enEquities

Most Valuable NBA Teams

2008-12-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

Forbes has released their valuations of NBA teams for the year 2008. Do the teams at the top really deserve to bet there?Let's take a closer look at the top 5:1) New York Knickes.Valuation: $613 MillionCurrent Record: 8-102) Los Angeles LakersValuation: $584 millionCurrent Record: 15-23) Chicago BullsValuation: $504 millionCurrent Record: 8-114) Detroit PistonsValuation: $480 millionCurrent

Back From Hiatus: When Will the Economy Be Fixed?

2008-12-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

Back from a small hiatus (sorry!) to bring you more comedy to feed your economically destroyed heart. When is all of this going to be fixed?

SNL knows it's stuff. "Really AIG??"

2008-10-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

I love it when the mainstream media actually gets it right. This is from "Really? With Seth and Amy."AIG execs what are you doing?? Do you really think this is the time to try to sneak away some presents for yourself? Only the entire nation is watching you right now.

Any More Bank Bailouts?

2008-09-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

Via lol-cats

AIG Gets It's Wish: Bailout

2008-09-17T03:36:00.001-07:00

There was only one thing that AIG was wishing for before it went to sleep on Tuesday. A Bailout.And a bailout was what it got as the Federal Reserve just announced that indeed they will be granting AIG it's wish. Why? The same old same old. The Fed decided that AIG is too big to fail.In short the terms of the deal are that:The New York Fed will loan AIG up to $85 billion worth of taxpayer

Lehman Bankruptcy Freezes Hedge Funds

2008-09-16T15:27:00.001-07:00

In this globally interconnected world, everything effects everything. And those Hedge Funds loyal enough to trust Lehman and stick with them through uncertain times are now getting thrown under a dead 500lb gorilla.About 100 hedge funds that used Lehman Brothers as their prime broker had positions held via the failed bank frozen on Monday as administrators took charge of the London business and

Flashback - Henry Paulson April 2007

2008-09-09T13:18:00.001-07:00

I ran across this old quote from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson from April 20, 2007. Rather hilarious:U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday the housing market correction appears to be at or near its bottom and that troubles in the subprime mortgage market will not likely spread throughout the economy."We've clearly had a big correction in the housing market. Retail housing was

Everything is Okay...

2008-09-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Despite what many professors will tell you (okay maybe one in particular that I didn't agree with), a recession is not defined as 2 successive quarters of negative GDP. And it shouldn't be.The latest 3.3% GDP growth in Q2 should be enough to tell you that mode of thinking is horrendously wrong.From the National Bureau of of Economic ResearchThe NBER does not define a recession in terms of two

A Broken Economy

2008-09-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

Terrific piece from Joseph Stiglitz entitled: Falling Down - No manufacturing. No new ideas. What's our economy based on?Stiglitz is a Columbia University Professor and won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2001.Too much energy has been spent trying to make an easy buck; too much effort has been devoted to increasing profits and not enough to increasing real wealth, whether that wealth

Citi Slashes Bunge Price Targets

2008-09-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

A Citi analyst cut their price target on Bunge (BG) from $130 to $95--a 27% drop. Despite the drop, they maintain a "hold" rating. But, I would take their "ratings" with a grain of salt.However, their comments do shed some light on the commodities markets in general. Bunge has continually raised earnings estimates, but I question what assumptions those estimates are based off of. Emerging

Home Price/ Income Ratio - Long Way to Fall

2008-09-04T14:10:00.000-07:00

Via LA Times Land BlogScary chart.

The Perils of Being a Value Investor

2008-09-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

A lot has been made over Bill Miller's love affair with Freddie Mac. I feel for the guy I really do. I'm sure many of you have been in similar situations where you see that the shares of a company have dropped by nearly half.... only to drop by another 50% later.If you thought it was cheap then, it must be cheaper now right? "Good investing is all about consistency!" "Be true to your beliefs!

Tracking the Potash Strike

2008-08-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

There's turmoil in the fertilizer market as the largest producer of potash, a necessary ingredient in fertilizer, Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, has faced strikes at 3 of its mines. These mines account for 6 percent of total supply for the mineral.The strike began about a month ago, but hasn't shown any progress in being resolved thus far. Here we're going to recount what's been happening

July Spending Down, Inflation Still Powers Through

2008-08-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

Consumer spending for the month of July slowed to a 0.2% increase over June. This is down from a 0.6% increase in June. It seems like the tax rebates are wearing off. We can see that in America at least consumers want to spend. They just don't know what to spend! Bloomberg reports:Incomes dropped 0.7 percent, the first decrease since August 2005, reflecting the end of the rebates. That was

2nd Quarter GDP revised to 3.3% growth

2008-08-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

The markets have been holding up lately and one of the little surprises life threw at us was that 2nd quarter GDP was revised up from 0.9% growth to 3.3% growth. 3.3% is no insignificant number. In any other situation I would say that our economy is rollin!But that`s any other situation.Economists had predicted GDP to be around 2.7% based off the fact that the tax rebates would help stimulate

It's That Time Again--Housing Report

2008-08-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the NAR released housing data for the month of July. I would've had this up for you yesterday, but being that this site just relaunched today you'll have to forgive me. Next time you are free to comment-bash however!Before I give you data, remember that monthly housing data needs to be compared year over year, and not month to month because of seasonal effects. So knowing that:

Analyst's Forward Estimates - A Lagging Indicator

2008-08-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

It's quite ironic, but can we now all agree that the forward estimates analysts project are very much a lagging indicator on the performance of a company?In this whole credit crisis we've been experiencing, the economy turned sour and the outlook for businesses looked worse and worse. We were simply waiting for analysts to downward revise earning's estimates. We knew it was coming, we just

Chesapeake insider trading indications

2008-08-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Insider trading is technically legal so long as insiders buying or selling shares of their own company properly report their actions in advance. Therefore, these filings are made public, even if it is several weeks after the activity. If there is anyone that knows a company in and out, it would be the insiders of a company, such as the chief executive, financial officers, directors, and

Benefactors from the subprime fallout and the tightening credit aftermath

2008-08-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

Back when I didn't know anything about stocks, I discovered stock screeners, such as the ones on Yahoo Finance. I thought I was some sort of genius and used that to cut down a list to around ten stocks. I have no idea what numbers I put in as the requirements, but one of the first stocks I ever put money into, either second or third, was EZCorp. Maybe my mind is filled with too much useless stuff

Pension Funds hold back on commodities exposure

2008-07-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

Interesting article out of Reuters concerning commodities investing.They state that Pension funds have started to curtail their investment in commodities.Barclays estimates that new money inflows into commodities in the second quarter fell by 51 percent from the first quarter to $6.4 billion. "We're not saying money flowed out, we're saying less money flowed in the second quarter.""The end

The Villainous OPEC doesn't look to decrease supply. (Understanding OPEC's bias)

2008-07-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

If I were a politician, I would be telling you: that OPEC is the villain; the arab states are the bad guys; that the oil run up is due to us not controlling our own oil production; that instead, we should make corn ethanol (Obama) or drill our own extra oil (McCain).Luckily, I'm not a politician.Very telling statements from the OPEC president Chakib Khelil:OPEC should not consider cutting

Meeting the demands of tomorrow - Bunge

2008-07-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

Meeting the demands of tomorrow comes from an organization able to add value to an integrated value chain.Brian and Ravi described in previous articles the commodities run-up as we are using these crops demanded all around the world not only as food products, but for biodiesels. We are seeing record prices in the raw materials going into the products offered by these agricultural/fertilizer

These Hedge Funds are the Benchmark

2008-07-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

Kenneth Griffin.Steven Cohen.George Soros.Three of the biggest names in investing behind Warren Buffet. They each operate a "hedge fund." A phrase that has become somewhat taboo recently for the industry's suspected involvement in "speculation" and the oil run up.Institutional Investor recently interviewed each (and a slew of other famous hedge fund managers).Kenneth Griffin on the Wall St.

Barron's Called The Top On Oil, too.

2008-07-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

The cover article for the last week of June in Barron's was titled:Bye, Bubble? The Price of Oil May be Peaking.The article is dated on their website: June 23, 2008. The subtitle:The price of oil may be peaking in the current range of $130 to $140 a barrel. Here's where you want to be when the bubble bursts.Their timing was impeccable. Although it wasn't July 9, 2008, it was very close.I must

Did Fox Business Ruin the Market?

2008-07-18T13:56:00.001-07:00

Now, I'm not crying out against conservative journalism or anything. Heck, I won't even go so far as to say that Fox News is a conservatively biased network. They are what they are.And the facts are what they are as well.Before Fox Business launched the stock market was hitting all time highs. We had taken a hit from the subprime mortgage debacle in July 2007, but bounced back on the wings of