Archive for the ‘Coffee Talk’ Category

ITT Educational Services (NYSE:ESI – News) didn’t pay $20.8 million for debt-ridden Daniel Webster College in June just to acquire its red-brick campus, 1,200 students, or computer science and aviation training programs.

To ITT, the third-biggest higher-education company in the U.S., the Nashua (N.H.) college’s “most attractive” feature was its regional accreditation, says Michael Goldstein, an attorney at Dow Lohnes, a Washington firm that has long represented the Carmel (Ind.) company. Regional accreditation, the same gold standard of academic quality enjoyed by Harvard, is a way to increase enrollment and tap into the more than $100 billion the federal government pays out annually in financial aid.

It may be the same regional accreditation, but saying you went to ITT rather than Harvard sure doesn’t raise any eyebrows.

There have been reports for two months that the recession is waning.

U.S. consumer confidence posted its biggest jump in more than three years in April while the slump in home prices showed signs of slowing in February, adding to hopes that the recession may be waning.

Revisionist accounting will tell us, in six months, that the recession ended when President Obama was elected. Wanna bet?

I can’t help but wonder… If all of these bailouts and stimulus packages hadn’t been passed, and so much money wasted, where would we be right now?

The nation is losing jobs so quickly that the government, racing to deal with the crisis, is having trouble keeping up.

The U.S. unemployment rate last month leapt half a percentage point, to 8.1 percent, the highest level since 1983, according to data released yesterday. The stunning pace of job losses raises the possibility that, perhaps as early as this summer, one in 10 Americans will be out of a job even though they are actively looking for work. It also means that the government faces even more pressure to take further action to stabilize the economy and the financial system.

I guess it’s too late to wonder about the what ifs, huh?

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.

Oh no! Are we going to have bailout Dow Chemical now too?

Kuwait decided on Sunday to scrap a deal to form a $17.4 billion petrochemical joint venture with U.S. company Dow Chemical.

The cancellation of the deal, which had met opposition in Kuwait’s parliament, was acknowledged Sunday by Dow and is a blow to the largest U.S. chemicals company. Dow had planned to use the proceeds to repay a large part of $13 billion in debt it will have to shoulder once its acquisition of rival Rohm & Haas closes, which is expected to be in early 2009.

Hell, we own everything else already, why not a chemical company too?

When I saw the headline, “Pending home sales tumble in May“, I couldn’t help but click the link. I guess I am a compulsive clicker.

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes plummeted by 4.7 percent in May, far more than expected and a sign of more trouble ahead for the beleaguered housing market, a real estate trade group report showed on Tuesday.

How can this be a sign of “more trouble ahead” when we haven’t even hit bottom yet from the first trouble? That’s like worrying about a small boulder that happens to be in the path as your car plummets off a 1000ft cliff.

In other words, are you really worried about hitting that boulder? Take a moment to see what’s coming when you hit bottom.

It seems Wal-Mart is willing to do just about anything to get people to walk through the door these days.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), looking to capitalize on consumers’ growing interest in sustainable coffees, is rolling out its own line of organic, Rainforest Alliance and fair trade certified coffees.

This month, the world’s largest retailer will begin selling six coffees under the Sam’s Choice brand in all of its U.S. stores.

The line includes Sam’s Choice Fair Trade certified coffee, Sam’s Choice Rainforest Alliance certified coffee, and Sam’s Choice USDA organic decaffeinated coffee.

Wal-Mart also said the six coffees are certified as “carbon neutral” because Cafe Bom Dia, its Brazil-based coffee roaster, has cut its net carbon emissions to zero.

Imagine how much better the world would be if Wal-Mart cared about it’s employees as much as it cares about it’s Brazil-based coffee roaster.

– Powered By Stuffr! –

It’s not shocking that Wal-Mart would do this, but the judge didn’t really say what they did was wrong either. He just said the rent transactions didn’t have any real economic substance, whatever the hell that means.

A North Carolina state judge ruled against Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) in a tax shelter case where the retailer paid itself rent and later counted that amount as a tax deduction.

Wal-Mart had transferred ownership of its stores to various in-house real-estate investment trusts (REITS), and then cut its tax obligation by taking deductions for rent payments that never left the company.

In a judgment signed on December 31, Emergency Special Judge of Superior Court Clarence Horton Jr. ruled “there is no evidence that the rent transaction, taken as a whole, has any real economic substance,” other than for cutting Wal-Mart’s taxes.

On a side note, Wal-Mart also announced they will be bringing in in-house shoppers to increase their sales this quarter to cover the tax bill.

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.

And the housing bubble officially pops. The first decline in the median home price, since records have been kept, is expected within the next couple of months.

Forecasters expect the median price of U.S. homes to fall between 1 percent and 2 percent this year in what would be the first such decline since 1950, when federal agencies began tracking such statistics, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is scheduled to release the home-price index on Thursday, and research firm Global Insight expects it to show a decline of about 1 percent between the first and second quarter, according to the newspaper.

Global Insight also expects the decline of U.S. home prices to peak at 4 percent between their highest point in 2007 and the projected low point in 2009, the New York Times said.

How many mortgage companies will fall before the prices start to balance out again? Any guesses?