Attention people of England - get your money out of buy-to-let f*cked lender Bradford & Bingley today. Seriously, get in the queue and get it out NOW

At one point the governments of the US and UK will need to draw a line in the sand and say "no, we're not bailing you out".

Bear Stearns? Sure, no prob.

Northern Rock? One time, never again.

Wells Fargo? Probably.

IndyMac? Are you kidding me?

Bradford & Bingley? No chance.

The US has FDIC protection. The UK has anarchy. And any saver stupid enough to have more than £33,000 in Bradford & Bingley is a fool.

The crazed buy-to-let Ponzi Scheme in Great Britain is about to blow up something fierce.

Get your popcorn.

Bank denies cash-raising reports

Bradford & Bingley has denied reports that it is planning to go to the market to raise extra cash to see it through the credit crisis. Sunday papers said Citigroup had been asked to help with a rights issue to raise hundreds of millions of pounds.

But a statement from the bank said that it had a strong capital base and, "had funded its business activities through 2008 and into 2009". Bradford & Bingley is Britain's biggest buy-to-let lender.

So, after the Bear Stearns / JPMorgan / Fed hijinx yesterday, are you a believer in 'secret society', 'PPT', 'illuminati, and 'skull & bones' stuff?

Don't worry, I'm not turning into a "truther" nutjob, but damn, you gotta admit what's happening in the financial markets, combined with who's running the show these days, is a bit, well, obvious?

* The president is the son of a president, while the leading candidate to become the next president is the wife of a president. Both went to Yale.

* The US Treasury secretary is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who created the mortgage CDO, and is now in charge of cleaning up the mess, while also ensuring that Goldman Sachs survives and thrives

* JPMorgan, with $30 billion from the US Federal Reserve, supposedly buys Bear Stearns after doing a few HOURS of due diligence, for 99% off, avoiding bankruptcy and the unwinding of trillions in derivatives contracts, while wiping out the common shareholders. There are no other bidders or bids.

* Bank of America supposedly buys Countrywide, saving it from sure bankruptcy. There are no other bids or bidders.

* The stock market rallies yesterday minutes after Bush meets with the "Working Group on Financial Markets", i.e. the "Plunge Protection Team"

I could go on, but I figure you guys have the goods.

Follow the money.

How do you like your hedge fund blowups - scrambled or over-easy?

Ah, ya gotta love "our fund isn't blowing up" announcements even though the fund is blowing up. They've gotta do it though - only way to get rid of the assets before they hit firesale pricing.

Deny, Deny, Deny. Then run like the dickens.

LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that it was "business as usual" at its Global Alpha hedge fund but declined further comment on the fund's operations.

The fund has been the subject of persistent speculation for the past couple of days, with Goldman on Tuesday denying market talk that it was liquidating the fund.

On Thursday, French bank BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) froze 1.6 billion euros ($2.21 billion) worth of funds, citing problems over U.S. subprime mortgages.

FLASH: And then the hedge funds kept imploding. And imploding. And imploding. Bear Stearns nukes the market (again)

Come on now, you can't be serious! Bear Stearns is the gift that keeps on giving, but the thing is, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of hedge funds, pension funds and foreign countries will now implode as the CDO-uber-leveraged US housing market melts down.

Just turn in the keys and walk away Jim Cramer says. And that's exactly what folks are doing.

Tilt. Head for the hills. This sucker is gonna blow. Err, make that "blowing", active tense.

Bear Stearns Halts Redemptions on Third Hedge Fund

July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos., manager of two hedge funds that collapsed last month, halted redemptions from a third fund after a slump in credit markets prompted investors to demand their money back.

The Bear Stearns Asset-Backed Securities Fund had about $900 million invested in asset-backed securities, including mortgage bonds, spokesman Russell Sherman said today in a telephone interview. The fund was overwhelmed by redemption requests, Sherman said.

The fund's stumble is a setback for New York-based Bear Stearns and illustrates how the crisis in the subprime mortgage market has spread. The fund had less than 0.5 percent of its assets in securities linked to loans to subprime borrowers, Sherman said. The two funds that collapsed invested almost fully in subprime bonds. Losses have spread to banks, insurers and hedge funds in France and Australia, including one run by Macquarie Bank Ltd.

``This shows you don't necessarily have to be a subprime fund now to be having problems,'' said Bryan Whalen, a portfolio manager in Los Angeles at Metropolitan West Asset Management, which oversees more than $21 billion in fixed-income assets.

FLASH: Bear Stearns Tells Hedge Fund Investors There's `No Value Left'

Ruh-roh! Mark to market anyone? Anyone?

You gotta wonder how many more "suprises" are out there

Hint: Lots.

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. told investors in its two failed hedge funds that they will get little if any money back after ``unprecedented declines'' in the value of AAA rated securities used to bet on subprime mortgages.

Estimates show there is ``effectively no value left'' in the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund and ``very little value left'' in the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund, Bear Stearns said in a two-page letter. The second fund still has ``sufficient assets'' to cover the $1.4 billion it owes Bear Stearns, according to the letter, which was obtained yesterday by Bloomberg News from a person involved in the matter.

``This is a watershed,'' said Sean Egan, managing director of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. in Haverford, Pennsylvania. ``A leading player, which has honed a reputation as a sage investor in mortgage securities, has faltered. It begs the question of how other market participants have fared.''

Bear Stearns provided the second fund with $1.6 billion of emergency funding last month in the biggest hedge fund bailout since the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management LP in 1998. The losses investors now face underscore the severity of the shakeout in the market for collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, investment vehicles that repackage bonds, loans, derivatives and other CDOs into new securities.

Ralph Cioffi, the 22-year Bear Stearns veteran who managed the two funds, sought to minimize risk by investing in the top- rated portions of CDOs, hence the ``high-grade'' label. Under Cioffi, 51, the funds also borrowed money in an effort to boost returns. Instead, as defaults surged on subprime mortgages, they grappled with declines in the values of AAA and AA securities, Bear Stearns said in the letter.

Market Implications

``That has implications for credit weakness in the next several days and weeks,'' said Peter Plaut, an analyst at New York-based hedge fund Sanno Point Capital Management. ``There's going to be more risk aversion.''

And then the hedge funds started to collapse... "People are nervous about how deep the revaluations will have to go"

"Mark to Market" anyone?

P.O.N.Z.I.S.C.H.E.M.E.

United Capital's Devaney Halts Redemptions on Funds

July 2 (Bloomberg) -- United Capital Markets Holdings Inc., a brokerage run by John Devaney, halted redemptions on some of its hedge funds that invest in subprime-mortgage bonds.

The funds are within the company's Horizon Strategy group, including the Horizon ABS Fund LP, said Michael Gregory, a spokesman for the Key Biscayne, Florida-based firm.

``We did that as a defensive move because we had an unusually high number of redemption requests and we didn't want to be a forced seller in this market,'' Gregory said in a telephone interview. One of the redemption requests was from an investor who had put up about 25 percent of the funds' money.

The decision by Devaney, 37, follows the collapse of two hedge funds run by Bear Stearns Cos., which also lost money amid a plunge in bonds backed by subprime mortgages. As the Bear Stearns funds faltered, prices of the securities tumbled on concern the bonds would be dumped on the market at fire sale prices. Owners of similar securities may face $90 billion in losses, Deutsche Bank AG analysts predicted June 29.

``People are very nervous about how deep the revaluations of these securities will have to go,'' said Virginia Parker, who helps advise about $1.8 billion in client money at Parker Global Strategies LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. ``These positions didn't get marked down until June. Nobody's hand was forced in the market until then.''

Just when you thought the subprime CDO mess couldn't get any worse, it's gonna get a LOT worse real quick, thank you Bear Stearns hedge fund blowup

Can you say systemic meltdown? Can you say spreading cancer? Can you say Enron-like unraveling?

Homebuilders are holding inventory on their books that is still wildly inflated - that per Sarbanes Oxley must be marked down to true market value. The financials and hedge funds are holding Subprime and Alt-A liar's loan CDO cancer at wildly inflated values, that also must be marked down to true market value.

That's why Merrill didn't sell their Bear Stearns junk the other day - if they did, then the new market price would have been achieved, and you'd have hedge funds (and Merrill themselves) failing left and right.

Get ready HP'ers. The fuse has been lit.

Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital] argued that if the bonds in the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (BSC) funds were auctioned on the open market, much weaker values would be plainly revealed.

"This would force other hedge funds to similarly mark down the value of their holdings. Is it any wonder that Wall street is pulling out the stops to avoid such a catastrophe?," Schiff said.

"Their true weakness will finally reveal the abyss into which the housing market is about to plummet," he said.

Bank of America: Bear Stearn's CDO hedge fund blow-up is "tip of the iceberg", IndyMac and Countrywide next

No surprises for HP'ers.

Get that popcorn popping!

(I'm short IndyMac via October puts)

Mortgage woes 'tip of the iceberg,' Bank of America warns

Losses in the U.S. mortgage market may be the “tip of the iceberg,” Bank of America Corp. analysts said today in a note for clients.

Higher interest rates have yet to affect many home owners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said. Interest payments on about $900 billion of the riskiest subprime home-loans are due to increase this year and next, the analysts wrote.

Bear Stearns Cos., the second-biggest underwriter of mortgage bonds, plans to assume $3.2 billion of loans to stop creditors from taking over assets of one of its hedge funds, people with knowledge of the proposal said. Concern about the collapse of the funds, which made bad bets on mortgage-backed securities, sent bonds and stocks of finance companies lower.

“The demise of two Bear Stearns managed leveraged mortgage funds could be the tipping point of a broader fallout from subprime mortgage credit deterioration,” wrote Bank of America analysts led by Robert Lacoursiere in New York.

Countrywide Financial Corp. and IndyMac Bancorp Inc., two of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders, may suffer more than other finance companies because they hold mortgages themselves as well as selling them on to investors, the analysts wrote. They may not have set aside enough money to cover losses, said Bank of America, which has a “sell” recommendation on both lenders

Merrill Lynch supposedly to hold onto $850 million subprime cancer CDOs taken from Bear Stearns' blown up mortgage hedge fund

Man, I love a good hedge fund blow-up. But I especially love one that "experts" didn't see coming, while HP'ers know damn well many more like it are on the way.

Interesting thing about this whole Bear Stearn / Merrill Lynch mess is that Merrill was gonna dump the cancer as fast as they could, but then all of a sudden they put the word out that they weren't gonna do that. Now why do you think that is?

1) No buyers?

2) Unattractive firesale prices?

3) Middle of the night calls from Bernanke and Paulson (and Cheney and Bush)?

4) Would blow up the entire industry, including Merrill, even faster?

Oh, what a tangled web trillions of dollars of mortgages that aren't gonna be paid back weave. Can you say "systemic meltdown"?

Merrill won't flood market with securities

NEW YORK -- Merrill Lynch & Co. has backed away from a threat to dump about $850-million (U.S.) of securities it seized from Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds, according to people with knowledge of its plans.

Merrill sold a small portion of the collateralized debt obligations through an auction, said the people, who declined to be identified because the details haven't been announced. It plans to hold on to the remaining securities for now, one person said, without being more specific.

The decision, and the scrapping of a sale Wednesday by JPMorgan Chase & Co., diminished the risk that a large amount of securities would be liquidated immediately. Merrill set the sale in motion to reclaim its loans to the two hedge funds, which had posted losses of as much as 20 per cent by betting on CDOs. The plan may have confirmed that other funds were overvaluing their holdings of similar securities, potentially causing a chain reaction of writedowns causing billions in losses.

"It's an industry issue," said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. Mr. Hintz was chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the largest mortgage underwriter, for three years before becoming an analyst in 2001. "How many other hedge funds are holding similar, illiquid, esoteric securities? What are their true prices? What will happen if more blow up?"