About five weeks ago, I posted Chasing Value: Berkshire Eating Up Apple -- Can It Continue? Today I thought I would take another peek to see how Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) and Apple Inc.(AAPL) compare now.

Both companies are led by much-admired iconic figures who standout for their extreme success and business leadership. Both Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs are practically worshiped by their shareholders, and for good reason -- both companies have added value during the past ten years, a time when most companies have not, and some are just not -- they're gone.

Century-old CIT Group Inc filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District Court of New York on Sunday.

According to the terms of the bankruptcy, bondholders will hold new CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) debt worth about 70% of the face value of the old debt. Preferred creditors, including the U.S. government, will get money only after other creditors are paid back. Common shareholders will receive nothing.

In December 2008, the U.S. government invested $2.33 billion dollars in CIT under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) has pulled itself out of penny-stock territory after its shareholders approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split on Tuesday. However, the shares are swallowing some losses today nonetheless, as investors reshuffle their portfolios following the adjustment. AIG opened today at $19.65 after falling as low as $13 in premarket action.

CEO Edward Liddy reassured shareholders at the company's annual meeting that he's confident a new CEO and chairman will be named shortly. The bailed-out insurance issue also named some new directors to its board, at least seven of whom were recommended and approved by the U.S. Treasury Department or its trustees.

JP Morgan Chase & Company (NYSE JPM) held its annual shareholder meeting with Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer holding court.

Among his jabs against the Administration he complained that the rules against hiring foreigners was a "complete and utter disgrace." We might ask Mr. Dimon if he plans to hire another Chinese mathematician such as David X Li, whom JP Morgan Chase hired in 2000. Mr. Li developed a formula that created a single number from which traders bet billions of dollars in the past decade in derivatives which eventually brought the country to its knees when the housing bubble burst. This may help to explain why JP Morgan Chase has $87.7 trillion of derivatives "off the books." We might ask Mr Dimon to disclose the exact position in derivatives that he holds "off the books." Wouldn't that make fascinating reading?

Since shares of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) have dropped so sharply over the last year, the company keeps coming up with ways to convince its investors that it has a handle on things and can run the coffee retailer well in a harsh environment. It will make another attempt at getting its arguments across at its annual meeting Wednesday.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "executives are expected to outline a plan to weather the recession that includes an effort to make Starbucks products seem more affordable, and reassure investors that the company is on track to cut $500 million of costs by the fall."

Every January, central bankers from the U.S. and Europe meet to discuss the financial industry's issues and problems.

This year's meeting in Basel is especially unique in that it takes place in a post-crisis setting. To emphasize its importance, chief executive bankers from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), UBS (NYSE: UBS) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) have been invited. The presence of this wide array of key executives underscores the importance and need to hammer out guidelines for central bankers in the U.S. and Europe.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets world banking regulations, has signalled plans to encourage banks to hold greater capital assets in the future and to make provisions for future bad debts throughout the economic cycle. They are also working on guidelines to ensure that banks hold greater liquidity reserves than they do now.

What is your opinion on these guidelines? Is it too little, too late?

Monday, July 21

• Theravance, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRX)'s PDUFA date for Telavancin for the treatment of complicated skin infections.
• Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:30am.
• Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.
• Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5:30pm.

Tuesday, July22

• United Parcel Services, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
• Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.
• Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.
• Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Monday, July 14

• Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30 pm.
• Genentech Inc. (NYSE: DNA) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:45 pm.

Tuesday, July 15

• PDUFA date for Sciele Pharma, Inc. (SCRX)'s NDA for Aquelle for the treatment of head lice by asphyxiation.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 8:30 am.
• Senate Finance Committee: International Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights meeting at 10:00 am with Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) appearing.

Monday, July 7

• San Francisco Fed Reserve Bank President Yellen to speak about the U.S. economic outlook at the University of California/San Diego with a Q&A session.
• Aracruz Cellulose (NYSE: ARA) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.

Tuesday, July 8

• Richmond Fed Reserve Bank President Lacker to speak about U.S. economic outlook to the National Economists Club in Washington with a Q&A session expected.
• Gulfmark Offshore, Inc. (NYSE: GLF) to discuss the acquisition of Ridgon Marine at 9:00am.
• Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.
• Hansen Natural Corporation (NASDAQ: HANS) to give Business News update at 5:00pm.

Monday, June 30

• H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 8:00am on Tuesday.
• InteractiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) to give operational update.

Tuesday, July 1

• Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:00am.
• Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) to discuss enhanced financial reporting structure at 11:00am.
• Ford (NYSE:F) to report June sales at 1:00pm; General Motors (GM) to report June sales at 2:00pm.
• Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.
  

Wednesday, July 2

• Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 10:00am.
  

Thursday, July 3

• Corel Corp (NASDAQ:CREL) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 8:00am.
• Stolt-nielsen to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.

Friday, July 4

• Markets closed for Fourth of July holiday.
  

Monday, June 23

• Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.

Tuesday, June 24

• FOMC to hold two-day meeting.
• Jabil Circuits (NYSE: JBL) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.
• 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Wednesday, June 25

• Second day of two-day FOMC meeting; announcement at 2:15pm.
• Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) to discuss valuation and accounting for recent financing transaction at 10:00am.
• Nike (NYSE: NKE) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.
  
• Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.
• Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Thursday, June 26

• PDUFA date for Eli Lilly & Co's (NYSE: LLY) and Daiichi Sankyo's new drug application for Prasugrel.
• Palm Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.
• Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

Friday, June 27

• PDUFA date for Indevus Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: IDEV) New Drug Application for Nebido for treatment of male hypogonadism.
• PDUFA date for Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) and Eisai Co's (OTC: ESALY) Aciphex.
  

Monday, June 16

• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) reporting Q2 earnings; conference call at 10:00 am.
• Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) to discuss new GPU products at 1:00 pm.
• Lime Energy Co. (NASDAQ: LIME) to discuss acquisition of Applied Energy Management at 4:00 pm.
• Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) reporting Q2 earnings; conference call at 5:00 pm.

Tuesday, June 17

• La-Z-Boy Inc. (NYSE: LZB) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 8:30 am.
• The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) to hold business update conference call at 8:30 am.
• Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:00 am.

Next week's annual shareholder's meeting in Fayetteville should once again be more spectacle that business.Last year, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) seemed to spend more money lining up speakers, having pieces of its global operations dance with flags and having a pep rally rather that digging into issues.This year, expect the same -- as the retailer has already opposed all the shareholder proposals anyway, so it should be a nice, big party full of entertainment. Nothing else.

But Wal-Mart is enhancing one of its corporate messages this year: the way shareholders vote on the proposals. The annual report this year will include less pages and will be printed on lighter, recycled paper with Wal-Mart's investor relations website printed on it to direct shareholders there for further reading. This is an area where Wal-Mart can afford to be not so green. If you're like me, you may prefer annual reports on printed paper. Call me old fashioned, but a highlight marker, a quiet desk and a good reading light comprise the best environment for reading an annual shareholder report.

Wal-Mart, of course, defended its action to sway more shareholders to its IR website for the full annual report by stating that "we're glad that an increasing number of our shareholders worldwide have joined us in that effort ... by filing their proxy ballots electronically." Seems there is little choice for the alternative to me. If you're interested, head over here and read the proxy statement. If you're a shareholder, you can go ahead and vote on the web as well. Put away the highlighter, though.

Monday, May 26

• Markets closed for Memorial Day holiday.

Tuesday, May 27

• Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NYSE: VOD) to report preliminary earnings results for the year ending 3/13/08, conference call at 5:00am.
• Modine Manufacturing Co. (NYSE: MOD) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.

Wednesday, May 28

• Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

In case you haven't noticed it, oil prices are surging, and the impact of these high prices is not going unfelt by the major airlines. Today, Europe's largest airline, Air France-KLM, stated what most of us already knew... it's not going to be a pretty year for the company's bottom line.

During its fiscal fourth quarter the airline swung to a loss of $853.81 million. During the same period last year the company was able to show a profit of $44 million.

The current surge in oil prices (which hit $135 earlier today), definitely played a role in the weak quarter, but were not the main culprit in the hefty loss. Most of the loss was due to $834 million after-tax provision due to a European and U.S. investigation into the air-cargo industry.