This article showcases the high quality lending that banks are doing currently.  Improved underwriting and more disciplined pricing are the results of the consolidation that the industry has undergone.  While these are fairly normal characteristics for the recovery period in the credit cycle, markets aren’t giving the banks any credit for their solid financial strength....Read More

Banco Santander (SAN.MC) is in the process of monetizing some of their international assets to meet Basel III requirements, which seems to include looking at an IPO of their Mexican operations.  It will be interesting to see how much they sell, and at what multiple to earnings and book value the stock will be valued...Read More

Citigroup’s strong 1st quarter seems to have changed the tune of Meredith Whitney slightly as she changed her rating to “hold” from “underperform.”  Last month she was saying that Citigroup had no earnings power which is laughable if you have even the most juvenile ability to read financial statements.  Perhaps when Citigroup is at $50...Read More

http://seekingalpha.com/article/501541-citigroup-s-undervaluation-is-obvious-and-it-s-time-to-act INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS INVOLVES RISKS. OPTIONS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS.Read More

Jamie Dimon the CEO of JP Morgan Chase came out with his shareholder letter today.  I always enjoy reading it as Dimon is honest, insightful, and outspoken.  He touches on a variety of subjects but I found most interesting his belief in buying his stock, and his rationale for doing so which I completely agree...Read More

Two stocks that we at T&T Capital Management (TTCM) think are likely to be big winners over the next 3-5 years are Citgiroup (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS).  This article talks about the possibility that Morgan Stanley will accelerate the purchase of the remaining portion of Smith Barney that Citigroup owns.  This deal which was...Read More

Citigroup locked in profits by selling a small stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.  This is significant due to the fact that Citigroup is continuing to improve their capital position by shedding non-core assets.  Due to the substantial losses Citigroup has incurred during the financial crisis, increasing profitability both increases capital through retained earnings, but also...Read More

Australia’s housing market has been a huge beneficiary of China’s natural resource thirst.  Extremely low unemployment and rising incomes have helped to boost prices dramatically, while most of the developed economies were seeing huge housing deflation.  Debt to income in Australia is around 150% so any slow down in China (which we already see happening)...Read More

Today we had some big news with the Federal Reserve announcing the results of the dramatic stress tests.  As a whole the US banking industry did quite well, which is to be expected considering they have double the capital that they had three years ago. I was somewhat surprised to see Citigroup, which has one...Read More

With 2011 coming to a close I think it is very important to lay out our views going into 2012, and how that will affect our investment strategies.  2011 was a very difficult year that saw some of the most successful investors Warren Buffett, Bill Gross, Bruce Berkowitz, John Paulson, Martin Whitman, among many others...Read More