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POPS Sen. Reid Cries 'Bankruptcy' In Front Of Reporters The SEC has been issuing subpoenas for an investigation into rumor-driven market manipulation. Of course, Harry Reid stood up in broad daylight to talk about a troubled insurer "with a name that everyone knows," so his contribution was merely obtuse. And predictably destructive. The steep drop in the share prices of insurance companies Thursday destroyed wealth for uncounted middle-class investors holding onto stock in companies still considered healthy. It calls to mind *Senator Chuck Schumer's public suggestion in July that troubled IndyMac Bank "could face collapse." It did, after a deposit run. Senator Schumer said criticizing his action was akin to blaming "the fire on the guy who called 911." The nation's shareholders would sleep better at night if some Members of Congress enrolled in Arsonists Anonymous. The $4 Billion Senator* http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121607771017452513.html?mod=article-outset-box
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POPS Bailout Is Not The Right Answer
This subprime lending was more than a minor relaxation of existing credit guidelines. This lending was a wholesale abandonment of reasonable lending practices in which borrowers with poor credit characteristics got mortgages they were ill-equipped to handle. Once housing prices declined and economic conditions worsened, defaults and delinquencies soared, leaving the industry holding large amounts of severely depreciated mortgage assets. The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government. The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company. Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airline
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POPSSocialism Around the World So wait...A private company loaned money to the government. The government defaulted on loans. The private company failed because of all the failures so the government will pay the private company to keep it in business using the taxpayers money. It is positively cannibalistic.
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POPSNeed a Job? $17,000 an Hour. No Success Required. John Kenneth Galbraith, the great economist, once explained: “The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.”
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POPSWall Street Executives Scored $3 Billion as Banks Rose and Fell ......per employee, including an average bonus of $211,849. The five firms had combined net income of $93 billion during the five years through 2007. CEO Pay Doubled The $3.1 billion paid to the top five executives at the firms between 2003 and 2007 was about three times what JPMorgan spent to buy Bear Stearns. Goldman Sachs had the highest total, with $859 million, followed by Bear Stearns at $609 million. CEO pay at the five firms increased each year, doubling to $253 million in 2007, according to data compiled from company filings. Corporate Governance Rather than government regulation, the solution is in better corporate governance, Elson said. Companies should negotiate more aggressively with executives and should establish rules that encourage shareholders to protest excessive pay. The rescue package is not the place to have that debate, he said.
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POPSJPMorgan Buys WaMu Deposits; Regulators Seize Thrift David Bonderman's TPG Inc., which led a $7 billion capital infusion for WaMu earlier this year, lost most of its initial $2 billion investment. TPG, based in Forth Worth, Texas, said in a statement yesterday it was ``dissatisfied with the loss'' and that the WaMu investment was a ``small part of assets.'' New York-based JPMorgan, which separately announced plans to raise $8 billion by selling common stock, had its outlook lowered to negative by Moody's Investors Service. Moody's left its Aa2 rating on JPMorgan unchanged. JPMorgan won't acquire WaMu's liabilities, including claims by shareholders and subordinated and senior debt holders, the FDIC said. JPMorgan paid $10 a share for Bear Stearns in March as the New York-based securities firm teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. ``Having worked with Kerry Killinger for 10 years, I still absolutely cannot fathom where or why he went wrong, and what caused him to lead the company into taking the kinds of risks that they did.''
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POPSWashington Mutual Succumbs It's the largest bank failure in US history. Will this bank failure provide the impetus for Congress to overcome its impasse over the bailout package? Or will Congress keep a cool head and not settle for a trillion dollar hasty plan?
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POPSSteve Jobs - 61st out of the 400 Riches Americans Quote: Jobs dismisses health worries, but shareholders fret his pancreatic cancer has returned after gaunt pictures of the King of the iGeeks surfaced in June. Stock up more than 100% between January 2007 and January 2008; now down 16% as the market reacts to health concerns. Launched new iPhone 3G in July. Sleeker, faster gadget sells for $300, half the price of the original; sold one million units on first weekend. Original iPhone took 74 days to reach millionth sale. Founded Apple in garage. Created Macintosh 1976, fired 9 years later after power struggle with chief exec John Sculley. Bought Pixar for $10 million, transformed firm into animation darling with hits Toy Story, Finding Nemo. Sold to Disney 2006 for 7.3% stake in the company—now worth $4.3 billion. Returned to Apple 1996. A third of Apple's $24 billion annual revenues are from iPod. Tweaked iterations introduced last month.
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POPSVery Corrupt Administration at Work We broke away from Britain for less in 1776. Read the Declaration of Independence and review the list of "repeated injuries and usurpations." Together they don't add up to this.
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POPSIcahn Responds To Cornelius What's amazing about ImClone's press release is the way it encourages looking at the personalities of the two dealmakers-- ImClone chairman Carl Icahn and Bristol chief Jim Cornelius -- over and above the two companies that are actually involved in the merger deal.
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POPSMcCain Does what he does best when cornered: Plays Dumb It never seems to fail. Play dumb at the time of a question he really doesn't have any idea of an answer. The next day comes up with a different answer after a dozen or so of his hired lobbyist crew give their side of what they want to be said.
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POPSThe True Cost of Rewarding Greedy Bankers Note the names of some of these great institutions that rewarded greed. Note the immediate cost to UK taxpayers. I would be interested to see figures relating to the taxes of US citizens' tax bills compares. (Oh, meanwhile, Barclays in London have just guaranteed 2.5 billion dollars in bonuses and salaries to a firm called Lehmans that they just bought a bit of.)
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POPSFreddie Mac Maria Bartiromo interview in BusinessWeek. i own 113 shares of Freddie Mac, the first of which were bot at $60!
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POPSEthanol Plant Management Services BioCnergy Europa B.V. is a leading global provider of bioethanol plant designing, processing, & manufacturing services in Europe, Russia, & Ukraine. BioCnergy offers ethanol and biodiesel plants based on variety of raw materials.
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POPSPressure is on For Satellite Image Company We profiled GeoEye, and presented a bullish case for its shares, just over a year ago. http://www.forbes.com/businessinthebeltway/2007/07/25/washington-congress-geoeye-biz-wash-cz_0725beltway.html The stock has gained 12% since our story, versus a 16% drop for the S&P 500. It will be interesting to see what happens after the launch. Odds are it will succeed, but if not, shareholders could get wiped out.
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POPSHousing Crisis is Far From Over It's not just a house, it's a home. Perhaps some are thinking it is just an investment into stone and concrete. Perhaps people got into thinking it was a " Piece of the Action ". And who exactly is the Middle Class? There are still people out there that are barely making $ 20.000.00 for a family of four and they too consider themselves part of "The Middle Class". Deception and self-deception all the way. Consumer society gone hay wired.
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POPSEA Pulls Out Of Take-Two Bid EA is a giant, but they lack the creative spark that Take-Two possesses. If they're not going to buy the company, they better come up with some new ideas of their own, and fast.
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