mikebrah

How Should We Improve Seeking Alpha's Comment Rating System?

I think the most effective thing to do would be to have a weighted voting system.

What I mean is, frankly, Cetin's votes should have absolutely no effect on a commenter's rating (regardless if he gives positive or negative). Conversely, when John or Prudent or any other high rated commenter gives you a rating it should count for more.

I'm not a webmaster, so I have no idea how difficult it would be to make a program like that. But I think that if the community has made you one of the Top 100 then the market has spoken and it is saying that your opinion is worth more than someone at the bottom of the rankings. So your opinion should be "worth" more.

You could probably just make the weighted system have a pretty general correlation, i.e. Top 10 commenters have double the weighting, top 100 are 1.5, top 500 are 1, and then the lower you get the less weight your ratings have. Cetin's ratings should be discarded.

The idea that I can write a well thought out comment and have John or Prudent give me a thumbs up and then have Cetin give me a thumbs down and cancel it out is very inefficient. Cetin has proven himself beyond worthless and the top commenters, in contrast are very valuable.

I think this would be very executable, but like I said I'm not a web programmer.

MM

Why Are Stress Tests So Pessimistic on Commercial Real Estate?

TeresaE,
I am curious. What was their explanation for why they yanked your mortgage? Did they give one? That doesn't make sense to me.

Sorry things are so bad up there.

MM


On May 13 08:50 AM TeresaE wrote:

> As a small business owner with a large mortgage, I can safely say
> the banks are farkin liars and the government is complicit in their
> lies and deceptions.
>
> Michigan has been in a "recession" for over 6 years. Our commercial
> property is either under utilized or just empty. You couldn't sell
> a commercial building for pennies on the dollar.
>
> According to the experts/government , our building is worth more
> than we paid for it in 2002.
>
> The bank says it is worth less than half.
>
> Doesn't matter as the bank has yanked our mortgage-mid term.
>
> We have NEVER missed a payment, NEVER been late.
>
> As long as the government continues to subsidize banks and allow
> those same banks to yank performing commercial loans, any statements
> they release are pure, unadulterated bs.
>
> How we can have "recovery" when the engine that drives our economy
> (small business & jobs) has been gutted and is now being eradicated,
> is beyond me.
>
> But the "experts" sure know how to lie and avoid, don't they?

Meredith Whitney Quitting Oppenheimer Shows Contrarian Indicators Still Work

Skepticism and patience are two attributes of a great investor. I think being a contrarian requires both. But suggesting the author's logic is somehow contrarian is very misleading.

Ms. Whitney busted her hump and took nothing at face value. Her diligence led to some fantastic analysis. She continued to analyze and continued to be proven right, time after time. To my knowledge, she never sensationalized anything or made outlandish sales pitches. She seemed quite reserved and professional.

Now she has now parlayed that into a more lucrative, rewarding career opportunity. Diligence, patience, and intelligence. I fail to see the contrarian "indicator" in any of this.

And as Larry pointed out--if you have to wait a year or even two before you know if this was actually an indicator, then what value is it anyway?

MM

New Jersey Can't Afford Its Government

A Mayor encouraging a tax revolt...I like it!

MM

Reporting Massively Large Numbers

And now we are going to pay for those colossal mistakes.

MM


On May 11 03:47 PM Cetin Hakimoglu wrote:

> Debt to GDP ratios were higher post WW2, but the stock market boomed
> anyway. Regan embraced deficit spending n 1982, and the market surged.
> Same for George W. bush in 2003.

Credit Card Losses Are the New Bad Mortgages

Mark, you sound like you are on the cusp of capitulating. Hang in there a little longer, bro. Eventually nature wins.

MM

Can you hear that? It's the grumbling of bank shareholders who are seeing their dividends disappear so that banks can throw off the yoke of TARP, and maintain beefy executive salaries.

Food for thought:

If these businesses were so incredibly viable like the banksters keep telling us, I have one question:

Why the hell didn't they all (or even just ONE of them) do a management/leveraged buyout of their own company? These banks were all down in the single digit or low double digit billions for market cap. For that matter, why didn't they all just merge?

If these banks had even a fraction of the value they purport to have, there is no excuse for the lack of management led/leverage buyouts. Every management team should be fired for missing this "once in a lifetime" opportunity.

I mean, they could have just self-financed couldn't they?

This is a dump-truck load of BS.

MM

Can you hear that? It's the grumbling of bank shareholders who are seeing their dividends disappear so that banks can throw off the yoke of TARP, and maintain beefy executive salaries.

This situation is so blatantly obvious to any unbiased observer.

I was a permabull all the way through the March lows. Luckily, I loaded up in early March and now, thanks to SA, ZeroHedge, and many others, I was able to start comprehending just how onerous this debt bubble is. I have sold most of my longs (still have a few long term babies that I will continue to hold and add to on future weakness) and am now substantially short the market, esp. financials.

This is downright devious what the American public has been forced to witness the last 2 months

glta!.

MM

Fannie and Freddie Will Continue to Be Rescued by Taxpayers

Yes, please keep up the great work Mark.

The shallowness of analysis by Mainstream America is quite frightening.

It has occurred to me that the end game here will be pristine bank balance sheets and a horrific government balance sheet. What then? Was this the plan by the big banks all along? But without a powerful government as competition police, these big banks will suffer.

Big government has been their plan for the last century-plus so this leads me to believe the current fiasco may be the next step towards a global government (and accompanying global bank). After the utter destruction of the US dollar and government, there will be calls for an even bigger central bank and an even bigger government. We will be told by the intelligentsia that this will be out of necessity, of course, to prevent another episode like we are experiencing now from ever occurring again.

This sounds quite conspiratory, I know, but as a student of history I am quite nervous.

MM


On May 11 09:30 AM Jason Rines (iThinkBig) wrote:

> Keep writing. I understand how you feel about being ignored and marginalized
> but many of us here appreciate the information. Alliances are being
> formed to pick up the pieces of our broken government as it implodes
> upon itself. Emerging leadership must be patient and hang in there
> for a time and under current conditions, that is difficult.

Minyanville: Subprime Lending Is Back with a Vengeance

Strategically, it doesn't even make sense for these young people you refer to to buy a house. If you are trying to start a career, flexibility should be your top priority. And as many people are now finding out, homeownership severely hampers one's flexibility. Especially when one can't afford the house.

MM

On May 11 09:05 AM Wallstreetobserver wrote:

> The program is designed for first time home buyers, many of which
> are young and just beginning their careers. This is a period in the
> life cycle where income rarely is adequate to provide both a standard
> of living and wealth accumulation. Low savings rates at this stage
> of life should not be interpreted as a deficiency. These resources
> provided by the government not only are helping to spur demand that
> had been erased by the fear of catacylsmic financial loss, but are
> helping to move people into an investment vehicle, real estate.

The Odds of a Bernanke Departure

Is there some rule on SA that says every sentence must contain boldface? It's distracting, to say the least.

Otherwise, thanks for the article!

MM

A Must See Movie: 'Zeitgeist Addendum' Explains the Fiat Money System

Prudent and Andy,

"The Case Against the Fed" by Murray Rothbard is also an excellent book about the reality of our money system. Check it out if you haven't already.

MM

Could Cap and Trade Still Happen?

A new, exotic (and completely imbalanced) $1T tax...that's what will get us out of this economic funk we're in, sure sure.

Unreal.

MM

Government Stress Testing and Fortunate Rally Timing

Steven Vincent, please stop advertising on the boards! The last 6 stories I have read all have your same message.

MM

It's not really clear who had more sway on stress test results - the government (tester) or the banks (testee). But bear in mind that Citigroup's (C) shortfall reportedly dropped from $35B to just $5.5B.

archman, what are some of the high yielders you currently hold?

MM