Citigroup (C): Cutting Bonuses For The Rich
The average man on the street would view giving up millions of dollars in bonus money for a hard year of work as a tremendous sacrifice. Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup (C), chairman Win…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
The Music Business Is Doomed, Even If Digital Sales Keep Improving (AAPL)(WMG)
Over the last few years, the reporting of revenue from commercial music sales has been a "good news, bad news" deal. Digital downloads of albums and songs keep rising. CD sales keep falling. Since…
Media Digest 1/1/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg (GM)(C)(IBM)(TWX)(VIA)(WFC)
According to Reuters, Wall St. closed its worst year since The Depression. Reuters reports that GMAC did not hit its goal of trading debt for equity and cash. Reuters reports that GM (GM) has…
SEC’s Cox Looks Back In Anger
No one seems to have liked that way SEC chief Christopher Cox handled his job during the financial crisis. Congress thought he should have done more to keep banks and investment houses from using…
Pipeline Partnerships Face Credit Crunch (EPB, EPD, KMP)
We’ve noted before that pipeline master limited partnerships must grow if they are to attract investors. For nearly all MLPs, that means access to credit at low interest rates. Does that sound like today’s…
Russia and Ukraine: Energy Battle, Round 2.5
The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas prices is following the same path as the fracas three years ago. Ukraine paid off part of its outstanding $2 billion gas bill yesterday, but…
Piper Jaffray Said Weak Holiday eCommerce Data Supports Thesis of Slow ’09 For Amazon (AMZN)
Analysts at Piper Jaffray commented on Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) following comScore data which showed that total eCommerce sales declined 4% Y/Y QTD for Q4 and declined 37% Y/Y in the last full week of…
More Bad New On Jobless Claims
Consumer confidence is at a multi-year low. Housing prices are off 18% compared to a year ago. To complete the trifecta jobless claims are at a 26-year high. First-time applications for state unemployment benefits…
China’s Canary In A Coal Mine: Shanghai Index Down 65%
The Shanghai Composite, which measures the combined share value of most of the large public companies in China, fell 65% this year. Among the major US indices, the sharpest drop was the 39% plunge…
Who Will Lead The Charge When The Market Recovers
As hard as it may be to imagine, the stock market will move back up someday. It always has. When a market recovers, there are always one or two sectors which are perceived as…
AIG (AIG) Wants The 1,000th Change In Its Government Loan Rules
The management at AIG (AIG) is extremely clever. Every time it runs into trouble paying back the $144 billion credit facilities provided by the federal government, it asks for a change in the terms…
The Nonsense Over “Fair Value” Accounting Goes On As Banks Beg For Forgiveness
American banks are still trying to move the goal posts in their favor on the accounting football field. Current rules govern how they set the value of assets on their balance sheets. The banking…
The Fed Wises Up, Buys Mortgage-Backed Securities (BLK)(GS)
The Fed will step into the market next year and buy mortgage-backed securities with a vengeance. It has finally dawned on the agency that cutting rates and providing banks with low-cost emergency funds is…
As Gas Prices Drop, Yankees Stay Home And Buy Fewer Cars (XOM)(F)(GM)
Last summer, a gallon of gas cost over $4. Now the prices has dropped below two bucks and is still falling. The sharp drop in crude oil is to blame. Intuition would say that…
Dell’s (DELL) Problems No Worse Than Apple’s (AAPL)
There are rumors going around that Dell (DELL) will fire its chief of operations and its head of marketing. The PC firm’s turnaround is not going so well. The answer to most corporate strategy…
Media Digest 12/31/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg (DELL)(CHTR)(F)(PEP)
According to Reuters, housing and consumer confidence both suffered record drops. Reuters reports that GMAC eased lending rules after the government provided it with $6 billion. Reuters reports that the Madoff probe now extends…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 12/31/2008
Some markets in Asia were closed. The Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 14,387. It was down 48% for the year. The Shanghai Composite was off .7% to 1,821 and was off 65% for the…
The 52-Week Low Club (HOV)(KIDS)(BLDP)(PEIX)
Hovnanian (HOV) News on housing prices pushes homebuilder down. Drops to $1.56 from 52-week high of $13.50. Parent (KIDS) Files for Chapter 11. Sells down to $.05 from 52-week high of $6.43. Ballard Power…
Gizmodo Rumor: Apple’s (AAPL) Jobs Health Failing
Because of the number of rumors about the health of Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs, it is hard to know which has any validity. Jobs has suffered from islet cell neuroendocrine tumor a malignant…
Holiday Retail Worst Since 1970
The two most brutal recessions in recent memory are those that hit in 1973 and 1981. It appears that holiday retail sales for 2008 were worse than they were in either of those downturns.…