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It's A Deal

By Tom Granahan

Desperate Is As Desperate Does

July 2, 2009 - The latest attempt to prop up the housing market actually makes some of the schemes employed at the height of the crime spree that was the mortgage-lending bubble seem almost conservative.

A Day For The Ages

June 1, 2009 - A Dow Jones Industrial Average with no Citi and no GM? No surprise, but somehow it still hurts.

Home Is Where The Hurt Is

April 9, 2009 - A merger between homebuilders, in this market? What’s next, the marriage of Joe Biden and Dick Cheney?

AIG'eez': Will It Ever Stop?

March 24, 2009 - It was 20 years ago today that the tragic Exxon Valdez oil spill coated the pristine Prince William Sound in Alaska with a tanker full of gooey sludge. The memories of the blackened coastline and oil-coated birds naturally had me thinking of one thing: AIG.

Shifting Risk

January 9, 2009 - To ring in the New Year, Bank of America wrapped up its remarkable buy of Merrill Lynch. What caught my eye was the discussion of risk management at the newly combined commercial bank/investment bank/brokerage firm.

Same Old, Same Old

January 2, 2009 - Nothing lasts forever. That includes Indian Summers, a bunch of good shots (in a row) on the golf course, any diet I'm on, and, most importantly, current financial conditions.

Clawing Back … A Bit Too Late

December 9, 2008 - 'You're not taking a bonus? Thank you soooo much.'

Best Idea Ever!

December 1, 2008 - Random thoughts and second thoughts as we lament how much we ate over the holiday...

Get Smart

November 22, 2008 - The flood of IPOs can't be stopped.

Drivers (And Reality) Wanted

October 29, 2008 - Sure, plenty of hedge funds got burned on the surge in VW shares, but an apology is as likely as a Jetta outracing a Carrera.

Ideas Go From Bad To Worse

October 24, 2008 - Shutting down the markets? Ludicrous.

'Bright Lights, Big Writedown'

October 17, 2008 - I'm thinking of giving up my Wall Street Journal subscription. And definitely no more Bloomberg TV. I just don't need these media sources to know what's going on in the financial markets these days. I have a more reliable indicator, and it's free: TV trucks.

How Could They?

September 29, 2008 - Dial this up as yet another facet of the financial crisis I just don't understand: Why are 'the taxpayers' the victims in this debacle?

Now This Is Scary

September 19, 2008 - For the first time since this mind-numbing, unfathomable fiasco took root, I fear for our financial system. Yes, I’ll agree that it’s odd to make such a confession when the Dow is up 450 points (900 in two days), but hey, I’ve never been a conventionalist.

What's So Bad About That?

September 15, 2008 - The news was remarkable, but the selloff was not. At least not yet.

Good To Be Back

September 9, 2008 - Random thoughts and second thoughts after a refreshing two-week hiatus...

Lies, Damned Lies And ... The Middle Market

July 29, 2008 - I’m not always on board with its commentary, but The Economist had a good story the other day about how misleading statistics can be. No, that’s not exactly breaking news, but the magazine offered a clever lead and also had me thinking about the middle-market dealmaking arena.

True That

July 18, 2008 - Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, along comes the maddeningly, utterly embarrassing fiasco that is our regulators focusing on gossip.

Life Goes On

July 1, 2008 - By now, you’ve seen the numbers that marked the carnage that was the first half in M&A. It’s enough to make you want to auction off your life like that guy on eBay did.

Measured Success

May 29, 2008 - When people say that “out of tragedy something good always comes,” you just know they’re thinking about the test & measurement industry.

Poof!

May 6, 2008 - First it was Level 3 assets, and now this?

Women Are From Venus, M&A Is From Mars

April 29, 2008 - If you’re in M&M, er, M&A, now you may know what it feels like to be a kid in a candy store.

Crisis In Confidence

April 27, 2008 - To badmouth the economy as you buy a new lawnmower is one thing, but $200 billion in level 3 assets is quite another.

Reality Check

April 1, 2008 - I keep reading about how UBS’ plan to form a separate unit to hold its garbage is such a good idea, and frankly, I don’t get it.

This Is No Bear Market

March 17, 2008 - On the heels of Sunday night’s remarkable news that Bear Stearns was finished, it struck me that this deal should be far from done. Not because there’s virtually no reason that existing Bear holders should vote for it, but because it seems to me that the bidding should just be beginning.

Confidence Builder. Not.

March 14, 2008 - Well, we got a first-hand glimpse Friday of why some of us have been so very worried about the stranglehold within the credit markets. It was never just about a run-of-the-mill slowdown in the economy, or a meaningless debate about whether we were or were not officially in a recession.

Nothing Foreign About This Idea

March 4, 2008 - Bad-mouthing Citi, but to what end? And does it really need saving?

Subprime: Insurers' Best Friend?

February 27, 2008 - There are two sides to every story, and the insurers must like how this chapter is going.

I Hate You ... Call Me!

February 17, 2008 - Yahoo! getting picky in a tough market.

The Giants And M&A

February 5, 2008 - There's no reason M&A can't be resurrected, just like the Giants.

Anything More You'd Like To Tell Us?

January 22, 2008 - Fed introduces more panic, not less.

That's One Way To Lower A Handicap

January 19, 2008 - Jimmy Cayne is out of the top job at Bear Stearns, but how much will actually change at the embattled firm?

League Tables Aren't That Important

December 21, 2007 - A nice perk from all of these SWF deals.

‘A Lot’ To Worry About?

November 26, 2007 - There are some days when I honestly believe there are two things in this world that will never die: cockroaches, and the US consumer. (Yes, these are in fact two different animals, though some shoppers can often be mistaken for their smaller brethren.)

Let The Fun Begin, Again

November 22, 2007 - Wall Street folks are an optimistic lot. The credit crisis probably hasn't even hit bottom yet, but a sizable chunk of interested parties has declared that the worst is not only behind us, but that it's all behind us. Gee, that wasn't so bad.

What Crisis?

November 16, 2007 - Some of us from IDD recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Thomas Lee, he of private equity fame, for a brief chat. It was an enlightening conversation given the current circumstances with which the financial world is grappling.

Smooth Sailing. Right?

March 6, 2008 - It was just a few weeks back that a handful of investment banks -- Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns among them -- went public with bold pronouncements that the worst of the credit market shellacking seems to be behind us.

The Blame Game

November 18, 2007 - Few people on Wall Street were likely to be more relieved by Merrill Lynch's confidence-shattering third-quarter results than Citigroup's CEO, Chuck Prince.