davidbdc

In a growing clash between GM CEO Fritz Henderson and his board, chairman Ed Whitacre said he's not comfortable with management's 2010 forecasts, and indicated Henderson's timetable for an IPO - the second half of 2010 - may be too optimistic. Rather than worrying about selling shares, the former AT&T chief says GM should focus on repaying the $6.7B it owes to taxpayers.

How about focussing on making some damn good cars that people will want to buy. Get the Volt to actually get 300 MPG. If they make great cars again everything else will mentioned will happen. Keep making 2nd tier cars and nothing will change.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick warns untamed U.S. unemployment could trigger loan defaults and drag on consumption, hobbling a nascent recovery. "You're going to have problems with delinquencies of credit card loans, consumer loans, people won't be able to pay their mortgages," he told reporters in Singapore. While Zoellick concedes government spending will fuel growth through the middle of 2010, he's worried what happens afterward.

Afterwards we storm the gate!!!

Only problem is probably about half the people will sit around and want the other half to do all the storming for them.

Just three months after taking the job, AIG (AIG) CEO Robert Benmosche has told the board he's ready to quit. Insiders say Benmosche feels compensation restrictions imposed by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg have left him in an impossible situation, without the ability to retain talent.

Poor Robby.....is the job turning out to be difficult. I mean he's only getting paid 10.5 million so I can understand why he would expect it to be a "country club" type position.

I have a way to "incentivize" the AIG executives (that ruined the company) to stay and clean up their mess.....how about a simple law out of Congress charging any AIG executive that leaves 100% taxes for the rest of their lives. You break it you fix it buddy. Those crooks in London that wrote CDO insurance against no assets should all be doing this work from a jail cell!!

Teddy Roosevelt used to say "walk softly and carry a big stick". Well I think its time Obama took a trip to Wall Street and got out the big stick and bashed some heads. He should let these incredibly talented people know that if they don't do what is right and fix this mess the IRS will be at their door 24/7 and they'll be looking for receipts for their third grade milk purchases for the rest of their lives.

So now these guys think they are doing "god's work" but of course they need more money to do "god's work". Somehow I think God is holding his head in his hands muttering to himself that they must have skipped most of the chapters!!!

Vonage (VG) isn't doing all that well since Mark Lefar joined as CEO a little over a year ago, so why does the company's 10-Q say they just hiked his travel allowance from $250K to $600K for private (i.e. jet) travel, plus more money for commercial travel?

Its not how you do at the job.....its just the mere act of getting the job. Thats what now determines who gets the riches. Once your the CEO, your friends move onto the board and your buddies become VP's......you milk it for 7-8 years letting shareholders get screwed while you earn $5-$10 million per year (while spending another couple of million to enjoy your life!).

Thats the ticket!!

Wells Fargo (WFC) faces the payback dilemma: It wants to return $25B in bailout funds, but to do it while keeping its Tier 1 ratio up means either diluting shareholders or paying hefty government dividends. Daniel Indiviglio suggests diluting now with a commitment to repurchase over the two years it would have taken to repay the funds with profits.

How about they just pay the interest on the loan......isn't this exactly how we got into this mess. Rather than do the hard work of earning enough money to pay back the loan they look for the "easy and clever" way around doing hard work.

Publishers Wake Up: Online Readers Are Paying You - In Attention

I'll go with Rupert. Just like in 1999 business's were being valued on "eyeballs", this nonsense about everything must be free will also pass.

Those that want to read the Wall Street Journal will pay. Whether on-line or in hard copy. Same goes for other content. If you want to watch a movie, you'll pay. You'll probably pay much less than you do today and will be able to take it from the internet onto your big screen TV....but you'll still pay.

I'd rather sell my content to 1,000 people than to give it away to 2,000. Very few businesses are going to be sustainable with a model that gives away the content and charges advertisers. Its kind of like you have to get the same number of people that attend an NFL game only on an ongoing basis....if you can do that - get 70,000 to show up then you can charge advertisers (just like they do in stadiums....but your stadium on the internet is virtual) . There will be a small number of them, but most businesses have to charge for what they create.

Why I'm Still Buying Johnson & Johnson at These Levels

while I enjoy your articles and appreciate the work that you share, on J&J I think you miss the most important point.

8 years ago Ralph Larsen retired. His replacement, Bill Weldon, has basically driven the car into the ground. While they still have some great businesses, some of their businesses have been caught and passed by competitors. They have wasted huge amounts of money on acquisitions that were blatent failures - Alza, Scios, Conner. They have had 3 major headcount reductions over the past four or five years. They are now investing in seemingly every bio-tech company as a replacement for their own R&D (maybe because Pharma was run by a BMS reject Christine Poon, but friend of Bill's, for 6 years).

Every time that I have interacted with a J&J employee in the past five years, I've heard negative things. Contrast that to in the 90's I would hear positive things. Its not scientific but where there is smoke there is often fire.

If you want a 3% dividend that will probably continue for the next 10 years, then J&J is right for you. But be forewarned that this has the look/feel of a ship without a leader - and one now consisting of his hand picked friends, and given the length of time they've had this Weldon the damage may be done. I think the fact that last week he bought $8MM+ land in Florida and then 2 days later announces he's firing 8,000 people speaks volumes to the type of leadership now running J&J.

I hold the stock and will keep receiving the dividend but won't probably ever buy more, I haven't been very pleased with the performance the past 8 years - and not just the numbers. While I'm very unpleased with the manner in which executive pay has ballooned with no results to justify those payments. I'm equally unpleased that this great franchise seems to be just another company taken over by greedy, short term executives.

Good luck

Reading International: Strong Q3 Earnings

RDI yield = zero

enough said.

Wilbur Ross: Commercial Real Estate Is Next (Manageable) Shoe to Drop

Well, while I don't disagree that the CRE market is severely impacted, and that there are going to be a lot of BK properties......keep in mind that Wilbert is actively trying to buy these same properties at absolute rock bottom prices (and I don't blame him for that at all - its what should have happened with normal homes). So what he is really saying is that "hey, you think this is worth 50% of the previous deal, but my money says its worth 35%!!! - Sell it to me!!!"

And could we come up with another phrase.....this shoe has supposedly been dropping on us for about 6 months now!!

First Industrial: Contrarian Long Idea Ready to Join the Rally

FR is a dog. Poor business strategy of constantly "flipping" properties caught up with them when prices reversed. Their occupancy is much weaker than their competitors.

Until FR puts forward a clear strategy, including a dividend policy it will sit where it is. The equity offering simply shows that it has minor league management and no clear direction. Not too mention its a big dilution for existing shareholders and lessens future dividends.

Its worth a bet, but you better be willing to hold onto it for 12-24 months before you see something from your bet.

David Leonhardt's look at how wages are rising - up 1% in real terms - has Derek Thompson thinking deflation, and he's not sure if wage increases are "good news, or bad news with lipstick."

Not sure, but as someone that relies on working to feed the family I'll take whatever increase might come my way.

From a theoretical perspective I don't see some deflation as being bad. If it becomes sustained for a multi-year period then we'll have a problem.

For Asia to achieve a robust recovery in a soft-export new world, it will have to tackle two issues, IMF says on its blog: 1) Firms that hoard cash but don't invest. 2) Wealthy households that won't consume.

I don't see how wealthy families that won't consume is a problem. In general it is a good thing that people individual save and invest. The USA could use more saving and less consumption. I can understand why the rest of the world isn't eager to push their citizens to emulate Americans when it comes to personal finance.

Regulating Wall Street Like Las Vegas: Yes We Can

I would disagree with your comment on card counting is akin to insider trading. 1. counting cards isn't illegal. 2. counting cards is using your mind to make decisions.........if hedge funds simply stuck to using their minds then there wouldn't be insider trading!!! and 3. individual casinos may ask you to stop playing if your winning too much money but that is all they can do. What you win is yours. Whereas, what you get from insider trading can and should be taken from you.

Aside from that, I agree with your article.....but the problem is that we've had decent regulations for decades...they just aren't enforced at all anymore and everyone knows it. We need a strong leader, ie not Shapiro who is part of the problem, to clean things up.

See any naked short selling prosecutions lately? Didn't think so....Shapiro must go.

David Rosenberg on 'The Mother of All Jobless Recoveries'

Given the fact that unemployment is pointing to depression but we are in a recovery, you should conclude that this recovery will fade once government stimulus is removed
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I draw a very different conclusion. We are developing a Western European economy with a permanent underclass. I think too much is made of the 17.5% that includes "everyone". We have always had folks that work on the "fringes" of the economy and while would agree that number has probably doubled over the past few years, the core 10.2% should be our primary concern.

The only way to turn this around is to cut social spending and increase infrastructure spending and personal savings (which also leads to investment). And that will take time and discipline.

We face much graver political risks. Our politicians are too cowardly to cut social security. They don't have the backbone to build 50 new nuclear power plant with a new elecricity grid. We need to raise taxes on gasoline to reduce demand. We need to balance the budget immediately, not "sometime after I'm out of office". No increase in health care spending until we develop a car battery that can run on all our new nuclear generated electricity. No more putting off to tomorrow what needs to be done today.

Americans need to be told the truth - you've lived way above your means. Everyone will have to sacrifice and it won't feel good for several years. And before you blame some political party - look in the mirror......you believed all the politicians lies when you had to know they couldn't possibly be true.

Home Purchase Tax Credit Extended: Is This Wise?

Virtually anything that involves our money going to the government is not wise!!!

Should it be any surprise that the sponsor of this bill is a real estate agent?

We have a housing crisis because people bought more house than they could afford and one of the solutions is to try to keep housing prices artificially 8000 higher?

Idiots