So much that was disturbing about the news last week. Social media was abuzz with opinions flying on both sides. Twitter was filled with long-submerged memories of crazy times hanging out at…everyone’s favorite orange-and-red java shops. We’re referring, of course, to the decision by Dunkin’ Donuts to drop “Donuts” from the brand name. In today’s…
Right on cue, with the tenth anniversary of Lehman’s collapse only now in our rear view mirrors, a mega-leveraged cross-border buyout “reminiscent” of 2007 hit the credit markets. At $17 billion, Blackstone’s purchase of a 55% share of Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters’ Risk and Markets business, represented one of the largest bank and bond deals since…
Deep inside a cave some 200 miles east of Cape Town, South Africa, archeologists uncovered ancient markings that represent the earliest evidence of human drawing. The hashtag precurser – six parallel lines criss-crossed by three diagonals – was etched by a prehistoric artist over 73,000 years ago with a red ochre crayon on a small…
“With Lehman filing for bankruptcy, Merrill falling into the arms of B of A, and AIG scrambling to announce a restructuring plan, investors had their hands full to start this week. The Dow dropped 500 points as the Fed refused any Bear-type rescues. Now it may be morale hazard.” – On The Left, September 15, 2008….
News reached us on North Carolina’s Outer Banks of an unusual find in an Egyptian tomb. Archeologists discovered a “mysterious white substance” in pots from the burial site of Ptahmes, a 13th century B.C. official. Chemical analysis proved it was cheese. Past Egyptologists have made similar findings. In 1942 one team reported something dating back…
For those of us with liberal arts degrees, the topic can be a sensitive one. We’re talking about those published surveys showing the best-and-worst paying college majors. Inevitably, engineers rule, and this year is no exception. According to a chart courtesy our friends at the Daily Shot [link], six of the top ten best paying…
The San Antonio Aquarium was the site last week of an unusual heist. A horn shark was swiped from a petting pool by two men and a woman posing as employees of a marine salt supplier. They made off with the foot-and-a half long fish in a baby stroller. Police recovered the shark, named Miss…
To the best of our knowledge, the village of Innaarsuit, Greenland (pop. 169) is not on any “Best Summer Vacation” lists. Being in the Arctic Circle, it’s cold and dark most of the year. Not much exciting going on. But that has changed in a dramatic fashion. Last month an iceberg weighing 11 million tons…
Despite continued strong deal flow this month, conditions in the leveraged loan market remain constructive for issuers. Yes, there’s been push-back on specific transactions, as we’ve been highlighting. But cash keeps flowing into retail funds and new CLOs keep ramping. That’s providing more fuel to the broadly syndicated financings fire. The middle market is also…
Every now and then stuff happens in leveraged lending that reassures us things we’ve learned about the market are actually true. Such was the case last Friday when a big bank credit trading desk noted unusual data on retail loan fund flows. Weekly outflows of $3.5 billion had been reported. That would have been a…