Daily Archives: October 18, 2008

Ten Percent Of $700 Billion Bailout Could Go To Bonuses (GS)(C)(MS)

Cammonopoly_wideweb__430x3250No matter how badly the economy is doing and what shareholders in American financial firms have lost, it would be a shame to see investment bankers go without their bonuses.

According to The London Observer, "Financial workers at Wall Street’s top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year – despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned. Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bailout from the US government that has already prompted criticism."

The news for Morgan Stanley workers is even better.

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When Will The Rest Of Ford’s (F) Board Leave?

Ford1Most corporations have bylaws about how many board members they must have. The federal government requires that boards of directors keep enough outside members to maintain independent audit and compensation committees.

Ford (F) may have some trouble with these rules and regulations. Yesterday, two of its most prominent board members left: John R.H. Bond and Jorma Ollila. Bond is chairman of Vodafone (VOD). Ollila is chairman of Nokia (NOK) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS). Neither is exactly at retirement age. Their departure follows that of the Ford CFO by less than a week. 

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Are Record Junk Bond Defaults & Outflows Growing Into Opportunities? (PHK, HIX, HYV, HYG, JNK)

Broken_merger_torn_moneyThe recent turmoil in the credit markets has created problems for issues of the highest quality debt all the way down to the junkiest of junk bonds which trade at ratings under "BBB" or "Baa."  When you have quality firms such as GE and Goldman Sachs paying nearly 10% for Warren Buffett to put on the corporate sweatshirt, and IBM forked out 8% for 30-year maturity debt. 

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