Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
AP – The head of the government agency that packages federally backed mortgages into investments is stepping down for a new job, people familiar with his plans said.
Joseph Murin, president of the Government National Mortgage Association, known as Ginnie Mae, is leaving his job this week after 13 months. The people declined to be identified because his departure was not yet official, and would not say where Murin is going to work next.
Ginnie Mae sold more than $200 billion in mortgage securities in the first six months of 2009, double last year’s level.
We recently learned of two major hedge fund transactions that we thought were worth highlighting here on the blog. Firstly, John Paulson is at it yet again. The prominent hedge fund manager has been in the media a lot recently given all the portfolio moves he has made. His latest move includes purchasing distressed mortgage securities.
Paulson & Co
This isn’t necessarily new news from the Paulson camp, as he had mentioned before that he had been covering some of his mortgage-related short positions and was getting constructive on the sector. He thinks that there is now possibly some value in the type of assets he was previously short. The major distinction though is that he was short sub-prime securitizations previously, but now is getting long jumbo and prime securitizations, which are typically of better quality. So, it appears he is getting constructive on a sector that he made so much money on the short side the last few years.
Reuters India – SkyBridge Capital, a firm that provides money for early-stage hedge funds, on Friday said it invested $50 million (33 million pounds) in WyeTree Asset Management Ltd, a London-based fund focused on distressed mortgage securities.
WyeTree seeks out distressed residential mortgage assets that may be oversold for technical reasons, SkyBridge said. WyeTree is currently investing in U.S. subprime mortgages, but in time will also seek assets in other markets.
Given the string of problems created by hedge funds, derivatives, investment funds, insurance companies, pension funds, mortgage securities and hairy bank loans over these few years, it is becoming increasingly apparent that high flying investment managers and financial whiz kids are not as great as they seem in spite of their insistence in paying themselves billion dollar bonuses.
As if these were not enough, Gordon Brown the architect of the British economic miracle of the Blair years is now thinking of printing money – ₤150 billion worth. This sort of makes him roughly equivalent in competence to the whole Japanese Occupation Government in Malaya from 1942 – 1945.
