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    • Sat Apr 5th 14:54 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Book Review: 'Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley'
      But of course, any book about the culture at Morgan Stanley is going to be viewed as either bias on the side of John Mack or that of Phil Purcell. Having worked for both, I for one witnessed the utter lack of vision of Phil Purcell beyond his one brilliant move in convincing Morgan Stanley to merge. The best move Dean Witter could have done for itself, by far. Dean Witter certainly would have declined considerably over the years since the time of the merger due to their ill-fated, pursuit of soliciting sub-par financial products to an ever more knowledgeable investor class. I still can't understand how John Mack & company could have erred so egregiously
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    • Thu Mar 13th 12:27 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Bill Gates: Rich Individuals Should Pay More Tax, Wealthy Corporations Less?
      I would love to see a one-time tax levy of say 50% applied to net worth above lets say 40 billion. It should be put into the tax code on Dec 31, 2008 and be applicable to net worth as of Dec 31, 2008.
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    • Mon Feb 25th 19:55 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      No Real Competition in Drug Prices
      I am a big believer in the free market capitalist system. I believe in most cases less government regulation is desirable over more. I know that in all cases every action has a corresponding reaction. However, due to certain specific factors with regards to this market, we need to rethink what is happening here. I believe in patent protection for a specific limited time period so as to support the incentive to research, develop, and then spend huge sums of money from small biotechnology firms supported by investors with the one hope that this new drug will be dragged through FDA trials to a successful conclusion. Investors must be rewarded handsomely for the risk assumed in their investment. I know the government could not nor should not get involved with this system. The problem with this system is that while we allow free market capitalism to incentivize our creative powers, the major drug companies who may later buy into our do a joint effort with these small biotech firms seem to be gouging us on a product that in many cases has inelastic demand. It isn't just that we are subsidizing medicare but we are actually subsidizing the rest of the world. The rest of the world either bands together like in Europe and negotiate a dramatically lower price, or they do as Brazil or China might do, which is ignore the patent and copy the drug, thus making and selling it for a dramatically lower price. Brazil additionally, uses this threat to duplicate the drug so as to weazel a better price. The non-medicare, American then subsidizes everyone else. Now one might say, 'lets just negotiate our own price like everyone else. But we might also be short-sighted in not acknowledging that this reaction will still have an undesirable reaction. That reaction will likely be less lucrative deals paid to the biotechnology firms by big pharma and therefore fewer biotechnology firms will see the investor capital they need to see a drug through research, development, and FDA trials. Additionally, more may have to use their even smaller budget to attempt to market their drugs themselves. We need a more equitable system and there may not be another way then to see other nations pay more, so we can pay less.
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    • Sun Dec 9th 16:30 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Government's Subprime 'Bailout' Plan Will Kill the Housing Market
      As long as no taxpayer money is used, its fine to bring together all parties so as to slow the real estate market descent, somewhat. I believe it is still going to be a hard landing but a straight nosedive is never beneficial. If the government does not go beyond their current proposal I believe the pain will fall on all those that are at fault naturally. The foolish homeowners who either failed to read their contracts or simply cast all risk aside; the credit agencies who failed to rate this risk accurately will be in litigation and will lose their credibility; the hedge funds and investment banks that either held, packaged or sold these mortgage obligations will lose billions and last of all the government in years to come will have to confront their own foolish behavior in encouraging home loans for all those that couldn't afford it. Frankly, I see few politicians admitting to their misbehavior thus guaranteeing we will see more of this in the future.
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    • Sun Dec 9th 15:45 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Government's Subprime 'Bailout' Plan Will Kill the Housing Market
      While it is clear the author of this blog is aligned with those that want a huge taxpayer bailout of homeowners, some of what he is saying is true. This bailout is designed with one all-encompassing design flaw--it will only prolong the bear market in real estate. 1) Credit is going to be strict even for those that would have fairly qualified for a home loan in previous years. 2) Who is going to buy a home now that we are at record levels of homeownership? More ALT-A qualifiers? I think not! 3) While I'm not going to predict a recession in the immediate future, our economy will indeed take steps backward at some future date in the next few years which will extend the real estate bear market. 4) This plan is still voluntary, meaning banks aren't going to refinance those who are upside down unless borrowers are able to infuse more capital making their loan more consistent with the market. What this plan clearly does is push off the day of reckoning. Some will be okay due to unforseen financial windfalls, such as inheritance, landing that dream job with a fat pay increase, and winning the lotto.....but for most everyone else, there goes the credit! I believe those with an iffy situation living in California, Nevada, Florida, Ohio, or Michigan may find a better alternative to foreclosure by working out a deal with the bank to sell at a loss now, and refinancing the loss with a banking institution at a mutually agreeable fixed rate. Market values are only going to get worse later and that may make this scenario impossible. Foreclosure will all but guarantee apartment life for the next 10 years.
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