Words from the (investment) wise for the week that was (November 24 – 30, 2008)

The holiday-shortened Thanksgiving week brought investors an additional item to be thankful for when stock markets closed higher for five ... reports were cast aside by equity bulls, arguing that the bad news had already been priced in. However ... investment and $306 billion in asset guarantees. With credit markets still not thawing after [more...]

Date: 2008-11-30 07:45:19

Blog posts (267) | Videos (218)
 

Fixing the Unemployment Outlook

by The Mogambo Guru Mish Shedlock at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com has looked at the latest Z1 Flow of Funds report, and found that "$7 ... of 2008, is also as bad as it looks, then "roughly $10 Trillion in household wealth ... !), PLUS give me a tax credit (which is cash in my pocket!) for, oh, say, 10% of what I spent, as a sort [more...]

Date: 2009-01-02 20:04:08

Lehman Brothers Expected to Pull Through

Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US investment bank, is at the centre of a storm of bad news stories ... late.” Colleague Dan Amoss, over at Strategic Short Report, has pinpointed the next Bear Stearns – and warns that there is another credit crisis ready to jam the pipeline. “Right now,” he tells us, “ [more...]

Date: 2008-06-06 11:20:41

Car, RIP: Now for Argentine Automaker Bailouts

Reading today's headlines, you cannot help but think that the days of the internal combustion engine-powered automobile are numbered ... of bad news for the global auto industry get you down. It appears that even LDCs are getting ... on a plan to provide consumer credit to finance the purchase of locally made cars. Reuters reports [more...]

Date: 2008-12-07 13:55:00

MortgageNewsClips: Spreadsheet Resource, Realtors Beware, Credit Cards, Lou Ranieri, Securitization Primer, Popular Sells, Asymmetric Risk, Damage Report, Disparity, NY Mortgages, Freddie Automates, 3 more News Clips

RESOURCE: has list of sites offering free spreadsheets - Spreadsheets: Free to Learn - No-cost tutorials, instruction, ... Ross - Inman News ———— BusinessWeek_logo Credit-Card Rage - Debt-strapped consumers vent ... -old concept of securitization a bad name, IMF Economist Andreas Jobst writes. Securitization [more...]

Date: 2008-09-02 10:37:39

Underrated: Cash

I don't understand why cash has become such a bad thing ... not a total old curmudgeon, I do have a credit card. I know how handy it can be, especially ... credit card, I no longer have to spend time saving receipts or filling out expense reports. Just swipe [more...]

Date: 2008-12-09 20:50:05

Treasury Opens Vault; Gangs of Robbers Rush In

Treasury Opens Vault; Gangs of Robbers Rush In   By Robert Higgs at The Independent Institute As the fierce lobbying and politicking proceed on ... banks, ostensibly to relieve the so-called credit crunch. Other plutocrats resented being left ... . As the New York Times reports today, “nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad [more...]

Date: 2008-09-23 01:55:27

How Will Print Media's Financial Problems Affect Its Coverage?

The question that is this post's title occurred to me as I read through this report earlier today by Seth Sutel of the Associated Press ... for an industry awash in bad news, the newspaper business went through one of its most severe ... credit analyst for Standard & Poor's) said: "I have doubts banks will be as willing as they were [more...]

Date: 2008-06-30 01:46:06

Coming Soon: Hollywood Analysts Predict 2009 the Year of the Wall Street Villain at the Box Office

Get your popcorn ready - that is if you like seeing the rich portrayed as bad guys and getting punished for their indiscretions ... , that's what's in store for movie fans in the upcoming year. On the Dec. 29 "CNBC Reports," Wolff told CNBC Business ... is about the International Bank of Credit or something like this," Boorstin said. "And it's coming out [more...]

Date: 2008-12-30 17:25:56

It’s Only Money

Harley-Davidson Inc. (ticker symbol HOG) is cashless in Milwaukee.The BizTimes Daily reports Harley-Davidson Warehouse Funding Corp. and Harley-Davidson Credit Corp. subsidiaries’ received $500 million last week in a loan advance ... in dividends. Harley-Davidson Financial Services Inc. (HDFS) continues to carry some significant bad debt [more...]

Date: 2008-12-19 19:56:43

B of A reports loss, gets more cash

by Rolfe Winkler, CFA The TARP was phase 1 of the bank bailout: give the banks cash to rebuild their capital ... 1: the government is absorbing losses on bad assets themselves.  See Citi’s bailout in late November ... for credit-losses nearly tripled, while the company showed why it needed further help from the government [more...]

Date: 2009-01-16 15:09:12

Mixed Reactions to Cheaper Gas

As I reported last week, it’s still unclear what consumers may do now that oil and gasoline prices have plummeted. A bit of news from TradingMarkets ... since 1942. While this is bad news for car companies and dealers, it’s certainly boosts ... to get credit, and they have other financial priorities right now. … What we’re seeing is that lower [more...]

Date: 2008-10-29 23:28:00

State of the Stimulus Report

In the spirit of scrambling to keep tabs on federal attempts to grease our economic machine, ... to buy debt from ten issuers. Money market funds are chock-full of bad assets. The Fed’s move ... of what we know only as the “credit crunch” every time it takes a step forward. Thoughts: -Trickle-down [more...]

Date: 2008-10-21 18:15:10

Big Victory in Fight Against Spam: Major Spam Host Axed

The Washington Post is reporting that a US host allegedly responsible for a whopping 75% of the junk email sent out globally on on a daily basis has ... porn, and a Trojan horse operation that apparently swiped banking and credit card information ... . In addition to controlling spam-producing botnets, MyColo’s bad practices extended to other illegal [more...]

Date: 2008-11-12 18:42:03

Consumer Reports Retirement Survey: Planning Ahead May Be Just As Risky As Rewarding

February issue offers 17 moves to rebuild the nest egg and secure the future In the wake of big investment losses many have turned to Plan B to ... their credit card use and spent less on groceries and household goods. “When bad investments happen to good people, they have to work harder to slash debt, cut spending and save more. Switching to Plan [more...]

Date: 2009-01-06 12:09:04

22 States Face Tax Shortfalls, Frugality To Hit State Budgets

The Los Angeles Times is reporting States face new budget shortfalls ... 1, has proven to be even lower."States have been confronted with bad economic circumstances in the past ... layoffs are cutting into payroll taxes. The credit crisis and housing slump are affecting taxes levied [more...]

Date: 2008-10-20 10:20:00

Bad News for Adelson

Bad News for Adelson Written by themiddle A number of newspapers, such as the LA Times, are reporting that his company, Las Vegas Sands, appears to be caught up in the marketplace’s credit crunch and may default on repayment of some very large loans. Apparently his projects in Asia are in jeopardy and there is a possibility [more...]

Date: 2008-11-09 09:28:21

Housing in O.C. beach towns slumps, sales off 28%

Analysis of MDA DataQuick’s November report shows the county’s beach-close communities are clearly being challenged by a credit crunch and a ... rents? 30-year mortgage at 37-year low CA banks drop protection against bad loans Mortgage aid scheme a failure Bad house, car debts mount in O.C. [more...]

Date: 2008-12-22 08:24:51

Emerging Market Trends Report Bearish On Real Estate

Emergingtrends2009 After reading most financial reports put out by think tanks over the past few years they tended to temper bad news with some ... was that leverage is gone from real estate for a while, cash is king. If you are selling to buyers that have cash you should do okay. And I am not talking all cash deals, it is more so good credit and [more...]

Date: 2008-10-22 14:09:48

How Will Print Media’s Financial Problems Affect Its Coverage?

The question that is this post’s title occurred to me as I read through this report earlier today by Seth Sutel of the Associated Press ... for an industry awash in bad news, the newspaper business went through one of its most severe ... troublesome: Given the current poor climate for the business, (Emile Courtney, a media industry credit [more...]

Date: 2008-06-30 01:59:32

Economic Confidence Improving?

Discover reports economic confidence improves among small merchantsEditor's Note:  Small Biz Owners being "cautiously optimistic" ... , director of Discover's business credit card. "Most small business owners still believe ... is good news amidst a flurry of bad...to see the data, click here to download in Microsoft Word [more...]

Date: 2008-12-29 19:38:00

Giving Buyers Back To The Rental Market

The Times Call reports from Colorado. “Randy Wilber moved his wife and two kids to Longmont in 2003 ... was kind of a relief, but at the same time I felt bad - terrible,’ Wilber said. “I felt bad ... tried to buy another home and was told the short sale would affect his credit for another year. ‘That’ [more...]

Date: 2008-07-06 15:15:02

FSR’s Weekly Report Card for 01.16.09

MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D Studio: Lionsgate Rated: R for graphic brutal horror violence and grisly images throughout, ... who plan to rob the stores in the mall of their credit card information. What I liked: This movie is stupid, and not always in a bad way. It’s a typical January release, as it’s not going to win any [more...]

Date: 2009-01-16 18:24:44

Setting Up Shop

This is Russell Burlingame, reporting for Blog@Newsarama ... , and so have decided that while I wait for some things to gel, it’s not a bad idea to take Michael ... nothing-but-comics is that people don’t give comics enough credit.  Comic books aren’ [more...]

Date: 2008-12-01 18:43:34

Third quarter results to dictate trend

The ongoing quarterly reporting season may dictate the market trend in the near term. Investors are bracing for poor quarterly earnings as high input costs, credit crunch, high ... billion in fresh government cash and a federal backstop against $118 billion of bad assets to help [more...]

Date: 2009-01-16 14:34:00

Twitter Terror

I was amused to read that a draft Army intelligence report identified micro-blogging service Twitter as a potential tool for terrorists ... are our tools: sneakers, sandwiches, credit cards, cars, steak knives, box cutters, cameras, cell phones ... digital communications, Twitter is a pretty weak medium for planning bad things. Copies of every post [more...]

Date: 2008-10-27 15:12:22

We’re Never Going To Go Back To The Heyday

The News Journal reports from Delaware. “For Delaware in particular, key industries are sensitive to national economic conditions ... a certain credit score. Deborah combined the No-Document Loan with another loan and was able to buy ... . That point has been hammered home in recent weeks with employers dumping bad news on workers. ‘” [more...]

Date: 2008-10-24 15:48:52

It's Getting Hard for the Porn Industry

TMZ reports that porn moguls Joe Francis and Larry Flynt are asking the government for a $5 billion bailout, ... of free porn on the Internet than the credit crunch. In any case, I will now take this opportunity to open the comments section to bad puns incorporating pornography and Congressional bailouts. [more...]

Date: 2009-01-07 16:32:00

George Osborne - Get the right perspective!

To read the ludicrous reporting of the recent events surrounding holiday visits to a yacht in Corfu it is clear that the story has led to a loss of ... to know him well but he must be given credit as the best tactician we have; he is an authentic Conservative ... with it in good times and bad. Who has made a bigger or more meaningful contribution [more...]

Date: 2008-10-23 09:44:41

An Encouraging Economic Analysis

Here is a piece of encouraging economic analysis from the folks over at The Tycoon Report by Teeka Tiwari called 5 Bank Panic Mega-Trends ... -leverage and re-loan, which will stimulate economic growth. 5. The credit markets will become unstuck ... into beefed up corporate earnings surprises (to the upside). 4. $700 billion in bad bank debt [more...]

Date: 2009-01-08 20:39:17

Looking Ahead to GE’s Earnings

Annelena Lobb reports: General Electric’s second-quarter earnings, due Friday, should keep investors’ nerves frazzled this week ... about its credit-card facility, whose auction is generating less interest than anticipated. “ ... . The longtime earnings overachiever shocked the market in April with a bad first quarter [more...]

Date: 2008-07-07 09:27:00

Credit Capacity Shortfall Could Stall Economic Recovery

The IMF says that while the worst may be over, banks have recognized less than half of expected writedowns. Excerpts from the IMF’s latest Global Financial Stability Report. (Emphasis added) For both banks and other financial institutions, the IMF calculates that actual and potential writedowns from bad assets such as loans and securities have fallen by some $600 billion over the past six months—from about $4 trillion to $3.4 trillion, as a lessening in financial stress has narrowed spreads. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 15:49:42

Treasury’s Handling of the Bailout: “Bad News and Worse News”

This is how Barney Frank characterizes the the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) first oversight report on Treasury’s administration of TARP (aka “$700 Billion Bailout” ... s decision to use TARP funds entirely to recapitalize banks and consumer-credit companies rather than [more...]

Date: 2008-12-11 18:51:33

Late surge puts O.C. property tax payment up $141 million

Orange County’s Tax Collector reports that a late surge in payments has put the county $141 million ahead of last year’s property tax collections ... more days of heavy mail, too. Credit-card charges don’t clear until Monday. I’m very pleased ... all the economic turmoil? Chriss: Small business had it bad in 2006 and 2007. It was a stealth recession. [more...]

Date: 2008-12-13 06:54:44

The Wait Continues

The Eagle Tribune reports from Massachusetts. “The number of new homes being built in Salem has hit a 30-year low ... They’re waiting until the demand for new houses picks up,’ Mackey said.” “The bad economy has put ... and the rest of New England. ‘It’s clear that the market was overbuilt,’ he said. ‘Easy credit [more...]

Date: 2008-11-10 15:25:58

GM 72-Hour Giveaway May Prop-Up June Sales

We're getting reports from the front line that GM's 72-hour sale is a success-- of sorts ... digging" maxim; offering low credit score buyers up to 150 percent loans (to get them ... . IF this plays out across the country, GM's Black Hole Tuesday numbers will be bad, but they won't be as bad [more...]

Date: 2008-07-01 14:44:07

Breaking Bad News for NM photographer Update

This is a post originally posted at Conservative Values Email Activism on 04/09/2007 ... Rights Commission and not one report anywhere in any local media outlet that I am aware of here in NM ... like domestic partnership. 04/05/2008 Racism alleged against Planned Parenthood: Have to give credit [more...]

Date: 2008-12-31 20:01:00

Consumer confidence falls to record low

The Conference Board reported a record low in consumer confidence in the U.S. going all the way back to 1967 when record-keeping began ... percent. In bad news for retail sales, only 4.4 percent of the sample say they expect to buy a car ... . Falling home equity, plunging stock markets, and a credit crisis, the likes of which few [more...]

Date: 2008-10-28 15:34:00

Great GM Giveaway May Rescue June Sales. But At What Cost?

We're getting reports from the front line that GM's 72-hour sale is a success-- of sorts ... stop digging" maxim; offering low credit score buyers up to 150 percent loans (to get them ... . IF this plays out across the country, GM's Black Hole Tuesday numbers will be bad, but they won't be as bad [more...]

Date: 2008-07-01 14:05:07

Tribune Goes Bankrupt - Reporters Blaming Zell

You would think that the bankruptcy of the Tribune Company would be an indicator of a dying industry, newsprint ... was that the leverage of the credit market would be gone when it came time to refinance. But critics ... that Zell infuriated all I have to say is too bad. The road that you were on was one of failure [more...]

Date: 2008-12-09 14:43:11

Economic Outrage du Jour

Quite a few right-wing bloggers, including Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, got themselves snookered by a recent, lazily corrected article in The New York Post , written by Richard Wilner. Ampersand at Alas, a Blog provided the fact-checking application. Among other mistakes in Wilner’s Obama-slamming piece was this bit in the lede published on September 27: The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent — a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 03:18:05

Bailed Banks

The Bush-Obama strategy of throwing trillions at the banks to solve the mortgage crisis has been a failure. The banks welcome public money to remove toxic assets from their books, insured by we-the-taxpayers, as well as the hundreds of billions in direct handouts, but they’ve hardly returned the favor. They’ve used these funds to pay mega salaries and prop up stock values, choices that obviously benefit them. They needed public support, no one wanted the system to collapse. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 21:58:57

House Price Recap

It’s the last Tuesday of the month, and that means it’s S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index Data Release Day. This month’s dollop continues the recent upswing we have seen in the past few months, so is not very newsworthy. (According to official media sources, to be newsworthy it must either be a change in direction from the month before, or be down. Ideally both.) In case you haven’t seen the numbers, which is likely, I’ll pass along the highlights. The 20-city composite was up 1.6% for July. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-29 20:33:10

Entrepreneurship 101: Create Marketing Knowledge About Local Conditions And Opportunities

How did you learn how to create demand for the offerings your company provides? Most people either go to school or learn on the job. Sometimes, they do a little of each . . . as I did. When I was studying at Harvard Business School, two methods were used to teach marketing: cases involving specific decisions facing real marketing managers; and unpaid consulting assignments working for companies with unresolved marketing issues. In either course style the issues studied always related to U.S. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 20:21:59

The House Bounce?

Houses bounce too… Not much happened yesterday. The Dow fell 47 points. The newspapers attributed the reversal to surprisingly low consumer confidence numbers. Apparently, consumers aren’t so sure this crisis is over. As we reported yesterday, they’re saving money…maybe even at an 8% rate. Oil didn’t move yesterday. Neither did gold. The Wall Street Journal reported that markets were reacting to “mixed data.” That is to say, some reports were encouraging. Others were not. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 20:00:05

Underlying Demand During a Housing Shortage

There is an impressive amount of garbage in today's headlines to sift through. Most of it, of course, is rubbish. But there are probably two main takeaways from the last 24 hours: don't fall for the earnings recovery story, and housing is still a sucker's bet in country's whose names begin and end with the letter "A". Let's take the earnings recovery story first. Tomorrow we're going to have a look at the outlook for Aussie bank earnings. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 04:58:24

Restoring Your credit Status

by Bob Jones A crucial aspect in maintaining a high credit status is in point of fact the contents of your credit report. The credit report is very much the history of your monetary life, contained in a comprehensive document. The credit report details the credit score, which is a numeric grade typically between 300 and 850. Most lenders use the credit score to help them make their mind up whether you are worthy of credit. Furthermore, the score is also used to conclude your capability of paying a loan. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-29 08:16:24

How to Handle Terminating an Employee

Be Prepared Before Terminating an Employee Determine is any contractual obligations are owed to or owed from the employee. Examine any applicable employment contract, collective bargaining, non-disclosure or non-competition agreement. Review the employee’s compensation and benefit issues. Calculate what may be owed and identify which benefits may be continued. If possible, have the necessary notices and/or forms ready. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-28 15:36:10

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

CIT on the brink. Sources say CIT Group ( CIT ) is preparing a sweeping exchange offer that would eliminate 30-40% of its $30B in debt, giving bondholders new debt with a later maturity, and nearly all the equity in a restructured CIT. The plan is likely to be more attractive to bondholders with near-term debt, and some insiders say competing bondholder interests are likely to thwart any deal and send CIT to bankruptcy court. CIT -24% premarket. IMF turns optimistic. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 11:20:04

Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act an improvement over House bill on offsets

With respect to offsets, the Kerry-Boxer bill is a distinct improvement over the ACES . It allows a relatively strong approach to offset integrity, avoiding negative social or environmental effects, and facilitating possible integration with other systems. It also addresses some issues that will be important to the functioning of a trading market, but still leaves some uncertainties that could cause problems in the market. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 21:05:41

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