Archive for September, 2010

  • AIG Pays The Government Back With Its Own Money AGAIN
    Posted by on September 30th, 2010 at 1:25 pm, Comments: 0

    Say this about AIG – the smoke and mirrors they are employing will fool the vast majority of the American people.  I sent out an [...]

  • The Difference Between BID and ASK: Liberty Mutual
    Posted by on September 29th, 2010 at 3:24 pm, Comments: 0

    Liberty Mutual’s announcements this month about the IPO of their Liberty Mutual Agency Corporation business, and then the subsequent postponing of that IPO illustrate a [...]

  • Icahn as Gekko – Just in Time for Wall Street 2
    Posted by on September 29th, 2010 at 2:01 am, Comments: 0

    Bud Fox: “Why do you have to wreck this company?” Gordon Gekko: “Because it’s WRECKABLE” – Wall Street Now, I’m not saying that Carl Icahn [...]

  • Quotable
    Posted by on September 28th, 2010 at 6:59 pm, Comments: 0

    Two quotable passages today: 1) NY Times: Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans ““I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than [...]

  • A Plethora of Posts – ETFs and Others
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 1:38 pm, Comments: 0

    Are you looking for the two posts I wrote about ETFs last week? You can find the first rebuttal to Bogan’s XRT fears here,  and [...]

  • New Financial Products Part II – Citi’s Inflation Hedge Portfolio
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 10:32 am, Comments: 0

    I got an email from my Morgan Stanley Smith Barney broker today about a new product they were offering.  It was a 2 page .pdf, [...]

  • New Financial Products – Part I: Ally’s Raise Your Rate CD
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 2:24 am, Comments: 0

    Have you seen the ads for Ally Bank’s “Raise Your Rate” CD?  Basically, it’s a 2 year CD with a yield (1.74%) that’s already above [...]

  • Hard Rock Cafe Sues Hard Rock Hotel
    Posted by on September 27th, 2010 at 12:38 am, Comments: 0

    Vegas Rex is at his finest in his recent piece about the lawsuit Hard Rock Cafe has filed against Hard Rock Hotel. First, the suit: [...]

  • Guaranteed Box of Crap, Part NINE
    Posted by on September 26th, 2010 at 1:41 pm, Comments: 0

    I’ve used this quote (Tommy Boy) before, and I’ll use it again – every time we stamp a Government guarantee on crappy assets: “Because they [...]

  • Attempting to Wrap Up the Absurd Citi-SEC Settlement Story
    Posted by on September 26th, 2010 at 1:01 am, Comments: 0

    I started writing about this story a few months ago, when Citi was given the equivalent of two minutes in the penalty box for misleading [...]

  • ETF Mechanics are Positively NOT Beyond Comprehension – Contrary to Herb Greenberg
    Posted by on September 24th, 2010 at 3:47 am, Comments: 0

    Herb Greenberg did a segment on CNBC today about Bogan’s “Can ETFs Collapse Piece.”  I used to read Greenberg 10 years ago when he was [...]

  • GM Political Donations – I Have a Bad Feeling About This
    Posted by on September 23rd, 2010 at 6:03 pm, Comments: 0

    Something about this story makes me feel nauseous. “General Motors Co. has begun to once again contribute to political campaigns, lifting a self-imposed ban on [...]

  • GOP: A Pledge To America
    Posted by on September 23rd, 2010 at 3:01 am, Comments: 0

    You’ll probably read a lot about this tomorrow:  A Pledge To America I debated closing comments for this post, since I have zero interest in [...]

  • The Problem With Pensions II – A Blast From the Past
    Posted by on September 22nd, 2010 at 9:19 pm, Comments: 0

    I wrote about pension fund return assumption problems a few days ago.  Then, while discussing another matter, a friend forwarded me this letter from Warren [...]

  • Online Gambling IPO
    Posted by on September 22nd, 2010 at 6:08 pm, Comments: 0

    The large UK gambling house, Betfair, announced plans for an IPO yesterday.  As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been a shareholder in PartyGaming for a long [...]

  • Channel Check – Crossgates Mall – Apple
    Posted by on September 22nd, 2010 at 5:49 pm, Comments: 0

    I’m up in Albany at “Mulch Camp,” watching my father-in-law’s mulch business while he’s away.  I went over to the massive Crossgates Mall today to [...]

  • Where are all my MMT’ers At?
    Posted by on September 21st, 2010 at 8:14 pm, Comments: 0

    Bill Gross, speaking after the Fed announcement today on CNBC, was asked by Erin Burnett  “Can we afford $2Trillion never mind $4Trillion in tax cuts?” [...]

  • An ETF Lesson – Part I
    Posted by on September 21st, 2010 at 1:21 pm, Comments: 0

    I really don’t want to write a post debunking the hysteria thrust upon the quivering masses (who reply: “OH NO! HOW IS THIS LEGAL?!!”)  by [...]

  • "Whining" By the Super Rich
    Posted by on September 20th, 2010 at 7:16 pm, Comments: 0

    I feel like I can’t avoid the elephant in the blogosphere, which is Todd Henderson’s writeup about how he’s “super rich” yet really doesn’t feel [...]

  • Dear Penthouse? or New York Times?
    Posted by on September 20th, 2010 at 1:49 pm, Comments: 0

    Ok, it’s time for a new game here at Kid Dynamite’s World.  I’ll give you an excerpt of text, and you have to tell me [...]