The $19 billion bank tax which was a cornerstone of the financial reform bill appears to be dead. But in the ever-changing negotiations to get legislation to the President’s desk next month, the fate…
Via MarketWatch: The sweeping Dodd-Frank bank reform bill was amended Tuesday by a joint House-Senate conference committee to change the way the bill is funded, in order to address the objections of several key…
Warren Buffett likes Lloyd Blankfein. Now Goldman Sachs likes Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A, BRK-B). In new coverage this morning, Goldman Sachs has initiated Warren Buffett’s conglomerate with a BUY rating. The targets were…
Many traders and investors love the active penny-stocks and low-priced stocks. And betting against low-priced shares is something that expert short sellers frequently do. The short selling from June 15 settlement date looked grossly…
The financial earnings of big banks will go the way of the Dodo bird, driven by the will of Congress to right the perceived wrongs of the credit crisis. The disaster was as much…
The House and Senate have agree upon financial reform legislation. The main aspects of the bill include according to the Reuters Factbox: Wall Street firms would have to spin off over-the-counter derivatives dealing operations…
As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee under Ben Bernanke has voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged at the Target of 0.00% to 0.25%. The vote was 9 to 1 against a…
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner made a number of important observations during his testimony before the Congressional Oversight Committee. The most outstanding of these is how much money from the TARP investment has been returned…
Some have said that if it moves, it can be taxed. But based upon what we have seen over the last decade, if it moves you can also create a financial futures contract around…
Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) are two companies with an unlikely tie to the BP plc (NYSE: BP) oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf. But after a $20 billion fund…
Fitch is generally considered third fiddle in a two-agency dominated game of debt ratings behind Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. But a ‘timely’ downgrade out of Fitch on BP plc (NYSE: BP) from Tuesday…
The Congressional Oversight Panel issued a report today which says that the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department did a poor job of rescuing American International Group (NYSE: AIG), which put $160 billion in taxpayer…
It was during the most recent meltdown that we gave a list of companies where the stocks could still double, and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was one of them. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square disclosed…
Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) was trying to have a good day yesterday, but it is one of those companies where almost all good news is met by more selling. The news yesterday…
ADR investors have probably made money this year only if they were writing call options or if they were shorting the stocks. The added currency component has greatly magnified the losses on paper here,…