Biobob

CIT's Debt Issues Show Why the Economy Won't Be Picking Up Any Time Soon

The knee-jerk reactions followed by after-the-fact reasoning and explanations of why these extroardinary actions had to be taken, starting back in the fall of 2008 smack of cronyism and an all too close relationship between the Treasury, the Fed regulators, and the regulated banks. The revolving doors between the Gov't. and the handfull of "too-big-to-fail" banks are obvious, and have been noted for some time. Because of these connections, oversight has been clouded by opportunistic greed, and even the sanest of actions (like insuring leveraged risk was covered by adequate capital reserves) were ignored.

The answer I believe, is to force a moritorium of one year on anyone leaving a top spot in Treasury or the Fed, from taking a position in any of the banks that are subject to regulation by those bodies. People like Paulsen, Bernanke, and Geitner should take positions in academia for a year, or another closely related field, to make a clean break, and leave no indications of conflict of interest between their jobs as regulators, and as highly paid executives of the very companies they regulated. My employment contracts with all of the high tech computer companies I've worked for during my career had such clauses incorporated, which I had to sign. I find it almost offensive that these public-minded people will work so hard to get into these government positions, and at the end of their tenure, argue that "It's unfair to prevent me from working in my chosen field, because I sacrificed a lucrative private job so I could serve my country as a public servant." They want their public-mindedness to be one-way only - for their advantage.

I think if they knew they weren't going to immediately reap monetary rewards for their "public-minded zeal", we might get people who are more willing to take on the necessary regulatory steps to keep the economy on track, without the conflict of worrying about how their future employers viewed their public office performance.

A Curious Call from Societe Generale

I recall reading an excerpt in 2004 about "Liar loans", which went...
A first-time home loan applicant, filling out the paperwork for his mortgage application, asked the loan officer,
"I really want to get this house. What should I put down for my weekly paycheck?"
The loan officer asked,
"How big a loan do you want?...

I'm not sure how many things like that actually happened, but the fact people were writing about them, suggests a disease had infected the system a long time before 2008.

Cypress Bioscience Could Be a Buy Given Upcoming FDA Decision

There has recently (6/11/08) been a Phase 3 study of 883 patients done by Pierre Fabre Medicament (France) evaluating Milnacipran for FM, using, I believe, the same measurement criteria as was/ is used by CYPB/FRX in their studies. These results were presented at the EULAR conference in Paris, France on 6/11/08. The results were as significant or more significant than the second Phase III test run by CYPB/FRX, with "significantly greater improvement" in the composite responder test (P>0.0003) and in the key secondary criterion, FIQ score (P>0.015). Reference below, or search <Pierre Fabre milnacipran>.

Pierre Fabre Medicament Announces Submission of a Market ...CASTRES, France, June 11, 2008 – Pierre Fabre Medicament today presented positive Phase III data from their milnacipran fibromyalgia (FM) study in adult ...
drugs.com/.../pierre-f...... - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Q2 2008 Earnings Call

This really looks like a blowout quarter, compared to what was expected. It shows a stringent control of R&D expense, and an effort to expand regional sales, which is what was needed to show these current positive earnings. I am curious as to how the company will meet the future drug trial costs and dates they talk about without an increase in R&D expenditure. I don't find a statement of cash flows either here, or in the full 8K filing. This is important information, as it would give investors a better feel for how much of the company costs are being paid for from company operations, investments, or financing activities. Through 1Q08, the company was financing operations more from the financing activities of stock sales and borrowings, than from opeations. Other data of importance are the changes in accounts receivable, and changes in liabilities. Accounts receivable has shown a nagging tendency to be negative over time, which may indicate some problems with collecting on product sales. Changes in liabilities, however, show a nice reduction in borrowing balance of $3.36M in 1Q08. These are the details in which can be found the "devil", as they say.