contrariwise

Judge's Refusal of BofA / Merrill Bonuses Could Unleash Reality on Financials

Well done, Wendy!

Clearwire's Popularity as a Short Is Growing

The 3 month chart circa today (July 7th) shows a cup formation. Cup & handle is bullish...

Clearwire's Popularity as a Short Is Growing

Hmm... seems to me that short interest is declining...

www.nasdaq.com/aspxcon...

Based on the NASDAQ data - declining short interest, declining volume and rising days to cover - I would think that the facts contradict the author's thesis. CLWR just started mobile WiMAX coverage in Atlanta. Not sure where things will wind up in the long run but in the near term this looks to me like a very dangerous stock to be short of.

Warren's (Ridiculous) Prescription for Banks: Wipe Out Shareholders, Fire CEOs

Of all of those banks that were herded into the hushed room and told to take the money, some needed it and some didn't. The ones that needed it didn't want to identify themselves as needy. The needy banks probably had something to do (put a bug in Paulson's ear?) with how the scheme was set up, where all, not just the needy, took so that the weakest were not clearly identified. If a bank was competently run and has adequate capital, they should be able to refund the bailout money. Put up or shut up. If your bank can't cough up the public money, then your bank is undercapitalized and the value of the common equity is doubtful. Undercapitalization is evidence of poor risk control, which indicates incompetent management. So prove your competence by coughing up from your well capitalized bank. If you can't do that because your bank is undercapitalized, then you walk the plank. It's not fair to expect average joes and janes to indemnify management's gold plated compensation schemes when a bank has massive llosses made as a result of poor managment decisions. Incentive pay should reward positive results, not be doled out just for showing up and running your ship onto the rocks. Pay for performance. No performance, no incentive pay. Management of banks that take public funds are civil servants.

What Credit Crisis? Total Bank Credit of All Commercial Banks Exceeds $10 Trillion

How do drawdowns of credit lines factor
in this 11%/ $977 billion expansion of bank credit?

How much of this $977 billion expansion of bank credit
is voluntary growth of freely issued new credit?
Versus growth that comes when customers, fearing having
their credit lines withdrawn, draw
down their lines of credit?

Nuclear Energy and the Next American President

T. Boone Pickens emphasizes that the North American wind corridor is an extraordinary resource with good economics.

In the Fog of Volatility, the Notional Becomes Payable

Brilliant. Thanks.

Housing: Bigger Isn't Always Better

Seems simple enough to solve. Since the GSEs have to ration mortgage funding, why not redline those areas with stupid development policies?

Lehman in Dire Financial Straights

Dire straits, not straights. Correct spelling, wrong word. And yes, I noticed the sell off. What's your point? Multiple blah blah blah paragraphs about how they're in trouble based on the slope of the stock price chart. Nothing concrete about the reasons behind it.

Moving to a Trans-Industrial Paradigm

"It is far from over if you can understand the basic fact that in a depression there is scarcity, and with scarcity comes increased demand and increased price. The commodity bubble is not a traditional bubble and commodities are not inflated, they are reverting to real prices based on demand."

These statements are truly bizarre. Do some research and find out what actually happened to commodity prices during the Great Depression. Farm producer prices and other commodities. Let me give you a hint: a housing bust is not good for lumber, copper and other building products related commodities. Tariffs on ethanol imports are distorting the market for agricultural commodities, creating artificial demand for inputs such as fertilizer. Oil markets are distorted by (unsustainable) overseas government subsidies. Oil is a special case because of dwindling conventional reserves and inelastic demand (in the short term). When the tariffs and subsidies go (as they must) watch out. The same things that are happening to lumber and copper prices will come to pass in agricultural commodities. Which is what happened in the 30's - farmers could not pay the freight to get their produce to market because the prices were so low. Low commodity prices. Demand destruction follows credit destruction.

Cuomo Takes Action Against Citigroup, as ABCP Buyers Wait in Vain

"As one NYSE-listed corporate executive recently told me, a Canadian bank dealer money market institutional salesman that the ABCP assets would be available the next day when they went to cash them in assured his treasury team."

This sentence is incoherent. What did you mean to say?

Probe of Citigroup et al Could Hit Financial ETFs

mikeg3 - a key contention of these investigations will be that these banks were touting these products with increasing intensity, foisting them on naiive investors, when they knew that the market for these securities was freezing up. They made claims that they knew to be false at the time they made them. I don't think the cases will deal with sales made when the markets were liquid or even when the banks thought in good faith the market had a temporary problem. They will focus on time periods when the prosecuters can PROVE that the banks LIED. If the investing public comes to believe that the markets are rigged then the markets will cease to function. Mark my words.

Is Online Search Microsoft's Vietnam War?

Just to be clear, Vietnam is a country, not a failure. The *Vietnam War* was a failure for the United States. So, a more appropriate title for your article would be "Is Online Search Microsoft's Vietnam War?". Or, "Is Online Search Microsoft's Iraq War?". Or, "Is Online Search Microsoft's George W. Bush?".

Selling the Short Sellers Short: Another Sign of Trouble

How about posting a copy of/link to the speech? I can't comment on what I haven't seen.

GE, Microsoft on New Low List

The biggest problem with MSFT is that there really isn't anything that they do that somebody else doesn't do better. Whether that's office software (MS Office versus Google Docs, Star Office, OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice, standards based products, XBox versus PlayStation, Wii, etc, WinCE versus iPhone, Google Android). There are a lot of competent players eating their lunch. Good luck with your MSFT investment. You're going to need luck. The rest of the world is getting tired of being ripped off by their monopolistic business practices. Their Office revenue is not growing! Everything else they do has better alternatives.