In all fairness, MF Global was already in dire straits when Jon Corzine arrived and the firm desperately needed new cash flow.
Where Jon went wrong, terribly wrong, was in buying huge amounts of government debt from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and Ireland. Who in their right mind would invest there?
He then took out loans to buy these bonds.
Incurring debt to buy more debt does not make sense and then to invest in Europe now is insane, but he thought his gamble would pay off.
The interest on the loans was less than the yield on the bonds so on paper he was making substantial sums of money.
$47 million in one quarter and $38 million in an another.
Unfortunately, the whole scheme was a precarious house of cards built on shifting sand and only waiting for a gust of wind.
Originally Posted by Fast Gunn
Hey, someone had to buy them. That's normal investors risk. All those bond auctions sold completely so obviously there was enough appetite for them.
And there still is, they have auctions every few days.
I don't know enough of this case to know where he went wrong but it is not just the buying of those bonds. There is insurance for default.
If I was into the bond market, I would buy them for sure. As long as the interest payments are higher than the borrowing interest + the insurance for defaulting (Credit Default Swaps or CDS) it is worth doing it.
The problems in those bonds are not the investors, the problem is the countries that cannot survive with interest payments above 7%.