Bernanke Q&A: "Get to work," Sen. Schumer urges The Chairman, telling him not to expect any action from a divided Congress. "I'm afraid the Fed is the only game in town." [View news story]
Yeah, Ben do something. It isn't like you have been flooding the entire U.S. economy with liquidity since 2008. It's not like Congress is full of a bunch of spoiled little children that care more about getting re-elected, showing up on television, and collecting six figure salaries for working five hours/week, than fixing our country's problems.
A federal judge refuses to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Bank of America (BAC) of misleading shareholders about its exposure to MBS and its dependence on MERS. The shareholders - led by the PA Public School Retirement System - are claiming billions in damages for being duped into buying the stock in 2009 and 2010. [View news story]
Why can't anyone take accountability for their actions anymore? The morons at the pension were trying to be big shots, and messed up in the process. They should be suing whoever influenced them to be so weak and spineless.
So now anyone who buys a company's stock in the secondary market, can sue said company for a drop in their respective stock price. Ludicrous.
In the battle over ObamaCare, attention has focused primarily on insurance carriers and individuals. Unfortunately, one key element has been glaringly ignored: How are doctors impacted by the decision? No one has considered whether doctors will be willing to take on new patients in the current environment, much less even practice medicine anymore. Serious doubts, even among ObamaCare believers, have begun to emerge about what the changes could do to the overall practice of medicine. [View news story]
What cry babies. Make it harder for patients to sue for "medical malpractice" (majority of cases are BS anyway), that will appease the poor doctors.
More on the ECB lowering the deposit rate to 0% (in the hopes of persuading money back into the economy): At the end of 2005, deposits at the ECB totaled about $0, according to the WSJ's Charles Forelle. Today, they're about $1T. [View news story]
Potential long dollar trade here? What they need to do is charge penalties for keeping deposits. The Fed should do that as well. I am pretty sure that U.S. bank deposits at the Fed are well over $1T when they were only around $8 billion in 2007. In order to get the banks lending, charge a fee (or stop paying 25 basis points in interest.)
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Group plans are less risky for the underwriting company since risk is spread out among a large group of people. Are you familiar with the terms of these group plans? Do they become vested after a certain amount of years? What happens if employees leave the company? I have a feeling that there are stringent and specific requirements that need to be met in order for employees part of these group plans to actually benefit from the LTC insurance. Thanks for the comment.
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
If things don't turn around in Australia (which has traditionally been an offset the badly performing USMI), then yes I think it could be. I think that management will wait to make any decision like this though. Divestiture of their USMI segment before an Austrailia MI offering could spook investors down under.
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Prudential managing group LTC plans for employers is completely different then selling directly to clients. The risk in that situation is shifted away from Prudential, and pushed in the direction of the employees/employer
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Eliminating the pay up options, eliminating the preferred standard, making health standards more stringent, and reducing agent commission is a destruction of their current LTC product. FYI FOR YOU did not read the last portion of the article, which states that the product changes won't be effective until end of July. I sincerely doubt that Genworth's AARP endorsed LTCi will be exempt from the changes mentioned in the article.
Despite the lack of discussion in Congress about the fiscal cliff, it can and will be resolved, says former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Unfortunately, we're at the point in which we can't avoid resolving the issue without some degree of pain. There simply is no set of policies which can prevent the painful consequences to the imbalances we currently have. [View news story]
It is impossible to sustain year after year of positive growth. It is healthy for the economy to contract every once in a while. Cut spending, raise taxes, and the economy will adapt within a few years. The current gov't deficit is unsustainable. It is hilarious to me how scared these politicians get when the word recession is even whispered. Stop papering over the underlying problem, and allow the natural business cycle to realign.
After a brief bounce in the tumult following the healthcare ruling, stocks reverse, the DJIA -1.3%. Has the Supreme Court just given the okay for the government to order any sort of commerce as long as it's called a tax? Meanwhile, EU issues remain, and the ramifications of the Libor-probe continue to be felt. Barclays (BCS -17%), RBS -13.3%. [View news story]
Theoretically, the federal government doesn't have the power to tax individuals since the requisite number of states needed to ratify income taxation never signed on, but they did it anyway.
Finally viewing with alarm bank retrenchment across the globe, regulators are set to ease stringent new capital rules - known as Basel III - set to begin kicking in in 2013. China has already postponed its tough new rules, and the U.K. "capitulation" this week suggests that country's regulators have seen the light. [View news story]
Tomas,
Look at what happened. Mortgage brokers were told to approve anyone and everyone for any type of loan because real estate was a "sure bet." These same mortgage brokers work off commission as do real estate agents. The general thinking was that even if the homeowners defaulted the bank could sell the underlying asset at a higher price then what they loaned out. Not to mention all the money the banks (and their executives) were making selling these "deal" securitized loans to unknowing/naive investors. No accountability and no consequences with excess greed added in makes for a ticking time bomb. I have no problems with greed (I am a victim of that disease myself), but when it leads to a breakdown of the global economy and trillions of personal wealth lost it is not good for anybody.
Bernanke Q&A: "Get to work," Sen. Schumer urges The Chairman, telling him not to expect any action from a divided Congress. "I'm afraid the Fed is the only game in town." [View news story]
A federal judge refuses to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Bank of America (BAC) of misleading shareholders about its exposure to MBS and its dependence on MERS. The shareholders - led by the PA Public School Retirement System - are claiming billions in damages for being duped into buying the stock in 2009 and 2010. [View news story]
So now anyone who buys a company's stock in the secondary market, can sue said company for a drop in their respective stock price. Ludicrous.
Merchants (in a class of seven million) reach a "historic" $7.25B settlement with Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) over transaction fees, in an agreement that also involves card issuers including JPM, BAC, C, WFC and COF. [View news story]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
In the battle over ObamaCare, attention has focused primarily on insurance carriers and individuals. Unfortunately, one key element has been glaringly ignored: How are doctors impacted by the decision? No one has considered whether doctors will be willing to take on new patients in the current environment, much less even practice medicine anymore. Serious doubts, even among ObamaCare believers, have begun to emerge about what the changes could do to the overall practice of medicine. [View news story]
More on the ECB lowering the deposit rate to 0% (in the hopes of persuading money back into the economy): At the end of 2005, deposits at the ECB totaled about $0, according to the WSJ's Charles Forelle. Today, they're about $1T. [View news story]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Genworth Recommits To Shareholders By Destroying Their Long Term Care Product [View article]
Despite the lack of discussion in Congress about the fiscal cliff, it can and will be resolved, says former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Unfortunately, we're at the point in which we can't avoid resolving the issue without some degree of pain. There simply is no set of policies which can prevent the painful consequences to the imbalances we currently have. [View news story]
After a brief bounce in the tumult following the healthcare ruling, stocks reverse, the DJIA -1.3%. Has the Supreme Court just given the okay for the government to order any sort of commerce as long as it's called a tax? Meanwhile, EU issues remain, and the ramifications of the Libor-probe continue to be felt. Barclays (BCS -17%), RBS -13.3%. [View news story]
Finally viewing with alarm bank retrenchment across the globe, regulators are set to ease stringent new capital rules - known as Basel III - set to begin kicking in in 2013. China has already postponed its tough new rules, and the U.K. "capitulation" this week suggests that country's regulators have seen the light. [View news story]
Look at what happened. Mortgage brokers were told to approve anyone and everyone for any type of loan because real estate was a "sure bet." These same mortgage brokers work off commission as do real estate agents. The general thinking was that even if the homeowners defaulted the bank could sell the underlying asset at a higher price then what they loaned out. Not to mention all the money the banks (and their executives) were making selling these "deal" securitized loans to unknowing/naive investors. No accountability and no consequences with excess greed added in makes for a ticking time bomb. I have no problems with greed (I am a victim of that disease myself), but when it leads to a breakdown of the global economy and trillions of personal wealth lost it is not good for anybody.