31October

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Cetin,
About 20,000 people who recently got laid off care.
Please get a job and move out of your mom's basement.
Stop spamming and try a life.


On Aug 04 10:04 AM reboot wrote:

> dow 14,000 soon? looks like no one cares about recession anymore
>
>
> good articles 4 slow news day www.iamned.com

Seething Over Liddy's AIG-Goldman Connection

Perhaps my Mexican, caucasian, Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino, black, Hispanic, Japanese, Columbian, and Baptist neighbors are rare exceptions in that we look out for each other?
With hate broadcast 24-7, and the MSM using 80-year-old women along the gulf coast for sound bites, America *still* voted for the pro-LGBT, very-pro-abortion minority candidate.

I guess you missed 2008.

This says more about you than the rest of the country.

[All immigrants are legal - I concede in advance that could change attitudes.]

On Apr 18 01:24 PM Anandakos wrote:
...With the stupendous volume of hateful bile unleashed by the election ...of an "other" and directed at the poor, at minorities, at immigrants... at LGBT folks, at scientists -- at anyone except religious Caucasian... heterosexuals -- you can expect all those guns flying off the shelf...to be used on your fellow Americans....

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

When you say "cleansing of top management," are you referring to corporate bank executives or Congressional leadership?

I can't really see a difference, except that Bear Stearns might be less dirty.


On Mar 20 10:45 AM notsosmart wrote:
could anybody do worse than these people? retain them?a wholesale cleansing of top management is needed.fix the problems,then collect a reasonable bonus.

Sick of Hyperbolic Rubish

I like this piece but disagree with:
"The media really needs to learn to differentiate between a loan and a handout."

IT IS A HANDOUT:
The banks end up with net gain by selling the crap they packaged to the government, while keeping the good. Then newly-solvent banks pay back the government "loans" with government cash. Meanwhile, the government owns billions in worthless MBSs and CDSs. Congress announces that they prevented catastrophe, made a profit on interest, and get re-elected.

In the case of bankruptcy, the bank sells the crap to the government, then defaults on the TARP "loan."

The Road to Economic Hell

Thank you for reminding us of what rationd health care means.
I spent a few years transporting many chronic patients for care. Had they been in Britian, they would have been cut off after one year. And the care in Europe is like a county health department.

But the point is moot:
Treasury will have bankrupted itself on bad banks before Congress has a chance to implement socialized care.


On Mar 06 04:34 PM PainfullyAware wrote:

....Another disconcerting fact is that when your health becomes an accounting entry to the government you become expendable.

The Road to Economic Hell

Plumstupid,

I too have lived in socialist countries.
71% tax rate, rationed health care, unemployment/welfare, apartments instead of houses (ever hear an addict staggering over your head?), VAT taxes, and rude service from protected workers. As for free education, I was in Paris when doctors (DOCTORS!) rioted for more money - I'm sure taxes went up to accomodate them. Americans get plum stupid sometimes, but normally have to go to work instead of rioting [Detroit being the exception that proves the rule].

If there is any place that shows what a sense of entitlement leads to, go to socialist Europe. I left the USA in disgust - I came back loving freedom and opportunity that did not exist in the countries I toured.

So what if some over-extended Californian spend-addicts lose their 5,000 sq ft houses? Few in Europe or Japan would have ever had a house to begin with.

The American financial/political system (same difference) is unfixable. But a USA plummetting downward still lives better than 99% of the rest of the world.


On Mar 05 11:03 AM plumstupid wrote:
> Patio:
> I've lived in socialist countries. Everyone seemed to be doing quite
> well. Good jobs, nice homes or apartments, good free health care,
> good free education thru PhD if ability and interest was there, clean
> streets, well maintained infrastructure, one month paid vacation
> every year.....
>
> Looked pretty good to me!

What to Buy and Why: Barron's 2009 Roundtable, Part II

He is smart enough to pay himself first.
Regarding preferreds, the Feds claim the right to tell AIG not to pay the dividend. Bonds sound interesting.

On Jan 20 10:43 AM valueinvestor1 wrote:
> Interesting comment by Gross on Aig bonds.I dont liek Aig or bonds
> but Gross is among the US smartest men

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Re: "GM cars are junk. "
Mr. Wilberforce,
Your perception is based on products from the 1970s. I had very bad luck with 70s GM & Fords [even worse]. Since 1983, however, GM reduced the quality gap every single year. By the 21 century, they PASSED Mercedes, Toyota and Honda in quantifiable problems. Only the JD Power first impressions survey has Lexus higher - And people, being suggestable, will never admit that they paid $50,000 for a poor-handling Camry [ES350.] But every long-term study places GM first in measurable quality. Polk has proven through registrations that all GM brands outlast the average.

This revelational news that GMs have not been junk for the past decade may be a blow to you. Therefore, I will not tell you the news about Ford's most recent model year statistics -- you might gasp so hard that you accidentally suck in the obituaries you were just reading.

I am sure that you did many bad things in the 1970s, too. But this is 2008.

Short Investors Take Notice of AIG and MetLife

They own $800M in LEH+AIG debt. $-800M could wipe out 18.53% of their $4.317B net income. It is telling that they did not break out Lehman (unrecoverable) from AIG (recoverable). The collaterized loans to Lehman affiliates mean that they will inherit depressed real estate, not current book value, meaning a second writeoff six months later. Cash from operations is fat and rising, so they will be fine.