Archive for February, 2009

Did you feel the earth tilt on it’s axis yesterday? If not, you were not paying attention when Alan Greenspan was talking.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Tuesday the current global recession will “surely be the longest and deepest” since the 1930s and more government rescue funds are needed to stabilize the U.S. financial system.

“To stabilize the American banking system and restore normal lending, additional TARP funds will be required,” Greenspan said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. The U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program designed to help bail out banks has been partially successful, he said.

If he said it, you know it’s true. He’s Alan “I got your stupid asses into this mess” Greenspan. If anyone knows, it’s him.

Three days and counting…

Talks between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp central to a turnaround plan for the struggling automaker have broken down over the issue of retiree healthcare costs, a person briefed on the talks said on Saturday.

A parallel set of talks between Chrysler LLC and the UAW over similar concessions were continuing over the weekend but little progress had been made, a person briefed on those negotiations said.

The breakdown of talks at GM and the stalled negotiations at Chrysler come with just three days remaining until both automakers must submit new restructuring plans to the U.S. government as a condition of the $17.4 billion in federal aid that has kept them both operating since the start of the year.

After some of the stuff I have seen this week, I won’t be surprised if the automakers miss their bailout deadlines.

You know, if XM and Sirius would have learned to treat their customers a bit better, they probably wouldn’t be in this mess. Just sayin’…

Shares of Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI.O) fell 28 percent on a report about the satellite radio provider’s ability to meet its looming debt payments and the possibility that it might seek bankruptcy protection.

Stocks dipped and the President says they wanted an easy way out? Is he kidding?

President Barack Obama accused Wall Street of seeking an “easy” way out of the financial mire Tuesday after the announcement of his new industry rescue plan sent stocks dipping sharply.

Instead of a pain-free rebound for debt-laden banks, Obama promised more “tough love,” salting his remarks with populism on a barnstorming economic recovery tour to the Florida epicenter of the mortgage crisis.

The stocks dipped because even the most stupid investor knows that this whole stimulus bill is dangerous for our country. Duh.

They settled. There’s something unsettling about allowing a company to settle rather than admit guilt. Then again, by settling they admitted they did something, right?

Countrywide Financial Corp has agreed to provide about $7.7 million to settle allegations by Colorado that it improperly marketed subprime and other high-risk mortgages in the state.

Colorado had accused Countrywide of deceptively putting borrowers into high-risk, high-cost loans that quickly became unaffordable once low introductory rates expired and monthly payments increased dramatically.

I wonder how this came about? Were they sitting around thinking of ideas where someone suddenly thought, “wow, maybe we should help people this time”?

U.S. Treasury chief Timothy Geithner said on Saturday that banks getting public aid under a new rescue plan must help struggling homeowners by reworking their mortgages, according to Democratic sources.

Geithner on Monday will outline the Obama administration’s plan of attack on a virulent credit crisis and proposals for spending what remains in a $700 billion financial bailout fund approved by Congress in October.

“Spending what remains”. The have no idea what remains, do they?

A group of thieves stole more than $9 million from ATMs in Atlanta and cities around the world after hackers broke into a computer at an Atlanta-based company.

The high-tech crooks broke into the computer at Atlanta’s RBS WorldPay in November and stole information on 100 customers’ ATM cards, according to the FBI. Then they cloned the cards, in effect creating duplicate ATM cards.

100 people had $9 million to steal? The information they took came from pretty well-off people. One hundred of my accounts would have netted them $459 bucks.

What happened to the daily ATM withdrawal limit on those cards anyway?

I am now a statistic. This week’s number of new claims for unemployment benefits would be 625,999 if it wasn’t for the fact I was laid off.

The government says new claims for unemployment benefits jumped to their highest level in more than 26 years.

The Labor Department says the number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 626,000, from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 591,000. The latest total is far more than analysts’ expectations of 583,000.

I’m not sure which logo they are using anymore, but the smiley face is sure grinning today.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said Thursday that same-store sales rose 2.1 percent in January as consumers continued to hunt for bargains and bought necessities like groceries.

Sales in stores open at least one year, a key retail metric known as same-stores sales, rose 2.1 percent at the company’s U.S. namesake stores and 2.4 percent at its Sam’s Club warehouses during the four weeks ended Jan. 30.

The worse things get the more their sales will increase too, because people will take the bargain before helping the mom and pops, and that sucks.

Bad news on the oil front…

BP Plc (BP.L) missed analysts’ forecasts with a 24 percent drop in fourth-quarter replacement cost net profit to $2.59 billion, due to a collapse in oil prices and a big loss at its Russian unit.

Chief Executive Tony Hayward said the oil major was responding to weaker crude prices by intensifying his efforts to cut costs and jobs, echoing similar comments rival Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) made to staff last week.

That’s right. BP only made $2.59 billion in profits. What are they going to do now? They’re destitute.