RMBS

(FINANCE) real estate mortgage backed securities; usually used to refer to the derivatives created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were used to create collateralized debt obligations CDO's.

Most economists seem to agree that the 2008 crisis was caused by the collapse of the real estate market, which was mainly caused by the toxic relationship between RMBS's and the CDO's created mostly with them.
For almost eighty years the RMBS business helped people buy homes, with few serious problems. Then Congress abolished Glass-Steagall, the banks merged and created CDO's, and total disaster followed.

And now our neighborhoods look awful as well.
by Abu Yahya April 05, 2010
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short selling

(FINANCE) borrowing securities for immediate sale, in anticipation of a sharp decline. Short selling requires strong nerves and excellent market timing; it also requires the ability to locate tranches of securities to borrow. If the short seller is correct, then she can buy back the securities at a much lower price, and lock in very high profits with very little initial investment.

Closely related to the concept of a short position. However, a short position includes buying put options (for example), while a long position could include short selling put options. So they are not exactly the same.

If a short sellers are wrong about the market, they are left hastily covering shorts, or buying the item they borrowed at a HIGHER price than they sold it for.
Jim Fisk was a master of the short squeeze; he appeared to cooperate with short selling until he was able to call in loans, forcing his counterparties to cover their shorts.
by Abu Yahya September 02, 2010
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AEI

(acronym) American Enterprise Institute; an extremely powerful thinktank associated with the Conservative Movement.
The AEI is extremely well-connected, and much favored by business interests.
by Abu Yahya May 29, 2009
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dividends

(FINANCE) a quarterly payment that companies make to owners of their stock. In theory, the source of the company's stock's intrinsic value.

A company's dividends are usually chosen to be as regular as possible; they can be considerably lower than the company's quarterly earnings, provided the company is growing in value. They are important, because they are the direct motivation to buy the stock.
The earnings from stock consist of capital gains and dividends.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
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The Shock Doctrine

(1) The strategy by the world's economic elites of imposing an extremely neoliberal economic regime on communities they control, using some form of shock: a natural disaster, a coup d'etat, a war, a financial crisis, etc. Once the community has been crippled by this first shock, the economic "reforms" are imposed suddenly, creating a secondary blow. Then, as the community begins to recover and fight back, the authorities use torture and police brutality to (literally) shock the community a third time.

(2) title of a book by Naomi Klein describing def. 1

(Please see disaster capitalism.)
Ms. Klein's 2007 book described the rise of disaster capitalism in mostly poor countries: Chile (after 1973), Argentina (after 1989), Poland (after 1993), and Sri Lanka (after 2004). But in 2009, the super rich were able to inflict the shock doctrine on the richest countries of the world, including Germany, France, and Italy.

The 2008 financial crisis was entirely a product of the richest 1% of the human race; but soon after, national governments scrambled to punish the remaining 99% for the crisis instead, by slashing public services and imposing austerity programs.
by Abu Yahya July 10, 2010
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Talleyranding

(VERB) to ignore the fact that a particular action was a crime, and focus instead on possible problems it may cause for the perpetrator. Named for Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838), who famously remarked of Napoleon's murder of the Duc d'Enghein, "It was worse than a crime... It was a blunder."

Sometimes this is misspelled "tallyranding." It's not certain that Talleyrand ever said it; it was probably attributed by his many enemies.

WHY IT'S BAD
In March 1804, when Napoleon Bonaparte was consul of the French Republic, he became aware of the fact that a leader of the royalist opposition was hiding out across the border of France. Napoleon had him kidnapped, brought back to Strasbourg, "tried," and put to death. The unfortunate young man was never accused of doing anything illegal; he had not violated the laws of the French Republic because he was not in France, and when he had been, he was serving the previous government.

Whoever actually said "...worse than a crime...a blunder" was ignoring the fact that it was a crime to murder an innocent person, and focusing instead on the fact that it was DUMB. In some cases, such as this one, it's a reasonable thing to do; but if it becomes a habit then moral judgment is deliberately suspended.

It's the asshole's substitute for moral fiber.
There is altogether too much Talleyranding going on. This wasn’t a blunder; it was a crime.

(Taken from the comments of Jim Henley's blog, *Unqualified Offerings*, "I Already Shot You"--May 31, 2010)
by Abu Yahya June 03, 2010
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counterparty

(FINANCE) for a financial instrument, the person/institution who takes the opposite position. For example, in a credit default swap (CDS), the buyer is someone who needs insurance against the possibility that a borrower will default on a loan. In that case, the counterparty is whoever receives the CDS premiums, and pays out in the event of default.
The purpose of financial options is to minimize risk to the buyer; therefore, it creates potentially lucrative opportunities for the counterparty, because the counterparty takes on so much risk.
by Abu Yahya April 05, 2010
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