MajorG

Regions Financial (RF) shares now up 8.9% as CEO Dowd Ritter says "absolutely not" to whether the firm needs more capital. Ritter said nonperforming loans should decline within the next several months.

Take what? The company is functionally bankrupt and they even admitted it. If they marked their loan portfolio to FMV they would be underwater by $20B!

Goldman Sachs' (GS) Abby Joseph Cohen gets her bull on, to CNBC: The S&P could hit 1,100 this year. "We do think the new bull market has begun ... Clearly many people were looking for better signs on the economy, and now we're getting them."

She's hasn't been right since the momo 90s and a monkey throwing darts at a board could have mirrored her "success" back then. I can't believe she has any shred of credibility at all.

iSuppli takes an early peek under the Palm Pre's (PALM) hood, and finds it costs just $138 to build. That's cheaper than the iPhone (AAPL) and the Storm (RIMM) - and about half of what it's expected to charge Sprint Nextel (S).

There was a report out last week that Sprint was only going to charge $150 for the phone. Even if Palm can sell it for 2x its cost, the stock is still pricing in sales of around 6+M phones when expectations are closer to 2M in sales.

Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPD): A pyramid in collapse?

I was shorting this POS years ago under the same reasoning being used here. Somehow, this thing is not just still alive but trading in the 30's! Amazing. Honest;y, I had totally forgotten about it until now and I need something to shoot at, so thanks for the reminder!

The Modified Uptick Rule Debate

Bringing back the uptick rule is completely meaningless in a world of penny increment spreads. Before, the world was fractionalized and it was tougher to short then with the uptick rule. But now it's a different story, and ETF's were exempted from the uptick rule when it was still in place. Even now, with the proliferation of futures (and single stock futures), ETF's, and options, down side momentum doesn't need generic selling to precipitate downward movements. This is a nonstarter and will have very little impact on the markets. The politicians are just looking for something to do to make the ignorant public feel like they are getting something for their tax dollars.

The U.S. government and the Fed have spent, lent or committed $12.8T to rescue and stimulus attempts, so far. That's 14x the $900-odd billion in circulation; almost equal to the entire 2008 U.S. GDP; and works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in America.

There's a few people here that are going to lose their clients a lot of money.

RIP, MBA: "The MBA will soon be joining equities and house titles in the museum of formerly overvalued pieces of paper."

I agree that MBA degrees are mostly worthless - I have one so I know. I didn't learn anything there that I didn't either already know or couldn't have learned on the job, and I always felt that there was no substitute for experience. What most people don't touch on is the lack of educational diversity in the executive offices around the country. We all know the names and they are great schools, but there are plenty of very smart and talented people that go to other schools. Having people trained by other institutions can be a good thing and the bias toward Ivy League programs is astonishing.

Not even near over yet: Former Mississippi state insurance examiner Thomas Gober says AIG's (AIG) 71 interlocking domestic U.S. insurance subsidiaries are in hock to each other to an astonishing degree. Unravelling their incestuous union could cost hundreds of billions.

The "lowly" examiners are always the one's that end up being the whistleblowers. Do you think the SEC has one financial analyst working there or just lawyers? They couldn't find their butts with two hands and a map. Maybe you should determine if there's validity to what the guy said before you skewer him for being a peasant.

House approves 90% tax on bonuses for top executives at TARP recipients, as well as AIG clawbacks, despite constitutional issues. Republican Mike Pence isn't impressed. "It's obviously a transparent attempt to divert attention away from the truth that... this administration made these bonus payments possible."

More evidence that the halls of Congress are inhabited by a bunch of bobbleheads. No wonder everything falls apart when those morons are in charge of things.

A foreign solution: Grant resident status to immigrants who buy surplus U.S. houses. "This makes more sense than the president's $275B housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer."

I agree with not giving away citizenship like we are having a going out of business sale. But we could grant a 5year work visa and not charge them for it like we do now. Or maybe even start the process toward citizenship and either cut or waive the fee which is over 5k if I remember correctly. No matter what, you can't just give away citizenship.

Dogbert on bailout hearings.

That is nothing short of fantastic!

Rick Santelli: 21st-century Samuel Adams - or astroturfer?

Who cares if it was planned? It doesn't change the fact that Santelli's message is spot on. I'm sick of busting my ass for other people. Why should I continue to pay for those who make bad decisions? No one have ever bailed me out of a bad move that I have made.

The longer this country continues the further away from the founding principles we find ourselves. It's disgusting. You all think the markets are bad now? Wait until the the gov't defaults on a treasury payment. The way money is being spent in DC it won't be long.

When people finally wake up and realize that the gov't isn't here to be a babysitter to its citizens then we will have a glimmer of hope that we might get out of this mess. Until then, cover your 6, because the bullets are flying.

SEC vs. Chanos: Another silly sideshow, says Felix Salmon.

More BS from the feds. The SEC is a complete joke (as if they haven't proven that in spades over the last few years). Now they attacking a guy like Chanos who has been blowing the whistle on crappy companies for years. Brilliant, but I guess it's close enough for gov't work as they say. I hope he files suit for defamation of character.

Jon Friedman's Media Web weighs in on Jonathan Wald's sudden departure from CNBC (GE): The network's journalism stars have lost their No. 1 cheerleader.

Maybe CNBC can get some real journalists on the air now. Haynes, Kudlow, Kernen, and especially Dennis Kneale - get this crew some pom poms. Kudlow is a political hack, but at least everyone knows that going in. Dennis Kneale is just a plain moron and has to be THE DUMBEST on-air personality. He belongs with the Motley Fools or with someone wannabe hacks. Completely ridiculous that he's on tv doing what he is doing.

The Shedlock-Schiff Affair: A Chronicle

The only thing that matters is what your client accounts look like at the end of the year. Schiff's look like they dove on a hand grenade. Therefore he loses this argument IMO. His long term argument is crap IMO, because there is NO SUCH THING when you are predicting financial collapse. If one really believed that then he/she would get their clients into cash and wait. He didn't, they lost. In the end, that is the only thing that matters.