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Anthony Alfidi » Comments » BAC

  • Too Big to Fail Banks: A Simple Solution [View article]
    The TBTFs will survive as long as they contribute campaign cash. Perhaps credit unions and community banks should step up their own giving so they get a seat at the table should a big bank need to be wound down and sold off.
    Nov 10 11:37 am |Rating: +6 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Helicopter Ben isn't hiking rates anywhere near 2% until the U.S.'s entitlement liabilities are inflated away or foreign central banks quit buying Treasuries, whichever comes first.

    Positive earnings results from MCD wouldn't be a surprise given their downmarket positioning. Positives from AAPL and WHR would be very positive indeed.

    Drug companies to benefit? You don't say? Check their campaign contributions to evaluate the ROI on what they spent to get that outcome.

    Shut down CIT already.
    Oct 19 08:21 am |Rating: +11 -2 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Corporate resistance to the overseas tax grab means more taxes are still coming - for the middle class. That's what the health care imbroglio is really about IMHO.

    This CIT bankruptcy has an excessivley long denouement. Just get it over with already.

    Regulators can pay all the lip service they want to cracking down on variations of HFT. They won't do anything until after a market crisis erupts. The past is prologue.

    RailAmerica's disappointing IPO ought to give pause to all the resurgent bulls who think happy days are here again.
    Oct 13 12:18 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    The Fed's stonewalling has worked well so far. I don't see them giving an inch.

    CIT's clients would be the real beneficiaries of a prepackaged bankruptcy. Their access to short-term credit wouldn't be cut for long.

    Here's a suggestion for bofA's next CEO: Carl Icahn. Turn him loose to cut senior executive pay and force bad loans to be written down.

    Collapsing car sales should not surprise anyone with the expiration of the Cash for Clunkers boondoggle. Count on your government to waste your money.
    Oct 03 11:47 am |Rating: +1 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Good riddance to Ken Lewis. He was the architect of all the BofA acquisitions in the '90s that made it too big to fail.

    The IMF is fooling itself. All it did was give political cover to finance ministers and central bankers who know that stimulus policies are the only force keeping the world economy out of a double-dip recession.

    CIT is toast. They probably won't survive the end of 2009.
    Oct 01 11:50 am |Rating: +1 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Dell's taking a page out of IBM's playbook, migrating their business model from hardware to business services. The whole PC OEM biz is now the commodified province of the lowest-cost producers. If you want fat margins, you've gotta go for the business services.

    Any G-20 agreement forged without China will fail. China will increasingly become the leading voice in that crowd.

    Fed's rejection of Treasury's request was expected. The request itself may have been a bit of political theater designed to placate Congressional noise for some kind of action to curb Fed's printing press.

    Return of risk appetite, you say? Global investors need to remember that dumb money gets in at the top.
    Sep 22 03:15 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Kodak had better hope it's getting long-term debt at a fixed rate.

    What does the FDIC know about securitization? Seeing them get into that biz is a sign of desperation. They know something we don't and it can't be good.

    Here's a thought for state insurance regulators. Let them rate mortgage securities themselves. Who says they can't? The FDA puts a stamp of approval on food and drugs.
    Sep 18 02:15 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    C's SPO will trade new trash for old trash. Potential bagholders beware.

    Lacker's ideas for regulation are correct, but they still won't have much beneficial effect as long as banks' campaign contributions make elected officials want to keep those big banks out of bankruptcy.
    Sep 15 11:37 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • Sobering Stat: ARMS Index Indicates Market Is at Peak, Not Bottom [View article]
    Want a real bearish indicator? Check out the P/E ratio of the S&P 500. It's up around 140; granted that only takes into account this year's massive drop in earnings but it's still sobering. IMHO this bear market rally has peaked right about now.
    Aug 31 08:14 am |Rating: +2 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Four Reasons We're Headed Even Higher [View article]
    One reason the market's not going higher: The fiscal stimulus is due to expire. Without a second stimulus as artificial sweetener, the marfket's unsustainable rise thus far in 2009 cannot be sustained.
    Aug 31 07:58 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Expecting the SEC to show common sense in the BAC settlement is a bridge too far. Common sense isn't allowed when regulatory capture takes place.

    Those deficit projections are going to be worse than either the White House or OMB can imagine once the FDIC has to go to the well to refill its insurance fund.

    Consumer confidence jumped once delinquent homeowners stopped paying their mortgages. Why throw money down a hole when you can buy a plasma screen TV and enjoy your last few months of pre-foreclosure freeloading? It's the new American Way.
    Aug 26 11:52 am |Rating: +5 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Sell Off Ahead? 25 Ways to Profit and Protect from a Stock Market Correction [View article]
    A sell off is likely with corporate earnings down 96% yoy. The main unknowables are when and how much. I'm seeking profit by selling out-of-the-money puts under things I want to buy more of anyway: FXI and GDX.
    Aug 11 12:20 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment
  • Time to Get Conservative? 50 Ideas for a Summer Sell-Off  [View article]
    Good analysis. Buy/writing is a safer bet after a rally that has no justification in fundamentals. The biggest difficulty IMHO is picking a strike price far enough away from the stock's likely closing price at options expiration that the position won't be called away.
    Aug 05 12:20 pm |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • Five Reasons the Market Could Crash This Fall [View article]
    Reason #6: A second stimulus will not arrive in time to prop the markets as the effects of stimulus #1 wear off by Q4. The second stimulus itself will be very much in demand as the 2010 elections approach, but its approval will be very much in doubt if the bond market chokes on: a) debt to fund single-payer health care; b) debt to replenish the FDIC's reserves.
    Aug 05 12:08 pm |Rating: +2 -1 |Link to Comment
  • BofA, Wells Fargo: No Equity After Accounting for Bad Loans [View article]
    Wells Fargo's footdragging approach to writing down loans was widely noted on ml-implode.com and elsewhere during the second half of 2008. Thank Reggie Middleton for identifying WFC's many problems when others were heralding it as a survivor.
    Mar 05 21:12 pm |Rating: +2 -1 |Link to Comment
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