My Favorite Business Resources
- Cheap Business Phone Service - Make phone calls anywhere for free or darn close to it.
- Cheap Printing - Always amazing deals on cheap printing with loads of free items.
- Manage Mobile Phone Costs - Great phone for controlling cell phone costs for business or teenagers.
- Really Good Web Hosting - As bullet proof as there is. A strong hosting provider with all the resources you need.

My Favorite Credit Resources
- Consolidate Your Debt - One monthly payment. Stop collection calls.
- Help Budgeting - Online and easy.
- Lower Your Car Payment - Refinance to reduce your monthly payment.
- Credit Report / Credit Score - This consolidated report is better than most.
- Credit Cards - Find the best card for you for low rates, balance transfer, credit rebuilding and rewards.

Nov

2007

“Sears Makes $269 Bid for Restoration Hardware”

Posted by Steve Rhode as Banking, Business Failures

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed right now, before you forget, to get the latest posts. Thanks for visiting!

This headline today made me laugh. Really, just $269? Surely there is more to the story and low and behold, the detailed story did had a million after it. For those that have been to a Restoration hardware store, I have always found them to be a nice place for a man browse.

Another Interesting Headline…

“HSBC First Bank to Bail Out Two Structured Investment Vehicles”

HSBC said yesterday that it will be forced to stump up $35 billion (Ã‚Â£17 billion) to finance its two structured investment vehicles (SIVs) as the bank disclosed it was pulling the two vehicles on to its own balance sheet to stave off a forced liquidation of the assets.

HSBC said that investors in Cullinan Finance Ltd and Asscher Finance Ltd Ã¢â‚¬â€œ which are both managed by HSBC Ã¢â‚¬â€œ would now be given the option to exchange their existing notes for paper issued by one or more new vehicles set up and funded by the bankÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s own balance sheet.

What is a Structured investment vehicle (SIV)?
Typically they are put together by commercial banks on behalf of clients such as hedge funds. Banks can also manage their own SIVs

What do they invest in?
They are usually opaque, investing in complex securities and often do not need to be displayed on a bankÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s balance sheet. SIVs are designed to make money out of the difference between short-term borrowing rates and longer-term returns from structured product investments or asset-backed securities, such as mortgages

Has the US sub-prime mortgage collapse had an impact?
Yes, a huge impact. The SIVs themselves have little exposure to the sub-prime market. There is no liquidity in the commercial paper market, which means that the SIVs can no longer borrow short-term cash and have been forced to sell off their longer-term assets

-----

If you enjoyed this post be sure to grab the RSS feed or get posts by email so you don't miss a bit of what's to come.

Steve