Market Recap: Monster Day for US Market, Vegas Stocks Lead the Way

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2311899&w=425&h=350&fv=m%3D27467187%26type%3Dvideo%26a%3D0] Let me get this straight, Obama hosted an unscripted Q&A and the market still went up triple digits?  That’s Gangsta.  This will take some getting used to as our prior President wasn’t that good at the whole off-the-cuff thing. The mark-to-market standards easing, while already telegraphed in advance, was like an anabolic steroid…

Fashion Meets Finance: Gold is THE Trend for Spring

If I’m on a flight and forget to bring my own reading material, I’ll pretty much read anything, even the ingredients on a candy bar wrapper.  I recently resorted to sharing a nearby girl’s fashion magazine stash and about halfway through Cosmopolitan (don’t laugh), I noticed something interesting:  Every fashion house on earth is doing…

The Distressed Asset Sweepstakes Begins

Here are a pair of encouraging signs of the thaw… From Forbes:  Carl Icahn knows a good deal when he sees one.  Following months of anticipation, the billionaire and activist investor made a $200.0 million offer to acquire the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City on Tuesday…year-earlier bids for the struggling casino were closer to $1.0…

FASB to Hold a Mark-To-Market Jam Session – Updated

OOOOOOOHHH!  The Financial Accounting Standards Board (known as FASB in the ‘hood) is meeting today to discuss, err, a possible, shall we say…relaxation of its policies regarding hard-to-value assets. I haven’t been this excited since I was a little girl waiting in the rain for New Kids On The Block tickets in 1989!  JK. By…

Obama's iPod Playlist for The Queen

Queen Mix, Spring 2009 Name                        Artist                           Genre                  Playcount London Calling        The Clash                    Punk                    6 If I Were President   Wyclef Jean                 Hip Hop              3 Anarchy in the UK   Sex Pistols                   Punk                   9 Her Majesty              Beatles                        Classic Rock       4 Trouble                     Lindsey Buckingham  Classic Rock      2 Kings and Queens    Aerosmith                   …

Judge Arthur A. Hiller aka Mr. Freeze

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.804530&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]   Oh Goody Gumdrops, a state judge in Connecticut has finally gotten around to freezing everything in sight related to Madoff and the feeder funds who loved him. From Dealbook (NYT): A state judge in Connecticut has slapped a temporary asset freeze on the managers of three large hedge funds that invested their…

The Annual G20 Picnic and Slumber Party: Anarchy in the U.K.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.804425&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]  In the tradition of The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Guy Fawkes, London’s citizens have taken to the streets and declared Anarchy by the hundreds of thousands to protest in front of The Bank of England during this week’s G20 Circle Jerk. The prevailing chant?  “ABOLISH MONEY”…yeah, its like that, now. Here’s some color: From…

Sucks to be Cerberus

Oopsies! Steven Feinberg:  Oh my gosh, honey, are you awake? Mrs. Feinberg:  Yes, what is it, Dear?  You sounded like you were having a nightmare… Steven Feinberg:  Yeah, it was weird…I dreamt that my private equity firm owned both GMAC and Chrysler!  It was horrible! Mrs. Feinberg:  Well…umm…ok, go back to sleep, hon.  Everything will…

Seeeck And Tired: The French Awaken from their Wine and Cheese Stupor

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2299314&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] You know its goin’ down when the riots in Paris start.  The French practically invented the modern-day civil unrest/ revolution in the streets thing…and I know because I saw it in a Broadway musical! As fires were lit and shop windows smashed soon after 8pm last night, riot police unleashed rounds of tear…

Joseph Cassano: Peekaboo!

Peekaboo!   “It is hard for us, and without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing $1 in any of those transactions,” – Joseph Cassano, Head of AIG Financial Products, August 2007 This may be the most important and prescient quote you could…