We know the Girl Scout cookies are in there, Richmond

I'm starting to sympathize for Richmond Fed and it's not because I have a huge gaping soft spot for their president. The trouble with Bernaulson and Fedgate is all but over now that Hank Paulson admitted to the alleged threats, Congress got to ream him over TARP and everyone is happy. But Bank of America is still in trouble, making it the Citigroup of the 5th District. Poor Richmond. Don't cry, Jr Deputy Accountant is rooting for Bank of America to pull it off. Sadly, it is our humble opinion that BAC's $77,874,726,000,000 in derivative exposure may become a tad bothersome as commercial real estate continues to unravel and consumer credit defaults rise. Bank of America comes 2nd only to JP Morgan in exposure, just a few trillion above Goldman Sachs. That's got to be a hard sandwich to find yourself the meat in, BofA.

Worse, Richmond doesn't perform well in the Fed's Beige Book released today (AP) though compared to other districts, unemployment is low and manufacturing is looking up:

Retail sales dipped, big-ticket sales "languished" and sales of U.S.-made cars stayed in the "doldrums," while foreign-made autos fared better. Tourism was mixed. Manufacturing activity strengthened. Demand was stronger for clothing, chemicals, food, printing, publishing, rubber and plastics. A chemical maker in South Carolina reported growth in orders from China, India and other East Asian markets.

Housing activity was mixed. Real-estate agents in Fairfax, Va., described the heart of the local market as "hot," with houses in $400,000-to-$1.2 million range selling fastest. Agents in Washington, D.C., made similar observations. But agents in North Carolina's Greensboro and Asheville reported sluggish sales. Commercial real-estate activity weakened.

The unemployment rate for the metro area of Washington-Arlington-Alexandia rose to 6.6 percent in June, from 6.2 percent in May.

Some are even saying that the recession is over in Richmond, though that might be getting a tad ahead of ourselves. When the last critical components catch up and fall apart accordingly, you may then call the all clear to come out of the bunker (I heard the Richmond bunker has a massive stash of Girl Scout Cookies, though this has not been confirmed by my sources. Fucking Girl Scouts don't return phone calls.) but until then, you know where to find me.

iStockAnalyst:

In July, the seasonally adjusted manufacturing index — our broadest measure of manufacturing activity — jumped to 14 from June's reading of 6. Among the index's components, shipments leaped 14 points to 16, new orders rose eight points to finish at 24, and the jobs index edged up one point to end at -5.

Other indicators also suggested mostly stronger activity. The orders backlogs index eased four points to 4, while the measure for delivery times edged up two points to 2. The capacity utilization index doubled, adding seven points to 14, while our gauges for inventories grew at a considerably slower pace. The finished goods inventory index retreated 14 points to 26, and the raw materials inventory index moved down 10 points to 8.

MP: The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index has increased for five straight months (March-July), the first five-consecutive monthly increase in the index's history (back to 1994). Further, the Manufacturing Index has increased by 69 points from the December 2008 low reading of -55 to 14 points in July, suggesting that the recession has ended in the Richmond Fed region (MD, VA, WV, NC, SC and DC).

Richmond's latest Manufacturing Index

Oh, and just in case all of this isn't enough for Richmond to have to chew on, it has also pissed off LandAmerica creditors for its choices in staff:

The former top lawyer at LandAmerica has taken a job as a vice president and general counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, upsetting some of the creditors owed money by her bankrupt former employer.

Michelle Gluck, who formerly managed 125 lawyers at LandAmerica’s Richmond office and has also worked at Kmart, Best Products and the Sports Authority (two of which also filed bankruptcy), will take over from James McAfee, who retired in May.

Gluck started working for LandAmerica in 2004. (You can see her company bio here.)

Several of LandAmerica 1031 Exchange’s former customers are owed hundreds of thousands each for money they thought was held in trust and intended for future property transactions. Instead, they say, their money went to pay previous exchange clients, whose money was invested in auction rate securities that lost their value when the auction market collapsed.

“We think it’s ludicrous,” said Paul Bosse, a Realtor in California whose wife is an exchanger. “She is being hired by a governmental agency for a position of trust, but she shouldn’t be until her knowledge of or involvement in Ponzi scheme is investigated by the proper authority.”

(source)

For the record, Jr Deputy Accountant will be sending this article to Mr Bosse in the hopes that he will realize that Richmond Fed is, in fact, an organization, not a government agency. If anything, the Fed Board of Governors is far closer to a governmental agency than Richmond could ever hope to be. Should you care to discuss how this works further (it might help with your rage against their new hire), I am available at the e-mail address to your right -----> Additionally, I would love to explain why her (alleged) involvement in (or knowledge of) some kind of Ponzi scheme would make her a perfect candidate for the Fed. Should you need more information than that, I would be happy to put you in touch with Eliot Spitzer. xoxo Jr

Richmond's Lacker guessed recently that the recession will end later this year. And we will still pay $15,000 if he'll crack SF Fed's Yellen upside the head at the next FOMC meeting. Pleeeeease?

[Update: we tried Googling Mr Bosse but he was nowhere to be found, or maybe there were too many of them. Hopefully he practices safe Internets practices and routinely Googles himself - it's good for you]

[Update update: we now know why we couldn't find Mr Bosse... because it is Busse. Good job, Richmond BizSense, thanks for making our job that much harder. Thankfully for us, Mr Busse is on top of it. Thanks, PB!]