We are a few weeks into earnings season and it should be abundantly clear that financial institutions are firing on all cylinders.  In fact, financials are leading the broader market for the first time since 1993.  Yet, loan losses have been absolutely enormous.  What gives? The Great[More...]

"Just a few months ago China was preventing the economy from overheating; with amazing speed, the government has changed from jamming on the brakes to hitting the gas with both feet," says Jim Trippon. In The China Stock Digest, he says, "Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE: CHT), the big[More...]

I apologize for the recent lack of posts as I got rather caught up with travel and other activities during the holiday season.[More...]

In mid-August I predicted that “major” bankruptcies for 2008 would reach 225 (see Bankruptcies Revisited). Through October there had been 172 such bankruptcies, as reported by Bankrupctydata.com. That implied a pace of around 210 bankruptcies, well short of my prediction. At the time however, I suggested that the filing pace was likely to quicken in November and December as the economy deteriorated at a more rapid clip. Sure enough, the final numbers bear out my prediction. According to Bankruptcydata.com, “major” filings reached 231 in 2008. 231 bankruptcies falls far short of the 289 “major” bankruptcies in 2000 and 383 in 2001[More...]

(This is the newest installment in an ongoing news series that looks at the anticipated “aftershocks” of the global financial crisis, and the profit plays those events can trigger.) ... Money Morning is here to help investors profit handsomely on this seismic shift in the global economy. Money moves markets. But Money Morning lets you move first. <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/USMoneyMorning?i=WUcNO"[More...]

Dismal economic events have culminated in drastic declines of market valuation among companies in nearly every industry/sector, including impacts to telecom industry performance.? Capital spending constraints among carriers, and limited funds available to sustain (grow) telecom services over the next six- to twelve-months, may be outcomes of credit markets remaining restricted and overall GDP growth remaining tepid or even retracting. Telecom carriers often resort to credit markets for funding capital projects, while telecom equipment companies conventionally use equity share offerings in lieu of debt instruments. The outcome has been a disappointment, regardless of the selected financing mechanism. As a result of weakening macroeconomic indicators, telecom carriers' capital expenditures remain limited in 2008 and early 2009.? There has been more selectivity on technology choices and leveraging cost-savings synergies, such as streamlining purchasing[More...]

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Looks like all those option adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) weren’t such a good idea after all: 1% teaser rates and loans that grow rather than shrink over time just aren’t meant for questionable borrowers buying overpriced homes. Newport Beach-based Downey Savings (DSL) the fifth largest originator of option ARMs was seized by federal regulators late Friday. The scraps were sold to US Bancorp (USB) for a song which included almost $10 billion in deposits. Pomona First Federal another Southern California lender highly levered to the real estate market was also taken over by Minneapolis-based US Bank. According to Bloomberg the 2 ...

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What Barack Obama Needs to Know About Tim Geithner, the AIG Fiasco and Citigroup Chris Whalen November 24, 2008 On Friday, the FDIC closed and facilitated the sale of two CA savings banks, Downey Savings and Loan, the bank unit of Downey Financial Corp (NYSE:DSL) and PFF Bank and Trust, Pomona, CA. All deposit accounts and all [...]

What Barack Obama Needs to Know About Tim Geithner, the AIG Fiasco and Citigroup Chris Whalen November 24, 2008 Christopher Whalen is Managing Director of IRA. Chris has worked as an investment banker, research analyst and journalist for more than two decades. After graduating from Villanova University in 1981, Chris worked for the U.S. House of [...]

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Last night I got 30 seconds on Donny's "Big Idea" and handed out the 30-second version of The Ticker from yesterday - that is, lock up all the fraudsters and rescind the TARP. Cramer had his usual retort that "ATM machines would stop working" if we had done that (or do it now.) That's a lie. How do we know its a lie? Because the TARP was sold as a plan to buy distressed mortgages, and in fact not one distressed mortgage has been purchased, but the ATM machines are still working! In reality what the TARP/EESA is and was is exactly what I propounded on[More...]

Not again! Asia was a mess - the Hang Sang was off more than 12%. The Nikkei was off more than 6%. Europe was in the red too. And unfortunately here in the States we're off to a lower open. Penn National Gaming (PENN)  Before the open Penn released its third-quarter results. The company earned $0.50 per share not counting items which was sharply north of the $0.34 per share analysts had been looking for. But I’m pretty concerned about what’s going to happen going forward. After all the competition remains stiff the economy is slow and I have ...