Kirribilli Capital

Jeff Macke's bizarre attack on fellow CNBC commentator Dennis Kneale is making the rounds. If anyone has the faintest idea what he's talking about, let us know in the comments.

I saw it. Could be a small manic episode; maybe he is bipolar and off his meds.

5 Natural Resource ETFs and ETNs to Watch

Anyone know if there is any roll-over/contango risk, or any other weird statistical risk, like daily compounding, in these ETNs, especially JO? I ask because coffee futures have been on a tear, and JO has participate but not as much as I would expect?

Don't be so quick to sneer at Rupert Murdoch's (NWS) plans to charge for web content, Bryan Appleyard says: "If the web makes no money or, at least, not enough to sustain proper news operations - and it doesn't - then you will either get no proper news, or just none on the web."

I would pay for high quality news, like Bloomberg or the FT. But Murdoch's papers -- you can't be serious? He should pay me. Even the WSJ sucks nowadays. I used to subscribe and pay close to $300 a year. Now, I don't bother and haven't missed it. Much better and deeper news and analysis, often for free, on the web.

Picking on Geithner

Geuthner is and has been a total tool of the banking industry. That's all he cares about. He buys into the axiom that Wall Street must thrive for Main Street to survive. Others don't.

Fast Money will lose its host by month's end unless they come to terms. Jon Friedman thinks Dylan Ratigan may shine brighter elsewhere. If his fans follow, CNBC (GE) could take a ratings hit.

None of these guys have much traction, the ability to take viewers to another network. It's cable. 100,000 viewers at any given moment. 10,000 at Fox Business Network. That as many people who read the Boca Raton News or the DumbAssDaily each day.

All that aside, I doubt there are five people out there who care what Dylan Ratigan has to say; he's been one of the stock market hype-sters for the past five years. That show Fast Money promotes gambling not trading for stupid gullible small time retail traders, most of whom should be watching Suzie Orman instead. It's just a slicker version of Mad Money. It's all just a joke.

Video: Jim Cramer responds to Jon Stewart. (previously I, II)

Okay, no one takes Cramer or CNBC seriously. If you do, then you're an idiot. But, I don't watch much TV. Who is the Joe Scarborough asshole on this video? And who is that absolutely mute woman sitting next to him. And did I spy the master-fabricator, the white Jayson Blair, Mike Barnacle sitting on this panel! Wow, what a rogue's gallery!

If New York Times (NYT) missed the boat on going digital, why does it rule the web?

I worked at the Times for 14 years, and can easily answer your question. The Times has the smartest journalists on the planet -- and the dumbest business people, some of them former journalists. Don't get the quality of the editorial side and lack of quality on the business side confused. They are night and day. The paper almost went bankrupt in the 70s, too, incidentally. It could happen. The current leader is renown as a rich kid who inherited the franchise and lacked the brains to do much with it. (Details are in many a story you can Google.) He's currently running the company on a credit card, paying 14.5 percent interest to Carlos Slim. I'd be laughing if it didn't mean losing my (modest) pension.

Sorkin's Questions to Bank CEOs, Answered

They are insolvent. Shut them down. Sell the assets. Take the hit. Move on.

TWM: An ETF Arbitrage Opportunity

If you knew (or at least that was your bet) that an index (or stock) was going to "plummet in a sustained fashion over time", why would you even putz around with a 2X ETF, when there are options and futures out there that give you much more leverage.

Seems to me the only way to make money with these inverse ETFs over time is to short them. The negative compounding on price down days is going to eat away at them eventually, almost like theta on an option.

You would need a helluva run and then the prescience to get out, to make money on these day-trading tools. Look at some of the long-term performances.

Analyzing Dividend Capture Strategies

There is a serious flaw in the author's assumption about the holding period, when using a deep ITM call to hedge the long stock position in a dividend capture strategy. As long as you have that hedge on, the 61 day period doesn't start yet. See: www.irs.gov/publicatio...