Linkfest: Return of the housing bubble; Subprime small business loans; Obama’s caution leaves financial reform incomplete

Categories: Linkfest

Today’s most shared:

  • In many areas, house prices are starting to look high, and it’s cheaper to rent.
  • Wall Street, Google fund small-business lenders with 100% effective interest rates.
  • Geithner book highlights Obama’s caution, leaving financial reform incomplete, with only modest changes to bloated financial sector, captured regulators, TBTF banks, government-dominated housing finance.
  • KKR called out for apparent double-dipping, charging portfolio companies consulting fees.
  • FHFA says most mortgage bonds were tainted by fraud in run-up to crisis, claims many bankers have been indicted and convicted.
  • Non-traded REITs sound like something from a something from a stoner movie…”Harold the broker goes to Peter Luger, Kumar the client goes to White Castle.”
  • Goldman calls for prolonged China construction bust, hitting Australia’s minerals sector and overall economy.
  • Hedge funds won’t make you rich, and owning a minority stake in a hedge fund manager puts the ‘limited’ in limited partnership, as Lehman finds 20% of D. E. Shaw difficult to monetize.
  • Fox Business wants to make a TV star of alleged pump-and-dumper.

Rent or Buy? The Math Is Changing
New York Times
In expensive places like California and the Northeast, buying a home again looks like a perilous investment.
shared by @M_C_Klein, Naked Capitalism, @mccarthyryanj, @edwardnh, @jbarro
 
The Buck Stops With Obama on Tepid Financial Reform
ProPublica
A new book by former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner shows the reluctance to push for serious change in the financial system after the 2008 meltdown can be traced to the very top.
shared by @MattGoldstein26, @M_C_Klein, @ReformedBroker, @ryanchittum
 
Wall Street Finds New Subprime With 125% Business Loans
Bloomberg
Doug Naidus made his fortune selling a mortgage company to Deutsche Bank AG months before the U.S. housing market collapsed. Now he’s found a way to profit from loans to business owners with bad credit.
shared by @MattGoldstein26, @BarbarianCap, Here Is The City
 
Finra Fines Cost JPMorgan 3 Minutes of Profit
Bloomberg
The world’s biggest bond dealers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, failed to properly report trades to the industry’s price-tracking system more than 11,000 times. JPMorgan’s penalty: About three minutes of its annual profit.
shared by @mccarthyryanj, @finansakrobat, Here Is The City, @nasiripour
 
KKR’s error raises a question: What cash should go to investors?
Wall Street Journal
KKR has made several erroneous disclosures about its ties to an in-house consulting unit, a lapse that highlights a broader issue of private-equity firms’ duties to pass along fee income to investors.
shared by @anatadmati, @danprimack, @spignal
 
Flaws Seen in ‘Almost Every’ Mortgage-Bond as Crash Began
Bloomberg
Investigators probing mortgage-bond sales in the run-up to the financial crisis are finding improper actions occurred “not only occasionally, but in the end, with almost every” deal examined, a U.S. official said.
shared by @TNYJohnCassidy, @ryanchittum, @ThemisSal, @petereavis
 
Goldman: Prepare for Chinese property bust
MacroBusiness
Goldman Sachs is pulling no punches today and it’s Australia that’s on the end of them.
shared by Naked Capitalism, @Nemo_incognito, @niubi, @prchovanec, @humenm
 
Hedge Funds Won’t Make You Rich
Bloomberg View
Why would people expect hedge funds to deliver superior returns in the first place?
shared by @ObsoleteDogma, NYT Dealbook, @Noahpinion, @TimOBrien
 
For Sale: 20% Stake in Hedge Fund. Terms: Complicated.
New York Times
The estate of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers still has to sell a portion of the $22 billion hedge fund D. E. Shaw, but it has no takers.
shared by @JacobWolinsky, @jennablan, @SimoneFoxman, @MattGoldstein26
 
Scenes from an Independent Brokerage Firm
The Reformed Broker
I consider non-traded REITs or nREITS to be part of the group of investments that are just absolute murderholes for clients.
shared by @JacobWolinsky, @MichaelKitces, @bclund, @DavidSchawel, Crossing Wall Street
 
Online Investment Manager FutureAdvisor Raises $15.5M to Fund Its Own Future
recode.net
The company’s selling point is that it helps people rebalance their existing 401(k), IRA and taxable accounts.
shared by @abnormalreturns, NYT Dealbook, @JacobWolinsky
 

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