In risk management, relatively small privately held VISA/MC issuer. In 2004 we were bought by a large Wall Street "bad paper" firm, and were told that our ensuing strategy was gonna be a new type of "churn & burn" thing. Book 'em, sell 'em. Lather, rinse, repeat. Collect those nice "transaction fees," and get ongoing mgmt fees for continuing to administer the accounts we no longer actually owned.

Book, say, 100,000 new accounts at a $1,000 line each, knowing that subbies typically max out within 5 months, so you then bundled 'em up as a "securitized debt" obligation with a nominal "asset" face value of $100 million, which would have a risk adjusted future value of "x" that traders would bid on. This shit would then get sold and re-sold over & over & over & over.

Book another 100,000, sell' em, then another, and another, etc etc etc. Don't have to "reserve" against 'em 'cuz we no longer own the debt risk.

The only difference was that these weren't "backed" by real estate, so their bid value, initially anyway, would be a function of our astute proprietary credit risk modeling, whereas the mortgage thing became 'you got a pulse? You got a loan.'

I quit in Feb 2005. Couldn't be a party to that stuff -- basically hooking people with unwise, expensive debt and then foisting the obligations off on others. Those chickens are all now coming home to roost, as we are seeing.

Our senior execs -- Lexus drivers, all -- laughed at our customers' ineptitude, and cracked wise about how "The Best Things In Life are FEE."

Of course, those who made a killing all these years will never miss a meal or have to return any of that fee loot. Sux.

At my local Smith's right down the street, I can rent pretty much anything I want to see for a buck. "Convenience" ain't worth a premium of $2.99 on top of that.

building bridges back to the 13th century. Huck, STFU.

from within the confines of a jail cell, you criminal puke.

My wife and I went to our precinct caucus here in Vegas. Most disorganized bunch of people I've ever seen.

I'm an independent, but will support whichever Dem gets the nomination. Really have my misgivings about Clinton.

Be interesting to see if Bloomberg gets in. That'd change everything.

STFU.

In plain English:

"Myriad politically cowardly others bought into our brazen war crimes bullshit, so that makes it OK."

If he wins the nomination, whitey here will vote for him. No problem.

http://www.bgladd.com/The_Disgracer_in_Chief.jpg

Buh-bye, you criminal scumbag, Benito Bootie Bandit Ghouliani. Now, go away and STFU.

is done. Stick a fork in him.

Nahnoo, nahnoo.

said on "Hardball" yesterday that "it's arrogance to assert that man can affect global warming. There's no science to support it."

I guess that settles that.

Nice, very nice. I just returned from Michigan, the U.P. to be precise, where my sister lives. Blogged a bit about the trip (click my signature).

A truly lovely area, if economically marginal. But, it's a region that Kennecott Mining is about to grind up in pursuit of copper and nickel, etc.

See www.savethewildUP.org

JOBS, dudes, all 2-300 of 'em (plus the argued 2x to 3x spin-off employment multiplier) for maybe 8 years or so, garnished with a relative pittance of residuals to the state.

BTW- guys hit the bars here in Vegas around 7 a.m., and roughly 5% of our residential housing stock is in foreclosure (highest rate in the nation) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography now predicts that Lake Mead may run dry within 13 years or so (MSNBC.com yesterday). So, problems abound everywhere on our national slide to the 3rd world.

Without gaming, this place would just be another Barstow, anyway, so, party on.

I've forwarded this article around. Great, funny stuff as usual from The Keillormeister.

"I respect him and the campaign that he has run. But there's going to come a time when we're going to have to get into specifics. I have not observed every speech he has given obviously, but they are singularly lacking in specifics..."

________

LOL!!!

"Look, Nick, Im not going to bullshit you. I don't know you, I don't know your work, but I think you are a very, very talented young man, and I'm never wrong about these thing..."

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF5qtoNC2l0

0:58 into the clip.

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently stated "I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles."

I would just ask everyone to reflect on the nationally envervating upshot of being patronizingly lorded over by an innumerate dilettante for the past 7+ years. While the genial Governor Huckabee appears to not be afflicted with Bush's grandiose, frequently petulant narcissism, I think we have all had quite enough of straining beneath the boots of shallowly charming messianic incompetence. The stakes for humanity have become far too high.

_____

LOL!

They called to say they were gonna run it, probably this weekend.

Mr. Rewrite-the-Constitution-To-Conform-To-God's-Law, STFU and go back to Arkansas. You will not get the VP nod.