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Bad Moon Rising? or, There Goes Our Profits!
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/section/breakingnews
Consumer confidence in upstate New York continues to fall
First published: May 08, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Last modified: May 08, 2008 at 12:29 pm
ALBANY – Consumer confidence continues to slump across the Empire State and the nation as Americans are increasingly worried about soaring prices and the overall state of the economy.
In a survey released Thursday, the Siena Research Institute reports that upstate New York as a region has the least confidence in the economic future. While the national current consumer confidence index dropped a sharp 7.2 points to 77.0, upstaters registered a current consumer confidence index of 57.6.
Even bleaker is upstaters’ confidence index for the future, which came in at only 47.2 for April, is down from 49.6 in March and 71.0 in April 2007.
[Insert cotton balls]..."I'll make him an offa he can't refuse!"
I expect honesty too, but sometimes people have to be 'persuaded'.
I love this part from their latest 10ksb-->
CODE OF ETHICS
The Company does not have a written code of ethics applicable to its executive officers. The Board of Directors has not adopted a written code of ethics because there is only one member of management.
I hope that isn't Susan McDougal...
Tom is married?
Reminds me of a great scene from the movie, Sabrina (1995 version):
Linda: Sabrina went out with Linus? That's too weird.
Scott: I always thought that guy was gay.
Rosa: Mr. Linus is not a gay.
Joanna: It's not "a" gay, Rosa. It's just gay.
Linda: Linus is gay? That makes me like him more.
Fairchild: Linus Larabee is a heterosexual.
Can someone please explain why .0007 is the magic number?
I thought .005 was the "real" bottom.
"If it dips..." Is it possible to dip when in freefall? LOL!
Give us a break. I suppose there is no room here for second-guessing reckless management, or the pie-in-the-sky dreams of those pumping cashless buyouts, or those saying 1812 would be the next Sam Adams. It is as you say...just your .0007 cents worth.
Exactly...remember Hillary and her cattle futures trades?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_cattle_futures_controversy
Buffett ain't immune to losing money...
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/05/02/buffett-struck-by-1-7-billion-worth-of-financial-wmd-losses/
Buffett struck by $1.7 billion worth of financial WMD losses
Posted May 2nd 2008 9:04PM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Earnings reports, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Just days after the fifth anniversary of George W. Bush's landing on an aircraft carrier in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner, the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) have finally been located. But not in Iraq or Iran or Syria.
These WMDs are of the financial variety. The ones against which Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s (NYSE: BRK.A) CEO Warren Buffett railed in his 2003 annual report. There he called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal." And Reuters reports that these are the very financial WMDs that cost Berkshire $1.7 billion in charges in the first quarter of 2008.
This proves that George W. Bush was right and so was Warren Buffett. But Berkshire shareholders are also smarting due to a 64% drop in its net income and a 24% tumble in its revenues.
Berkshire's financial WMDs cost it $1.7 billion. Its pretax derivatives losses included a $1.2 billion loss on put options it wrote on the Standard & Poor's 500 and three foreign stock indexes and a $490 million loss on contracts that require payouts if some high-yield bonds default between now and 2013.
Worst of all, Berkshire's cash fell almost $9 billion to $35.57 billion -- down from $44.33 billion at year end.
Times must be tough indeed if George W. Bush is finally proved right about WMDs -- although the wrong kind in the wrong place -- and Warren Buffett is hoisted on his own petard.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Berkshire Hathaway securities.
Tags: Berkshire Hathaway, BRK, inthenews, Warren Buffett, WMD
I guess it could be worse. Here's a positive spin to consider. We are 385% higher than the historic low...man, I feel rich just thinking about it.
Bought majority of my shares in July (avg. - .0078)
Value at high - $.086 (9/10/2007) - $187,050.00
Value at low - $.0007 (6/21/2007) - $1522.00
Today's current price - $.0034 - $7395.00
The legacy debt crippled this company out of the starting gate and effectively ruined the hopes of almost all common shareholders. What Tom did or didn't know is debatable. Whether or not his current plan can overcome the legacy debt disaster remains to be seen.
Thank God it's not a pizza joint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Connection_Trial
If it is immoral to squat on a website, then what would one call "overlooking" a toxic financing note that cost the company $millions? Whiz kid that he is, I find it hard to believe that Tom was surprised by that one.
Correction...10% owner of COMMON SHARES, so that in the case of liquidation due to bankruptcy, you will get 10% of nothing.
oh wait...sell into ARCA! That's the ticket.
Only tempting?...if you didn't have any doubts, you'd have scooped those up in a New York minute.
I promise you one thing...
If the share price continues going south, Dede Scozzafava will have to deal with TSHTF. It will become very public.
Well, in order to keep the money "in the family", we're limited to a driving range, unless Tom has his sights set on an 18 hole course in the near future.
450 jobs paying union scale, when lost, is a BIG deal to a town of 12,000. These are not lower paying service industry jobs that you will find in JRecks, Hacketts, Wisebuys, etc.
Well you got something there, bradakus. When Uncle Sam's fiat dollars begin to pour into an area, many will stand to benefit, including our group of local assets. Let's hope that Tom is smart enough to station our company into the middle of that federal funding stream.
Watertown Daily reporting a potential source of beer sales for Sackets.
Think of all the guys who'll be crying in their pint of 1812.
(All kidding aside, this is bad news for the area, and shows that the general economic slowdown will make it tougher on Tom's plan.)
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20080501/NEWS05/675139654/-1/news
Layoffs possible as Massena idles 2nd line
By DAVID WINTERS
TIMES STAFF WRITER
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2008
MASSENA — A second engine-head production line at the General Motors Powertrain plant will be idled in the coming weeks, meaning more layoffs could accompany the shutdown.
"That's a possibility, but it's a planned phaseout of the facility," GM spokeswoman Lynda A. Messina said, adding no specific date has been announced for the production line ceasing.
The number of layoffs will depend on how many United Autoworkers Local 465 members take advantage of the special attrition program and the number of employees needed to pick up increased production on the engine block line. The layoffs could affect up to 80 workers at the plant. GM recently idled one engine-head production line at the plant.
"We really won't know if any layoffs are needed until after the SAP deadline," Mrs. Messina said.
UAW members who decide to accept the buyout offer can sign up anytime before May 22 and will automatically have a seven-day cancellation option from the date they accept the buyout. GM officials didn't know the number of workers who would take advantage of the buyout.
GM will close its plant by year's end. While some employees may transfer to other GM plants and others will retire, many of its approximately 450 workers will be looking for jobs. The state Department of Labor is hosting a job fair from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today at the plant. Sponsors include GM and St. Lawrence County's One-Stop Career Center.
UAW Local 465 President Anthony J. Arquiett was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
It's called saturation bombing. The hope is that if you drop enough bombs, you'll eventually hit the target (which of course is to stir up interest enough for people to buy stock).
Wrong. You might think it's a sin, but a CEO in a public company should be compensated as much as shareholders allow. There is not much that we can do about Tom's compensation until a board of directors is set in place, and only then will we have representation enough to possibly influence those matters.
We may not like what Tom's compensation is, but heaven forbid that we should allow YOU or ME to dictate what is moral and immoral in this world. I doubt very much that you would be happy with someone butting into your life and deciding that you're too rich, or too fat, or too ugly, or...you name it.
PR appears in Pennsylvania newspaper...interesting.
Appears in online newspaper based in State College, PA, home of Penn State University
http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/561435.html
Hackett's Prepares for Launch of New Website
Website launch expected in mid-may
OGDENSBURG, N.Y. — Seaway Valley Capital Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: SWVC) ("Seaway Valley") announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Patrick Hackett Hardware Company ("Hackett's"), will be launching a new, more user-friendly website in mid-May. The site (www.hackettsonline.com) will offer customers up to date product information, new product offerings, in-store sales and specials, and certain Internet-only specials. The site, which is being developed by Infinite Media of Watertown, NY, will also be used for other information, such as store hours, locations and directions, and as an interactive forum for customer questions and feedback and "opt in" email alerts on new store specials. Hackett's eventually intends to roll out select e-commerce opportunities through the website. (follow link for all of article)
Maybe Tom thinks a PR flood will stave off the inevitable. Soon they'll be announcing baby births and wedding engagements.
Tom is involved in the not-for-profit Seaway Equity? Don't think so. Seems a bit out of character for him, don't you think?
http://www.specinvest.org/faq.html
What does SPEC stand for?
SPEC is an acronym for the Seaway Private Equity Corporation – a private, not-for-profit corporation located in St. Lawrence County, New York. It is responsible for overseeing the disbursement of up to $10-million in early-stage investment funds to attract the development of technologies and their associated businesses in St. Lawrence County, particularly those focused on renewable energy and environmental technologies.
Time for a heart to heart with a good friend...
Why does this sort of thing always happen to me, Linus?
"...he has been spot on each time!!"
Yeah, like the orchestrated move to .07...but who can blame him for missing that one, because he's smart enough to know that the ongoing dilution would make that scenario practically impossible. Makes you wonder why he even bothered to say it, unless he was just playing to a crowd begging for a morsel of hope. For all his talk, you would of thought he was a heavyweight ready to flex his financial muscles, but the anemic sales volumes over the last week tells us quite a different story. More bluff and bluster, at least up until now.
Mav...yer preaching to the choir. Scozzafava and Swartz weren't holding sub-sandwich buns in the picture published with merger news. I had an inkling then that the beer would be a focus of their combined efforts. I hope they can pull it off. Nothing would please me more than to belly up to the Sackets Harbor bar and quaff a few. Of course, my personal taste-testers would have to sample the local brew, to verify it's superior quality.
Northern New York? 15% of nobody is nobody. Did you read the list of businesses that serve their line? Joe's Body Shop. Sweet Willie's Deli. A nine hole golf course. They really need a big push in the marketing dept.
Point conceded. Beer is tough to give up even when you're scraping for nickels.
The ill-conceived national monetary policy of the Weimar Republic set an inevitable course of destruction for the German economy, yet it took a number of years before the worst effects became evident. IMO, we are headed down such a road.
Laugh all you want Professor, it is a whole lot more likely scenario than it was just 3 years ago.
The obvious downside of debt is not maintaining adequate cash flow in a economically depressed region of the northeast during a recession that is projected to give the Depression a run for it's money. This will be quickly followed by defaults on outstanding notes, and then where will we be? Renegotiating notes in a tighter credit market? If Tom can pull this off, I will hail him as the Miracle Man, but in my opinion, he is barely a step ahead of disaster.
I appreciate you feeding us DD from outside sources. I guess I really ought to be more thankful, after all, you could have just told us all to "Do it yourself...It's Finance 101!"
So what do you think of scotchfix's "orchestrated move to .07"?
Sorry bbb, I just had to laugh at that one. No offense intended. It's just that a "brewpub" by definition brews the beer in the pub.
"Like the idea of Brewpubs which brew beer "in" the pub!"
Hmmmmm....Now there's an innovative idea. ;^) It must be the nuances of the language.
We've been over this before...the schedules are missing. I will wait for the next filing.