Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Postings will be lite

Lite postings for the a few days I will be traveling

CDS weapons of mass annihilation

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/849-Stop-OTC-CDS-Abuse-NOW.html

GE the ticking time bomb

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/03/ges-8-billion-downgrade-time-bomb.html

Now trading below $6 and with futures in June showing a huge increase at the $2.50 level. Things are not good from one of the largest comapnies in america.

Marc Faber: Farm and World War

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aa4KTmib46Uw&refer=asia

“Buy a farm and let your girlfriend work on the farm,” he said, to the applause of investors. “If the global economy doesn’t recover, usually people go to war.”

Euro zone services drop

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKSP48879820090304

More bad signs out of europe.


The overwhelming mood was grim, however, with the International Monetary Fund warning late on Tuesday the global financial crisis had shifted to the world's poorest nations and 22 might need as much as $25 billion


Wow 22 countries and increasing.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE5231BG20090304


Also ITV cuts jobs and calls the downturn a "short term horror"

AIG worse decision ever.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/solvent-insurer-insolvent-insurer/

It's On! CNBC VS Obama Round 2 Cramer take down

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/Obamas-Press-Secretary-Takes-on-CNBC-Host-Again.html
Obama takes on Cramer.

I especial find this funny cause Cramer was a Obama supporter!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Iceland by Vantiy Fair Excellent read

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland200904

Car sales, The bad, the ugly and the ugly bad.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/03/ford-sales-decline-48-toyota-32-honda.html

Obama Calls Bottom. Issues a Buy buy buy!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/bullish-obama-s.html

I laughed out loud when I read this. What dream world is this man living in?
When did Kudlow and the mustard seeds of hope take over Obama?
unbeilieivable.

Hidden Pension Fiasco May Foment Another $1 Trillion Bailout

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=alwTE0Z5.1EA&refer=home

Citi losses big Asian Customer

http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-loses-a-big-customer-in-asia-2009-3

Fears of a bank run are real and very worring. This is what doomed Bear and lehman.

Losing half of 75 years worth of upside in 16 months

http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/bespoke/2009/03/back-to-the-bear.html

Some very long-term landmarks are in sight. Right below Dow 7000, not 2% down from here, is a point at which half of the entire rise from the 1932 Depression low to the ultimate October 2007 high will have gone away. That's explainable given the low-double-digit Dow of '32, but losing half of 75 years worth of upside in 16 months is . . . quite something.

WSJ: Leaked Details on Public-Private Entities Buying Bad Bank Assets

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/03/wsj-leaked-details-on-public-private.html

Continued signs Obama and team have no new ideas, just rehasing what bush did.

US January Pending Home Sales Drop 7.7%

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29485224

More records set and not in a good way. Just the build up for the car report later in the day.

German Property Companies Owe Billions, Face Deadline

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a34Y6NVYrVyk&refer=home

I am sure this may part of the reason Germany is reluctant to help Eastern Europe.

Jim Rogers: Let AIG go broke not the USA

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29476319

Monday, March 2, 2009

Europe Blames America While U.K Warned of Bankruptcy

http://www.webtvhub.com/bankrupt-britain/

Struggling States Look to Unorthodox Taxes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/us/01sin.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=marijuana&st=cse

The Coming Pension problem

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/03/pension-funds-imploding.html
Yes it is bad and every point we go down makes it worse. It is time for hard discusioon about this issue before it is too late.

Obama is not the anti-Bush. He is Bush on steroids.

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aYgo3fufKIbI

Just confirms what I have been saying since the stimulus. We are still following Bush down the path to hell.

Some humor on the stress test

http://thehill.com/weyants-world/weyants-world-february-26-2009-2009-02-25.html

Factory Decline Is Smaller; Construction at 4-Year Low

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29464631

Just more bad news. This week will especial troubling for the markets.
Rumors of 8% unemployment from Fridays report have everyone buzzing about new lows.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

HSBC suspended. Likely to pull out from the USA

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Trading-HSBC-shares-suspended-financial/story.aspx?guid=%7BD04F335E%2D6AAE%2D4E1A%2D856B%2D82A9C7C7B6FB%7D

Is Citi the final stop on the road to depression

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/03/creeping-equitization-of-citis-capital.html

We can only hope in the process Geithner does not royally anger someone really important along the way as it forces them to convert into a chunk of more and more diluted common stock.


The mind field is getting denser for Tim. Hope he walks very carefully.

doomsday expections growing.

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/02/doomsday-expectations-growing.html

In a sign of the times, people are buying guns,ammo and spam.

Ukraine Teeters as Its Citizens Blame Banks and Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/world/europe/02ukraine.html?_r=1&hp

So many fires ,so little water. As the flames of credit crashes flare it is increasing looking like we are going to see be explosions.

EU rejects eatern europes plea for help

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=az.7KGKwHBCQ&refer=home
Germany say nien to bailouts for EEU or auto makers.

Excellent recap of last week.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/words-from-the-investment-wise-mar-1-2009/

Commenting on the fact that most indicators seem to signal an oversold condition, Richard Russell said: “Technically, if the market isn’t poised to rally now, when will it ever rally? Despite the depressing newspaper headlines, the technical picture of the Dow now is one of being super-oversold. Investor sentiment is on the verge of being demoralized. The weakest kind of market is a severely oversold market that refuses to rally. Sad to say, that’s what we have now.”


Very scary stuff, All great crashes happen in this type of market. Once again we have reached a binary stop. Either massive up or massive down.

IS GE cheap or a sucker bet?

http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/27/how-soon-until-we-have-to-bailout-general-electric-cnbc-vide.html

Tough love needed at GE. I would not be surpirsed to see GE trade below $5 at this point.

Motor City on the brink of bankruptcy, but still 15 people want to be mayor

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-detroit-housingjan29,0,5435392.story

Sad story. Mean House pricing at $7,500. 1000 people per month leaving. Massive layoffs coming from the big three.

Let me inject some hope to detroit. We things are cheap, there is always some company willing to move there if the enviroment is right. The question to ask is, what would intice companies to move to your city?
Cheap housing would make workers happy. A tax bases that is low will always bring people. You still have two major league teams. The goal is now to sell people on the city and make it easy for things to be done. This does not have to end in tears.

Two more Banks gone

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/securitysavings.html

As of December 31, 2008, Security Savings Bank had total assets of approximately $238.3 million and total deposits of $175.2 million. Bank of Nevada did not pay a premium to acquire the deposits of Security Savings Bank.


http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/heritagebank.html

As of December 5, 2008, Heritage Community Bank had total assets of $232.9 million and total deposits of $218.6 million. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, including those from brokers, MB Financial Bank agreed to purchase approximately $230.5 million in assets at a discount of $14.5 million. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

BIg Losses. Tax payers, buffet and the prince.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29441908

Saudi Prince Walid has seen a 50% loss in overall holdings and a massive 89% loss in Citibank.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29441086

The letter also reveals a 9.6 percent decline in Berkshire's book value per-share last year, making 2008 the company's worst year since Buffet took over in 1965.


2009 will not be any better, with holdings in WFC, another bank that will need to be bailed out.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29442377

American International Group is close to a deal with the U.S. government that would ease the terms of its bailout, give a further equity commitment and help it pay down debt,


So shareholders, all taxpayers since we own this pieces of crap. You are looking at the government overseers to cut a deal with AIG, that lowers our payback, increases our bet and lower any chance of payback. Happy? Look for this to be the road map for Citi, BAC and WFC.

http://www.businessinsider.com/historical-low-default-rates-on-munis-dont-mean-jack-2009-2

Buffet also predicts losses to mount in the muni bond industry. Why do we care, we your city can not borrow money look for massive local cuts. Up to the plate first, Californian which already lost one city and with more to come soon. This is the end for massive government spending. At some point you can spend more borrowed money. When that happens very bad things occur.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/economy/28recession.html?_r=1&hp

The best part, Obama group see good times just around the corner. The only problem? No one outside of his group does. In fact most people are now lowering the expectations for the next three years. Cut the deficits? Not a chance. Risk over promising and massive spending cuts cause no one will lend us money? Yes.

In short everyone is losing and no one has a clue how to stop it.