TBill

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Repeal Sarbanes - Oxley and the domino effect stops, the problem solves itself. Smoot Haley caused the Great Depression, Sarbanes - Oxley caused this mess.

Bernanke Gives Up on Reverse Auction Idea

All we have to do is repeal Sarbanes Oxley and the 'mark to market even when there is no market' rule and this problem fixes itself. As was said, let the banks mark to 'hold to maturity ' value. There are some smart people recommending just that to the Congresscritters, but, you know, they hate to repeal anything, and there is no money/power involved...

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Repeal Sarbanes Oxley and the stringent mark to market rule and this problem would fix itself. There are some influential people advising this, but as you can hear, none of the Congresscritter are talking about it. Not sexy enough, no power involved, no money to throw around.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

As pointed out, there are major problems with this bill. As with the Patriot act, it's being rushed thru with the threat that if it is not passed now, the ensuing meltdown will be on your heads. The problem is the threat is real. So what's a Congresscritter to do?

As for the SEC being responsible, if you hand me a loaded gun, I'm I required to shoot myself with it?

SEC Bans Shorting Financials

It's the 1930's all over again. History repeats itself, but always with new variations.

Gauging Market Fear: Put/Call Ratio and Volatility Index

There is nothing wrong with SS. The bankrupt day is now up to 2046 or so, up from 2028 when they first sounded the alarm. The problem is the Federal Government is bankrupt. The huge SS surplus has been counted as revenue [fraudulant] to keep the deficit looking managable.

So, most likely, you will continue to get your SS, but the Feds will figure out a way to tax it away from you. Clinton went a long way towards that when he made SS payments taxable. Next is a means test.

Even tho the numbers say wait, I'm taking mine at 62.

Capitulation Is Here (Again)... Good Times to Follow

Down only 10,000? Count yourself lucky!
Unfortunately, the health of the financial system is critical to everyone. The powers that be are doing what needs to be done, but this mess is as new to them as it is to us. "Well, we'll try this medicine, and if it doesn't work, we'll either take more of it or try something else."
Fear and panic are in the air. That is what long term bottoms are made of. Time to start shoveling funds into the market, and get your finger on the trigger, ready to fire both barrels.

AIG Lives Another Day; Shareholders? Not So Much

That's right, the $85 b is just a temporary loan. Now, what's 20% of this company worth?

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

I agree with just about everything said so far, with that counterproductive must mark to market when there is no market being what really pushed this mess over the edge. Greed is good. It's what makes the system work. Government is there to see that fraud is not resorted to, otherwise needs to stay out as much as possible.

Lehman is Toxic at Any Price

Anyone who can not come up with at least 2 ways of spelling a word has no imagination.

Is the High Home Ownership Rate Hurting Michigan?

Idiotic policies of the 'goverment is the solution' powers that be have run the state into the ground. When things get tough, they raise taxes! If people weren't tied to their houses, they'd be a lot less people there, and a much lower tax base as people run for their lives! Hey, I grew up there and was smart enough to get out as soon as I could.

My relatives have seen a 33% [sic] drop in their home values since Jan 06! Yikes! And that's typical. Go to zillow.com and plug in an address... take a look at the graph of the estimated value. Why? Because people are desperate to leave! Just as people were desperate to get out of Detroit decades earlier, the black hole sucks in more and more of the state. Meanwhile, the socialists running the state spend millions on an ad campaign telling us how MI is such a good state to start a business in. They even have another government program to help you get set up! We would laugh, but who lived there find it so sad.

Palin, On the Ongoing Financial Crisis

She shud answer questions like that along the line of:

"It just goes to show you whenever the government messes around in the free market it ends in disaster, with the taxpayer paying to clean up the mess. John McCain has a plan for minimising the cost, and making sure Congress doesn't replace this disaster with a "new/improved" disaster that will bite the next generation. Ask him about it sometime."

Punt. Hey, she's only going to be the powerless VP... it's McCain we'll have to endure.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Greenspan's 'not on my watch' policy of throwing money at every problem sucessfully put off the downside of the business cycle. The problem with that, as any not terribly bright economist can tell you, is the business cycle is necessary and inevitable. Continually delaying downturns just makes them bigger when they occur. Now problems FRE & FMN give the DC power freaks an excuse to take over something really big. Hmm, when was the last time the government ran anything efficiently? I'll make a prediction that they will keep the doors open, doing business that ought to be done privately, but make such a mess of it that they can't be privatized, therefore the government will have to run them indefinately with taxpayer subsidies.... for our own good, of course.

Still, the Crooks Be Winnin'

I'm not in a position to judge ALD, but one thing I can say for certain that paying a big dividend on one hand and selling stock on the other rarely makes any business sense. If a company needs money to expand, the dividend shud be zero. I know, you see a lot of it going on these days... companies in trouble, issuing shares like confetii just to keep the doors open, and still maintaining a dividend. Stupid. And if you look at the performance of companies that do this... it's not good.

[There is only one case where it makes any sense: the stock has gotten insanely high. Selling stock looks like free money, so managements sells a bunch, now has plenty of cash to maintain a dividend. Very rare, and of course, not good for the fools who buy the new shares. ]

Fannie, Freddie Shareholders Will Be Left Holding the Bag - Barron's

FRE & FNM were bad ideas from the start, and there were people saying so. Took decades to see why. Hey, I lost money in them too. Now the question is who pays for the mess? Shareholders [me]... government [you]? I'm thinking both, with the government gobbling up the companies. Polititians like to nationalize things, and then they can run at a loss all day, and run the printing presses all night to pay for it. All in the name of 'the greater common good', don'tcha know.