Roberm73

Consumer bankruptcy filings hit 135,913 in October, an 8.9% jump from September, and 27.9% higher than a year ago. "The debt overhang from literally a decade or more of really high consumer spending and low savings rates has put families in a particularly vulnerable spot," Samuel Gerdano of the American Bankruptcy Institute said. The rise outpaced a 7% M/M increase in business filings.

doomisnigh.blogspot.co...
Looks like the consumer is not the only story.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says lawmakers are considering levying a windfall profits tax on health insurers to help finance reform. The revenue would help make up for a proposed tax on high-income Americans, which is being scaled back. (earlier)

here is thought, let try to cut spending first. Lets get rid of the problems before start new ones. More Taxes are not the answer.

AP's upsetting but not surprising revelation from Tim Geithner's calendar: "Even during his most frenzied days, when Congress is demanding answers or the president himself is calling, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner makes time to talk to a select group of powerful Wall Street bankers." And Simon Johnson wonders how anyone can build an accurate picture of a crisis by chatting with a few top bankers.

Ever day the same story, Wall Street Bankers own the fed. Support Ron Paul and audit the fed.

Alcoa (AA): Q3 EPS ex-items of $0.04 beats by $0.13. Revenue of $4.6B (-34%) in-line. First-half measures making "strong positive impact on our cash position and profitability." Shares halted. (PR) Updated 4:40 p.m.: Shares resume trading, up 6.3% AH.

-34% revenue Glad the worse is over.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) gets another 22 government orders for its H1N1 swine flu vaccine, taking the total number of doses ordered to 440M, worth $3.5B. "The market may look through GSK's pandemic sales as being a one-off," Citigroup says in a note this morning. "However, we believe that pandemic sales will lead to potential earnings surprises..."

The real secert sause behind this? www.biota.com.au/
Well worth picking up if you think pandemic protection is the wave of the future

FDIC releases Q2 stats: 'Problem banks' jumped to 416 from 305 in Q1, the highest in 15 years. Deposit insurance fund fell to $10.4B from $13B in Q1 (protecting more than $4.5T). Bank loan loss provisions rose to $66.9B from $60.8B. U.S. banking industry had a net loss of $3.7B from profit of $7.6B in Q1.

Sounds like the FDIC is saying we are going down the tubes and at an increasing pace.

U.S. bank deposits swell by $500B to a record $7.5T, a sign customers feel the system is working. But large institutions say they're frustrated by a recent trend that sees big customers spreading themselves across multiple banks, in part to sidestep the $250K limit on government insurance.

LOL. Yeah why would you want to customers to be safe.

Dick Bove on Citigroup (C), up 8.7% today: "People are buying it now in expectation of the triple [that shares will be worth three times as much in three years] because they made the decision that all of the negatives that could happen don't mean anything."

A suckers is born every minute.

JetBlue's (JBLU +2.4%) $599 all-you-can-fly pass for Sept. 8-Oct. 8 sells out ahead of schedule on "overwhelming demand." Future offerings of a similar program will depend on just how frequent those fliers are.

I love this idea. If I was a number crunch in a big airlines I would love to offer this option. Suppose my average revenue is $8 per person per year. I come to you and say for 10K a year you can fly all you want. I would have a set revenue stream for the year. Business and companies would love it. Take all the high flyers and buy them a membership. Fixing travel cost. Hell off 10% to companies that buy more than 10. Massive up front revenue. Follow the same rules Jetblue set. 3 day advance.

Susquehanna cuts Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -2.2%) to Neutral, citing "a combination of what we deem to be fair valuation and remaining headwinds facing luxury positioned brands." Firm says diehard customers remain satisfied, but is worried ANF's higher-priced merchandise will continue to pressure transaction size.

Until they take there head out the sand they will not have any kind of profits.

Twitter backlash: According to Gartner's Hype Cycle report, Twitter has already peaked "and will soon experience disillusionment among corporate users." Meanwhile Doug McIntyre wonders who would miss Twitter if it simply disappeared.

Come on now, all the Web 2.0 stuff has uses. Twitter is great during live event for passing along information in a convient fashion. Yes there are people who talk about lot of crap but some things are good. Like all technology it will decline but move into a more mature technology that has it use.

NYSE says that its Web site is unaffected by what look like coordinated denial of service attacks over the weekend against Nyse.com, Nasdaq.com, and sites including FAA, DoD and Homeland Security as well as the Washington Post and South Korean sites. The State Department says attacks are ongoing.

North Korea just trying to cause problems

Economist Robert Frank discovers a Ph.D-powered economic perpetual motion machine. Mark Steyn explains: "The stimulus will work because enough economists are saying it will work that their prestigious postnominal credentials will impress enough of the masses into thinking it will work, which in turn will make it work." (via)

Hmm..A Sucker born every minute.

After its downgrade of California's bond rating on June 25, Fitch has further demoted the state to BBB - one grade above junk.

Look for more problems in the muni markets. CA is far from alone.
There are 5 other states right now in without budgets. Either they fix it soon or they will default.

Now that Bank of America (BAC) will assess overdraft fees 10 times a day instead of five, Felix Salmon takes on the scandal of the charges, which are raking in $30B for the banks: The median amount triggering overdrafts is $36, meaning implicit "loan" interest in the thousands of percent, resulting in an unconscionable "tax on poverty."

Where is the vileness that is usaully heaped on check cashing companies who charge as little as 350% or up to 500%.