Monthly Archives: May 2012
ALBERT EDWARDS: HAHAHAHA, The Bulls Aren’t Laughing Anymore, The Stock Market Will Collapse And All Hope Will Be Lost
Hilarious: “For 15 years we were told the West is nothing like Japan. We agree. It is worse!”
Read more commentary by Edwards and see a couple of interesting charts, here.
Comments »THE LEAST IMPORTANT JOBS REPORT OF ALL TIME
The Reformed Broker is out with a provocative piece detailing why you should be up early tomorrow for The Least Important Jobs Report of All Time. Or not.
Read the article here.
Comments »Is Facebook Down? Yes For Some. Outages Have Lasted Two Hours and Counting
Could it get worse for $FB? It appears that it can…“Let me tell you the difference between Facebook and everyone else, we don’t crash EVER!” – ‘Mark Zuckerberg’, The Social Network.
Read the article here.
Comments »Corporate Profits Go Parabolic
A couple of must-see charts from Weisenthal…You won’t believe them.
Read the article here.
Comments »Uh Oh! Some Teens aren’t Liking Facebook as Much as Older Users
Perhaps it is because $FB can allow the prying eyes of mom and dad access to messages…Or perhaps $FB is just losing its cool factor?
With more than 900 million users, Facebook remains the most popular online hangout. But some young people are turning their attention elsewhere. They are checking out new mobile apps, hanging out on Tumblr and Twitter, and sending plain-old text messages from their phones. Their goal is to hook up with smaller circles of friends and share their thoughts and feelings away from the prying eyes of Mom and Dad.
Read the article here.
Comments »New Media Fun: Watch Ted Turner Admit to Population Reduction and Then Get Trashed
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMgamzziQMM 450 300] Comments »
Presenting The Freddy Krueger of All Presentations
“If Raoul Pal was some doomsday spouting windbag, writing in all caps, arbitrarily pasting together disparate charts to create 200 page slideshows, it would be easy to ignore him. He isn’t. The founder of Global Macro Investor “previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world. Raoul came to GLG from Goldman Sachs where he co-managed the hedge fund sales business in Equities and Equity Derivatives in Europe… Raoul Pal retired from managing client money in 2004 at the age of 36 and now lives on the Valencian coast of Spain, from where he writes.” It is his writing we are concerned about, and specifically his latest presentation, which is, for lack of a better word, the most disturbing and scary forecast of the future of the world we have ever seen….”
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIXg9KUiy00 450 300] Comments »Bilderberg 2012: The Official List of Participants
Final List of Participants
Chairman
FRA | Castries, Henri de | Chairman and CEO, AXA Group |
DEU | Ackermann, Josef | Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank AG |
GBR | Agius, Marcus | Chairman, Barclays plc |
USA | Ajami, Fouad | Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
USA | Alexander, Keith B. | Commander, US Cyber Command; Director, National Security Agency |
INT | Almunia, Joaquín | Vice-President – Commissioner for Competition, European Commission |
USA | Altman, Roger C. | Chairman, Evercore Partners |
PRT | Amado, Luís | Chairman, Banco Internacional do Funchal (BANIF) |
NOR | Andresen, Johan H. | Owner and CEO, FERD |
FIN | Apunen, Matti | Director, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA |
TUR | Babacan, Ali | Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs |
PRT | Balsemão, Francisco Pinto | President and CEO, Impresa; Former Prime Minister |
FRA | Baverez, Nicolas | Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP |
FRA | Béchu, Christophe | Senator, and Chairman, General Council of Maine-et-Loire |
BEL | Belgium, H.R.H. Prince Philippe of | |
TUR | Berberoğlu, Enis | Editor-in-Chief, Hürriyet Newspaper |
ITA | Bernabè, Franco | Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia |
GBR | Boles, Nick | Member of Parliament |
SWE | Bonnier, Jonas | President and CEO, Bonnier AB |
NOR | Brandtzæg, Svein Richard | President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA |
AUT | Bronner, Oscar | Publisher, Der Standard Medienwelt |
SWE | Carlsson, Gunilla | Minister for International Development Cooperation |
CAN | Carney, Mark J. | Governor, Bank of Canada |
ESP | Cebrián, Juan Luis | CEO, PRISA; Chairman, El País |
AUT | Cernko, Willibald | CEO, UniCredit Bank Austria AG |
FRA | Chalendar, Pierre André de | Chairman and CEO, Saint-Gobain |
DNK | Christiansen, Jeppe | CEO, Maj Invest |
RUS | Chubais, Anatoly B. | CEO, OJSC RUSNANO |
CAN | Clark, W. Edmund | Group President and CEO, TD Bank Group |
GBR | Clarke, Kenneth | Member of Parliament, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of Justice |
USA | Collins, Timothy C. | CEO and Senior Managing Director, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC |
ITA | Conti, Fulvio | CEO and General Manager, Enel S.p.A. |
USA | Daniels, Jr., Mitchell E. | Governor of Indiana |
USA | DeMuth, Christopher | Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute |
USA | Donilon, Thomas E. | National Security Advisor, The White House |
GBR | Dudley, Robert | Group Chief Executive, BP plc |
ITA | Elkann, John | Chairman, Fiat S.p.A. |
DEU | Enders, Thomas | CEO, Airbus |
USA | Evans, J. Michael | Vice Chairman, Global Head of Growth Markets, Goldman Sachs & Co. |
AUT | Faymann, Werner | Federal Chancellor |
DNK | Federspiel, Ulrik | Executive Vice President, Haldor Topsøe A/S |
USA | Ferguson, Niall | Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University |
GBR | Flint, Douglas J. | Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc |
CHN | Fu, Ying | Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs |
IRL | Gallagher, Paul | Former Attorney General; Senior Counsel |
USA | Gephardt, Richard A. | President and CEO, Gephardt Group |
GRC | Giannitsis, Anastasios | Former Minister of Interior; Professor of Development and International Economics, University of Athens |
USA | Goolsbee, Austan D. | Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business |
USA | Graham, Donald E. | Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company |
ITA | Gruber, Lilli | Journalist – Anchorwoman, La 7 TV |
INT | Gucht, Karel de | Commissioner for Trade, European Commission |
NLD | Halberstadt, Victor | Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings |
USA | Harris, Britt | CIO, Teacher Retirement System of Texas |
USA | Hoffman, Reid | Co-founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn |
CHN | Huang, Yiping | Professor of Economics, China Center for Economic Research, Peking University |
USA | Huntsman, Jr., Jon M. | Chairman, Huntsman Cancer Foundation |
DEU | Ischinger, Wolfgang | Chairman, Munich Security Conference; Global Head Government Relations, Allianz SE |
RUS | Ivanov, Igor S. | Associate member, Russian Academy of Science; President, Russian International Affairs Council |
FRA | Izraelewicz, Erik | CEO, Le Monde |
USA | Jacobs, Kenneth M. | Chairman and CEO, Lazard |
USA | Johnson, James A. | Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC |
USA | Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. | Senior Managing Director, Lazard |
USA | Karp, Alexander | CEO, Palantir Technologies |
USA | Karsner, Alexander | Executive Chairman, Manifest Energy, Inc |
FRA | Karvar, Anousheh | Inspector, Inter-ministerial Audit and Evaluation Office for Social, Health, Employment and Labor Policies |
RUS | Kasparov, Garry | Chairman, United Civil Front (of Russia) |
GBR | Kerr, John | Independent Member, House of Lords |
USA | Kerry, John | Senator for Massachusetts |
TUR | Keyman, E. Fuat | Director, Istanbul Policy Center and Professor of International Relations, Sabanci University |
USA | Kissinger, Henry A. | Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc. |
USA | Kleinfeld, Klaus | Chairman and CEO, Alcoa |
TUR | Koç, Mustafa | Chairman, Koç Holding A.Ş. |
DEU | Koch, Roland | CEO, Bilfinger Berger SE |
INT | Kodmani, Bassma | Member of the Executive Bureau and Head of Foreign Affairs, Syrian National Council |
USA | Kravis, Henry R. | Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. |
USA | Kravis, Marie-Josée | Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute |
INT | Kroes, Neelie | Vice President, European Commission; Commissioner for Digital Agenda |
USA | Krupp, Fred | President, Environmental Defense Fund |
INT | Lamy, Pascal | Director-General, World Trade Organization |
ITA | Letta, Enrico | Deputy Leader, Democratic Party (PD) |
ISR | Levite, Ariel E. | Nonresident Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
USA | Li, Cheng | Director of Research and Senior Fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution |
USA | Lipsky, John | Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Johns Hopkins University |
USA | Liveris, Andrew N. | President, Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company |
DEU | Löscher, Peter | President and CEO, Siemens AG |
USA | Lynn, William J. | Chairman and CEO, DRS Technologies, Inc. |
GBR | Mandelson, Peter | Member, House of Lords; Chairman, Global Counsel |
USA | Mathews, Jessica T. | President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
DEN | Mchangama, Jacob | Director of Legal Affairs, Center for Political Studies (CEPOS) |
CAN | McKenna, Frank | Deputy Chair, TD Bank Group |
USA | Mehlman, Kenneth B. | Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. |
GBR | Micklethwait, John | Editor-in-Chief, The Economist |
FRA | Montbrial, Thierry de | President, French Institute for International Relations |
PRT | Moreira da Silva, Jorge | First Vice-President, Partido Social Democrata (PSD) |
USA | Mundie, Craig J. | Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation |
DEU | Nass, Matthias | Chief International Correspondent, Die Zeit |
NLD | Netherlands, H.M. the Queen of the | |
ESP | Nin Génova, Juan María | Deputy Chairman and CEO, Caixabank |
IRL | Noonan, Michael | Minister for Finance |
USA | Noonan, Peggy | Author, Columnist, The Wall Street Journal |
FIN | Ollila, Jorma | Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell, plc |
USA | Orszag, Peter R. | Vice Chairman, Citigroup |
GRC | Papalexopoulos, Dimitri | Managing Director, Titan Cement Co. |
NLD | Pechtold, Alexander | Parliamentary Leader, Democrats ’66 (D66) |
USA | Perle, Richard N. | Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute |
NLD | Polman, Paul | CEO, Unilever PLC |
CAN | Prichard, J. Robert S. | Chair, Torys LLP |
ISR | Rabinovich, Itamar | Global Distinguished Professor, New York University |
GBR | Rachman, Gideon | Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, The Financial Times |
USA | Rattner, Steven | Chairman, Willett Advisors LLC |
CAN | Redford, Alison M. | Premier of Alberta |
CAN | Reisman, Heather M. | CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. |
DEU | Reitzle, Wolfgang | CEO & President, Linde AG |
USA | Rogoff, Kenneth S. | Professor of Economics, Harvard University |
USA | Rose, Charlie | Executive Editor and Anchor, Charlie Rose |
USA | Ross, Dennis B. | Counselor, Washington Institute for Near East Policy |
POL | Rostowski, Jacek | Minister of Finance |
USA | Rubin, Robert E. | Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury |
NLD | Rutte, Mark | Prime Minister |
ESP | Sáenz de Santamaría Antón, Soraya | Vice President and Minister for the Presidency |
NLD | Scheffer, Paul | Professor of European Studies, Tilburg University |
USA | Schmidt, Eric E. | Executive Chairman, Google Inc. |
AUT | Scholten, Rudolf | Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG |
FRA | Senard, Jean-Dominique | CEO, Michelin Group |
USA | Shambaugh, David | Director, China Policy Program, George Washington University |
INT | Sheeran, Josette | Vice Chairman, World Economic Forum |
FIN | Siilasmaa, Risto | Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nokia Corporation |
USA | Speyer, Jerry I. | Chairman and Co-CEO, Tishman Speyer |
CHE | Supino, Pietro | Chairman and Publisher, Tamedia AG |
IRL | Sutherland, Peter D. | Chairman, Goldman Sachs International |
USA | Thiel, Peter A. | President, Clarium Capital / Thiel Capital |
TUR | Timuray, Serpil | CEO, Vodafone Turkey |
DEU | Trittin, Jürgen | Parliamentary Leader, Alliance 90/The Greens |
GRC | Tsoukalis, Loukas | President, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy |
FIN | Urpilainen, Jutta | Minister of Finance |
CHE | Vasella, Daniel L. | Chairman, Novartis AG |
INT | Vimont, Pierre | Executive Secretary General, European External Action Service |
GBR | Voser, Peter | CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc |
SWE | Wallenberg, Jacob | Chairman, Investor AB |
USA | Warsh, Kevin | Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
GBR | Wolf, Martin H. | Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times |
USA | Wolfensohn, James D. | Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn and Company |
CAN | Wright, Nigel S. | Chief of Staff, Office of the Prime Minister |
USA | Yergin, Daniel | Chairman, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates |
INT | Zoellick, Robert B. | President, The World Bank Group |
Rapporteurs | ||
GBR | Bredow, Vendeline von | Business Correspondent, The Economist |
GBR | Wooldridge, Adrian D. | Foreign Correspondent, The Economist |
COCA-COLA TO NEW YORKERS: Michael Bloomberg Thinks You’re Stupid
Personally i think New Yorkers are a cut above the rest, but i’m biased. At any rate, while you all cry foul nanny socialist nazi controls, i will agree this is not the right way to go about curbing obesity. However, when a ‘sugary drink’ that is not made from sugar tricks your brain into thinking it is not satisfied it seems almost appropriate.
How many people or New Yorkers know that the brain is tricked by corn syrup creating an addictive response like heroin ?
Furthermore, for $KO to play up to New Yorkers as being smart is just a ploy to push your hazardous product. When i was youger i loved Coca Cola, but then stopped be cause of corn syrup and this:
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dlheziYWGU 450 300] Comments »Ireland is Next Unless Austerity is Stopped (video)
South Korea PMI Confirms More Manufacturing Slowdown
S.K. joins China is hovering just above 50 which is technically the line between recession and well lumpy growth these days.
Comments »The Drudge Headline Indicator
Via Bespoke, this is research is a must-read.
We track every Drudge headline at 9 AM, noon and 4 PM on daily basis going back to 2003 and tally the number of stories that were finance related using the Drudge Report’s massive archives service. We essentially wanted to see how often a financial news story was a front-page headline and not just a Money section headline. From a contrarian perspective, when financial stories dominate the front-page headlines on a regular basis, it’s probably getting close to an inflection point for the market, whether it’s a bottom or a top. (We counted any story that involved the economy or any asset class as a finance related headline.)
Read the rest here.
Comments »Aussie Dollar Says Risk Off as it Nose Dives Off China PMI Data; Nikkei Gaps Down 1%+
See Through the Spin and Know Where the Global Economy is Headed
When BI commented it was a busy 48 hours for data; THEY WERE NOT KIDDING. Global PMI releases are coming at you. HARD COLD FACTS on the health of the global economy.
The article is a bit premature as 90% of the data will not be in till 11am tomorrow, but this is a link you will want to refresh, as the data comes in, in order to see through the spin of media on the state of the global economy.
Comments »Country’s most affordable cities make for surreal comparison with SF
This is another place were the Zuck Fuck has screwed people over. There is an influx of wealth, almost a dot-com 2.0 if you will. Especially check out the slideshow at the bottom.
Comments »Wisconsin Public Unions Have Seen Dramatic Membership Drop
Public-employee unions in Wisconsin have experienced a dramatic drop in membership — by more than half for the second-biggest union — since a law championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker sharply curtailed their ability to bargain over wages and working conditions.
Now with Mr. Walker facing a recall vote Tuesday, voters will decide whether his policies in the centrist state should continue — or whether they have gone too far.
The election could mark a pivot point for organized labor.
Mr. Walker’s ouster would derail the political career of a rising Republican star and send a warning to other elected officials who are battling unions. But a victory for the governor, who has been leading his Democratic opponent in recent polls, would amount to an endorsement of an effort to curtail public-sector unions, which have been a pillar of strength for organized labor while private-sector membership has dwindled.
That could mean the sharp losses that some Wisconsin public-worker unions have experienced is a harbinger of similar unions’ future nationwide, union leaders fear. Failure to oust Mr. Walker and overturn the Wisconsin law “spells doom,” said Bryan Kennedy, the American Federation of Teachers’ Wisconsin president.
Read more:
Comments »House GOP Details White House, Rx Company Dealings On Obamacare
House Republicans are releasing emails and documents that shed light on dealings between the White House and the drug industry as President Barack Obama maneuvered to move his health care overhaul through Congress.
The materials released Thursday cover a critical period in the summer of 2009 when the legislation was bogging down in Congress. An $80-billion financial commitment by the drug companies gave Obama some momentum.
The deal included better prescription coverage for Medicare recipients. Broad outlines were known at the time.
Drug makers succeeded in avoiding new requirements to pay rebates to the government for Medicare drugs. Ultimately, they were also able to preserve an existing ban against patients importing lower-priced medications from overseas.
Read more:
Comments »John Edwards: I Did A Lot That Was Wrong
I wonder what would happen to me if I filtered a million non-profit dollars through a shell corporation to a glorified hooker…?
Comments »Greensboro, North Carolina (CNN) — A federal jury in North Carolina acquitted former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards on one count of violating campaign finance law Thursday and deadlocked on the five other counts against him.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles declared a mistrial on the remaining counts, leaving prosecutors to decide whether to refile the charges against the onetime North Carolina senator.
Jurors said Thursday afternoon — their ninth day of deliberations — that they had reached a unanimous verdict on only one count, which involved allegations that Edwards had accepted illegal campaign contributions in 2008. Eagles ordered them back into the jury room to continue deliberating, but they returned less than an hour later to announce they were deadlocked.
“This was win for John Edwards, and there will be a lot of questions about why this case was brought,” CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said after the announcement.
Edwards had been charged with four counts of accepting illegal campaign contributions, one count of falsifying documents and one of conspiring to receive and conceal the contributions. The charges could have carried a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine.
Spanish Banks: Worth The Risk?
I can understand if you don’t own Banco Santander (STD +1.33%) or Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBVA +1.60%).
The euro debt crisis just seems to drag on and on, getting scarier with each day. And Spain is the current center of that crisis and Spanish banks are the focus of the Spanish crisis. So owning these two stocks, even if they’re the best banks is Spain, feels very risky on most days recently.
So why do I own them in my portfolios? Let me explain my reasoning on these two stocks right now. (I own Banco Bilbao Vizcaya in my Jubak’s Picks portfolio and Banco Santander in my Dividend Income portfolio.)
At current prices I think both stocks have pretty much discounted all the risk of a meltdown in their portfolios — short of the very unlikely event Greek-style de facto default by Spain on its sovereign debt. For example, Credit Suisse has run a scenario that looks at a full write-off of the property portfolios of Spain’s banks. For Banco Santander that would result in a loss of 16 billion euros — no mean sum — and although the bank would take a big hit to earnings from a need to add about 8 billion euros to its provisions against losses, it would not need to raise additional capital. Neither would Banco Bilbao where the loss would be $10.9 billion euros and the bank would need to add $6.5 billion euros to its provisions for losses.
How could these two banks take a 100% loss on their property portfolios and still come out so well? Because while each of these banks is headquartered in Spain, most of their assets aren’t in Spain. For example, only 25% of Banco Santander’s loan book is in Spain. About 50% of Banco Santander’s profits come from Latin America and Spain accounts for just 33% of Banco Bilbao’s income.
That geographical exposure has let these two banks build up comfortable capital cushions — Banco Santander showed a 9.1% core capital ratio at the end of 2011, for example, by the strict European Banking Authority standards — and to show relatively low ratios of non-performing assets (4% at Santander.)
That doesn’t mean these two bank stocks aren’t without risk — it’s just that at this point in the trashing of their stocks — shares of Banco Santander are down 49% in 2012 through May 29 and shares of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya are down 46% — I think the big risks are political. It’s the uncertainty of what the Spanish government might do — and especially the possibility that the government might force these two relatively healthy banks to acquire some of Spain’s worst banks — that links these banks to the Spanish banking crisis and sends their share prices tumbling whenever there’s bad news about another Spanish bank such as Bankia.
My read is that the odds of this kind of move by the Spanish government are very low. I don’t think the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is looking in that direction and I think these two big banks have the political muscle to head off that alternative.
Read here:
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