Phillip Jain

Isn't the Fed Monetizing Housing Debt?

Great Article Tim.

I noticed that the Fed buying of Fannie & Freddie debt SO FAR is very small compared to the Mortgage backed securities (I assume MBS are from private sellers). Also

This is really fishy. I don't think there was ANY obligation for the Fed to buy MBS first - and later on they will probably have to buy $1 trillion+ of more F&F. Looks like they are crying "the sky is falling" so they can bail out their bank (or other hidden/international) buddies.

Basically, the Fed is AGAIN choosing who gets paid out - and it is all OPAQUE. Just like in AIG.

How Much Did Goldman Know?

Finance is (was) a huge part of US GDP & "exports". Now that leading Wall-street (& London BTW) banks have "poisoned the well", is the rest of the world going to be fooled once more?

I think India used to keep most of its reserves in sterling for many years, now it is buying the worlds gold. Hmm.. don't those "bloody naked fakir buggers trust barclay's or the british pound" anymore?

Nortel Bankruptcy News: $28B Worth of Claims Filed, Global IP Deal, Behind the Scenes

Amazing! Did NT deceive investors on its liabilities?

The Vulcan Bank Meld

I thought WFC was reacting to C's bid?

CEO of Australian Stock Exchange: 'Planned U.S. Regulatory Reforms Are Draconian'

Article leaves readers wanting .. so what caused crash? Are you saying CDOs, CREs, High Leverage, Too Big to fail/moral hazards should be left alone?

Bing's Phenomenal New Visual Search

Henry Ford said, choice is good .. as long as you choose black.

Personally, I disable flash & never install silverlight. Browsers are slow enough as it is. Who wants an elephant on a fat pig on a slow OS?

Mint Gets Eaten by the Borg

We sympathize with Mint - after a certain stage data trust is something people will rely on their banks for, like it or not.
Author says he doesn't trust Intuit. I disagree. Mint (and its users) could benefit greatly from the greater trust people are likely place in a billion dollar 20+year old company like Intuit rather than yet another Web2.0 startup.

Personally, I stopped using TurboTax long before Geithner because I found it buggy and too heavy. Its DRM (from another company's software) basically screwed up my computer many years ago & I never tried it again. I am sure Intuit probably fixed its cash cow by now.

Other older companies in this space (Yodlee) and even Microsoft are still struggling with the trust issue and seem to target other ways than personal finance. Intuit is one of the few non-bank independents that is still struggling away. I think it will benefit even though it may lose money by a "free" model.

In our own experience (buyandmonitor.com) the ability to provide risk management and due diligence to investors is hampered by the fragmented data scattered between brokers & banks. So even though we are not at all transactional, we have to struggle to work over this "data" trust issue.

Brazil Upsets Economists with Decision on In-House Drilling Rigs

THIS IS NOT Nationalism but simple ECONOMIC SENSE. Lets see .. Brazil gets to export its iron ore & oil to china and usa and use US drilling cos & then buy back its iron as converted into rigs at exhorbitant prices. And if PBR doesn't pay, then the oligopoly will decline to cut their prices!

One reason I did not invest in PBR is the cost of drilling DEEP wells is very high and requires $70-$90 oil prices just to break even.

Given $175b why shouldn't Brazil get some competition going and create some jobs. Similarly, China just flew its own civilian aircraft (maybe with Boeing/Lockheed ripped off technology :). Why should it continue to pay 100s of millions per aircraft to Airbus/Boeing.

Notice the nice way Brazil is doing this - ECONOMICALLY speaking. They will force economic price competition from their shipyards, yet retain the Intellectual property & discovery technology aspects of the oil drillers. Yet the message would be clear, hey if we have the oil AND the rigs (and the steel pipes,etc)... you drillers can't drill into Brazil's pocketbook

South African Gold Stocks: No Margin of Safety

David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital shifted his bet from GLD to bullion but either way the yield on both is 0%.

My concern is that the gold miner stocks may not pass on the full benefit of $9000 gold - the windfall profits may get "spent" by the executives. More realistically, however, the gold price may go up and down - so even if earnings are high sometimes, unpredicitability makes it hard for them to issue a steady or rising dividend.

After all nearly all miners sold out hedges to protect their mining operations precisely against this fluctuation for 2-3 decades.

Citi's Pandit Should Learn from AIG's Benmosche About Handling Government

Poor Pandit, is the janitor who has to deal with the tons of crap after the CEO/Elephants leave the stage!

Author is saying "I Humbly bow to thee, all powerful Wall Street CEO that roars like a lion".

What a pile of bunk! The whole problem is the glorification of a few highly bonussed individuals.

By doing this, the author is just playing into the hands of arrogant assholes who perpetuated all this crap.

The WSJ's Unhelpful Aggression

Basically, WSJ is saying get out of our Wall Street buddies faces & don't mess with derivatives, CDS, etc.

Of course, it could be worse. Maybe WSJ post-Murdoch has like broad cast TV become kindergartenish. If so, WSJ should not be read, if it cannot understand the importance of these "arcana".

Three Electric Utilities to Own, Three to Avoid

Cramer had mentioned ED is not hurt by cap-n-trade without giving reasons.

I emailed a few Qs to ConEdison Investor Relations (they dont have a phone number), about impact of capntrade. Specifically I asked how they would be affected 2-4 years out if there was a penalty on C02 emissions and how much %age of their plants would depend.

They DID NOT REPLY!

eBay in Litigation with Skype Founders over Key Technology

Thank god McCain did not win - we could have Meg Whitman running US technology!

China Counterattacks With a 'Buy China' Policy

To understand the Buy Chinese understand some realities.

REALITY: Americans don't normally haggle or bribe or have strong family & social connections. Exactly the opposite in China.

REALITY: Free trade, laisezz-faire in America specifically is more about corporate profits. Greed is Great and big money lobbyists have BIG influence on politicians. Basically no one is minding the "peoples' store".

REALITY: Communist "cadres" are just another totalitarian regime (witness control of speech, press)

REALITY: Corruption is rampant in China, actually even more than other countries like India. While US investors have "clean room" approvals and perceive it as "captialists". The "rules" pretty much require a strong local partner, so the real dirty laundry is washed under the table by ethnic Chinese "partners".

REALITY: Without significant growth India and China's unemployment rates shoot up and discontent stirs. Incumbents have been thrown out repeatedly in Indian states on under-performance. Recently Indian incumbents' farm & labor massive support giveaways were very effectively managed to minimize corruption and helped reelect the Indian Congress to power.
As exports fell sharply, China has had to stimulate its economy massively. While China is more "stable", it is akin to a pressure cooker bomb without a safety release for the steam, when it blows things will be wiped out.

Given these realities :-

* No one in the US govt gives a damm about BuyXYZ policies in Europe, China or PacRim for soft & hard barriers in access to government money paid projects. US has turned a blind eye to Yuan manipulation, dumping, etc. are they going to do anything about them? ha ha ..

* $600B infrastructure spending is a MUCH higher %age of China's GDP than even Bush/Obama's packages.

* Even within the China's Communists, incumbent elites at federal, province and local levels in power change every so many years. Each elite needs to MAKE MONEY for themselves (& to pay for their kids' US/European education/MBAs) while they are in power.

So bottom line, buy Chinese is simply a way to distribute money via local Chinese contacts and of course with "commissions" to the right people. If they buy from foreigners, not only will the contracts will be likely to be more expensive but less chances for paybacks.

Goldman Bonuses: How to Make Friends in a Recession

Privatize the profits (and bonuses) and nationalize the losses.