Farmers complain that when rich countries keep food prices low with farm subsidies they shut out the possibilities for poor countries to develop their farming industries. At thepanelist.net, blogger Jean Roberts complains that high food prices hurt the poor.
Zubin Jelveh at Portfolio.com combines research on the disadvantages of testosterone in traders. He goes as far as to suggest that traders take female hormones to become better risk managers. It looks like he’s never been a trader. I, for one, can attest to all the disadvantages of testosterone in my life. Premature baldness, extreme…
The New York Times has the best CEO compensation viewing tool ever. This is the best way to see how bloated the pay package of the U.S. company CEOs is. My favorite CEO on the list is John Thain for managing to negotiate Merrill Lynch (MER – $42.60) shareholders out of $83 million for doing…
Photo:Miguel A. Lopes, Creative Commons, Flickr Felix from New York asks in a comment about my March 2008 top holdings, “What a lot of oil! Is this list in any way shape or form socially responsible?”
When I started on Wall Street most things were still traded this way. I was trading Emerging Market Bonds over the phone and never used these signals except across a crowded loud room, and even then I mostly got them wrong. I usually had to resort to a phone call. However, over time, some things…
So Yahoo (YHOO – $27.82), calls out Microsft (MSFT – $29.30) and details responses to their fight over Yahoo’s online brand, assets and people. Larry Dignan at ZDNet does a fantastic job of ironically translating the letter from Yahoo to Microsoft. What does this all mean? Yahoo is willing to have a proxy fight and…
This month’s top 15 is full of financials and oil. I like to bottom fish, and this month it finally worked. My exposure to big bad oil is starting worry my wallet and my heart. 1. Lehman Brothers (LEH – $44.05): Now that more than three years have passed since I left Lehman Brothers I…
I like what blogger Thomas Hawk says about what will happen to Yahoo (YHOO) if they ignore Steve Ballmer’s exploding offer to buy the company from the board. In fact, if Microsoft really wanted to play hard ball at this point they could simply give Yahoo 48 hours to accept the terms or pull the…
Check out this list from Bespoke Investor of the cost of bank default insurance. The highest costs go to Lehman and Merrill and other American Banks while the lowest prices are European. I think this is the result of the implied government guarantee that most investors believe is far stronger in Europe. However, now that…
Thornburg Mortgage (TMA – $1.60) has changed their bylaws to allow large shareholders. It seems that CEO, Brian Mcmahon, is really going to save this company. I admire him for being honest about the condition of the company and its margin calls back when the whole mortgage market started to melt down. I’m willing to…
Today the Chicago Fed released notes on the economy showing a decrease in U.S. economic activity to the lowest level in five years. This indicates the recession may have already begun. Watch for more recession news to end this stock market rally as analysts look for earnings decline. I’m taking some profits on some of…
I do not endorse any one broker, but this eTrade commercial really got to the essense of what trading for one’s own account is all about. This E*TRADE advertisement caused the following emotional and intellectual reactions in me: 1. I felt guilty about investing in Pharma companies who rely more on marketing than curing diseases.…
I’m looking for Wall Street to do well no matter who wins the election this year. Three factors will keep the cash register ringing for investment banks:1. Demographics of baby-boomers saving for retirement.2. The cheaper dollar, meaning that foreign firms will be on a shopping spree for U.S. companies, which will help M&A advisory.3. Mortgage…
Could it be a Holy Mystery, like they told you in Catholic school, for anything that couldn't be explained? Steve Randy Waldman at Interfluidity.com has another theory on why Bear Stearns (BSC – $5.94) is trading above the $2.00. He offers up god, oh I mean Jamie Dimon, channeling J.P. Morgan. Could The House of…
This is an actual conversation I had with the most prolific blogger I know, Felix Salmon. He has been churning out material about the JPMorgan takeover of Bear Stearns. He helped me better explain why Bear Stearns was trading over the JPM buyout price of $2.00 a share. He used our discussion to produce a…
I've been getting the inside scoop from some hedgefund traders (who always request to remain anonymous). One told me that the reason Bear Stearns (BSC – $7.90) is trading so far above the deal price with JP Morgan (JPM – $41.00) is that bond holders who NEED the deal to go through are buying millions…
My friends and Portfolio have this handy slideshow that shows how much value destroying CEO's were overpaid last year. Not surprisingly, CEOs of financial firms like eTrade (ETFC – $3.29), Countrywide (CFC – $4.76) and Citigroup (C – $18.62) top the list. For nearly all companies, the CEO is an employee, not a founder, not…
I bought Bear Stearns (BSC – $4.68 – down 85%) on Friday for $33.00. I thought there would be some kind of rescue package. I was wrong. Here, Portfolio.com blogger, Felix Salmon summarizes some of my comments and those by others. Instead, what I got was The Fed exacting their revenge on Bear at my…
Eric Savitz asks, "What will Microsoft do if Yahoo Whiffs Q1?" My bet is that the market will think Microsoft (MSFT -$28.63) is paying too much for Yahoo (YHOO- $28.45) and perhaps will be hit and go down a buck or two. What SHOULD Microsoft do? CELEBRATE. Yahoo still has huge web traffic and a…
I recommend that holders of Aution Rate Preferred read this article by the President of the Closed End Fund Association, Tom Dinsmore.
Merrill Lynch (MER – $44.38) is turning trees into money, according to the Wall Street Journal Online. I am sure many will ridicule this as a fake and short-sighted public relations move. However, any step in the right direction is a positive one. With today's central bank move to inject liquidity into the system, the…
A friend who must remain anonymous asks: "Sent you a message on your Facebook acct…you adding to Merrill Lynch (MER – $42.97)? Can't get a read on the big pullback..do the institutional traders know something we dont?" I'm not adding to MER and I'm actually out of it for a while. My stop loss rule…
A reader who likes to send me his portfolio decisions has had a better call on the markets lately. What I like about him is that he sees his portfolio as an investment, is very critical of US government policy, is nervous about the debasing of the dollar via inflation and takes long term views. …
My anti-government-war-complex conspiracy theorist friends often tell me that the income tax is immoral because it supports war, and illegal because it was founded by the Supreme Court to be anti-constitutional. But these guys are either living in a paranoid delusion or making a completely incorrect legal argument based on a historical partial truth and…
Realizing that in the short run Yahoo management doesn't seem to have my best interest at heart, I sold all of my Yahoo! (YHOO – $28.67 ) shares at around $28.75, which allows me to lock in most of the merger premium if inaction by Yahoo management drives the stock back to $20. Just in…