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  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    >> "Car-accident victims with pending lawsuits and those who won damages against GM before it filed for bankruptcy will still be unable to bring claims against the new GM.]

    Tort bar raised to a new high. " >>

    Not really. There's winners and losers in every bankruptcy.

    Probably $1000 of every new car's cost is for lawyers and litigation. Same for $100 or more of every insurance premium. We - each and every one of us - pay a very high price for our litigious society. 5% of the world's population with 90% of the world's lawyers doesn't come cheap.

    Our national health care cost would drop 30% without the cost of litigation/insurance.
    Jun 29 09:25 am |Rating: +10 -2 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    >> "MSFT may move jobs offshore. Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer plans to move some employees offshore if Congress enacts legislation to impose higher taxes on the foreign profits of U.S. firms. " >>

    When will the "fools on the hill" (Congress) scrap corporate income taxes and replace them with a sales tax ?? The entire US tax code is nothing but tax breaks for those in favor and penalties for others. And it requires a HUGE bureaucracy to administer and enforce it.

    And while I'm on the soapbox, when will Gates' Microsoft stop refusing to hire qualified Americans and instead fly in tens of thousands of Indians and Pakistanis at slave wages ? It's antiAmerican, treasonous behavoir. But it inflates MS bottom line and in this epoch, whatever generates profits is what corporations do.

    Moral decline + ethical decline = economic decline. My daddy taught me what's cheap usually costs more in the long run. Sometimes even a dirt farmer is smarter than the talking heads in DC and Wall St.
    Jun 04 09:16 am |Rating: +6 -2 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    It's not crooked dealing, it's the law. Big firms have legal contractual agreements with labor, dealers, several classes of investors, emloyees - and, unfortunately, each one has legal rights and lawyers to enforce them.

    Canned bankruptcies are a complex problem when various interests choose to fight it out in court.
    May 26 09:20 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Welcome back, Eli. A fine "breakfast buffet" of info, tho the news is less than rosy. Doubleguns states the overall picture well.

    Regulating derivatives is critical and essential. The ONLY reason AIG had to be rescued and given $Billions of taxpayer money was their mess of stupid CDS's, for which they retained no funds to back them.

    As of the beginning of 2008, the world was awash in over 1,000 $Billion - yes, that's a $Trillion - face value of derivatives, most of which had no legal backing requirement. The current financial crisis was caused by the failure of only a small portion of them. We are still at significant risk from the rest.

    As for "Cetinist" optimism, the truth is that there's money to be made in EVERY market, all the time. I made money last year (barely) and I'm well ahead this year. That says exactly nothing about the underlying economy which is still swirling in the bowl.

    Some people made fortunes in the Great Depression in the markets. That doesn't mean the economy is good. It means they are good traders.
    May 15 08:39 am |Rating: +10 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    Ominous overtones to the breakfast menu this morning. It appears that the true nature of the US automakers is finally sinking in. The Chinese who've invested heavily everywhere are getting more aggressive in their demands to safeguard their investments - Rio can ill afford to lose Leng. The usually conservative Swiss banks are hemmoraging along with the rest. And the federales want to stuff mortgage losses down the throats of already weakened financials that desperately need the earnings to stay afloat.

    Ben Franklin ( I believe) said, "A stitch in time saves nine". Oh how we wish our Congress and regulators weren't all asleep at the controls while this mess was brewing.

    And Oh how we wish they'd fix the holes before pouring in more money. The talking heads all keep saying we need more confidence. And I agree. But just how confident can we be in a system unchanged from how it got here and the folks in charge wanting to throw money around recklessly rather than analyze the problem and fix it first ?
    Feb 09 12:15 pm |Rating: +3 -1 |Link to Comment
  • Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News [View article]
    JasonR - While the mall parking lots are full, perhaps you haven't seen the customers' shopping carts. They are NOT full. There are a lot of people "shopping the sales" and looking for this or that specific bargain.

    It's a lot like the economy in general - it's the same, but it's different. If you REALLY want to see what's happening go talk to the good folks who prepare and serve free meals in the nation's churches and NGO's. They will give you an earful of the increase in demand and the decrease in food contributions. Many have double the diners.

    Looking at the malls for evidence of financial hardship is like looking for poverty on Wall Street.
    Feb 09 11:58 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment
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