UBS AG (UBS) intends to close its relationship with the Swiss government by purchasing its toxic assets back from the bad bank deal and hopes to turnaround by next year. With the recent rebound in the credit markets, the company believes that it could add back its assets to its balance sheets. However, this would not be possible before the second half of 2010. UBS AG is engaged in a fight with FINMA, Switzerland’s financial independent supervisory authority over its plan to opt out of the bad bank scheme. Under the bad bank scheme, the company incurs hefty charges for protecting against huge losses on toxic assets. However, FINMA has ruled out such possibilities in the midst of the current unstable market. Though the Swiss government sold its 9% stake in UBS last month, around $23.5 billion of UBS assets are there in the government’s bad bank....

ZEW says Germany is on the mend…  UK inflation remains higher than expected…  Safe Haven, what safe haven?  Housing data remains soft… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… And a Terrific Tuesday to you! Well… I received an injection of steroids into my left knee yesterday, and already today, I can tell that they are working their magic! I guess I’ll have to give up my plans to try out for the Cardinals next year, now! HA! So, my knee is recovering from 3-weeks of agonizing pain and swelling… I’ve got that going for me!

And the currencies seem to be recovering this morning too, from the recent go around in the ring with the risk aversion campers. The currencies (except yen), were last seen yesterday up against the rope, doing their best imitation of the rope-a-dope.

But… This morning… The markets are just giddy about two pieces of data from Europe… First, German Investor Confidence

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“Words from the Wise” this week comes to you in a shortened format as I do not have access to my normal research resources while on the road in Europe (also see my post “Gone A.W.O.L. - to Slovenia and Switzerland“). Although very little commentary is provided, a full dose of excerpts from interesting news items and quotes from market commentators is included.

While investors’ hopes of an economic recovery might have got ahead of reality, the cartoonists continually reminded us of worrisome issues …

Source: Signe Wilkinson, Washington Post,  June 18, 2009.

The past week’s performance of the major asset classes is summarized by the chart below - a mixed bag so to speak.

Source: StockCharts.com

A summary of

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Accountants are changing the rules governing most of the shadow banking system and almost no one is noticing. About 10 days ago the Financial Accounting Standards Board confirmed that by year end “securitization accounting” will be different and the changes are likely to have a bigger effect on financial institutions than mark to market accounting. The new accounting rules will make it much harder for financial institutions to count securitizations as “off balance sheet” transactions and will reconsolidate, i.e., put onto the balance sheet, a large number of transactions that are currently accounted for as off balance sheet.

When financial institutions securitize assets and elect off balance sheet accounting treatment they are pretending that neither their securitized assets nor their related secured debt exists. Like a deadbeat dad denying paternity, securitization accounting is designed to avoid admitting responsibility by securitization sponsors.

Most securitizations are a form of secured borrowing executed by

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"/spana href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SgiAR06lzrI/AAAAAAAAN1E/-NbHseEOV1Q/s1600-h/ecb+one.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334654802370875058" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 399px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 264px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SgiAR06lzrI/AAAAAAAAN1E/-NbHseEOV1Q/s400/ecb+one.png" border="0" //abr /br /blockquote“The 60 billion euros they announced is peanuts for an economy the size of the euro zone,” economics professor and former Bank of England policy maker Willem Buiter said at a conference in Dublin yesterday. “I expect they will announce more or that the recession in the euro zone will be longer and deeper than would otherwise be necessary. They have a record of being somewhat behind the curve.” /blockquoteblockquoteEuropean car sales dropped 12 percent in April.... Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s registrations dropped by almost one-third to 55,633 even as the German market expanded 19 percent, helped by the government’s 2,500 euro ($3,400) sales bonus .........Spain extended its auto-sales slump with a 46 percent plunge in registrations, the largest among the continent’s ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 29, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research picks Burger King (BKC) as Bull of the Day and Celanese Corp. (CE) as Bear of the Day. In addition, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research discuss the latest on AIG (AIG), Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678

Bull of the Day

In the midst of a turnaround, Burger King's (BKC) customer traffic is beginning to decline, as diners move to food prepared at home and to competitors value meals, some of which are more extensive than Burger King's. Though these increasing economic headwinds heighten the risk in the company's turnaround, we think the plan is still viable and the shares valuation is compelling, albeit with substantial risk.

Now back in positive unit growth mode after four years of negative or no growth, BKC

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Highlights include American International Group, Inc. (AIG), Citigroup, Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC).In a speech to the Economic Club of New York yesterday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair suggested that her agency was best suited to handle broad new powers being considered by the government to seize and restructure impaired, systemically important financial institutions before they threaten the broader system.Government bailouts of companies like AIG (AIG), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and others involving billions of taxpayer dollars have brought into focus the need to better handle the problem of "too big to fail" financial institutions. Regulatory reforms currently being considered include close supervisory oversight of risk-taking, risk management and the financial condition of such institutions.Regarding the mechanism for resolution, Ms. Bair suggested the "good bank-bad bank model," where viable ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 9, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Centennial Communications Corp. (CYCL), AT&T Inc. (T), Allied Irish Banks, plc (AIB), The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (IRE) and Denbury Resources, Inc. (DNR).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Wednesday's Analyst Blog:

Centennial Reports, Kept a Hold

We maintain our Hold rating for Centennial Communications Corp. (CYCL), a regional provider of wireless and integrated communications. The company's recent operational performance has been driven by solid

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Share prices at Allied Irish Banks, plc (AIB) and The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (IRE) have plummeted, dropping almost 16% in morning trading, following release of the Irish government's bank plan and ratings downgrades by Moody's.The Irish government announced the establishment of a "bad bank," under which the government will purchase EUR80-90 billion ($107- $120 billion) of impaired property loans from Irish banks in exchange for government bonds. Critics pointed out that this amount is equivalent to 50% of Ireland's GDP, with Prime Minister Lenihan admitting that it could be 10 years before the debt might be repaid.This is on top of the bank recapitalization plan, under which the Irish government is purchasing 25% stakes in Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of Ireland.In addition, Moody's downgraded the ratings of 12 Irish banks, including those of AIB ...

A plea to lawmakers…give liquidation a chance!

U.S. stockowners got a break yesterday…the Dow rose 236 points. News reports tell us that investors were listening to Ben Bernanke. He’s speaking to Congress…intending to boost investor confidence. But we can’t find anything in Bernanke’s remarks that would give us much confidence.

In fact, consumer confidence is at a record low. And investors couldn’t have taken much comfort from the Fed chief. Bernanke said the economy would start to grow again in 2010…and then, only if the banking system is stabilized. Of course, Bernanke is talking nonsense. He doesn’t know when the economy will begin to grow in earnest again, and if it does begin to grow it won’t be because the banking system is stabilized. You can stabilize a comatose person. You can stabilize a battlefield. You can stabilize a ladder. But stabilizing a crummy bank won’t help the economy grow. For that

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