Recent Comments:
If forced to dump Wild Oats, Whole Foods (WFMI) could see shares soar {BloggingStocks}
Jul 30th 2008 9:08AM Or maybe it was because it traded at a huge future growth premium that has come back to a market level because the growth investors recognized that it couldn't sustain that level of expansion.
Qualcomm (QCOM): Ready for a rebound? {BloggingStocks}
Jun 11th 2008 11:15AM Whatever happened to Douglas McIntyre on this stock? He has been dumping on it forever, but I haven't seen him write anything since January.
Why President Obama will be good for the economy {BloggingStocks}
Jun 4th 2008 9:13AM Wow. You've really been drinking the Kool-Aid. Obama voted for the farm bill which was as heavily laden with earmarks as ever, including the ridiculous sugar subsidies to the Florida billionaires. He's going to raise the level of Soc.Sec. tax to $200k base which is a huge tax on the middle class. Raising capital gains taxes is not going to put more money in consumers' hands. Bizarre comment. The Dems can't control spending, so how is the budget going to get balanced to strengthen the $? Doubt the Reps will be any better, but really what on earth are you talking about here?
Oil gushes through the $125 mark! {BloggingStocks}
May 9th 2008 9:42AM On March 24th, oil was roughly 101.5 with the dollar at 154.37 versus the Euro. How can oil now be at 125+ based on the weak dollar when the currency is unchanged since then? It is not a dollar issue.
Fed's 75 basis point emergency rate cut smacks of desperation {BloggingStocks}
Jan 22nd 2008 10:42AM The dollar's unchanged and oil's down.
Could Citadel's valuation of E*Trade's CDOs wipe out capital at three big banks? {BloggingStocks}
Dec 4th 2007 3:27PM My point was merely that without knowing the collateral of Citi, E*Trade, Lehman, Merrill or anyone else, a generalization of 27% across the board is rather specious. The fact that E*Trade has a mixed bag of commercials, res and other stuff is consistent with my thoughts that you simply can't use one number to evaluate the true losses in anyone else's portfolio. They aren't all identical in collateral, maturity, quality, etc.
Could Citadel's valuation of E*Trade's CDOs wipe out capital at three big banks? {BloggingStocks}
Dec 4th 2007 10:47AM Without knowing what CDO tranches E*Trade actually owned, putting a number on the total aggregate is a rather silly way to evaluate what the actual clearing levels were. The superficiality of the WSJ analysis seems to have caught your attention though. To apply that 27 cent number to everyone else's portfolio is pure guesswork and, frankly, sloppy. If Lennar sells its real estate to MS for, say, 40 cents on the dollar, does that mean all modest homes in America must be valued at that level regardless of location or quality? CDOs are complex and can really only be individually valued using computer models. That's why the average person is shying away from them right now, and pros like Citadel are stepping in and buying. If they were really worth so little, why is Citadel buying them? E*Trade had to sell and created a wonderful opportunity for Citadel. If the Street is forced to sell, like Long Term Capital did (no staying power), then perhaps the point of a low valuation is pertinent. I doubt with the capital being made available, that that will be the case. But simply to say that Level 3 assets are being given a benchmark at 27 cents is not very meaningful.
An ethical problem at Merrill Lynch? {BloggingStocks}
Nov 2nd 2007 11:18AM Weren't you just saying a few days ago that O'Neal was being judged unfairly? Perhaps we are seeing that there is more to the story.
