Federal Mortgage Assistance: It May Not Help
Henry Paulson has taken a lot of heat for putting TARP funds into big banks and ignoring the needs of homeowners struggle to pay their mortgages. Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC, says that…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
J.P. Morgan Dabbles in Agriculture (JPM, UBS)
J.P. Morgan, the investment banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE:JPM), plans to acquire the Canadian energy operations and global agricultural business of UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) for an undisclosed amount. The Canadian firm…
The French Will Be Allowed to Invade Britain (BRK-A, CEG)
Platts is reporting this morning that the European Commission released its decision this morning regarding the buyout offer from Electricite de France (EDF) for British Energy Group plc, the UK’s largest nuclear generator of…
The Big Three and Irrational Fear of Company Failure
By John Tamny RealClearMarkets When the U.S. Senate blocked Congress’s attempt to save the U.S. carmakers earlier this month, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino made the claim that if federal money wasn’t freed up…
Are Dollar Stores Finally a Sell? (DLTR, NDN, FDO)
The ever-weakening economy is driving consumers to lower and lower priced goods. It is called the "trade-down economy" where people buy cheaper goods rather than nothing at all. That is great for the dollar…
CO2 Restriction Easing on Coal-fired Power Plants? (BTU, ACI, MEE, CNX, FTEK)
Last August, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that a proposed coal-fired power plant in Utah did not need to file for a clean-air permit because the emissions from the plant were not…
Elevation & Palm, Good Money Chases Bad (PALM, AAPL, RIMM)
Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) has managed to secure an additional investment from Elevation Partners for $100 million. It is easy to understand why Palm would want the investment, but we’d note that this is…
A Consensus Forming That Existing General Motors (GM) Common Shares Are Worthless
On Friday, it become very apparent to us that the common equity in General Motors (NYSE: GM) will become worthless. We advised shareholders of GM that they have 60 days to sell at whatever…
SINA & Focus Media Ad Combination Swap (SINA, FMCN)
SINA Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) has agreed to buy Focus Media Holding Limited’s (NASDAQ: >FMCN) digital out-of-home advertising networks. This will include a LCD display network, a poster frame network and its in-store network. Focus…
More Bank Rate Cuts: Is China Worse Off Than Imagined?
It is not a good sign when a company cuts interest rates five times in three months. The government may be sensing more trouble in China than it is letting on. According to Bloomberg,…
Top Analyst Upgrades (BKC, CS, FNF, HES, IFX, NUE, OSG)
These are the top analyst upgrades we have seen this Monday morning ahead of the opening bell: Burger King (BKC) Raised to Buy at UBS. Credit Suisse (CS) Raised to Buy at Merrill Lynch.…
The E-Commerce Dream Turns Dark
For years, e-commerce was the bright corner of the retail business. Easier to do comparison shopping. No crowds. Free shipping. This year, online retail is looking a great deal like the mall. Comscore has…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ABX, COGT, GMR, GG, NEM, NAT, PRU, UBS, X, WOR)
These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades we have seen early this Monday morning: Barrick (ABX) Cut to Neutral at UBS. Cogent (COGT) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan. General Maritime (GMR) Cut…
S&P Large Caps, Not Large Caps Anymore
It used to be that a large cap stock was defined by S&P as having a market cap of $5 billion. Because of the market drop, they revised that to $4 billion in September…
More Bailout Cash For A New Bailout…Commercial Real Estate
The number of bailouts is becoming so large that new ones are hardly worth mentioning, But, when the lead story in The Wall Street Journal covers an fresh angle, it is hard to ignore.…
Cloud Computing Will Never Work
Cloud computing has started to pick up some fans. Google (GOOG) markets a lot of the stuff. It allows things like e-mail, documents, and spreadsheets to run on its servers. The PCs at companies…
The PR Benefit Of Selling The Corporate Jet: The Financial Harm Of Doing It
The corporate jet was always a sign that fat cat CEOs were getting special treatment. Some companies even let management fly to vacation spots. Others said their CEOs were at risk for being kidnapped…
The Individual Investor Takes A Holiday
In most big market downturns, individual investors give up the ghost and move money to their mattresses. Not only do they think that a bad economy will continue to drive equities down. They think…
Japan Exports: The First Economy To Fall Hard
While GDP measurements vary a bit from country to country, Japan is probably the world’s second largest economy. Based on the decade plus economic stagnation in the nation in the 1980s and 1990s, it…
Russia And China: Rioting For Fun And Profit
Violent labor unrest in the US may have seen its best days end with the Columbine Mine Massacre of 1927. There were some incidents after that, but they were not as notorious. American workers…