yawn...

L: 18% S:0% G: 18% N: 18% ~ $D 11% $G 220% $V 1% $P 0%

Its been a day of grandstanding both sides of the pond. The politicians make me sick, to sit there and lecture Dimon and Co. about what rate they should be charging on credit cards is crazy. For a memember of the house to ask CEOs to take "suck it up" and take losses just doesn't make sense, these are institutions owned by shareholders, which in turn on individuals, pension funds, mutual funds, etc. The Raven finds it ridiculous that the politicians don't understand how on earth a bank is supposed to deal with 1) writedowns of loans 2) increased economic risk, liquidity risk, etc 3) increase in capital requirements and THEN increase their lending? its impossible! not only that but the fact that the CEOs are getting bashed for taking public money means they are going to be a lot more cautious, there is no way any of them will want to take anymore money if they do make losses, so why shouldn't they be cautious? argh!

The Raven picked up a couple of small European longs on the close, although he remains very cautious he prefers to be long rather than short at these levels, but with optionality rather than pure outright longs.