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“Lee Munson is quoted in the article “Mortgage Servicer Role May Weigh on Banks” for thestreet.com”

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“Lee Munson is quoted in the article “Hedge Funds Find Arb Opportunity in SPACs” for thestreet.com”

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Lee Eugene Munson comments on mark-to-market accounting. Published on Seeking Alpha
Yesterday the house Financial Services Subcommittee run by Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA) discussed mark-to-market accounting.

Why do you care? Some misguided wicks out there (i.e. Warren Buffett and Steve Forbes) have asked for the M2M (yes, we have a silly text friendly symbol for mark-to-market now, twitters rejoice!) to be banned. On one hand I say yes, but only if it applies to me as well. It would allow me to ask my clients to stop using their current portfolio balances and simply use the balances from 2007. This would make me look spectacular, my referrals would shoot though the roof, and nobody would call concerned about the future of their retirement. The problem with this is that it is a fraud. People seeking to ban the M2M rule are asking the investing public to support the next great Ponzi scheme. The only difference in this scenario is that trades are placed and the money is invested in bank debt.
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Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts present an economic outlook. Published on Seeking Alpha

Thomas Lee, US Equity Strategy at JPMorgan, generated some buzz in the past few days when he noticed that the twelve-year-low reached by the Dow last week had only happened two other times in history. The others occurred on April 3, 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, and on December 6, 1974, after the first oil crisis. We now know that recovery in the market was soon to follow, and that the respective recessions ended four to nine months after, although unemployment had yet to peak. In both cases, the market popped and drew in the crowds. Is it really different this time, or is recovery right around the corner?
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Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts analyze Ford Convertible Preferred Stock. Published on Seeking Alpha

Last fall Portfolio Asset Management discussed the merits of the 6.50% Cumulative Convertible Trust Preferred Security (F-PS). This trust was also known as Ford Motor Company Capital Trust II. The idea was simple, get paid while you wait for Ford to do nothing but keep on trucking. Well, last week we found that like the homeowners that bought too much house and asked the banks to lower their mortgage rate, Ford (F) just can’t pay for their preferreds.
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Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup. Published on Seeking Alpha

We recently published a report entitled Citigroup: Too Big to Fail or Succeed. It turns out that nothing has changed. Now that we have news of the Smith Barney merger with Morgan Stanley (MS), more information is coming out about how bad it is. More importantly, we want to know if the preferred stock we have been trading, C-P, will be able to stay afloat. We will know more details today on the downsizing program.
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Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup Preferred stock. Published on Seeking Alpha

As active conservative money managers, we at Portfolio Asset Management sought a way to capture appreciation from devastated financial stocks and yet have an increased chance of dependable high yields. With a focus on cash flow, an outgrowth of the demographics of our core retired investor, we began buying financial preferred stock this summer.

The common stock of large financial firms dropped dramatically in 2008. The environment of deleveraging and uncertain future earnings, not to mention the continuing risk of bank failure, tempers the allure of buying into this market plunge. Swapping common stock for debt that trades on an exchange with a daily quote versus the problematic bond pricing systems, makes financial preferred stocks a viable alternative-but not just any preferreds.
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