volume, particularly among the Fixed-Resets. PerpetualDiscounts are now up 4.26% on the month, while FixedResets are up 2.40%. Average Trading Volume of the former continues its gradual decline, but I see no reason to panic as yet. Who knows, maybe some people simply gave up trading for Lent!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.