Did Goldman Get A Backdoor Bailout?

Posted by Sean Doyle, July 26, 2010.Where would Goldman Sachs (GS) be today without the controversial bailout of AIG?

Well, according to Chuck Grassley, the rascally irascible Republican Senator from Iowa, GS would be up shit's creek sans paddle. "It's as if the New York Fed used AIG as a front man to bail out big banks all over the world," Mr. Grassley said in a statement. "It took nearly two years for the public to learn these details, and they were only revealed because Congress wouldn't take no for answer. Taxpayers deserve to know what happened with their money."

Good luck Chuck with that last point.....

Linkage:

NY Times: An AIG Failure WOuld Have Cost Goldman Sachs, Documents Show.

Jim Rogers Calls Bullshit!

Posted by Sean Doyle, July 26, 2010.Photo Courtesy of The Bob Backlund Appreciation Society.

Jim Rogers, everyone's favorite bow-tied American ex-pat, lambasted the European Union bank stress tests that were performed last week. In an e-mail Rogers labeled the European tests a "PR exercise just as was America's." Rogers went on to say they were "a waste of time - and journalistic ink."

Just 7 of the 91 banks tested in Europe failed the stress test. Fellow curmudgeon Nouriel "Captain Happy" Roubini also attacked the quality of the EU tests stating that he felt they were not nearly "stressful" enough. Here's Cap Happy on Squawk Box this morning...

It seems to me that both Roubini and Rogers are right on this one. If, hypothetically, the Europeans ran a hardcore stress test on their major banks and the majority were proven to be insolvent then that would spark a crisis that could well destroy the European economy. Therefore, it is in everyone's interest that the tests reveal a robust and well capitalized banking sector. In that scenario, the stress criteria must be meetable by the majority of banks. The EU knew this going in and set standards they felt their banks could attain. So yes, this was a glorified (but unfortunately necessary) PR exercise. 

 NY Times: Doubts Persist as Most Europe Banks Pass Stress Tests.

Roubini To Obama: Grow Up!!!

Posted by Sean Doyle, July 18, 2010

Renowned NYU Economist Nouriel "Captain Happy" Roubini has grown weary with President Obama's inability to talk to the nation as adults regarding the economy. Roubini went on Bloomberg Radio with Tom Keene and said, "We have to recognize that Americans are adults. Then we have to speak to them straightforward about the risks and challenges that we have, rather than kicking the can down the road." Roubini added that the President must maintain fiscal stimulus in the short term before ending it altogether. Obama then must follow that up with serious spending cuts and new taxes to tackle what is a monstrous $8 trillion dollars worth of new US marketable debt!

MARKET MADNESS!!!

Posted by Sean Doyle, July 14, 2010.Photo Courtesy of Lions Gate Entertainment.

Props to Zero Hedge and David Rosenberg for the following chart illustrating the sheer intra-year volatility of the 2010 (S&P) US stock market. A series of mini trends and counter trends have emerged, thus creating a wild back-and-forth bi-polar quality to equity trading. These violent twists and turns have only served to further alienate retail investors. 

Bob Prechter < Dipshit.

Posted by Sean Doyle, July 7, 2010.

Photo by Nathalie Schueller.

"Bullet" Bob Prechter, backer of the famed Elliot Wave Theory, came out the other day with a dire prediction for the US economy. Prechter's prescient prognostication?? He sees the Dow sinking to below 1,000 over the next five to seven years due to a deflationary depression that will grip America and much of the globe. Whoahh!!!!

Even amongst bears that's a pretty bleak view. Hell, even amongst dedicated survivalists that's a pretty bleak view! According to Prechter, "U.S. house prices are about halfway down in their bear market." It should be noted that house prices are down about 40% from their peak.

Here is Prechter on Bloomberg discussing the US dollar and debt:

The chart below is how Prechter sees the next four to five years possibly playing out in the Dow. If this dire scenario comes to pass we'll have a lot more to worry about than just asset devaluation and deflation. Trust me, if the DJIA sees the bad side of 1,000, eating and surviving will be far greater daily priorities than our 401k values.

Apple Presents The iHand!!

Posted by Sean Doyle, July 7, 2010

Graphic Courtesy of Google Nexus One Phone.

With Apple Inc (AAPL) now about twenty-five dollars off of its recent high of $279 the Apple-bulls have re-emerged in force.  JP Morgan's Mark Moskowitz just slapped a $390 price target on the ever popular stock. That's a Street high, but many market watchers think that it's just a matter of time before some brave soul crosses the big 4 ($400) for the house that Jobs built.

Below is a graphic from Alacra Pulse showing what the best analysts on the Street forsee for Apple's future...

Short Circuit.

Posted by Colin Doyle June 30, 2010

Well, what do ya know? Looks like we had another "flash crash" yesterday. This time, shares of the not-so-venerable Citigroup (C) plunged 17% in less time than it takes banksters to raid the U.S. Treasury of taxpayer money to cover their bad trades. Which, as we all know, can happen rather fast. However, the 5 minute freeze in trading activity which is triggered by a rapid plunge in shares allowed for the trade to be corrected and the stock to open up at a price that was in line with earlier trading activity.

Chart Courtesy of Zero Hedge/ Bloomberg Terminal.

LINKS:

Zero Hedge: Fat Digital Finger Breaks Citi Stock...

NY Times Dealbook: Citi Suffers It's Own Minicrash.

WSJ: Citigroup Becomes Second Stock Halted By Circuit Breaker.

Great Minds Think Alike...

Posted by Sean Doyle, June 28, 2010

Photo Courtesy of Life.com (Jamie McCarthy/ WireImage)

Uh-oh!! Lenny "Nails" Dykstra, the financial "genius" whose only remaining personal asset is a $10,000 dollar German shepherd following a massive and embarrassing bankruptcy, is in trouble yet again. Turns out the ex-slugger was paid for pumping stocks on his bff Jim Cramer's website TheStreet.com. This is all according to author Randall Lane in his book The Zeroes: My Misadventures In The Decade Wall Street Went Insane. Lane alleges Dykstra was given $250,000 worth of secretly issued stock in return for the pumping of that same stock to TheStreet.com's unwitting subscribers.

Let's face it, Lenny was a helluva hard nosed ballplayer in the mold of Pete Rose. (In fact, he was Pete Rose on steroids...literally). But a financial genius he was not. Cramer created this financial savant mythology with his constant pumping of Dykstra's stock picking ability. The truth is "Nails" was a big name, a likable mumbling celebrity hybrid who could appeal to the everyman. Dykstra was like a lot of TheStreet.com's everyday subscribers for which stockpicking and day trading were secondary careers or hobby rather than full time vocation. He was thus a perfect pitchman for the budding empire Jim Cramer was building for the so-called "retail" investor with himself, James J. Cramerious The Bold as benign (re: mad) Emperor.

Photo Courtesy of Brad Trent.

Back to the front...

The stock in question was a small cap named Automated Vending Technologies (AVTC.PK). According to Randall Lane, AVTC's founder Shannon Illingworth gave Dykstra $250,000 of AVTC stock (secretly putting it in the name of Lenny's brother-in-law) in exchange for the pumping of said stock on Dykstra's newsletter for TheStreet.com.

The real question remains unanswered. Mainly, will any of this damn dirty Dykstra business come back to haunt Captain Cramerica, the Mad Emperor of all financial media? Or will Cramer's well worn teflon coat beat back yet another scandal?

Read The Full Story Here: The Daily Beast: Jim Cramer Stock Touting Scandal.

The iPhone 4...

Posted by Sean Doyle, June 26, 2010

iPhone 4 Video - The Deleted Scenes from Adam Scott

If you were on the fence about purchasing an iPhone 4 perhaps this will influence your decision.

As Previously Mentioned....

Posted by Colin Doyle June 22, 2010

Image Courtesy of Reason.com

Luckily, U.S District Judge Martin Feldman was thoughtful enough to do the right thing today.

President Obama's moratorium to cease the issuing of new deep-water drilling permits was just the beginning of the sloppy policy reaction coming down in the wake of this crisis. Once the government gets in the middle of this (drilling) business it will make the investment in and operation of it near impossible. The ability of the federal government to recall permits, and require new ones, opens any company up to the possibility of potentially being shut down. It sets a bad precedent.

It is my opinion that in order to clean up this mess (pun intended ) the President should realize efforts must be focused on BP specifically. That's the trade here. BP's swaps are already rallying in expectation of what should be an easy political fix for the President, and an even easier meal for Wall St.

Oh, and here's the one year on BP. Geronimo!