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Spain Crumbles

As a Belgian, having lived in the States and Belgium, and now retired at the Spanish coast and prospecting the market for a friend let me add some comments.
By repossessing defaulting properties the Spanish banks are now the largest owners of real estate that they want to get rid of and sell for the value of outstanding debt. Unless initially over appraised there are some opportunities. Commercial property, eg offices are sold with a garanteed return of 5 to 7%.
High end properties (over 1 million Euro and well situated and finished) up to now have not lost that much in value. Owners, unless forced to sell, keep properties hoping for better times.
Middle and low end properties are on sale.
The number of real estate agents has strongly decreased. Those remainig get a bigger share of a much smaller pie and new construction sites are rare.
Spanish banks, although suffering, are in better shape than banks in other European countries because better capitalized and less contaminated with US rubbish. No major bank has defaulted nor received state support, untill now.
The strong Euro is a major handicap for citizens outside the Euro zone although Russians pick up pricey properties.
The strength of the Euro puzzles me given the near bankruptcy of the social security system throughout the continent and the incapacity of any governement to take remedial action, the crumbling economy and non competitive industry strangled by unrealistic demands from worker unions , an aging and decreasing population inundated by refugees from the third world.

The Up-Tick Rule Reimplementation Is Bad for Markets

The uptick rule may be bad for Mr Ginesin but not for the market. The market has no need for speculators abusing the system to get rich quickly while destroying whole industries. The present state of the economy shows what happens when all regulations are ignored and naked shorting is considered as a right!

Jon Stewart on CNBC's 'Worthlessness'

CNBC puts all the blame on Obama! Are they financed by the Bush clan?
Anyway I stopped watching this political nonsence and swiched to Bloomberg.

No Relationship Between Shorting and Stock Prices

This article only makes statements without providing any evidence and seems to be a publicity paper to defend shorting. Enough evidence is available to show that concerted naked shorting with the help of Wall Street brokers have destroyed companies without any economic reason. This practice should be condemned by serious investors and put into the same box as the Ponzi schemes.

GE's Rollover Risk Supports Short Trade

Go ahead and short! I will enjoy the profit when you are scrambling to cover.

Preserving U.S. Economy Over Free Markets (Short Sellers)

Most commentators on this forum seem to find naked shorting normal and request the possibility to run a company down irrespective of intrinsic value or economic consequences. The same people that are supporting this administration and convinced Bush and Co to relax all rules are supprised that the system is breaking down. Holland, a worldpower in the sixteenth century, was reduced to a second class power because of the Tulip bubble. The US has lost power already because of the housing crisis provoked by brokers only interested in fees and banks getting rid of liabilities in CDO's and other rubbish. And now these people find it normal to be able to short more shares than issued and collect money within three days without spending any. If you really want to gamble go to Las Vegas but of course it would be more difficult to break the bank. I sincerely hope that naked shorters will be prosecuted and tha the uptick rule is reinstated such that only bona fide investors take care of the share price.

The Artificial Inflation of Stock Prices, Due to the Short Selling Ban

What a pity. Most people here seem to find naked shorting a normal way of doing business. Of course it is easier with the help of modern software to jump on momentum trades and force and get out within 3 days without spending any real money. Lady do your home work and invest or go to Las Vegas if you prefer to gamble. At least you would not be hurting the real economy.

China Medical to Float $150 Million Note Offering

I would much appreciate if somebody could explain what CMED is doing here. It looks to me that they use a GAAP definition to hide a eal stock dilution. The market seems to read this as a bad operation since the stock lost already 15% in two days.

China Medical: Why the Rapid Growth?

Are you suggesting that the company is channel stuffing to improve quarterly results. Did you did a comparison quarter per quarter? I would much appreciate your comments.