Archive for September, 2007

And they go on, and on, and on…

Negotiations between General Motors Corp (GM.N) and its major union ran through a fifth day of overtime on Wednesday, with the automaker suggesting a trust fund that would take over nearly $5 billion in annual health-care costs, according to a person familiar with the proposal.

Negotiations broke off for the night on Wednesday and were set to resume in Detroit on Thursday morning, a week after the UAW named GM as its strike target and shifted talks with the top U.S. automaker into high gear.

For GM, key issues in high-stakes talks include cutting health-care costs and establishing a “two-tier” wage system that would allow the top U.S. automaker to cut wage and pension costs as its aging work force retires, other people familiar with the talks have said.

To offset those concessions, the UAW has sought job security guarantees and a substantial signing bonus for the 73,000 GM workers it represents, according to these people, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the private talks.

A signing bonus? For signing the new contract? What the hell? Does the UAW actually think GM should pay a signing bonus to all 73,000 GM workers just for agreeing to the new contract? How much do they want?

Hell, at my job, I am lucky. I haven’t had a paycut since 2002. Forget about raises or other “bonuses”, I’m grateful just to have a job! No wonder my truck cost me so much.

Is it wrong for me to think that my weekend purchases at Best Buy helped in some aspect?

Retailer Best Buy Co (BBY.N) reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, helped by strong international results and demand for notebook computers, flat-panel televisions and video games, pushing its shares up about 5 percent.

The company also raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast.

The results were “a reversal from (the first quarter’s) disappointing results and a testament to Best Buy’s strong execution and ability to course-correct rapidly,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Colin McGranahan said in a research note.

[Source: Reuters via Yahoo News!]

Is the Fed going to cut rates?

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to chart a new course on Tuesday and cut benchmark interest rates for the first time since mid-2003 to protect the economy from a housing downturn and jittery credit markets.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said late last month the central bank stood ready to act as necessary to limit damage to the broader economy from the housing slump and turbulence in credit markets nervous about a wave of mortgage delinquencies.

Bernanke’s remarks were seen as opening the door to lower rates and a report on August 7 showing the economy shed jobs in August for the first time in four years was seen as cementing the case for cutting overnight borrowing costs from their current 5.25 percent level.

Funny. Have you noticed the markets don’t react as sharply when Bernanke opens his mouth? When Greenspan was the chairman he could burp and send the markets reeling.

Oh, and things seemed to be going so well. (cough)

Contract negotiations between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers reached a critical point Sunday as local union officials hoped for an agreement but prepared once again for a possible strike on Monday.

Leaders at factories across the country received conflicting reports out of Detroit Sunday afternoon. Several reported progress and optimism but said that if no agreement was reached Sunday night, the union would walk out Monday morning. A local in Arlington, Texas, however, told its members to report as scheduled Monday.

So, are they going to call a strike this morning? Maybe they will bargain for more negotiation time? Now that’s what you’re all paying them for, right?

Just think, if the UAW had sat down to talk to all of the automakers, instead of singling out GM, they might have reached an agreement, oh, about 7 weeks ago.

Negotiators from General Motors Corp (GM.N) and the United Auto Workers union made progress toward a new contract before taking a break late Saturday, people familiar with the talks said.

GM and the UAW will return to the bargaining table on Sunday morning for the fourth day of a marathon bargaining session aimed at clinching a contract for the largest U.S. automaker.

The union had agreed to extend its now-expired contract on an hour-to-hour basis late Friday.

That move and subsequent developments stoked expectations the two sides were nearing a deal after eight weeks of bargaining and avoided the threat of an imminent and potentially crippling strike.

Why do they call it bargaining when neither side really gives in?

I can help but remember the ad on their website…

Find out if your investments could be earning more.

Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for its more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. A spokeswoman for the Omaha-based company said more sensitive information in the same database, including Social Security numbers and account numbers, does not appear to have been taken.

The company would not share many details of its investigation, including when the hack took place, because it is still looking into the theft and cooperating with investigators from the FBI, Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and local authorities.

Yeah, and find out if your investments are now in the hands of the hackers who took all of our customer data.

Ouch.

So what did the UAW actually? It sounds like they sat down with Ford and Chrysler in a deal to go after GM.

Local leaders with the United Auto Workers union on Thursday began preparing to walk picket lines as soon as Friday if contract talks with General Motors Corp. (GM.N) break down after the UAW singled out the No. 1 U.S. automaker as its strike target.

Rival automakers Ford Motor Co. (F.N) and privately held Chrysler LLC said they had signed contract extensions with the UAW, clearing the way for their union-represented workers to continue working under the terms of their existing contracts even after the industry-wide deal on wages and benefits expires on Friday.

If the UAW was truly representing ALL of their members, why would they agree to contract extensions with Ford and Chrysler but not GM? Yeah, uh huh.

Things just keep getting worse at Countrywide. If it wasn’t for the employees that would be affected I wouldn’t mind seeing them take a big tumble.

Some Countrywide Financial Corp. employees sued the mortgage lender Wednesday, claiming they suffered heavy losses in their 401k retirement accounts after the company failed to warn them about the depth of its financial troubles.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, seeks class-action status and names as defendants Countrywide Chairman and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and benefits committee members in charge of the retirement plan, according to attorney Steve Berman, who is representing the plaintiffs.

He said employees decided how much of their salary to set aside in their retirement plan based in large part on their understanding of the company’s financial health.

But those overseeing the plan failed to warn workers or intentionally concealed key information, the lawsuit claims.

It sounds to me like the party is just starting.

I wonder what their secret it? Could it be that they are not offering sub-prime mortgages and are conducting business in a professional manner. Could they be looking out for their investors instead of taking advantage of customers and making a quick and easy buck?

Wachovia is grabbing more mortgage business as a result of the recent shakeout in the industry, Chief Executive G. Kennedy Thompson said Monday.

Five of the top 40 mortgage lenders, responsible for more than 9 percent of last year’s mortgage production, have gone out of business, according to Thompson. Other major mortgage companies, such as Washington Mutual (Charts, Fortune 500) and Countrywide (Charts, Fortune 500), have scaled back their operations.

By contrast, Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia, which last year dramatically expanded its mortgage business by acquiring Golden West Financial, has been expanding. In the first two months of the third quarter, the company’s outstanding mortgage loans have shot up about $1.2 billion, said Thompson, who was speaking at a financial-services conference.

I bet all the other CEO’s are trying to figure out Thompson’s secret, too bad they’ll never get it.

Even with toys tainted with lead paint and magnets that could literally choke a child internally, our trade deficit with China climbed to the second highest ever recorded.

The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July, helped by record exports that offset the biggest foreign oil bill in nearly a year. But even a spate of recalls did not stop the deficit with China from climbing to the second-highest level on record.

The trade deficit edged down 0.3 percent in July to $59.2 billion, compared with $59.4 billion the month before, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. It was the lowest monthly imbalance since April.

…

America’s deficit with China jumped 12.5 percent in July to $23.8 billion, the second-highest level on record, surpassed only by a $24.4 billion imbalance in October. So far this year, the deficit with China is running at an annual rate of $242 billion, putting the country on track to surpass last year’s record deficit with China of $233 billion, the highest ever recorded with a single country.

How disgusting.