Monthly Archives: June 2008

How M&A is Getting Less Lucrative for Wall Street

The M&A industry is struggling, now that financial buyers (private-equity shops) can’t snap up companies willy-nilly using cheap debt. On the other hand, if this morning’s news is anything to go buy, friendly strategic deals using equity rather than debt … Continue reading

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John McCain’s Credit Card Problems

Is John McCain paying 26% interest on his credit card? Dan Ray seems to think so: McCain reported he [and his wife were] paying 25.99 percent on their joint credit card, on which they owed somewhere between $10,001 and $15,000. … Continue reading

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Adolphus Busch Endorses InBev Takeover

Sam Jones has the letter from Adolphus Busch IV in which he comes out in favor of the takeover by InBev, at InBev’s price of $65 a share. Adolphus Busch IV, of course, isn’t as important as Augustus Busch IV, … Continue reading

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Still No Vision at Citigroup

Another day, another 6,500 job cuts at Citigroup’s investment bank. (For reference, that’s pretty much exactly the total number of employees that Salomon Brothers had in the early 1990s. Now, it’s just 10% of the investment-banking workforce at Citi.) But … Continue reading

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Adventures in Technical Analysis, Jim Cramer Edition

If you like seeing Jim Cramer get his comeuppance, you’ll love this video. It’s a bit long, but basically on Friday June 13, Cramer told his viewers to "buy buy buy" banks, homebuilders, etc, on the strength of something called … Continue reading

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Invert Gas Mileage!

Dan Ariely makes a good point: why do we talk about miles per gallon, when gallons per 100 miles would be a much more useful and intuitive measure? The primacy of mpg as a metric means lots of attention paid … Continue reading

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Ben Stein Watch: June 22, 2008

Ben Stein "got a queasy feeling a few weeks ago" when he "read about a talk" given by Ben Bernanke. Thus was this week’s column born, if you’ll be kind enough to permit him: Please let me explain why I … Continue reading

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Index Fund Fees, Expensive Tastes, and the Dijon Mustard Paradox

You’re asked to allocate $10,000 between four S&P 500 index funds. The first has a front-end of 2.5% and charges fees of 60bp per year; the second has a front-end of 5.25% and charges fees of 64bp per year; the … Continue reading

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Extra Credit, Friday Edition

It’s Not Nice to Short Bank Stocks Pay For It: Tyler Cowen wants to see local water monopolies across Africa, allowed to charge whatever they like. RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert I Left My Staff in San … Continue reading

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MBIA: Rosner’s Take

Josh Rosner got in touch after I said he was "full of crap" for saying that MBIA thinks it can’t make its obligations. He’s been talking to NYSID too, so I asked him to elaborate on exactly what he thought … Continue reading

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The Master ETF

Matthew Hougan has an interesting idea: What would your portfolio look like if you bought the five-largest ETFs on the market and weighted them based on assets under management? 51% U.S. Equities (41% SPY, 10% QQQQ) 39% Foreign Equities (25% … Continue reading

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The Wealth of Randy Baker

Let’s say you’re the CFO of a company which is worth more than $65 a share. You get 200,000 options to buy shares at $30 apiece, and the shares are trading at $52. You could sell the shares immediately and … Continue reading

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The 1-and-15 Hedge Fund

UK fixed-income hedge fund manager Blue Bay is in some trouble: Blue Bay said performance fees had fallen by 75 per cent in the second half of the year, to £4m in five months, compared to £18.2m in the second … Continue reading

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Can a $100 Million Home be an Investment?

Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion has been sold for $100 million to "little-known Russian fertilizer billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev": "This acquisition is simply an investment in real estate by one of the companies in which I have an interest," Mr. Rybolovlev … Continue reading

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Expanding Santander

Europe has too many banks. Now that it has a single currency, the fact that each country is dominated by its own national banks is looking increasingly old-fashioned. And so it makes sense that, sooner or later, a genuinely European … Continue reading

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Hedge Funds: The Legal Risks

Karen Donovan picks up on some interesting rhetoric from Brooklyn’s very own US attorney Benton Campbell: "Hedge fund investors, like investors in publicly traded corporations or mutual funds, are protected by the federal securities laws." Hedge funds are often considered … Continue reading

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MBIA: Moody’s Twists the Knife

Ouch! This news is really bad for MBIA: Moody’s has slashed its ratings by even more than it cut the ratings on Ambac. It’s a deep cut, with real financial consequences: This ratings action will give certain holders of guaranteed … Continue reading

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Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Citigroup is a broken organisation, but its new boss doesn’t have a plan to fix it: My Spectator Business column. IDB partners with IGNIA venture capital fund to address needs of region’s poor: An interesting meeting of a development bank … Continue reading

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MBIA: The View From New York State

I had a very interesting conversation with Hampton Finer of the New York State Insurance Department this afternoon, on the subject of MBIA. He’s a regulator, it’s his job to be worried about the entities he’s regulating. And when one … Continue reading

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Einhorn’s Secret Weapon: Napping

David Einhorn is a very clever chap: the game room in his offices includes a vital piece of furniture. There is a game room with a pool table and a bar, but it doesn’t look like it’s seen many wild … Continue reading

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Joe Lieberman’s Dangerous Blame Game

Floyd Norris sticks his knife today into Joe Lieberman, who thoroughly deserves it. Liberman’s blaming speculators for the fact that asset prices are rising, and by golly if he isn’t going to do something about it: One proposal would require … Continue reading

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Commuter of the Day

Is real-estate executive David S. Mack: Mr. Mack, a Long Island resident who says he typically rides the railroad 5 to 10 times a year, said that if he had to pay, he might change his habits. “Why should I … Continue reading

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MBIA vs Smith and Jones

With respect to MBIA’s attack on the NYT’s reporting, it’s clear at this point that the newspaper doesn’t need to defend itself: there’s no shortage of bloggers willing to do that for it. Yves Smith is probably the most vocal: … Continue reading

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Commuting Cost Datapoint of the Day

Amtrak – Amtrak! – is now cheaper than commuting by car: Stroud was looking in Elk Grove., Calif. — about 85 miles away from his job in the San Francisco Bay Area — because homes there are more affordable. But … Continue reading

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Blogonomics: Going Magazine

Fans of Paul Jackson’s Housing Wire website might have noticed his latest venture: Housing Wire magazine. Starting up a new trade magazine is an expensive proposition, and Jackson is spending a lot of money on this launch, getting a big … Continue reading

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