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risk
by leon on August 1, 2009
Several weeks ago, I looked at how airlines around the world would be losing loads of money because of the financial crisis and swine flu. According to industry forecasts, they were set to lose $9 b...
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strategy
by leon on August 1, 2009
Alarming revelations from ITWire, that Skype might have to be shut down because of a licensing dispute between eBay and the company's founders.Remember when eBay purchased Skype from Niklas Zenn...
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strategy
by leon on August 1, 2009
Yesterday, I looked at how the aviation industry was nose diving, cranking up big losses from the global meltdown and swine flu.But one airline seems to be doing okay and weathering the storm. Ryana...
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regulators
by leon on July 30, 2009
At the beginning of this month I did a blog entry looking at Matt Taibbi's piece in Rolling Stone asking whether Goldman Sachs had been behind every market manipulation since the Great Depressio...
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strategy
by leon on July 30, 2009
The Microsoft-Yahoo deal to take on Google announced now is worth looking at. And the jury is still out on whether it will do any good for Microsoft or Yahoo. There is no certainty in this at all.Ba...
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risk
by leon on July 30, 2009
Money and relationships can produce strange results. A University of Pennsylvania study Fatal (Fiscal) Attraction: Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Marriage has found that big spenders tend to marry tigh...
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regulators
by leon on July 30, 2009
Bernanke got poorer in the market meltdown. As Bloomberg reports, the former economics professor's assets fell 29% last year as the financial crisis eroded the value of his assets. Or did they re...
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strategy
by leon on July 30, 2009
In May, I did a blog entry on Warren Buffett saying newspapers have not future and will go the way of the horse and buggy. The earlier this month, I did an entry looking at whether high end journali...
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risk
by leon on July 28, 2009
Credit card debt is the canary in the coal mine. It is the signal that tells us which way economies are tracking. And those signals are looking bad.USA Today reports that credit card debt is racking ...
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, markets
by leon on July 28, 2009
US new home sales might be soaring and people like Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke reckon the recovery might begin this year, as do a number of economists, but don't hold your breath.The peopl...
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litigation
by leon on July 27, 2009
An alarming Oxfam Australia report shows very clearly that Pacific islands like Tuvalu and Kiribati will probably need one strategy to stop climate change: complete evacuation."Rising sea levels...
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markets
by leon on July 27, 2009
The US Government bailout of banks left a lot to be desired. In the final analysis, the US Government rewarded excessive and dangerous risk taking by bailing out banks that deserved to be put out of ...
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corporate crime
by leon on July 27, 2009
So this mayor, rabbi and real estate developer walk into this New Jersey diner...Friday's extraordinary story about criminal charges placed on 44 people in New Jew Jersey, including three New Jer...
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SOX
by leon on July 26, 2009
Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires chief financial officers and chief executive officers to reimburse the company bonuses and stock profits following a fraud. The rationale behind the leg...
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risk
by leon on July 26, 2009
Derivatives, the weapons of mass destruction as Warren Buffett called them that nearly destroyed AIG last year, are still threatening the US financial system.The Wall Street Journal reports that more...
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markets
by leon on July 25, 2009
Twitter's Biz Stone has gone public talking about how he expects Twitter will start making money. He talks about putting in value added services that Twitter can charge for. Trouble is they stil...
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markets
by leon on July 25, 2009
US taxpayers did well when Goldman Sachs repaid US Treasury's TARP loan of $10 billion. According to Bloomberg, they made a return of 23% which is not too bad at all in any market, let alone this...
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risk
by leon on July 23, 2009
Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water. Get ready for more big losses from the United States banks. The big worry for the US economy is the tanking commercial real estate market, an...
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executive pay
by leon on July 23, 2009
Never stand between a banker and a bag of money. Despite their massive losses, bankers are still raking in enormous bonuses.The Guardian reports that the House of Mack, Morgan Stanley has set aside $...
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risk
by leon on July 23, 2009
Can Obama save US manufacturing? That's the question raised by the New York Times which points out that US administration has so far pursued only ad hoc initiatives, like helping General Motors a...
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markets
by leon on July 23, 2009
You really have to wonder what planet investors are on. Bloomberg reports that 61% of investors say the world economy is on the mend and give Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke top marks for combatin...
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risk
by leon on July 23, 2009
Is there a link between the rise in crime and the recession?In Spain, bank robberies are reportedly running 20% ahead of the previous year's figures and it's been blamed on that country's...
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markets
by leon on July 21, 2009
Stocks might be rising with economist Nouriel "Dr Doom" Roubini saying that the worst of the financial crisis is over but the optimism seems to be misplaced.First, his comments don't se...
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markets
by leon on July 21, 2009
The news about swine flu is getting grimmer and grimmer.First, we have reports of the US Food and Drug Administration warning that swine flue vaccine will not provide 100% protection. That's foll...
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strategy
by leon on July 20, 2009
With Rupert Murdoch and other media proprietors are now looking at models to charge for online content, the question is whether journalism can be saved.In his testimony to Congress, the creator of th...
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regulators
by leon on July 20, 2009
Anyone who thinks the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout money for the banks is being used by banks to write loans, should check out this Washington Post report. Taxpayers money is being mi...
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regulators
by leon on July 19, 2009
At the beginning of this month, I had a blog entry looking at whether legalizing marijuana would save the California economy. The Marijuana Policy Project is pushing for the drug to approved, claimin...
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strategy
by leon on July 19, 2009
Earlier this year, we saw Microsoft's sales falling for the first time in its history and its earnings heading south. At the time, it was blamed on the problems in the PC market with people switc...
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regulators
by leon on July 18, 2009
The world is moving to a global carbon trading regime. It should reconsider and look at a carbon tax instead. Cleaner, and less susceptible to vested interests cutting deals with politicians. A bit g...
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regulators
by leon on July 18, 2009
Hank Paulson's testimony before Congress raises serious questions about the governance of US government. His testimony, combined with the record quarterly profit of Goldman Sachs, confirms a susp...
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strategy
by leon on July 17, 2009
Starbucks seems to be in serious trouble. The Seattle Times reports that Starbucks is dropping its ubiquitous name from some of its stores and re-badging them with a different name and serving alcoho...
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strategy
by leon on July 17, 2009
Earlier this month, I did a blog entry looking at whether YouTube could survive. It' s yet to turn a profit and looked like leaving a big hole in Google's bottom line, taking half a billion b...
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litigation
by leon on July 16, 2009
Ratings agencies have been prime targets for litigation as their conflicts of interest contributed to the global market meltdown. But they have always defended their actions, hiding under the First A...
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markets
by leon on July 16, 2009
The recession is turning into a repression. Analysts and economists have gone into total denial.First, we have the Bank of America Merrill Lynch (what a mouthful) declaring that the recession is over...
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Ethics
by leon on July 16, 2009
Whoaah!! Fox News reports that the Pentagon has now contracted a Maryland company to develop a robot that will gobble up everything in its way, from grass and wood - to dead bodies! With the cute nam...
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risk
by leon on July 15, 2009
Scientists are now warning we are in for some extreme weather over the next 12 months with the global "El Niño" exacerbating the impact of global warming. Expect more droughts, floods and c...
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risk
by leon on July 15, 2009
Much has been made of the extraordinary profits posted by Goldman Sachs with its best quarter since the end of 2007 when the recession was just beginning. As Phillip Silitschanu, a senior analyst wit...
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risk
by leon on July 14, 2009
One industry that seems to be expanding at the moment is rehab services for burnt out executives.The BBC reports that the private island of Osea near the Essex coast in England is doing a roaring tra...
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markets
by leon on July 14, 2009
I have often talked about how the recession will reshape America's geography where cities like Detroit will turn into ghost towns.Without saying as much, demographer Richard Florida seems to be s...
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Information About
, markets
by leon on July 14, 2009
Last month, I did a blog entry explaining why the real unemployment figures are worse than what the official statistics tell us.Now The Wall Street Journal takes it one step further and gives us 10 r...
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markets
by leon on July 13, 2009
At the beginning of this month, I did a blog entry asking whether Goldman Sachs had engineered every market manipulation since the Great Depression.Now the New York Times reports that Goldman Sachs i...
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markets
by leon on July 13, 2009
Back in February, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof speculated that things could have been very different if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters. Less macho and testosterone driven.Now th...
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markets
by leon on July 13, 2009
Alarming revelations by Larry Summers, director of the US president's National Economic Council in the Financial Times.Summers says the recession has a long way to go and the worst is still ahead...
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regulators
by leon on July 12, 2009
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is pushing the Obama administration's plans to regulate the exotic and opaque derivatives market, something that's long overdue. Let's face it, the US ...
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risk
by leon on July 12, 2009
Despite global recession, reports show the carbon market is booming, up 124% in volume terms and 22% in terms of value. And unfortunately, we might be looking at another bubble.A Friends of the Earth...
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Accounting
by leon on July 10, 2009
First it was Sarbanes-Oxley. Now it looks like accountants will find that carbon trading a license to print money. Earlier this week, we had reports that the Big Four accounting firms are beefing the...
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markets
by leon on July 10, 2009
While the US State Department has announced it is observing the United Nations' International Small Arms Destruction Day, you have to wonder whether their hearts were in it.As reported here, the ...
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risk
by leon on July 9, 2009
On the face of it, the news , the decision of the G8 leading industrial countries to try and limit global warming to just 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels by 2050 is heartening. But look between...
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regulators
by leon on July 9, 2009
The California economy is in meltdown. So why do taxpayers have to pay for Michael Jackson's funeral? An expensive live event for a dead superstar.The Los Angeles Times reports that inquiries are...
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strategy
by leon on July 8, 2009
Is Facebook in danger of losing its coolness?A new study compiled by compiled by iStrategyLabs, and reported here, has found that the 55 and older crowd is poised to overtake high schoolers and young...
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regulators
by leon on July 8, 2009
California's economy is in deep trouble and threatens to drag the rest of America down with it.So it was hard to go past Advertising Age running this brief commercial from the Marijuana Policy Pro...
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risk
by leon on July 7, 2009
How much money is YouTube losing? How much is it costing Google?That's been one of the fascinating questions doing the rounds for some time. And it's anyone's guess.Rhodri Marsden at The ...
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litigation
by leon on July 7, 2009
The Sarah Palin sideshow continues to amaze the world.Last week, I did a blog entry looking at bloggers speculating whether her resignation was about averting an investigation into whether she embezz...
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risk
by leon on July 6, 2009
The G8 summit of world leaders is making a last ditch bid to come up with a solution on climate change in the lead up to Copenhagen at the end of this year and former British Prime Minister Tony Blai...
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markets
by leon on July 6, 2009
Last week, I did a blog entry saying that the appalling jobless figures in the United States were telling us one thing: that 19 months into this bad recession and the economic indicators are getting ...
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corporate crime
by leon on July 5, 2009
Now that he has been sentenced to 150 years, Bernard Madoff has hired a prison consultant, Herb Hoelter, to help find him the best possible jail. But as The Times reports, Hoelter will have his work ...
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corporate crime
by leon on July 5, 2009
The blogosphere is buzzing with talk that Sarah Palin's shock resignation was to head off an embezzlement scandal.Brad Friedman at the Brad Blog broke the story. "I've now been able to g...
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markets
by leon on July 4, 2009
So what's going to happen now with Neverland? It would have to be flogged. Here's why.The only thing that kept Michael Jackson from bankruptcy was his half ownership of the copyrights to The ...
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markets
by leon on July 3, 2009
The latest US unemployment figures, as reported here, are a real worry. The jobless rate has climbed to 9.5% and shows no sign of slipping back. What that's telling us is the situation is getting...
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corporate crime
by leon on July 3, 2009
Seems like regulators are finally dealing with bribers and cheaters. But they're taking their time.Two years after Siemens executives were convicted of paying bribes to get business, the World Ba...
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markets
by leon on July 3, 2009
Hard to go past Matt Taibbi's piece in Rolling Stone where he accuses it of engineering every market manipulation since the Great Depression.Taibbi doesn't pull any punches either. He calls i...
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risk
by leon on July 2, 2009
California has entered the new financial year in crisis with a budget deficit of $26.3 billion, up from $24.3 billion, because of the ineptitude of the legislature in missing a deadline and political...
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risk
by leon on July 2, 2009
Fascinating to read the report of scientists warning Congress about "climate alarmism". It's fascinating because the crew includes retired manager for strategic planning at ExxonMobil R...
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litigation
by leon on July 1, 2009
Just days following his death, michael Jackson's albums sold at 100,000 apiece, according to news reports. And according to preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, as reported here, the...
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corporate crime
by leon on July 1, 2009
Much has been said about Bernard Madoff's 150 year prison sentence. The Los Angeles Times points out the obvious: his sentence is a lot shorter than what was handed out to the likes of Denis Kozl...
