Igorsky

Sirius XM Needs a Growth Plan

SIRI has a growth plan. Here are two possible good reasons they keep it to themselves for now..

First, they are working on it and/or are under negotiations (re: iPod/iPhone apps). A good negotiator does not hype his potential benefits before the agreement is sealed.

Second, in SIR's business where there are lots of competition, it is best not to show their hand long before they can deliver their 'new' product or services. Getting a long head start with the competition is always good practice for getting a good chunk of the market before competition can adjust. This is the lesson iPod / iPhone has shown us. I am hoping SIRI will accomplish the same.

I do not thing MEL is a one dimension manager. He has eliminated his direct competition through merger (XM) and he has avoided BK. Now he is concentrating in growing the business. He already has an agreement with Toyota, Honda, Nissan and KIA/Hyundai should not be far behind if he has not already. As the economy improves, more truckers will be adding SIRI radios in their cabs. Remember how in the 60's, CB's were the rage among truckers? He could very well be exploring adding the audio portion of some of Malone's direct TV shows to his programming.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

On bonus bill blocking Congress ....that would apply a 90% tax on executive bonus payments made by companies receiving more than $5B in federal bailout funds, it seems like our legislators once more are protecting their campaign contributors.

When they put in the provision that the law....."would apply to payments made after Dec. 31, 2008" ... they put in a big loophole that Merill Lynch bonus receipients will get to keep their bonus money after running down the company and saddling the taxpayers with debt. I wonder if this is another of Chris Dodd's/Barney Frank's unconsionable acts.

Mark-to-Market: The Bogeyman of the 1930s Is Back

Looking at this financial crisis thru the MtM angle is avery narrow view and has led Mr. Sunshine to an off base conclusion.

The reason this financial crisis did not tank as deeply as it has now were/are the existence of:

Glass Steagal Act
FED
FDIC
SEC
Uptic rule, etc.

Some of the major reasons for this crisis now are:

Repeal of Glass Steagall Act in 1998
Removal of Uptic rule
Passing of Community Redevelopment Act (1978)
Creation of Derivatives (unregulated)
Creation of Credit Default Swap (this is a real biggie)
Creation of CDO's (many banks no longer hold many of the mortgages in their potfolio..example: Countrywide)

To blame MtM as the cause does not hold water. It was reintroduced in 2007 because it became very apparent to FASB that the bank risks had to be gotten out of hand and had to be Fair Valued. Its reintroduction has actually saved the world from a much deeper crisis. Keep the MtM now and maybe, we will be free of anther financial crisis for 20 years or until people forget and repeat the same mistakes again.

Italy Joins the Nuclear Thaw

To CLH, with today's signing of the document that affirms science over 'faith', Obama may not be far from being convinced by his 'scientific' energy man Mr. Chu, he will start to see the light on nuclear power. Hoever, i am not holding m breath.

Obama Talks Himself Into - And Out of - Bank Nationalization

Jake Berzon

<The problem is that the big bank lobby is just too strong even for Obama. You should listen to the Bill Moyer's Journal interview with Simon Johnson on PBS. He explained it quite nicely.>

You should also watch Boncaccio's NOW interview with Bethany McLean the week before. She got it right including ethics and sociology of people. She correctly identifed the Enron debacle long before it became obvious to people and again with this subprime fiasco. She is very sharp, knowledgeable and ... well, appealingly very pretty!

Life After Coal: Coming Sooner than You Think

Jimbo

The reason the Danes have a good working windpower grid is beause it is hooked up to the German grid. When the wind fails the Germans provide the power. The Germans rely mostly on coal plants although they now have a good solar power system (heavily incentivized) hooked up to the electric grid.

Energy Storage Incentives Approved by Congress

The big problem with green technologies is their inherent instability. Putting these green tech in the grid will make the system unstable. To counter this instability requires massive storage capacities, and I mean massive. Has anyone done a calculation on the magnitude required and compare it to what can be manufactured (batteries)? To make it work, we need two types of peaking power -- one from solar and wind and the second from the curent gas fired peakers. This is cost duplication.

In our power system today, we use peaking generators which are powered by natural gas or LNG. They ramp up fast and shut down as quick so it tracks demand nicely...making for a very stable electric grid. What wind and solar power will do is burden the system with additional cost for good base power and gas peakers will still be needed to back up the 'greens' inherent shortcomings. This will make our electric system much more expensive to run and users will have to pay lots more for duplicate 'green' power.

What will these storage batteries cost us in terms of overall wate generation in their manufacture? All the chemicals we use to make solar cells and battery cells add to our pollution. Anyone done an accounting of environmental impact yet? Obama is going headlong on this with out doing a comprehensive environmental study on a macro (world) scale.

Have people noticed that Obama's plan does not address the continued massive CO2 gas that coal fired plants generate 24/7? Looking at the big picture I see 'green energy' as perhaps addressing only the increase in power demand due to increasing US population and does not address at all our current consumption requirements which we must reduce to slow global warming.

Without addressing the need to replace coal fired units with nuclear power, we are not going to slow the exponentially rising CO2 green house gases we generate.

One thing more. Right now we are locating wind mills in windy locations. With global Warming - more correctly, Climate Change - the weather patterns has been drastically changing. The windy locations we now pick may not be as good 10 years from now.

Nationalizing the U.S. Banking Sector: There's No Choice

I do not see why valuation of houses is a problem. Keep it simple. Use the prevailing values of houses in 1999 (one year after the repeal of the tried and true Glass-Steagal). Counties have this record... add 10% for homes built after 1999. The per square footage is available per location. The values of houses in 1999 were at sustainable levels and is even more valid in today's average income levels.

Using this valuations for bank takeovers, the homes can be sold with no risks to taxpayers. At this level of valuation, the houses will sell quickly and the prices will even go higher because of demand. The difference between 1999 and actual selling price, if positive, can be a shared benefit between the taken over bank and the taxpayers.

Competent Banking CEOs: They Do Exist

The Treasury should stop playing around trying this and that schemes and prolong the agony and head towards a long term disaster, a.k.a. Japanese economy of the last 25 years.

Instead, use the proven and successful Swedish model and do a short term nationalization of troubled banks as Roubini explained yesterday in his great article (sorry, I do not have the link) on how to solve our economic morass.

We have gone thru 1 million foreclosures so far and six million more more to go in the next 3-4 years. We need to take quick and swift measures that will quickly hurdle over all these competing interests of politicians, legislators, powerful bank lobbies, etc. and solve the problem. Sure, it will wipe out investors and shareholders but without this swift measure, in the long run, everyone loses lots more.

Fixing the Banks: What Should Obama Do?

Good article. I agree we should not only put back the tried and true, born out of the 1929-1933 financial crisis, Glass Steagle Act but expand it as well to cover derivatives and swaps and whatever future financial instruments financial engineers come up with.

We should also put back the rights of the States to impose Usury Laws that limit the interest rates credit card issuers charge.

Lastly, the Community Redevelopment Act should be repealed. It is the one act that started this whole financial fiasco rolling.

Nuclear Energy and the Next American President

Good article Mr. Banks. Please go one step further into the future.

Today's Nuclear Power Plant design is an interim system, relatively speaking. The more Permanent nuclear system - as in Perpetuity - is the Fast Breeder Reactor type of power plant. It can use the 'waste' fuel of today's Nukes and generate more fuel as it generates power. It is a good way to get rid of the 'waste' fuel. Conventional Nuke's uses only 4% of its fuel before removing them as waste. Waste fuel has 96% of power potential left....what a waste (no pun intended)! This the reason why France, the leader in Nuke power plants, is storing their waste in easily retreivable storage. Our nuclear scientists were addressing this technology until 1996 when Sec of Energy, under Clinton, cut it off.

Let us hope Obama appoints an Energy Secretary who understands and appreciate science and pushes to revive the research of 1996. Let us hope that if they do, that the scientists who were involved in those projects in 1996 can be coaxed back to continue where they left off. This is urgent energy security and global warming standpoint and we should not be starting from scratch again.

Obama, McCain and Offshore Drilling

Loopy is...loopy! Who banned drilling along both coasts ..Dems. Who stopped the funding of the research into fast breeder reactors that can give us energy w/o endlessly...Dems. Who allowed the credit card companies to circumvent the usury laws we had up to the 70's...Dems in South Dakota. Who in the late 60's and early 70's were all agianst drilling in the North Slope of Alaska.....Dems. This goes on and on.

Let us vote for McCain/Palin and throw Obama/Biden/Pelosi/ out and get this country moving again!

ETF Update: Alternative Energy and the Power Grid

pondee. Traditionally, the utiities invested in the power grid they need to disrtribute the power they produce. In this case, the power to be distributed is across States and the companies that will do this has yet to be formed. It is a formidable challenge considering the myriad of regulations that have to be overcome.

The problem alone posed by environmentalist, naturalist, beautiful scenery specialists makes venture capitalist not even want to think about this area.

Only a crisis - in the same magnitude as the oil embargo of the early 70's - will get us moving to solve this problem. Sad but true.

If McCain gets elected, he could push this together with his oil drilling plan especially if he appoints Mitt Romney as his Energy Secretary.

No Joke: Google Introduces Its Chrome Browser With A Cartoon

Google is showing once more how inovative they are.

The features discussed sounds like the features I have been looking for. I hope their anti-phishing, anti-malware scheme works. I also hope they monitor how many people opt to use the "incognito mode"...would be interesting what the statistics would show.

The Economics of Political Spin

Correction to my above blog on Bush...

"He did NOT understand the consequences of a lot of bills that got to his desk so he signed them all