fdic problem bank list

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government's watch list of problem banks grew staggeringly in the third quarter, according to a government report on the embattled financial sector released Tuesday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported that the number of firms on its so-called problem bank list grew to 171 during the third quarter - the highest since 1995 when there were 193 banks on the list. There were 117 banks on the list in the second quarter.

"We've had profound problems in our financial markets that are taking a rising toll on the real economy," said Sheila Bair, FDIC chairman, at a press conference. "Today's report reflects these challenges."

Though the FDIC does not reveal the names of the banks on the list, it said the total assets of these institutions rose to $115.6 billion in the third quarter from $78.3 billion in the previous three months, the first time since 1994 in which the assets of problem banks exceeded $100 billion.

Since home prices began to decline late last year, banks have faced strong headwinds as the value of their mortgage-backed securities declined sharply in value. Those assets became "toxic" holdings on their balance sheets, resulting in a lending freeze, soaring borrowing costs and large writedowns.

"Banks got caught in a vicious cycle mainly of their own developing," said Matt McCormick, analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel. "The lowest common denominator turned out not to be their best client; for all their brilliance, they flunked Economics 101."

Still, just 2% of FDIC-regulated banks are now on its watch list, compared to about 10% in the late 1980s and early 1990s during the savings and loan crisis. The government identifies problem banks as institutions on the brink of failure, facing severe financing difficulties and management issues. But few banks typically reach that point - just 13% of banks on the FDIC's problem list have failed on average.

"Most banks remain well-capitalized, profitable and sound," said Bair. "We believe the overall majority of them will not fail."

Three more banks failed on Friday, bringing the total to 22 failed banks so far this year - compared to just three in 2007. Nine banks failed in the third-quarter alone, including the collapse of savings and loan Washington Mutual, the largest bank failure in history.

This was the highest number of failures in a quarter since the third quarter of 1993 but pales in comparison to the more than 1,000 banks that failed during the savings and loan crisis. Still, the failures in the third quarter forced the FDIC to draw down $10.6 billion from its deposit insurance fund.

That number could rise substantially if there are more bank failures. Beginning in October, the FDIC began insuring interest-bearing accounts up to $250,000 (the previous limit was $100,000) and has issued unlimited guarantees on non-interest-bearing accounts and newly issued unsecured bank debt as part of the government's financial rescue initiatives.
Ugly profits

Toxic assets continued to weigh on the industry's profits, which fell 90% to $1.7 billion in the quarter from $28.7 billion a year ago. That was the second-lowest quarterly net income for banks since 1990, the FDIC said. About one in five banks reported a net loss in the quarter, compared just to one in eight during the same period last year.

Much of that decline was due to loan-loss provisions, which totaled $50.5 billion in the quarter after banks set aside $50.2 billion in the previous quarter. That's more than three-times the $16.8 billion in loan-loss provisions from the fourth quarter of 2007.

"Loan performance problems are spreading to a much wider range of lenders and category of loans," said Bair. "This trend is linked to a weaker economy and uncertainty in the financial markets."

Also contributing to damaged profits were loan losses, which rose for the seventh consecutive quarter. Net charge offs, or loans banks don't think are collectable, rose to $27.9 billion in the quarter, up from $17 billion during the same period a year ago, and its highest level since 1991.

In a sign that credit remained tight, banks borrowed $162.5 billion from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending window, up 4.8% from the same period a year ago. In its so-called "discount window," the Fed offers overnight funding for commercial banks at a rate slightly higher than its targeted funds rate.

Bair said smaller community banks with assets of less than $1 billion are also beginning to feel the stress of the weak economy, even though they remain better capitalized than the industry average.

As a result, Bair said it is essential that those banks take part in the Treasury Department's capital purchase program and the FDIC's new temporary liquidity program to stay afloat.

But there were some bright spots in the report. One of the government's early liquidity programs, which provided support to money market mutual funds by funding banks' purchases of asset-backed corporate debt led to a 2.1% boost of banks assets in the quarter. And banks' net interest income rose 4.9% to $4.4 billion as borrowing costs rose.

"It's important to emphasize that banks in large part still made money in the third quarter, which was a very difficult one," said Gary Townsend, president of the Chevy Chase, Md.-based Hill-Townsend Capital. "The fourth quarter is likely to be worse, but last quarter they paid forward a lot of loan losses."

Bair said the poor credit conditions will persist for some time, as it will take a while for sentiment to improve and for the numerous government liquidity programs to take effect.

She added she will continue to work with President-elect Obama's administration beginning Jan. 20 to help stabilize the financial sector.

Circuit City Black Friday Deals

No sooner had Best Buy offered up their Black Friday 2008 ad, Circuit City followed quickly with their ad deals. The Circuit City ad shows a number of great deals to be had on a number of video games; some games on certain consoles have more deals than the others.

Deals for games on the Sony PSP, PS2 and PS3 are not as extensive as on the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii. Black Friday is an important day for Circuit City, who recently declared bankruptcy. Hopefully shoppers will be able to show that people still have money to spend in stores, and could be a great sign for the start of the holiday season.

Here I will highlight at least one great deal for each console, these include, Ice Blue DS unit with Brain Age and carrying case for $139.99, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for $4.99 for PC, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for $9.99 for PSP, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with guitar for $54.99 for PS3. These are just a few; see more deals at Circuit City

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$20 billion Citigroup bailout,Taxpayers to rescue

I wish I could of had a vote on this. But I guess I did when I voted for the crooks to go into office. Oh well just making the rich richer I guess. Anyways this is only going to grow out national debt and put the load on the taxpayers back. It will be interesting to see what Citi does with the money. See if they did what all the other bankers did with their money. Put it in their back pocket.

The federal government agreed late Sunday night to bail out Citigroup, a dramatic move that could save the troubled New York financial giant.

Taxpayers will spend $20 billion for a stake in Citigroup and will guarantee as much as $306 billion of risky loans and securities backed by commercial and residential mortgages.
RELATED: CITI FOR SALE?

The deal was unveiled just before midnight after Citigroup execs and U.S. officials spent the weekend haggling over details of the plan. It was announced jointly by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

"The U.S. government is taking the actions necessary to strengthen the financial system and protect U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. economy," the three agencies said in a statement.

Stock futures rose on the news of the detail, which investors apparently believe could reverse a brutal 60% plunge in Citi's stock price last week.
RELATED: OBAMA TO PUSH FOR EXPANDED ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN

The move is aimed at shoring up the massive New York-based conglomerate, which has 200 million customers in 100 countries.

The $20 billion cash injection by the Treasury Department will come from the $700 billion financial bailout package. The capital infusion follows an earlier one - of $25 billion - in Citigroup in which the government received an ownership stake.

Taxpayers will get preferred stock that pays an 8% annual dividend, officials said.

In addition, Treasury and the FDIC will guarantee against the "possibility of unusually large losses," the deal said. The bank is one of the world's biggest owners of "collateralized debt obligations" - the so-called toxic bundles of mortgage-backed securities that are dragging down the global financial system.

As part of the deal, Citi agreed to accept limits on executive compensation and severance packages - a key concession as taxpayers worry about corporate excess.

It also agreed to implement the FDIC's program to help struggling homeowners modify their mortgages, a move the giant resisted before.

The company has $2 trillion in assets but took a bath last week when investors began dumping shares.

Last Monday, CEO Vikram Pandit announced mass layoffs and a fourth consecutive quarterly loss - for a total of more than $60 billion.

Citigroup's stock closed Friday at $3.77, down from an all-time high of $55 two years ago.

Cyber Monday 2008

Just another way to try an jumpstart the economy and retail sales. And I think they will work myself. I spent 300 dollars on saturday shopping for the kids Xmas. I am have finished my holiday shopping too, so I don't think 300 bucks is bad. I saved about 75 more dollars on sales that were going on that day as well.

Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, is expected to be more promotional than ever this year because of the "challenging" holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said today.

An estimated 83.7 percent of online retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2 percent last year, said the federation, a trade group for merchants, and though many consumers now have high-speed Internet connections in their homes, more than half of the people with Internet at work are expected to shop at the office, the federation said.

The term Cyber Monday was coined after online retailers noticed large numbers of people shopping online on the Monday after Thanksgiving. One theory was that window-shopping at the malls over the holiday weekend put folks in a buying mood. Another theory was that several years ago, when the Internet was just going mainstream, many people preferred to take advantage of their boss's high-speed Internet connection at the office rather than attempt to shop online at home with an Internet connection that relied on a maddeningly slow dial-up modem.

The most popular promotions for Cyber Monday 2008 are "expected to be specific deals (38.8 percent), e-mail campaigns (32.7 percent), and one-day sales (24.5 percent)," the National Retail Federation said in a press release. "Additionally, nearly one-fourth of retailers (22.5 percent will offer free shipping on all purchases."

Democrats' Stimulus Plan May Reach $700 Billion

I found this article and thought I would post about it. Plus it had austan goolsbee in it and since that is one of the main topics in google trends this morning I thought I would post about Goolsbee as well. I think a new stimulus check would two one of two things. Help things or make them worse. Duh lol. I am not going to turn down free money, but then it might de value our currency to wear it is worth nothing.

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 24, 2008; Page A01

Facing an increasingly ominous economic outlook, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are rapidly ratcheting up plans for a massive fiscal stimulus program that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years.

That amount, more than the nation has spent over the past six years in Iraq, would rival the sum Congress committed last month to rescuing the country's financial system. It would also be one of the biggest public spending programs aimed at jolting the economy since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Hints of a hefty new spending program began emerging last week. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D), an Obama adviser, and Harvard economist Lawrence H. Summers, whom Obama has chosen to lead his White House economic team, both raised the possibility of $700 billion in new spending. Yesterday, Obama adviser and former Clinton administration Labor secretary Robert Reich and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) also called for spending in the range of $500 billion to $700 billion.
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Transition officials would not confirm that they are considering spending of that magnitude, but they made clear that economic conditions are dire, and suggested that Obama might be forced to delay his pledge to repeal President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

Last week, Goldman Sachs said it expects the economy to shrink even faster by the end of the year, at a 5 percent annualized rate. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 5.3 percent for the week; and the nation's largest bank, Citigroup, sought government assistance to avoid collapse.

While Obama has set a goal of creating or preserving 2.5 million jobs by 2011, his economic team -- whose members are scheduled to be formally introduced at a news conference today in Chicago -- have yet to decide how that would be accomplished or how much it would cost.

Still, Austan Goolsbee, a spokesman for Obama on economic issues who is in line to serve on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, yesterday acknowledged that Obama's jobs plan will cost substantially more than the $175 billion stimulus program he proposed during the campaign.

"This is as big of an economic crisis as we've faced in 75 years. And we've got to do something that's up to the task of confronting that," Goolsbee said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I don't know what the exact number is, but it's going to be a big number."

Republicans quickly criticized the idea of such a vast initiative, saying Congress should instead cut taxes to spur economic growth.

"Democrats can't seem to stop trying to outbid each other -- with the taxpayers' money," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. "We're in tough economic times. Folks are hurting. But the American people know that more Washington spending isn't the answer."

With financial markets fluctuating wildly and unemployment rising, Democrats want to push a stimulus package through Congress in January and have it ready for Obama's signature when he takes office Jan. 20. Over the weekend, the president-elect announced that he had instructed his advisers to assemble a massive jobs program that also would make a "down payment" on much of his domestic agenda.

The plan would include new funding for public-works projects to repair the nation's crumbling infrastructure, as well as a fresh infusion of cash to promote green technology and alternative-energy sources. It also would include targeted tax cuts for working families, students, the elderly and job-creating businesses that Obama touted on the campaign trail.


It may not, however, include one of Obama's central promises: to repeal Bush's tax cuts for families earning more than $250,000 a year. Speaking on ABC's "This Week," David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist, said the president-elect is weighing whether to let the cuts for the wealthy expire on Dec. 31, 2010, as provided in current law. Such a delay would permit Obama to avoid raising taxes during a recession.


"He's committed to getting middle-class tax relief in the pipeline quickly, and there's no doubt that we're going to have to make some hard decisions in order to pay for the things we need, whether it is through repeal of those tax cuts for the very wealthiest or whether we simply allow it to -- allow those cuts to expire in 2010," Axelrod said.

The projected cost of an economic stimulus package has been rising steadily as economic conditions have worsened. Economists who were calling a few months ago for $150 billion in government spending to offset flagging demand elsewhere in the economy are now pushing for $500 billion or more. Adding tax cuts to the package is expected to increase its cost to the Treasury by as much as $200 billion, Democrats said.

Even some conservative economists have endorsed the larger numbers.
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Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, the former director of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign, said he thinks the government should spend "a minimum of $300 billion a year for at least the next two years."

"The cumulative multi-year deficit would have to be about $700 billion or even more," Feldstein said in an e-mail yesterday.

Reich, speaking on CNN's "Late Edition," said the middle class is being squeezed by mountains of personal debt, plummeting home values and a vast tightening in available credit. As a result, he said, "there's not enough buying power in the economy," forcing the government to step in as "the spender of last resort."

In an interview, Schumer said the nation is on the brink of the same kind of deflationary spiral that pushed down prices, closed businesses and obliterated jobs during the Great Depression.

"The economy is in worse shape than people think," Schumer said. "The safest thing is to do anything you can to avoid deflation."

Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose aides have in recent weeks balked at suggestions that Democrats might spend as much as $300 billion, conceded yesterday on "Face the Nation" that the price of a stimulus package is likely to be "in the several hundred billion dollar category."

There are downsides to such a dramatic increase in government spending, especially at a time when the annual federal budget deficit already is spiraling toward $1 trillion -- about 7 percent of the gross domestic product -- a level not seen since the end of World War II. Increasing the deficit means increasing the national debt, which eventually will have to be repaid, with interest, to largely foreign creditors. It also means the nation will be even less prepared to cover the skyrocketing costs of Medicare and Social Security as the baby boomer generation retires.

Washington also could overshoot its target, sparking rampant inflation when the economy recovers. Or the money could be poorly directed and fail to efficiently stimulate the economy.

"The 1930s recession became the Great Depression because policymakers didn't take the necessary actions. Nobody wants to make that mistake this time around," said Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute who has been advising Democrats. "Is there a possibility that we could overshoot? Of course. But from what I've seen, the danger is not doing enough."

Christina Romer to Be Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors

Well on the surface it looks like Christina Romer is a good choice for tha position. But only time will tell if she helps the economy in the long and short term.

Christina Romer, of UC Berkeley, has been appointed to Chair President Elect Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Romer wrote, if not the book, at least the chapter for Encyclopedia Britannica, The Great Depression. News of her appointment should make liberals and women who opposed the appointment of Lawrence Summers, who many predicted (including today's Wall Street Journal) would get this job, somewhat happy, though it looks like Summers will be named White House economic director.

Professor Romer and her husband David were both advisers to the Obama campaign and they hold two seats on the committee which decides when the U.S is officially in a recession.


The Romers are macroeconomists, who study the big picture in economics. They've also studied the way tax cuts affect the economy and government spending. A UC Berkeley article reported,

What they found about both issues surprised them. Tax cuts provide powerful short-run stimulus to the economy, but there is little evidence that tax cuts restrain government spending.

"It turns out," Christina explains, "that tax cuts have led, eventually, to tax increases. Basically, something has to give. What we thought gave when you cut taxes was spending, but we seem to find that in postwar U.S. history what actually gives is the tax cut itself. A substantial fraction of a tax cut is typically undone in the subsequent five years."

The appointment may telegraph Obama's intentions regarding Fed Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. Romers wrote a paper, Choosing the Federal Reserve Chair: Lessons from History. Like Bernanke, she has a history of a connection to Princeton University, where she was an assistant professor from 1985-1988.

Romer graduated from College of William and Mary in 1981 and from M.I.T., with a Ph.D., in 1985. In 1994, she co-authored, with her husband, a paper, "What Ends Recessions?"

It's clear, Obama is appointing someone smart, with strong academic credentials. Unlike Treasury Secretary appointee Geither, who is overflowing with experience, Romer is an academic who's specialized in "getting" the big picture.

Obama Picks Tim Geithner to Head Treasury

This is one of those things that is going to turn out to be really really good or really really bad move. It will surely be interesting to see what Tim Geithner's first move will be once he is active in his role to turn around the stumbling economy. After watching what the market has been doing for the past few weeks, he will surely have one of the toughest jobs in the country. But if he can turn it around he can probably be elected president after Obama has had his term.

U.S. stocks rallied and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rebounded from an 11-year low after President-elect Barack Obama picked New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury.

“This news could really give the stock market a badly needed shot in the arm,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, wrote in an e-mail to clients. Geithner is a “fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness.”

Citigroup Inc. pared a 35 percent slide and JPMorgan Chase & Co. trimmed a 16 percent tumble in the final hour as a Democratic aide said Obama will name Geithner to replace Henry Paulson. National-Oilwell Varco Inc. and Chesapeake Energy jumped more than 20 percent as oil rose for the first time in six days. The rally came after this week’s rout dragged the S&P 500’s price-to-earnings valuation to the cheapest since 1995.

The S&P 500, which capped a third-straight weekly decline, surged 6.3 percent to 800.03. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 494.13 points, or 6.5 percent, to 8,046.42, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 5.2 percent to 1,384.35. Almost five stocks gained for each that fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Benchmark indexes swung between gains and losses earlier as growing concern over the survival of Citigroup, the second- largest U.S. bank by assets, offset a rally in commodities producers. Some 2.4 billion shares changed hands on the floor of the NYSE in the busiest trading session since Oct. 10. Citigroup accounted for about 11 percent of all trading volume of NYSE- listed stocks.

2008 Slump

The S&P 500 extended its 2008 slide to 49 percent yesterday and was poised for the worst annual decline in its 80-year history after economic reports depicted a deepening recession and lawmakers postponed a vote on a plan to salvage the auto industry. Citigroup, which has about $2 trillion of assets, has fallen for nine of the last 10 days on concern more companies and consumers will default as the economy worsens.

The benchmark index for U.S. equities trimmed its yearly loss to less than 46 percent today, which would still make 2008 the worst year since 1931. The S&P 500 tumbled 8.4 percent this week. The Dow average declined 5.3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 8.7 percent.

Chesapeake, a producer of oil and natural gas, jumped $2.99 to $16.97. National-Oilwell, which makes crude production equipment, added $3.66 to $21.52.

Energy Rally

Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. oil company, climbed $7.30, or 11 percent, to $75.81. Crude oil rose as OPEC members cut production and governments stepped up efforts to revive economic growth. Gasoline futures climbed for the first time this week as U.S. buyers took advantage of low prices and a weaker U.S. dollar increased the lure of dollar-denominated commodities. Oil for January delivery rose 46 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $49.88 a barrel.

S&P 500 energy companies rose 12 percent collectively for the top gain among the index’s 10 main industries. The advance came after the group’s valuation slid to 5.6 times reported earnings, the cheapest since Bloomberg began tracking the data.

Citigroup pared declines, falling 94 cents to $3.77 after sinking as low as $3.05, and the S&P 500 Financials Index erased a 7.5 percent tumble to climb 3.4 percent on word of Obama’s pick for Treasury secretary.

Geithner has helped lead U.S. efforts to combat the deepest financial crisis in seven decades, helping oversee the decisions this year to intervene in American International Group Inc., rescue Bear Stearns Cos. and leave Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to fail.

‘Fresh Face’

“The market is relieved that it’s Geithner,” said Tim Hartzell, managing director and chief investment office at Sequent Asset Management in Houston. “It’s important to have a fresh face come in who has also been in the mix and has been at the pinnacle of everything that has been going on.”

Citigroup’s earlier slide came as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said he won’t break up the company after the stock market rout erased more than 80 percent of its value this year. Pandit and Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden, speaking on a worldwide conference call, also said they don’t expect to sell the Smith Barney brokerage unit, according to two people who listened to the call and declined to be identified because it wasn’t open to the public.

Citigroup will probably get rescued by the U.S. government after a crisis in confidence erased half its stock-market value in three days, investors and analysts said. The stock climbed 6.1 percent to $4 in trading after the close of U.S. exchanges.

JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by market value, pared a drop of $3.69 to close down 66 cents at $22.72.

Gap Surges

Gap Inc. rallied $2.59, or 27 percent, to $12.10. The largest U.S. clothing retailer said third-quarter profit climbed 3.4 percent as the company reduced markdowns of sweaters, jeans and khaki pants. The owner of the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains reiterated its forecast for profit of $1.30 to $1.35 a share for the year ending Jan. 31.

Sprint Nextel Corp. climbed 25 percent to $1.71 and earlier soared 36 percent, the most since at least 1980. Barry West, chief technology officer of the third-largest U.S. mobile phone company, bought 50,000 Sprint shares, marking the biggest investment at the company in the past five years, Barron’s reported.

Microsoft Corp. jumped $2.15, or 12 percent, to $19.68 after Oppenheimer & Co. raised the world’s largest software maker to “outperform” and said the stock has fallen too far. The shares trimmed their yearly decline to 45 percent.

Alcoa Jumps

Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, surged 23 percent, the most since at least 1980, to $8.44. Newmont Mining Corp. jumped 25 percent to $28.79. Copper and aluminum rebounded from three-year lows on speculation mine shutdowns will help erode supply surpluses caused by reduced demand.

All 10 industries in the S&P 500 advanced at least 3.3 percent and 28 of 30 stocks in the Dow average rose.

Autodesk Inc. fell $2.45, or 15 percent, to $14.37. The largest maker of engineering-design software said fourth-quarter earnings excluding some items will be as much as 34 cents a share. That missed the 54-cent average estimate by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

This year’s tumble in the S&P 500 dragged down 97 percent of its stocks and all 64 of its so-called level-three industries, groups such as “distributors” and “leisure equipment,” as of yesterday’s close. More stocks decreased in the current bear market than in the 49 percent rout after the technology bubble burst in 2000.

‘Irrational Exuberance’

Alan Greenspan can stop worrying about “irrational exuberance” in the U.S. stock market, 12 years after he warned investors that share prices were rising too fast. The S&P 500 fell below 744.38 today, its closing level on Dec. 5, 1996, the day then-Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan used the phrase in a speech on “The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society.”

The S&P 500 was trading for 20.7 times earnings when Greenspan gave his warning and its valuation climbed to as high as 62.9 in March 2002, according to Bloomberg data. The index was valued at 16.3 times reported profits of its companies at yesterday’s closing level, the cheapest since 1995.

Citigroup 'c stock' falls even more

My mortgage is with Citigroup. So I don't know what to do. I don't have much money to invest, but now and proably for another year will be the right time to do it. Hopefully something will come out from one of these financial geniuses that will save everything, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Stocks in New York had been enjoying a break from selling pressure early Friday but lately pared their gains after Citigroup (C Quote - Cramer on C - Stock Picks) CEO Vikram Pandit reportedly denied rumors that his firm was seeking to sell its Smith Barney brokerage unit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, up some 170 points earlier, was lately adding 25.6 points at 7577.85, and the S&P 500 was tacking on 1.26 points to 753.7 The Nasdaq was down 5.4 points at 1310.8

Beleaguered banking giant Citigroup, whose stock has been crushed this week despite a large investment by Saudi billionaire shareholder Prince Alwaleed, was on the rise Friday morning following word that it's contemplating selling part or all of itself, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

On the other hand, reports by the New York Times and CNBC indicated that senior executives, including Pandit, are not interested in selling segments of the business. Citi shares, which had earlier been helping lift the Dow, were lately down 19%.

Wall Street Fraud Watchdog Warns All Investors About Wall Street Brokers and Banks Over Cash Equivalents

I think every investor around the world should be aware of this. I be honest with you after what I saw the market do today I am scared. I was buying up stocks because I thought they would rebound, but now it is almost alittle to scary for me to invest.


The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog is warning investors worldwide to be very careful of what Wall Street calls cash equivalents, such as failed, frozen, or devalued auction rate securities, products like Schwab Yield Plus and or a product sold by TD Ameritrade called Reverse Yield Plus. According to the group,"if you were sold one of these products, and your investment was devalued, or frozen, we want to hear from you. While we are on the topic, we are warning all investors to have your broker or bank investment advisor confirm in writing that your US tax free municipal bonds or VRDN's are 100% safe. We do think a US stock broker or bank investment advisor will put in writing that the US tax free Muni is 100% safe. We expect the US Municipal Market to crash in 2009, because of dramatic declines in US property tax & retail sales tax revenues." Investors or victims can contact Americas Watchdog's Wall Street Fraud Watchdog anytime at 866-714-6466, or visit their web site at Http://WallStreetFraudWatchdog.Com for more information.
the worst case of fraud in US history
if the broker cannot provide you with this assurance, get out of the investment and find a new stock broker or bank investment advisor. We expect a crash of the US tax free municipal market/VRDN's in 2009, so you should get an assurance in writing on these as well.
we want to repeat, we want every US investor involved in what are known as cash equivalents, or US tax free municipal bonds to have their bank investment advisor or stock broker put in writing, that the investment is 100% safe, and if they will not, we are encouraging investors to move their money to US Treasuries.
None of this translates into anything good for the US economy or the 2009 US stock market.
Drill, Drill, Drill? This is what has happened to the US economy and investors, when you mix Wall Street greed and arrogance with a bought and paid for US Congress
we know Wall Street has sold US citizens and investors around the world garbage and or pure and simple fraud with a AAA rating. We are here to help and try to provide assistance.

(PRWEB) November 20, 2008 -- Americas Watchdog's Wall Street Fraud Watchdog is the premier investor advocate in the world on Wall Street wrong doing and fraud. The group has tirelessly gone after banks and US stock brokers over the auction rate securities debacle, in what the group has called, "the worst case of fraud in US history". The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog is now warning that US cash equivalents may not be safe, and investors need to request in writing a letter or e-mail from their bank investment advisor or stock broker, that their investment is 100% safe. According to the group, "if the broker cannot provide you with this assurance, get out of the investment and find a new stock broker or bank investment advisor. We expect a crash of the US tax free municipal market/VRDN's in 2009, so you should get an assurance in writing on these as well."

News Image

The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog has current national investigations of the following, and would like to hear from the victims of these failed, devalued or frozen cash equivalents-to include:

* Auction Rate Securities: Do you have an auction rate securities also called an ARPS/ARS or SLARS with Wells Fargo, or anyone other bank or stock broker that has been frozen? If so you should call the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog at 866-714-6466. On the topic of Wells Fargo, the group says, "we are stunned that Wells Fargo has not been forced into a settlement with the various state attorney generals in New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, over their role in selling auction rate securities. We are also stunned that California's worthless Attorney General Brown, has done little to nothing on the auction rate securities debacle, even though thousands of his states residents were conned into buying auction rate securities with lines like, its just like cash and 100% safe. We have an even lower regard for the Florida State Attorney General's do nothing approach on auction rate securities."
* Are you, or is your company a victim of auction rate securities and not covered by the already announced retail settlements by firms like UBS, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citi Group, or Wachovia? If so, you should call the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog at 866-714-6466.
* Do you have frozen or devalued investments in TD Ameritrade's Reserve Yield Plus or Schwab Yield Plus? If so, you should contact the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog at 866-714-6466
* Americas Watchdog's says, "we want to repeat, we want every US investor involved in what are known as cash equivalents, or US tax free municipal bonds to have their bank investment advisor or stock broker put in writing, that the investment is 100% safe, and if they will not, we are encouraging investors to move their money to US Treasuries."


Regardless of the spin on from Wall Street used car sales types on CNBC, the group sees a further devaluation of US residential real estate values of at least 10% in 2009, with an eye popping 15% to 20% in California (you can't rent a life style on your home equity line of credit, in Orange, or LA County anymore). The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog expects the US Commercial real estate market, including office, industrial, high rise residential, and retail to get crushed in 2009, because they expect the US unemployment rate to be at least 10%. And, they expect the US retail industry as it is known, to experience a record number of bankruptcies, since the US consumer is no longer buying anything in volumes that approach normal, because they either can't charge it anymore, or they are hoarding their cash to pay all but necessary expenses. "None of this translates into anything good for the US economy or the 2009 US stock market."

Translation: Now would be a very good time to get your cash on the sidelines and wait to see what happens.

"Drill, Drill, Drill? This is what has happened to the US economy and investors, when you mix Wall Street greed and arrogance with a bought and paid for US Congress".

For more information any investor or victim of cash equivalent schemes can call the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog anytime at 866-714-6466 or visit their web site at Http://WallStreetFraudWatchdog.Com . According to Americas Watchdog's Wall Street Fraud Watchdog, "we know Wall Street has sold US citizens and investors around the world garbage and or pure and simple fraud with a AAA rating. We are here to help and try to provide assistance."

The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog is all about investor protection and integrity and transparency for US Citizens and or investors world wide.

Gettelfinger: Without a deal, an automaker's demise imminent

I don't know about this one myself. It looks to me that they are trying whatever they can do to get some bailout money after watching the rich bankers get 700 billion. I guess if I was in the same position then I would be doing the same thing. Just as the old saying goes the rich get rich and the poorer get poorer.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said today that the Bush administration and Congress must reach a compromise on some kind of federal assistance package for the nation’s domestic automakers in order to prevent a collapse of the auto industry and deeper recession.
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“The purpose of us gathering her today is to say that it is critically important that the Bush administration Congress reach some agreement,” and provide some assistance to the automotive industry, Gettelfinger said during a news conference in Detroit.

“While there have been disagreements about the precise mechanism about providing assistance to the auto industry, surely it should be possible to figure out how to proceed,” he said.

Gettelfinger’s comments come less than 24 hours after he appeared in Washington D.C. alongside each of the domestic automakers’ CEO’s in what turned out to be a nearly fruitless effort to ask for a $25 billion bridge loan.

During two days of hearings in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives Gettelfigner and the UAW endured withering criticism for its wage structure with the domestic automakers. On Thursday, Gettelfinger fired back.

“We’ve been transforming for a long time” Gettelfinger said. “It is not our fault that the economy is in the tank.”

Without immediate action, Gettelfinger said, “We could see a collapse of one or more of the domestic auto companies by the end of this year.”

While the Senate has canceled a vote originally scheduled for today on an assistance package Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today raised the prospect of calling the Senate back into session in December.

Gettelfinger on Thursday urged action, even if it is a scaled down package that could be put in place, “Until the Obama administration can put in place a long term plan to move the industry forward.”

irving fisher debt deflation

It looks like even gloomier times are on the horizon, but most Americans who have been reading and watching the news should already know that. Plus if your one of the many who are looking for jobs right now then no one needs to tell you that we are in a reccession heading towards a depression.

In just a few brutal months, the prospects for the world economy have deteriorated with remarkable speed. Rich countries had seemed set for a shallow, muddle-through recession; now a much deeper slump is on the cards. In a sign of growing concern about American consumers, the Treasury and Federal Reserve on November 12th focused their rescue efforts on loans for cars and college and on credit cards. Central banks, recently so fearful of inflation, are now slashing interest rates to stop it falling too far. It will not be easy: deflation—annual falls in consumer prices—is increasingly likely next year. But recalling the 1930s, policymakers will be anxious to ensure that it does not take hold and turn crisis into catastrophe.

To consider the possibility of falling prices may seem odd when inflation is still uncomfortably high. In America, it reached 5.6 percent in July, the highest rate since 1991. In the same month inflation in the euro area surged to 4 percent. Britain's consumer-price inflation hit 5.2 percent in September, well above the government's target of 2 percent. This high inflation was mostly the result of the surge in commodity prices in the first half of the year. "Core" inflation, excluding food and energy costs, was far more stable.

But since the summer the commodity boom has turned to bust, changing the inflation outlook dramatically. The price of a barrel of crude oil has tumbled from a peak of $147 in July to below $60 in recent days. The Economist's index of non-oil commodity prices has fallen by 40 percent since July. If raw-material prices remain at these lower levels, the year-on-year change in the retail prices of food and fuel will turn sharply negative in 2009.

That will add to other downward pressure on inflation. As economies fall deeper into recession and spending shrinks, firms will have to compete harder for sales by pricing their wares keenly. A glut of supply is evident in America's jobs market: the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent in October. A year earlier it was just 4.8 percent.

Falling food prices have quickly had an effect on inflation in China, which fell to 4 percent in October from a peak of 8.7 percent in February. In the rich world, a period of deflation seems more likely in America than in Europe. Crude-oil costs are a bigger slice of the prices American consumers pay for petrol: lower sales taxes and fuel duties mean swings in oil markets have a bigger effect on pump prices. Motor fuel also accounts for a larger share of Americans' spending, so falling prices will depress inflation by more. Prices tend to be less "sticky": they respond more readily to economic conditions because markets are more flexible than in Europe. A stronger dollar will add to deflationary pressures in America while easing them elsewhere.

The year-on-year fall in oil prices is likely to be steepest in the third quarter next year, when the base will be this summer's peak. Economists at Goldman Sachs reckon that America's inflation rate will briefly turn negative at that point. Inflation in the euro area seems set to reach a low then too, even if prices do not actually fall. Speaking after the European Central Bank's (ECB) half-point cut in interest rates on November 6th, Jean-Claude Trichet, the bank's chief, allowed that inflation could fall well below the ECB's target ceiling of 2 percent next year. But such a drop would be "short-lived and therefore not relevant" to interest-rate decisions. The Bank of England sees deflation as more than just a remote risk. Its Inflation Report, published on November 12th, puts the spread of likely inflation rates at between -1 percent and 3 percent in two years' time. It is the first time the bank's fan chart, which projects where inflation is likely to lie nine times out of ten, has encompassed deflation.

A commodity-led fall in inflation ought to be good news for rich economies. It boosts consumers' real incomes and fattens firms' profit margins. Yet there is something pernicious about inflation falling too far, too fast. Because falling prices make debt more expensive, indebted households would be more anxious to pay off loans, even as other consumers were benefiting from a boost to their purchasing power. If deflation took hold, the gap in demand left by those fleeing debt would not be filled by cash-rich consumers, who tend to be less free-spending.

A deadly mix of falling prices and high leverage could foment a "debt-deflation" of the type first described by Irving Fisher, an American economist, in 1933. In this schema, debt-laden firms and consumers rush to repay loans as credit dries up. That hurts demand and leads to price cuts. The deflation in turn increases the real cost of debt. It also means that real interest rates can't be negative, and so are undesirably high. That spurs yet more repayment so that, in Fisher's words, the "liquidation defeats itself."

Fisher's theory is of more than just academic interest. Recent lending surveys by the Federal Reserve and the ECB showed a larger share of banks tightened their lending criteria in October than in July. Such is the concern in America that on November 12th regulators said they would scrutinise the dividend policies of banks that did not increase lending.


The surveys also revealed a reluctance to borrow, which tallies with signs of a collapse in spending. Foreign orders for German capital goods slumped by 14 percent in September, suggesting firms worldwide are cutting investment. Car sales in America and Europe are plummeting. American retailers, such as Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and Gap, reported double-digit falls in sales in the year to October. The retail data in Britain are grim too, which is a big worry for firms which have been through the private-equity mill and are loaded with debt. If sales do not respond soon to interest-rate cuts, some retailers may resort to deep discounts as Christmas approaches.

Bond markets expect consumer prices in America to fall by as much as 2½ percent over the next year, according to Mark Capleton, of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Inflation in the euro area is expected to be close to zero. When prices were climbing rapidly, central banks fretted that consumers' inflation expectations would rise in response. They will now be as keen to keep them from falling too far. That means interest rates in rich countries may soon fall to zero; some are already close (see article).

Deflation is not the only fear, however. Investors seem keen to hedge against all outcomes. "The options market tells us that inflation uncertainty has rocketed," says Mr. Capleton. That reflects fears that policymakers, in their efforts to tackle deflation, will go too far the other way.

Bogus e-mail says multiple stores are closing

Well it looks like anybody will try to take advantage of the economic crisis that is at hand. I bet these emails which haven't been confirmed who sent then was from the corporations who were trying to build up some revenue right before Black Friday.

A bogus e-mail flooding the Internet is warning consumers around the country, including many in the Merrimack Valley, that 30 major retailers will close scores of stores by the end of December and that shoppers had better use the gift cards from those stores before it's too late.

"It seems there are lots of stores that are closing due to the 'recession' and the fact that people are not shopping," says the e-mail, which has spread like a virus as people forward it to friends and family. "If you have any 'gift cards' from these stores make sure you use them or you will lose them!"

The e-mail, which is of unknown origin, also is being posted on some Web sites as news. It says that the stores have informed the "Security Exchange of closing plans between October 2008 and January 2009."

There is no such thing as the "Security Exchange," although the Securities and Exchange Commission does exist. It does not, however, keep track of store closings.

Much of the information in the e-mail is outdated, and some of it contains inflated and flatly erroneous claims about store closings.

For example, it mentions that Ann Taylor would be closing 117 stores nationwide. However, that series of closings was announced nearly 11 months ago, in January 2008, as part of a corporatewide restructuring. The local store, in Rockingham Mall in Salem, N.H., is not closing, according to a clerk at the store. A corporate spokeswoman did not return calls.

Another women's clothing store, Cache, was listed as having plans to close all of its roughly 300 stores. Cache did close 20 stores earlier this year as part of a restructuring, according to a spokeswoman, but has no plans to close others.

According to a posting on the Web site Snopes.com, which tracks the veracity of Web-based and other common urban myths, the e-mail is "partly true."

"Although cutbacks are in the cards for most of the retailers mentioned in the message ... none of them has announced plans to completely shutter their operations by the end of 2008," the Web site reported, citing numerous legitimate media outlets as sources for the article.

The Disney store at the Rockingham Mall in Salem, N.H., will not be closing, despite what the e-mail stated.

Melissa Rozansky, a spokeswoman for Disney Store USA, said the information about Disney closing 98 stores is "very old."

"We closed stores earlier this year during a transition from being a licensed business separate from the Walt Disney family to becoming part of the Disney family," she said. "We took the stores back into the fold in May of this year, and we did close around 100 stores. We have no current plan or announcement to close 98 stores."

Rozansky said she has a Google alert set for whenever stories come up about Disney stores, and that for the last six weeks, stories about the company closing stores have been popping up repeatedly.

More recently, she got the e-mail about the gift cards.

"Somebody I know sent me that," she said. "I said, 'What the heck is this about?'"

She noted that she received a call from a newspaper in the middle of the country last week doing a story about the bogus e-mail.

"It's not true for Disney stores," she said. "It's completely inaccurate."

Other stores mentioned in the e-mail include Ethan Allen, which has 300 stores around the country, including one in North Andover and another in Plaistow. The e-mail claimed that the company was closing 12 stores, something the furniture chain did last January. No further closings are planned.

Talbots, which owns the J. Jill brand of stores, are supposedly closing both chains, according to the e-mail. Not true, says a spokeswoman.

The Hingham, Mass.-based company did close 78 Talbots stores late last year and earlier this year, including 66 Talbots kids' stores and 12 Talbot's men's stores, but has no plans to close anymore of its stores, according to Julie Lorigan, vice president for media relations.

What is true is that Talbots earlier this year announced plans to sell its J. Jill chain of stores, but not to close any of them.

Bob Cuomo, dean of the Girard School of Business and International Commerce at Merrimack College, said that many companies are retrenching, but that none of the ongoing rumors about the closing of Brookstone or layoffs at Lord & Taylor or even the shutdown of Talbots have been substantiated.

"It really hurts the economy," he said, noting that "people hear rumors about layoffs, they become more pessimistic and it becomes very damaging because then they don't spend any money because they start to worry about their own jobs."

He said the e-mail and stories are further evidence that the Internet can be a dubious source of information.

talbots closing all stores

Looks like another one is beg ginning to bite the dust. It looks also if this might not be real. I will put it up, but it may not be entirely accurate because it seems that fake emails have been going out, but that is unconfirmed as well. So stay tuned!



Will Talbots Closing All Stores? This is bad news for Holiday Gifts Season or 2008 Black Friday...
Talbots already closed 22 stores, 2 percent of its total. Today, I got rumors about Talbots closing all stores plan. But in latest news or company press released only close some store and The Talbots, Inc. to Broadcast Third Quarter 2008 Earnings Results Conference Call on the Web.

HINGHAM, Mass., Nov 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Talbots, Inc. (NYSE: TLB) invites investors to listen to a broadcast of the Company's conference call to discuss third quarter 2008 earnings results. The conference call will be broadcast live on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time
more about this Talbots press room..

Talbot Background
Operating under the brands Talbots and J. Jill, The Talbots, Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer, cataloger and e-tailer of women's classic apparel, shoes, and accessories. At the end of fiscal year 2007, the Company operated a total of 1,421 stores in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and the UK, with 1,150 stores under the Talbots brand name and 271 stores under the J. Jill brand name. Its direct-marketing operation circulated approximately 126 million catalogs worldwide in fiscal 2007, with 48 million under the Talbots brand name and 78 million under the J. Jill brand name. Talbots brand on-line shopping site is located at [www.talbots.com] and the J. Jill brand on-line shopping site is located at [www.jjill.com].

The Talbots, Inc. currently employs a combined total of approximately 16,000 associates worldwide, including 12,300 associates at Talbots and 3,700 at J. Jill.

Talbots assortment for women features modern classic styles in apparel, shoes and accessories, providing head-to-toe wardrobing for all occasions--from work, to weekend, to special occasion. The merchandise is offered across several Talbots retail concepts, including Talbots Misses, Talbots Petites, Talbots Woman, Talbots Woman Petites, and Talbots Collection.

In addition to its line for women, which is available throughout the U.S., Canada and the UK, Talbots offers classic children’s clothing through Talbots Kids and classic sportswear for men through Talbots Men's.

Credit Background: Wikipedia

Odell Barnes Foreclosure King

This guy looks to be making some real money in a recession right now. I am deciding on which stocks to pick up while Barnes is picking up real estate for pennies on the dollar. It will be interesting how long he can keep this up before he runs into a property that he can't flip. Maybe it won't happen because he should be smart enough to know what will sell and what won't.

ABC has been following a story about a guy named Odell Barnes known as the Foreclosure King. It turns out this is the real thing. Odell Barnes buys foreclosed real estate by the thousands from banks, Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac. Which are two stocks I am thinking about buying into, just because if they are not nationalized and taken over by the government then they could bounce back after time. Maybe, I thought they were already nationalized myself though. Then resells the real estate to local investors who then locate and sell to, potential homeowners.

The Odell Barnes Foreclosure King storyshows you can make money in a murky economy, and lots of it. While the news is filled with stories of rich CEO's and their minions taking hundreds of millions of dollars in bailout money and then going on lavish vacations.

Walmart Black Friday Ads

Tis the season to find some great deals. The day after Thanksgiving is of course Black Friday. I myself have only been able to participate once, but I found so many good things that I have never had to go again. I have some friends out their that wait in line till 5 in the morning every year. Even though one year all they bought was one little flash drive. Hopefully everyone has a succesfull Black Friday at Walmart and other shopping places.

Wal-Mart is highlighting flat screen TVs, Blu-ray players, Xbox 360 consoles and home computers in its much-anticipated Black Friday deals this year, according to a copy of the retailer's circular obtained by CNNMoney.com.

Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving - is one of the busiest shopping days for the nation's retailers. Black Friday is of particular interest this year because the country is experiencing a sharp slowdown in consumer spending.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) is not expected to officially unveil its Black Friday deals until Nov. 24. But as more Americans cut their holiday gift budgets this year, many will likely turn to discounters such as Wal-Mart in search of bargains.

According to the circular, Wal-Mart's so-called doorbuster deals offered between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. ET will include a 50-inch Samsung plasma HDTV ($798), Magnavox Blu-ray player ($128), Xbox 360 ($199) sold with free Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock game and wireless guitar, HP Pavilion desktop computer ($398) and a UniFlame gas grill ($175).

In addition, Wal-Mart's Black Friday ad shows a GE microwave for $25, children's clothing priced between $4 and $8 and a variety of toys, including a Hannah Montana doll for $10 or less.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien declined to address the leaks from the Black Friday sales circular, saying only that "we plan to share the facts directly with customers on Monday, Nov. 24th."

Still, the retailer in recent days has made no secret of its intention to aggressively court this year's budget-conscious holiday shoppers.

Last week, the retailer said it would offer more discounts on thousands of products over the next seven weeks.

Judging from other leaked Black Friday ads, additional retailers are also readying huge discounts in a bid to tempt reluctant shoppers.

Sears' leaked Black Friday circular, which appeared last month on Gottadeal.com, a Web site that markets itself as one of many "official" Black Friday deals sites, showed the retailer would offer deals on washer-dryers, a category that Sears' hasn't heavily promoted in the past.

One of Sears' standout deals for Black Friday is a Kenmore high efficiency front-load washer-dryer set for $599.99. That's as much as 50% off the price of the individual washer and dryer.

"This really is an incredible deal, and it indicates how nervous retailers are about the season," said Britt Beemer, retail analyst and chairman of America's Research Group.

plunge protection team

I found this article today and it makes perfect sense if you want are a conspiracy theorist. Of course he does make some good points and it could very well be true. I personally can't say anything myself because I don't know about the market to make and educated decision based on what the article and other people I have heard said. But it is certainly something to look at and think long and hard about to see if it makes sense to you, and if it is true then what needs to happen.

A number of remarkable things transpired Thursday, as we mentioned in an earlier post. The S&P 500 fell to a five-year low. Of course, we’ve done that before - as recently as last month - so it’s not that remarkable. We managed to piroutte nearly 900 points on the Dow industrial average, measuring the days lows to the day’s highs. Of course, we had a 900-point one-day gain in a trading session last month. So not that remarkable. We apparently successfully tested the lows for the cycle established in last month’s selloff. But we retest lows in about 90% of bear-market cycles. So - again - interesting, but not remarkable.

What’s remarkable is that we did all that without conspiracy theorists coming out of the woodwork to yap about the doings of the legendary Plunge Protection Team. You know the infamous PPT, don’t you? Formally, the Working Group on Financial Markets, or some such falderal. Supposed to recommend legislative and private-sector solutions for remedying distress in the financial markets. But really - as every good CT (conspiracy theorist) knows - actually steps up to buy the market at precipitous times. Times like Thursday. Market in distress? Check. Remedying said distress? Check. Short-term solution that didn’t do much more than salve some anxieties for a single session? Double check.

Yup, sounds like the work of the PPT.

Former Fed official Robert Heller cinched the PPT’s place in history when he effectively suggested that the equities market wasn’t too big for the federal government to tame. You go into the futures market, you buy the whole market, you restore some confidence. That was essentially Heller’s proviso. And, shoot, lately, having nationalized the banking business, the commercial paper market, the money market, a slug of insurance and the biggest chunk of the mortgage market, the government’s proven its willingness to take decisive action in the face of calamity. Why should Thursday have been any different? Why should the equities market be any different than the credit market?

And yet the PPT CT’s - by all indications - quiet as a schoolboy sneaking into class after the bell rang for first period. Maybe it’s just that the PPT leadership council - the Treasury Secretary, Fed chair, SEC chair and CFTC chair - have been so visible the last few days, they couldn’t have conducted the clandestine meeting (reportedly held at Goldman Sachs, which is said to help implement the nefarious schemes … and - hey, come to think of it - isn’t the Treasury secretary a Goldman alum?) required to confirm the plan. (I’d like to think they’ve got those nifty matching keys that Gene Hackman and Denzel fought over in ”Crimson Tide” that were required to launch the missiles.)

Or maybe the PPT simply silenced the CTs.

MORE THINGS GO WRONG FOR I-PAPER

As if there wasn’t enough going awry at International Paper (IP), here come new signs that the global diversification plan it put in place last year has come back to bite them. Back in October 2007, when the stock was trading at $35 a share - about three times where it’s trading currently - I-Paper lined up a Russian partner, LLim, to expand its global footprint. The U.S. company paid $620 million for the 50% stake in the Russian concern, and pledged another $750 million to help it expand its operations.

Unfortunately for LLim, as well as other Russian paper producers, Russia’s Prime Minister Putin has postponed (or canceled) a duty on wood exports from the country for at least the next nine to 12 months. As a result, LLim said it expected to see the delay hurt its business, with volume seen dropped 40%. Its EBITDA figures to come in at about one-third of previous forecasts.

The only good news for I-Paper in all this is that, as a result of the business slowdown, there isn’t much sense in executing on the expansion plan. So at least that drag on its cash flow figures to go away. Still, shares down another 5% Frida

http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2008/11/14/justice-league-or-plunge-protection-team/

Yahoo's Jerry Yang no longer CEO

Well I guess this is what happens when you don't bow down to microsoft. I knew a lot of people at Yahoo were mad at jerry yang because of that, but I have to kinda agree with him. Plus he didn't want to give up his power to someone else. Well I guess that doesn't matter anymore huh. It also shows that Yahoo is worried about it's current economis condition and is trying to look elsewhere to help them jumpstart their company. The last thing the board of directors will want is to lose money. It will be interesting to see what Yahoo's stock is going to do tomorrow now that jerry yang the co-founder of Yahoo is no longer the CEO.


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Source

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down as chief executive, ending a rocky reign marked by his refusal to sell the Internet company to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion — more than triple Yahoo's current market value.

The change in command announced Monday won't be completed until Yahoo finds his replacement. The Sunnyvale-based company said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by its chairman, Roy Bostock, and the executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles.

"Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," Bostock said.

Yang, who started Yahoo with Stanford University classmate David Filo in 1994, will revert to "Chief Yahoo," a titular role he filled before replacing former movie studio boss Terry Semel as CEO in June 2007. He will also remain on Yahoo's board of directors.

"I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation," Yang said in a statement.

Although Yang had publicly expressed his desire to remain at the helm, Yahoo's board faced intensifying pressure to cast him aside as the company's shares plunged to its lowest levels since early 2003. The stock fell 19 cents Monday to close at $10.63 — a fraction of Microsoft's last bid of $33 per share in early May.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer huffily withdrew the offer after Yang sought $37 per share. The negotiating breakdown triggered a shareholder revolt led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who called for Yang's ouster in July before reaching a truce that put him and two allies on Yahoo's 11-member board.

Yang, 40, had been pursuing a strategy that he thought would prove Yahoo was worth more than Microsoft was willing to pay, but the rapidly deteriorating economy made a comeback seem increasingly unlikely. As it is, Yahoo's earnings have been eroding for three years, disillusioning investors amid a management exodus that indicated even Yang's own troops were losing faith in him.

SEC Charges Mark Cuban With Insider Trading

This sort of thing happens a lot, but nobody ever says anything. But wow is all I have to say I can't believe Mark Cuban actually got caught doing with insider trading. It is very hard to actually catch someone red handed with insider trading. And they get one of the bigger fishes in the pond too. I have only traded stock activley for about a year now and I see why it is so tempting to do something that would be a sure thing and put some coin in your pocket. I have no way to do it though so loo elsewhere, plus I have lost over 50% of my value over that last 6 months anyways.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading.

The reported charge relates to Cuban's alleged selling of 600,000 shares of the search engine Mamma.com just before they were about to become diluted in June 2004.

The company now does business as Copernic.

From the SEC release:

"The Commission's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban's entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com's stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day's closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering."

Cuban -- who made his fortune by inventing and selling Broadcast.com -- had been in the running to buy the Chicago Cubs from Tribune Co.

Cuban writes a blog on a number of topics, including the economy.

-- Frank Ahrens

Claremont Rug Company Catalog Offers Rug Connoisseurs Glimpse at Art Level Collections

I think we are in bad shape when Marketwatch is reporting about rugs on their homepage. Yeah the markets are closed on the weekends, so I bet it was a slow news day for them, but still. They are trying to make this recession sound like it doesn't exist everytime I turn around, but this time I have to say that they are grabbing at coat tails on this one. But if you are into these types of rugs then maybe you can shed some light on them for me since I don't understand how they are so great. I am not rich so a rug is just a rug in my book.

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov 10, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Jan David Winitz, internationally recognized rug connoisseur and president of Claremont Rug Company, today announced the availability of a 32-page brochure highlighting some of his gallery's latest acquisitions of significant art-level 19th century Oriental carpets.

For more than a quarter-century, Claremont Rug Company's catalogs have offered one of the very few opportunities retail customers have to study extraordinary examples of this art form. "The catalog consistently receives considerable praise from clients and collectors alike," Winitz said. "Actually, rare book dealers seek out and sell our older catalogs, a further affirmation of the serious global interest in major antique Oriental rugs."

Among the highlights of the current edition are rugs from three notable collections that Winitz recently acquired and is featuring in a special event called "The Threefold Collections." These include "an absolutely drop-dead" 150-year-old Persian Kermanshah on the cover that he calls "the crown jewel of a long-established collection from Charlottesville, VA." Rugs in these collections range in value from $20,000 into six figures.

"This gratifying response from rug lovers underlines what I have been stressing for some time," said Winitz. "For generations, the best art-level rugs have remained in private hands. In today's market, they are extremely seldom available for viewing. We have been fortunate to have attained a stature that when substantial private collections becomes available, they are offered to us exclusively."

The catalogs, produced semi-annually, contain photos and descriptions of rare carpets from Claremont's inventory. "We are incredibly meticulous in how we produce our images," said Winitz, noting that the Company maintains its own full-time art photographer, Michael Irwin; two color-specialists, and an archivist. The Fall 2008 catalog contains photographs of 34 rugs.
Irwin recently explained his photographic process: "Our photos require significant effort to produce because of the rugs' amazing amount of detail and myriad subtleties of color. It is much more challenging to render an antique carpet than other art forms because it is hand-woven using literally millions of individually hued knots." He emphasized that capturing the patina the wool takes on has been "our crowning achievement."

The catalog can be obtained by calling Claremont Rug Company at 1-800-441-1332 or registering at the Gallery's website ( www.claremontrug.com). The price is $25.
SOURCE: Claremont Rug Company

Damon Dash is Broke

Doesn't look good for this hip-hop mogul if you ask me. Then again Donald Trump has filed bankruptcy more than once in his career and he seems to be doing just fine. Just don't look at this hair. It looks like it is going to be a long recession even for some of the once richest people in the entertainment industry. He could very easily be the first of many if people aren't smart with their millions of dollars. Or you have wives who go and spend it all.

It seems nobody is safe from the economic decline over the past couple years. Superproducer Scott Storch has had his fair share of financial problems, and it's long rumored that hip-hop mogul Damon Dash is experiencing his own as well.

The New York Daily News reports that Dash has being targeted by lawyers, lenders and landlords in Manhattan Supreme Court who want their money.

Dash has gone from owing several companies including shoe company Keds and Armadale Vodka, to dodging his bills. This is a man who in 2005 sold his stake in Rocawear to Jay-Z for $22 million, and even proclaimed himself a "cake-a-holic." Looks like his cake is running low these days.

"I've worked with musicians, artists and entertainers that, in the eyes of the media, are very wealthy," lawyer Jason Gabbard, who represented a fashion firm that settled a suit against Dash and his wife over $148,505 in unpaid fees, told the paper. "But to borrow a phrase from my Kentucky homeland, they haven't got a pot to piss in -- they're broke."

According to the paper, this week a Manhattan judge ordered the city to seize Dash's Chevrolet Tahoe, because he hasn't been making the $714 monthly payment.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of one in August from Eastern Savings Bank, who foreclosed on two of Dash's homes. The once powerful music mogul owed $7.3 million on two Tribeca condos, after Dash and his wife Rachel Roy failed to make their $78,500 mortgage payments for several months.

Dash also faces an outstanding $2.1 million tab with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, a $4,500 bill from the state for not paying workers' comp, and a suit that says he stiffed a law firm that handled his child-custody case.

In 2006, he told New York magazine that he had his own butler, and bragged that he was worth "about $50 million."

The Daily News sent emails to Dash's camp, but the mogul did not respond. His spokesperson told the paper that Dash "won all of his lawsuits."

Despite the claims, the paper digged up court records that show Dash settled two suits accusing him of not paying rent on two Manhattan offices, as well as suits charging that he owed money to fashion designer Charlotte Ronson, the fashion firm Showroom Seven, and a security company that guards celebs.

Sun Microsystems to cut off 15% of company's global workforce

Wow this is bad, but it just seems to be getting worse everytime you turn around. And I don't think we are anywhere near the bottom either. I think unemployment will double from what it is right now by the time we hit the bottom. I hope that I am way off and wrong, but things don't seem to be looking very good right now. The latest below.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. computer service provider Sun Microsystems said Friday it will lay off up to 6,000 workers, about 15 percent of its global workforce, as the latest of a series of layoff decisions announced by high-tech companies amid the gloomy economic outlook.

"We're taking sharp, decisive action to align ourselves to a new economic reality, and also to amplify our investment in the way the world is heading," said chief executive officer Jonathan Schwartz.

Sun Microsystems also said it will reorganize its software business and merge some divisions into other operations. The Silicon Valley computer server and software maker has been struggling with declining sales and a plunging stock price.

Schwartz said his company will move resources toward fast-growing parts of the world and reduce resources in areas where the company sees the economy contract, but declined to specify which business units or geographic areas will be affected by the layoff.

Sun Microsystems was hit especially hard by the recent stock market crash and credit crunch, as financial institutions and banks have been major customers for the company's high-end servers and storage systems. Its own stock price closed at 4.08 dollars a share Thursday, down from a high of 21.55 dollars a share earlier this year.

Kashkari Says Treasury Approving 20 Bank Stakes Today

I guess we are going to be spending more of our tax dollars for all the already rich bankers who are needing bailouts today. Well what are we going to do. Maybe we should all start a huge company and make a butt load of bad bets and when we are out of money go to the government and tell them that if they don't bail us out then the entire economy is going to fail without us. Oh Well. I called them and they told they wouldn't give me any of the bailout money and that they never heard of my bank.

By Rebecca Christie and John Brinsley

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury is about to approve capital injections into 20 more banks, said Neel Kashkari, the department's assistant secretary in charge of a $700 billion bank-rescue plan.

``I think we're going to approve another 20 banks today, large and small across the country,'' Kashkari told a congressional panel today.

Kashkari fielded questioning from lawmakers concerned that the Treasury's equity purchase program won't do enough to help homeowners facing foreclosure. He said the Treasury has concluded that the capital injections are the ``best way'' to help the overall economy.

The Treasury has allocated $250 billion for purchasing stakes in U.S. banks and has so far approved $125 billion for nine big banks. More than 50 regional U.S. banks have offered stakes to the Treasury and are awaiting final decisions, according to Bloomberg data.

Banks apply first to their regulator to participate in the program. If the regulator approves, the applications go to the Treasury, which makes the final decisions.

Kashkari said the Treasury didn't see an application from National City Corp. for a capital injection. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. said last month it would buy National City for about $5.2 billion in stock after receiving a $7.7 billion investment from the Treasury.

PNC's Application

Kashkari declined to comment on any stake the Treasury might take in PNC. The Treasury has avoided discussing specific banks unless it completes a capital injection in them, although institutions are allowed to disclose preliminary approval if they choose.

Publicly traded banks had until today to decide whether to participate. Kashkari said terms for private banks are coming ``soon.''

Regarding the securities of mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the government took over on Sept. 7, Kashkari said they aren't quite completely guaranteed by the U.S. government, even though they have ``the Treasury's backing.''

``We provide a very strong implicit support,'' Kashkari said. ``It's darn close, but it's not quite full faith and credit.''

Overall, financial markets are starting to experience ``healing,'' Kashkari said. Even so, ``we're not out of the woods yet,'' he said.

Mortgage Rates

The Treasury views its efforts to help ease lending conditions as a way to reach homeowners directly, Kashkari said. ``Bringing mortgage rates down for borrowers is the best thing we could do,'' he said.

The U.S. Treasury also will try to ease ``distress'' in securities markets that is raising consumer borrowing costs, Kashkari said.

``We are examining strategies to support consumer access to credit outside the banking system, specifically the asset-backed securities market,'' Kashkari said in his prepared testimony for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's subcommittee on domestic policy.

The market for securitized auto loans, credit cards and student loans ``is currently in distress and its illiquidity is raising the cost and reducing the availability'' of consumer credit, Kashkari said.

TARP Shift

On Nov. 12, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that the Fed and his department were working on a backstop facility for asset-backed securities, with funds from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Details of the program haven't been announced.

Kashkari said the Treasury has ``stabilized'' mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and ``limited systemic risk'' that their failure would have posed. Overall, U.S. markets have improved, he said.

``Our system is stronger and more stable than just a few weeks ago,'' Kashkari said.

The Treasury is committed to transparency and oversight for the rescue efforts, Kashkari said. Lawmakers recently have raised concerns that the rescue effort isn't properly supervised.

When asked whether he'd stay on to manage TARP for the next administration, Kashkari, who has been putting in marathon hours, responded that he'd be ``honored'' to be asked to serve. ``I'd have to ask my wife,'' he said.

Separately, the White House announced today that Neil Barofsky, an assistant U.S. Attorney in New York's southern district and chief of a mortgage fraud unit, will be nominated to be the TARP's inspector general.

To contact the reporters on this story: Rebecca Christie in Washington at Rchristie4@bloomberg.net; John Brinsley in Washington at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net

the White Cockatoo Fights Economic Downturn Nude Party

I don't think I would be caught there with my pants down myself, but to each their own. I personally believe that if you like to do something and it doesn't hurt anybody else while your doing it then it is none of my business and you should be able to do what makes you happy. But again this really isn't my bag baby. I really don't understand why you would partner swap either. Unless you are with the girl in the first place to do it. But I am young and maybe I will understand later in life myself.

An Australian nude resort wants to bring back swingers and sex parties in a bid to boost sagging tourism figures.

The White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, north Queensland, is promoting an adults-only "anything goes" month of hedonism for March next year.

Owner of the White Cockatoo, Tony Fox, this week said it was time to lift a self-imposed swinger ban.

"Tough economic times call for stiff measures," Fox said. "We've taken the bull by the horns and it's going nuts; we're close to fully booked.

"It will be a hedonism resort, where anything goes for a month. We're not using the words sex or swingers, but it doesn't take rocket science to work out what it means."

Three years ago the controversial resort, once billed as the nation's top group-sex hotspot for swingers, hit the headlines when it closed its doors to partner-swapping.

The ban followed a series of out-of-control sex parties and orgies where, in one case, police were called to evict six swingers after a free-for-all sex romp in a chalet.

In another, a naked husband and wife in their mid-50s upset others with a rowdy display of balcony sex before breakfast.

Other guests complained of being propositioned for group sex by a stranger in her 30s.

Fox said he had since imposed a strict set of rules for the ordinary nudist season.

Cairns Catholic Bishop James Foley warned: "It might only end up cheapening the whole resort operation for a short term gain. Anyone who goes to a hedonist's party goes at their own risk."

Citigroup has begun big layoffs, Also raises Credit Card Rates

My mortgage is with these people. At least I don't have their credit card. This is why I always thought it was strange when Citigroup was trying to buy other banks.

A day after the bank's shares sunk under $10 for the first time since the 1990s, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and his deputies instructed officials to slash their budgets for employee compensation by at least 25%, The Wall street Journal reported. See related story.
The paper added that managers could minimize the number of employees they fire by dismissing higher-paid traders and bankers.

Shares of Citigroup managed a modest gain in early trading Friday, bucking a downtrend in the financial sector and rising 3.5%.

Citi's layoffs are the latest in a brutal round of job cuts across the financial industry. The cuts have been sparked by unprecedented losses due to bad credit investments, as well as the subsequent precipitous drop in banking and other financial services business amid the worst economic conditions in 70 years.

Citi said raising rates for up to 1 in five card customers

Meanwhile, Citi is reportedly also notifying some of its credit-card customers that their interest rates are being raised by an average of three percentage points, the report said. Citigroup is one of the nation's largest issuers of credit cards, with 54 million active accounts.

The report cited an unnamed source as saying the rate increases would apply to less than 20% of Citigroup's card portfolio.

Earlier this month, Citigroup said that it lost $1.4 billion in the third quarter from credit card securitizations and that it expects such losses will continue, possibly reaching record levels in 2009.
The result compared to a gain of $169 million from credit card securitizations in the year-earlier period.

Those comments showed that Citi, like other firms, was unable to package up, or securitize, the loans it makes to customers and sell them into the secondary market.

A higher interest rate would make the difficult-to-sell loans more attractive for secondary market buyers, as well as make them more productive should Citi have to keep them on their own balance sheet.

At that time, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Citi cautioned, "credit card losses may continue to rise well into 2009, and it is possible that the company's loss rates may exceed their historical peaks."

GE Bailout

Well I have no idea what these people in Washington are thinking. Why are you going to bailout one of the countries leading companies. GE does have one bad arm in it's corporation. But still everything thing else they do should hold it up.

General Electric Co. said the U.S. government agreed to insure as much as $139 billion in debt for lending arm GE Capital Corp., the second time in a month it has turned to a federal program designed to help companies during a global credit crunch.

This is crazy. The national debt keeps climbing for every american and these rich Fat cats are just getting richer and richer on our tax dollars. I hope the new presidency taking over changes some things, but even if they have to best intentions they might fight a lost battle because everything might be gone by the time they get into power.

Citigourp looking at Chevy Chase Bank

I find this hard to believe. I am sure it is going to happen, but this is my point. Citigroup is not in a good position to buy anything. They couldn't buy WAMU when it went under. They are in in the same deep water as most of these other mortgages that have a good chance of having to declare bankruptcy. Even with the bailout.

But I digress.

The Wall Street Journal reported the story in its Thursday edition, saying Citigroup is one of numerous bidders for Chevy Chase Bank.



Chevy Chase Bank is reportedly in negotiations with potential buyers, including banking giant Citigroup.


I have not been able to find confirmation on this though.

General Growth Properties

I guess this is one way to jumpstart your indexes ratings. Drop the fat and add better perfoming stocks at the time. This is very common with all indexes on the stock market.

S&P said Tuesday that it would drop the real estate investment security General Growth Properties Inc. from the S&P 500 index and replace it with Cephalon Inc.


General Growth, the second largest U.S. mall operator, warned Tuesday it may file for bankruptcy and its shares plummeted 64 percent in regular trading. I am glad that I have not invested in this stock. Even though it is hard to find a good one right now.

At the close it had a market value of $128 million, ranking 500th on the index.

Cephalon, which makes Provigil for patients with narcolepsy, meanwhile saw its shares rise to $72.43.

Replacing Cephalon on the S&P MidCap 400 index after Friday's close will be the oil and gas driller Mariner Energy Inc.

So where does General Growth go?

Dell Financial Services - Coupons

Looks like someone is feeling the financial crisis pinch a little bit harder now. In an effort to jumpstart consumer spending Dells Financial Center has come out with some very nice coupons in order to get you to buy their products. The coupons can be found below.

Dell Financial Services Coupons and Offers	Expiration
SAVE $125 on laptops priced $499 & up Enter Dell Refurbished Coupon Code: U3s?125Edfs	11-17-2008
SAVE $75 on desktops priced $249 & up Enter Dell Refurbished Coupon Code: Kum50#eDfs	11-17-2008
SAVE $75 On Laptops Priced $499 & Up Enter Dell Refurbished Coupon Code: Cj>B$75dfs	11-17-2008
$25 off Desktops $249 & up Enter Dell Refurbished Coupon Code: 8my(25#Dfs	11-17-2008
10% off any Dell Laptop or Desktop Enter Dell Refurbished Coupon Code: CJ0408$DF	??

SIRIUS XM Radio Announces New Channel Lineups

I am glad I just bought 600 shares of theirs for only 150 bucks. Not a bad low risk investment if you ask me. Sure it is going to tank farther with the auto makes industry falling, However if the auto bailout happens then they will bounce back. As well as new products coming out where you don't only have to listen to SIRIUS in the car.

SIRIUS today unveiled new enhanced channel lineups. Effective immediately, and for the first time, XM subscribers will hear SIRIUS' dynamic and exclusive music, news, talk, sports and comedy shows and channels, and SIRIUS subscribers will have access to XM's equally diverse and unique content.
SIRIUS and XM subscribers will hear the exclusive music, talk and comedy channels and shows from Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, Elvis Presley, Grateful Dead, Eminem, Frank Sinatra, Jamie Foxx, Metropolitan Opera, NPR, NYU's Doctor Radio, The Catholic Channel, Blue Collar Comedy, Cosmo Radio, Tom Petty, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, the Grand Ole' Opry, Barbara Walters, Deepak Chopra, and more, now available to all subscribers. The change delivers to all current subscribers unquestionably the best lineup of audio entertainment today.

Specific times and exact channel numbers for the new lineups of SIRIUS and XM can be found at: http://www.sirius.com/newlineup and http://www.xmradio.com/newlineup.
About SIRIUS XM Radio

SIRIUS XM Radio is America's satellite radio company delivers to more than 18 million subscribers.

SIRIUS XM Radio has content relationships with an array of personalities and artists, including Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Buffett, Elvis, Jamie Foxx, Barbara Walters, Frank Sinatra, Opie & Anthony, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tom Petty, and Bob Edwards. SIRIUS XM Radio is the leader in sports programming as the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, NBA, NHL, and PGA TOUR, and broadcasts major college sports.

SIRIUS XM Radio has arrangements with every major automaker. SIRIUS XM Radio products are available at shop.sirius.com and shop.xmradio.com, and at retail locations nationwide, including Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack, Target, Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart.
SIRIUS XM Radio also offers SIRIUS Backseat TV, the first ever live in- vehicle rear seat entertainment featuring Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network; XM NavTraffic(R) service for GPS navigation systems delivers real-time traffic information, including accidents and road construction, for more than 80 North American markets.

updates coming soon

updates coming soon

A Dreadfall Jobs Report

Today’s jobs report was dreadful — much worse than economists had anticipated — and you will be hearing a lot of comparisons that try to put it in context. This one may be the most telling:

The share of adults who are working — 61.8 percent — is at its lowest level in 15 years. And even that, arguably, understates the depth of the problem. Fifteen years ago, women were less likely to be in the labor force than they today. The share of adult men with jobs, which has been gradually falling for much of the last few decades, is now at its lowest level since the Labor Department began keeping records in 1948.

Just about every economist thinks that the labor market will continue to get worse, which means it’s on a path to be in its worst shape since the painful recession of the early 1980s.

The worst news in the report was tucked away in the details. Every month, the Labor Department releases an initial estimate of the employment change from the previous month and then updates that estimates as new data comes in over the following two months. This morning, it said that employers had cut 284,000 jobs in September — almost twice as many as initially thought. They also cut another 240,000 jobs in October. The cuts are of roughly the same scale as those in the months immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The one bright spot is that inflation is abating, mostly because of plunging oil prices. So while the real weekly pay fell 2 percent between September 2007 and September 2008, it fell only 1.4 percent between October 2007 and October 2008.

But a drop of 1.4 percent is still pretty terrible. It’s a bigger drop than at almost any point during the 2001 recession or in the wake of it. Back then, households were also able to dip into their rising home values to supplement their incomes. Not anymore. No wonder the latest retail numbers have been so dismal.

Cerberus may give up GMAC control to get bank status: Bloomberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cerberus Capital Management may pass its control of GMAC LLC to its investors so the financing unit can convert to a bank and get access to government funds, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

A source familiar with private equity firm Cerberus said no determination had been made about the structure of GMAC.

Bloomberg reported that Cerberus is mulling a plan to distribute its 51 percent stake in embattled GMAC among investors in its funds.

By forfeiting its control of the company, Cerberus may help GMAC become a bank and get funding from the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve without requiring Cerberus to submit to banking regulations, Bloomberg said.

A Cerberus spokesman declined comment.

Cerberus led a group in 2006 that paid General Motors Corp $7.4 billion in cash for 51 percent of Detroit-based GMAC. GM owns the other 49 percent.