All the political hacks that received money from Stanford are now donating the money to charity. It's not their money!
It's investors money, and this money should go to the trustee of the Stanford Receivership.
http://stanfordfinancialreceivership.com/
It doesn't go from a politicians pocket to a charity, but the money needs to be clawed back from these politicians and given back to those who invested with Stanford.
At least, then the money is going into the hands of the rightful owners.
Instead the politicians wash their hands by giving investors money to charity!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Global geo-political dislocation is now on deck
It's finally gotten the attention of the WSJ. Look what's going on in Mexico.
Much as Pakistan is fighting for survival against Islamic radicals, Mexico is waging a do-or-die battle with the world's most powerful drug cartels. Last year, some 6,000 people died in drug-related violence here, more than twice the number killed the previous year. The dead included several dozen who were beheaded, a chilling echo of the scare tactics used by Islamic radicals. Mexican drug gangs even have an unofficial religion: They worship La Santa Muerte, a Mexican version of the Grim Reaper.
In growing parts of the country, drug gangs now extort businesses, setting up a parallel tax system that threatens the government monopoly on raising tax money. In Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, handwritten signs pasted on schools warned teachers to hand over their Christmas bonuses or die. A General Motors distributorship at a midsize Mexican city was extorted for months at a time, according to a high-ranking Mexican official...
"We are at war," says Aldo Fasci, a good-looking lawyer who is the top police official for Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is the capital. "The gangs have taken over the border, our highways and our cops. And now, with these protests, they are trying to take over our cities.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123518102536038463.html?mod=article-outset-box
Anyone remember this?
Back in February 2006, LEAP/E2020 estimated that the global systemic crisis would unfold in 4 main structural phases: trigger, acceleration, impact and decanting phases. This process enabled us to properly anticipate events until now. However our team has now come to the conclusion that, due to the global leaders’ incapacity to fully realise the scope of the ongoing crisis (made obvious by their determination to cure the consequences rather than the causes of this crisis), the global systemic crisis will enter a fifth phase in the fourth quarter of 2009, a phase of global geopolitical dislocation.
According to LEAP/E2020, this new stage of the crisis will be shaped by two major processes happening in two parallel sequences:
A. Two major processes:
1. Disappearance of the financial base (Dollar & Debt) all over the world
2. Fragmentation of the interests of the global system’s big players and blocks
B. Two parallel sequences:
1. Quick disintegration of the current international system altogether
2. Strategic dislocation of big global players.
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-32-is-available!-4th-quarter-2009-Beginning-of-Phase-5-of-the-global-systemic-crisis-phase-of-global-geopolitical_a2805.html?PHPSESSID=fb91646d989d0d92df9c733cd49496d2
Anyone take a look at the streets in Ireland lately? Isn't that the start of civil unrest?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0221/breaking3.htm
So far, in the US, our idea of protesting is putting video's on http://www.youtube.com/ of commentators rantings, and jokes about the bail-out from late night television.
Maybe Ireland is too far away, but the drug problems and killings in Mexico are happening at our borders.
Much as Pakistan is fighting for survival against Islamic radicals, Mexico is waging a do-or-die battle with the world's most powerful drug cartels. Last year, some 6,000 people died in drug-related violence here, more than twice the number killed the previous year. The dead included several dozen who were beheaded, a chilling echo of the scare tactics used by Islamic radicals. Mexican drug gangs even have an unofficial religion: They worship La Santa Muerte, a Mexican version of the Grim Reaper.
In growing parts of the country, drug gangs now extort businesses, setting up a parallel tax system that threatens the government monopoly on raising tax money. In Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, handwritten signs pasted on schools warned teachers to hand over their Christmas bonuses or die. A General Motors distributorship at a midsize Mexican city was extorted for months at a time, according to a high-ranking Mexican official...
"We are at war," says Aldo Fasci, a good-looking lawyer who is the top police official for Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is the capital. "The gangs have taken over the border, our highways and our cops. And now, with these protests, they are trying to take over our cities.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123518102536038463.html?mod=article-outset-box
Anyone remember this?
Back in February 2006, LEAP/E2020 estimated that the global systemic crisis would unfold in 4 main structural phases: trigger, acceleration, impact and decanting phases. This process enabled us to properly anticipate events until now. However our team has now come to the conclusion that, due to the global leaders’ incapacity to fully realise the scope of the ongoing crisis (made obvious by their determination to cure the consequences rather than the causes of this crisis), the global systemic crisis will enter a fifth phase in the fourth quarter of 2009, a phase of global geopolitical dislocation.
According to LEAP/E2020, this new stage of the crisis will be shaped by two major processes happening in two parallel sequences:
A. Two major processes:
1. Disappearance of the financial base (Dollar & Debt) all over the world
2. Fragmentation of the interests of the global system’s big players and blocks
B. Two parallel sequences:
1. Quick disintegration of the current international system altogether
2. Strategic dislocation of big global players.
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-32-is-available!-4th-quarter-2009-Beginning-of-Phase-5-of-the-global-systemic-crisis-phase-of-global-geopolitical_a2805.html?PHPSESSID=fb91646d989d0d92df9c733cd49496d2
Anyone take a look at the streets in Ireland lately? Isn't that the start of civil unrest?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0221/breaking3.htm
So far, in the US, our idea of protesting is putting video's on http://www.youtube.com/ of commentators rantings, and jokes about the bail-out from late night television.
Maybe Ireland is too far away, but the drug problems and killings in Mexico are happening at our borders.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- A chief of police for Mexico's most notoriously violent Ciudad Juarez stepped down Friday amid ongoing threats against his life.
Roberto Orduna stepped down after the latest bout of violence left a fellow policeman dead, El Universal reported. Drug gang leaders in the city threatened to kill a police officer every day until Orduna stepped down.
Ciudad Juarez has a population over a million, and is across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, a city of 700,000.
At our borders.
Global geo-political dislocation is already starting.
Chris Dodd speaks
Dodd said we might have to nationalize some banks for a short time:
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said yesterday some banks may have to be taken over for “a short time,” and his House counterpart, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, along with Republican Senator Jon Kyl rejected having the government step in to run banks.
And then he says that the banks won't have to obey the executive compensation restrictions:
Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, also said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has “an awful lot of leeway” in interpreting how the executive compensation restrictions he wrote into the economic stimulus legislation will be applied for banks that take federal aid.
Dodd’s statement gives Geithner the flexibility to say the rules don’t apply to firms that participate in the public-private partnership Treasury announced Feb. 10 to buy banks’ toxic assets, but only to companies that get cash injections under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR6hS.HsqHc4&refer=home
Just put more tab on the taxpayer's back!
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said yesterday some banks may have to be taken over for “a short time,” and his House counterpart, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, along with Republican Senator Jon Kyl rejected having the government step in to run banks.
And then he says that the banks won't have to obey the executive compensation restrictions:
Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, also said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has “an awful lot of leeway” in interpreting how the executive compensation restrictions he wrote into the economic stimulus legislation will be applied for banks that take federal aid.
Dodd’s statement gives Geithner the flexibility to say the rules don’t apply to firms that participate in the public-private partnership Treasury announced Feb. 10 to buy banks’ toxic assets, but only to companies that get cash injections under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR6hS.HsqHc4&refer=home
Just put more tab on the taxpayer's back!
WTF is with these acronyms?
The whole world, except the ECB is racing to ZIRP-the Zero Interest Rate Policy. And their stock prices are also racing to ZIRP-Zero Is the Real Price.
Monday, we'll get a half baked plan by Geithner, that will give traders a chance who bought the Friday melt, a chance to hopefully sell them into Monday's lift. Still the only buyers in the banks, are the shorts that get run in, on another empty promise.
But none of this talk changes any of the reality that no one wants to face.
Obama said that in six weeks, the average family of four will now get an extra $65 a month.
And appropriately, they'll start getting this money on April Fool's day!
And now we are supposed to believe that this $65, and Geithner's cracking open of the TALF plan to buy bad assets will save the banks and turn this economy around! So these assets, which are deemed too risky for the government to buy, will now be bought by private speculators, who the government will backstop.
That's another April Fool's plan!
And if all these banks are going to ZIRP, who is backing all the credit default contracts and derivatives swaps between these insolvent institutions?
So since the FED, always comes up with an acronym for each of their ill-fated plans, let me come up with one for Geithner.
It's the WTFPL plan.
When Timmy's Fatuous, People Lose.
Or maybe, it's just this WTFPL!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTFPL
At least that license is free!
Monday, we'll get a half baked plan by Geithner, that will give traders a chance who bought the Friday melt, a chance to hopefully sell them into Monday's lift. Still the only buyers in the banks, are the shorts that get run in, on another empty promise.
But none of this talk changes any of the reality that no one wants to face.
Obama said that in six weeks, the average family of four will now get an extra $65 a month.
And appropriately, they'll start getting this money on April Fool's day!
And now we are supposed to believe that this $65, and Geithner's cracking open of the TALF plan to buy bad assets will save the banks and turn this economy around! So these assets, which are deemed too risky for the government to buy, will now be bought by private speculators, who the government will backstop.
That's another April Fool's plan!
And if all these banks are going to ZIRP, who is backing all the credit default contracts and derivatives swaps between these insolvent institutions?
So since the FED, always comes up with an acronym for each of their ill-fated plans, let me come up with one for Geithner.
It's the WTFPL plan.
When Timmy's Fatuous, People Lose.
Or maybe, it's just this WTFPL!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTFPL
At least that license is free!
Volcker: Banker's greatest innovation was the ATM
Paul Volker slammed Wall Street and their "innovative" products like credit default swaps and asset backed securities as bringing few benefits.
He said the greatest innovation in banking in the last 20 or 30 years was the ATM machine!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/20/paul-volcker-financial-cr_n_168772.html
He said the greatest innovation in banking in the last 20 or 30 years was the ATM machine!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/20/paul-volcker-financial-cr_n_168772.html
Madoff claims to drain SIPC fund
Here's the law behind SIPC.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/usc_sec_15_00000078-ddd000-.html
SIPC mailed out 8,000 claims for investors that got spanked by Bernie Madoff. So far, they have received claims from 2,350 people, and SIPC expects that the eventual claims will finally be double that.
We also know that there is no record of Madoff ever buying any stocks the past 13 years.
“We have found no evidence to indicate that securities were purchased for customers’ accounts” for “perhaps as much as 13 years,” said Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. It was “cash in and cash out,” he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGCJqXiWWV4g&refer=home
That means the SIPC is now on the hook for $500,000 per claim, since the claims involve only cash. SIPC originally pretended that these investments were in securities; that way the claim would be only $100,000 per investor. Now it will be $500,000.
The trustee for Madoff is now looking to clawback any money that was paid to previous investors.
Madoff had a creditor hearing yesterday. Here was the number to listen in on the meeting. 877-419-6660. And guess what? If you missed it, tough luck. They didn't archive the meeting for you to listen to it on your weekend! After all, it was only the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of mankind!
But what did Bernie Madoff do, that Wall Street still isn't doing now? For years, Wall Street never purchased the stock that customers thought they were buying. Stock is just electronically shorted without a good locate and never delivered. If you want the naked truth, on naked shorting, it's here.
http://www.euromoney.com/Article/2060049/US-equity-marketFails-to-deliver-The-naked-truth.html
Bernie pretended he was investing your money, and yet he wasn't. How about the feeder funds that received kickbacks? Why aren't these trustees attempting to clawback this money? And where's the money? Where is the electronic trail? Madoff had taken laundered money in. Where did the laundered money go out? And how about JP Morgan? JP Morgan yanked $250 million of it's money out of Madoff, and left it's clients in the fund, but the trustee has not yet asked JP Morgan for their earnings or that "Madoff" money back. If you know that you are investing in a fraud, and you pull the money out, you can't keep it.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2009/01/jp-morgan-screws-madoff-investors.html
Why not? JP Morgan pulled the money out, because they thought Bernie was a fraud. Once again, JPMorgan had information asymmetry.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2008/12/information-asymmetry.html
In a ponzi scheme, all investors are treated the same, as there were no profits that were disbursed but just other's people's money. Those people that recieved money, need to give it back. That's fraudaulent conveyance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraudulent_conveyance
In Bayou Management's case, the clawback was used effectively. Use it here also.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acfVQUHyR1e4&refer=home
But instead the trustee will be knocking on the door of the retired Jewish lady in Palm Beach, but they'll leave the bankers at JP Morgan alone.
Where is that justice?
When Stephen Harbeck, President and CEO of Securities Investor Protection Corporation was before the House of Representatives on January 9, he told Congress that SIPC had $1.6 billion of money, and a billion dollar credit line with Treasury, and a credit line with an international consortium of banks.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/harbeck010509.pdf
Madoff will have at least 4,700 claims. Since the money was never invested, these individuals are entitled to $500,000 each by SIPC.
That is $2.35 billion of claims, on the $1.6 billion SIPC fund. Why do you think the trustee is drawing out this process? The government doesn't want to pay these claims!
Maybe SIPC should threaten to draw down JP Morgan's line of credit to SIPC! After all, didn't the taxpayer have to bail out AIG because Goldman Sachs was the party to AIG's credit default swaps?
At least that way, Treasury will pay up, and then SIPC can get funded, and maybe they can pay out these claims.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley, which received $10 billion of TARP money, announced that they were going to pay $3 billion in retention bonuses, from their joint venture with Citigroup's brokers, who received $45 billion of TARP money, so the brokers would stay working at the firm.
And Morgan Stanley wanted to announce the $3 billion bonus before the weekend, so these brokers wouldn't suffer any undue anxiety.
But the Madoff's victims?
They let them sweat.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/usc_sec_15_00000078-ddd000-.html
SIPC mailed out 8,000 claims for investors that got spanked by Bernie Madoff. So far, they have received claims from 2,350 people, and SIPC expects that the eventual claims will finally be double that.
We also know that there is no record of Madoff ever buying any stocks the past 13 years.
“We have found no evidence to indicate that securities were purchased for customers’ accounts” for “perhaps as much as 13 years,” said Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. It was “cash in and cash out,” he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGCJqXiWWV4g&refer=home
That means the SIPC is now on the hook for $500,000 per claim, since the claims involve only cash. SIPC originally pretended that these investments were in securities; that way the claim would be only $100,000 per investor. Now it will be $500,000.
The trustee for Madoff is now looking to clawback any money that was paid to previous investors.
Madoff had a creditor hearing yesterday. Here was the number to listen in on the meeting. 877-419-6660. And guess what? If you missed it, tough luck. They didn't archive the meeting for you to listen to it on your weekend! After all, it was only the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of mankind!
But what did Bernie Madoff do, that Wall Street still isn't doing now? For years, Wall Street never purchased the stock that customers thought they were buying. Stock is just electronically shorted without a good locate and never delivered. If you want the naked truth, on naked shorting, it's here.
http://www.euromoney.com/Article/2060049/US-equity-marketFails-to-deliver-The-naked-truth.html
Bernie pretended he was investing your money, and yet he wasn't. How about the feeder funds that received kickbacks? Why aren't these trustees attempting to clawback this money? And where's the money? Where is the electronic trail? Madoff had taken laundered money in. Where did the laundered money go out? And how about JP Morgan? JP Morgan yanked $250 million of it's money out of Madoff, and left it's clients in the fund, but the trustee has not yet asked JP Morgan for their earnings or that "Madoff" money back. If you know that you are investing in a fraud, and you pull the money out, you can't keep it.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2009/01/jp-morgan-screws-madoff-investors.html
Why not? JP Morgan pulled the money out, because they thought Bernie was a fraud. Once again, JPMorgan had information asymmetry.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2008/12/information-asymmetry.html
In a ponzi scheme, all investors are treated the same, as there were no profits that were disbursed but just other's people's money. Those people that recieved money, need to give it back. That's fraudaulent conveyance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraudulent_conveyance
In Bayou Management's case, the clawback was used effectively. Use it here also.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acfVQUHyR1e4&refer=home
But instead the trustee will be knocking on the door of the retired Jewish lady in Palm Beach, but they'll leave the bankers at JP Morgan alone.
Where is that justice?
When Stephen Harbeck, President and CEO of Securities Investor Protection Corporation was before the House of Representatives on January 9, he told Congress that SIPC had $1.6 billion of money, and a billion dollar credit line with Treasury, and a credit line with an international consortium of banks.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/harbeck010509.pdf
Madoff will have at least 4,700 claims. Since the money was never invested, these individuals are entitled to $500,000 each by SIPC.
That is $2.35 billion of claims, on the $1.6 billion SIPC fund. Why do you think the trustee is drawing out this process? The government doesn't want to pay these claims!
Maybe SIPC should threaten to draw down JP Morgan's line of credit to SIPC! After all, didn't the taxpayer have to bail out AIG because Goldman Sachs was the party to AIG's credit default swaps?
At least that way, Treasury will pay up, and then SIPC can get funded, and maybe they can pay out these claims.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley, which received $10 billion of TARP money, announced that they were going to pay $3 billion in retention bonuses, from their joint venture with Citigroup's brokers, who received $45 billion of TARP money, so the brokers would stay working at the firm.
And Morgan Stanley wanted to announce the $3 billion bonus before the weekend, so these brokers wouldn't suffer any undue anxiety.
But the Madoff's victims?
They let them sweat.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Take a look at WYNN
I think Wynn Resorts is the most beautiful hotel in Las Vegas, and despite the pronunciations of the death in the desert, Las Vegas will always attract people, notwithstanding our current economic climate!
But if you are going to buy a casino stock, what else can you buy? Kerkorian pledged another 48.8 million shares of his MGM stock today, and Las Vegas Sands salvation isn't coming until Singapore is up and running, so what else can you buy? WYNN is the only casino that still has a decent balance sheet, helped by Steve opportunistically selling shares whenever he could.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2009/02/wells-fargo-cancels-junket-at-wynn.html
But if you are going to buy a casino stock, what else can you buy? Kerkorian pledged another 48.8 million shares of his MGM stock today, and Las Vegas Sands salvation isn't coming until Singapore is up and running, so what else can you buy? WYNN is the only casino that still has a decent balance sheet, helped by Steve opportunistically selling shares whenever he could.
http://aaronandmoses.blogspot.com/2009/02/wells-fargo-cancels-junket-at-wynn.html
The stock price is even getting under Steve's skin. Why else has he found a new girlfriend, despite having married his wife twice? He's needs some new excitement, because Wall Street now isn't any fun!http://www.nypost.com/seven/01282009/gossip/pagesix/younger_woman_splits_wynns_152370.htm
But Steve, still sells a good conference call, and we will hear about it Tuesday after the market closes when WYNN gives their earnings. And you'll probably get a pop in the stock.
So you buy WYNN at 25 for it's enterprise value. And for the sales job Steve will give Tuesday!
And if you haven't been to WYNN, here's a piece on it with plenty of pictures.
http://www.hoteldesigns.net/review/review_393_1.html
So take a look at Wynn!
An oil play for oil bulls
The PowerShares double crude short play (DTO) closed at 231 after trading as high as 246 today.
The double shorts ETF's work, until the underlying assets start to show a bid, and then they drastically underperform.
The play then, is too SHORT this number if you like crude at these levels.
Look at the prices of the financials today. They have been obliterated. The financials, collectively are way lower than at any other time in this bear market. How about the price of the Ultra Short Financials SKF? It closed today at 188. Last time the financials broke, and when they were at much higher levels, SKF was at 303!
Look at the real estate stocks. They have been crushed also. How about the Ultra Short Real Estate (URS) that closed at 72 today. Where was this number the last time we were down, even though now we are at much lower levels? It was at 295!
So now that we have finally gotten a lower contango in oil, you can now SHORT the bearish ETF DTO that tracks crude, and that gives investors double the short return on oil!
When the trend gets choppy, these short ETF's are designed NOT to work. Look at what happened to SKF and URS!
So if you like oil at these levels, and with the flattening of the contango, you short the ETF that makes money when crude drops.
And just like the bearish financial ETF that didn't work, and just like the bearish real estate ETF that didn't work, you now have a bearish crude ETF that now won't work.
Especially now that it has already run in anyone that had shorted it.
So only the professionals are left to play in this playground!
Join them!
The double shorts ETF's work, until the underlying assets start to show a bid, and then they drastically underperform.
The play then, is too SHORT this number if you like crude at these levels.
Look at the prices of the financials today. They have been obliterated. The financials, collectively are way lower than at any other time in this bear market. How about the price of the Ultra Short Financials SKF? It closed today at 188. Last time the financials broke, and when they were at much higher levels, SKF was at 303!
Look at the real estate stocks. They have been crushed also. How about the Ultra Short Real Estate (URS) that closed at 72 today. Where was this number the last time we were down, even though now we are at much lower levels? It was at 295!
So now that we have finally gotten a lower contango in oil, you can now SHORT the bearish ETF DTO that tracks crude, and that gives investors double the short return on oil!
When the trend gets choppy, these short ETF's are designed NOT to work. Look at what happened to SKF and URS!
So if you like oil at these levels, and with the flattening of the contango, you short the ETF that makes money when crude drops.
And just like the bearish financial ETF that didn't work, and just like the bearish real estate ETF that didn't work, you now have a bearish crude ETF that now won't work.
Especially now that it has already run in anyone that had shorted it.
So only the professionals are left to play in this playground!
Join them!
You know stocks are getting cheap when..
1)-The Sunday paper costs more than New York Times stock
2)-The Citi ATM fee costs more than Citi stock
3)-The paper that a mortgage is written on costs more than Freddie Mac stock
4)-A subscription to Sirius Satellite radio would cost more than Sirius stock
5)-A gallon of gas costs more than Ford stock
6)-One ride costs more than Six Flags stock
7)-A bottle of soda costs more than Jones Soda stock
8)-A 5 minute long distance phone call costs more than Vonage stock
9)-A 5 stick pack of gum costs more than Rite-Aid stock
10)-The strawberries in a smoothie cost more than Jamba Juice
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29304311/site/14081545?__source=yahoo%7Cheadline%7Cquote%7Ctext%7C&par=yahoo
Now my headline isn't what CNBC said. Their headline was "10 reasons the market is in trouble."
My headline was different, because at current prices, I could make a case that everyone of these stocks are now worth a shot!
And with the selling capitulation that hit BAC at $2.53 and Wells Fargo at $8.81 today, even these numbers can bounce.
For a bit.
Golf ball found in tree trunk!
The tree had apparently grown around the ball which had probably been lodged in its branches many years ago.
It was discovered when Richard Mitchell, greenkeeper at the Eaton club in Norwich, felled the conifer and cut it into pieces, only to find the ball perfectly encased in the wood.
Club manager Peter Johns said: "It's an incredible find.
"It was pure luck that it was discovered. If Richard had cut the trunk an inch or two either way we'd never have known the ball was there.
"We think the ball came off the first tee, went into the trees and was lost.
"It must have lodged in a fork or embedded itself in the trunk and the tree just grew round it."
Club officials now plan to use the cross-section as unique honour board to record all holes-in-one at the short ninth hole.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4731843/Golf-ball-lost-years-ago-found-embedded-in-tree-trunk.html
At least a feel good story on this dour day!
Hypo Real Estate in Germany has huge hidden losses
But they are embedded in billions and billions of derivative contracts that are supposedly "hellish." $600 billion euros of this junk is off-balance sheet.
http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/banken-versicherungen/die-hre-und-die-1-000-000-000-000-euro-frage;2164369
The Google translation;
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handelsblatt.com%2Funternehmen%2Fbanken-versicherungen%2Fdie-hre-und-die-1-000-000-000-000-euro-frage%3B2164369%3B2&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=
http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/banken-versicherungen/die-hre-und-die-1-000-000-000-000-euro-frage;2164369
The Google translation;
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handelsblatt.com%2Funternehmen%2Fbanken-versicherungen%2Fdie-hre-und-die-1-000-000-000-000-euro-frage%3B2164369%3B2&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=
Fear increases
And why shouldn't it? From lay-offs at Disney to automobile workers, the job cutting is everywhere. And the next area of cutting will be in the sacrosanct areas that no-one ever cuts. State jobs, and teachers.
Look at California with their budget crisis. Furloughing workers, cutting pay, and downsizing. Did these people think they had job security?
How about Florida? The state budget gap is already $7 billion. And only $2.5 billion of the stimulus money is available this year. Do you think Florida is going to start making cuts?
http://www.ocala.com/article/20090212/ARTICLES/902121004
We have counties in Florida that are already voting to close sixteen schools. What do you think the consequences of some of these closings will be on consumer confidence? Wasn't one of the perks of teaching job security?
The revenues to the states are collapsing. How is this revenue going to be made up? By cutting services.
But let's look at the library, where they haven't cut back the services, because everyone is now going there. Even in the tonier towns in South Florida, you have places where library visitors are up 50% from last year. Does that mean anything to Wall Street? It does to Hollywood. Let's look at the lonely DVD.
It used to be that every Tuesday, people would buy the latest DVD. Then that stopped. Then they used to rent them at Blockbuster. Then that stopped. The only thing you can get from Blockbuster for a dollar is their stock, and then you get a quarter of change back! The higher end consumer then went to Netflix, and the middle class gravitated to the $1 rental cube at the neighborhood Publix or supermarket. Why else is Coinstar buying DVD kiosk company RedBox for $170 million? It's because a lot of people are renting DVD's for a buck.
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/02/13/coinstar-buys-rest-dvd-kiosk-firm-redbox-$176m
And they are renting them for a buck, or getting on the waiting list at the local library for the same. That is the trade down in DVD's, just like we have seen the trade down to the dollar stores, but it happens under the surface of Wall Street. But does anybody think these consumers are confident? Especially when you now get on a waiting list for a DVD at the local library because nobody has or wants to spend any money?
Yesterday we found out that Mario Cuomo had subpoenaed Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, about Merrill Lynch bonuses. He told his bank executives that Washington had assurred him that the "nationalization" of Bank of America was not on the table.
Let's use different terms. How about the "zombiefication" of Bank of America?
Or maybe this story-with the charts!
Gone in 60 Days: Citi and Bank of America Won’t Live to See May
If there’s one thing our readers know, it’s that ChartingStocks.net has made some bold calls in the past which seemed controversial and highly unlikely at the time. Our January 2007 post warned of the coming stock market crash at a time when the market was making new all time highs. In February 2007 we warned about the breakdown of the brokerage stocks and singled out Bear Stearns (Trading at $160), Merrill Lynch (Trading at $87), and Morgan Stanley (Trading at 78). In September 2007, we warned of a selloff in the coming weeks. The market peak and decline began 4 weeks later.
We’re going to make another bold prediction. Bank of America and Citigroup won’t live to see May. The two banks will be nationalized in the coming weeks, and we think that the announcement can come as soon as tomorrow evening (Friday evenings are when major bank announcements and failures occur)...
We play close attention to air time given to so-called “Experts” and the way the media spins the information. If you know that our mainstream media is simply a licensed PR firm for the US government, you can get vital information which you can use in trading. Always ask yourself - What opinion are they trying to insert? What are they selling? What’s the underlying agenda?
The government uses the media to float policy before the public so it can digest it. By the time the government takes the action, most people not only anticipate it but are even asking for it.
In the past two weeks there have been countless debates, op-ed’s, and even opinion polls regarding bank nationalization. The popular opinion among the establishments “Experts” is that nationalizing the banks may be the only way. Even Alan Greenspan, a LIBERTARIAN, recently said that it would be a good idea. It’s coming folks! It’s what the establishment wants. (Sidenote: They may not actually use the word nationalization, even if thats exactly what they do)
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/02/gone-in-60-days-citi-and-bank-of-america-wont-live-to-see-may/
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Capital One is rapidly becoming "zombified."
It's about time, the market tears off the facade of Capital One.COF received $3.555 billion of taxpayer money.
Today, Capital One's market cap is now $3.52 billion! Maybe Capital One will now tell us they didn't want the TARP money!
Capital One a few weeks back, made a big deal about allowing people to customize their own credit cards.
https://www.capitaloneimagecard.com/allaboutme/designer/capitaloneus/uscard/start.aspx
Why would anyone want to put their picture on a credit card that they are going to default on?
Remember the person that created the fake hundred dollar bills and ran them through the slots in Vegas? The machine took the phony money, and then the players cashed the tickets, and they would have gotten away with it. But the crooks used their player cards so they could get a free buffet so the casino was able to track the couple down!
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?s=6930362
But maybe you don't like the idea that people aren't going to pay their credit cards. So enter Jones Soda (JSDA .57). Now I like the stock at this price but remember when this was 30 in May of 2007?
Jones Soda's marketing blitz at that time was the idea that you could customize your soda bottle, with a picture of your choosing on the label. And that they used real sugar!
http://www.myjones.com/code/design.php?t=regular&
The fad went out with organics, and so did the customized labels but after Whole Foods beat numbers and rallied (even though it's financial outlook was downgraded by Moody's after the close) the stock is now worth a look.
Heck, you could do a pairs trade. Short Capital One on their new customized credit cards, and go long Jones Soda at .57 cents, who already has suffered with their customized labels!
And unwind the trade when they meet!
Bank insider buys are just salesman's con jobs
Vikram Pandit of Citigroup bought 750,000 shares of Citigroup at a little over $9 on November 13. This purchase was a show of faith in the company. Today Citi closed at $2.50, showing Vikram Pandit doesn't have a clue at what Citigroup is worth.
What's Citigroup worth? How about Citibuck!
Now Ken Lewis, of Bank of America, bought some stock in Bank of America after he went hat in hand to the Fed's for more money, and when his job was on the hot seat for his purchase of Merrill Lynch. He picked up 200,000 shares at $6, and another 200,000 shares at $4.8. These purchases were a show of faith in the company. The stock closed today, under 4.
Jamie Dimon also made a big show of faith in his company with his purchase of 500,000 shares of JPM at 23 last month.
Now these are the insiders of the bank that were buying stock with shareholder money at levels from 2 to 20X higher in price, and spending billions and billions of dollars to it. These same insiders drove these stocks into the toilet with their management. These same insiders took hundreds of millions of dollars from shareholders for rewarding themselves for the job they did the past few years, and now they want to continue to foster this con on the public by trumpeting their purchases of stock.
If these insiders want shareholders to see a show of faith, then why don't they quit conning the public, and instead just show us their books? Show us their SIV's, their derivatives, their credit default swaps with failing parties, and their level III assets. Open up your books, and let us see what's inside.
I guess they don't have enough faith for that!
Instead we get syrupy feel-good commercials from BAC, grandstanding by Jamie Dimon, and self righteous smugness from Vikram Pandit.
And all that shareholders get are lower stock prices, that are rapidly being zombified.
The clearest books of any financial company is Warren Buffett. The stocks that he owns have lost over $30 billion, and any equity valuation of the companies he has bought has easily been cut in half the last year, and he's upside down about $10 billion on the puts he has sold.
If that is what has happened to the Oracle of Omaha, what in the name of God has happened on the books of these cheating bankers that they won't let us see?
And if the egos of these sainted bankers is so fragile that they can't take a little grilling from Congress, without telling Wall Street their secret boardroom fantasies about paying TARP debt back, so they can regain the swagger in their step, then, exactly how bad are their books?
They are as bad as the stock prices now indicate, except the market still hasn't gotten to JPM and the Dimon "halo" effect.
It just takes the market longer to recognize that sometimes sinners aren't saints!
Even if they have a show of faith!
What's Citigroup worth? How about Citibuck!
Now Ken Lewis, of Bank of America, bought some stock in Bank of America after he went hat in hand to the Fed's for more money, and when his job was on the hot seat for his purchase of Merrill Lynch. He picked up 200,000 shares at $6, and another 200,000 shares at $4.8. These purchases were a show of faith in the company. The stock closed today, under 4.
Jamie Dimon also made a big show of faith in his company with his purchase of 500,000 shares of JPM at 23 last month.
Now these are the insiders of the bank that were buying stock with shareholder money at levels from 2 to 20X higher in price, and spending billions and billions of dollars to it. These same insiders drove these stocks into the toilet with their management. These same insiders took hundreds of millions of dollars from shareholders for rewarding themselves for the job they did the past few years, and now they want to continue to foster this con on the public by trumpeting their purchases of stock.
If these insiders want shareholders to see a show of faith, then why don't they quit conning the public, and instead just show us their books? Show us their SIV's, their derivatives, their credit default swaps with failing parties, and their level III assets. Open up your books, and let us see what's inside.
I guess they don't have enough faith for that!
Instead we get syrupy feel-good commercials from BAC, grandstanding by Jamie Dimon, and self righteous smugness from Vikram Pandit.
And all that shareholders get are lower stock prices, that are rapidly being zombified.
The clearest books of any financial company is Warren Buffett. The stocks that he owns have lost over $30 billion, and any equity valuation of the companies he has bought has easily been cut in half the last year, and he's upside down about $10 billion on the puts he has sold.
If that is what has happened to the Oracle of Omaha, what in the name of God has happened on the books of these cheating bankers that they won't let us see?
And if the egos of these sainted bankers is so fragile that they can't take a little grilling from Congress, without telling Wall Street their secret boardroom fantasies about paying TARP debt back, so they can regain the swagger in their step, then, exactly how bad are their books?
They are as bad as the stock prices now indicate, except the market still hasn't gotten to JPM and the Dimon "halo" effect.
It just takes the market longer to recognize that sometimes sinners aren't saints!
Even if they have a show of faith!
Credit default swaps widen again at the banks
- Citigroup credit default swaps widened from $345,000 yesterday to $410,000 today.
- Bank of America credit default swaps widened from $212,000 yesterday to $245,000 today.
- Wells Fargo credit default swaps widened from $170,000 yesterday, to $215,000 today.
- JP Morgan Chase credit default swaps widened from $133,000 yesterday to $170,000 today.
Yet JPM's Jamie Dimon says he wants to pay the TARP money back!
Maybe Jamie Dimon should talk to Wall Street about paying back the TARP money after he first cuts the dividend!
Santelli's Tea Party!
This was over on Karl Denninger's site, who just won an award from Accuracy In Media, for outstanding contributions to journalism.
Here's Santelli's rant!
FNRA's slap on Stanford group's wrist
FNRA fined Stanford Group, the $8 billion dollar fraud of whose chairman, Sir Allen Stanford, is missing, $10K for not accurately describing the CD's of which he was able to get money for his scam. Here's the case:
Stanford Group Company (CRD #39285, Houston, Texas) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the firm was censured and fined $10,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that, in connection with the offers and sales of certificates of deposit (CDs) a bank affiliate issued, it distributed sales literature that did not comply with FINRA advertising rules, in that it failed to disclose that the affiliation between the firm and the bank could create a conflict of interest in connection with its offers and sales of the bank-issued CDs. The findings stated that the brochures failed to present fair and balanced treatment of the risks and potential benefits of a CD investment, failed to contain the name of the firm using the materials and contained misleading, unfair and unbalanced information. (FINRA Case #2005002203701
http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-stanfords-10k-finra-fine-2009-2
Oil ETF's distorting oil pricing
The $3.4 billion ETF, The US Oil Fund, (USO) which mimics the return on the front month of the oil contract was being gamed by traders so much, that starting next month, the fund will rollover positions in four days, instead of one.
The exchange-traded fund, created in 2006, lets investors trade oil prices like a stock and uses their money to buy oil futures on major energy exchanges. The fund has become so popular that as of Tuesday it held 19% of all the crude for April delivery traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and 30% of a similar contract on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, according to data from the fund and the exchanges....
U.S. Oil's shift comes amid criticism that its size has skewed oil prices and traders were selling ahead of the widely known days it rolls front-month oil futures, pressuring the price the fund's investors get..
Kevin Norrish, a commodities analyst at Barclays Capital, said the new policy likely won't have much impact on the structure of the U.S. oil futures market as inventories surge. It is also unlikely to change others' appetite for trading around the fund's roll period. "The fundamental issue is there's a large amount being rolled, and people know when it's going to be rolled," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123494465324008601.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
Just another Wall Street product that doesn't work.
The fund, has to sell their position, in the front month contract of oil, and then buy the next month out. And this ETF had 20 and 30% of the oil that was traded, and they tell traders when they are going to "roll" their contracts.
Does anybody wonder why the front month contract becomes cheaper when they blow out of their position, and that the next month becomes more dear when they buy their position?
It used to be that traders could game the S&P whenever they would make adjustments to that index. Why bother when you have this annuity in the oil pits, courtesy of Wall Street?
It's a subsidy from stock investors for the traders in the futures pit!
The exchange-traded fund, created in 2006, lets investors trade oil prices like a stock and uses their money to buy oil futures on major energy exchanges. The fund has become so popular that as of Tuesday it held 19% of all the crude for April delivery traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and 30% of a similar contract on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, according to data from the fund and the exchanges....
U.S. Oil's shift comes amid criticism that its size has skewed oil prices and traders were selling ahead of the widely known days it rolls front-month oil futures, pressuring the price the fund's investors get..
Kevin Norrish, a commodities analyst at Barclays Capital, said the new policy likely won't have much impact on the structure of the U.S. oil futures market as inventories surge. It is also unlikely to change others' appetite for trading around the fund's roll period. "The fundamental issue is there's a large amount being rolled, and people know when it's going to be rolled," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123494465324008601.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
Just another Wall Street product that doesn't work.
The fund, has to sell their position, in the front month contract of oil, and then buy the next month out. And this ETF had 20 and 30% of the oil that was traded, and they tell traders when they are going to "roll" their contracts.
Does anybody wonder why the front month contract becomes cheaper when they blow out of their position, and that the next month becomes more dear when they buy their position?
It used to be that traders could game the S&P whenever they would make adjustments to that index. Why bother when you have this annuity in the oil pits, courtesy of Wall Street?
It's a subsidy from stock investors for the traders in the futures pit!
YouTube's angry white southern man is back
But this time, the radio show www.Lazlow.com is commenting on him. But check out the "brains" at Lazlow. They thought he was Tim Geithner!
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