It Takes a Recession to Slow U.S. Health Care Cost Increases
It takes a recession to slow what has normally been runaway U.S. health care costs. The trend may be part of a road map to keep costs down. These costs have risen at close to double…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
What’s Important in the Financial World (1/10/2012) Consumer Electronics Show, EU Hampers Earnings
CES – The Consumer Electronics Show is awash with new gadgets. Most will never see the light of day. Many will trigger tens of millions of dollars in manufacturing and marketing costs for the…
Media Digest (1/10/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Olympus sues its CEO and former board members for $50 million in compensation, and shares rise. (Reuters) China’s trade growth hits a two-year low in December. (Reuters) Philips warns of Q4 weakness because of…
Asia And Europe Shares Rise
Share in both Europe and Asia rose. Part of the cause is a belief that China will increase liquidity in its economy to offset a slowdown in GDP growth. The other cause is an…
Wall St. May Freeze Junior Banker Pay–Bloomberg
Bloomberg reports that a number of investment banks may freeze the pay of junior bankers as a way to keep costs down as revenues fall The news service reports Wall Street’s biggest firms, facing…
Fitch: Italy Risk Is Europe’s Largest
A top Fitch manager speaking at a London conference said the Italy’s borrowing problems and the size of its deficit are the greatest risk to the euro. The WSJ quotes David Riley, head of…
Microsoft Posts Huge Holiday Xbox Sales
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience at CES that sales of Xbox products had exceeded nearly every expectation. He commented that Xbox 360 is first in console sales with more than…
UniCredit Shares Battered Ahead Of Rights Offering
UniCredit, the largest bank in Italy, has lost the investment market’s confidence. Its shares have dropped 45% in the last four days. The financial firm plans a rights offering. The capital is needed for…
Deutsche Telekom And Groupon To Set Venture
Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) has struggled with investors because of concerns about acceptance of its products in the US market. Many analysts believe that the online coupon and “instant store sale” model has gone out of…
Sony Release “Revolutionary” TV Screen At CES
Sony (NYSE: SNE) staggered by years of unsuccessful product launches, and losses in its TV screen division, will try to reverse its fortunes with a new product. It was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show,…
Microsoft, Nokia, AT&T Launch New Lumia 900 Smartphone
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) have released their first Window’s based smartphone aimed at the US market. AT&T (NYSE:T) says it will aggressively market the product. The success of the release has met…
S&P–Private Equity Bankruptcies Drop
S&P reports that private equity bankruptcies are falling. Based on the modest recovery, that makes sense. The credit agency reports Since the conclusion of the previous economic contraction through year-end 2011, companies with financial sponsor…
Philips Warns EU Has Hurt Earnings
Consumer electronics giant Philips warned its earnings would be poor for the fourth quarter, and that Europe sales were largely to blame. The firm reported Group sales for the quarter are expected to show mid…
Olympus Sues CEO, Former Board Members
Olympus, embattled in an accounting scandal the size of which is still not known, filed suit against its current CEO and former board members The Japanese company will try to get back $50 million in…
Apple CEO Cook Gets $377 Million Comp Package
Tim Cook, Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new CEO has received a $378 million compensation package, according to the firm’s proxy statement. Cook’s compensation the prior year was $59 million. Cook has been instrumental in the operation…
60% Of Hedge Funds Lost Money In 2011–Hedge Fund Intelligence
Sixty percent of all hedge funds lost money in 2011, according to Hedge Fund Returns. The site reports: Nearly 60% of hedge funds lost money in 2011, according to preliminary data from the HedgeFund Intelligence…
Coors Light Passes Bud In Sales
According to Beer Market Insights, Coors Light passed Bud as the No.2 brand in the US for the full year 2011 The beer analysis site reports Coors Light ended 2011 about ½ mil bbls…
Soc Gen Analyst: Crude May Rise 80%
A Societe Generale analysts says that if the Strait of Hormuz is closed, crude could move up 80 %o between $150 and $200. He puts that chance for that low, but claims an complete…
Netflix Share Price Increase Accelerates
New that Netflix will offer new service in Ireland and the UK has moved shares higher by 14% to $99. The increase earlier in the day was much smaller. Apparently investors are will to forget for…
Europe Banks Flee To Quality, Up ECB Deposits
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1324331373.htmlEurope’s banks do not want to loan one another money, still. The sovereign debt crisis has caused more and more banks to leave overnight deposits in the safety of the European Central Bank’s vaults.…