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    • Boone Pickens' BP Capital Funds Down Significantly [view article]
      Stive, is your site attempting to have me download a virus?

      I think a lot of the fast money is moving out of oil and natural gas related investments, but the fundamentals still exist for high prices in the long run, even with a global recession, conservation and alternative energy.       Oct 11 04:30 PM
    • Kinder Morgan: Energy Infrastructure Fee Machine [view article]
      This is a lot of caterwauling over a non-issue. The general partner is getting 50% of KMP's -incremental- cash flow, not 50% of all cash flow. The partnership has to achieve a certain (quite large) amount of distributions to hit the high splits, where 50% of incremental cash flow goes to the GP. This provides incentive for the GP to run the partnership to maximize cash flow.

      If you think this is unfair to small investors, first, most MLP investors are institutions. Second, there's many worse cases of Wall Street being unfair to small investors.

      If you're really dissatisfied, you have three options. One, pony up the cash and start your own MLP. Two, find an MLP that doesn't have incentive distributions for general partners. Legacy Holdings LP (LGCY) is one which I recommend. Three, there are publicly traded general partners, like Enterprise GP Holdings (EPE) and Magellan Midstream Holdings (MGG), both of which I recommend.       Oct 11 09:36 AM
    • European Banks To Consider - Barron's [view article]
      Of the banks listed here, I think that HSBC and perhaps Barclays are good buys right now and aren't "as rotten as America's". HSBC, I think is in strong shape. In contrast, RBS paid far too much for ABN Amro, and is in poor shape. I don't care how cheap it gets, I'd stay away. Oct 05 01:48 PM
    • Three Stocks We're Long With High Conviction [view article]
      Tilson runs a hedge fund. He's not obligated to tell non-owners when he purchases stocks. You can buy into Tilson Focus, his mutual fund, if you like. In fact, it's doing relatively well this year, having only lost about 15%. Oct 02 07:52 PM
    • WaMu Shows, Again, Smart Money Can Be Wrong [view article]
      FYI, Bill Nygren finally learned his lesson and sold out of Wamu in Oakmark, Oakmark Select and Oakmark Global Select. There's a brief announcement on the website with a promise to explain his reasoning further in the coming shareholder report.

      I'm using tabs in Firefox. The page was titled "A Message on Washington Mutual". I have a number of tabs open, and I saw "A Mess..."       Sep 27 12:40 AM
    • Does the House Republican Resistance Make Sense for Their Constituency? [view article]
      Have you ever run a small business?

      It's pretty common to use a line of credit or short term financing when you have a bill that's due before your cash comes in. Credit card terms are worsening, as the author mentioned.

      In addition, most people need a bank loan to start the business.

      Like it or not, debt enables capitalism. Of course no one should be running up excessive debt in this environment, but we still need lenders.       Sep 26 06:45 AM
    • Read It and Weep for the USA [view article]
      "I would suggest that readers here look at how the Asian Financial crisis resolved itself. It was done only with the intervention of the government thru the set up of a unit to buy over failed assets. These govt vehicles actually made money - a few years later."

      Agreed. Some folks here are speaking as if the $700 bn the US Treasury has committed is being flushed down the toilet. It is not. The Treasury will presumably be selling the securities when market conditions stabilize. As I said earlier, it's reasonable to assume that there will be many defaults. However, it's not reasonable to assume that the securities are now worthless.       Sep 21 04:58 PM
    • Read It and Weep for the USA [view article]
      I'm going to reiterate what the last commenter said. Do those of you who are upset at this 'bailout' have a counterproposal?

      As for me, I approve of the plan as written except that I would want more oversight written in. There is an urgent financial crisis. It can be ameliorated by rapid action.

      As to the Democrats' wishes to protect 'Main Street', I'd rather that they pass Paulson's plan first, assess the crisis and then pass a subsequent plan to assist 'Main Street'. As I said, deal with the crisis as rapidly as possible.       Sep 21 01:32 PM
    • Buffet Scoops Up an Energy Casualty [view article]
      Is there anyone who will take me up on the following bet: under Berkshire, Constellation will eliminate its trading division. Sep 21 08:39 AM
    • Bank of America: Bank on This Opportunity [view article]
      On paper this is a good deal. But there are too big hurdles.

      One is BoA's capital position. Merrill may have purged itself of a lot of iffy securities, but they still have MBS and CDO exposure. Can BoA sustain further write downs without needing to raise capital with a depressed stock price? I'm guessing even odds of a capital raise going forward. Additionally, investment banking can be really profitable in good times and really unprofitable in bad times - as we're seeing now.

      Two, I'm surprised no one's mentioned the integration risk. Investment banking is not retail banking. BoA has competency in the latter - that's their core business. They will have to integrate Merrill and their personnel while still digesting Countrywide. BoA's bitten off a big mouthful for sure.

      Singapore's sovereign wealth fund apparently was averaging down into Merrill as it fell. Now it's going to end up with a bunch of BoA shares. Folks, those are my tax dollars in there. I personally own BoA. I really, really hope BoA knows what they're doing.       Sep 19 05:05 PM
    • AIG Is Toast [view article]
      AIG offers policies in Asia through American International Assurance (AIA). My family has policies with them. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has assured the country that AIA is not in danger of bankruptcy and that they have sufficient assets to honor the policies. MAS generally knows what they're doing.

      www.straitstimes.com/B...

      Of course, people could start bailing anyway, and we all know what would happen then.       Sep 16 04:03 PM
    • BofA's Lewis Is Still Making Deals, But Now Aiming for Distressed Assets [view article]
      BoA doesn't have a lot of avenues for organic growth, so it's not surprising to me either that Ken would seek to acquire companies in this environment.

      As a fellow shareholder, the question for me is, can BoA integrate Merrill while still digesting Countrywide? Can they stay well capitalized? And did they pay too much?

      Merrill did purge a lot of dodgy assets last time, but they still have some mortgage and CDO exposure. BoA's capital position was a hair above well capitalized as of last quarter. Given their CFC acquisition, they really needed to rebuild their position. And now they've gone and bought a bunch of dodgy assets. Personally, I wouldn't object if they reduced or even suspended the dividend temporarily so that they won't have to raise capital while their stock is depressed.

      Meanwhile, their stock is down over 10% today. I understand the MER deal is in stock. Let's hope that BoA's stock price will remain high enough that Merrill's shareholders will vote yes on the deal.       Sep 15 11:28 AM
    • 20 Top High-Dividend Growth Stocks [view article]
      Re tanker stocks, I don't think they have the durable competitive advantages that many of the 20 listed stocks do.

      Of the 20 that are listed, though, I don't think Fifth Third Bank is well positioned going forward. Wrigley is, but it's a) a little on the pricey side and b) is getting bought out. I like Bank of America a lot, but I'm not sure they're going to be able to consistently grow their dividend after buying Countrywide (although they seem to have contained the losses so far).

      I would say that GE and Pfizer are my favorites on the list. GE will see loads of infrastructure demand from emerging economies. Pfizer's pipeline may be dry, but their boatload of cash and extensive sales network mean that they can partner with or buy any firm with an exciting drug on favorable terms.       Sep 12 02:11 PM
    • Notes on VMWare's Special Shareholder Meeting [view article]
      With all due respect, why did you buy VMWare without knowing what it does?

      And who were the main beneficiaries of the company's reset of its options strike price? Were employees the main beneficiaries, or was this just a giveaway to management?       Sep 10 07:47 AM
    • Potash Corp. Update: Time To Buy? [view article]
      If I was going to buy a potash producer, it would be POT. potash is a commodity, and POT has the largest reserves. that gives them a competitive advantage over everyone else. Sep 05 08:58 AM
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