AIG
Should we Fire the Fed?
All eyes and ears are on the Fed this week. With Bernanke in New York discussing potential new bubbles and the New York Fed getting heat for overpaying AIG’s many creditors, investors are having a tough time knowing exactly who to follow.
For those of you who hold up the “Fire the Fed” signs, move over. I am thinking about joining your camp.
AIG kitchen worker gets $7,700 bonus
American International Group (AIG) is a meritocracy. One of the firm’s best kitchen workers got a $7,700 retention bonus as part of the firm’s plan to keep key employees. According to the FT, the payment was made in March.
Kenneth Feinberg, the gov…
Two Tips to Avoid Letting a Bad Stock Sucker-Punch You
I confess… I got it wrong with gold.
Unlike some stockpickers and newsletter analysts, who proudly trumpet all their winners, while shuffling the losers under the rug, I have no problem admitting when my calls go against me.
And to the delight of all the naysayers, this happened just a couple of days ago when gold prices shot to a record high. That triggered my sell-stop and, rather than let my pride come before a fall and hang on, it’s time to move on.
Don’t get me wrong, though… I’m still convinced that the yellow metal could suffer a correction for three main reasons…
- So far, inflation hasn’t reared its ugly head. If it stays in hiding much longer, disillusioned investors will probably head…
Hidden Traps Make Bank Stocks a Bad Deal
Billionaire investor George Soros said yesterday (Monday) that the U.S. recovery would be a slow one because of all the “basically bankrupt” financial companies impeding it.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Congress agreed Friday that the financial system – not the American taxpayer – should bear the costs of bank bailouts. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), wants the banks to ante up $45 billion – three years’ worth of deposit-insurance premiums – to bail out the fund that insures bank deposits.
When it comes to bank stocks, we all know that there were a number of Money Morning readers shrewd enough to buy Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) shares when the foundering giant’s stock price was below…
In Goldman vs. rest of the world, Goldman’s winning
This article is written by Minyanville’s Megan Barnett This week has seen yet another round in the battle between Goldman Sachs (GS) and the Rest of the World. See also, Goldman Sachs Lightning Bolt Sparks Rally. On Monday, Goldman Sachs analysts Richa…
A Bull in a Silver Shop
One of the most interesting news items I’ve found was on the cover of The Financial Times, where I learned that a guy named Lahde “made tens of millions of dollars from betting against the financial and property sectors during [the] past two years”, and he now wanted to thank “the low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA” who made it all possible for him to find enough suckers.
He noted that “These people who were often truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the…
Will Congress be to blame for runaway inflation?
This article is written by Minyanville’s Andrew Jeffery Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may have kept his job for another four years, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be any easier than the last four. With pundits, politicians, and regulat…
Have the Titans of Finance Learned Their Lesson?
It was one year ago that Lehman Bros. went to the great investment bank in the sky. But it was also when the feds arranged the shotgun marriage of a failing Merrill Lynch to a moribund Bank of America (NYSE:BAC). And AIG’s collapse into federal hands was taking shape, if not yet a done deal.
Years of debt and securitization finally caught up to the FIRE (finance-insurance-real estate) sector of the economy. The titans of finance refused to come clean about the real value of the ‘assets’ they sat on…and finally it came time to pay the piper.
Dan Amoss, whose recommendation of Lehman put options generated 462% gains earlier that summer, wrote in this space a year ago, “Think about how…
The Undead of the Banking World
Hey, the economy is not only recovering…it’s becoming better than ever before!
“Banks recover to their levels before the fall of Lehman,” is a headline in this Monday’s El Pais from Madrid.
“Public assistance enables the world’s largest 15 financial firms to return to the capitalization they had in September 2008,” the article continues. The largest of the largest, HSBC, is now judged to be worth $186 billion, according to the stock market. China’s ICBC is on its heels, with a market cap of $178 billion. BNP Paribas is 7th at $87 billion.
We will overlook the compromising detail that banks actually lost money in the last quarter – more than $3 billion. And let’s forget that China’s major banks are sitting on mega-losses from more…
Bank stocks lose leadership role
In a dramatic shift, investors are shying away from the riskiest assets and the most speculative stocks. The huge rise in the likes of AIG (AIG) and Citigroup (C) had the trappings of a short-covering bull rally on its last legs. Now, the f…
The new hot stock? AIG
Check out American International Group’s (AIG) one-month chart (pictured). It’s red hot right now, and no one knows why.”Who would want to buy a stock that’s still 80% owned by the government?” an equity analyst asked The New York Times. Good question….
Stocks form dreaded ‘Gravestone Doji’
Over the last few days stocks have been careening wildly, either tumbling towards oblivion or feigning a move higher. But in the end, the major indices settle gently near the unchanged line by the closing bell.
Take Thursday’s session: The …
Uncle Sam, real estate investor
This article is written by Minyanville’s Andrew JefferyAfter four years of searing pain, the U.S. housing market is finally showing signs of life. And even as the causes and relative sustainability of this nascent “recovery” are being hotly debated…