gratianus

Cramer: Jon Stewart Interview Was a 'Complete and Utter Ambush'

Give me a break!
Stewart's essential point was that the financial media helped inflate the bubble and failed to pay adequate (any?) attention to the excesses that underpinned real estate and derivatives. Cramer was just the figure head that Stewart used to skewer the media. That he was somewhat unfair toward Cramer is true, but again Cramer was just the biggest. loudest voice on CNBC. He just as easily could have lambasted the Money Honey for making her CEO interviews into love fests, or Kudlow for never seeing a tax cut he did't love or most of the CNBC hosts for sounding like shills for the GOP. Cramer is a big boy and understands better than most how the financial media, with few exceptions, is a form of entertainment. Unfortunately, most of the audience fails to appreciate how much it costs them to be part of that audience.

Stewart vs. Cramer: A Cheap Shot

Stewart did to Cramer as the most extreme surrogate for the financial media exactly what he did to Begala/Carlson/Carvill... on CNN's Crossfire. He held them responsible for distracting people from the real news, to which they had the access and the acumen to explain. I watch CNBC at the open in California, and read Cramer on TSC/Real Money. Every once in a while, I catch Mad Money, and cringe. Cramer might advise every one to do their home work, but in fact most people who follow Cramer are knee-jerk traders without a clue. The smart ones fade Cramer's picks. Just watch the aftermarket action if you doubt this.
Stewart wants the news media to be more than overhyping stenographers for what politicians and CEOs say. He wants an advererial media. Cramer should know better. His first job out of Harvard was as a beat reporter. I hope he showed initiative in that job. If he did, perhaps he can do the same in the future

Ford: Convertible Trust Not Preferred

Aside from the way F and yoked to it F-PS have performed since this "run as fast as you can away" opinion piece was posted, it's worth noting that the premium above the straight conversion rate continues to increase. Today, it was 11.4%, a steadily rising number that turned positive on 3/23. This premium is what speculators are willing to pay for the possible future reinstatement of deferred dividends, an outcome that seems less unlikely each day.

Greenspanism Is Looking Pretty Good

Is Phil Gramm ghosting for you?

Boone and Baum on Scapegoats and Speculators

No, you got it right. I just completed your thought with "and the rate of increase in the prices of commodities" without noting you referenced increase in the supply.

Boone and Baum on Scapegoats and Speculators

I think you meant to say: parallel, or coincidence and not disparity:
'the remarkable disparity over the last few years between the rate of increase in the supply of paper money all around the world and the rate of increase in the supply of commodities.'

Merck, Schering-Plough: Confessions of a Vytorin Patient

I'm an SGP shareholder. I don't take Zetia or Vytorin but a generic statin that does a fine job of supressing my LDL. As a shareholder I find almost everything expressed above--even the comments critical of the products' broad use--encouraging, since there obviously is a continuing need for these drugs even if the panel's and the NEJM's editorials were to be substantiated by subsequent studies. The point as an investor is that at current prices there seem to be absolutely no revenues or profits factored into SGP's share price. If there is continued revenue, even attenuated as it will be, the market is grossly misreading Schering's position.
Though I wonder about how the data was presented at the ACC meeting, I'm not surprised by the hysterical media reporting or the market's Henny Penney response. Let's see where SGP is six months from now.

GM, Ford Confuse Investors With The Turnaround Dance

For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would take the Ford coversion offer, since the premium you receive over the conversion rate stipulated in the convertibles is $14.25 in Ford common, and for that "premium" you forfeit the $3.25 annual distribution, which works out to 22.8% on the "premium." Can someone explain to me why Ford thinks anyone would jump at this opportunity.

Five Value Stock Picks From Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments

I'm not sure what is meant by NZT being "under pressure," since the ADR has run from $19.63 last July to $28.90 today. That low coincided with terrible earnings in the wake of the New Zealand government's imposed unbundling of services and opening of NZT's hardwire lines to competitors. Perhaps over time NZT will, as you suggest, break itself up. What has driven NZT since its low has been recognition that government interference couldn't get much more radical, that the dividend remains fat, and that the New Zealand dollar has been on a rampage.

Five Value Stock Picks From Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments

I'm not sure what is meant by NZT being "under pressure," since the ADR has run from $19.63 last July to $28.90 today. That low coincided with terrible earnings in the wake of the New Zealand government's imposed unbundling of services and opening of NZT's hardwire lines to competitors. Perhaps over time NZT will, as you suggest, break itself up. What has driven NZT since its low has been recognition that government interference couldn't get much more radical, that the dividend remains fat, and that the New Zealand dollar has been on a rampage.