mcrem51

Paul Krugman, Please Call Ben on This 'Printing Money' Thing

Hard not to agree with Kalani. I follow you on Twitter as well, where I enjoy your commentary and even your snarky opinions about the current administration. I may not be as conservative as you are, but I don't read Krugman and I feel like I was just fed a weekend's worth of Fox News (since you're not watching CNBC or Kudlow anymore). Maybe it was the "Extreme Left Wing Hack" intro ...


On May 31 01:37 PM Kalani Martin wrote:

> Todd - I normally enjoy your postings on this site, when they stick
> to financial markets and economics. This posting is purely political
> and has no place on this site. I'm neither a democrat or republican,
> liberal or conservative (and am not a Paul Krugman fan). Those terms
> oversimplify issues that are way too complicated to be defined by
> labels. Lets get past these silly labels and maybe as a country we
> can get something accomplished!
>
> One thing that amazes me is how focused people are on budget deficits.
> The real issue here is debt, not a one year deficit. One fact I'd
> like to point out is that when George W. Bush took office in 2000,
> the national debt stood at just over 3 trillion. When he left office
> after two terms, the national debt stood at just over 10 trillion.
> No one has done more to indebt this country, that is an inarguable
> fact! All the quibbling about how much Obama and Congress is spending
> now is too little too late. At this point ideology is irrelevant
> and I'm disappointed with politicians of every stripe.
>
> Let's get back to markets and economies and identifying ways to make
> money no matter what's currently happening.

The AP, Not News Aggregators, Is the Problem

Jeff - great ideas here. I'm curious; sometime last year I read that CNN was attempting a startup to replace the AP. They apparently launched the idea by flying newspaper execs down to Atlanta to discuss the next steps. But I've heard nothing of it since. Clearly, there's an opportunity here for somebody like CNN, which already has the bandwidth, to see some of these ideas through ... especially while the AP goes down its portal path. Any updates on what progress, if any, CNN has made?

General Growth's Offer Provides Further Asset Value Clarity

GREAT question!


On Mar 05 05:02 PM Iseegoodvalue wrote:

> So Reggie, since you have indepth knowlege about GGP, do you think
> their debt exceeds the total value of the properties from a cash
> flow basis and replacement value?

General Growth's Offer Provides Further Asset Value Clarity

REGARDING SF: We broke the story of GGP selling these assets. If you want to see a pdf of the offering, which confirms Square Footage from GGP, click here: www.citybizlist.com/ls...

The problem with these particular assets is that they mirror the assets General Growth owns in its suburban portfolio. In other words, the properties are located in tourist-heavy CBDs, but each of them are tenanted with exact same retail options those tourists have in their suburban hometown mall. Certainly, at one point, this increased the value of these malls because the tenants were considered credit-worthy. But NOW, it's clear the opportunity for these assets is to localize them and once again make them relevant to the areas where they reside. Their locations are GREAT, no doubt, but I don't think their value has been maximized by GGP's portfolio profile.

General Growth Properties' Game of Chicken

For this and any other type of question, I strongly advise investopedia.com for basic information. My guess is it'll provide the answers you're looking for.

Things Not All That Bad at General Growth Properties

I think his point is simply that the whole is worth way too much less than the sum of its parts. I've been watching this company thinking it would go bankrupt everyday for three months now. But the second generation family that sits on its board will seemingly do anything - everything - to avoid bankruptcy. On top of that, I'm not so sure the federal government will allow the nation's second largest mall owner to fail. It can't get extensions on its loans, it hasn't been able to sell its assets, but the banks don't appear especially interested in taking it over, which they've been able to do since the company violated its forbearance agreements last week. What’s next for this company?

Rick Santelli: The Best Five Minutes in CNBC History

This whole article is based on some guy from Berwyn (seriously - wikipedia Berwyn to learn about the "Spindle" and S&L industry for which it is famous) who claims to "know Chicago politics as I do every square inch of my body." That's the silly foundation for his opinion here folks.
I think most of us are irritated with the idea of helping the irresponsible, but also know our home values would be seriously hindered if we do nothing. I don't know what the answer is, but at this point, I'm rooting more for Obama than Santelli. And Smicklas can go back to blogging for the Berwyn Chamber of Commerce.

Rick Santelli: The Best Five Minutes in CNBC History

This whole article is based on some guy from Berwyn (seriously - wikipedia Berwyn to learn about the "Spindle" and S&L industry for which it is famous) who claims to "know Chicago politics as I do every square inch of my body." That's the silly foundation for his opinion here folks.
I think most of us are irritated with the idea of helping the irresponsible, but also know our home values would be seriously hindered if we do nothing. I don't know what the answer is, but at this point, I'm rooting more for Obama than Santelli. And Smicklas can go back to blogging for the Berwyn Chamber of Commerce.

Homebuilders Agree: January Was A Good Month

Judy - My tendency toward ADD always appreciates your culling of high and low points. Keep up the good work.



On Feb 10 08:13 AM SA Editor Judy Weil wrote:

> Dear Equity Has No Clue,
>
> I'm neither long the homebuilders, nor trying to push up or down
> those stocks. I don't own, have not owned, nor am I short any of
> them. I am simply pointing out that the homebuilders mentioned above
> all noted an upturn in sales in January. I don't have the slightest
> clue as to whether this means the housing slump is turning or is
> just pausing for air before the industry slips further in to the
> doldrums.
>
> The homebuilder executives themselves weren't certain. Pulte's, as
> mentioned above, doesn't see any improvement on the horizon, while
> Ryland's and Horton's were more positive on the general trend.<br/>
>
> I once read an article on Seeking Alpha written by a housing analyst
> who said he was watching the conference calls of homebuilders. He
> said the moment they displayed any sort of positive data or noted
> any positive trends, then that would be the first indication of a
> turn in the market for him. I, of course, don't have any idea if
> that is true, but for those that do subscribe to that theory, then
> here you have the first signs of a positive trend.
>
> Many of the articles that I have read on housing point to further
> declines ahead, so I would say one month's sales would be pretty
> risky to use as a bottom indicator.
>
> The point of this article, and conference call excerpts in general
> is to highlight how much information we can glean from the free conference
> call transcripts that Seeking Alpha offers.
>
> Whether you buy in to homebuilder-executive-... or not, the fact
> that this trend can be gleaned by simply reading all of their transcripts,
> which are free and easily accessible and don't take too long to read,
> is probably the most important part of this entire article!
>
> All the best,
>
> Judy

Newspaper Industry: Evolution or Catastrophe?

I'm sorry, Bill. I hate to disagree (because I've loved the newspaper industry), but it's plain and simple: companies no longer reach consumers that spend money by advertising in the newspaper.

The Shallowest Generation

Kudos on a great article. If you want a great retort, read here:

www.nytimes.com/2008/1...

Why TARP Has Failed

This makes way too much sense to be the public policy we adopt.

LA Times: Zell is Not the Problem

You're missing the point Mr. Fredrickson. The only reason Mr. Jarvis compares the Tribune to Fannie and Freddie and Lehman is to prove that old, venerable institutions can die.
Clearly, revenue lost from classified, recruitment and online initiatives has hurt the daily newspaper. But the newspaper was never allowed to change or adapt, in part due to shareholders, but mostly because of the newsroom.
Editors - still to this day! - think a front page story is more important than breaking a story online.
I fall into the key demographic sought by advertisers, and root for newspaper companies like Tribune by subscribing to their product(s) and patronizing their advertisers when I can. Clearly I enjoy reading good journalism.
But lawsuits like this prove that the culture Mr. Zell's been trying to change never will with the writers and editors currently in place, because those writers and editors would rather see Zell fail than keep their jobs. To me, this is idiocy.
Editorial ego has led to the daily newspaper's downfall, and as a daily newspaper consumer, I’m angry at that.