July 26, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
Steve Forbes thinks the Obama administration is anti-business. I prefer to think of it as pro-constituent. Big business, when left to their own devices, drives greed to excess. They describe it as ’shareholder value’ but shareholders always seem to get the short end of the stick. When the stock goes down, management still gets paid..with generous bonuses I might add. What Mr. Forbes fails to realize is that business leaders have lost a good measure of credibility over the past several years. Thus, their complaints about ‘anti-business’ policies mostly land on deaf ears.
Steve Forbes has a view of the past
Where too many villains are cast
In business at large,
But they earned the charge
With avarice and greed unsurpassed.
July 22, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
I always hate when Ben Bernanke talks to Congress. Too many ignorant Congressmen asking too many self-serving questions and before you know it, Ben’s says something slightly negative and investors all swoon. It’s like sheep leading other sheep right over the edge. Instead, we should act like cows and keep chewing until someone knocks us over. I have no idea what that means.
Bernanke gave Congress a talk
About the Fed and protecting the flock
But investors instead,
Overcome with dread,
Sent the stock market down like a rock.
June 30, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
The new electric car maker Tesla went public today on the Nasdaq stock exchange. It’s stock rose 40% on the first day. They’re going to need all the help they can get. Their electric cars sell for $80,000 with a paltry number of dealers that can repair them. With all the hybrids on the market, I fail to see how they can gain any significant traction in a super competitive car market. Anyone remember the Delorean?
The IPO (i-po) for Tesla went well
After ringing the opening bell.
Though profits aren’t there
Stockholders don’t care
They’re betting this new car will sell.
DeLorean
Tesla Roadster
June 24, 2010
Filed under: Investing, Sports — @ 3:00 am
The FOMC decided today to keep interest rates steady. No big surprise given the headwinds to growth (e.g. Europe) and the lack of new jobs. We seem to be in a holding pattern waiting for the next ray of sunshine or the other shoe to drop. So let’s all stop agonizing about a future we can’t see anyway and celebrate the big win for the U.S. Soccer team!
Seems keeping rates low is just fine
As Bernanke today did opine.
With growth that’s still slow
And jobs a no-show
The fear is we wither on the vine.
In the World Cup the U.S. won big
And left us all dancing a jig.
They made us all sweat
Before finding the net,
Now we’re off to the knockout round gig.
Landon Donovan
May 6, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
The Stock Market’s been taking a beating the past couple of days. I guess with oil spills, floods, terrorists and financial contagion…it was too much to bear. It always seems to claw its way higher day after day only to give most of it back over a few days of selling. It just proves the old adage…all new highs are bullish until the last one.
The trend is your friend ’till the end
And often it’s straining to send,
A message that’s clear
“Get out of here!”
The only part missing is ‘when’.
May 4, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
Here we go again with an airline merger. This time between United and Continental. It’s the old shell game of taking two money losing enterprises and combining them into an even bigger money losing enterprise. United is the poster boy for incompetent management. The only saving grace is the Continental guy will run the new company. Still, the track record for these mergers is abysmal. The winners will be the investment bankers and senior management. The losers will be employees, customers and stockholders. Sound familiar?
This merger of airlines will try
Combining the two to apply,
More management brains
To flying the planes
But it’s all just more pie in the sky.
April 28, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
This article shows how nothing has changed. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb) voted against the Financial Reform bill because it might cause a big financial hit to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Who says you can’t buy politicians? He’s just another greedy capitalist using our representative government to achieve his own ends. The ‘Oracle of Omaha’ is no saint.
You might think that the big guys would tough it
But instead their response is to stuff it.
Despite what he’ll make
On his large Goldman stake,
We now need a bailout for Buffet.
April 19, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
Goldman Sachs is on the hot seat! Fraud charges open the door for every other customer or government who lost money to pile on with lawsuits and investigations of their own. The charges are not surprising as many (including myself) have harbored suspicions about their ‘extraordinary’ ability to profit when everyone else was losing money. This is just the beginning of a long hard fight that will probably take years to play out. Regardless the outcome, the ’shine’ is off this pot of gold.
The charges of fraud will now nettle
At Goldman and test out their mettle.
Despite their allies
And insider ties,
They’ll find there’s no lid for this kettle.
April 14, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
Finally we hear from a customer who did not trust Goldman Sachs. Washington Mutual (WaMu) had concerns about asking for their advice on subprime mortgages. The WaMu CEO described it as “swimming with the sharks”. They could be singing your praises at a meeting and selling you short back at the office. If I was a banker, I wouldn’t trust Goldman Sachs to walk my dog.
When Wamu was sinking in debt
The thought to use Goldman was met
With vexing suspicion
Because their position
On both sides was seen as a bet.
February 9, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
It’s hard to believe the CIT Group appointed John Thain as their CEO. Then again, they’re emerging from bankruptcy after screwing the last set of investors so the Board of Directors has proven their inability to direct. This is big problem with boards. They assume someone who has held a CEO post before must have the necessary skills to do it again regardless the prior outcomes. I think it’s more a cover-your-ass mentality. Thain’s only contribution at Merrill Lynch was a million dollar office redecoration as the company spiraled into near bankruptcy. Just the skill his new company needs.
We can’t get the change at the top
‘Cause the board is all from the same crop.
They fear the unknown
So stick with their own.
It’s more like a cozy wife swap.
February 2, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
Toyota’s really taking on the chin with this massive recall due to faulty gas pedals. At least they were smart enough to stop selling any more cars. I can’t imagine the number of lawsuits that await them, not to mention the blow to their image as a quality car maker. The good news is I don’t hear any excuses. They admitted to the problem, stopped production and sales and are committed to making the fix. When Ford and Firestone faced a recall in 2000 it took the government to identify the problem and force the issue. That’s why people will still buy Toyota’s instead of Fords.
The stock of Toyota is taking
A beating ’cause pedals are breaking
Apart, as opposed
To stopping and those
Who own them are feeling some aching.
January 20, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
I keep telling you, China is the enemy to worry about…not some Islamic terrorist. They have the ability to seriously disrupt the fabric of our economy. Fortunately, it will disrupt theirs as well. It’s the capitalist equivalent of the nuclear standoff. Google is threatening to leave but I doubt they will. “Money talks and bullshit walks”. In a large corporation, human rights and censorship are bullshit if you show ‘em the money.
In China there’s no way to appease
Their leaders who do what they please.
Will their spying and hacking
Send Google packing
Or just get them down on their knees.
January 5, 2010
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
I don’t understand all the fuss about ’strategic defaults’ as homeowners walk away from mortgages that are 1000’s of dollars over the properties value. It’s just good business and exactly what smart companies do. There is no “moral obligation” to pay back a secured loan.The house is pledged as collateral for the loan. If it is returned to the lender in lieu of payment and does not cover the cost of the loan, then the lender made a mistake and will take a loss. Business 101.
A strategic default gets the ire
Of bankers who stepped in the mire.
The loan had been hedged
With collateral pledged.
If they need more they should have asked prior.
December 10, 2009
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
AT&T is a victim of its own success. Some iphone customers are hogging bandwidth and slowing down the network. It’s not all that surprising given the constant stream of new apps and a fixed monthly price for data. Their initial effort to fix this problem is to ‘educate’ the users on bandwidth usage. Good luck with that or, as one person wrote “how can users be blamed for being “data hogs” when the offer is all-you-can-eat”?
AT&T has a problem with hogs
As its service is going to the dogs.
Heads will drop lower
As response times get slower
Until users are left ’sawing logs’.
December 7, 2009
Filed under: Investing — @ 3:00 am
Dell is having some laptop quality problems (I’ve heard that before) that they refuse to admit (I’ve heard that before too!). Their response is to try and squelch all negative information. This never works thanks to the Internet but it’s a typical response from a large company that is losing market share and doesn’t seem to know what to do. Not to worry. There are plenty of new, nimble competitors to fill in the gaps. It’s the free market version of ‘natural selection’ at work.
If some laptops from Dell run slo-mo
It’s a problem they know but forgo
Acknowledgement or fix.
Their PR type tricks
Are the same ol’ hot air that they blow.
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