I have an MBA friend, Mike, who is also a CFA-Chartered Financial Analyst whose Financial Counseling business must legally adhere to Fiduciary Trust obligations which does not allow the conflict of interest and high financial risk taking that was so prominent in the recent financial debacle. CFA-based Financial Counselors did not succumb to in-house blandishments […]
Towing the Financial Party Line Read More »
Here is a “Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink, Know what I mean, Know what I mean” story from the New York Times that one has to take with a big dash of ironic humor.
Iran and Sanctions Read More »
Just in case Messieurs Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Thomas , and ” LaScalia” need a reminder, here is telling evidence that Money Talks Disproportionately [oh and another reminder, 5% of the US population of have 67% of its Wealth]. James Pethokoukis describes in Agents of Influence on BreakingViews, how successful the Too-Big- Too-Fail-Banks lobbying has been
Money Talks Disproportionately Read More »
Republicans in Congress are getting a well polished reputation as Nope-A-Dopes. Take two of the most recent examples, Senators Richard Selby R-AB and Jim Bunning R-KY. The former has been holding up over 100 Presidential Appointments while the latter is holding hostage to a 30 day extension to a Financial Payments Bill – so they
The Republican Nope-A-Dope Strategy Read More »
The New York Times Opinionator Blog has a challenging posting by Stanley Fish on ” What is the First Amendment For?” Here is the Crux of the argument: When [dissenting Justice] Stevens writes “has long been recognized,” he is invoking the force of history and asking us to take note of the reasons why many
Supreme Court Unlimited Campaign Financing Debate Read More »
The Winter Olympic Closing Ceremonies were such an example of new “I believe” bravado rippling across the Canadian landscape and yet a wonderful opportunity missed. Sorry, USA and the rest of the world – humble, self-effacing, meek and reliable Canadians will for the time being become more like uhhh … ugly American Wall Street Banksters.
Winter Olympic Closing Ceremonies: “Sorry About That” Read More »
The US Health Care debate has turned on a curious combination of compexity and obscurity. But the bitter reality is that current health rules of the road are quite complex, the resulting care quite variabl[this is a must read link] and the costs keep escalating. Kaiser, one of the major players in health care provision,
Health Care: Pre-existing Conditions and Cross State Insurance Read More »
Apple is leaving a lot of room to maneuver in the smartphone and tablets battle. Yes Apple has the advantages of both first-to-market and huge number of phone apps lead over its rivals. But here are three reports which suggest that there are openings for rivals. Basic unit cost mean huge margins for Apple but
The impressive rise of China as a major economic and political power has started to garner attention – number one country in numbers of new car sales, fastest growing major economy among developed countries, threatening both Germany and Japan as largest exporting county, etc. But one title that China has recently taken – second in
Be honest now, how many times have you seen an ad for a Google product – magazine, newspaper, web banner – any and all media accepted?? Okay, 10 years ago there were the ads for the Google Search appliance, a server box loaded up with Google search goodies that could be plugged into your network.But
This blog has already praised the NYTimes and Google for their excellent and free financial information services and tools. Recently while poking around the Business Exchange I found the following article that pointed me to this intro from 2007 of the Business Week Investing web services. Here is a first, quick look at what I
Business Week Financial Info Read More »
CFA-Chartered Financial Analyst members have taken it on the chin for the past 3-4 years as the markets have tumbled and now gyrate with great volatility.CFA advisors and counsellors, subject to legally binding Fiduciary Trust Limits may well have been some of the babies tossed out with the bad financial waters in the latest down
Financial Reform: CFAs Strike Back Read More »
Financial Reform in the US faces formidable pitfalls domestically with a Nope-A-Dope Republican Senate invigorated by the Supreme Court “no holds barred to campaign funding” decision. Despite being in a minority position, the Republicans can stall and effectively defeat any financial reforms that don’t meet their requirements – and those are still aligned pretty closely
Financial Reform: The International Factor Read More »
Steve Jobs has been dissing Adobe’s Flash for the past 2-3 years for reasons public but still fundamentally unknown. Since the launch of the iPhone in 2008 Flash has been programma non grata on Apple iPods and iPhones. Various reasons have been supplied including not fast enough, buggy, and drains power. The legitimacy of these
Apple vs Adobe: Take 5 … Who Cares? – Google! Read More »
The US is having major problems in its national governance – voting in the Senate now requires not just a simple majority but a super majority of 60 votes. The Republican Party is playing a dangerous game of governance chicken by upping the ante on what bills will be filibustered – where they hold up
How Do You Recover From a Badly Flawed Supreme Court Decision? Read More »
One of the many problems on Wall Street and Institutional Financing worldwide is the Proprietary Trading by banks and other financial institutions. This is where they use portions[sometimes dangerously large portions] of depositor/clients cash to enable themselves totrade in potentially highly lucrative own account positions in the volatile and risky derivative and other shadow markets.
The Volcker Rule:Proprietary Trading Read More »
IP-Intellectual Property and the Web is becoming ever more entangled. The China vs Google confrontation is not just about censorship of the Web but rather two other and more important factors: i)continued almost total disregard for IP and Copyrights in China despite ritual Chinese government promises to police and curb blatant copying and hacking[one **(see
IP-Intellectual Property and the Web Read More »
“Stock Pickers Suckered” is the title of a very interesting article in the latest Economist. What it shows is how easily top CEOs are able to bamboozle supposedly tried and true equity analysts. The study published in the Academy of Management Journal in its February 2010 issue is best characterized by its title – “A
Stock Pickers Suckered Read More »
There is a battle going on in the Senate over Financial Regulation – and one of the skirmishes divides the Financial community on Fiduciary Trust. It is a case of Brokers versus Financial advisors. Brokers-dealers [think Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, etc] are resisting fiercely having to adhere to the Fiduciary Trust standards that Financial and
Brokers Battle Against Fiduciary Trust Read More »
In Frank Herberts great science fiction novel, Dune, the Fremen had the advantage that they could live anywhere including the many desert regions of the planet. There secret was Thumpers that allowed them to not only detect but also summon the dangerously huge SandWorms. This ability allowed the Fremen to track and control the most
IBM Misses the Thumpers Read More »
Back in 2005 when Steve Jobs announced the transition from IBM Power PC chips to Intel PC chip [yep same one that were and are used in Windows-based PCs], the Mac community was flabbergasted. Many raised the question how were Macs going to distinguish themselves from Windows PCs now that nearly everything was the same
For $499 Steve Jobs Tries to Make Amends Read More »
The great speculation in the Business and Automotive Press is how much gain will Motown get out of Toyota’s costly and embarrassing recall of 9++million cars plus the halt in sales of more than 60% of its fleet worldwide. There is a superb summary of the problem here. The argument is that the quality chart
Toyota’s Pain, Motowns Gain? Read More »
Ever since the Supreme Court made such a flawed decision on campaign finance, the issue has been percolating on the front burner. And the gas turned up when Supreme Court Justice Alito mouthed “that is not true” when President Obama in his State of the Union Speech criticized the Court’s campaign finance decision saying it
Supremes Folly III Read More »
Forget the MSNBC commercial at the beginning, here is President Obama speaking with the House Republicans for 1 very full hour. This is must see TV. The discussion is pointed, frank but polite – none of the Fox News Fair-and-Balanced stridency nor MSNBC name calling. The number of good ideas that get exchanged here is
Must See Political TV Read More »
The price for the iPad at $500 starter may be a watershed. This is the target price that eReader and Smartphone vendors no longer can exceed. This is also the price that netbooks from Asus, Dell, Google, HP, and others have to beat. This becomes the Universal Mobile Working Computer top level price. This price
Apple iPad’s $500 Price Read More »
After much speculation, Apple’s iPad hit the Gadget Mindscape market with a thud. To say that the Gadgeterati did not like the iPad is, unfortunately for Apple, an understatement: Gizmodo – 8 things about the iPad that sucks – No Thanks Apple PCWorld – Apple’s iPad mistakes – so many Engadget – On the iPad,
Apple’s iPad: 3 Viewpoints Read More »
Slate has some excellent commentary and investigation on how the Supreme Court reached the concepts of Money being equal to Speech and a Corporation is equivalent to an individual. These two concepts are the critical flaws in the Supreme Courts granting unlimited campaign funding rights to Corporations and any other special interest group. Here is
Money is Speech and a Corporations is equivalent to an Individual Read More »
The Guardian and Financial Times in England have been covering the China vs Google story much more closely than US media. So when the Guardian published a story about Bill Gates reactions to the conflict , curious, I took a look: After pouring billions of dollars into the global fight against malaria and rebranding Microsoft
China vs Google IV : Bill Gates View Read More »
Frank Rich of the NYTimes provides another update to this article in his opinion piece “After the Massachusetts Massacre”. Rich argues that the problem for President Obama has been that he failed to make jobs and financial regulation top priorities. Here is the core of what he had to say: Obama’s plight has been unchanged
Update:Finance and Economics -The Obama Achilles Heel Read More »
John Roberts promised a gradualist Supreme Court – “just calling the balls and strikes”. But in a rushed decision riddled with many questions and problems left un-answered, Roberts and company threw out 30 years of Supreme Court precedence and 100 years of moving to the individual not groups and corporates as the basic holder of
The John Roberts Supreme Court Read More »
Slate’s Big Money blog has a curiously titled story partly via the NYTimes – apparently the new CEO of Morgan Stanley is “definitely not a slimeball”. Now given that Morgan Stanley is a member of the exclusive “Too Big To Fail” club of financheevil institutions [uhh, financial institutions, since “banksters” does not seem completely satisfying,
New Morgan Stanley CEO “Not a Slimeball” Read More »
Here is the latest on the fast evolving China vs Google story as it takes some interesting turns and starts to reveal some of its underlying causes: CNET Reports: “After warnings of strained U.S.-China relations, China’s government has issued statements denying any state involvement in the cyberattacks on Google and defending its online censorship.” This
China vs Google III Read More »
