nytimes.com — Despite the running unease in world markets, three giants of American finance managed to make money from trading every single day during the first three months of the year. Their remarkable 61-day streak is one for the record books. Each one finished the period without losing money for even one day.
May 11, 2010 View in Crawl 4
niradgMay 12, 2010
61 weekdays
phonzeeMay 12, 2010
Ahhh... I'm an idiot.
thespiffMay 12, 2010
So basically you're saying you don't believe that current government activities pose a threat to these institutions? I'd be curious to hear your justification.
richmomzMay 12, 2010
Oh it's not just me - every central bank in the world seems to like having tons of this shiny rock too. Wonder why that would be...
kalvinbMay 12, 2010
Banks were forced by the government since the Clinton years to lend to people who couldn't afford it. The sub-prime market was invented by the government. Because cries of "racism" rang out when it was learned that blacks (who are disproportionately poor) were disproportionately loaned money for a house the government stepped in and forced banks to lower their standards to make everything "equal." Well, those low standards applied to everyone. So lots of people took advantage of them and then many of them inevitably failed to pay their mortgage. I got my house with 0% down. How stupid is that? It became easier to get a house than a car.What changed shortly before the crash is that speculators started taking advantage of these low standards and drove up the price of houses dramatically at which point government regulation was just a vehicle to fuel greed on both ends of the table. The buyer and the bank were both greedy.Prior to Clinton banks actually required you have a steady job and a large down payment to get a house. After Clinton banks found that sub-prime lending during a housing boom is a win for them no matter what. If the buyer defaults they take the house and sell it at a profit. After house prices stopped going up the banks scrambled to cover their losses.The land grab by the banks ended with a land grab by the government as the government bailed out the banks and helpfully took the houses off their hands.The government, the banks and the buyers all acted stupidly. And for us to pretend that the banks are the only villain here is to willingly enslave yourself to the government. I can find other banks to work with. Good luck finding another government.
1969chargerMay 12, 2010
So in other words they are just a bunch of bookies now?
addiktionMay 13, 2010
I knew I should have gotten into banking, oh wait, they only favor the top 5 or 10 big banks. That's right the rest are allowed to fail.By the way the article says 4 banks, not 3.
xophermvMay 13, 2010
Markets go up and down all the time. Supposedly that movement is random such that no one can tell with any certainly how the market will perform on any given day. If the market were truly free, then a perfect run should be impossible for a single company to perform. The fact that four companies all did this is quadruply impossible. No, this points to a fixed market, not a free market.
olivestreetMay 13, 2010
Rigged market.