October 17, 2008

Repo Man

Anyone remember Emilio Estevez in Repo Man.

Here's a little tidbit that most of us never hear about: Continued loosening in the financing arena with JPM the cited party that opened up the 3 month term repo window earlier. Repo is shorthand for Repurchase Agreement. It's a lending facility or a short-term note whereby a bank or a corporation sells equities for cash with an agreement to repurchase those equities at a later date. It's essentially a collateralized loan, in this case for 3 months. This is good news for the market. An article in the New York Times this morning pointed out that even though the big banks had received all this cash, billions and billions, from the government, they were not lending it out. The money needs to get into the system in order for our economy to function and this is a first step. This news may be pushing the market higher.

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