stlplaceYesterday, the jocky it sponsors, Kent Desormeaux won the Belmont, one of the triple crown in horse racing.
(source: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/120965).
Today, Roger Federer, its spoke person, won the French Open. The Ad below is a bit old, but Netjets released a new Ad shortly after the win, which is a bit funny.
It’s payback time. Now that “green shoots” are everywhere, many banks, big or small, want to return the TARP money. It seems to me this government effort rescuing the financial system is pretty much like miracle, only 6 months ago, I remember it was like the sky was falling. Now everyone is healthy, at least healthy enough to get government out of the board room. But there are a few twists on returning TARP money.
1) Returning money is not as easy as getting it (AP news). Paulson pretty much forced the big banks to take the money. As to return, the banks have to prove they can stand alone (without the help from government). One example of standalone means they can issue debt without FDIC gurantee.
2) Also, the government faces a choice of how to deal with the money being returned? I have not read the original bill, but I can fully understand the congress, and Paulson & associates did not expect the money being returned that fast, they probably did not expect the money being returned at the time. Now Mr. Geithner is act in ad hoc way again, he is saying the money can go back to community bank (AP news again). But, with the recent stigma attached to the TARP, and pending government intervention on executive compensation, who would want to take money from the Uncle Sam???
PS, the T-mobile Nokia 1661 arrived. I immediately slip my current T-mobile SIM card, and it worked. More interestingly, the FM radio works.
(Update Apr 2). April Fool’s day was yesterday but Financial Fool’s day continues. FASB just lifted the strict mark to marke rule (business week; market watch).
(Original) This is NOT what I am saying, but this is essentially the bankers and their friends in congress are saying these days. Tomorrow FASB will vote on fasb 157 E. Note the (in)famous House Financial Service Committee (headed by Mr. Barney Frank, the same committee grilled Mr. Liddy on AIG bonus) had a hearing on “Mark to Market” accounting rule a few weeks ago. In the hearing some lawmakers pushed for changes.
The fat cats in Wall Street has enjoyed the upside of the “Mark to Market” (M2M) rule in past few years, collecting billions of dollars when the time was good. Now they are saying this M2M rule is unfairly reflecting the value of bad loans, hurting the capital of banks, and thus hurting the economy. Why did not we hear all these arguments when they were collecting all the money? Essentially they are saying they like the excitement of ONS, but they don’t like (getting) AIDs? Why don’t they stay away from ONS at the first place?
I sold my remaining BRK.B share last week, and got some US bank (NYSE: USB) shares instead. The main reason I sold BRK.B is:
1) I don’t really understand the valuation of the business, which is 50% insurance + 50% manufacturing, housing, retailing etc. I have no idea for insurance and the whole thing is too complicated (big) for me.
2) I feel while Buffett escaped the worst market in 2008 with relatively few wound, he has appeared too much in public (CNBC?), and may have spent too much time with people he felt comfortable with (CEOs of Goldman Sach etc.). In other words, I hope he spend more time in Omaha, doing his thing/improving himself, rather than “start get into bubble”.
For the similar reason, I decided not to worship him in Omaha this May, although I understand the chance of seeing the great investor becomes slimmer and slimmer as time goes (as I told my wife 🙂
That’s OK, at least I voted with my best judgement. I will explain why I voted against some of the directors if you are curious.
(update) CNNMoney appears to agree with me. When did I sound like MSM (main stream media)?
Obviously, that’s how the US goverment thinks. When bailing out the AIG, they were saying AIG is a systematic important institution, and they just could not let it fail. And here is the bailout (handout details).
This is the T. Rowe Price TV commercial I saw today.
(Update 2: March 11) Cramer shot back, Stewart responds.
(Update) Correct the name (from Steward to Stewart).
We know CEOs of some of the nation’s largest banks are buying their companies’ stocks, to show their confidence on their respective company.
It’s also interesting to see some of the leading banks are putting up a lot Ads on Wall Street Journal. I took some pictures here from WSJ in these days and share them here.
(Citi bank shows a happy couple/home owners who got mortgage from Citi)
(This JetBlue ads encourage CEOs to ditch their business jet and use the discount carrier)
CNBC Maria Bartiromo interviewing Saudi prince Awaleed, the largest shareholder of Citi Group (NYSE: C), after the US gov (aka we the tax payers) bailed out the Citi and the prince. Here are the terms (PDF). Maybe president Bush gave him assurance that his holding won’t get much diluted before the rescue? The video lasts 18 minutes.
Where is the money for Detroit auto makers, by the way? Sorry no Saudi prince owns the big 3 stocks, and nobody can call the President directly.
At Little Rock now. One new thing about my new job is more travel. Because I did not have much travel in my past jobs, I am in the mood for more trips.
(source: http://littlerockarkansas.net/)
Little Rock, Akansas is not a big town, but it got famous because of President Clinton was from here, he was the governor of Akansas before the 1992 election. Interestingly, we are at the verge of another historical eleciton, similar economy crisis, a new guy vs. an old guy. Oh well, 2 days later, when I come back, we should all know the results of election.
If I have time (which is very unlikely), I may go downtown and see the Clinton’s presidential library. One thing I am not sure is I am driving a big Buick LaCrosse. The Enterprise guy let me choose between Buick and Kia Sportage, I picked Buick sedan because I don’t want to drive unfamilar SUV.