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Latest Comments22 Comments
Ken Lewis on Bank Accounting: Sensible Talk from a Surprising Source
Dividends Are Not Necessarily a Guaranteed Stream of Income
Ten Highest Yielding Quarterly Dividend Stocks
Overall, Fundamentals Are Still Deteriorating
CNBC's Gasparino Problem
Certified Rating Agencies for bonds and other corporate paper are currently paid by the bond issuer and not the bond buyer. It should be the other way around. If I were the buyer, I would want to have my own bond risk appraisor and may want to get a second opinion. Three are too few of the rating firms and that keep cost too high.
Corporate or GSEs are publicly held and should not be giving stock owner’s to any outside organization, unknown, or politician with out stock owners permission. All employees of companies can give their own money to whom ever they choose. Giving money to charities should also require the permission of stock owners and the board. Such gifts should be on the yearly proxy letter for the next year. Then if I do not like the gift they have chosen, I can defer buying that firm.
Currently company owners, the stock holder, have little ability to control action of corporations. Board members are not required to have a majority vote by sock holders to assume office, not even a majority of those voting. I believe it possible for a board member to assume office with few votes.
A need for a new up tic rule is apparent as is one for selling stock you do not control. No one can sell my car, my home or doe, without controlling them, so why can they borrow my stock and sell it? Naked short selling should never be allowed. Margins for selling short should be the same as for buying and need to be raised for commodity trading. It may be possible to sell short more shares than exist.
SIVs and CDOs should consist of assets of the same risk to allow for finding the low risk items. The habit of mixing various risks within the same conduits has diluted the value of all SIVs or CDOs. The buyers of these investments have no way to rate what they are buying because once they are joined; no one can find the bad apples.
News rules for credit swaps and mark-to-market vehicles need to be upgraded with some improvements
The 50% rule might need to become the 20% rule. The way it is now companies move risky assets off the books and put them on the books of another company which they do not have a 50% interest but control none the least. What company would volunteer to take on bad debt and help another company cook their books without some thing in return?
Stock options are a mess and cause too much controversy. I would prefer cash awards but if stock options are needed, then have the boards declare the options dates 60 days or more in advance and back dating would stop. Legal back dating should not be legal.
Voting for our politicians with ACORN and other registering anyone, dead or alive, pet, or flowers, is making a mess of our elections. No matter who wins, I am not going to believe it was a fair election. We need voter ID more than ever and only military absentee voting. All states have pre-election voting and we can make the process long enough to cove r any out of town trips.
Ask your Congress person why we are paying a high traffic on South American bio-fuels?
Trying to Make Sense of Cramer's Advice
To Bail or Not to Bail? - Fast Money Recap (9/29/08)
Stop Yelling About FDIC Limits - In Fact, Just Stop Yelling
I also would suspend the mark-to-market rule for a month and see how that worked out. Both of these ideas are not as harsh as the defeated bill and may help, give it several weeks and see. Just because some assest sold for $1,000 less this month than last month is not a reason to revalue all your assests.
Buffett's Berkshire: 14 Stocks That Have Gone Up
FDIC Anoints Superbanks - Cramer's Stop Trading! (9/26/08)
Going to Hell in a Handbasket: The Rush To Protect More Stocks
It would also seem to be a conflict of interest for GSE type companies to give money to the election funds of any government politicians and a conflict of interest for politicians to receive such money. GSE firms were setup to take care of taxpayers but seem to be taking care of those who are charged with GSE oversight and why is it that the liberal politicians are at the top of the recipients list of GSE funds?
I remember several years ago someone tried to offer a bill to control the GSE firms and I also remember that a Senator who received large donations to his election fund was instrumental in blocking the bill. Anyone remember who?
Company CEOs seem to have a great pay system, do bad and leave with big bucks and to better and leave with bigger bucks. I do not own enough stock to vote a difference, but I try. Had the GSEs been like Ceasar's wife, most of this mess would have been better.
It's Time For a U.S. Sovereign Investment Fund
It would also seem to be a conflict of interest for GSE type companies to give money to the election funds of any government politicians and a conflict of interest for politicians to receive such money. GSE firms were setup to take care of taxpayers but seem to be taking care of those who are charged with GSE oversight and why is it that the liberal politicians are at the top of the recipients list of GSE funds?
I remember several years ago someone tried to offer a bill to control the GSE firms and I also remember that a Senator who received large donations to his election fund was instrumental in blocking the bill. Anyone remember who?
Russian Oil Is Worth the Risk
My first question to America is what kind of contingency plan did you have for protecting Georgia, a country you befriended? Did you impress upon Georgia not to act without your knowledge and anticipate you would rescue them? Even if the South Ossetians fired the first shots as reported by some media, the Georgians would have been better served by complaining to the UN that Russia was subverting the people of the two break away areas with Russian citizenship, was arming local par-military units, and request that UN peace keepers replace Russian peacekeepers who were part of the problem. Long after Georgia has no military to speak of, South Ossetians continue to kill people as they fire the last shots into Georgia.
I enjoyed Russian history for years. In my mind, Peter the Great was the first Russian to try and bring Russia out of the dark ages and into the light of Europe. I even studied the Russian language and when they speak English, I can usually tell they are Russian. The Russians are an interesting bunch; in 1968 until 1970, I lived with them in occupied Berlin. The differences between the US, French, and British forces troop trains to Berlin were telling. I took the US train only once and thereafter, I took the British train. The Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia was going on while I was in Berlin. The US provided intelligence to the Czechs, but we told them we could not come to their aid. Russia had been paranoid for a long time. Czechoslovakia is one of two military land bridges from Europe to Russia and is important to Russia. The other is Poland so now you know why the Russians are not in favor of the missile system and the two joining the West. The Russians usually assumed you were lying to them. Perhaps this was due to them usually lying to you. Thus, if you wanted to make them think you were doing something, you tell them the opposite and provide some disinformation through another back channel and you had a good chance they would take the bait.
Russia used the fact that they had citizens within the boarders of Georgia to invade that country in order to protect their citizens. They created these citizens after the fact and not from whole cloth. Russians use fear to earn respect and we try to use appeasement more often than not. Russia was willing to wage a major war on its break away region of Chechnya but did not allow Georgia to do the same with South Ossetia. Anyone who thinks Russia was only a pawn in the South Ossetia/Georgia war need to read up on how Russia conducts foreign policy. Ask yourself how was Russia able to move so many military units into South Ossetia and further into Georgia in so few hours? Russian was not the pawn, but more likely the queen in this operation. Russia knew it was coming. If Russia were to tell the South Ossetia par-military forces to fire into Georgia, what would you imagine to happen? Currently, the Russian claim we are rearming the Georgians with arms from our naval ships because unlike us, they would not use such a ship to transport humanitarian supplies. Russians judge us by what they would do. Our mistake is we judge Russia by what we would do. Russians are essentially afraid of US armed forces because we can shoot straight, we can hit one house in the middle and miss the two next door.
Europe is funding the Russian increase in oil profits, which allow Russia to upgrade its military armaments. Russian is not using the oil profits to upgrade its infrastructure, to include the infrastructure that produces the oil profits. The current political plan in Russia is to return to the old ways, government controlled press, farms, corporations, and both the upper and lower houses of government are controlled by the state. Our friends and America need to curtail purchasing Russian oil. We need to be energy independent.
An ancient high priest of Israel once stated that there were three primary pillars of life and society. The three pillars that would guide all peoples to a greater society were religion, worship, and humanity. The Russian government has little familiarity with these traits, hope that yours does. Russia has a problem, it only has a birth rate of 1.4 and a 2.1 is required to sustain a population. This means Russia needs to grow its population and that might be a problem for others. Wulff does better at researching energy than Russian foreign policy.
retired 971AH-972A
Lessons From the Banking Meltdown
The Economics of Political Spin