Public Loses Its Faith In Science
Faith and science sit at the opposite ends of the spectrum of how people view the world and the causes and effects of their experiences. Now, faith in science is falling which may favor the…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
A Program To Kill Alternative Energy: Tax Wind Power
Someone in the Wyoming legislature came upon the idea that he and his fellow elected officials could cut budget deficits by taxing wind power production. The state is something of a mecca for the alternative…
Media Digest 2/22/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Obama plans to pressure health insurance prices as part of new reforms. Reuters: A Toyota (TM) memo shows the company worked to keep the costs of one of its recalls to…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (2/22/2010)
Markets in Asia were mostly higher The Nikkei rose 2.7% to 10,400. Sony (NYSE:SNE) and Toyota (NYSE:TM) rose The Hang Seng was higher by 2.5%. The Shanghai Composite dropped .5% to 3,003. At the…
Why It Took $642 Million In Fees To Dismantle Lehman
Lehman’s bankruptcy is believed to be the largest in US history. Now, Bloomberg has reported that a new regulatory filing revealed that various consulting and legal firms and other lucky advisors that became part of the…
National Employee Morale Day At Boeing (BA)
Boeing (NYSE:BA) sent out 1,025 60-day layoff notices, most of them to workers in its Engineering, Operations, and Technology unit. The action was part of Boeing already-disclosed 10,000 employee “termination” plans. Boeing has suffered…
A Flood Of Energy M&A: Schlumberger Buys Smith For $11 Billon
The acquisition by Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) of competitor Smith International Inc. (SII) for $11 billion could be another sign that mergers and acquisitions in the energy sector will pick up in 2010. This is…
The Mystery Over China’s Financial Plans Grows As Goverment Tightens
Are the Chinese adding liquidity into the nation’s economy to encourage consumer spending and manufacturing activity, or are they restricting the access to capital by tightening bank lending requirements? The data this weekend pointed to a…
The FDA Follies And Death Drug Avandia
The FDA continued is blundering and fumbling as the protector of the American public from big pharma. On the “drugs that kill people but are approved by the FDA” front, two doctors from the…
New GM CEO Gets $9.1 Million In Comp, Old Chief $59,000 A Month
Whatever happened to the $1 a year men? When the federal government gave Chrysler $1.5 billion to stay in operation, CEO Lee Iacocca worked for $1 until the taxpayers were received their money back.…
Tiger Woods Caused The Stock Rally, Really (DIA, SPY, QQQQ)
Wikimedia CommonsToday was very confusing for traders. You had a housing number that may have incorrectly gave a feeling that housing is about to rapidly get back on its feet and we had a…
Tiger’s Sponsors… Come From Behind Victory? (NKE, ERTS, AXP, PG, ACN)
Tiger Woods is a unique athlete that put himself in a unique situation. Today’s first round of formal apologies was effectively nothing more than a telegraph of more to come that so far raises…
Emerging Market Surprise: Turkey Upgraded by S&P (TUR, TKF, TKC)
If you have read the news about Greece, Spain, and other PIIGS nations, you might think that the EuroZone and any neighboring states would be in the tank. If you asked about Turkey without…
Two Small Alternative Energy Capital Raises, More To Come (ACPW, CPST)
We have two small capital raises seen this morning in two alternative energy players. These are also classified as cult stocks due to their small size and trading history. Active Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACPW)…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (2/19/2010)
Updated throughout the day. Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) and Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) buyout rumors on options trading (3:45 PM EST). BioHealthInvestor.com says caveat emptor! Two schools in China are being tied to…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ACN, BUD, BBY, SCHW, FSLR, INFY, KNOT, LIZ, DIS, WBMD)
These are Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street research calls this morning: Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) Cut to Sell at Kaufman Bros. Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) Cut to…
Vulture Watch: Nortel’s Patent Portfolio Up For Grabs (NRTLQ, RIMM, INTC, CSCO, MSFT, ERIC, QCOM, ALU)
Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ) is just about wound down in its bankruptcy. The company’s operations have effectively all been sold off, at extreme discounts. In this bankruptcy there is one last sale or group…
The Dividend Hikes Continue (KO, CCE, TIF, PFCB, RIG, KGC, AU, MO, HNZ, DAI, HME)
The Fed has started the end of the near-zero rate cycle cycle, sort of. But yesterday’s sudden discount rate hike to 0.75% from 0.50% is almost certainly a prelude to the Fed Funds rate…
Wireless Call Quality Drops
A new study by JD Power shows that wireless call quality fell sharply during the last six months. Part of this is undoubtedly due to overloads of 3G networks which are swamped with data. But quality…
Cold And Snow Kill UK Retail–US Next
The the Office for National Statistics said that retail sales in the UK fell 1.2% in December, more than the consensus forecast of .5%. The recession was partly to blame according to some analysts.…