The tax cut scam
Common sense is often so uncommon that it can be heralded as a virtue. So can be said about the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%, it is simply a long scam being sold as a job-creating solution (and I know a long scam when I see one). One very simple thing I point […]
Thoughts on Day Trading
A few years ago I wanted to be a day trader, a pirate on the high seas, a Gordon Gekko-lite that raided the holds of the slow moving freighters. So I bought subscriptions, I bought software, I bought accounts, I believed it was the beginning of the end of he slavery, the beginning of the […]
Blaming the market turmoil on FAS 157
What a blast from the past. FASB is finally issuing new guidance about market-to-market accounting rules after much finger pointing from both the Congress and the Wall St wonks. Almost a year ago, there was a big furor by Blackstone’s Schwartzman about the potential dangers of FAS 157 and the blogosphere debated about it pretty […]
Bank Nationalization….Been there, done that
Today AIG sounded more like ‘Americans in Grief’ than ‘America’s International Grandiose’. Both WSJ and NYT had front page articles covering the big bad wolf and how it was consuming our hard-earned dollars faster than we can say kaboom. There is a large public debate on whether nationalization of banks and financial institutions is a […]
The only way to save GM
Today I had a chance to skim through the restructuring plans presented by GM and Chrysler to Congress (GM Plan, Chrysler Plan). GM’s situation is much alike Citi’s; both are too big to fail, both have a lot of toxic assets on their books, and both have a far reaching ripple effect on the global […]
The corporate governance program
I recently had a chance to attend a talk by Dennis Johnson, who is the Director of the Corporate Governance program at Calpers. Some of the points I garnered from his talk….. Small Portfolio, Big Returns The CG portfolio in Calpers is only $12B, which is only a twentieth of their total portfolio; despite its […]
The future of private equity market
Several market watchers have asserted that the pace of growth of private equity deals has impressed upon investors the notion that stocks are reasonably priced. Consequently, they are also inclined to believe that a gradual decrease in private equity deals will signal over-valuation again. Although we don’t dismiss such a notion completely, we feel that […]
The Fortress Post Mortem
On Feb 14, 2007 Fortress completed its acquisition of RailAmerica; the short-term build-up in price was immediately lost after the news of acquisition. Many analysts that covered the railroad industry resounded that the buyout was a bad deal for Fortress because of RailAmerica’s sloppy record, but Fortress most likely discovered some undervalued assets in the […]
Introduction to Fortress
I created the Private Equity section on my blog to track some of the changes in the private equity market and consolidate my project research in one place. I am doing an analysis on the recent Fortress Group’s (FIG) IPO and post-IPO market reaction; the primary goal being to answer some trivial questions……. – Is […]