There’s a real dearth of news and informed commentary today!<\/p>\n
The US had a bad jobs number<\/a> today, but that’s about it.<\/p>\n Otherwise, the only thing I saw today of even passing interest was Springfield, Massachusetts, getting angry at Merrill<\/a> because some sub-prime linked CDOs that they bought have gone down in price. According to Steven Syre of the Boston Globe<\/a>:<\/p>\n City officials say Merrill Lynch, an active player in the municipal finance business, sold them securities that cities in Massachusetts aren’t legally allowed to own for reasons of safety and liquidity. What the broker actually disclosed about the nature of those investments at the time of the sale remains murky.<\/p>\n “We take very seriously the financial cost and the breach of public interest,” said Chris Gabrielli, the chairman of Springfield’s Finance Control Board <\/strong>and former gubernatorial candidate. “Our view is that Merrill Lynch has responsibility here and is accountable. We shouldn’t have to settle for less than getting the money back.”<\/p>\n A Merrill spokesman said Springfield officials had sought AAA-rated securities offering higher returns than they had been getting. “These investments met both those criteria, and each was reviewed, approved, and authorized by Springfield officials.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Who knows? It is possible, I suppose, that Merrill misrepresented the investment. I consider it far more likely that a few snivel-servants with Springfield were just thrilled to pieces about being big-shot hard-nosed investment geniuses, until they got to the “taking responsibility” part. We’ll see!<\/p>\n An excruciatingly slow day on the preferred share market, but performance continued to be good.<\/p>\n\n