Our Conure at 26 mos., "whats up", okay, thank you! :)
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In 1985 there were only 13 billionaires in the U.S. Today there are more than 1,000.
The richest 1% of Americans control more than 33% of the total wealth, their wealth is now greater than the bottom 90% of Americans. (Federal Reserve Surveys of Consumer Finance.
Who makes millions and billions? Entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers, private equity partners, real estate developers and corporate executives.
80 percent of the people with a net worth exceeding $30 million say they plan to spend more in 2008 than they did in 2007. (Prince Associates)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/24791078
Obama stated yesterday that the rules of the stock market is headed for some radical changes.
The thorn in all these companies are without question these outrageous payout compensations. The weight of the US problems comes to rest on the Presidents shoulders, whatever these may be?.
Our market and our economy has teetered on collapse, and his base salary is $400k. Paid by taxpayers.
Any, and I mean any Ceo who believes he is worth more than the President needs to find another line or work, and in the private sector. These comp packages are paid by no other than the investors and shareholders in these publicly trading companies...........salaries that should be based and paid by the company from the revenues it generates. This should include anyone affiliated with the company and all its employee's, checks cut from the profits the company has earned.
These comp packages are nothing more than the corruption thats been perpetrated on the American public and every investor alike. The percentage of shares initially issued to the founder, CLASS B OR PREFERRED SHARES, owner(s)/partner(s), gives them control of the company, and these shares should remain restricted till the company is sold, acquired, or its merged and the option that should be made available to the acquirer, or merged partner is to have first rights to those shares, and then those shares should remain restricted under the new owner(s),and control. If they choose not to exercise this option, and choose not to retain control the seller should then and only then be allowed to covert at least some of the shares to common then sell them on the open market.
THERE IS ZERO REASON WHY ANY OWNER OF ANY PUBLIC COMPANY SHOULD EVER AT ANY GIVEN TIME OWN COMMON A SHARES UNLESS THESE ARE PURCHASED ON THE OPEN MARKET. If the want to by and sell shares not based on insider information, they should have to buy like the rest of us.
Until the President can make these changes with the help of the Congress, and then eliminate [Ban] shortselling will they then eliminate all forms of naked shortselling. The punishment for any broker or Market Maker who involves themself in this acitivity should be heavily fined, license revocation, and jail.
If this would be the laying of a new foundation, and then build this new market on it, will the market ever be something other than what we've seen.........Reigning in the greed should be first priority. Even with major changes like this the market will never be a level playing field, but it would give the market alot more integrity................there are many things they can do to make investments safer, although risk will always be a apart of the equation, normal risk if all the corruption weren't there, but the risk today is a Casino that has spun out of control without checks and balances, and zero regulation, is the reason why taxpayers were put "On the Hook", and the very reasons for the Madoff's, and the Stanfords, and the Skillings, and the Kozloski's, and why the market has become nothing more than Den of thieves. A person may have a better chance in Vegas when we view the losses Investors eat every few years and at a time and on the notion that every thing in the market is good, and companies are beating the street, and out of nowhere comes the proverbial termed "market correction", which means the vacuum cleaners are now on, and investors captial are in the process of getting sucked out of the market, and it seems to happen at the exact same time when investors are still looking up.
Bear Market Category: ETF's that are shorting the market.
http://finance.yahoo.com/etf/browser/op?c=etf_bm
ETF FOCUS
New short-selling rules could boost ETFs
Bearish funds may get lift as SEC cracks down on abusive short selling
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-sec-rules-could-boost/story.aspx?guid={37459898-E37E-42C3-A199-4D47EBA02684}&dist=msr_13
The SEC said it is concerned "about the possible unnecessary or artificial price movements based on unfounded rumors regarding the stability of financial institutions and other issuers exacerbated by 'naked' short selling." The agency is also considering a rule that would require hedge funds to disclose their short positions. See related story.
However, the more stringent rules on short selling could drive interest in ETFs that allow investors to conveniently short entire segments of the market. The funds use derivatives and other financial instruments to deliver short exposure and leverage.
Naked short selling has become an explosive issue during the storm in financial and credit markets, and the SEC moved to act after Lehman Brothers fell into bankruptcy and American International Group Inc. (AIG:American International Group Inc
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AIG 1.60, +0.22, +15.9%) required a government rescue.
Shorting the market with ETFs
ProShares and Rydex Investments are ETF managers that oversee bearish funds that give the opposite daily return of market indexes, minus fees and expenses. Some of these ETFs also pile on leverage, which magnifies their volatility and results in bigger gains and potential losses for investors.
Although ProShares runs 64 ETFs, ProShares UltraShort Financials is its largest offering, and assets have broken through $4 billion at times even though the fund is less than two years old.
"So much for this"
After the initial bailout was passed the ban was lifted 3 days after, then it was business as usual.
A look back when Cox was Chairman. The Ban he put in place stipulates his reasoning behind it. The farce was the lifting of this ban 3 days after the bailout pkg was passed.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/financial-stocks-surge-short-selling/story.aspx?guid={D9DCCA3C-6953-4C4D-917A-22890BA217A0}&dist=msr_4
The Securities and Exchange Commission early Friday issued an emergency order temporarily banning short selling in the shares of 799 financial institutions. See full story.
The ban takes effect immediately and runs until midnight on Oct. 2 but can be extended if deemed necessary to protect investors. It won't last more than 30 days, the SEC said
Short selling, in which traders bet against stocks, has become more competitive in recent years as hedge fund assets soar and managers proliferate. Short sellers borrow a stock, betting its price will fall. When they return the shares to the lender at the original price, they profit from the difference.
"Better put how far they take it down, and only then pay the price for the shares devastated from their activity".
This bailout pkg(s) is just another scam perpetrated on the American people who are the taxpayers and investors. It never ends.............who will pay for it in the outlying years if the Govt doesn't get back the $170bn that may turn out to be only 2/3 or maybe just half of the real cost to the American people for AIG at present. They are either gonna need $80bn more, and could be as much as $130bn more before its over.
With all the CDS's still floating in the market, markets globaly, the company is still paying.
What is so unbelievable these insurance policies were sold in the OTC market, with zero oversight and regulations. No insurance regulators were involved, no banking regulators, no Sec regulators, no Federal regulators. The company did not have the collatoral, or the money to back these up, and the reason behine it, they believed they would never have to pay, and the housing market or the CDO's would continue indefinetly. That $150k home would eventually gain the value of a half million it appears they surmised...........when all the insiders were making it hand over fist they chose to continue until it imploded..........now the taxpayer can pay for this and their bonuses.................almost all those involved in allowing this to build are, shall we say, gone.........Bush, Paulson, Greitner is still with us, but Greenspan, Cox, the prior Ceo of the company who don't have to give any accountability are all gone.
If the govt doesn't get back the money, and I don't believe they will, future tax increases will, these tax increases will come in some form, perhaps the carbon tax added to a gallon of gas, taxed without it looking as if taxes aren't increasing. Hidden taxes. The govt won't lose. It could be the taxpayer will get both barrels, paying for it twice.
Injured Iraq War Veterans Paying More for Private Health Care
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aAJ3NoD9koOM&refer=us
Disabled veterans who don't live near clinics and hospitals operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Defense Department "can use Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, or purchase private health insurance". Either way, they pay more, said the report by inspectors general of the two departments.
Soldier Suicides at Record Level
Increase Linked to Long Wars, Lack of Army Resources
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/30/AR2008013003106.html
The Wounded and Walter Reed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/walter-reed/index.html
I'm sure you could teach me a thing or two regarding trading, I never got it down...:))
I agree. I think Jim can turn his show around if he wants to be an advocate for the individual investors who work hard for their money, and deserves all the looking out for. He can't play both sides of the fence, but he can give a fair shake to Ceo's who aren't just in it for themselves. $500k for comp + salary is an extreme amount of money, and if a company is executing, keeping the company profitable, and enhancing shareholder value over the long term without all the borrowing and diluting, trying to do all the right things, deserve a place on his show.
How could Cramer state he believed Bear Stearns were a bunch of honest guys?........this in itself is a lie, and would illustrate he is gullible, and we know he's not. GS, Lehman, JP Morgan, Citi, the lot of them are crooks............One was or is less greedier than the other, unless Cramer views them this way?.............who on Wall Street are honest guys?. Degrasso, who headed the Nyse was just as greedy and felt deserving of a $140m or so severance pkg sure wasn't, and he often vowed to keep trading honest, and his goal was to retain the Integrity of the exchange........it never happened, and he thought he should be rewarded big time even at departure.
Anyone hauling in a million + in a year off the backs of investors, needs to be given a hard look. Fuld was hauling in $50 million a year, GS Ceo this last year hauled in $70m............it comes by way of stock options.
Gates this year at $370m. What has this guy done this year to make him believe this is money he deserves he has coming to him from shareholders?........He gets a million in salary from MSFT, just this should come under scrutiny. I question if he is deserving of this, MSFT hasn't increased shareholder value in over 5 years..........in fact lost investors capital. What he really deserves is to be taken out in the proverbial courtyard. If he would have sold Msft and someone or some company was willing to buy it and he made billions due to them willing to pay it, this would be a different story, shareholders would have profitted to, but then we would need to look at where that money may be coming from or had come from............and if would make sense to sell?. He decided to linger on like a parasite and take it all. Msft is an old story. He monopolized long enough. Better things are out there, and better things will come in the future, and it won't be Msft. The only reason he wanted Yahoo was for the advertising bucks. I'm glad it didn't pan out. He would use it all and Msft to just get a bigger piece of the market, and no doubt more comp.
Chris you make some good points, but reading thru some of your thoughts, I think you misinterpret or misread several things. I guess you know that there must be at least 10 to 12 thousand companies that trade on the Nasdaq alone. I have no idea how many trade on the Amex, or the Nyse?........There are approx 20,000 that trade on the OTC, and its here where these CDS's were being sold and traded..........
You make a good point of who would then want to come on his show?..............In a dozen years he could never get all these senior Ceo's to come on, and who cares if the ones who are dirty would ever want to come?......
David Favour rarely pulls punches, he's after the facts, he may leave it up to the viewer to use their own discretion, but he does a pretty good job trying to unveil things that don't appear to be kosher.
The bottom line as Cramer would put it, zero regulation has led to worse than a casino atmosphere...........no insurance regulators, no banking regulators, no SEC regulators, no Finra, No DTCC, no anything has led to pure corruption into every aspect of the market, every nook, every crany. The question that people really need to be asking is who or why would anyone want to put their money at risk when the losses surpass the gains year after year............Its like playing against a stacked deck.............There are 10,000 hedgies operating in the Caymans, and these aren't registered with the SEC, like it would make a difference. No oversight, no regulations, no capital gains, no taxes, its a world all to its own. These funds operate out of US jurisdiction. The Hedgefund Industry controls half of the US market, and half of the London exchange, and the Caymans are British Territory, and when it comes to these Hedgies, these are their babies of our Congress, and the British Parliment, and for all the afore mentioned reasons..............Only the Mega rich can get into them, who are the mega rich?........Politicians are a good place as any to start then work our way up the ladder to the Billionaires.
Prior to the Anita Hill trial many of the laws created by Congress, or by our States, that would get us thrown in jail for if we broke, they were immune from. Things have change a bit since.
The 2 things that wreak havoc on the market and large corporations are shortselling done on borrowed stock, the other is stock options............if the Congress would ban and eliminate these 2 things then work their way thru the rest of what loopholes are causing more an more of the deterioration in the market would be a good foundation.
The market today is not the same as in the 30's, and what caused the collapse in 29 was corruption, and the rich got richer off those who wanted to believe they could create wealth in the market. None of the big boys lost their money in the banks even then. It was fixed, things are fixed today beyond the realm of what could be corruptably imagined.
Chris if there aren't radical changes in the market, not the uptick which is a farce, along with other things we've heard to skirt around what really needs to be instituted, next round may be the last round..............
The best way to give description of our system of govt is not to get so caught up in the belief we live in a democracy, far from it. Steward stated we have a two tier market, without question is true, we also have two systems of laws, one for us and one for the rich and powerful, two set of tax law, one for them the other for us............we live more in a Plutocracy. If you read about the Electoral College and what was really behind its creation should give us some insight to the mentality of our beauracy..............elections are fixed, fixed by money, and who has the most pull.
Truth, and honesty, and living by principals, and by Gods laws is the only real instructions we have to live by that gives us character, and makes us human, gives us substance, or we can choose to live by divisiveness, dishonesty and lies, and steal and cheat every chance given us, and care less about our fellow man, and when we lose this, anarchy may prevail, as long as we have leaders who are willing to send our men and women into unjustified wars, the same mentality that brought genocide on the Native Americans, the same mentality who brought on WW11 by monsters who believed they were the determining factors of who had the right to live, because they were better than the rest, and led to their destruction, and one day may cause ours if we don't get a grip, and solve the real out of control problems here at home, our Nation won't survive let alone our economy, or the market, our govt, our market, our economy is really nothing more than a display of ourselves, our country, and why we have chosen to shove this kind of capitalism down everyone elses throat..........Not looking abroad, not thru the UN, not the terrorist on some other front, the terrorist are the gang and drug cartels in our communities, and the corruption we see in the highest seats of govt says little to those who are corrupting our young people...........it will all lead to something way more disastrous than what we've have witnessed over the last decade.
Don't feel sorry for Jim our the rest of the Cnbc crowd, most of them are small but yet millionaires in their own right.
:))))
Three Ladies in a Sauna
THREE WOMEN, TWO YOUNGER, AND ONE SENIOR CITIZEN, WERE SITTING NAKED IN A SAUNA. SUDDENLY THERE WAS A BEEPING SOUND. THE YOUNG WOMAN PRESSED HER FOREARM AND
THE BEEP STOPPED. THE OTHERS LOOKED AT HER QUESTIONINGLY. 'THAT WAS MY PAGER,' SHE SAID. I HAVE A MICROCHIP UNDER THE SKIN OF MY ARM.
A FEW MINUTES LATER, A PHONE RANG. THE SECOND YOUNG WOMAN LIFTED HER PALM TO HER EAR. WHEN SHE FINISHED, SHE EXPLAINED, 'THAT WAS MY MOBILE PHONE. I HAVE A MICROCHIP IN MY HAND.'
THE OLDER WOMAN FELT VERY LOW -TECH. NOT TO BE OUT DONE, SHE DECIDED SHE HAD TO DO SOMETHING JUST AS IMPRESSIVE. SHE STEPPED OUT OF THE SAUNA AND WENT TO
THE BATHROOM. SHE RETURNED WITH A PIECE OF TOILET PAPER HANGING FROM HER REAR END.
THE OTHERS RAISED THEIR EYEBROWS AND STARED AT HER.
THE OLDER WOMAN FINALLY SAID.........WELL, WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT....I'M GETTING A FAX!!
Cramer couldn't find a way out..........this is what happens to those who speak with a forked tongue..........Cnbc can create their own spin, and take the markets down, or up, and right now its a fine line to create the right rhetoric so not to give themselves away........GE being the parent company, and who pays their checks giving the market a more optimistic outlook and a great time to get in for the "Long Haul", "especially for those with 401K's and various retirement funds who hold mutual funds", may just take it higher, most have done lousy, its now to time to move their remaining capital into stocks.........this is the very same thing people believed when they began investing in these vehicles, not once, not twice, nor thrice, each and everytime, if the gains were 10 to 12% over 3 years, and the downturn took as much as 50%+, this is 3 years in the toilet with loss capital.
Just like Steward said, there are 2 markets. One for what goes on behind the scenes, the Hedgies, the Wall Street Firms, and the sophisticated traders, and all these working in tandem are out to get the money that contributors put into these accounts bi-weekly.......they know when it occurs, when to play off the stocks when these funds show buying activity, at least the big boys do. They know when the money is on the sides, and when it begins coming back in.
laura, the 2 biggest things that destroys companies, and shareholders investing capital..........1. Shortselling......2. Exuberant mind bending comp pkgs. we know to come from stock options.........Hedgies may protect some companies by not shortselling, and keep the stock price at certain levels by owning enough shares, which allows for 2 things, exuberant Ceo comps, and dividends to themselves, if the payout makes it worth their while. What makes this attractive for offshore accounts, no taxes, no capital gains tax,no anything..........Cramer's Motto!!!-------"I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to make money!". The same mentality of Wall Street, and it doesn't matter who they screw to profit.................
What gave away more of the truth of SEC is when Cox lifted the ban on shortselling 3 days after the bailout bill was passed............The ban was put into effect to stop the shortselling of the 800+ financial firms...............What a farce..............this is indicative of who is getting rewarded. The trail leads from DC, to Wall Street, to the Caymans...........if enough damage had not already been inflicted, when the ban was lifted, and liquidity was put back into the market, the onslaught continued.......
Option Trading was not effected so they could still inflict pain if they chose to utilize them, but options are still not like having the ability to shortsell everyday on borrowed stocks...........Hedgies don't invest allot of their capital, but have the capital to get almost anything they want without laying out alot of cash..........
Its pure corruption, designed for those the Govt along with all the regulatory agencies, including the IRS have constructed to give them the means of getting more and more control for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. "The Golden Key" or the means that gave them full reign was "Deregulaton"...........Putting all their people in all the right places............Greenspan for example, Cox, Paulson, now its Geitner, all the key people who make all the rules, or know the right people who could lift the constraints. Removing the Uptick rule, Mark to Market, it just goes on and on.........over 66,000 amendments to the IRS taxcodes.............Without any question qualifies this to be a govt of Plutocracy, not democracracy........I believe even the elections are fixed today...........Money Rules!
Re-instating the uptick rule today is a Joke, its a farce, hedgies today have established MM's to do their bidding, it means nothing..............only the absolute ban on shortselling, and the elimination of stock options will ever work to end this corruption and this is just a start.......Think they don't know this?...........The corporate big wigs, their key personal, and employee's should receive pay from generated revenues..........a paycheck, not stock options, but worse, some even receive both.............like gates, a million in salary, and a half billion in stock, the stockholders can pay the rest.
Whether its Democrats or Republicans, they all receive the same perks, new lease cars, the best health care, pensions only they can qualify for after one term, and the only people other than in corporate board rooms where Ceo's vote yes on their multi-million dollars pay pkgs who vote for their own raises and have the power to pass it, regardless of what America has to say when opposed to them receiving raises, kinda like shareholders who hold Common A shares, but who are the people who pay them thru buying the stock, like Bill Gates in 1.5 wks in just this year already has sold stock at a cost of $370 million to shareholders and investors, and this is just March. ITS LIKE CLUB MED!.......The legal mafia, and its all fixed to protect them against voters, and when it comes to the market, its to protect the most wealthy, those given the helm to control every aspect of it from suffering losses from investors........even the brokers and all the middlemen who are all looking to get their take.
What we need are real banks, who pay real interest on passbook savings, and CD's who bear enough interest to keep up with inflation. Banks need to be made dependent on depositors, and not be allowed to have an investment brokerage side to their institution. Its all this and all this overnight lending, among many other things, like the issuance of Credit Cards, along with every other little charge they can imagine to put on customers who utilize them.
By their very design have pushed the would be customers into the stock market, a market these investment banks play. Look at what its done to so many........all this and then there are the CDO's and the CDS's............its a really really sick system of govt, and its run by money, not on principals, and certainly not on equality.
Thanks for the update.........sounds like RA is on the lamb.
Pearlie must be a pretty rich girl by now, wouldn't ya say?
Hi Jan............whatever happened to RA?........did he pay his fine and then recieve his get of jail card, or is he still in and didn't yet pass go?................:)))......Does he still possess Board Walk where he launched his boat to haul it all to the Caymans?......this guy was some kind of bullshitter!:))
How is our darling Pearl these days?........any gold nuggets or gold bars?..............Did they ever blow out that side of that mountain?.............
Capone said it best, "The stock market is a racket!". It attracts the best of people! :)))
"Estimated Market Cap
$11,209,180 as of Mar 13, 2009"
"This is a deficit marketcap"------------stockholder equity deficit(losses) or a River of red ink as wide and long as the Colorado, -liabilities he claims????, just wonder what these liabilities would entail?, he doesn't have one not one red cent invested in this symbol, and his scam business model, investors bought and paid for this company symbol and any assets he claims he still holds, many, many, many times over. With investor losses plus the liabilities he's hoping will reflect some short term debt would total: $11,063,949. I wish he would go a little more in to detail about what these liabilities are and the bank that he wants to smoke everyone into believing that he has a positive marketcap of over $11 million.....................if this would be the case the SEC could sure go after it. The millions that do exist is in his personal, no doubt "secretive account", or maybe just in his mothers safe deposit box?.............when the bars slams behind them money has a way of surfacing, in particular if this involves a contempt charge for not giving it up when the Judge gives such a ruling.
OTC Market Tier
Pink Sheets Limited
Primary SIC — Industry Classification
1499 - Miscellaneous nonmetallic mining
Business Stage
Exploration Stage Company
State Of Incorporation
NV
Jurisdiction Of Incorporation
United States
Year Of Incorporation
1997
Company Officers
Richard M. Berman, President, CEO
SEC Reporting Status
non-SEC Reporting Company
CIK
0001071220
Fiscal Year End
12/31
"Estimated Market Cap
$11,209,180 as of Mar 13, 2009" "This is a deficit marketcap"
Outstanding Shares
112,091,800 as of Mar 2, 2009
Authorized Shares
15,000,000,000 as of Mar 2, 2009
"Number of Share Holders of Record
98 as of Mar 2, 2009" -------------WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE??????
Float
10,194,644 as of Mar 2, 2009---------------MEANINGLESS
Current Capital Change
shs decreased by 1 for 10000 split
Pay Date: Feb 3, 2009]/b]
Security Notes
Capital Change=shs increased by 2.5 for 1 split. Ex-date=11-3-05. Rec date=10-31-05. Pay date=11-2-05
Capital Change=shs increased by 5 for 1 split. Ex-date=10-6-06.
Payable upon surrender Capital Change=shs decreased by 1 for 100 split. Pay date=11-27-06.
Capital Change=shs decreased by 1 for 5000 split Pay date=03/03/2008.
Transfer Agent
PacWest Transfer
2510 Pines Rd North
Spokane Valley, WA 99206
http://www.pinksheets.com/otciq/ajax/showFinancialReportById.pdf?id=19730
STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT)
Capital Stock (15,000,000,000 authorized,
10,919,000,010 shares issued and outstanding
with Par Value of .001
Accmulated Deficit
Total Stockholders' Equity (Deficit)
*TOTAL LIABILITIES AND **STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT)
$
$
$
$
0.00
*340,105.44
0.00
340,105.44
10,919,000.01
(1,287,348.40)
**(9,436,495.50)
535,261.55
Cramer vs. Stewart: Post-Fight Analysis
Posted Mar 13, 2009 05:07pm EDT by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Banking
Related: TSCM, VIA, JPM, BAC, WB, ^DJI, ^GSPC
A week-long verbal battle between cable TV personalities Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer came to a head on The Daily Show Thursday night. By nearly all accounts, Stewart won in a unanimous decision, if not a knockout:
"Cramer was playing rope-a-dope while Stewart swung away," writes Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz. "Jim seemed more concerned with being liked than justifying what he does for a living. It was a mismatch."
Some other items of note:
While eager to admit some mistakes, Cramer defended himself (in part) by saying Wall Street CEOs such as Dick Fuld lied to him and (by extension) other CNBC personalities. "I had a lot of CEOs lie to me on the show," he said, suggesting former Bear Stearns and Wachovia executives also misled him.
Stewart's populist rants often got in the way of any real conversation, and Cramer rarely has been at such a loss for words. Stewart tapped into the anger many Americans are feeling toward Wall Street and the financial media, given the ongoing bailout bonanza and the decimation to our collective portfolios: Americans' total wealth fell 18% in 2008, according to the Fed, the biggest annual loss since they started tracking the data after WW2.
Stewart said repeatedly his issue was with CNBC generally, not Cramer personally. But it sure seemed like Stewart's attack was directed at Cramer. (Of course, Cramer was sitting there and further invited attack by sarcastically dismissing Stewart earlier in the week.)
Speaking of the personal, I made a cameo appearance on 'The Daily Show' last night when Stewart showed clips of a segment I filmed with Cramer for TheStreet.com back in 2006. (Full disclosure: I worked for TheStreet.com, which Cramer co-founded, from 1998 to 2007. The company and Cramer were good to me and I still own some shares, much to my dismay.)
In the clip, "Cramer explained how traders gamed the system and seemed to say he had used such techniques in his Wall Street days," as Kurtz writes. There was a minor flap about the segment back in early 2007 and it's certainly received a lot of attention this week.
On The Daily Show, Cramer said he was speaking hyperbolically and denied having done those things personally. "I didn't do it," he said.
While I have no doubt Cramer pushed the envelope before he got out of the hedge fund business in 2000, I had assumed the same during the "infamous" video. I believed he was speaking hypothetically and trying to call attention to what hedge fund managers were doing then versus what he had done five-plus years prior.
Of course, that was my mistake because journalists (especially) should never assume. For when you assume...
"18% is an understatement"..........Some have lost 50% and more just in 401k's
Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer...Who you got? John Stewart WINS!
http://yotamak.blogs.com/davidkamatoy/2009/03/jon-stewart-vs-jim-cramerwho-you-got-john-stewart-wins-.html
CNBC's Jim Cramer go face to face in the studio. 21:24 minutes
http://www.fancast.com/tv/The-Daily-Show-With-Jon-Stewart/89142/1060171878/The-Daily-Show-with-Jon-Stewart-31209/videos?autoPlay=false&cmpid=ppc|ge|gs|2834016264|john%20stewart&9gtype=content&9gkw=john%20stewart&9gad=2834016264&9gag=1148478714&s_kwcid=ContentNetwork|2834016264
Jon Stewart Slams Jim Cramer,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/jon-stewart-slams-jim-cra_n_173738.html
Cramer vs. Stewart: Post-Fight Analysis
Posted Mar 13, 2009 05:07pm EDT by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Banking
Related: TSCM, VIA, JPM, BAC, WB, ^DJI, ^GSPC
A week-long verbal battle between cable TV personalities Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer came to a head on The Daily Show Thursday night. By nearly all accounts, Stewart won in a unanimous decision, if not a knockout:
"Cramer was playing rope-a-dope while Stewart swung away," writes Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz. "Jim seemed more concerned with being liked than justifying what he does for a living. It was a mismatch."
Some other items of note:
While eager to admit some mistakes, Cramer defended himself (in part) by saying Wall Street CEOs such as Dick Fuld lied to him and (by extension) other CNBC personalities. "I had a lot of CEOs lie to me on the show," he said, suggesting former Bear Stearns and Wachovia executives also misled him.
Stewart's populist rants often got in the way of any real conversation, and Cramer rarely has been at such a loss for words. Stewart tapped into the anger many Americans are feeling toward Wall Street and the financial media, given the ongoing bailout bonanza and the decimation to our collective portfolios: Americans' total wealth fell 18% in 2008, according to the Fed, the biggest annual loss since they started tracking the data after WW2.
Stewart said repeatedly his issue was with CNBC generally, not Cramer personally. But it sure seemed like Stewart's attack was directed at Cramer. (Of course, Cramer was sitting there and further invited attack by sarcastically dismissing Stewart earlier in the week.)
Speaking of the personal, I made a cameo appearance on 'The Daily Show' last night when Stewart showed clips of a segment I filmed with Cramer for TheStreet.com back in 2006. (Full disclosure: I worked for TheStreet.com, which Cramer co-founded, from 1998 to 2007. The company and Cramer were good to me and I still own some shares, much to my dismay.)
In the clip, "Cramer explained how traders gamed the system and seemed to say he had used such techniques in his Wall Street days," as Kurtz writes. There was a minor flap about the segment back in early 2007 and it's certainly received a lot of attention this week.
On The Daily Show, Cramer said he was speaking hyperbolically and denied having done those things personally. "I didn't do it," he said.
While I have no doubt Cramer pushed the envelope before he got out of the hedge fund business in 2000, I had assumed the same during the "infamous" video. I believed he was speaking hypothetically and trying to call attention to what hedge fund managers were doing then versus what he had done five-plus years prior.
Of course, that was my mistake because journalists (especially) should never assume. For when you assume...
Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer...Who you got? John Stewart WINS!
http://yotamak.blogs.com/davidkamatoy/2009/03/jon-stewart-vs-jim-cramerwho-you-got-john-stewart-wins-.html
CNBC's Jim Cramer go face to face in the studio. 21:24 minutes
http://www.fancast.com/tv/The-Daily-Show-With-Jon-Stewart/89142/1060171878/The-Daily-Show-with-Jon-Stewart-31209/videos?autoPlay=false&cmpid=ppc|ge|gs|2834016264|john%20stewart&9gtype=content&9gkw=john%20stewart&9gad=2834016264&9gag=1148478714&s_kwcid=ContentNetwork|2834016264
Jon Stewart Slams Jim Cramer,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/jon-stewart-slams-jim-cra_n_173738.html
http://www.pinksheets.com/edgar/GetFilingHtml?FilingID=6475791
According to the notice received from the NYSE, the suspension of trading is occurring because the Registrant has failed to meet the continued listing standard regarding average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period of not less than $15 million. The Registrant does have a right to a review of this determination by a committee of the Board of Directors of NYSE Regulation and will continue to be listed until such time of the appeal. The Registrant expects to utilize this appeal process; however, there are only limited solutions available. The Registrant has not yet been notified as to the timing of the appeal process.
Its unlikely, but they could have done a r/s, and this would have taken them over a dollar even more depending just how deep they wanted to go, but if this were gonna happen, they would have done it before as a last resort............they are just one of the many who have been taken down. Its hard to say at this stage what their plans may or may not be?
For some the Ceo's and Key executives helped with the onslaught.
Could be that market conditions just aren't good enough for the challenge?..........AT&T fell from grace and came back from the pinks some years ago, and then later got bought out. When the fall off the senior exchange they lessen their opportunities to raise the kinda of cash when they may need it the most...........Their only other resource may be the retailer, but in reality it almost always comes back to the public thru directly selling to the public, or indirectly thru an accreditor.
Hospitality stocks are suffering right now due to the economy, unless its a high end resort like the AIG crowd stayed at, or the Democratic Party, then the Republican Party, then it was the AFL-CIO execs who stayed in Miami's finest, top tier sweet $1400 a night. :)))
Paid for by the taxpayer who may now be unemployeed, and union members, who to may be unemployeed............crazy huh?.............The finest of arrogant displays, nothing like livin it up at everyones else's expense.
True, it sold off the next day...........but ya know Phil, this stock is reacting about the same as most. Its worse than playing at a casino, at least there we know what we would be up against...........the market is full of deceit based on lies...............and just as expected, here comes their touts after siphoning all they could out of the market, and into the trillions. And they truly believe everyone will fall for it all again............safe guard capital above all the BS.
Its worth the time to do the homework before laying down any cash.
Not much has really changed...a reflection in time.
The white man's lust for gold and land was all consuming
http://www.georgiatribeofeasterncherokee.com/TrailofTears.htm
Interstate Hotels & Resorts Receives Notice of Suspension of Trading from NYSE
ARLINGTON, Va., March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Interstate Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:IHRNYSE:toNYSE:beNYSE:tradedNYSE:overNYSE:theNYSE:counterNYSE:underNYSE:theNYSE:tickerNYSE:symbol: IHRI), a leading hotel real estate investor and the nation's largest independent hotel management company, today announced that it had received notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its common stock, under the ticker symbol IHR, will be suspended from trading prior to the market opening on March 12, 2009.
According to the March 5, 2009 notice from the NYSE, the suspension is occurring because Interstate did not meet the continued listing standard requiring maintenance of a minimum $15 million market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period. The company had previously announced on December 2, 2008, that it had failed to maintain the continued listing standard which requires a $1.00 minimum average closing price over a consecutive 30 trading day period. While the $1.00 minimum average requirement allows for a company to have a six-month cure period, there is no such period available for a failure to meet the minimum market capitalization requirement.
The company will seek an appeal of the delisting determination as permitted by the NYSE though there are only limited solutions available. The company has not yet been notified as to the timing of the appeal process. Until the appeal is heard, Interstate will remain listed, but will not trade, on the NYSE.
The company's senior secured credit facility agreement requires that the company be listed on the NYSE. KPMG LLP, the company's external auditor, has notified the Audit Committee and management that since Interstate's potential delisting from the NYSE creates a credit facility covenant issue, which, if not resolved, could result in acceleration of the credit facility debt, its auditor report on the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 will include an explanatory paragraph related to the uncertainty of the company's ability to continue as a going concern. The company's credit facility also includes a covenant requiring an audit opinion without exception.
The company is in active discussions with its credit facility lenders to receive a waiver through June 30, 2009, related to the covenant requiring listing on the NYSE as well as the covenant dealing with audit opinions. While there can be no assurances that the company can obtain the waiver, a waiver of these covenants only requires a 51 percent vote by the credit facility lenders.
Thomas F. Hewitt, the company's chief executive officer, stated that, "Interstate is working quickly to resolve these technical defaults by the end of March so that it can focus its attention on an extension of the credit facility, which the company is working to obtain prior to June 30, 2009."
Bruce A. Riggins, chief financial officer of the company, noted that, "These technical issues relating to our credit facility do not impact the individual mortgage notes on our three wholly owned hotels."
As previously announced, the company will distribute a press release and hold a conference call to discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year results for the year ended December 31, 2008 tomorrow, March 12th, at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The call will be hosted by Chief Executive Officer Thomas F. Hewitt and Chief Financial Officer Bruce Riggins. Stockholders and other interested parties may listen to a simultaneous webcast of the conference call on the Internet by logging onto Interstate's Web site, http://www.ihrco.com/, or http://www.streetevents.com/.
As notification from the NYSE was received only very recently, the company is continuing to evaluate the disclosures to be included in management's discussion and analysis and the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto to be included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K. The company intends to file for a 15-day extension to allow it to file its Annual Report on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than March 31, 2009.
About Interstate Hotels & Resorts
Interstate Hotels & Resorts has ownership interests in 57 hotels and resorts, including seven wholly owned assets. Together with these properties, the company and its affiliates manage a total of 225 hospitality properties with more than 46,000 rooms in 37 states, the District of Columbia, Russia, Mexico, Belgium, Canada and Ireland. Interstate Hotels & Resorts also has contracts to manage 16 to be built hospitality properties with approximately 4,000 rooms. For more information about Interstate Hotels & Resorts, visit the company's Web site: http://www.ihrco.com/.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements," within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, about Interstate Hotels & Resorts, including those statements regarding future operating results and the timing and composition of revenues, among others, and statements containing words such as "expects," "believes" or "will," which indicate that those statements are forward-looking. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially, including the volatility of the national economy, economic conditions generally and the hotel and real estate markets specifically, the war in Iraq, international and geopolitical difficulties or health concerns, governmental actions, legislative and regulatory changes, availability of debt and equity capital, interest rates, competition, weather conditions or natural disasters, supply and demand for lodging facilities in our current and proposed market areas, and the company's ability to manage integration and growth. Additional risks are discussed in Interstate Hotels & Resorts' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Interstate Hotels & Resorts' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007.
Contact: Bruce Riggins Chief Financial Officer (703) 387-3344
DATASOURCE: Interstate Hotels & Resorts
CONTACT: Bruce Riggins, Chief Financial Officer of Interstate Hotels &
Resorts, +1-703-387-3344
Web Site: http://www.ihrco.com/
It did close at .40, its also closed higher, so he was right.
mark to market. The honorole system?. A market that had no integrity to begin with, the reasons we've witnessed the prevalent fraud and corruption has been due to the influence corporations, both large, and small be allowed to do whatever they want, the reasons behind deregulation, the reasons behind removing the uptick rule in the first place was to allow shortselling to control the market thru Hedgefunds. If we look at the way the system is set up, was done to allow the big money to control every aspect of it. Imagine just 10,000 HF's offshore, non registered, deregulated, no oversight, outside of US jurisdiction who were banned from shorting the financials till the bailout bill passed which put money into the system, and 3 days later the ban was lifted by Cox, speaks volumes...........we witnessed the outcome.
Every vunerable company was and is at their mercy. No doubt GS played a big role eliminating its competition, Lehman's, and had insider information.........one corrupted institution helping to destroy another, and succeeded. You be the judge whether you think mark to market, or even re-instating the uptick rule will improve things for E-trade or will improve market conditions?............
Options are already available, there is zero reason to allow shortselling. The uptick rule is a farce, just like the sho rule.........HF's have all the access to the MM's they want.
ET, like GS and Knight disguise themselves as being brokerages with integrity, how this will play out due to the shorters is anyones guess?...........Depends?. It could be that a larger broker may swallow them?...........whatever the case Wall Street, and the Hedgies want to make money so they are all wanting to move the market now that prices are cheap enough, Cnbc will be their live wire, but it won't last imo, nothing has improved, nothing has changed to improve anything............the 2nd shoe hasn't dropped yet.
UPDATE 1-E*Trade may need more capital, Stifel wont :Fox-Pitt
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March 11 (Reuters) - Fox-Pitt Kelton said a "stress test" of the banking subsidiaries of four U.S. retail brokers showed that Stifel Financial Corp (SF.N) remained well-capitalized in an immediate loss scenario, while E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC.O) may need more capital support.
The majority of E*Trade's mortgage loans and securities are of problematic vintages, analyst David Trone said in a note to clients.
"We believe E*Trade could have $785 million of remaining loss content in its loan portfolio and $232 million of unrealized securities losses," Trone said.
The analyst added that this loss content could lead to a fall in E*Trade's Tier 1 capital ratio -- a measure of capital strength that investors are closely watching these days -- and risk-based capital ratio.
Although an immediate loss scenario would put retail brokers such as Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.O) and Raymond James Financial Inc (RJF.N) below their well-capitalized levels, no company should face trouble if losses were spread over several quarters, given solid pre-provision earnings, Trone said.
"This is most significant for E*Trade, which the market seems to believe will fall to insolvency at some point, while its brokerage unit continues to generate solid profits to buffer against chronic loan losses."
Last month, U.S. banking regulators launched a "stress test" program to determine whether banks needed more capital from the new Capital Assistance Program for government preferred stock investments that can be converted into common equity.
Lately, brokerages have been conducting their own such tests to look into the capital adequacies of the banks they cover. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore)
"ww, Etrade has several issues, a billion in losses is alot to overcome", in addition to what they have done to customers over a long period of time will undoubtedly cause them to lose a huge number of their client base. E-trade admitted to no wrong doing, but yet knew they were guilty or they would not pay the fines, they would fight such charges. $34 million is a small price to pay for their ill gotten gains.
If the Congress would even speculate to helping a brokerage the outcry would be heard from coast to coast........but given they did help Longterm Capital several years ago, a billionaire Hedgefund which had approx 100 billionaires in it, sponsored by then Fed Chair Greenspan, and now GS by the past Treasury Sec. Paulson who also has a Hedgefund operating out of the Caymans, nothing would surprise me.
Don't ya wish you had these kind of connections when your mutual fund, or 401k, or any type of pension fund you might have suffered losses, and in order to stop it some huge cash infusion would be needed and the who would orchestrate it had this kind of power?, or how about a losses in a dozen stocks that was eating up your capital, and the culprits were hedgefunds?.........
The fines any of them ever pay is small in comparison, a tiny portion. This is alot to overcome in the face of everything else going on in the market when people are taking huge losses on their pensions and 401k's, this just compounds the corruption.
Its rampant, not just E-trade..........the time frame the SEC is has indicated is 6 years.
Imagine having a bid in that exceeded the ask at open on good news, you leave for work, your order never got filled, and the stock you wanted made good gains that day, or overshot the sell price and the sell order never got filled, and you lost have or more of your investment?.........this is what was going on..............it could have been anything, a 504 filed, and S-8, a buyout, a merger etc.............
Your right, its only one in the stinking barrel. The bailout pkg to pay for the the biggest scams of all time caused from shortselling, CDO's, and CDS's were in fact created right here in the Over The Counter with zero oversight is indicative of what the rest gets away with. What the taxpayers have done and continue to do is to pay for these trillion dollar gambling debts, but the ones at the top who created it all raked in millions, tens and hundreds of millions and even billions, and has put the global markets on the hook for trillions................Berman is trying to get his little piece of even more money thru the DOE, now preying on Taxpayers money. The money this agency does give out better have some oversight over any of these operatives like Berman whose looking for a fast buck to fatten himself up............Berman never has any intent to work we know this............he wants the easy money just like this crook Madoff..........Berman already has a historical record.
I get to thinking that Etrade has done so much damage to itself, that it may never recover...........The new Ceo would be happy to make a huge profit, and to enrich himself even further, his credentials aren't impressive knowing where all this guy has been, he's just another Wall Street fat cat.
Citadel, along with this guy makes for good bedfellows. It would have to be purchased by some entity with a little more integrity to have a future..........something that is really hard to find these days.
We know just how things are manipulated when we see 10 billion + shares, the Ceo is selling, and so is his buddies who got it for .0001, always a huge discount to the market, the Ceo doesn't care how many shares he releases, its all about he getting his hands on the easy money. Dilution means absolute nothing to these cons.............if he can sell 10bn to reach his goal selling at .0001, why should he care, he'll do a r/s and start over.
People like Berman will always be watching over their shoulder, he will just never know who of the many people he's lied and stolen from with his PR of lies, he may just meet one day when he is least expecting it, or where it may come from. Just like Madoff, he is under protection right now, you can just imagine what may very well happen to this guy, or any member of his family. Even today they are fighting to keep what they utilize most frequently, but the big money no doubt may be in any one of 40 countries that are known to be safe havens for these crooks. The money he stashed will remain stashed for his family no doubt, his kids who will always have access to it when things cool off and they go abroad................there are any number of ways he could have wired money, one means is sending it thru various accounts here and abroad, and the more the money gets shuffled about the harder and harder it is to trace, or follow, the trail goes cold at some point.
True............just where the money goes is anyones guess?. The Sec should force everyone of them to return those ill gotten gains to their customers who lost money. There is no end to the corruption, we have all known this for what?--ever. Its taken all this to get it out there to investors.......Its an abyss for crooks............the SEC, and Finra, nor the DTCC can ignore the hundreds, and thousands of complaints forever. Before these big losses and damage thats occurred in the market, just how many people have filed complaints, informal and formal to the SEC, and Finra?........Long before this I was writing to my Congressman for the removal of Cox, who had been in the service of this corruption since he was nominated, he serviced lobbyist, and himself long before old man Bush gave him that job, it doesn't say alot for the Clintons either who kept him, and Greenspan was little more than a racketeer himself.
The other problem with this, E-trade was fined $34 mil with no admission of wrong doing............this fine covers 1999-2005, this is 6 years of front running. All the brokers are probably guilty of this, or rather their Market Makers who would be filling and not filling these orders. Brokers have people who follow the news on stocks, and they can coordinate this information with their Market Makers who see all the buy and sell orders, its these people the SEC need to be investigating, and following these fines really need to give them lots more attention with oversight. They operate like little gods, they're the ones controlling the action. $34 million is a low ball number, I bet they profitted a whole lot more than $34 million, alot more. Their license should be revoked, for any to believe those in mid or top mgmt didn't know this was going on is BS............
If news is or was? breaking on a stock to the upside, retailers may have only got their orders filled only if they were chasing it from open, last ones in would also be the last ones out.
If the news was bad, its obvious they were getting their special clients out, whoever they might be, and if its a pink it could very well be the insiders when the retailers were or are? chasing it down.
The other part of this are the 504's if its a pink, the Market Makers manipulate all the way thru till they've completed what they were hired and getting paid to do. We know just how things are manipulated when we see 10 billion + shares, the Ceo is selling, and so is his buddies who got it for .0001, selling at even .0002 is a double etc, etc. The retailers would never get in for .0001, and it any did their orders would be so small their profits would be minor, but it might help the MM creates some volume, and move the price up a little...................Its fixed, just like this scam Berman has been running here for years.........
http://seekingalpha.com/user/153658/comments/2
"Mr. Layton will receive an annual base salary of $1,000,000, and the Company granted to Mr. Layton stock options and restricted stock, which will vest on a quarterly basis through 2009 and have an initial aggregate value of approximately $15.4 million (with the value for the stock options based on an option valuation methodology and for restricted stock based on the intrinsic value on the grant date). Mr. Layton and the Company will enter into an employment agreement with a term through 2009, which will provide for no further equity grants and no opportunity for any cash bonuses during the term. Under the employment agreement, if Mr. Layton is terminated without cause, or if after a change in control, he resigns for "good reason" (as defined in the Company's previously filed form of executive employment agreement), he will receive a severance payment of $5 million and accelerated vesting of his equity awards. He will not receive separate compensation as Chairman or as a director."
Money that falls out of the sky.
One manager, John Paulson, "made" $3.7 billion last year.
Figure how many years it would take a family earning $50k a year, just how many years it would take to work and "earn" $3.7bn..................It would take 20 years to earn one million. Then its easy to understand what a staggering amount of money one man can rake in from running one of these funds. The reason why 10,000 exist in the Caymans.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/16/business/16wall.php
Extorted $3.7bn for himself, you can imagined what he raked in for his clients who were willing to pay the percentage he requires, that has put taxpayers on the hook of covering.