For long after this crisis has passed, and long after Lord Lloyd Blankfien has retired to the manor of American politics that befits the leaders of this Great American Corporation (see Henry Paulson, Jon Corzine, Bob Rubin), few will remember the murky relationship between Goldman and public coffers. This post is intended to clear up this obfuscation.

If only credit ratings had any credibility. Imagine the chain reaction set off worldwide if there is indeed a massive sell-off in treasuries as a result of a potential downgrade. I would guess that the United States would remain the benchmark borrowers for the rest of the world, thus this would raise yields for all borrowers.

After the government released the results of the Stress Tests, the writers of DeltaHedged had a brief e-mail exchange.

Extensive links between Wall Street and Washington don’t alarm me; what’s most distressing, though, is when the long bond demand collapses. When the 30-year treasury trades at an 8% yield, who is going to take out a mortgage?

Rather apologist but still refreshing.

Well how about that. As the AFP reports, Chinese purchases of US Treasuries slowed considerably in January and February of this year.

Ben Bernanke and the FOMC have presided over a 200% increase in the size of the Fed’s balance sheet over the past 15 months. Indeed, the doomsday scenario of rising interest rates, inflation, dollar devaluation, and stagnant economic growth isn’t that implausible.

DVD regions are nothing more than a mediocre tool to price discriminate against consumers - another vain attempt on behalf of the moviemaking industry to curtail the free flow of content at the expense of the utility of their consumers.

Will the real stress test please stand up? The suspense is killing me.

A sneak peak on Citi? WSJ reports:

DeltaHedged never sleeps. Currently, I’m enjoying the sights and sounds of the UK. What an interesting place.