Daily Archives: May 8, 2008

YouTube Becomes Google’s (GOOG) Top Priority

The time has come, late. But, the time has come. Google (GOOG) says that its No.1 revenue priority for the  year it to make money from it monster-truck video sharing site, YouTube.

According to Reuters, the company’s management admitted at its annual meeting that the road to profit for YouTube would be a long one with 2008 as a modest beginning. Senior executives also said there would be a lengthly wait until DoubleClick, the display ad serving business Google bought, would be a meaningful piece of annual sales. The news site quotes Sergey Brin, one of the company’s founders as saying "They both have potential, but for it to be a sizable part of our revenue, you’re going to have to wait at least a couple of years"

A couple of years could turn into never. While Google’s last quarterly reports shows that its search advertising revenue is still growing at close to light speed, sales from display advertising and video were nowhere to be seen. On the display ad side, that should be expected because Doubleclick is a recent purchase.

But, quarterly results for Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL, Microsoft’s (MSFT) MSN, and Yahoo! (YHOO) show that display advertising, the engine for Doubleclick’s business, is growing at a painfully modest pace. Will Doubleclick ever grow at the rate of Google’s core business? Almost certainly not.

YouTube has been part of the Google family for longer. Trying to get large advertisers with TV or other video marketing to use YouTube has not been impossible, but it has been close. Despite YouTube’s dominant share of the US online video market, the number of advertisers on the site is tiny.

YouTube’s problem may be simple. Unlike Hulu and other commercial video sites put up by large media companies, YouTube’s content is almost entirely from amateurs. It may have 100x the Hulu video views, but that does not make the chaos of the site’s experience a natural place for top tier marketers to put their money.

For the next two or three years, search advertising better stay good. Google will not have anything else

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 7:50 pm in Internet, , ,

AIG Uses Dividend & Capital Raise To Mask Horrible Losses (AIG)

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) showed a wider-than-expected loss for the quarter.  More importantly, it plans to raise more than $7 billion to buttress its balance sheet.

Its net loss was -$3.09 per share, ugly when compared with net income of $1.68  EPS for Q1 2007.  Its revenues tanked by 54% to $14.03 billion in the quarter.  First Call had estimates of $-$0.76, but there was a very wide band of estimates with some calling for wider losses.  That earnings number may not be the clean number, but th rest of the data is what is actually more important any how.

Estimates for the company varied widely, ranging from a loss of $2.32 a share to a profit of 97 cents a share.

It lost roughly $9.1 billion in credit-default swaps, which promise to cover losses on $579 billion in bonds or other debt instruments.

The company is also boosting its cash dividend by 10% to $0.22 per share.  Note from 24/7 Wall St.: "Dear financial company… you are supposed to cut temporarily your dividend when times are tough to keep your ratings."

The company will also sell some $7.5 Billion in common stock and equity units to bolster its books in a sale via Citi and JPMorgan.  Another offering may or will take this up to a total $12.5 Billion in raised capital.

Shares are down by 8% at $40.55 in after-hours trading.  One thing is for sure.  Methuselah is going to be raising hell there soon.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 4:17 pm in Earnings, Financial Stocks,

NVIDIA’s Solid Growth… Maybe Not Enough (NVDA)

Shares of NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) are getting to see some pressure after its earnings report.  The graphics giant reported net income of $176.8 million which generated $0.30 EPS, which compares with income of $132.3 million or $0.22 last year.  On an adjusted basis, its EPS was $0.36.  It posted revenue of $1.15 billion versus $844.3 million in the same quarter last year.   Despite these nice gains in the company’s numbers, First Call had estimates of $0.38 EPS on $1.15 Billion in revenues. 

NVIDIA also shipped 42% more GPU’s this quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Unfortunately, the company has saved its guidance for its conference call.  Shareholders are very nervous ahead of the comments because shares are down over 6% at $20.49 in after-hours trading.  That’s almost 50% lower than its 52-week high of $39.67.

We’ll hold off on passing any final verdict until guidance has been filtered out, but on the surface after a sharp stock drop and all the characteristics of a solid GARP stock this should have probably already been priced in by the market.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 3:46 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor,

Charter Communications Tries Gas & Tax Rebate Gimmick Before Earnings (CHTR)

Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) has announced a new gimmick tying the coming tax checks with the high gas prices.  The company said that new and current customers can stretch their tax rebates with Charter services, and by ordering online receive a $25, $50 or $100 gift card for gasoline.

Here is their comment on it from Barbara Hedges, Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing for Charter:

  • “This promotion is in addition to the everyday value the Charter Bundle™ already represents and is a great opportunity to stretch your rebate dollars even further.  Add Charter Digital Cable® and get access to On Demand and the stunning clarity of high definition, High-Speed Internet® for a fast and reliable Internet experience, or Charter Telephone® for savings of up to $150 per year versus the service provided by traditional phone companies. Order any of these services online and we will help you keep more of your tax rebate in your pocket – instead of your gas tank.”

So this shows that customers can order online one or all three of its services and receive a gift card for gasoline in the amount of $25 for ordering one service, $50 for ordering two services, and $100 for ordering all three of Charter’s services.

Frankly, there isn’t really anything wrong with Charter as an operating company.  The only thing wrong with Charter is its massive debt levels.  But that is like saying the only thing wrong with your new neighbor is that he put cars up on blocks in the front yard and that he overpaid for the house and isn’t making his payments.  The company as of December 31, 2007 carried $19.973 Billion in long-term debt alone, and total liabilities were listed as $22.553 Billion.  For comparing the size of this, its market cap is roughly $550 million and  it is expected to show roughly $6.5 Billion  in revenues for all of 2008. If Paul Allen was reading the Bible right after looking at his cable company’s financials, he might mistake a passage and read "Walking in the valley of the shadow of debt."

Charter has earnings scheduled for Monday, May 12, 2008.  This report may be one of the most important earnings reports in recent times as the economy weakens while it tries to keep growing revenues.  We’ll be previewing this one in our "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter this weekend.

Shareholders better hope that Charter got a great deal on their gas card partners in this bundling effort, or at least hope that there are some strict terms on offering these out.

Shares of Charter closed  up less than 1% at $1.41 today, and its 52-week trading range is $0.61 to $4.93.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 3:33 pm in Cable Companies,

The 52-Week Low Club (BRL)(TSO)(PLA)(SDBT)(HANS)(ARNA)

Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL) Says business pace is falling off. Down to $37.40 from 52-week high of $58.38.

Tesoro Corporation (TSO) Broker downgrade. Dips to $22.92 from 52-week high of $65.98.

Playboy Enterprises (PLA) Earnings weaken. Falls to $7.01 from 52-week high of $12.

Soundbite Communications  (SDBT) Analyst downgrade. Falls to $2.44 from 52-week high of $8.25.

Hansen Natural (HANS) Earnings miss estimates. Sells off to $28.51. from 52-week high of $68.40.

Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) Misses on earnings. Dips to $4.92 from 52-week high of $14.78.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 2:59 pm in HI/LOW, , , , , ,

Colfax Premium IPO Goes Even Higher (CFX)

Colfax Corporation (NYSE: CFX) is seeing a huge reception after its hot IPO came to market today.  This IPO priced its shares at $18.00 for an amount of 18,750,000 shares.  This was above the $15 to $17 indicated price range.

Of all the shares being sold, 9,039,732 shares were sold by the company and 9,710,268 shares were sold by selling stockholders.  The underwriters a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 2,812,500 shares at the IPO price. 

The company did something smart here as well by having a rather large underwriting group.  The lead underwriters were Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and UBS Investment Bank; co-managers were Robert W. Baird, Banc of America, Deutsche Bank, and KeyBanc.  Based on today’s move, it looks like those shares will probably be exercised.

The company is involved in critical fluid-handling solutions, including the manufacture of positive displacement industrial pumps and valves used in global oil & gas, power generation, marine, naval and a other industrial applications. Colfax posted net income of $64.9 million on $506.3 million in revenues during 2007.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other IPO’s, secondaries, spin-offs, and other special situation previews.

Colfax shares are right around $21.00 on more almost 10.7 million shares having traded hands with just over an hour to the close.  Shares did open even higher.  The high print looks to be $24.00, but the highest we saw right after the open was $23.00.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 1:57 pm in IPOs, Oil & Gas,

AMD (AMD): No One Is Buying What CEO Hector Ruiz Is Selling

"Let’s get on down to the main attraction, With a little less talk and a lot more action."–Elvis

AMD (AMD) CEO Hector Ruiz makes a few promises a year and keep none of them. Most are about sales and profits. According to MarketWatch today "he reaffirmed his team’s vow to make AMD operationally profitable by the second half of 2008"

The was not the worst of  it. Ruiz has been hinting for months that he will get out of some of the company’s manufacturing businesses, out-sourcing them to save money. There have even been rumors that he will sell of spin-off the company’s graphics chip business, the one AMD paid $5 billion for.

The company’s shares are trading down slightly today. They are still near their 52-week low. That is not likely to change. The company’s forecast for the current quarter is awful.

One more day of promises from Ruiz and another day with nothing delivered.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 1:18 pm in Semiconductor,

Can NVIDIA Earnings Get It Off The Floor? (NVDA, AMD)

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) is set to post earnings right after the close today.  First Call has estimates pegged at $0.38 EPS on $1.15 Billion in revenues.  As far as next quarter, estimates are $0.37 EPS on $1.12 Billion in revenues.  For fiscal Jan-2009, the company is expected to post $1.66 EPS on $4.76 Billion in revenues.

Since its last report, earnings estimates have come down from $0.41 EPS for this quarter, and analysts trimmed $0.03 off for next quarter as well.  Estimates were taken down $0.10 for fiscal Jan-2009.

Analyst have an average target price of roughly $30.00.  Interestingly enough, this was just raised Monday by Wedbush Morgan to a Buy rating and on Tuesday, American Technology Research reiterated its Buy rating.

Options are a bit harder to use today as the stock is right in between fairly wide strike prices, but it looks like options traders are braced for a move of $0.85 to $0.90 in either direction.  The short interest data showed 17.75+ million shares short as of the last seen data.

The good news on its chart is that the stock has recovered sharply off of lows, even after a 2.5% drop to $21.45 today.  Shares are well above the 50-day moving average of $19.86, and well under the 200-day moving average of $28.57.  Its 52-week trading range is $17.31 to $39.67.

It is no secret that right now part of the woes are from Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD).  AMD has been troubled in its processor business, but its ATI Graphics business is a bright sport currently as many believe ATI’s newer Radeon products are winning in sales.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 12:12 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor, Video Games, ,

IPO FILING: Gomez, Inc

Gomez, Inc. has filed its intention to come public via an initial public offering.  For filing purposes, it has filed to sell up to $80.5 million in common stock.  Gomez will also take the ticker "GOMZ" on NASDAQ.

Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are the lead underwriters; co-managers are William Blair, Wachovia, and Pacific Crest Securities.   

Gomez is a provider of web experience management services where customers test their web applications while in development and to monitor their web applications after deployment. Its on-demand services improve the web experience to increase revenues from web applications, reduce operating costs, and extend brand reputations.

As far as the use of proceeds, it looks like some shares will be sold by shareholders and some will be sold by the company.  The company says it will use the funds it receives for working capital, and development of additional services and expansion of services for the ExperienceFirst platform.

From 2005 to 2007, the company’s annual revenue rose at a CAGR of 48% from $14.8 million to $32.6 million, while cash flow from operations rose from $785,000 to $9.2 million.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other IPO’s, secondaries, spin-offs, and other special situation previews.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 11:35 am in IPOs, Internet,

CO2 Trading Going Mainstream (NDAQ, NMX, CME)

In the 1990’s, carbon certificate trading was mostly unheard of.  This has also been largely untapped by American companies and by the American public.  Until Now.

The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., the subsidiary of NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMX), also announced that it will introduce a U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon allowance futures contract in the third quarter of 2008 that will be traded on the CME Globex, under the CME Group, Inc. (NYSE: CME).  This is expected to be the first exchange-traded contract for compliance with a government cap-and-trade program in the U.S.

It also looks like the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) intends to launch a new index family for carbon dioxide emissions certificates this summer in its efforts with Nord Pool, according to Dow Jones.  After looking at Nord Pool’s website this has only been available to private investors, so this could be a real game changer.

The Chicago Climate Exchange, part of Climate Exchange plc (CLE.L), has allowed people to trade carbon futures now for years. 

If you want to do some research on your own about what is coming down the pipe, here are just a few of the links we have followed from over the years:

Carbon emission certificates are not without controversy.  While it does address the issues, many refer to it as a "pay to pollute."  That is an argument that will go on for years and we have no interest in getting in the middle of that.

It almost looks in a way like the U.S. may have joined the Kyoto Protocol, even if it isn’t official.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 10:36 am in Alternative Energy, Exchange News, , ,

Apple (AAPL): Back At $200 In June

After a period of deep concern by Apple (AAPL) investors, when the stock fell from $194 at the beginning of the year to $121 in early February and then languished for two months, the shares are on a tear again.

In early March, the stock traded below $120. From then, it has moved almost straight up to $185.

The Apple recovery is much more about the future than about news which, while being good, was more or less expected. Apple had earnings which would be the envy of almost any other company. Its Mac is now a legitimate threat to the world of PCs. The iPhone is selling well in the US and parts of Europe. The iPod, with 150 million units sold worldwide, is at least holding its own.

Although the iPhone does not bring in much of Apple’s income now, news about the handset is what will take the stock back to $200 in a month, a level which is only about 8% above the current price.

The market expects the Mac to sell well in the present quarter. The rapid growth of iPod sales in now part of the past, but that is factored into Wall St.’s view of the company.

The iPhone has gone through an important marketing transformation in the last few weeks. Vodafone (VOD) will begin to market it in almost a dozen countries. AT&T (T) is likely to drop prices on the handset in the US, and there are frequent rumors about a deal with Chine Mobile (CHL).

The 3G version of the iPhone will be out next month. Apple won’t say that, but almost every educated observer will. The product launch cuts two ways. It will make current versions of the iPhone practically obsolete. AT&T and other resellers may have to offer very sharp discounts to sell old inventory. That will not matter much. The excitement around the new product will push Apple’s stock higher.

A 3G version of the iPhone will bring in a large number of customers who would not consider the handset before. According to Clearwave Research, the lack of 3G capacity has been the foremost complaint about the product as it is sold today.

A 3g iPhone will, in essence, give consumers and business people access to a portable computer. Smartphones with that capacity are sold in the market already. But, Apple brings the buyer an easy of use and panache which cannot be had with any other product. The new iPhone will sell like hotcakes.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 9:50 am in Consumer Electronics, , , ,

Lowering the Barr (BRL)

Who thought generics could ever look so bad?  This morning, Barr Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: BRL) has posted very poor numbers.

The company posted $0.57 EPS, far under the First Call consensus of $0.79. Revenues rose 1.8% year over year to $608 million, while $684.1 million was the consensus estimate. To make matters worse, its mixed guidance for Fiscal 2008 was put at $2.75 to $3.05 EPS. This is under the $3.27 consensus estimate and down from previous range of $3.05-$3.35 EPS for the year.  The company did keep 2008 revenues in a range of $2.7 to $2.8 billion, and First Call had estimates of $2.78 Billion.

Barr noted that the reduction to its poor results was on U.S. generic revenue coming in lower than expected.  The company also noted that it does not expect this to be completely offset by the expected launch of its generic birth control pill in 2008.

Brand name drug sales are seeing issues almost weekly, the pressure is on to lower healthcare costs, and somehow generic sales are weak.  Is the economic weakness to the point that people decided they can’t afford their co-pay rates?

Based on the crummy report, no one is giving the company the benefit of the doubt.  Shares are now at a new 52-week low this morning.  Shares are down more than 20% at $38.50 in early trading.  Its prior 52-week trading range was $45.33 to $58.38.

To make matters worse, the company broke its stock chart too.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 8:51 am in Drug companies, Earnings Warning,

El Paso Gasses Estimates, But Help is on the Way (EP, CHK, GS)

El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) has reported earnings of $0.29 EPS on net income of $219 million and revenue of $1.269 billion for the first quarter of 2008. Analysts were expecting $0.30 EPS and revenue of $1.35 billion.

The company’s president and CEO Doug Foshee provided an upbeat projection for the rest of the year, saying that EP expects "sharply higher earnings than our $1.00 to $1.10 earnings guidance for 2008 as our hedging strategy has enabled us to participate in improved natural gas and oil prices."  First Call has estimates at $1.19 for the year.

A week ago, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) reported a loss of $129 million or $0.29 EPS, primarily due to a non-performing hedging loss of $704 million. Chesapeake’s stock has risen more than 10% since then, mostly on the strength of a year-over-year production increase of 31%. El Paso improved production by about 8% y-o-y. In pre-market trading this morning, El Paso shares are up 1% at $18.50, and Chesapeake is up about 0.6% at $56.50.

The price movements have everything to do with the price of natural gas. EP’s average realized price for the first quarter was $7.57/Mcf, about $1.50/Mcf less than CHK’s average realized price of $9.05/Mcf. The higher prices partially reflect a drop in U.S. imports of LNG. In fact, according to Platt’s, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is predicting that U.S. natural gas storage inventories will not be full by the end of the summer. The U.S. Energy Information Agency has pegged first quarter 2008 LNG imports at just 860 MMcf/d, about half the agency’s projected monthly average for the year.

GS says that LNG imports won’t increase in the U.S. until NYMEX gas prices rise to equal or surpass international price levels. Competition with Asia and Europe for LNG cargoes will drive spot prices to new highs. If GS is correct, U.S. natural gas prices will need to nearly double to reach the current level of LNG spot prices. EP and CHK and other gas producers can only benefit.

Paul Ausick
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 8:13 am in Earnings, Oil & Gas, , ,

Vonage Leaps on Metrics (VG)

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) reported that first quarter revenue rose by 15% to $225 million.  The company also generated an adjusted operating income of $8 million, while its net loss narrowed to $9 million or $0.06 per Share.  The estimates from First Call were -$0.07 EPS and $223.17 million in revenues.

After the earning, we aren’t really concerned with the actual results today.  The reason is because the company is in financing talks over its debt that is probably going to be put back to the company late this year.

In a separate announcement, recently-bought Covad announced a pact where Vonage will offer its customers with a broadband solution using Covad’s nationwide DSL network.

As far as individual metrics, Vonage’s monthly revenues per line rose by $0.51 to $27.87.  Its churn rate rose to 3.3% in Q4.  It added 30,000 net subscriber lines to end with 2.6 million lines.

Vonage shares are up about 6% pre-market at $2.01 in pre-market trading.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Jon Ogg is a producer and editor of the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter from 247WallSt.com.

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 7:57 am in Earnings, Internet, Telecom,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (SAM, CLWR, BAGL, JEF, MVSN, NSR, OWW, TS, WB, YRCW)

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Thursday morning in pre-market trading:

  • Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM) cut to Neutral at HSBC Securities.
  • Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • Einstein Noah (NASDAQ: BAGL) raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) cut to Neutral at Wachovia.
  • Macrovision (NASDAQ: MVSN) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Neustar (NYSE: NSR) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Orbitz (NYSE: OWW) cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • Tenaris (NYSE: TS) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Wachovia (NYSE: WB) raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) cut to Sell at Stifel Nicolaus.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 7:36 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

McDonald’s (MCD) Strong In April

McDonald’s Corporation announced today that global comparable sales increased 5.0% in April and 6.8% year-to-date. Systemwide sales for McDonald’s worldwide restaurants increased 13.7% in April, or 6.5% in constant currencies.

U.S. comparable sales rose 2.0% for the month as McDonald’s breakfast menu, new products and compelling value attracted more customers into our restaurants.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 7:11 am in Food,

Wal-Mart (WMT) Goes Wild

Wal-Mart (WMT) continued to amaze. How does the world’s largest retailer grow faster than almost all of its competition?

For the month of April, Wal-Mart’s sales were up 9.8% to $29.8 billion. International sales rose 18.4% to $7.6 billion.

US same-store sales were up an astonishing 3.2%.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 6:32 am in Retail,

Europe Markets 5/8/2008 (BCS)(DB)(SAP)

Markets in Europe were off at 6.45 AM New York time.

The FTSE was down .2% to 6,252. Barclays (BCS) was off 2.5% to 463.25. Unilever was up 3.9% to 1727.

The DAXX was selling off .4% to 7,048. Deutsche Bank (DB) was off 1.1% to 77.11. SAP (SAP) was off 3.1% to 31.74.

The CAC 40 .4% to 5,054. EADS was down 2.5% to 15.82. Societe Generale was down 2.5% to 74.15.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntrye

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 5:51 am in International Markets, , ,

AMD (AMD) And The Power To Amaze

AMD (AMD) is going to offer the world more powerful chips for servers and PCs. It is not enough that it and Intel (INTC) have hardware with four cores, or processors, to do Herculean computational work. Now AMD says it will produce chips with six cores and then eight. Intel will have to keep pace.

According to The Wall Street Journal "More calculating engines tend to boost computing performance, although software modifications are sometimes needed to exploit the full benefits of such "multicore" chips."

Therein lies the problem. At some point the chip power moves beyond the needs of the hardware manufacturers and the programs who make applications for the semiconductors. The power of the weapons moves ahead of the soldiers.

AMD hopes to beat Intel by using R&D to best Intel, but the market still needs to have a product which it can use. It is not clear that six and eight core products fit that bill.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 5:43 am in Semiconductor, ,

Soros Agonistes

George Soros has taken the unpopular side of many economic bets over the years. He has not only lived to tell the tales. He has made himself and his investors untold billions of dollars in the process.

Now, as the markets seem to be recovering and the clouds parting, Soros claims that what we are seeing now is a bit of a "bear market rally." If that is the case, investors buying into it will be crushed beneath the wheel of a vicious market reversal.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Soros recently said “The markets are breathing a sigh of relief but the fallout in the real economy is only now beginning.” Soros does not even bother to say that there is any light at the end of the tunnel.

While Soro’s view is a minority report, it is one from a man who has made his bones on good judgment set against bad economic forecasts. He looks at the world and says that the write-offs and damages to the financial systems have a ways to go.

If he is right, all hell is coming.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 5:29 am in Economy