fx maven

Instead of the $30B in loans it requested, GM (GM) will get enough aid to restructure over the next 60 days. COO Fritz Henderson will take over as CEO immediately. Rick Wagoner is out. Shares -17.1% premarket.

Wow. Finally the day of reckoning may be here. So is going to pay the pensions and health care costs for the millions of GM retirees, and their counterparts in related industries ? - No doubt, here comes (finally) universal health care and cost control. Maybe people will even admit that Medicare works better than the "free market" - same or better quality, lower costs....

Defensive Stock Opportunities Excluding Healthcare

Guys, a dollar is always worth a dollar in nominal terms, even if it appreciating in EUR terms. MO's functional currency is USD so there is no impact on results. MO cannot capitalize on stronger USD, this would occur only if their net liabilities were priced in EUR.

Market Stress Leads to More Smoking, Switch to Cheaper Brands

This article should refer to MO, PM is only active outside the United States. Got Fact Checking?

Forget About a V-Shaped Recovery. Maybe a W. Or L. And What About $?

what a waste of time. USD/EUR is already practically at the expert forecast of 1.45 at 1.445. USD has no legs to stand on, especially with the negative real yield vis-a-vis inflation. Comments anyone?

Russian Oil Is Worth the Risk

dear h-wood. i trust that you really have had alot of contact with russians, because you describe their habit of lying perfectly!. In fact Russians and Africans are the exact same in this respect, either they lie like they breathe, or or they couldn't tell the truth if they gave it their best effort....excect that Russians use their lies strategically, cleverly, and the Africans just expect Europeans to believe everything they say out of guilt from slavery...when I am out of Russia for two weeks everything goes pear-shaped without fail!!

Russian Oil Is Worth the Risk

Dear All ;

Russian petroleum production overall is declining. The easy oil in Western Siberia is already extracted and the money is in Putin's hidden accounts. The Sakhalin energy and Exxon projects on Sakhalin are the worst managed projects I have seen in my 25 years in Finance. There is oil as well in offshore Kamchatka but it would be a logistical and financial nightmare to try to manage these projects - that's why almost no body is there despite the recent $145 oil price. There is alot of Natural Gas, but the Sakhalin Gas has yet to reach market, and it will continue to be delayed as it always has for the last 5 years. And then compare that to sticking a pipe in the ground in the Middle East and selling the oil and gas at a gigantic profit. The Iraqis are piggybacking on American wartime expenditure and hoarding their easy-to-extract-oil. As they have almost no marginal costs they are the new 800 pound gorilla in the oil and gas business, Sakhalin and offshore Kamchatka are completely uncompetitive by comparison. To say nothing of the onerous Russian oil taxes (that even Gazprom and Rosneft complain about). Please, go to Kazakhstan and the Russian Far East and take your lumps in the oil business before you lead people to a certain mauling in the angry bear's claws.....

Dividend Paying Stocks: Don't Discount Them Just Yet

too often share buy backs simply mask share grants to management. you have to look at number of shares outstanding over a 3-5 year time period to truly evaluate share buy backs and a company's real financial policy. and there are companies that reduce number of shares outstanding and pay nice dividends - ITY for example.

Has the Dollar Bottomed?

the USD will not appreciate as long as real yields are negative. At least EUR has a real yield at all .; 5%-1%. This basic fact, plus the fiscal collapse of the US Government, the continued implosion of the US housing market, and the banks who are tied to this albatross make the dollar fatally weak. Yes, Eurozone has its own problems (Spain, Italy) - in sum The premise of the article is good but the monikers USD and EUR should be reversed.