Screen Survivors

Enough With Banks As Victims From the Center for Public Integrity's "Meltdown" project.   The Center for Public Integrity rolls out a giant clickfest today, with Who's Behind the Financial Meltdown. The project tracks nearly 7.2 million subprime mortgages in search of the 25 lenders most responsible for the housing crisis. Bill Buzenberg, former NPR hand and current executive director of the CPI, suggests looking at the problem this way: The truth is these mega-banks invested trillions, made billions, and took risks with their eyes wide open. Now, because they are deemed "too big to fail," they need trillions in government bailouts and guarantees to solve problems they helped create. But let's look at it another way: perhaps these mega-banks are simply "too politically connected to fail." Their unbridled political contributions and massive lobbying created the lack of regulation and oversight that led to this crisis. Where is the accountability -- of management and boards, of auditors and regulators -- for what has happened? It is time to set aside the myth of the mega-bank as victim. » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 6 May 2009 | 2:36 pm I Said Nothing Is Boaed, Dude. We find ourselves wishing there was a word in English for that feeling you get when you read an article confirming the details of a bit of news- probably bad- you were already expecting. It's that sort of sinking "Uh... wow." that represents the sudden realization that, though you were prepared for the news, it is now more "real." What is that word? As you know from our "Bank of America needs $34 billion" announcement yesterday, there is now at least a temporary answer: "Boaed." Henceforth-- Boaed ("bow-uh'd"): The forced realization of the shocking magnitude of an event or occurrence that, while expected or already making rounds on the rumor circuit, only reaches the pinnacle of its emotional impact once reported through mainstream channels or experienced first-hand. The real question, however, is how will the market receive this "news." Given that there is no better place to find the answers to these questions than our comment section, we leave it to you. BAC closed at $10.84. Where does this take us, dear readers? Where will BAC open? More importantly, where will BAC close? $15.00? $1.50? Source: Dealbreaker | 6 May 2009 | 1:57 pm Pressure mounts on BofA and Citi US regulators are moving to impose tough conditions on banks that want to repay federal bail-out funds, requiring them to prove that they can issue debt without government insurance Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 1:55 pm BofA and Citi need capital as stress tests results loom WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Regulators have told Bank of America Corp it needs $34 billion of capital to withstand a deep economic downturn, an industry source familiar with results of a government stress test said late on Tuesday. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 1:51 pm EU and US reach deal in beef row The US and the EU reach a provisional deal to end a two-decade-long dispute over US hormone-treated beef. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 1:50 pm U.S. private-sector job losses slow (Reuters) Reuters - U.S. private-sector job losses slowed much more than expected in April, hitting their lowest since November last year, according to a report by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 6 May 2009 | 1:44 pm U.S. private-sector job losses slow NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private-sector job losses slowed much more than expected in April, hitting their lowest since November last year, according to a report by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 1:44 pm Stocks open higher as report says job losses slow (AP) AP - Stocks are higher in early trading following data indicating job losses are slowing. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 1:43 pm Stocks open higher as report says job losses slow NEW YORK -- Stocks are higher in early trading following data indicating job losses are slowing. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 1:42 pm Wall Street opens higher after encouraging data (Reuters) Reuters - Wall Street opened higher on Wednesday after private sector payroll data showed job losses slowed in April and hit their lowest level since November, a fresh sign the U.S. economy's worst days may be past. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 6 May 2009 | 1:39 pm Wall Street opens higher after encouraging data NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street opened higher on Wednesday after private sector payroll data showed job losses slowed in April and hit their lowest level since November, a fresh sign the U.S. economy's worst days may be past. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 1:39 pm Wall Street opens higher after encouraging data (Reuters) Reuters - Wall Street opened higher on Wednesday after private sector payroll data showed job losses slowed in April and hit their lowest level since November, a fresh sign the U.S. economy's worst days may be past. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 1:39 pm Madoff Was Huge Massage Parlor Fan, Says Secretary As previously discussed 'round these parts, your secretary knows everything about you, such as, specifically, your dietary habits, and, more generally, your web of lies and bull shit and deceit. For all those reasons, you really need to think twice about firing her. On the off-chance you get hauled off to the big house (after a luxurious penthouse arrest) because you were running a sizable Ponzi scheme, however, you're out of luck. She's probably gonna talk! Above, Bernie Madoff's longtime administrative assistant, Eleanor Squillari, talkin' B with Vanity Fair. Apparently he was acting weird and taking his blood pressure a lot during the weeks before he confessed, as though he was worried about something. And from her interview with VF's Mark Seal: "Bernie was irresistible to women" and "had a roving eye." Squillari once caught him perusing the escort ads in the back of a magazine, and he frequently visited massage parlors. "Once, I looked in his address book and found, under M, about a dozen phone numbers for his masseuses. 'If you ever lose your address book and somebody finds it, they're going to think you're a pervert,' I said." Madoff was flirtatious and had a habit of making sexually suggestive remarks: "'Oh, you know you're crazy about me,' he would say to me. Sometimes when he came out of his bathroom, which was diagonal to my desk, he would still be zipping up his pants. If he saw me shaking my head disapprovingly, he would say, 'Oh, you know it excites you.' If a pretty young woman came in, he'd say, 'Do you remember when you used to look like that?' I'd tell him, 'Knock it off, Bernie,' and he'd go, 'Ah, you still look good.' Then he'd try to pat me on the ass." Source: Dealbreaker | 6 May 2009 | 1:37 pm Regional airlines hit by falling travel demand CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. regional airlines, ExpressJet Holdings Inc and SkyWest Inc said on Wednesday their first-quarter results were weakened by shrinking travel demand in the recession. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 1:36 pm Stocks open higher as report says job losses slow Stocks are higher in early trading following data indicating job losses are slowing. A big improvement Wednesday in the ADP National Employment Report is buoying the mood on Wall Street... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:36 pm Media Advisory: Access to Canaccord's fourth quarter and year-end results information VANCOUVER, May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Canaccord Capital Inc. (TSX & AIM: CCI) is scheduled to release its fiscal Q4/09 and year-end earnings release and... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:35 pm $4,000 rebate on a new Chrysler Chrysler announced a new sales incentive plan Wednesday as the carmaker seeks to spur sales while it works through bankruptcy and restructuring. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 1:33 pm New Officers, Board of Directors Announced for the National Association of Professional Background Screeners MORRISVILLE, N.C., May 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Association of Professional Background Screeners held its Annual Conference April 18-21, in St. Louis, Mo. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:33 pm Strong start seen for stocks Wall Street was poised for a strong open Wednesday as investors focused on two upbeat jobs reports, shrugging off anxiety about the bank stress test results due out Thursday. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 1:32 pm Earnings Watch: Updates, advisories and surprises A roundup of the latest corporate earnings reports and what companies are saying about future quarters. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 1:31 pm GoldSpring Secures $2 Million in Financing From Existing Investors GOLD HILL, Nev., May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GoldSpring, Inc., (OTC Bulletin Board: GSPG) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to receive up to $2... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:31 pm Stock Alerts for YHOO, PG, ICE, AET, and XLNX Released by Seven Summits Research CHICAGO, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven Summits Research issues PriceWatch Alerts for key stocks. Seven Summits Strategic Investments' PriceWatch Alerts are... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:31 pm Stock Alerts for AMZN, HIG, DELL, MO, and AZO Released by Seven Summits Research CHICAGO, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven Summits Research issues PriceWatch Alerts for key stocks. Seven Summits Strategic Investments' PriceWatch Alerts are... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:31 pm Zhongpin Inc. Schedules Conference Call to Discuss 2009 First Quarter Results CHANGGE CITY, China, May 6 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Zhongpin Inc. (Nasdaq: HOGS) (''Zhongpin''), a leading meat and food processing company in ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:30 pm Economists say green shoots are visible Hopes rose today that Britain is set to emerge from the worst of the recession, as new figures revealed a dramatic easing in the slump in the country's services sector, High Street sales and house prices. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 1:29 pm Alcatel-Lucent net loss widens in 1Q Alcatel-Lucent's net loss widened in the first quarter as sales of both wireless and wireline communications gear continued to fall in all major markets amid the global economic downturn. Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:28 pm Transocean Profits Sink, Yet Surprise (RIG, DO) The world’s largest offshore driller, Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) reported first quarter 2009 EPS of $2.93 on net income of 942 million and revenues of $3.12 billion. In the first quarter of 2008, Transocean reported EPS of $3.58 and revenues of $3.11 billion. Analysts had been expecting EPS for the first quarter of $3.51 on $3.10 [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 1:28 pm Oil breaks above $55 on jobs data LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose more than $1 and broke above $55 a barrel on Wednesday, bouncing up from moribund early trade around $54 after data showed U.S. private sector job losses had slowed in April. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 1:28 pm Greenberg Traurig Expands Real Estate Funds Group with Nationally Recognized Team LOS ANGELES, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The international law firm href="http://www.gtlaw.com">Greenberg Traurig announced the addition of two Real Estate Fund... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:28 pm Art's Way Manufacturing Launches New Web Site for Art's Way Vessels ARMSTRONG, Iowa, May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Art's Way Manufacturing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARTW), a leading manufacturer and distributor of niche agricultural machinery,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 1:25 pm Jobs: Finally, a little less gloom The pace of U.S. job losses may be slowing, according to two private reports released Wednesday. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 1:23 pm BofA and Citi need capital as stress tests results loom (Reuters) Reuters - Regulators have told Bank of America Corp it needs $34 billion of capital to withstand a deep economic downturn, an industry source familiar with results of a government stress test said late on Tuesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 6 May 2009 | 1:23 pm Microsoft closes in on job cuts Microsoft said Tuesday that it is moving forward with a second wave of mass layoffs, getting the company closer to its target of 5,000 job cuts by mid 2010, according to an e-mail Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sent employees. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 1:22 pm Bank of America’s $34 Billion Distress Signal The first stress test result suggests Treasury was conning its way toward nationalization. By Chadwick Matlin of The Big Picture When the stress tests were first announced, I suspected that they were a convenient backdoor to nationalizing the country’s banks. The Obama administration couldn’t allow the banks to keep operating without government-supplied life jackets, safety nets, crash [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 1:21 pm Europe Markets: Shares in Europe higher after earnings, ADP data European shares move a little higher on Wednesday helped by banking-sector gains as investors welcome an update from BNP Paribas. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 1:17 pm Economic Report: Private-sector jobs fall by 491,000 in April: ADP Private-sector employment in the United States falls by 491,000 jobs in April, the smallest decline since October, according to the ADP employment index. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 1:12 pm Oil & Energy Players Raising Cash (DPTR, HEP, RRC, SGY) We are starting to see more and more of the second-tier and third-tier energy players and oil and gas players either file for secondary offerings or actually sell shares in public offerings.  Delta Petroleum Corporation (Nasdaq: DPTR), Holly Energy Partners (NYSE: HEP), Range Resources Inc. (NYSE: RRC), and Stone Energy Corporation (NYSE: SGY) are among [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 1:11 pm Channel 4 programme budget faces £100m cut Chief executive Andy Duncan said programmes will go as he warned television advertising will never fully bounce back. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 1:11 pm Tech M&A: Will Twitter be next? Merger activity in the tech sector has dropped precipitously from a year earlier, but the landscape is quickly changing as confidence returns. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 1:05 pm US stocks set to rise on jobs report US equities looked set to rise as a survey suggested private sector unemployment rose less than expected in April, mitigating the effects of a report saying Bank of America needed much more capital than previously thought to pass the government's stress tests Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 1:04 pm Refiner Shows Profit, E&P and Services Don’t (WNR, DVN, FWLT) Three companies representing three distinct areas of the oil business have reported earnings and the surprise to many will be that the refiner put up the best numbers. Western Refining Inc. (NYSE:WNR) reported EPS of $0.86, way up from a net loss of $-0.60 in the same period a year ago, and above a consensus [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 1:02 pm Opening Bell 05.06.09 Citi May Need $5B - $10B (Reuters) The US Government has asked that Citi sit on $55B in capital reserves as a result of the stress tests, which leaves them short somewhere in the neighborhood of $10B. While their ass remains remarkably less sore than that of Bank of America, it would be comforting to know how the authorities arrived at these numbers. "Citigroup is expected to need to raise capital as insurance against any further downturn in the economy, according to the paper. The New York bank can easily cover any shortfall and is considering several options to close that gap, the paper cited Citigroup executives as saying." Judge Rejects Opposition To Chrysler Sale (FT) "A US bankruptcy judge has rejected an attempt by dissident Chrysler creditors to derail the sale of the ailing carmaker's viable assets to a group of new shareholders, including Italy's Fiat." BofA Weighs CCB Sale (FT) The deal could land them as much as $8B; obviously desperately needed at this point. Look at it this way ladies, Lewis is learning a fundamental lesson of life: if you can't whore your way out of it, chances are good you're going to have to sell your shit. "Bank of America is considering the sale of an $8bn stake in a leading Chinese bank within days in a move that would relieve some of the pressure on its battered balance sheet. BofA, which is undergoing a crucial US government "stress test", is free to divest about a third of its 16.7 per cent stake in China Construction Bank on Thursday following the expiration of a lock-in period." GM Likely To Post Loss Tomorrow Ahead Of Bankruptcy (Bloomberg) "The Detroit automaker may lose $11.34 a share, equal to about $6.9 billion, compared with a net loss of $5.74, or $3.3 billion, for the same quarter a year ago, according to the estimates of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg." [...] "Under GM's latest proposal, the U.S. would control at least 50 percent of 60 billion shares in the restructured GM and a union-run health-care fund would get 39 percent. Unsecured bondholders would get 10 percent and existing shareholders would get 1 percent, GM said. After the exchange was complete, the company would do a 100-for-1 reverse split of the shares. If 90 percent of the bondholders don't sign up for the GM offer of 225 shares in the new automaker for each $1,000 in principal they hold by May 26, GM plans to file bankruptcy, Henderson said after unveiling the offer." Flowers Sees Opportunity In Struggling Banks (NYT) Long story short: Flowers is seeking to invest in US banks, but the authorities don't want PE firms holding majority interest, just minority. The United States thinks PE firms are too risky to hold banks outright, that by allowing them to do so would set the state for the next financial crisis. REITs Seize Opportunity To Deleverage (WSJ) "In the past six months, 16 large REITs have repurchased a cumulative $3.9 billion in face value of bonds at a discounted outlay of $2.5 billion. Among the biggest offerings was ProLogis, a warehouse developer, which used $414 million since October to buy bonds with a face value of $641 million." Source: Dealbreaker | 6 May 2009 | 1:00 pm Presented By: Source: Dealbreaker | 6 May 2009 | 1:00 pm NewsWatch: U.S. stock futures rise after jobs report U.S. stock futures moved to positive territory Wednesday following a report that private-sector job losses moderated in April. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 1:00 pm Blackstone Results, Private Equity Close to Returning (BX) The Blackstone Group, L.P. (NYSE: BX) private equity leader posted results that show a turn for the better in private equity is either afoot or much closer than before.  It said that its economic net income was a loss of $93 million for the first quarter of 2009, compared to a loss of $827 million [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 12:57 pm US private sector sheds 491,000 jobs The US private sector shed 491,000 jobs in April, according to a closely watched survey of business employment, a sign that while the job losses remain high, the free-fall may be slowing Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 12:57 pm Bank of America needs billions more, reports say Bank of America shares shake off a big pre-market drop, recovering as reports said the firm would need more than $30 billion in new capital to comply with the U.S.-administered “stress test -- but it appears an existing government investment can be applied to cover this. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 12:55 pm Why I live in - and love - Detroit: 13 stories Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 12:53 pm Before the Bell: ADP report, Walt Disney, Bank of America in focus U.S. stock futures moved to positive territory Wednesday following a report that private-sector job losses moderated in April. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 12:48 pm Slump in eurozone retail sales 'accelerates' (AFP) AFP - Retailers in the 16 nations using the euro saw a slump in their sales accelerate in March, according to official EU data released on Wednesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 6 May 2009 | 12:45 pm Indications: U.S. stock futures rise after jobs report U.S. stock futures moved to positive territory Wednesday following a report that private-sector job losses moderated in April. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 12:45 pm Boston Globe deal averts shutdown The Boston Globe reached a tentative deal with the largest of its unions, averting the shutdown of the New York Times-owned newspaper Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 12:44 pm Ford: Converting truck factory to build electric cars Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 12:40 pm EasyJet sticks to forecasts despite losses Losses at easyJet more than doubled to £130 million in the first half but the budget carrier expects to buck the recessional trend to become profitable by the year end. Revenues grew 16 per cent to £1 billion in the six months to March 31 but underlying losses widened from £48 million to £130 million due to higher fuel costs. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 12:39 pm NatWest's 'impartial' advisers pushed its own products Which? says The "impartial advice" service offered by a high street bank is failing to provide most customers with the unbiased answers promised according to research. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 12:38 pm 20% of homeowners 'underwater' More than 20% of American homeowners owe more on their mortgage debt than they can sell their homes for, according to an industry report released Wednesday. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 12:35 pm Transocean net income falls 18% NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Transocean Ltd. said Wednesday first-quarter net income fell 18% as the offshore drilling giant booked tax payments and a big write-down on the value of two submersible rigs. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 12:33 pm When in Doubt, Make Your Own Currency That’s what Fayetteville, Arkansas is doing. “Ozark Hours” is the new currency that small business owners will issue and accept just like regular U.S. dollars and cents. Proponents hope this home grown currency will protect local businesses from the highs and lows of the national dollar.  “All of our money is backed by nothing. That’s what we have our faith in,” said Shelley Buonaiuto, a Fayetteville artist. “Money’s not real wealth. The real wealth is our resources and our community interdependence.” And before you go making jokes about Arkansas, they’re not unique. Groups around the country are printing currency in an attempt to help small businesses withstand the recession. The currency’s value is generally base on labor. In some towns $10 in local money is worth an hour of labor. Other places trade ‘real’ cash for the local currency, often at a discount. In the Berkshires region of Massachusetts, for example, people trade $9 of U.S. currency for $10 worth of the local currency “Berkshares” at local credit unions, essentially providing a 10-percent discount when the money is spent. The currency also helps barterers without direct trades to exchange the widely recognized currency for future trades. I suspect the IRS might not like this. Remember, bartering income is taxable. The concept works well in Ithaca, New York, where they’ve been using “Ithaca Hours” since 1991. “We have significantly affected shopping habits so people are more able to rely on one another in the community than automatically going to the mall,” said Ithica’s mayor. The success of local currency is sketchy and anecdotal at best. As someone who grew up near the Canadian border and lived in a ‘multi-currency’ economy, I get that there are incentives when the values differ, but I’m not sure anyone needs another layer of complexity in the financial realm these days. What’s your take on local currency? Image Credit: Christina Snyder, Flickr Source: Business Pundit | 6 May 2009 | 12:29 pm MarketWatch First Take: Next chapter in Bank of America saga: CEO's ouster Ken Lewis will be out as Bank of America's CEO before the end of 2009. Here’s why: The government’s demand for $35 billion in additional balance-sheet cash will be too dillutive, prove too much of a burden for the bank and its shareholders to take. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 12:29 pm Judge approves bidding procedures for Chrysler NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved bidding procedures for the rapid sale of most of Chrysler's assets, over objections from a group of lenders who called the accelerated timetable an "absurdity." Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 12:28 pm ADP Jobs… A Question of Calculation Methodology ADP is out with its controversial jobs number this morning ahead of this week’s unemployment report.  ADP said that there was “only” a -491,000 drop of jobs in the US private sector.  The expectation was somewhere north of -600,000.  This has turned equity futures around and into positive territory.  Before you hang your hat and [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 12:27 pm Economic Report: Layoffs, still elevated, drop to 6-month low WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of new planned job reductions by major U.S. companies declined in April to the lowest level in six months, but remained elevated at 47% higher than a year earlier, according to a report released Wednesday by outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 6 May 2009 | 12:23 pm Stress test your retirement The economy is in shambles, and the stock market is in the tank. If you're entering the waning years of your career - or if you've already retired - that's more than enough to suck the joy out of retirement. If you let it. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 12:16 pm Marsh & McLennan posts profit NEW YORK (Reuters) - Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc , the second-largest global insurance broker, posted a first-quarter profit on Wednesday, reversing a year-earlier loss, as lower costs helped offset a decline in revenue. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 12:09 pm Bank of America may face $34B gap The U.S. government isn't due to reveal the results of its stress tests on banks until Thursday, but leaked results are painting a troubling picture. Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 12:05 pm Channel 4 closes chequebook to new US shows Channel 4 will slash at least £60 million a year from its on screen budget as it battles with an 18 per cent downturn in advertising in the first half of the year. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 12:02 pm Sale of van maker LDV is agreed The sale of Birmingham-based van maker LDV to Malaysian firm Weststar has been agreed, a company spokesman says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 11:54 am Irrational Exuberance Source: Business Pundit | 6 May 2009 | 11:52 am Garmin’s Head On Collision (GRMN) Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) looks a bit like a train wreck as the maker of mobile GPS systems and PND systems posted $0.25 non-GAAP EPS and $437 million in revenues vs. Thomson Reuters estimates of $0.42 EPS and $531.5 million in revenues.   If it sounds bad on the surface, it is that and worse. These [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 11:41 am UK recession 'worst since 1930s' A leading UK research body says in its latest update that the economy could contract at its biggest rate since 1931. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 11:37 am BAT admits some customers are trading down British American Tobacco, the world’s second-biggest cigarette maker, admitted this morning that it has been hit by some customers downtrading to cheaper brands. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 11:27 am Top Analyst Upgrades (ALU, AMGN, HBC, IFX, SMTC, DIS, WBMD) These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street this Wednesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens: Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs. Amgen (AMGN) Started as Outperform at Wachovia. HSBC (HBC) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan. Infineon Technologies (IFX) Raised [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 11:26 am Budget forecasts 'too optimistic' There is "considerable uncertainty" about the chancellor's growth forecasts, a committee of MPs says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 11:26 am Shell bonus row misses the point Rules are made for breaking at least when it comes to bonuses. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 11:22 am Top Analyst Downgrades (BCS, NILE, ED, MVL, RBS, SRE, UBS) These are the top pre-market analyst downgrades or cautious calls we have seen from Wall Street this Wednesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens: Barclays (BCS) Cut to Sell at UBS. Blue Nile (NILE) Cut to Negative at Susquehanna. Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) Cut to Hold at Jefferies. Marvel Entertainment (MVL) Cut to Market Weight [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 11:17 am City may undermine Darling's £700bn Budget plan Read the full Treasury Select Committee report into the Budget Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 11:17 am One Eurostar voyage I won't forget The Eurostar was cruising at a maximum 300kph through northern France when the driver said "Watch this," and pulled down a blind over the cabin's single window. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 11:17 am Speed camera boss Tom Riall banned for driving over 100mph A chief executive at Britain’s biggest speed camera firm was banned from driving for six months today after admitting to travelling at more than 100mph. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 11:13 am European stocks gain ground (AFP) AFP - Europe's main stock markets posted modest gains on Wednesday as cautious investors awaited results of "stress tests" on troubled US banks and key unemployment data this week. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 11:08 am Boston Globe union, NY Times reach accord BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Boston Globe's biggest union reached a tentative accord early on Wednesday with owner New York Times Co to secure the money-losing newspaper's survival after a month of intense negotiations. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 11:03 am Vulture attack MPs target hedge fund debt diversion Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 11:00 am Record decline in eurozone sales Retail sales for countries using the euro fell by a record amount over the last twelve months, official statistics show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 11:00 am GM details its restructuring plan General Motors has given more details of its restructuring plans that will wipe out existing shareholders. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 10:41 am Dollar and yen rally as havens are sought The yen and the dollar gained as investors sought safe haven currencies ahead of the European Central Bank meeting and the results of stress tests on US banks Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 10:32 am World markets brush aside US stress test concerns (AP) AP - World stock markets rose Wednesday as investor worries about the outcome of the U.S. government's stress tests of the country's 19 leading banks were allayed by better than expected economic and corporate news around the world. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 10:25 am UK services sector provides new evidence that the economy has hit the bottom The services sector which makes up the lions share of the British economy delivered fresh evidence on Wednesday that the worst may be over for economy. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 10:22 am LDV administration adjourned for a week Court told Malaysia's Weststar has agreed deal in principle to buy the ailing van maker. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 10:10 am Twenty Percent Of Homes Now Underwater Warren Buffett and Ben Bernanke may believe that housing prices are stabilizing, but the number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages is growing. Those people are certainly more likely to default on home payments than homeowners who still have significant equity. Some people owe so much on their home loans that the value of [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] Source: 24/7 Wall Street | 6 May 2009 | 10:10 am Task that was anything but boring This article first appeared in The Times on Friday May 06, 1994 Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 9:53 am Winning the dig against the critics This article first appeared in The Times on Friday May 06, 1994 Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 9:53 am Tunnel vision links and separates two nations This article first appeared in The Times on Friday May 06, 1994 Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 6 May 2009 | 9:53 am Diary of a private investor: 'Dash for socalled trash shares has given me a 16pc return this year' Shares which had been hardest hit - such as Enterprise Inns- began to rise faster than the rest. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 9:48 am Next chief says UK High Street slump may have 'bottomed out' Next's chief executive Simon Wolfson said the slump on Britain's high streets has "potentially bottomed out" and sales declines had not been as bad as expected. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 9:41 am Lower oil price hits Total profit Total has reports a 35% drop in profits for the first three months of this year when compared with figures for 2008. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 9:35 am Pakistan forces attack Taliban in Swat valley Government soldiers clash with militants, who have captured several important buildings in the town of Mingora, after the US called on Pakistan to show its commitment to fighting militancy Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 9:30 am Sales at Next beat expectations Fashion retailer Next reports better-than-expected sales, but warns the news should be treated with caution. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 9:23 am Fiat denies 18,000 job cuts plan Italian carmaker Fiat denies a report that it would cut 18,000 jobs and close 10 sites if it reached a deal with GM Europe. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 6 May 2009 | 9:21 am GM's Saab says would welcome talks with Fiat (Reuters) Reuters - Sweden's Saab Automobile, owned by ailing U.S. auto maker General Motors , would welcome talks with Italy's Fiat about a takeover, Saab said on Wednesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 6 May 2009 | 9:06 am GM's Saab says would welcome talks with Fiat STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Saab Automobile, owned by ailing U.S. auto maker General Motors , would welcome talks with Italy's Fiat about a takeover, Saab said on Wednesday. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 9:06 am Outlook on economy better than January: Survey Most people think financial hard times will worsen, a new survey shows. However, results were more rosy than a few months ago. UMR Research surveyed 750 adults on their views about the impact of the global financial crisis. One... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 6 May 2009 | 8:38 am London stocks stable at open (AFP) AFP - Stocks in London opened almost unchanged on Wednesday after rallying the previous day on banks and metal prices. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 8:19 am Aviva cuts windfall for 900000 policyholders Insurer outlines revised plans to return surplus capital to policyholders that will see eligible customers receive payouts of between £200 and £1150. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 7:49 am Bramdean Alternatives coup attempt by Vincent Tchenguiz gets wide support Advisers to Bramdean Alternatives privately concede that almost 50pc of its shareholders support Vincent Tchenguiz's coup attempt. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 7:33 am BAE Systems says talks continue on £2bn Eurofighter contract Defence company says UK government has not yet reached a resolution over the disputed third tranche of Eurofighter Typhoons. Source: Telegraph Finance | 6 May 2009 | 7:13 am Australian stocks: Market down on investor nervousness MELBOURNE - The Australian share market closed lower on Wednesday over renewed investor nervousness about the health of the United States banking sector. At the 1615 AEST close, the S&P/ASX200 had lost 23.3 points, or 0.6 per cent,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:06 am Maguire Properties' CEO is still high on downtown Sure, downtown L.A.'s biggest office landlord is saddled with $5 billion in debt and has just posted a loss of $53.9 million, but assuming the economy picks up, Nelson Rising foresees a turnaround. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Health Net shares surge Unexpectedly high first-quarter earnings and association with David Colby boost the health insurer's stock. Tenet Healthcare also reports first-quarter profit. Shares of Health Net Inc. surged Tuesday on better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and on news that it was getting turnaround advice from WellPoint Inc.'s former chief financial officer. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Bernanke's cautiously optimistic forecast does little for markets The Federal Reserve chairman tells Congress that the deep recession is easing, but warns that economic growth would be slow and that unemployment would continue to rise. The Dow closes down 16 points. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke didn't sway the markets much Tuesday with his cautious optimism about an economic recovery later this year, and he downright chilled U.S. workers with his prediction of "further sizable job losses" to come. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Bailed-out banks enabled subprime lending, study contends Many getting bailouts fueled the subprime mortgage market centered in California, the Center for Public Integrity says. The major banks now collecting federal bailout money were not unwitting victims of the mortgage meltdown but instead were directly linked to the root cause of the problem: a subprime lending machine concentrated in Southern California, a new study asserts. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Maguire Properties' CEO is still high on downtown Sure, downtown L.A.'s biggest office landlord is saddled with $5 billion in debt and has just posted a loss of $53.9 million, but assuming the economy picks up, Nelson Rising foresees a turnaround. Nearly a year and a half into the recession, downtown Los Angeles' largest office landlord is getting squeezed by shrinking demand for rental space and struggling under a stack of debt. Maguire Properties Inc., which owns the U.S. Bank Tower, Wells Fargo Center and other signature L.A. buildings, faces a tough road, according to analysts who study the firm's stock, as the economy continues to pummel the market for commercial real estate. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Bernanke's cautiously optimistic forecast does little for markets The Federal Reserve chairman tells Congress that the deep recession is easing, but warns that economic growth would be slow and that unemployment would continue to rise. The Dow closes down 16 points... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am SEC accuses Reserve Management, top executives of fraud Regulators say they withheld key facts from investors when the company's money-market fund 'broke the buck' last fall. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Orange County financier Danny Pang disputes SEC allegation of fraud In a filing, he says authorities wrongly seized his firm and other assets based solely on a complaint from a 'disgruntled former employee' who had tried to 'shake down Mr. Pang's company.' ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Consumer Product Safety Commission needs more muscle President Obama finally named his pick to head the long-neglected Consumer Product Safety Commission on Tuesday and called for a big increase in funding for the agency. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Walt Disney Studios' operating income falls 97% CEO Robert Iger blames the slate of movies, not the economy, for box-office disappointments. 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' and 'Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience' misfired. Walt Disney Co. is poised to release "Up," another anticipated hit from Pixar Animation Studios. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Orange County financier Danny Pang disputes SEC allegation of fraud In a filing, he says authorities wrongly seized his firm and other assets based solely on a complaint from a 'disgruntled former employee' who had tried to 'shake down Mr. Pang's company.' Orange County financier Danny Pang, accused of defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars, said Tuesday that authorities wrongly seized his firm and other assets based solely on a complaint from a "disgruntled former employee" who had tried to "shake down Mr. Pang's company." Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am GMAC reports first-quarter loss of $675 million Loan defaults help widen the loss from a year earlier, and Chief Financial Officer Robert Hull expects more losses. But a GM bankruptcy wouldn't trigger a GMAC filing, the home and auto lender says. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Bailed-out banks enabled subprime lending, study contends Many getting bailouts fueled the subprime mortgage market centered in California, the Center for Public Integrity says. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am GMAC reports first-quarter loss of $675 million Loan defaults help widen the loss from a year earlier, and Chief Financial Officer Robert Hull expects more losses. But a GM bankruptcy wouldn't trigger a GMAC filing, the home and auto lender says. GMAC Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Bill to end unlisted phone number fees is put on hold The consumer-oriented measure faced certain defeat in the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, where it had been heavily lobbied by phone firms, says state Sen. Fran Pavley. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Consumer Product Safety Commission needs more muscle President Obama finally named his pick to head the long-neglected Consumer Product Safety Commission on Tuesday and called for a big increase in funding for the agency. Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Health insurers offer to lower women's rates The move would affect women who buy their own policies. It comes as the industry tries to head off creation of a government health plan that would compete with the companies. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am Apple, Google board links said to spur U.S. antitrust review Two people sit on both company's boards. The Federal Trade Commission aims to determine whether the firms are violating antitrust law, a source says. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 6 May 2009 | 7:00 am More than one in five homeowners underwater: Zillow NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home values in the United States extended their fall in the first quarter, with more than one in five homeowners now owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday. Source: Reuters: Business News | 6 May 2009 | 6:58 am Judge rejects opposition to Chrysler sale A US bankruptcy judge has rejected an attempt by dissident Chrysler creditors to derail the sale of the ailing carmaker's viable assets to a group of new shareholders, including Italy's Fiat Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 6:34 am NZ stocks: Shares pause after two day surge The New Zealand sharemarket posted modest gains even as worries about the state of US banks eroded sentiment. The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 12.309 points, or 0.437 per cent at 2831.36, as the Australian market turned negative... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 6 May 2009 | 6:19 am Emissions from new transmitters acceptable, says Telecom Lawyers for Telecom have told the High Court that emissions from transmitters from their new mobile phone network are within acceptable levels. Telecom was responding in the High Court at Auckland today to legal action brought... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 6 May 2009 | 5:38 am Currency: Dollar retreats from three-week high The New Zealand dollar retreated from a three-week high against the greenback today as nervousness about the state of US banks surfaced again. The NZ dollar topped US58.60c briefly around 1.40am but by 5pm was down to US57.75c,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 6 May 2009 | 5:23 am Disney reports 46% drop in profit Weak theme park and film studio results are blamed. Still, Disney shares rise 4% in after-hours trading as executives hint at happier days to come. Walt Disney Co. reported a 46% drop in net income for its second quarter, blaming disappointing results from its movie studio and a weak global economy, which took a toll on the entertainment giant's tourism-dependent theme park and advertising-reliant broadcast television businesses. Source: L.A. Times - Business | 6 May 2009 | 5:21 am Can Anyone Spare Some Change? Regulators have told Bank of America that the company needs to raise roughly $35 billion in capital based on results of the government's stress tests, according to people familiar with the situation. The exact amount of the needed infusion couldn't be determined late Tuesday, and Bank of America officials either declined to comment or couldn't be reached. BofA Needs $35 Billion Jolt [WSJ] Source: Dealbreaker | 6 May 2009 | 4:39 am U.S. SEC corporate penalty policies delayed cases: GAO (Reuters) Reuters - Congressional investigators said on Wednesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's law enforcement effort was hindered by Bush-era policies that have been partially discarded by the SEC's new chief. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 4:21 am Auditors see SEC deficiencies (AP) AP - The Securities and Exchange Commission has made progress in tightening its procedures for managing its caseload of enforcement investigations but internal communications and use of resources still must be improved, congressional auditors have concluded in a new report. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 4:12 am Subprime lobbyists in $370m battle The top 25 US originators of subprime mortgages – the risky assets that sparked the global financial crisis – spent almost $370m in Washington over the past decade on lobbying and campaign donations as they tried to ward off tighter regulation of their industry, an investigation has shown Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 6 May 2009 | 4:02 am Cox’s SEC Hindered Probes, Slowed Cases, Shrank Fines, GAO Says (Bloomberg) Bloomberg - May 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was plagued by internal conflicts before the regulator drew fire for missing Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, a U.S. government watchdog said. Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 6 May 2009 | 4:00 am Cox’s SEC Hindered Probes, Slowed Cases, Shrank Fines, GAO Says (Bloomberg) Bloomberg - May 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was plagued by internal conflicts before the regulator drew fire for missing Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, a U.S. government watchdog said. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 6 May 2009 | 4:00 am How Laid-Off Workers Can Cut Insurance Costs (Deal of the Day) Unemployed workers looking to save cash should take a good, hard look at their insurance bills. Taking advantage of discounts and making some other smart moves can help shave hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off premiums a year. Eliminating coverage you don't need, like collision insurance for a car that's several years old, for example, can save you as much as $1,000 a year, says Scott Simmonds, an independent insurance consultant in Saco, Maine. Meanwhile, using shopping comparison sites like Insurance.com and NetQuote.com allows you to make sure you're getting the best offer on a policy. For example, conducting a health insurance search on Insurance.com for a 38-year-old woman living in Chicago who doesn't smoke came up with a wide range of options. Blue Cross Blue Shield offered a health insurance PPO plan with a $1,750 deductible for $170 in monthly premiums, while an Aetna PPO plan with a higher $2,500 deductible would charge her $255 per month. Just don't cut back too much, says Simmonds. Speak with your insurer about ways to cut premiums so you don't end up sacrificing the quality of your coverage. For those who have lost their jobs, here are ways to cut insurance costs without leaving yourself in a coverage lurch: Health insurance: Take advantage of government Cobra subsidies Losing your salary is bad enough, but absorbing those hundreds of dollars in monthly health-insurance payments can make a layoff even more financially devastating. Opt to go without coverage, however, and if you fall ill or have an accident the medical bills may be even more destructive than the premiums. (Medical expenses are responsible for nearly half of personal bankruptcy filings, according to a study published in 2005 in Health Affairs, a policy journal.) By law, laid-off workers can retain the health coverage they had through their employers for up to 18 months through Cobra. Typically, Cobra is a pretty pricey option, costing an average of $400 for a single person per month and $1,078 for a family per month, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a health care nonprofit. However, thanks in part to the government stimulus package, those who retain coverage through Cobra will receive a 65% subsidy on premiums for up to nine months – resulting in a significant cost savings. This brings the average monthly payment for an individual to $140 a month for the first nine months and $377 per family per month for the first nine months, according to the KFF. To apply, speak with your former company’s human resources department, says Cynthia Depew, spokeswoman for America's Health Insurance Plans. Auto insurance: Cutting back is key Low mileage discounts The silver lining to getting laid off: Dropping that daily commute to the office. Not only will you save on gas, but -- by putting fewer miles on your car -- you could save on insurance as well. The average driver’s policy is based on 12,000 miles per year, says Michael Barry, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group. Many insurers start discounting premiums once the annual mileage drops below 7,500, he says. Of course, discounts can vary based on several factors, including the number of miles you used to drive to work, your state and your insurer. Travelers (TRV) says it offers to cut annual premiums by up to 10% and State Farm and The Hartford (HIG) say they will cut up to 20% for policyholders who reduce their mileage (mileage amounts vary by insurer). Drop collision coverage Dropping collision coverage for a car that’s more than eight model years old can cut between $200 and $1,000 in premiums a year, says Simmonds. After all, there’s no point in paying $1,000 a year in collision coverage for a car that’s only worth $3,000. Take a defensive driving class Take defensive driving classes and save up to 7% with MetLife (MET) or up to 10% with Travelers. At Allstate (ALL), drivers in most states can save up to 10% with a car that has factory-installed antilock brakes and up to 30% with a car that has airbags or motorized seatbelts. Also, policyholders can qualify for discounts by buying their car and home insurance from the same company (up to 15% with Travelers and MetLife). Homeowners insurance: Make sure you're not over-insuring Reassess your coverage As home values continue to drop, a common misconception among homeowners is that they'll have to change the amount of their home insurance policy to reflect the home's entire value, says Barry. In fact, what they need to reassess is what it will cost to rebuild the home in its current location. Often, when a house is destroyed, the land is left intact so the policy doesn't have to include the value of the property. By eliminating that cost from the equation, homeowners could save hundreds of dollars in insurance payments. Add Security Devices This year, homeowners will pay an average of $841 in insurance premiums, says Barry. To help cut the bill, buy a fire extinguisher or install a smoke alarm. MetLife, for example, offers homeowners a 10% discount for having a fire alarm that’s connected to the local fire department and a 5% discount for having functioning fire extinguishers, dead bolts and smoke alarms in their home. Life Insurance: Get rewarded for dropping bad habits Quitting smoking or lowering your cholesterol are no small feats, and that’s why some life insurers cut up to 40% of your annual premiums for such accomplishments, says Brian Ashe, former chair of the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education. Typically, your life insurance policy will need to be in effect for at least one year, and you’ll have to show medical records or undergo tests as proof. Individuals who had life insurance through their employer and end up in an individual plan should opt for a term policy, which lasts for a set number of years (typically no more than 30) and has cheaper premiums than a whole policy, says Barry. SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved. Source: SmartMoney.com | 6 May 2009 | 4:00 am 6 Tech Stocks That Still Look Cheap Bank stocks had a magnificent run in April, measured in percents. Year-to-date, though, no sector has beaten technology. Within the S&P 500 index, tech climbed 17% through April. That beats consumer staples and health care, sectors that are supposed to weather downturns better than others. I can think of four possible explanations. First, tech got thumped harder than defensive industries last year -- harder than the broad market, too -- so it might have been more due for a lift this year. Second, the stock market might be signaling a pending economic recovery by promoting one of its most economically sensitive groups. Third, the economic characteristics of technology itself might have changed. That is, the group might be more defensive today than it has been in the past, since a chief way companies cut costs in a downturn is to replace costly brains with cheap computer chips. The fourth possibility is simply that the group has got overbought, in which case it might now be due to underperform. Nos. 1 and 4 both relate to valuation. At a glance, tech looks pricey, but not glaringly so. At April’s end, the S&P 500 index traded at 15 times this year’s forecasted operating earnings. Its tech components went for 18 times earnings. Price/earnings ratios, though, are based only on companies’ shares, not the full cost to own companies outright. That cost includes debt. Tech companies, like drug makers and unlike banks, utilities and manufacturers, are relatively free of debt, and many are cash-rich, so they might be worth a bit more. They might also be worth more if their earnings can be expected to grow relatively quickly, and that relates to No. 3 above. The good news for tech is that while profits for most companies imploded last year -- they fell 40% for the broad market and went sharply negative for banks -- tech profits fell just 7%. The bad news is that profits for the group are expected to fall another 8% this year, while those for the broad market are seen rebounding 17%. All considered, though, tech companies are indeed exhibiting better than average economic resistance to the downturn, and smoother year-to-year performance. Perhaps investors should buy tech shares less in hopes the economy is recovering than as protection in case it isn’t. Note that the aforementioned S&P 500 numbers are dominated by large companies, since the index is weighted according to stock market value. Accordingly, beloved members like Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), shares of which are each up more than 30% this year, easily decide the appearance of the group. Among tech stocks are still plenty of below-average P/E ratios, and even some dividends. Below are listed six stocks that have both.
Ticker	Company	Industry	Share Price	Price Change YTD (%)	Forward P/E	Yield (%)
T	AT&T	Telecom	$26.69	-6.35	12.83	6.14
CA	CA	Application Software	17.52	-5.45	10.95	0.91
HPQ	Hewlett-Packard	Diversified Computer	37.14	2.34	10.01	0.86
IBM	International Business Machines	Diversified Computer	106.19	26.18	11.63	2.07
MSFT	Microsoft	Application Software	20.19	3.86	11.74	2.58
ORCL	Oracle	Application Software	18.97	6.99	13.85	0.26

SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.

Stocks Set to Dip on Banking Concerns (Market Update)

News at a Glance

• Bank Shortfalls: Stress tests humble BofA, Citi.
• Losses Ahead: Futures point to early declines.
• Heavier TARP: Banks returning funds to face new requirements.
• Data Coming: ADP Employment, crude inventories due out.

The Lowdown

Concern over the health of the financial sector is weighing on Wall Street.

Stocks looked to open lower after leaked results of the government's stress tests suggested two of the nation's largest banks would need to raise billions to be adequately prepared for an emergency. Shortly before 7:30 a.m., Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures were trading below fair value.

Results of the banks' stress tests revealed substantial shortfalls in capital necessary to keep the banks afloat during another unexpected downturn. Bank of America (BAC) was told it would have to raise an additional $35 billion to be prepared, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an anonymous source.

Separately, Citigroup (C) was told it would have to raise its capital levels between $5 and $10 billion to between $50 and $55 billion, The New York Times reported, citing an anonymous source.

Meanwhile, the government sought to make it more difficult to circumvent the requirements tied to the acceptance of bailout funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. In order to opt out after accepting, banks must show that they can survive without accepting the a guarantee of debt issuance offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

World markets were higher. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 2.5%. In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE picked up 0.5%.

On the Nymex, crude prices advanced. By 7:25 a.m., oil traded up 23 cents at $54.07 a barrel.

Corporate News

• General Motors (GM) plans to issue as many as 60 billion new shares to settle its debts, the firm said in a regulatory filing. GM then plans to enact a 1-for-100 reverse stock split, essentially negating the value of the shares held by private investors. The deal requires a majority approval by shareholders but could attain that from the Treasury's votes alone.
• Barney's is attempting to close the doors of two of its seven department stores, The Wall Street Journal reported. One of the properties is the main tenant at the Shoppes at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, which is owned by General Growth Properties (GGP). The other property could not be determined. The luxury retailer reacted after a sharp decline in high-end consumer spending.
• The New York Times Co. (NYT) reached a tentative deal with The Boston Globe late last night, effectively dodging a shutdown, the newspaper said. The deal granted the Times the $20 million in cuts it had been seeking and a tweak in the language of the union job guarantee that could give the firm more leeway to lower the ax.

The Economy

• The April ADP Employment Report, which tracks private payrolls and is used (with varying degrees of success) to handicap the broader federal jobs report, is scheduled to be released at 8:15 a.m. In March, private payrolls fell by 742,000. For April, economists predict private payrolls will have lost 643,000 jobs.
• The crude inventories report for last week is scheduled to be released at 10:30 a.m. by the Energy Department. In the prior week, inventories stood above the upper limit of the average range for this point in the year.

SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.

Commercial Property: The Other Shoe

AMERICANS IN THE PAST TWO YEARS have been closely watching residential real estate, as TV commentators breathlessly relate each downward tick in home prices and upward move in foreclosures. But all the while, another important part of the real-estate market has been quietly cratering, all but ignored by the general press. Since peaking in early 2007, the value of the nation's commercial property has fallen an estimated 30% to 40%.

You can get a good idea of the pain being suffered by looking at an index of real-estate investment trusts, the publicly traded entities that investors use to play the commercial real-estate sector. The MSCI REIT Index fell 77% from a high of 1233 in February 2007 to the low of 287 hit in March. Since then, it has rebounded 45%, to 420, as investors seek opportunities and the economy seems to be improving.

But the commercial-property sector remains fraught with peril. Some REITs will be strong enough to snap up buildings at bargain prices, while other REITs may go bust or need to raise gobs of new equity to bolster their debt-heavy balance sheets. The commercial real-estate problem has become a focus of federal regulators in recent weeks as they stress-tested the 19 largest U.S. banks to see where losses could pop up if the economy, rather than recovering, worsens.

Why has the value of REITs tumbled an average of 65%, while the value of their properties has slid more like 35%? REITs tend to rely on borrowed money. That boosted profits in the good times, from 2002 to 2007, but has magnified problems ever since.

Optimism about REITs has increased lately, in part because the economy might be bottoming and because $7 billion of common equity has been raised this year by more than a dozen realty companies, including leaders such as Simon Property Group (SPG), a big mall operator, and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), a major New York office-building owner. This signals that much of the industry can pare its debt, but sometimes at the cost of significant dilution to existing shareholders.

"The REIT rally has more to do with excitement over the equity sales and the move to stocks than any sudden turn in the fundamentals," says Alexander Goldfarb, a REIT analyst at Sandler O'Neill. It is expected that industry net operating income, a key financial measure for the realty trusts, will be down in the low-to-mid single digits for 2009 and 2010, thanks to declining rents for office buildings, apartments and shopping malls.

Other major challenges lie ahead. Goldfarb expects what he calls the "re-equitization" of REITs to continue, with potentially tens of billions of dollars of capital left to be raised. There is pressure to build equity because REITs took on excessive debt during the 2005-2007 property boom. The total value of the country's more than 100 property-owning trusts has shrunk to $160 billion from a high of $400 billion, while debt stands at about $260 billion. The average leverage ratio among REITs is 60%, meaning debt accounts for 60% of their total equity and debt.

IN THE EARLY 1990S, DEBT ACCOUNTED for just a third of REIT's balance sheets. Like many executives in other industries during the boom years, some real-estate investment trust managers thought the good times would linger and that the capital markets would always be welcoming. Rather than sell shares to pay for acquisitions, they piled on what seemed to be cheap debt. Now, they are issuing stock at a fraction of the price they could have gotten two years ago.

"How many times do real-estate guys have to learn the lesson that leverage can burn you?" asks Mike Kirby, director of research at Green Street Advisors in Newport Beach, Calif. "It happened in 1990 and 1991, and it is happening again now. The industry is going to pay a dear price to re-equitize its balance sheet."

Kirby adds that REIT executives -- many of them aggressive types who turned family businesses into big public companies -- must change their mindsets. "Real-estate guys can't help themselves. Instead of asking, 'How much debt should I have,' they ask, 'How much debt can I get?' " Kirby argues that the trusts need little or no debt.

A good chunk of REITs' debt is maturing during the next few years. It may be tough to refinance all of it, owing to lower property values and the cost of new borrowing, which is apt to be higher than the 5% to 6% annual rates of the boom years. Traditional lenders such as life insurers want 7.5% to 8% for secured loans. Unsecured debt can cost 9% or more -- if it is available.

Investors in the volatile REIT sector should stick with the biggest, best-capitalized outfits, including Simon and Vornado; Taubman Properties (TCO), which runs upscale malls; Boston Properties (BXP), an owner of prime office buildings in New York and Washington; Public Storage (PSA), the top owner of self-storage facilities, and AvalonBay Communities (AVB), a high-end apartment owner.

They all have good balance sheets and can either raise equity to trim debt or don't need to do so. The average REIT dividend yield is about 7%, although some companies, such as Simon and Vornado, are paying most of their dividends in stock, which is of little benefit to investors who own realty-trust shares for reliable cash payouts.

Kirby considers the sector "fairly priced" after the gains since March and says "the one defining feature of REIT performance is that companies with less leverage have dramatically outperformed the ones with high leverage." He points to the strong standing of Public Storage, which has the industry's second-highest market value at $11 billion, after Simon's $13 billion. Public Storage has almost no debt; preferred stock accounts for about 25% of its capitalization. It is REITland's closest thing to a Berkshire Hathaway.

There are a bunch of REIT funds, including Vanguard REIT Index (VGSIX). Then there are exchange-traded funds, including iShares DJ U.S. Real Estate (IYR), which yields 7%. Investors also can play preferred shares issued by Public Storage and other realty trusts that yield 8% to 11%. The REIT-preferred market, totaling about $10 billion, is much smaller than the bank-preferred sector, making it better suited to individuals than institutional buyers.

There also are REIT-oriented closed-end funds, including Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferred Income (RNP), which trades near $6, a 15% discount to its net asset value. It yields 15%-plus, thanks in part to leverage. The market also features unsecured corporate debt, issued by REITs such as Simon, Vornado and Equity Residential (EQR), that often yields 9% or more.

Real-estate pros focus on a financial measure called the capitalization, or cap, rate -- calculated by dividing annual net operating income by total equity and debt. For REITs, this rate currently averages about 9%. Cap rates hit a low of 5% to 6% in 2007, with some deals, like Tishman Speyer's $22 billion leveraged buyout that year of high-end apartment REIT Archstone-Smith, done at a 4% cap rate. The cap rate is like a bond yield. The higher it is, the better the return to the investor.

In August 2005, Barron's warned the REIT market looked rich ("Pop! The Other Real-Estate Bubble"). We were 18 months early. The MSCI REIT index rose another 50% to the 2007 high. But the index is more than 40% below where it was in August 2005.

The vicious REIT selloff over the past 1½ years has brought belated vindication to former bear David Shulman, a REIT analyst at Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2005. After his departure from the investment house, Shulman was mocked by Steve Roth, Vornado's longtime CEO, for having "a three-year sell on Vornado with a $43 average target" at a time when the stock was in the 80s. Vornado peaked at $133 in 2007, but plunged as low as $29 in March and now is in the high 40s. It recently sold $741 million of common stock at $43, Shulman's old price target. Roth hasn't apologized in print.

"REITs are a lot more attractive now than they were at the highs in 2007," Shulman said last week from his New Jersey home. "But compared with the rest of the stock market, they don't look so cheap." He notes that most real-estate investment trusts change hands at 10 to 16 times pretax cash flow, while a quality stock such as Johnson & Johnson, which has a triple-A credit rating, fetches 12 times after-tax earnings and seven times pretax cash flow.

In addition, the debt of major REITs often is equal to eight to 10 times annual cash flow, way above the three-to-one ratio most investment-grade companies in other industries strive to maintain.

Shulman, who is now an academic, says one of the big issues for Vornado is the future of Wall Street, because Vornado gets 30% of its operating income from Manhattan office buildings. Prime midtown Manhattan rents, which topped $100 per square foot in 2007 and early 2008, are in the $70 to $75 range now, according to the real-estate advisory firm Newmark Knight Frank. The Midtown vacancy rate hit 14.2% in the first quarter, the highest in 15 years.

IN BOSTON, THE JOHN HANCOCK TOWER, one of the city's premier buildings, was recently sold for $660 million -- half of what its former owner, Broadway Partners, paid in 2006. Broadway had hoped to get Manhattan rents in Boston, even though prime space there never has fetched much more than $50 a square foot.

Regional office markets, shopping malls and apartments face trouble, too. What does the continued growth of mass discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target mean for embattled malls, which are suffering from troubles at traditional anchors like Macy's and Sears Roebuck? In Vornado's latest annual report, Roth wrote: "In many malls, in many markets, the loss of an anchor now spells a very long-term empty and dead mall wing. Who will replace [bankrupt department-store chain] Mervyn's etc.? B and C malls will suffer declining sales and difficulty replacing failed tenants and refinancing their loans." Vornado has minimal mall exposure.

Over all, REIT bears see a slow-motion train wreck as declining rents, which often are locked in for years, pressure profits at the same time that borrowing costs rise and stock sales dilute existing holders.

More heavily leveraged REITs like Kimco Realty (KIM) and ProLogis (PLD) are risky plays whose outlooks hinge on the direction of the economy and the capital markets' health. Formerly hot office-building owners Brookfield Properties (BPO) and SL Green Realty (SLG) have a lot of debt and are exposed to the weakening Manhattan market. SL Green has a market value of $1 billion and debt of $7 billion, making its shares the equivalent of a call option on the New York office market. The possibility of dilutive common-share offerings is a risk with both SL Green and Brookfield, which owns the lower-Manhattan complex that houses Barron's editorial offices.

There was 65% dilution when highly leveraged ProLogis, an owner of industrial warehouses, recently had a $1.1 billion equity offering. And shopping-center owner Kimco Realty sold $750 million of stock that diluted existing shareholders by 40%.

Green Street Advisors refers to some REITs as "zombies" because the ratio of their debt to equity was recently at 90%. Debt-laden REITs include CBL & Associates Properties (CBL), Glimcher Realty Trust (GRT), Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PEI), Maguire Properties (MPG), Strategic Hotels & Resorts (BEE) and Felcor Lodging Trust (FCH).

The ultimate speculation is General Growth Properties (GGWPQ), a mall owner that filed for bankruptcy recently after failing to restructure part of its $27 billion of debt. General Growth shares, which are trading around 50 cents, amount to a super-leveraged bet on the health of the commercial-property market and the economy. General Growth has attracted aggressive hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, who controls about 25% of the company.

"Given GGP's extremely high leverage, minor changes in cap rates have an enormous impact on net asset value per share," Green Street wrote recently. At its current cap rate around 9%, General Growth Properties' equity has no value, but if cap rates fall to 7.5% in an improving economy, the stock could be worth $16 a share, Green Street estimates. In such a scenario, "Pershing Square's equity investment would be a 'grand slam'. However, a lot has to go right -- in court and in the retail market -- for that to happen."

More conservatively leveraged real-estate investment trusts such as Simon, Taubman, Vornado, Public Storage and AvalonBay are safer bets. They may take advantage of rivals' misfortune and pick up assets cheaply if a great shake-out in commercial real estate plays out in coming years. And the odds favor just that happening.

Could Commercials Zap Banks? 

THE NEXT BIG PROBLEM AREA FOR BANKS is likely to be commercial-real-estate loans. Banks hold about half of the estimated $3.5 trillion of debt backed by commercial properties. The percentage of these loans viewed as nonperforming -- meaning borrowers are behind in their payments -- jumped to 4.4% in the first quarter from 1.6% in the fourth, according to Keefe Bruyette & Woods analysts.

Lending on commercial real estate is a particular problem among regional banks. Wells Fargo , BB&T , PNC Financial , Regions Financial , SunTrust Banks and US Bancorp all have sizable commercial-realty loan portfolios relative to their total loan books and their tangible common equity (see table).

Most loans on commercial real estate are carried on the books of banks at face value, even if the loans would fetch much less in the secondary market. Banks argue that the loans don't need to be written down because the vast majority of them aren't delinquent.

Skeptics maintain that banks and lenders amount to a "mutual lying society," because many of the underlying properties aren't worth the value of the loans, thanks to the estimated 30% to 40% drop in the value of commercial real estate since the early 2007 peak. Interest rates on the loans are low enough that owners can service them, prompting many banks to extend maturing loans rather than call them in and force foreclosures.

How bad could losses be? Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck wrote in a recent report that overall losses could be as much as 9%, with residential and other construction loans taking the biggest hits.

Debt on commercial real estate is apt to figure prominently in the details the government will soon release on "stress tests" conducted on the country's largest banks. Graseck wrote in an April 24 report that SunTrust, Regions and KeyCorp could top the list of banks that need to raise capital, while JPMorgan Chase , PNC, Bank of New York and Northern Trust aren't likely to need it. Shares of SunTrust, Regions and KeyCorp trade below tangible book value, as investors anticipate further potential losses and possible raising of capital. Graseck wrote that Bank of America and Wells Fargo are in a "grey" zone and might need to boost capital.

This is all speculation, and banks are apt to make the same argument as did Warren Buffett on TV in early March. He said most banks, including Wells Fargo, should be able to earn their way out of their problems. Buffett's view is that banks with sufficient earnings power should be given the benefit of time to boost loan reserves without resorting to dilutive equity offerings to bolster capital.

It will be interesting to see if federal regulators take the Buffett approach or put pressure on some of the big regional banks to raise equity and significantly boost their reserves against loan losses, in case the current recession proves longer and deeper than anticipated.

SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.

Wages and salaries still rising, says Stats NZ

Vodafone tells court Telecom knew of rogue cell emissions

Crown accounts 'show NZers are hurting'

Good news for Govt Super Fund - up $200m in March

Hong Kong free trade talks resume

Bankruptcy judge mulls Chrysler plan, GM talks loom (Reuters)

Reuters - A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday considered whether Chrysler LLC could move forward with its plans for a quick sale of most of its assets while rival General Motors Corp prepared to resume talks with its union and detailed a plan that could shift majority ownership control to the U.S. government.

Heads of collapsed fund charged with fraud

Write-Offs: 05.05.09

$$$ U.S. to Set Condition for Banks Repaying TARP [WSJ]

$$$ Bankruptcy Sleuths Find Cash in Trader Receipts for Lap Dancers [Bloomberg]

$$$ U.K. Rich Threaten to Leave Because of Taxes [Wealth Report]

Zakaria Says Pakistan Could Not Survive Without U.S. Aid

Box office flops hit Disney

Newark's Booker Says More Transparency Needed in Politics

Business Proposal In Utmost Confidence

United States Treasury cc: United States Taxpayers cc: Treasury of Canada To whom it may concern:

I am Chiedu Boglo the son of a retired General in the American Army and a former minister. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable person to handle a very confidential transaction, which involves the recovery of a business producing huge sums of money. There were series of contracts executed by a Consortium of Workers, Suppliers and Dealers for the company in which my father was minister in our country. The original values of these labor contracts were deliberately over-invoiced to the tune of nineteen billion United States Dollars (US$19,000,000,000.00). The over-invoiced sum purposed to acquire after retirement. Unfortunately, things took another turn.I will explain more to you when you show your interest to assist me. Consequently, I am looking for someone who will help us ( my father and I) to receive the money on our behalf. Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 8% of the total equity in the rescued company. While we shall take 92%.

You must however NOTE that this transaction is subject to the following terms and conditions; (i) Our conviction of your transparent honesty. (ii) That you wound treat this transaction with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. (iii) That you provide working capital loan in the amount of eight billion United States Dollars (US$8,000,000,000.00) at zero interest rates and the funds would be transferred to an account over which you have absolute control. Modalities have been worked out at the highest levels to make for the immediate transfer of the funds within 10 working days, subject to your satisfaction of the above stated terms. Our assurance is that your role is 100% risk-free. To accord this transaction the legality it deserves and for mutual security of the funds, the whole approval procedures will be officially and legally processed with your name or the name of your company you may nominate as the bonafide beneficiary. Kindly, respond to this mail with a view to my giving you more information. Please, do send your acceptance via my E-mail address. Also, include in your mail you private/confidential telephone and fax number to enable me reach you as soon as I get your response. Thank you very much as I anticipate your response.

Yours faithfully,

Chiedu Boglo

Chrysler won't repay bailout money [CNNMoney]

Stock Funds Notch Strong Advances During April Surge (Investor's Business Daily)

Gartman Sees Obama Moving U.S. Aggressively Left

SEC charges pair with insider trading in swaps (AP)

Dreman Sees Best Stock Values in More Than a Generation

Judge Denies Request To Keep Chrysler Secured Lenders' Names Under Seal

Per CNBC's Rebecca Jarvis, who also reports that Thomas Lauria, a lawyer for the group, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez that "people in chat rooms" were saying threatening things in the general direction of his clients (who also "felt" their reputations were threatened by the White House, though Lauria "did not specifically say" that threats were made by the administration, only that Obama's words during his press conference last week were a matter of concern). Oh, and he'd like to see lenders get 50 cents on the dollar.

Resler Sees Up to 10% U.S. Unemployment, Exceeding 600,000

Woolfolk Says Improved Global Economy Is Negative for Dollar

Santelli To Liesman: "You Sound Like Richard Nixon"

Also, "don't open your mouth and say dumb things." Surely these allegations have nothing to do with the suggestion that Santelli doesn't "understand how the banking system works." [via mediabistro]

Euler Hermes's North Sees U.S. Unemployment Near 10%

The Importance of Name Tags

Do you cringe at the idea of donning a name tag? Whether white and sticky or plastic and magnetic, there is just something so mortifyingly geekish about wearing a name tag. Or maybe it’s ego: everyone knows my name. Or the opposite: no one needs to no my name.

But the humble nametag is so very, very important.

This weekend I attended a writers conference. Talk about the ultimate in geekiness… conference name tags are the worst. (And is it just me or does wearing your name around your neck make you look down at it, as if to recall your own name, whenever someone asks you?)

Anyway, I’m at this conference dutifully wearing my name tag when I spot another full-on soulmate geek with a different sort of name tag. Hers is from her graduate program. I might not have thought anything of it if not for the fact that my good friend who happened to be across the room at the time talking to the crazy cat ladies other writers had graduated from that very same program not long ago.

Suddenly we all became fast friends. My friend and the just-a-moment-ago stranger had instructors and mentors in common, and we all had a great time combining our little tribes. This new friend even invited my pal and I to lunch with the literary agent she was hosting. And that is a very big deal at a writer’s conference. The result of a silly little name tag was new friendship and professional connections.

Which is why today, I bit the bullet and donned a nametag on my way into a lunch meeting where I knew nobody knew my name. Even though they probably should - by now.

What are you missing out on when you don’t identify yourself?

Image Credit: Jeff Lowe, Flickr

Atlantic's Lewis Sees Recovery Prospects Driving Bank Stocks

Bank Manager Turns McD's Reject

Last fall I met Iris Glaze at a "Washington Mutual wake." It was a WaMu staff party organized after the thrift collapsed to "remember and celebrate the good times." Iris is a striking personality. She worked in investor relations at Washington Mutual, and you can tell she loves people the minute she meets you, hugs you and asks you for your life story. We met in this huge room full of talented, recently laid-off people -- but still, I thought Iris would charm someone else into hiring her, easily. Apparently not. She writes:

I'm okay. Still searching for a job. I started out looking for the perfect job (which I had at WaMu) but my standards are quickly lowering and now I hope to hear back about my application to be a Wal-Mart greeter. McDonald's turned me down for the fry cook job. Sigh.

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Breaking: Fraud Everywhere!

"SEC Charges Operators Of Reserve Primary Fund With Fraud"

The situation is fluid. Updates to come. Watch this space.

2:22 pm Update: CNBC notes that The Reserve Primary Fund, whose buck-breaking record Dealbreaker reported on back in October, has some explaining to do.

2:51 pm Update:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed fraud charges against several entities and individuals who operate the Reserve Primary Fund for failing to provide key material facts to investors and trustees about the fund's vulnerability as Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. sought bankruptcy protection.

SEC Charges Operators of Reserve Primary Fund With Fraud [SEC.gov]

Bernanke To Congress: Jobless Recovery Looms

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went to Capitol Hill today and confirmed the darker side of the rosy scenario. Economic activity could "turn up later this year," he said. And then:

Even after a recovery gets under way, the rate of growth of real economic activity is likely to remain below its longer-run potential for a while, implying that the current slack in resource utilization will increase further. We expect that the recovery will only gradually gain momentum and that economic slack will diminish slowly. In particular, businesses are likely to be cautious about hiring, implying that the unemployment rate could remain high for a time, even after economic growth resumes.

Bernanke's full testimony is up at the Federal Reserve. Calculated Risk runs the factcheck on Bernanke's remarks about real estate -- the chairman does all right.

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Do New Grads Count?

Avi Buchbinder writes:

I am a 25-year-old graduate student currently working on getting a PhD in chemistry. As you know, millions of college seniors will be graduating in the coming weeks. Presumably, they have had a difficult time finding jobs, a topic which you have touched on anecdotally in past podcasts. Yet, none of these college graduates will be receiving unemployment benefits, as they did not recently lose a full time job. Will unemployment statistics simply miss these hundreds of thousands of people becoming unemployed within the span of a month? If so the employment picture will be even worse than it looks for an outside observer.

The good news, such as it is, after the jump.

Actually, new graduates who can't find work are part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment count. That's because those figures come from a survey of households and employers, not from unemployment claims. If new grads' households are included in the BoL survey, and they report themselves as looking for work and not finding it, they'll wind up grouped with everyone else in U3, the official unemployment rate.

From the BofL:

All persons who are without jobs and are actively seeking and available to work are included among the unemployed. (People on temporary layoff are included even if they do not actively seek work.) There is no requirement or question relating to unemployment insurance benefits in the monthly survey.

Knowing you can make the report may be little comfort to new grads toting big loans and few prospects. Buchbinder writes:

As an early indicator, I have two friends who have gone out on the job market after recently graduating this winter -- one with a phd in chemistry, one with a masters. For a degree which used to get a lot of interest, they have had a combined total of zero job interviews since December.

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Letters: Focus, perks, hairmats

What sets burger chain In-N-Out apart

McDonald's perks up coffee competition

No-frills colleges don't have big costs

Controversy over pollution permits

Leno may do live commercials on show

An uneasy recovery for Mexico after flu

A reality check on the economy

GMAC loss widens, says can weather GM bankruptcy (Reuters)

Caught on Camera: The 15 Funniest Business Moments Ever

Business leaders’ crowning moments aren’t limited to their financial accomplishments. Instead, many have to do with their bloopers, missteps, and comedic skills. Here are the 15 funniest business moments ever, caught on camera for your viewing pleasure:

15. Jeff Bezos on the Daily Show

Jeff Bezos laughs freakishly hard during his appearance on the Daily Show.

14. Trump vs. Rosie

“We’re all a little chubby…”

13. The New Face of American Airlines?

Kevin Spacey makes some hilarious comments about absentee Bold in Business Award winner Ryanair.

12. Zappos CEO gets B*tch Slapped

In a weird exercise of team building and heavy drinking, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh gets an employee to slap him across the mug. Don’t worry, he’s okay; he hit the self-described redneck next to him right after. Must be a marketing thing!

11. Carly Fiorina’s Punditry

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of HP, comments on her new bosses’ inexperience–and shows her true colors.

10. Sponsor a CEO

For less than the cost of 1,000 lattes a day, you too can help an executive in need.

9. Erin Burnett Travels too Much

A jet-lagged Burnett has no filter on the Morning Joe show, leading her to comment about a “monkey in the middle.”

8. Jon Stewart vs. CNBC/Jim Cramer

Jon Stewart’s series of hilarious jabs at CNBC culminated in a sober face-off with Jim Cramer. Though the Cramer segment is serious, Stewart’s CNBC jokes are anything but.

7. Sue Herrera Says the C-Word

Notice the S&P is riding at about 1372 and the news is about an amazing surge in the Nasdaq, must be a classic!

6. Bloomberg Reporter Cusses

Ever wonder why Bloomberg Financial Television always lags in the ratings? Here’s one possible answer.

5. Jim Cramer: “They Know Nothing!”

Not so funny if your 401K was heavy into Bear Sterns, but otherwise, this segment was hilarious. The magic moment comes at 2:32 into the video.

4. Charlie Gasparino is Just Like You

Anyone who has ever met Donnie Deutsch in person should be absolutely floored that it wasn’t him who dropped the F-bomb.

3. Bill Gets Gets a Facial

This whipped cream pie lacked the Service Pack 3 upgrade and was found to be in opposition of anti-trust laws in Brussels.

2. Steve Ballmer Loves Miami Sound Machine

I bet your entire market share that Steve Jobs would never do this. He would have used U2 at the very least!

1. Steve Wozniak in Footloose

Founder of Apple and perennial goofster-geek Steve Wozniak can actually dance…just not well. Known as “the other Steve” and “Wonderful Wizard of Woz,” he continues to charm in this viral video.

Senate rejects narrowed "safe harbor" amendment (Reuters)

Reuters - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have narrowed the scope of a housing rescue bill and discouraged mortgage servicers from retooling problem home loans.

Tales Of A First-Time Home Buyer

Mike from Parsippany, NJ writes:

My wife and I started looking for our first house just after we got married (October 2008). At first we found plenty of homes that had been on the market for several months, and we saw prices on those homes drop over the next couple of months as they remained on the market without any interested buyers. We took our time shopping around, knowing that we had the advantage in this buyer's market and confident that we would find a great deal.

Then around February, something changed. The market seemed to wake up overnight, and all of a sudden some of those houses we thought would remain for sale indefinitely began to sell quickly. Throughout February and March we watched the shelf life of houses in the area become shorter and shorter. By mid-March we were finding that some houses were selling almost as quickly as they came on the market, and in many cases we never even had a chance to go see some of these houses ourselves.

In late March we found a great house, and put in an offer. The next day we learned that our offer was one of eight submitted on that house, and we were not the accepted high offer. Just last week we learned that the accepted offer was for $515,000, well above the list price of $449,000.

Throughout April it has been more of the same. We browse the MLS listings as they become available, and send emails to our realtor about the houses we would like to see. If I send the realtor a list of 7 houses, I can be almost certain that at least 2 of them will already be under contract before we get a chance to see them. We have found a few more houses that we were interested in enough to consider putting in an offer, only to find that we would again be going up against several other bidders, many of whom were placing bids above list price. In all cases, we were not prepared to offer more than the list price and had to walk away.

In a time when the economy is in crisis, the housing market is down, and everyone is looking for a sign that things might eventually take a turn for the better, I can honestly say that I see recovery in the northern New Jersey housing market already, to the extent that it hardly feels like a buyer's market anymore at all. Prices may be down still, but houses around here are selling quickly, often times for more than list price and in a matter of weeks or even days, not months. Of course by itself this can hardly be seen as a sign of any global shift in the economy, but I do wonder if other parts of the country are seeing this sort of activity and if collectively this might be an indication of some sort of change.

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Walmex Cut to `Neutral' From `Overweight' at JPMorgan

Banks Need More Money. But How Much More?

Nouriel Roubini, Tim Geithner, Fairy Godmother Getty Images

 

The Treasury isn't expected to release the results of its stress test on the nation's 19 largest banks until Thursday, but a basic outline has begun to emerge. Press reports have Bank of America and Citigroup out looking for more capital already. Today's Wall Street Journal says 10 of the 19 will soon be in the same boat.

Douglas Elliott of the Brookings Institute told me yesterday that the big question for him will be where the government's final assessment falls on the spectrum of forecasting. Is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner leaning toward the pessimistic outlook of economist Nouriel Roubini, or is he moving more toward a gentler, rosier view? As Elliott writes in a new paper, he'll be watching for the final count of how much extra money the Treasury wants banks to raise:

The range I expect, of $100-200 billion, would be broadly in line with consensus expectations for the depth of the recession and the resulting credit losses. A smaller requirement would likely indicate the regulators and the Administration are more optimistic about the banking crisis. The $100-200 billion range is feasible within political constraints and therefore would not be avoided solely for political reasons. On the other hand, a larger figure might indicate that things are worse than the consensus believes. Imposing a larger total capital requirement would hit significant political barriers, particularly since it would probably force an eventual return to an unwilling Congress for more money. Doing this despite those political constraints would seem to indicate serious concerns.

The trickiest situation to analyze would be if the aggregate figure is in the expected range. This could either mean that this is the level regulators genuinely see as the right additional buffer or could reflect the political reality that Congress would be extremely reluctant to authorize more funds and would almost certainly add strings that the Administration would find onerous. It could be more appealing to operate within the present authorization and wait to see if that proves to be enough.

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Mafia Builds, Sells Wind Farms in Italy

Green energy isn’t as innocent as it sounds. The Financial Times reports on how the Italian Mafia is building and selling wind farms to European multinational companies:

Anti-Mafia magistrates in Sicily have opened a sweeping investigation into the wind power sector where local officials, entrepreneurs and crime gangs are suspected of collusion in the construction of lucrative wind farms before their eventual sale to multinational companies.

Italy ranks fourth in Europe in terms of installed wind power capacity.

Joyce Sees Time Warner at $36, `Mixed Bag' for Disney Earnings