The drought will probably cause insurers their biggest agricultural loss ever, with gross indemnities of $30B and an underwriting loss of $18B. However, the government will pay for $14B through reinsurance programs and private firms $4B-$5B. Companies with exposure include QBE (QBEIF.PK), American Financial (AFG) and Wells Fargo's (WFC) Rural Community. [View news story]
"government will pay for $14B through reinsurance programs" i.e. Taxpayer bailout insurance at great premiums! Hooray!
More on Baird's survey: A mere 2% of current BlackBerry (RIMM) users plan on buying another BlackBerry. On the other hand, 51% of survey respondents say they'd be interested in an Amazon (AMZN) smartphone, the subject of many rumors. But only 7% claim to be interested in a Facebook (FB) smartphone, which is also rumored to be in development. [View news story]
I can't see too many people who would be willing to get stuck with a FaceBook phone for a 2 year contract given the subconcious suspicion that FaceBook is somehow spying on them and collecting personal data through the phone. Be honest. Don't you have that suspicion? They brought that on themselves, and should know better than to try getting us to take that risk...
Netflix (NFLX +0.5%) crosses over the 1M member milestone in the UK and Ireland. The company says 10% of the population in the region gives up two hours or more of their day to watching TV shows delivered via the Internet. Though competition is stiff with Amazon's Lovefilm and BSkyB offering up online content, it appears the market may be broad enough to feed all three companies. [View news story]
Beware Netflix average viewing hours/customer data! They recently changed the functionality of their player so it automatically continues to stream additional TV series episodes after you fall asleep. I can't find any way to turn off this "feature", and it is going to seriously distort the streaming hours/user data. This is a giant RED FLAG.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opens for comment a proposal to force lenders to offer no-fee, no-point mortgages, so as to make it easier for prospective borrowers to comparison shop. It would also force lenders to offer rate reductions if consumers elected to pay points. Is anyone aware of a mortgage lender that doesn't already offer all of this? [View news story]
The best regulations are those which don't require the regulated to change behaviour (i.e. No cost to the regulated to implement). Ideally this indicates that the regulated is employing best practices, so the regulation will serve to deter them from veering into undesireable practices. Why the attitudes? Would you rather have regulations that change everything and cost a lot to the industry? Do you actually believe that the industry will operate fairly without any regulations? Really?
Google (GOOG) is expected to put Motorola Mobility's cable unit (set-top boxes + infrastructure gear) on sale as early as this fall, sources tell Light Reading. This is in-line with a March NY Postreport. Many have expected Google to sell the cable division, given the discomfort pay-TV providers feel about buying hardware from the owner of YouTube and Google TV. One source adds Google will probably hold onto the division's patents. [View news story]
Yeah. Like I want to invest in a company whose patents are all owned by Google? I suppose they better have some kind of lifetime license at a reasonable rate, but read the fine print (or just trust it...).
The Affordable Care Act actually discourages small businesses from growing, says TheStreet.com's Robert Weinstein. Buried within 2,700 pages of the Act is a requirement that businesses provide all employees with "acceptable" health insurance coverage, but exempts businesses with 49 or fewer full time employees. For small business owners, this is a glaring disincentive not to grow beyond 49 employees as a result of the costs and additional regulations companies face with 50 or more. [View news story]
That's how a conservative describes it: A dis-incentive for small businesses to grow.
A more rational person might describe it as giving a break to small companies to encourage them. They are, after all, supposed to be the main source of new jobs (though that notion is under attack), and giving them this break makes sense.
Would it be more fair to make even the smaller companies provide the same health benefits as larger ones? Is THAT what we want?
The Affordable Care Act actually discourages small businesses from growing, says TheStreet.com's Robert Weinstein. Buried within 2,700 pages of the Act is a requirement that businesses provide all employees with "acceptable" health insurance coverage, but exempts businesses with 49 or fewer full time employees. For small business owners, this is a glaring disincentive not to grow beyond 49 employees as a result of the costs and additional regulations companies face with 50 or more. [View news story]
Yeah. It holds back competition by giving smaller startups a break on health insurance. The smaller companies don't have to provide what the larger ones do, so their lower costs stop them from competing with the larger companies. Then when they are getting a bit larger, they are hit with - wait for it - - - the same requirements as those larger companies. That will definitely hold them back from competing. NOT. Jeez.
Choice Hotels International (CHH) announces that it intends to offer $400M in senior notes due in 2022. The action is likely related to its plan to pay out a special $600M cash dividend to shareholders later this year. [View news story]
Taking on long term debt to pay out cash dividend? Did Bain buy them?
Spain is more likely to ditch the euro than Greece, writes Matthew Lynn - it's too big too rescue, has no "political hang-ups" about its relationship with the EU, and there's a massive Spanish-speaking world for it to grow into. Spain also has a "real" economy, he says, with a solid industrial base and successful export industries. A good read. [View news story]
Lately it looks more like Germany would be better off exiting the EU. Let the rest of them try to issue bonds together.
Politicians' talk of $2.50/gallon gasoline isn't realistic, and the U.S. already enjoys the "cheapest energy in the world,” T. Boone Pickens says. He's “frustrated” that legislation which would put more natural gas into commercial trucks has gone nowhere: "You put natural gas... into heavy-duty trucks, you can bring down the price of diesel gasoline. I don’t understand why they [Congress] don’t understand." [View news story]
Yeah, that's why the Dems want more alternative energy. The GOP wants to put off doing this till they have the White House and can then take credit for bringing energy costs down. Heaven forbid it should happen while Obama is in office. It might make him look good. Screwing America is just an unimportant short term consequence that is justified by the long term good that will be done by getting the GOP back in charge. Suck it up until then.
In spite of a customs official's assurances, retailers in additional Chinese cities are being told to stop selling the iPad due to Apple's (AAPL -1.2%) dispute with trademark holder Proview, according to media reports. The news comes a day after Amazon China yanked the iPad off its virtual shelves. (previously) [View news story]
I'm still confused as to why they can't be sold under another name. Previous reports of units being "siezed" from store inventory are bizarre. If the only claim is against what they are calling them ("iPad"), then that doesn't explain how the units themselves can be an issue. On my iPad-2 the "iPad" name only appears on the backside, and could be covered with a small sticker with some other name on it. So I can understand not being allowed to sell them as "iPad", but having them seized, or preventing them from shipping is not a credibly sane response.
A group of Senators plan to push a cybersecurity bill in Congress that focuses on protecting the nation's water and power systems after hackers continue to break into government agency computer systems - highlighted last fall by a breach at an Illinos utility. The bill would designate specific infrastructure as critical operations that would need improved security protection. [View news story]
I question the wisdom of leaving critical systems connected to the internet. There are ways to isolate critical systems, such as, wait for it... not having them connected. Ta-da!
The company that registered the “iPad” trademark in China doesn’t just want to keep Apple (AAPL) from selling its device inside China; now it wants to keep Apple from shipping iPads across China’s borders as well. Proview’s request comes a day after officials in one Chinese city confiscated iPads from local resellers, and a week after it filed suit to stop Apple from using the iPad name in China. [View news story]
I can understand insisting that Apple call them something other than "iPad", but preventing then from being sold? Seizing them? What am I missing here? There is no reasonable scenario where Apple can't sell the darn things one way or another, under one name or another...
And why did it take so long for the other guys to notice that their "iPad" name had been "stolen"? The delay can only be seen as bad faith in letting Apple get way committed before trying to blackmail them.
Sprint (S) won't count the impact of the iPhone on the company's profits while calculating employee bonuses, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The result is that CEO Dan Hesse's bonus will come in at $1.77M for 2011 instead of $1.53M, with Sprint justifying the move by saying it didn't have the iPhone on its radar when it set performance metrics last year. [View news story]
Good thing the iPhone didn't improve profits, or the reduction in bonuses would have been unfortunate. It's only fair that anything that hurts profits not be considered at bonus time. Right?
Reviews of products and services on sites such as Amazon (AMZN +0.8%), Yelp, and TripAdvisor (TRIP -0.5%) increasingly fall prey to fake postings and paid placements - as online marketing continues to veer off into non-traditional channels. Will the sites be able to keep up with all the spam or will they lose part of their catchet and value under the deluge? [View news story]
Those sites need to change their Terms of Service to offer the ability to place "fake" or "paid" reviews for the price of $1,000,000.00 per review. Then whenever they suspect a review is not legitimate they should invoice the person making the review, and follow up with lawyers...
The drought will probably cause insurers their biggest agricultural loss ever, with gross indemnities of $30B and an underwriting loss of $18B. However, the government will pay for $14B through reinsurance programs and private firms $4B-$5B. Companies with exposure include QBE (QBEIF.PK), American Financial (AFG) and Wells Fargo's (WFC) Rural Community. [View news story]
More on Baird's survey: A mere 2% of current BlackBerry (RIMM) users plan on buying another BlackBerry. On the other hand, 51% of survey respondents say they'd be interested in an Amazon (AMZN) smartphone, the subject of many rumors. But only 7% claim to be interested in a Facebook (FB) smartphone, which is also rumored to be in development. [View news story]
Netflix (NFLX +0.5%) crosses over the 1M member milestone in the UK and Ireland. The company says 10% of the population in the region gives up two hours or more of their day to watching TV shows delivered via the Internet. Though competition is stiff with Amazon's Lovefilm and BSkyB offering up online content, it appears the market may be broad enough to feed all three companies. [View news story]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opens for comment a proposal to force lenders to offer no-fee, no-point mortgages, so as to make it easier for prospective borrowers to comparison shop. It would also force lenders to offer rate reductions if consumers elected to pay points. Is anyone aware of a mortgage lender that doesn't already offer all of this? [View news story]
Google (GOOG) is expected to put Motorola Mobility's cable unit (set-top boxes + infrastructure gear) on sale as early as this fall, sources tell Light Reading. This is in-line with a March NY Post report. Many have expected Google to sell the cable division, given the discomfort pay-TV providers feel about buying hardware from the owner of YouTube and Google TV. One source adds Google will probably hold onto the division's patents. [View news story]
The Affordable Care Act actually discourages small businesses from growing, says TheStreet.com's Robert Weinstein. Buried within 2,700 pages of the Act is a requirement that businesses provide all employees with "acceptable" health insurance coverage, but exempts businesses with 49 or fewer full time employees. For small business owners, this is a glaring disincentive not to grow beyond 49 employees as a result of the costs and additional regulations companies face with 50 or more. [View news story]
A more rational person might describe it as giving a break to small companies to encourage them. They are, after all, supposed to be the main source of new jobs (though that notion is under attack), and giving them this break makes sense.
Would it be more fair to make even the smaller companies provide the same health benefits as larger ones? Is THAT what we want?
The Affordable Care Act actually discourages small businesses from growing, says TheStreet.com's Robert Weinstein. Buried within 2,700 pages of the Act is a requirement that businesses provide all employees with "acceptable" health insurance coverage, but exempts businesses with 49 or fewer full time employees. For small business owners, this is a glaring disincentive not to grow beyond 49 employees as a result of the costs and additional regulations companies face with 50 or more. [View news story]
Choice Hotels International (CHH) announces that it intends to offer $400M in senior notes due in 2022. The action is likely related to its plan to pay out a special $600M cash dividend to shareholders later this year. [View news story]
Spain is more likely to ditch the euro than Greece, writes Matthew Lynn - it's too big too rescue, has no "political hang-ups" about its relationship with the EU, and there's a massive Spanish-speaking world for it to grow into. Spain also has a "real" economy, he says, with a solid industrial base and successful export industries. A good read. [View news story]
Politicians' talk of $2.50/gallon gasoline isn't realistic, and the U.S. already enjoys the "cheapest energy in the world,” T. Boone Pickens says. He's “frustrated” that legislation which would put more natural gas into commercial trucks has gone nowhere: "You put natural gas... into heavy-duty trucks, you can bring down the price of diesel gasoline. I don’t understand why they [Congress] don’t understand." [View news story]
In spite of a customs official's assurances, retailers in additional Chinese cities are being told to stop selling the iPad due to Apple's (AAPL -1.2%) dispute with trademark holder Proview, according to media reports. The news comes a day after Amazon China yanked the iPad off its virtual shelves. (previously) [View news story]
A group of Senators plan to push a cybersecurity bill in Congress that focuses on protecting the nation's water and power systems after hackers continue to break into government agency computer systems - highlighted last fall by a breach at an Illinos utility. The bill would designate specific infrastructure as critical operations that would need improved security protection. [View news story]
The company that registered the “iPad” trademark in China doesn’t just want to keep Apple (AAPL) from selling its device inside China; now it wants to keep Apple from shipping iPads across China’s borders as well. Proview’s request comes a day after officials in one Chinese city confiscated iPads from local resellers, and a week after it filed suit to stop Apple from using the iPad name in China. [View news story]
And why did it take so long for the other guys to notice that their "iPad" name had been "stolen"? The delay can only be seen as bad faith in letting Apple get way committed before trying to blackmail them.
Sprint (S) won't count the impact of the iPhone on the company's profits while calculating employee bonuses, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The result is that CEO Dan Hesse's bonus will come in at $1.77M for 2011 instead of $1.53M, with Sprint justifying the move by saying it didn't have the iPhone on its radar when it set performance metrics last year. [View news story]
Reviews of products and services on sites such as Amazon (AMZN +0.8%), Yelp, and TripAdvisor (TRIP -0.5%) increasingly fall prey to fake postings and paid placements - as online marketing continues to veer off into non-traditional channels. Will the sites be able to keep up with all the spam or will they lose part of their catchet and value under the deluge? [View news story]