thannagan

Analyzing the U.S.'s Four Largest Banks

I think you show the same $$ charts for Total Loans and Equity. Probablly not the case.

Analyzing the U.S.'s Four Largest Banks

Unless I'm looking at the numbers incorrectly, the Total Capital chart seems wrong if TC is Equity plus LTD. I can't tell what this means for the ROIC ratio shown. ??

Will This Economy Ever Create Job Growth?

The US consumer can't spend a lot more any time soon without releveraging. That can't happen, (unemployment, lower net assets, and tighter credit) and probably shouldn't in any event. The US economy can't rely on the US consumer being a growing 70% or more of the action, for a very long time. The consumer goods action needs to go where the global growth in spending is greatest - emerging markets anyone. There are savers aplenty, that want toys like ours, but they aren't in the tapped-out US. The US consumer binges are over for some time - perhaps a generation. So, whoever adapts to this well, and sooner than others, will win. Those who wait on the old normal to return will wait a long time. So, I like foresighted names with global views and inovative products or marketing capability - US based or others.

Was Paulson Right?

Paulson acted. The rest of the government, including the Fed was little more than a deer in the headlights. He did more than anyone else to avoid complete collapse. Was it perfect in hindsight? Of course not. Did it work better than any alternative that anyone else thought of at the time? Defintely. Sorry, but he stands out the hero of that time.

Cramer's Mad Money - Monsanto's Menacing Monopoly (8/13/09)

I don't know too many farmers who would destroy seeds. They are not known for pouring money down down a drain.

Dave's Top 10 Reasons This Recession Will Last Forever

We overconsumed for a long time on almost all private and public levels. Overconsumption (aside from moral and political BS) is simply not a productive use of capital. Our credibility (character, standing) is wrecked. Now we are going to pay for that wasted use of capital, and damamged global respect, for a long time and in many ways. The bailouts are temporary pacifiers, resulting from massive political denial. Future generations will be ashamed of our hubris and foolishness.

Can the U.S. Economy Recover with No Growth in Bank Lending?

What's "amazing" about this? The lemmings went in one goofy direction, now in another. This is pretty common of them.

China and the U.S. Dollar: Nowhere to Run

Of course, the PRC and other trade-surplus countries will "spend" dollars as much as possible on other more inflation-friendly assets. But, the spent dollars themselves don't vanish. They simply deflate steadily over time relative to the goods purchased (especially if the goods are either durable and/or in limited supply).

13 Agriculture Myths Busted: This Bubble Is Ready to Pop

Done similarly, and ditto, to Artful Dodger. Corporate farms are a different story, though still tough. Everyone BUT the farmer will make the money.

Gold Price Manipulation: So What?

If you sell gold (no matter who "you" are, or why you're doing it), you are buying a (probably your own) currency. "You" may be doing this as much to prop-up your currency as to negatively affect the price of gold. And "you" may be doing it because of a need rather than a desire. The "manipulation", if that's what it is, tells two stories, doesn't it. Besides, gold has been in a rletively flat pattern for some time. Nobody has moved it a lot, for long - yet. Would you rather have more currency of the purported sellers or the gold they are dumping?

Why Congress Is Asking Bernanke Bogus Questions

The only thing keeping BAC and their poor shareholders afloat was the government funding and guarantees. Otherwise they were gone, with or without Merrill. Lewis had slready broken BAC and given up his soul to the government. The government herded Merrill into a safe harbor, housing it in their ward, BAC. Lewis had nothing to say and no leg to stand on in the situation, which he created for himself by his prior decisions and governance.

Of course, Congress and White House are always, and only and all, about politics. It was pretty clear in Bernake's expressions what he would have liked to have responded to the idiots questioning him.

What to Do About Mark to Market?

Nice analogy. I'm willing to guess that your mom: 1) paid cash or used very short-term credit for acquiring her old clothes, and 2) never thought for a moment that her selections were going to go up in value at any time folowing the pruchase. And, the net present value of her personal pleasure in wearing them was always greater than the original cost in current dollars..

Housing Decline Slowing? Wishful Thinking (Case-Shiller)

You may well be correct, but its difficult to disern near-term changes on an eleven year chart.

Corn Inflation and the Specter of Unintended Consequences

If bean ac are up 3.5M and corn ac down 1.5M, where are the net 2M more acres coming from?

Will Najarian's Prediction of a Stock Market Explosion Come True?

Remeber, accounting (like economics) is an extension of philosophy, not physics. Whether it attempts to represent earnings performance or asset value, accounting is nothing more than a highly complex and concocted opinion. M2M isn't per se a necessarily correct or particularly accutate method of denoting asset value. This is similar to the false hopes associated with the convolutions of Sarbanes Oxley, whcih has done little to improve the quality of earnings reports - other than to diminish them by the added expense of "compliance". There is nothing sacred about M2M. It may or may not be better than other methods of, or opinion of, asset valuation. What the stock market does tomorrow is even furhter removed from the hard sciences.