SubscribeHow my local Newsrag ignored warnings…
September 11, 2008
In mid-February 2008, I attended a Reuters conference in New York that got me thinking. I asked myself: How bad is this sub-prime crisis? I also wondered how far it could infect the rest of our economy. It didn’t take to long to put together a projection and I was compelled to send some thoughts and the information learned at the conference to my local newspaper. I thought that it would be a good idea if the information could be disseminated as to help a few people before things got much worse.
So, I sent it to the real estate editor and even wrote to the president of the paper to see if they would get the word out. What a joke! Not a response at all and that is after I sent it several times. Read more
Bailout or Buyout? Fannie and Freddie
September 7, 2008
From my MSN TopStocks post:
5:45 on a Friday night. Somehow I knew something was in the air. The end of day upward move for a market that should have traded lower made no sense. It appears that now, according to the WSJ, there is talk about a backstop for Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). It is a general consensus that any plan will have a very negative impact on the common shares and after hours shares are sinking. Freddie is now down 23% for the day and Fannie is down 20%. Wait, Freddie is down 25%, no 27%, uh……this is not pretty and I am not kidding.
Somehow, there is talk of a rally that will be in place as the market opens on Monday. Perhaps that is good news as I suppose that the guessing game is coming to an end and investors will be able to rest with the knowledge that we finally have a big fat failure, once and for all.
Read the rest of my post HERE
The Most Pathetic Barron’s Article Ever
August 24, 2008
Entitled : How to Simplify Your Stock Research, Barron’s author Mike Hogan attempts to deliver an article to provide some help when researching stocks, yet it does nothing of the sort. Instead it discusses how Google Docs can be used to gather information and Google’s Notebook is a good organizational tool. Read more
Corporate BS elevated to new artform
August 12, 2008
Every once and a while, I read something really interesting. I usually clip it and re-read it a few days or weeks later to take it in from a different reference point. A couple of weeks ago, I clipped a great commentary by Steven Sears and recently re-read it again.
I got to tell you, the second time around I found myself just as aggravated. Just to be clear, I agree with what he wrote. It is the situation he discussed that perturbs me.
It is beyond comprehension how publicly traded companies are allowed to say what they want, no matter how thick the *&%$# it is.
Remember the “Lehman Letter?” Then there were the recent Merrill misrepresentations. Of course, let’s not forget about the Herbalife omissions. Then there are the “Friends of Angelo” and of course Read more
That Sound? The FDIC Insurance Suck
August 10, 2008
According to Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer, there is a huge amount of uninsured deposits at many of banks which could soon be causing a huge problem. If you think about it, it makes sense. As time goes on, more and more money will be moved from bank to bank as depositors become more concerned about the amount of money they are insured for. Essentially, money will be spreading around and:
- Fewer people qualifying for mortgages
- Banks recapitalizing and not providing credit
- Wachovia 35% uninsured
- Capital with be flowing from weak hands to strong hands
- People who need capital/credit will not get it, those that don’t, will.
- Available credit for consumers will shrink
- Some financial stocks will revisit lows
Think about the above list for a moment. What I think is the most interesting takeaway here is the fact that money will be moving out of banks at a very fast pace if we continue to see banks taken over by FDIC. This is because it will actually be detrimental for the FDIC to rescue Read more
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