This is going to get uglier. MF Global was what is called a FCM (Futures Commodities Merchant.) It was a major player in the options and futures business. Apparently they made a big bet on Eurozone debt which turned out to be a disaster. When they tried to sell the company to another FCM it [...]

Doing some catch-up reading this weekend, including a Fortune piece on NYC investment bank Sandler O’Neill that lost 66 of its 171 employees in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, not to mention all it’s equipment, financial records, client files, everything. It’s now 340 employees, run by Jimmy Dunne who had this great quote about [...]

Like countless others, I’m an eternal fan of Michael Lewis. He’s been a reliable and entertaining chronicler of finance, technology and sports for decades, and he’s still going strong with books, magazine articles, and now movie scripts. Here’s a feature piece on him. New York Magazine: It’s Good To Be Michael Lewis

Great piece on the OG financial calculator HP 12C turning 30. I’m working on a piece for National Mortgage Pro magazine on how your calculator defines you. Stay tuned…

Here’s a good primer on the Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) regulatory initiative that requires loan originators to retain at least 5% of any mortgages they securitize so they have some skin in the game. Interestingly, some mortgage banks are cutting QRM deals now where they’re retaining more like 8% of their holdings, and in some [...]

In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing a series on Jumbo mortgages. And don’t let the terminology fool you. Today jumbo mortgages are for loans above max government-backed caps of $729,750. But as the politicians begin plans to wind down government support, their first big step will be to reducing government-backed loan caps. So a [...]

Facebook Worth $50b After Goldman Deal While everyone was working up clever holiday status updates on Facebook, the company was working up a deal with Goldman Sachs that places its value at $50b. NYT Dealbook’s report on the topic also previews the year’s hottest tech companies, and StockTwits $FBOOK feed will keep you up to [...]

One interesting stat coming from today’s November jobs report is on financial services jobs: monthly job losses in this category averaged 29,000 in 2009, but have since decelerated to 8,000 per month in 2010. See chart below.

This guest post from a hedge fund exec does a good job of explaining Goldman’s regulatory/legal issues in terms we can all understand… When you win, your bookie wins. When you lose, your bookie wins. No matter the outcome of the game, your bookie skims a little “juice.” Sometimes your bookie screws you (e.g. you [...]

Bloomberg scores high marks for simply reporting and not editorializing. Which is why this picture of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein they’ve been running repeatedly all over their site for the past 1.5 weeks raises an eyebrow (or causes one to furrow). Sure you could argue this is editorializing, especially when they used it in [...]