As I watched the Dow Jones Industrial Average do that cascading-down-400-points thing that it’s gotten so good at, I listened in disbelief as our new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went through the whole litany of how we got to this point. Does anyone really need a recap of the last 18 months and what’s gone on? …
February 2009
Too Bess, Didn't Levin: Why Dealbreaker is a Must-Read Site
Misery loves company and anyone who makes their living in the investment, Wall Street, real estate or banking world has just gone through the most miserable set of 12 months since the Great Depression. So for this reason, those of us in need of commiseration have found each other and our favorite source of guilty…
New Dow Jones Industrial Average Candidates?
As of this writing, there are 4 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that are trading under $10 per share (and several others that are close): Citigroup (C) Bank of America (BAC) General Motors (GM) Alcoa (AA) According to Jim Bianco of Bianco Research: “Dow Jones, the keeper of the DJIA, has an unwritten…
Hot Links: Gold, TARP and Pink Slip Parties
Hot Links for Weekend Reading This past Sunday, the most memorable commercial on the Super Bowl was Cash4Gold‘s spot featuring MC Hammer and Ed McMahon. What made the commercial memorable was not the humor (down-on-their-luck celebs melting their gold for money). No, the memorable aspect was the very existence of a cash for gold company…
Can I Buy a House With Money From My IRA?
From the Mailbag: Dear Josh, Thanks for writing this excellent blog. I am one of the fortunate few sitting with 80% of my IRA in cash over the past 9 months or so. My wife and I are house hunting and since we want nothing to do with the stock market or mutual funds right…
Who Really Gets Punished by a Wall Street Salary Cap?
Yesterday, the Obama administration announced that firms who are significant moochers of the TARP will have salary caps imposed on their executives of $500,000 per year. While the effects will be deeply felt on Wall Street, let us not forget that many other individuals and businesses will also be devastated. Below is a list of…
Were the Feeder Funds in on the Madoff Scam?
There’s a great scene in the movie “Casino” where Ace Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) has to fire a local young man named Don Ward, who is responsible for supervising a slot machine that pays out multiple times in a short span: Don Ward: You might regret this, Mr. Rothstein. Ace Rothstein: I’ll regret it even more…
Pandit's Bandits: a Memo to Citigroup's Sponsored Little League Team
Dear Pandit’s Bandits Players and Personnel,
It is with a heavy heart that I must announce my absence for the majority of the upcoming Spring Training season to you, my favorite mini-employees of Citigroup. Our sponsorship of the Pandit’s Bandits little league team has brought all of us here at Citi much joy in these dark times of accountability and prudence.
Happy 52 Week Low: Scholastic Corporation (SCHL)
CEO Richard Robinson, sold over $12 million worth of Scholastic stock last October alone (ya know, for estate planning purposes). The stock is down roughly 80% from where he liquidated just 3 months ago and surprisingly, he hasn’t bought back a single share. The name of the game seems to be award yourself stock options, exercise them and then dump your discounted shares at an instant profit, either through non-open market dispositions, automatic sale plans or outright market sell orders. Don’t worry shareholders, unless he is awarded more stock, he only has 4.7 million shares left to sell.
