times

Fortune’s Stanley Bing: What I Want For Father’s Day

June 15, 2010

1. I want a Maybach. It’s a huge, ridiculous car that has curtains on the windows and costs more than $200,000. Times being what they are, I could never afford one myself. 2. I want a razor that has 10 microblades, one to lift, another to lift a little more, a third to lift just a tiny bit more, a fourth to cut, a fifth to lift was is left after the fourth is done, and sixth to massage while it cuts, a seventh to twirl, an eighth to perform the coup de grace, a ninth to inspect the area, and a tenth to remain on patrol. 3. I want a media player that only presents me with books, music and video entertainment that it absolutely KNOWS I will like, and NOTHING I don’t, and never surprises me with news or information I didn’t expect or approve of. 4. I want Marketing technology to lose my personal profile. 5. I want BP to stop trying to manage the situation and actually solve it. 6. I want Federal regulation that makes it impossible for banks to make more than 1% more on our money than we do. 7. I want there to be an end to interesting and insightful pieces in the Times, or elsewhere, for that matter, offering a rational and fair explanation of the Tea Party movement. 8. I want to know the precise location of the Cloud. 9. I want there to be a 30-minute buzzer on all budget meetings. Lacking that, I’m wondering if certain forms of amphetamine could be available to those who aren’t in Finance but still have to attend them. 10. I want Father’s Day to be moved to Monday and made into a national holiday, creating a new three-day weekend during the summertime, when it doesn’t really make any difference.

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Don McNay: New York Times Does Not Understand Main Street

June 11, 2010

We can try to understand The New York Times effect on man ~ Bee Gees The headline on the Rural Blog , for the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky, said the New York Times misses point in story on Main Street versus Wall Street in regulatory battle.” That is a vast and gross understatement. The blog points to a story by David Herszenhorn . Mr Herszenhorn plopped down in Louisville, Kentucky, home of Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell. He saw a few branches of “too big to fail” banks or projects that got money from Wall Street firms. This caused Mr. Herszenhorn to leap to the conclusion that “Main Street seems less an innocent victim of Wall Street in the financial crisis of 2008 than a savvy counterparty, whose own dealings contributed to the days of easy credit and overinflated real estate prices that led to the collapse.” Huh? How did he come to that conclusion? Sounds like he wrote it on the plane before he got here. If Herszenhorn had gone to New Orleans instead of Louisville, I suspect he would have seen a few BP stations and concluded that Main Street in Louisiana was”counterparty” to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. McConnell lives in Louisville but represents all of Kentucky, including my town of Richmond, 70 miles away. I’ve lived in Kentucky 49 of my 51 years. (I lived in Nashville two years when I was in graduate school at Vanderbilt.) I see a different Main Street than the New York Times does. I can look out from my office and see Richmond’s entire Main Street. I see one branch of a “too big to fail” bank that got bailout money. I can a two branches of regional banks that got bailout money along the way. Other than that, I don’t see any high flaunting, Wall Street types, throwing their money around on my Main Street. I’m sure it’s the same on thousands of other Main Streets across the United States. Many of us are participating in the “Move Your Money” campaign that Arianna Huffington started as we want to minimize Wall Street’s the small amount of Wall Street influence that does exist. I’ve been opposed to the bailouts from the first day because I knew it was an inside deal for Washington and Wall Street. The rest of us were not invited to the party. We were only expected to pay for it. Having David Herszenhorn wander around Louisville for a few hours is not going to change that view. Herszenhorn might want to take a look at Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short or Too Big to Fail by his fellow New York Times staffer Andrew Ross Sorkin. I can’t see where Main Street is responsible for the greed, recklessness and decision making outlined in those books. It’s like blaming a murder victim for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although I strongly disagree with Mr. Herszenhorn’s opinion, I really question the judgment of the editor, or editors, who assigned him to the story. Looking at Mr. Herszenhorn’s biography on ProCon.org, it shows that before working for the New York Times , he went to high school in Flushing NY, went to college at Dartmouth and currently lives in Douglastown, New York. The perfect guy to assign to a story about Kentucky’s Main Street. I hope they gave him a map. Since I am a lifelong Democrat who voted for President Obama, I’m not prone to New York Times bashing. I read it everyday and some of the greatest journalists to walk the planet, like Joe Nocera and Thomas Friedman, write for it. The Rural blog said that ” The New York Times often provides the best rural coverage of any national news organization, because it has the staff and the editorial interest required to do the coverage.” I have to agree. The Rural blog also said that “sometimes the paper misses by a mile.” That is certainly the case with Herszenhorn’s story. It seemed like he was using any hook, no matter how flimsy, to justify the Wall Street bailout that the Washington and New York elite pushed through and now try to justify. The New York Times can keep pumping out stories like Herszenhorn’s. Time Magazine can keep putting Ben Bernanke on its cover as “Man of the Year.” The New York centric media can keep telling us over and over again that the bailouts were good for Main Street. We are not going to believe it. I feel like the Times and other Eastern elites are trying a stunt best described by Lyndon Johnson. They are trying to “piss on our boots and tell us it’s raining.” Sitting here on Main Street, I don’t see the rain. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/business/economy/11main.html?ref=business Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is an award-winning financial columnist and Huffington Post Contributor. You can read more about Don at www.donmcnay.com McNay founded McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement and financial consulting firm, in 1983, and Kentucky Guardianship Administrators LLC in 2000. You can read more about both at www.mcnay.com McNay has Master’s Degrees from Vanderbilt and the American College and is in the Hall of Distinguished Alumni of Eastern Kentucky University. McNay has written two books. Most recent is Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery McNay is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table and has four professional designations in the financial services field.

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Mark Cuban Will ‘Most Likely’ Tender Lions Gate Shares To Icahn

June 10, 2010

Found via LA Times , Mark Cuban tells CNBC he’s “most likely going to tender” his shares of Lions Gate to Carl Icahn. Such a move would make Icahn the movie and TV studio’s largest shareholder, and move Icahn closer to taking control of the company.

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CNBC Lehman Brothers Movie Airing 4 Times This Friday (VIDEO)

June 9, 2010

This Friday CNBC is airing (four times!) the hour-long 2009 dramatic film “The Last Days of Lehman Brothers.” It’s about the weekend that the firm crashed. It does not look good. Admittedly, we haven’t seen it, but Business Insider has , and it turns out it might be one of those “so bad it’s good” movies. They’ve compiled ten “hilariously awesome” lines from the film. They are hilarious, and awesome, and somehow it doesn’t seem putting them in context is going to make a difference. It’d be like Rome selling the Vatican to the Japanese to make it a hotel and hiring the Pope as the bell boy. It’s just a fantasy. What? Check out Business Insider’s slideshow of quotes here . Watch a clip from the film below. It airs on CNBC this Friday at 9pm, 10pm, 12am, and 1am.

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Euro Will Survive Crisis, Greek Default `Not So Likely Now,’ Stiglitz Says

June 1, 2010

By Johan Carlstrom and Kim McLaughlin June 1 (Bloomberg) — The euro will survive Europe’s debt crisis even as spending cuts and tax increases restrain economic growth, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said. Political leaders will do “everything to save the euro and they will muddle through,” Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor, said in an interview in Stockholm today. “Europe is likely to go through a weak period” as governments implement “more austerity measures in the face of a weak economy.” Euro-area ministers agreed on May 2 to provide 110 billion euros ($135 billion) of aid to Greece as the country struggled to control a deficit that reached 13.6 percent of gross domestic product last year, more than four times the European Union limit. When that failed to stop the euro’s slide, the EU and International Monetary Fund offered a financial lifeline of almost $1 trillion to member states. A Greek default is “not so likely now,” since “Europe has committed itself to providing the funds at a reasonable interest rate,” Stiglitz, 67, said. Greece pledged to implement austerity measures equal to almost 14 percent of GDP in exchange for the rescue funds. Stiglitz said he’s concerned about the European debt crisis “for Europe’s sake, for the world’s sake, for America’s sake” because European leaders probably won’t do “enough to build the institutions that will allow for a quick recovery” and will instead, “like we’ve seen, not give enough money early.” ‘High Volatility’ The strong dollar versus the euro and weak growth prospects in Europe mean U.S. “hopes that we would have an export-led growth recovery become diminished.” The euro traded at $1.2294 as of 5:30 p.m. in Stockholm, after dropping to a four-year low earlier in the day. Europe will go through “a period of high volatility, with political action being taken only each time Europe comes to the brink, but when you play brinkmanship there’s always the risk that one of the times that you are on the brink, you wait a little bit too long,” Stiglitz said. The 16-member euro area emerged from a five-quarter recession in the three months through September . It will grow 0.9 percent this year after contracting 4.1 percent in 2009, the European Commission estimated on May 5. Greece’s economy will contract 3 percent this year and a further 0.5 percent in 2011, the commission estimates. Another Nobel Prize winner, economist Robert Mundell, said on May 26 debt restructuring may be “inevitable” in parts of the euro area and Steve Hanke, the architect of currency regimes from Argentina to Estonia, warned a Greek default may become unavoidable. Mundell, who won the economics prize in 1999, predicted debt restructuring for “one or two” euro nations within five years. Hanke of Johns Hopkins University said Greece’s “death spiral” will end in default if debt obligations can’t be renegotiated. To contact the reporters on this story: Johan Carlstrom in Stockholm at jcarlstrom@bloomberg.net ; Kim McLaughlin in Stockholm at kmclaughlin6@bloomberg.net

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Video: Mabry, Ghahramani Debate China’s Currency Strategy: Video

May 24, 2010

May 24 (Bloomberg) — Marcus Mabry, associate national editor at the New York Times, and Sassan Ghahramani, chief executive officer at SGH Macro Advisors, talk with Bloomberg’s Matt Miller and Carol Massar about China’s currency strategy and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Blumenthal to Remain in Connecticut Senate Race Amid Questions on Vietnam

May 18, 2010

By Jonathan D. Salant and Peter S. Green May 18 (Bloomberg) — Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will stay in the race for U.S. Senate, a Democratic Party spokeswoman said, amid a controversy over a New York Times report that he misrepresented his military service record during the Vietnam War. “He is 100 percent staying in the race,” said Kate Hansen, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Democratic Party. “It’s not even a question.” Blumenthal, 64, scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference today at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in West Hartford, Connecticut. The Times reported that Blumenthal claimed in public appearances to have served in Vietnam though he obtained deferments and then served in a Marine Corps reserve unit stationed in the U.S. Blumenthal’s campaign biography mentions his service in the reserves without referring to Vietnam. One of his Republican opponents, Linda McMahon , the former chief executive officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, posted an article on her campaign website claiming credit for leaking the story to the Times. Blumenthal, who entered the race after Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd announced his retirement, was favored to win the November election by the three Washington-based publications that rate congressional contests: Congressional Quarterly, the Cook Political Report and the Rothenberg Political Report. Military Service Democratic consultant Glenn Totten said misrepresenting his military service could cripple Blumenthal’s campaign. “It could be fatal if Blumenthal’s opponent is able to use that as a wedge to open a real question of character,” said Totten , who works on congressional races. “It’s one thing to say you did more in Vietnam than you actually did. It’s another to say you served there when in fact you went directly out of your way to avoid service.” “My intention was to be always clear and straightforward about what my service was,” Blumenthal said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut newspapers. “I’ve always said that I’ve served in the Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam era. If I said anything otherwise on very rare occasions, I may have misspoken.” A ‘Smear’ Attack Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said it was “no surprise Republicans would want to smear Dick Blumenthal .” The Times report said Blumenthal referred to his Vietnam service on the campaign trail, even though he didn’t go overseas. “Mr. Blumenthal owes the people of Connecticut, and particularly its veterans, a thorough explanation for the very serious questions that have been raised over what appears to be a long history of dishonest statements,” said Brian Walsh , a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Blumenthal led McMahon and former Republican Representative Rob Simmons by more than 30 points each in a March poll by Quinnipiac University of Hamden, Connecticut. “The one thing about it is it’s May and the election isn’t until November,” said Maurice Carroll , director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute. “If it had happened in October, good Lord.” Five Deferments The Times, citing records, reported that Blumenthal got at least five military deferments from 1965-70 and took steps to avoid going to war. In 1970, he took a post in a Marine Reserve Washington unit that worked on local projects, the newspaper said. Simmons said in a statement that he was “deeply troubled” by allegations that Blumenthal misrepresented his service record. “Too many have sacrificed too much to have their valor stolen in this way,” he said. Blumenthal built a career pursuing financial crime. Last month, he sued Westport National Bank for allegedly aiding Bernard Madoff ’s Ponzi scheme, seeking $16.2 million for defrauded investors. He investigated insurer American International Group Inc. for possible misuse of taxpayer bailout funds and persuaded the company to turn over information on executives who received bonuses after the bailout. In 2008, he sued Countrywide Financial Corp., the mortgage company bought by Bank of America Corp., for allegedly duping borrowers into taking loans they couldn’t afford. Blumenthal is helped by his big lead in the polls in a Democratic state, said John C. Fortier , a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “It seems as if he did not directly lie in writing, but in his live speeches he got carried away,” he said. Still, Fortier said, “if there are particularly egregious videos, they are campaign ad fodder for candidates to go viral on the web, both of which could be more damaging than the reports we read about in the Times.” To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net ; Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net .

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Raymond J. Learsy: "If You See Something Say Something"-The Failed Times Square Bombing and the Price of Oil

May 13, 2010

“If you see something say something”, an expression that has now gone global. Yet the very root cause of what nearly became mass murder in Times Square and that has already taken the lives of thousands on 9/11, has been left to fester, studiously unnoticed, by acquiescent American administrations often bordering on the complicit. The failed Times Square bomb attempt provided prima facie evidence of Pakistani involvement in plots to attack on American soil. Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States was moved to comment, “The element of threat is definitely different from the last few months”. An American official as quoted in the New York Times (“U.S. Urges Swift Action In Pakistan…” 05.09.2010) observed, “Last week’s incident makes it more urgent ” to bring stability to the tribal areas where militancy thrives and into Karachi, the biggest city where radical religious schools known as madrasas are popular. It is these very madrasas that have become the source of the lethal proselytizing that has destabilized much of the world. Faisal Shahzad, the failed Time Square bomber may not have personally attended a madrasas but it is the madrasas in Pakistan and elsewhere, their glorification of jihad, their vilification of the West who along with their moneyed sponsors have laid the groundwork for much of the world’s current destabilization and temporal tension between civilizations. And who are the sponsors? One could readily look to the Saudi Royal Family through their ardent sponsorship, through their oil wealth, nurturing radical Saudi clerics who adhere to the vision and tenets of the Saudi Imam Juhayman ak Uteybi whose followers seized the Grand Mosque of Mecca in 1979. Since that time billions upon billions have flowed to madrasas and community centers around the world teaching a virulent hatred of Western civilization, radicalizing Afghanistan, swaths of Pakistan, ranging from Europe to the Philippines and Indonesia and near every corner of the world. And while entire nations were being radicalized our government has been somnolent if not conspirationally silent. Certainly virtually nothing of consequence was attempted during the two Bush administrations to contain the spew of hatred. Holding the Saudis to account would have been unthinkable during those years with Saudi money sloshing around Washington, into the think tanks and its moneyed corners (think of the likes of the Carlyle Group with its deep links to Saudi finance, of which Pres. George H.W. Bush was to serve as a director, while others climbed on board the gravy train becoming affiliated with Carlyle including James Baker III former Secretary of State, ex Budget Chief Richard Darman, former S.E.C. Chair Arthur Levitt, as well as Frank Carlucci former Secretary of Defense under President Reagan not to speak of President George W. Bush who was a director of one of Carlyle’s subsidiaries, Caterair ). During the Clinton years Saudi munificence extended to millions dollar donations to the Clinton Presidential Library. Given the Saudi largesse little or nothing was done by our government to contain the propagation of teachings among thousands upon thousands of young minds being formed to hate and destroy. The issue continued to be exacerbated by senior administration officials from the State Department on up, as well as senior military personnel who were bedazzled when received by Saudi royalty who in dulcet tones assured that all is being done to diminish support of Saudi radical institutions and to liberalize the day to day lives of the Saudi population. To that end 50% of Saudi Arabia’s population, its women, have yet to be permitted to drive. This being but one example. While this has been going on for decades, Saudi Arabia, through OPEC is extorting billions from the world’s consumers through the manipulation of the price oil, the very source of the monies being funneled to madrasas around the world. Concurrently American taxpayers are paying over $80 million a day keeping a flotilla of naval vessels in the Arabian Gulf protecting the Saudi coastline and standing by to dissuade any Iranian ambitions against Saudi Arabia. (please see “Al Qaeda in the Service of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties” 10.30.06). Has it stopped and has Saudi Arabia pulled back its poison? Are the occasional protestations and proclamations of willingness to cease and desist for real. Well consider the following. Just a few week ago the Times of London reported that “Saudis fund Balkan Muslims Spreading Hate of the West” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7078771.ece “That Saudi Arabia is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for Jihad in Afghanistan…Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilize the Balkans… Fundamentalist Saudi organizations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.” Given Saudi realtime funding and intentions in the Balkans the question becomes clear. Can one assume that given Saudi policies in the Balkans, is Pakistan or Afghanistan not far behind, or perhaps even leading the pack ? Talk about a smoking car bomb in Times Square? This is the real thing. Do we have a problem in Pakistan. Yes. But it seems the core lies in Riyadh. And there they know how to play us like a violin. We see it, but instead of saying something we sing their tune.

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American Citizen From Pakistan Faces Charges Over Times Square Bomb Plot

May 4, 2010

By Henry Goldman and Mark Tannenbaum May 4 (Bloomberg) — A U.S. citizen of Pakistani origins is due in a New York court today to face charges over the attempted car bombing in Times Square on May 1. Faisal Shahzad will appear in Manhattan federal court on “formal charges,” the U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of New York said in an e-mailed statement, without being more specific. Agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested Shahzad at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport last night as he was attempting to board a flight to Dubai, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at an early morning news conference in Washington. The announcement came less than three days after a botched bombing attempt that led police to evacuate parts of Times Square. “This investigation is ongoing, as are our attempts to gather useful intelligence, and we continue to pursue a number of leads,” Holder said. “But it’s clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans.” Shahzad had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, the Associated Press reported citing unidentified law enforcement officials. Pakistan’s Dawn television reported today that the suspect had family links in the port city of Karachi, and visited it last year. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano , in an interview on NBC TV, said it’s “premature to rule in or out” links to international terrorism. Investigators have no evidence that Pakistani Taliban sympathizers were responsible for the attempt, although a group describing itself as such took credit for it, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Passengers Removed Dubai-based Emirates Airlines said in an e-mailed statement today that U.S. authorities removed three passengers from a New York to Dubai flight last night and carried out “full security procedures” including the screening of the plane, passengers and baggage. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York City police detectives arrested Shahzad for “allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1,” the Department of Justice said in a statement today. The 1993 Nissan Pathfinder was sold for cash about three weeks ago at a Connecticut shopping mall in a sale arranged through the Craigslist website, CNN reported, citing an unidentified person in law enforcement with knowledge of the investigation. Investigators interviewed the former owner of the bomb- carrying sport-utility vehicle, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The person was tracked through the car’s vehicle identification number, which was stripped from the dashboard, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The number is also typically stamped on parts such as the engine block. ‘Intended to Terrorize’ The attempted bombing “was intended to terrorize,” Robert Gibbs , the White House press secretary, said yesterday. Gibbs said today that President Barack Obama was notified about Shahzad’s arrest at around midnight. The intended detonator, Kelly said, was a can filled with consumer-grade fireworks. The car also held two containers of gasoline and three propane tanks, wired with two clocks, the commissioner said. A man described as about 40 years old was seen on a neighborhood surveillance camera as he hurried through Shubert Alley , a pedestrian walkway between West 44th and West 45th Streets, steps from where the explosive-laden car was parked on May 1, he said. The man can be seen on the video removing a dark shirt, revealing a red T-shirt underneath, Kelly said. He placed the outer shirt in a bag and walked from the scene “in a furtive manner,” the commissioner said. Safe as Ever Police also collected images of the vehicle as it traveled along West 45th Street before being left at a curb near several Broadway theaters, the mayor said. “This city is as safe as it’s ever been,” Bloomberg said. “Is it perfectly safe? No, but we always will have events, we’ve had 11 or so in the last eight years, and every time we have responded appropriately. We keep changing our procedures, we keep studying what happens overseas, and we so far have done the right thing.” The police presence has been increased in the Times Square area. Bloomberg urged tourists and New Yorkers to continue visiting the area and “enjoy a Broadway show.” The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP. To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Goldman in New York City Hall at hgoldman@bloomberg.net ; Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net .

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American Citizen From Pakistan Faces Charges Over Times Square Bomb Plot

May 4, 2010

By Henry Goldman and Mark Tannenbaum May 4 (Bloomberg) — A U.S. citizen of Pakistani origins is due in a New York court today to face charges over the attempted car bombing in Times Square on May 1. Faisal Shahzad will appear in Manhattan federal court on “formal charges,” the U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of New York said in an e-mailed statement, without being more specific. Agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested Shahzad at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport last night as he was attempting to board a flight to Dubai, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at an early morning news conference in Washington. The announcement came less than three days after a botched bombing attempt that led police to evacuate parts of Times Square. “This investigation is ongoing, as are our attempts to gather useful intelligence, and we continue to pursue a number of leads,” Holder said. “But it’s clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans.” Shahzad had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, the Associated Press reported citing unidentified law enforcement officials. Pakistan’s Dawn television reported today that the suspect had family links in the port city of Karachi, and visited it last year. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano , in an interview on NBC TV, said it’s “premature to rule in or out” links to international terrorism. Investigators have no evidence that Pakistani Taliban sympathizers were responsible for the attempt, although a group describing itself as such took credit for it, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Passengers Removed Dubai-based Emirates Airlines said in an e-mailed statement today that U.S. authorities removed three passengers from a New York to Dubai flight last night and carried out “full security procedures” including the screening of the plane, passengers and baggage. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York City police detectives arrested Shahzad for “allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1,” the Department of Justice said in a statement today. The 1993 Nissan Pathfinder was sold for cash about three weeks ago at a Connecticut shopping mall in a sale arranged through the Craigslist website, CNN reported, citing an unidentified person in law enforcement with knowledge of the investigation. Investigators interviewed the former owner of the bomb- carrying sport-utility vehicle, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The person was tracked through the car’s vehicle identification number, which was stripped from the dashboard, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The number is also typically stamped on parts such as the engine block. ‘Intended to Terrorize’ The attempted bombing “was intended to terrorize,” Robert Gibbs , the White House press secretary, said yesterday. Gibbs said today that President Barack Obama was notified about Shahzad’s arrest at around midnight. The intended detonator, Kelly said, was a can filled with consumer-grade fireworks. The car also held two containers of gasoline and three propane tanks, wired with two clocks, the commissioner said. A man described as about 40 years old was seen on a neighborhood surveillance camera as he hurried through Shubert Alley , a pedestrian walkway between West 44th and West 45th Streets, steps from where the explosive-laden car was parked on May 1, he said. The man can be seen on the video removing a dark shirt, revealing a red T-shirt underneath, Kelly said. He placed the outer shirt in a bag and walked from the scene “in a furtive manner,” the commissioner said. Safe as Ever Police also collected images of the vehicle as it traveled along West 45th Street before being left at a curb near several Broadway theaters, the mayor said. “This city is as safe as it’s ever been,” Bloomberg said. “Is it perfectly safe? No, but we always will have events, we’ve had 11 or so in the last eight years, and every time we have responded appropriately. We keep changing our procedures, we keep studying what happens overseas, and we so far have done the right thing.” The police presence has been increased in the Times Square area. Bloomberg urged tourists and New Yorkers to continue visiting the area and “enjoy a Broadway show.” The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP. To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Goldman in New York City Hall at hgoldman@bloomberg.net ; Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net .

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Michael Martin: Video: Why Wall St. Needs More Checks & Balances

May 2, 2010

Financial Times reporter Stacy-Marie Ishmael discusses the essence of risk management on Wall St. with Huffington Post Contributor Michael Martin at the Milken Global Conference, April 28, 2010 in Beverly Hills. You can follow Ishmael below: Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Twitter Watch her at the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills Online News: The Frontier of Financial Journalism Do Our Financial Models Still Work? Read her at the Financial Times/Alphaville

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Gretchen Morgenson On The Goldman Lawsuit (VIDEO)

April 24, 2010

HuffPost’s Ben Craw has put together a collection of recent TV appearances by The New York Times’ Gretchen Morgenson shedding light on the Goldman Sachs SEC lawsuit story. WATCH:

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Blippy Publishes User Credit Card Numbers

April 23, 2010

Blippy is the weird-that-it-exists Web service that lets users share with the world all their credit card transactions. It got a huge wet kiss from the New York Times today! One big problem though: Blippy appears to have inadvertently published some of its users’ credit card numbers.

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Oracle’s Ellison Highest-Paid CEO as Paychecks Shrink, New York Times Says

April 4, 2010

By Dan Hart April 4 (Bloomberg) — Larry Ellison , chief executive officer of Oracle Corp. , was the highest-paid U.S. CEO last year as compensation fell for the second straight year amid the recession, the New York Times reported. Ellison received $84.5 million, all but $6.1 million of it in stock options, the newspaper said, citing a study by Equilar . The median total compensation for U.S. executives declined 13 percent to $7.7 million, while average total pay fell 15 percent to $9.5 million for chief executives at their companies at least two years, the newspaper said, citing the survey by executive compensation tracker Equilar. The median compensation for executives of companies receiving funds from the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was $6 million, down 34 percent from a year earlier. The median cash payout for the group rose 20 percent, while the stock and options component fell 94 percent and 92 percent, respectively, the newspaper said. Equilar’s study for the Times covered 199 public companies with 2009 revenue of at least $5.78 billion that filed annual proxy statements by March 26, the newspaper said. Boston Scientific Corp. ’s Raymond Elliott was second in the ranking with $33.4 million, including a bonus of $2.1 million, the newspaper said. Ray Irani , chief executive of Occidental Petroleum Corp. , was third with $31.4 million, up 39 percent from a year earlier, the newspaper said. Hewlett-Packard Co. ’s Mark Hurd saw his compensation decline 29 percent to $24.2 million, which included a $15.8 million bonus, in placing fourth in the survey, the newspaper said. James Hackett , chief executive of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. , was fifth with $23.5 million, most of that in restricted stock and stock options, the newspaper said. Rounding out the top 10 in sixth through 10th place, respectively, were: Alan Lafley , Procter & Gamble Co., $23.5 million; William Weldon , Johnson & Johnson, $22.8 million; Miles White , Abbott Laboratories, $21.9 million; Robert Iger , Walt Disney Co., $21.6 million; and Sam Palmisano , International Business Machines Corp., $21.2 million, the Times said. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net .

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Oracle’s Ellison Highest-Paid CEO as Paychecks Shrink, New York Times Says

April 4, 2010

By Dan Hart April 4 (Bloomberg) — Larry Ellison , chief executive officer of Oracle Corp. , was the highest-paid U.S. CEO last year as compensation fell for the second straight year amid the recession, the New York Times reported. Ellison received $84.5 million, all but $6.1 million of it in stock options, the newspaper said, citing a study by Equilar . The median total compensation for U.S. executives declined 13 percent to $7.7 million, while average total pay fell 15 percent to $9.5 million for chief executives at their companies at least two years, the newspaper said, citing the survey by executive compensation tracker Equilar. The median compensation for executives of companies receiving funds from the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was $6 million, down 34 percent from a year earlier. The median cash payout for the group rose 20 percent, while the stock and options component fell 94 percent and 92 percent, respectively, the newspaper said. Equilar’s study for the Times covered 199 public companies with 2009 revenue of at least $5.78 billion that filed annual proxy statements by March 26, the newspaper said. Boston Scientific Corp. ’s Raymond Elliott was second in the ranking with $33.4 million, including a bonus of $2.1 million, the newspaper said. Ray Irani , chief executive of Occidental Petroleum Corp. , was third with $31.4 million, up 39 percent from a year earlier, the newspaper said. Hewlett-Packard Co. ’s Mark Hurd saw his compensation decline 29 percent to $24.2 million, which included a $15.8 million bonus, in placing fourth in the survey, the newspaper said. James Hackett , chief executive of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. , was fifth with $23.5 million, most of that in restricted stock and stock options, the newspaper said. Rounding out the top 10 in sixth through 10th place, respectively, were: Alan Lafley , Procter & Gamble Co., $23.5 million; William Weldon , Johnson & Johnson, $22.8 million; Miles White , Abbott Laboratories, $21.9 million; Robert Iger , Walt Disney Co., $21.6 million; and Sam Palmisano , International Business Machines Corp., $21.2 million, the Times said. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net .

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Oracle’s Ellison Highest-Paid CEO as Paychecks Shrink, New York Times Says

April 4, 2010

By Dan Hart April 4 (Bloomberg) — Larry Ellison , chief executive officer of Oracle Corp. , was the highest-paid U.S. CEO last year as compensation fell for the second straight year amid the recession, the New York Times reported. Ellison received $84.5 million, all but $6.1 million of it in stock options, the newspaper said, citing a study by Equilar . The median total compensation for U.S. executives declined 13 percent to $7.7 million, while average total pay fell 15 percent to $9.5 million for chief executives at their companies at least two years, the newspaper said, citing the survey by executive compensation tracker Equilar. The median compensation for executives of companies receiving funds from the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, was $6 million, down 34 percent from a year earlier. The median cash payout for the group rose 20 percent, while the stock and options component fell 94 percent and 92 percent, respectively, the newspaper said. Equilar’s study for the Times covered 199 public companies with 2009 revenue of at least $5.78 billion that filed annual proxy statements by March 26, the newspaper said. Boston Scientific Corp. ’s Raymond Elliott was second in the ranking with $33.4 million, including a bonus of $2.1 million, the newspaper said. Ray Irani , chief executive of Occidental Petroleum Corp. , was third with $31.4 million, up 39 percent from a year earlier, the newspaper said. Hewlett-Packard Co. ’s Mark Hurd saw his compensation decline 29 percent to $24.2 million, which included a $15.8 million bonus, in placing fourth in the survey, the newspaper said. James Hackett , chief executive of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. , was fifth with $23.5 million, most of that in restricted stock and stock options, the newspaper said. Rounding out the top 10 in sixth through 10th place, respectively, were: Alan Lafley , Procter & Gamble Co., $23.5 million; William Weldon , Johnson & Johnson, $22.8 million; Miles White , Abbott Laboratories, $21.9 million; Robert Iger , Walt Disney Co., $21.6 million; and Sam Palmisano , International Business Machines Corp., $21.2 million, the Times said. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net .

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Video: New York Times Sells Portion of Its Red Sox Stake: Video

April 2, 2010

April 2 (Bloomberg) — New York Times Co. sold a portion of its stake in the parent of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to Henry F. McCance, chairman emeritus of venture-capital firm Greylock Partners. Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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GSEs Wont Buy MBS Says Geithner

March 27, 2010

Timothy Geithner the secretary of the Treasury said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not expected to be active buyers or sellers of mortgagebacked securities after the Federal Reserve program to purchase MBS ends this month reports The New York Times

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Movers, yes; shakers, not so much – CNNMoney.com

March 26, 2010

Movers, yes; shakers, not so much CNNMoney.com One option for Plainfield would be to settle with building owner Antares Investment Partners, just as another beleaguered hedge fund did in 2009. … Plainfield to Return Money to Investors, Report Says New York Times (blog) Plainfield Moving Down Market Hedge Fund Net all 4 news articles

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Novum Statement on FSA Insider Trading and Hedge Fund Fraud Case – HedgeCo.net

March 26, 2010

Telegraph.co.uk Novum Statement on FSA Insider Trading and Hedge Fund Fraud Case HedgeCo.net A junior trader at hedge fund Moore Capital was arrested and an employee at Deutsche Bank was also taken for questioning. All together, 6 men were arrested … Britain Raids a Leading Hedge Fund New York Times (blog) Square Mile rocked by ‘insider’ swoops Times Online FSA closes in on four City deals Telegraph.co.uk Wall Street Journal

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Ford Cancels Plan to Challenge Fellow Democrat Gillibrand for Senate Seat

March 2, 2010

By Peter S. Green March 2 (Bloomberg) — Harold Ford Jr. , a former Tennessee congressman on leave from his job as a Merrill Lynch & Co. banker, said he won’t run against U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a fellow Democrat. Ford, in an opinion-page article published on the New York Times Web site last night, accused Democratic “party bosses” of working to “bully me out of the race.” He said he decided to forgo his challenge for the good of the party. “If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened,” Ford, 39, wrote. He said the “party bosses who tried to intimidate me” are the “same people responsible for putting Democratic control of the Senate at risk.” Ford’s announcement means Gillibrand, 43, has “caught a real break,” said Hank Sheinkopf , a New York-based political consultant. “Gillibrand should be dancing in the streets,” Sheinkopf said in a telephone interview. “It means she is going to get her dream –no primary, no real general election.” Ford, who moved to New York in 2006, took his leave of absence as a vice president of Merrill Lynch, now a unit of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. , to explore a possible primary challenge against Gillibrand. She was appointed by New York Governor David Paterson to the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton when she became secretary of state. Ford served as a congressman from Tennessee for a decade starting in 1997, succeeding his father who held the seat for 22 years. He lost a race for the U.S. Senate in 2006. Backing for Gillibrand As Ford discussed a candidacy earlier this year, the Obama administration backed Gillibrand. “The White House is quite happy with the leadership and representation of Senator Gillibrand in New York,” President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs , told reporters in Washington Jan. 11. “We’re supporting her.” Pollster Doug Schoen surveyed voter opinions for Ford last month, the New York Times reported Feb. 23, citing two people who had been interviewed for the census. In an apparent test of his vulnerabilities, Ford was described as a “carpetbagger,” a supporter of the National Rifle Association, a “flip-flopper” on gay marriage and Wall Street executive, the Times said. Schoen declined to comment when reached by phone last night. Ford spokeswoman Tammy Sun accused Gillibrand last month of using “underhanded tactics” to keep him off the ballot after she had won endorsements from 56 of the state’s 62 Democratic county leaders, the Times reported. Adviser Jefrey Pollock said Gillibrand had worked hard for the county leaders’ support, the Times reported Feb. 8. Lead in Poll Gillibrand led Ford 36 percent to 18 percent, with 40 percent of likely voters in a Democratic primary undecided, according to a poll by Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Connecticut, released Feb. 3. The senator would beat declared Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman 44 percent to 27 percent, while Ford led Blakeman 35 percent to 26 percent, according to the survey. Gillibrand’s campaign spokesman Glen Caplin said last night that she would wage “a vigorous campaign” for the seat. “She takes a back seat to no one when it comes to fighting for New York,” Caplin said in an e-mailed statement. Paterson, a Democrat, isn’t running to keep the governorship. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo , 52, is the “natural choice” to be the Democratic candidate for that post, Jay Jacobs, chairman of New York’s Democratic Party, said on Feb. 26, the day Paterson, 55, announced he wouldn’t make the race. Paterson’s decision followed a New York Times report that he and state police officers spoke with a woman who had filed domestic abuse charges against one of his aides. He vowed to serve out his term through year-end. To contact the reporter on this story: Peter S. Green in Washington at psgreen@bloomberg.net .

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LA Times: At least 56 people have died in Toyota accidents

February 28, 2010

LA Times: At least 56 people have died in Toyota accidents

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U.S. Detains Taliban Deputy Baradar; May Be Biggest Capture of Afghan War

February 16, 2010

By Eltaf Najafizada and Farhan Sharif Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — The Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been captured near Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi in what may be the most significant blow to the eight-year insurgency. Baradar, who has directed daily operations as deputy to Mullah Omar , was among four Afghans travelling in a car intercepted by Pakistani police on a highway to the north of the city, a senior Karachi intelligence officer who can’t be named as he’s not authorized to speak to the media, said in an interview. Another top police official confirmed the detention. “We were ordered to hand them over to other agencies,” the intelligence officer said of the operation. Baradar’s capture was first reported by the New York Times, which said he was nabbed in Karachi by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence teams. While two senior Taliban commanders in Afghanistan confirmed Baradar had been taken, they said he’d been held during a U.S.- led assault in the country’s south. The capture of Baradar, whom various reports say is about 40 years old, comes as U.S., British and Afghan soldiers advance into southern Helmand Province in the biggest offensive against the Taliban since the beginning of the war in 2001. Baradar is undergoing joint interrogation, the Times said, citing unnamed American government officials. His detention could hamper insurgent operations for months, said Waheed Mujda, an Afghan analyst and former Taliban official. “He is very important, the mastermind of their operations,” Mujda said in a phone interview from Kabul. Still, “the Taliban have faced this problem before,” when three top deputies to Mullah Omar were killed or reported captured within six months in 2007, he said. Omar Confidante Baradar is the deputy leader of the “Quetta shura,” the top council of Taliban leaders, which analysts and U.S. officials say fled into hiding near the Pakistani border city of Quetta after being driven from Afghanistan in 2002. Pakistan denies that the Taliban leadership operates on its territory. His capture could provide information on the whereabouts of Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader. Omar’s “relative lack of operational experience” means that the Taliban leadership council’s “day-to-day operations are handled by” Baradar, said a report last month by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. “Omar and Baradar have a close, long-standing relationship. Both fought side-by-side against the Soviets” in the 1980s, the report said. Baradar comes from the same ethnic Pashtun tribe as Afghan President Hamid Karzai , said Taliban commander Akhtar Mohammad, one of the two top militants who confirmed the detention. Taliban Losses Mohammad said by phone that Baradar was taken during weekend fighting in Helmand. Another Taliban official, Abdul Qayum, said he “was captured by foreign troops on Sunday, along with some of his bodyguards, during the operation in Marjah,” a town in Helmand attacked by U.S. Marines on Feb. 13. Qayum also spoke by phone from an unspecified place in Afghanistan. Baradar is the highest-ranking Taliban official reported killed or captured since May 2007, when top military chief Mullah Dadullah was killed. Dadullah’s death came within six months of the Taliban losing their previous top commander, Akhtar Mohammad Osmani , and their former defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah. In an attempt to improve the Taliban’s standing inside Afghanistan, Baradar last year helped issue a “code of conduct” for the group’s fighters. The handbook told Taliban guerrillas how to avoid civilian casualties and win the support of villagers. ISI Role The raid that grabbed Baradar was carried out by Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, with the assistance of CIA operatives, the Times said. Karachi, a port city of 18 million people, has attracted fighters belonging to Pakistan’s own Taliban movement who have moved from the tribal northwest to escape missile attacks by U.S. unmanned aircraft and an offensive by Pakistan’s army, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, New York, said in a Jan. 26 report. Karachi also has one of Pakistan’s biggest populations of ethnic Pashtuns, the group within which the Taliban movement arose. Largely spared the retaliatory suicide bomb attacks the campaign triggered, Karachi religious processions by the city’s Shiite Muslim community were bombed in December and earlier this month, killing nearly 70 people. Opium Center The Marjah area of southern Helmand Province, where the current U.S.-led offensive is under way, is one of Afghanistan’s biggest opium-production areas. The offensive is the allied forces’ effort to consolidate their biggest previous attempt, in July 2009, to establish government control in Helmand, where opium and smuggling trails to adjacent Pakistan have provided the guerrillas with revenue and supply routes. Controlling Marjah would connect areas seized by U.S. and British forces last year, according to U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal , the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. To contact the reporters on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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Mary Bottari: Congress Needs to Clip Goldman’s Wings

February 15, 2010

The New York Times’ front page expose on the role that Goldman Sachs has played in the Greek tragedy unfolding in Europe right now raises a huge number of concerns both for the U.S. economy and the financial reform proposals now in Congress. To recap, Greece and a number of other European Union (EU) countries are in debt, dangerously in debt. EU rules say member countries cannot have budget deficits that exceed three percent of GDP. Greece’s debt is closer to 12 percent. Other countries including Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal are also in trouble. These countries are “too big to fail.” A default by any one of them would put an end to the nascent EU recovery and possibly lead to a “double dip” recession here in the United States. Greece has been hiding the extent of its debt for years with the aid of big U.S. banks. Der Spiegel broke the story that Greece did a billion-dollar currency swap with [[Goldman Sachs]] in 2002 that did not show up on the nation’s books as debt.Without it Greece many not have been accepted into the common currency “Eurozone.” Doing the Work of the Gods? Yesterday, the Times provided more details about these deals. Those chuckleheads at Goldman called one Aeolos, after the god of the winds. “Aeolos, a legal entity created in 2001, helped Greece reduce the debt on its balance sheet that year. As part of the deal, Greece got cash upfront in return for pledging future landing fees at the country’s airports. A similar deal in 2000 called Ariadne devoured the revenue that the government collected from its national lottery. Greece, however, classified those transactions as sales, not loans, despite doubts by many critics,” reports the Times. It walks like a loan and talks like a loan, but because it was actually a complex derivative swap, it was secret, bilateral, and off-book. The people of Greece knew nothing, and at the current moment, no one knows how many of these deals are out there masking EU debt or U.S. debt for that matter. Congress Need’s to Clip Goldman’s Wings What the Times story missed is that right now neither the House financial reform bill nor the Senate proposal cover these types of currency swaps. Why not? Well, this is a bit odd. The U.S. Federal Reserve does not want these deals covered. Although there is no evidence that the Fed is engaging in these types of currency swaps with banks from other nations, their objections to placing these deals on open exchanges should ring some alarm bells. The United States also has substantial debt. Why leave the door open for this type of highly risky accounting? Congress and the Obama administration need to stop listening to Ben Bernanke and start listening to Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodity Future Trading Commission, who has been pushing a reluctant administration and Congress to drag every aspect of the $605 trillion derivative market out of the shadows. Like Icarus, Goldman and other big banks who have engaged in these massive deals are flying a little to close to the sun. To prevent the next meltdown, Senate Banking Chair Chris Dodd must clip Goldman’s wings and make sure that all derivatives, without exception, are cleared by regulators and traded on an open exchange to provide the maximum level of transparency for the United States and the world.

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Zachery Kouwe Plagiarism Scandal? New York Times Says Reporter ‘Borrowed’ Repeatedly

February 14, 2010

The New York Times has issued an editor’s note saying that business reporter Zachery Kouwe , “reused language from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other sources without attribution or acknowledgment.” According to the Times, they were notified of the issue by the Journal. In articles about the Bernard Madoff scandal that appeared in both newspapers on February 6, there were similar phrases and even identical sentences. Versions of the stories were also available online on February 5. For example, each contained a sentence reading: Last year Mr. Madoff’s wife, Ruth, also agreed to an asset freeze as part of a separate trustee’s $45 million lawsuit against her. In each story, that sentences was immediately preceded by very similar passages. From the New York Times version : Under the agreement, the family members cannot transfer or sell property or assets valued at more than $1,000 or incur debts and obligations greater than $1,000 without approval of Mr. Picard. They are allowed to use credit cards for necessary living expenses. The defendants also will provide the trustee with an accounting of their expenditures. From the Wall Street Journal version : The family members agreed not to transfer or sell property or assets valued at more than $1,000 or incur debts and obligations greater than $1,000 without approval of the trustee. They are allowed to use credit cards for necessary living expenses. The defendants also will provide the trustee with an accounting of their expenditures, the orders say. The Times indicated that the problem may be larger, potentially involving unattributed work from Reuters and elsewhere. From the paper’s corrections page : A subsequent search by The Times found other cases of extensive overlap between passages in Mr. Kouwe’s articles and other news organizations’. (The search did not turn up any indications that the articles were inaccurate.) Copying language directly from other news organizations without providing attribution — even if the facts are independently verified — is a serious violation of Times policy and basic journalistic standards. It should not have occurred. The matter remains under investigation by The Times, which will take appropriate action consistent with our standards to protect the integrity of our journalism.

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New York Times Financial Results

February 10, 2010

New York Times Financial Results

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Village Voice Affiliate Might Face Forced Bankruptcy in Ad-Rates Dispute

January 15, 2010

By Phil Milford and Greg Bensinger Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — New Times Media LLC, which merged with the Village Voice newspaper’s parent company in 2006, might face U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceedings after losing a $15.9 million judgment for ad-price manipulation, a lawyer said. New Times, an affiliate of Village Voice Media LLC, sued West Coast rival Bay Guardian Co. , asking a judge to rule it doesn’t have to pay the judgment in a dispute over advertising rates in San Francisco-area alternative papers, according to a complaint made public yesterday in Delaware Chancery Court. “You learn in civics class that when you get a judgment against you, you have to pay,” yet the Village Voice group hasn’t done so, said Tim Redmond, the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s executive editor. He said in a phone interview yesterday that the judgment has risen to $21 million, with interest. The ruling gives Bay Guardian a lien on all the Village Voice group’s newspaper properties, according to Redmond, who said Bay Guardian is considering petitioning to put the Village Voice chain into involuntary bankruptcy to collect the debt. “We’re considering all options,” including forced bankruptcy, Jay Adkisson, a lawyer representing Bay Guardian, said in a phone interview. Randall Farrimond, an attorney representing New Times Media and two affiliates named in the original suit, said such a forced bankruptcy wasn’t possible. “It is simply ludicrous to suggest that any of the companies that are not parties to the California action might somehow be facing bankruptcy as a result of that judgment,” Farrimond said in a letter. Lien Limited Farrimond said any lien would apply only to the holding companies named in the original suit. “It does not extend to the property of any other newspapers,’’ he said. Adkisson said that while Village Voice Media claims it only has enough assets to pay $80 million to lenders led by Bank of Montreal, he believes it can afford to pay the judgment based on court records showing it had $191 million in assets at the end of 2007. Adkisson said yesterday the Bay Guardian had just received the Delaware lawsuit and couldn’t immediately comment. Farrimond said the lawsuit “asks a judge to rule that the partnership or membership interests of New Times Media LLC in certain Delaware companies cannot be sold in order to satisfy the judgment against New Times Media.” Involuntary Petition Under U.S. bankruptcy law, creditors owed at least $10,000 are allowed to file an involuntary petition to put the case before a judge. Village Voice Media contends it “is entitled to an injunction preventing defendant from seeking remedies against Delaware entities that are forbidden by Delaware law,” according to court papers. “There’s not anything that we can do to prevent them from attempting to put any entity into bankruptcy, whether or not there’s actually a basis for it,” Farrimond said in an interview. “There’s nothing that has come up recently, that I am aware of, that would trigger a bankruptcy proceeding.” Farrimond’s clients include the defendants in the original ad-price lawsuit, the SF Weekly and the holding company for the East Bay Express, which has since been sold. He said the combined assets of his clients are less than Adkisson claims, without providing specifics. “The assets of SF Weekly are obviously far less than that $191 million number that Adkisson is throwing around,” Farrimond said in the letter. New Times Appeal Farrimond said assets of Village Voice Media outside of California weren’t subject to the original ruling. New Times Media has a pending appeal in California and won’t pay the amount of the judgment before the appeal has run its course, he said. Average weekly circulation for the Village Voice, founded in 1955, declined 11 percent in the six months through June 2009 to 213,358, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The SF Weekly lost 15 percent of its average weekly circulation in the period, dropping to 85,046. The case is New Times Media LLC v. Bay Guardian Co. Inc., CA5204, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington). To contact the reporters on this story: Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware, at pmilford@bloomberg.net ; Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net .

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Giuliani: My ‘Warped View’ Is That Huge Wall Street Bonuses Are ‘Wonderful’ (VIDEO)

January 12, 2010

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the “bank bonus season” that begins this week “will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.”

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Commercial real-estate market suffered in 2009; more of the same …

December 27, 2009

Commercial real – estate insiders say 2010 could be as bad, if not worse, than 2009 for their industry. Here is the original post: Commercial real – estate market suffered in 2009; more of the same forecast for 2010 (Seattle Times)

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Wall Street’s Bets Against Mortgage-Linked Securities Said to Draw Probe

December 24, 2009

By David Scheer Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and brokerage regulators are examining how Wall Street firms bet against mortgage-linked securities to profit as their clients took losses, people familiar with the matter said. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which polices broker-dealers, is looking into whether firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. broke rules when selling products known as synthetic collateralized debt obligations, one of the people said. The people declined to be identified because the inquiry is confidential. One focus of the inquiries is whether firms purposely linked the instruments to mortgages likely to default , leaving clients facing billions of dollars in losses if the housing market collapsed, while simultaneously setting up short sales that would profit from the decline, the New York Times said in a report today. The synthetic CDOs being reviewed typically don’t contain actual mortgages, the Times said. Instead, the CDOs bundled credit-default swaps, a type of insurance that can require an investor on one side of the contract to pay the other side when debts go into default. New York-based Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are among firms that created the products for clients, then bet the underlying assets would fail, the Times said, citing unidentified traders. “Many of the synthetic CDOs arranged were the result of demand from investing clients seeking long exposure,” Goldman said in a statement on its Web site responding to the Times article. “The buyers of synthetic mortgage CDOs were large, sophisticated investors” who employed researchers and “did not rely upon the issuing banks in making their investment decisions,” the bank said. Goldman’s investment losses on mortgages would have been greater if it hadn’t hedged positions, the statement said. Morgan Stanley spokesman Mark Lake, SEC spokesman Kevin Callahan and Finra’s Brendan Intindola declined to comment. To contact the reporter on this story: David Scheer in New York at dscheer@bloomberg.net .

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U.S. State Department Seeks Access to American Citizen Detained by Cuba

December 12, 2009

By Tina Davis Seeley Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — An American citizen was detained by the Cuban government last week and the U.S. government is seeking access to the person “as soon as possible,” State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said. “The U.S. Interests Section in Havana has requested consular access to meet with the American citizen,” Mattson said in an e-mail today. She declined to name the individual, who was detained Dec. 5, because the citizen hasn’t waived privacy protections. The citizen isn’t a U.S. government employee, according to Mattson. The New York Times reported today the person is a U.S. government contract worker who was distributing cell phones, laptops and communications equipment in Cuba on behalf of the Obama administration. President Barack Obama ’s administration is working to resume more direct contact with Cuba as part of a U.S. effort to establish dialogue with foes from Iran to North Korea to Burma. Obama in April loosened restrictions on travel for Cuban- Americans visiting family members in the Caribbean nation and lifted caps on how much money they may send relatives on the island. Obama also said he would allow U.S. telecommunications companies such as AT&T Inc. to get licenses to do business in Cuba. Still, on Sept. 11, he signed a one-year extension of the Trading With the Enemy Act, which restricts trade with Cuba. The detainee was employed by Development Alternatives Inc., which had at least $391,000 in government contracts last year, the Times reported, citing unidentified officials. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, the company focuses “on market-based approaches to economic development,” according to its Web site. Company officials didn’t respond to requests for comment from the Times or Bloomberg News. On its Web site , the company says its clients include the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Japan Bank for International Development, the World Bank and companies such as Abbott Laboratories and Chevron Corp. To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Davis Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net .

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TARP Failures Keep Taxpayers On The Hook; 33 Companies Miss Payment

November 15, 2009

According to The Washington Post , 33 companies that received a portion of TARP’s $700 billion have not paid the federal government their most recent dividend payments. Those payments are required by the terms of the bailout and signal that the firms are strained for cash, according to the Post. If those companies fail, US taxpayers stand to lose billions. The Post profiles CIT’s failure and bankruptcy despite $2.3 billion in investments from the federal government, money that US taxpayers will likely never see (though Goldman Sachs, another CIT investor, stands to make $1 billion from the company’s failure). CIT’s bankruptcy filings listed $71 billion in assets and $64.6 billion in debt. The Fed deemed CIT to be a bank holding company in December 2008, allowing CIT to borrow from TARP. The Fed argued that allowing CIT to borrow TARP funds would help the public because the lender would be free to loan more–except that never happened. In the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, CIT made just 142 loans backed by the Small Business Administration totaling $105 million. One year before, CIT lent 1,589 SBA loans totaling $873 million. In July, Reuters reported that CIT’s troubles raise questions about the Fed’s supervision. Just weeks after the Fed’s decision that allowed CIT to borrow TARP funds, the FDIC turned down a request to guarantee CIT debt. The FDIC was worried about “CIT’s higher risk lending, escalating bad loans, and limited capacity for new lending.” Alan S. Blinder, the former Fed vice chairman under President Clinton, argues that the decision to bailout CIT was the weakest. Washington Post: “Of all the financial companies that were rescued or semi-rescued, CIT was always the thinnest case, the toughest to defend,” he said. “My attitude was: Hold your nose and go for it. It’s something that I would rather not have seen the government do. . . . But the Fed and the Treasury and the others were in the unenviable position of being like the Dutch boy with the finger in the dike. And we definitely didn’t want the dike to burst.” On the day that news broke about CIT’s bankruptcy filing, The New York Times’ Gretchen Morgenson wondered if CitiGroup, another bailed out institution, could “carry its own weight.” In just 80 years, the federal government has bailed out CitiGroup four times. Citigroup has ominously been called “the queen of the zombie dance,” by Chris Whalen, editor of the Institutional Risk Analyst. There are doubts that CitiGroup can survive, even after its most recent $45 billion federal bailout. Whalen in the Times : “They are hoping that a combination of bank assistance and maximizing revenue and buying time will let them survive,” he said. “When I look at the whole picture, Citigroup is in the process of resolution. I continue to believe the equity is worth zero and that the company will have to go to bondholders for some kind of money to make the bank stable.”

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Tribune to pay back $170 million worth of debt

November 10, 2009

Angeles Times and other news outlets, said Tuesday it will pay back $170 million worth of outstanding “debtor-in-possession” debt, which it took out to pay for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Tribune had filed for bankruptcy protection in December

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Raymond J. Learsy: The Price of Oil and the Massacre at Fort Hood

November 8, 2009

The relation between price of oil and the slaughter that took place at Fort Hood is hardly as farfetched as it would appear. In a instructive article (http://www.islamicpluralism.org/1408/take-a-look-at-hasans-old-mosque) that was reprinted as an Op-ed in the NYPost on Saturday Nov 7, one Stephen Suleyman Schwartz Executive Director of the Center of Islamic Pluralism talks about the influences that apparently formed Major Nidal Hassan’s murderous hatred. This in striking contrast to the New York Times’ “see no evil” editorial of the same date, pontificating, “But until investigations are complete, no one can begin to imagine what could possibly have motivated the latest appalling carnage.” Really?! The Times, undeterred, continues with an article on today’s front page, “A Military Therapist’s World: Long Hours, Filled With Pain” replete with the sad song of twisted rationalizations, instructing us that this horrendous act was attributable to professional traumatic stress or as brightly cited in the Times, “Thursday’s rampage has put a spotlight on the stains of their profession and the patients they treat.” Then, in an adjoining article on the same NY Times front page, “Preliminary Fort Hood Inquiry Turns Up No Link To Terrorist Plot” the NY Times is quick to advise us “But, so far, investigators have unearthed no evidence that he was directed or steered into violence”. Then, perhaps in some deference to journalistic objectivity, mentioned almost in passing, that findings were preliminary and that investigators viewed the investigation as fluid. No such mealy mouthed hesitancy in the Schwartz Op-ed. Here we are informed that Hasan regularly attended prayer services at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring MD where the main prayer leader Iman Faizul Khan was a friend of Hasan’s as well as holding board membership on the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The ISNA, according to Schwartz, the main Wahhabi lobby group in the United States, has a long and disgraceful record of promoting radical Islam. He goes on to advise that it is a group understood to have been established by Saudi Arabia to impose extremism on American Muslims. He continues, telling us that “from a ghastly act, to a Saudi-backed fundamentalist Iman, to a Saudi run designated terror financing charity is not a long trail. That ii is but a small coil of associations that exist in too many US mosques”. He rightfully concludes American Muslims must drive these elements out of their community. “The problem is not traumatic stress, much less Islam. It’s the ideology, the money and and the interests of the Saudi hardliners.” And almost needless to add, the funding comes from the avalanche of money flowing into the coffers of such as Saudi Arabia through the insidious and duplicitous manipulation of oil prices by the cartel producers, with Saudi Arabia as the dominant player and prime beneficiary. This at the cost of hundreds of billions to American consumers in dollars and cents alone, without even beginning to fathom the cost and danger to our society, safety and well being impacted by the radicalization of a segment of our society through Wahhabi dogma while our government and its agencies look the other way, rarely if ever holding the Saudis to account (please see “Oils Massive Price Distortion Militates the Reconvening of the 1970s Federal Oil Price Commision” 11/03/09). Perhaps, just perhaps, in tribute and memory to those who were gunned down at Fort Hood, this could be a wake-up call to the nation.

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Russ Baker: Something to Sleep On

October 6, 2009

The New York Times lead story yesterday describes how a series of private equity firms managed to repeatedly flip the venerable Simmons mattress company, earning themselves huge profits while the company became increasingly mired in debt and ultimately forced into bankruptcy and massive layoffs, with ordinary investors, employees, and company retirees taking a huge hit. I thought it would be worthwhile to have a further look at some of the players cited briefly in the article, so here is a bit more on the private equity kingpin Thomas H. Lee, typical of the masters of the universe who so affect our lives yet generally fly below the radar. First, the Times “nut graph”: Simmons says it will soon file for bankruptcy protection, as part of an agreement by its current owners to sell the company — the seventh time it has been sold in a little more than two decades — all after being owned for short periods by a parade of different investment groups, known as private equity firms, which try to buy undervalued companies, mostly with borrowed money. For many of the company’s investors, the sale will be a disaster. Its bondholders alone stand to lose more than $575 million. The company’s downfall has also devastated employees like Noble Rogers, who worked for 22 years at Simmons, most of that time at a factory outside Atlanta. He is one of 1,000 employees — more than one-quarter of the work force — laid off last year. But Thomas H. Lee Partners of Boston has not only escaped unscathed, it has made a profit. The investment firm, which bought Simmons in 2003, has pocketed around $77 million in profit, even as the company’s fortunes have declined. THL collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the company in the form of special dividends. It also paid itself millions more in fees, first for buying the company, then for helping run it. Last year, the firm even gave itself a small raise. Here’s what Forbes had to say about Mr. Lee ( who was involved with acquiring Simmons but left his own firm prior to the unraveling), listed as #717 on its 2007 roster of “The World’s Billionaires”: Fortune: self made Source: leveraged buyouts Net Worth: $1.4 bil Marital Status: married, 5 children Education: Harvard University, Master of Business Administration Soft-spoken buyout titan had a tough fall in 2005: After taking Warner Music public with Edgar Bronfman Jr., flipped commodities outfit Refco. Refco quickly fell apart; then-chief executive Phillip Bennett charged with securities fraud, conspiracy. Company’s assets bought up by London hedge fund Man Group. Lee claims he personally lost only $2 million. Harvard grad started investing with $150,000 inheritance 1974. Greatest hit: Snapple, bought for $135 million 1992, sold to Quaker Oats for $1.7 billion in 1994. Today invested in Dunkin’ Donuts, Michael Foods. Left Thomas H. Lee Partners to start Thomas H. Lee Equity Partners last March; believed to have been forced out by partners, he says he wants a fresh start. Now leveraging connections with hedge fund managers with his Blue Star fund-of-funds outfit. How are people like Lee able to turn a $150,000 inheritance into $1.4 billion? Some of it is smarts, and hard work, and good information. But if the practices themselves might otherwise face the wrath of the people’s representatives, it helps to have them on your side. Proving that the GOP is hardly the sole party of the moneyed, Lee’s donations over the years seem to have been almost exclusively to Democrats–including many senators and House members. Among his most recent contributions are between $100,001 and $250,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation, $28,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the maximum of $4,600 to the Obama Victory Fund. Though comparatively small sums for a wealthy man, they buy an awful lot of good will. So, too, does anything else that improves one’s odor and influence. Lee, for example, sits on many civic and charitable boards, among them Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Museum of Modern Art, NYU Medical Center, The Rockefeller University and Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Executive Committee for Harvard University’s Committee on University Resources. The Times article mentions the sense of betrayal felt by a longtime Simmons employee who has been laid off after 22 years, with two months’ severance. But how often do we get a detailed look at the folks whose actions cause the pain? Very seldom indeed.

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Ireland Ratifies EU Governance Treaty, Clearing Obstacle to Bloc’s Growth

October 3, 2009

By Ian Guider and James G. Neuger Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — Ireland endorsed the European Union’s new governing treaty , in a reversal of last year’s veto that puts the EU back on course to enhance its global profile and revamp its policymaking system. The Lisbon Treaty was approved by 67 percent of voters, with 33 percent opposed to the EU’s new rulebook, according to results delivered at the central count center in Dublin. Voters rejected the treaty in June 2008. “The Irish people have spoken with a clear and resounding voice,” Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen told reporters at government buildings in Dublin. “It’s a good day for Ireland and for Europe.” Voters switched sides to embrace European shelter, as the economy shrinks at a record pace and unemployment surges. Irish approval leaves the Czech Republic and Poland the only countries yet to ratify the treaty, which would create a full-time EU president as well as streamlining decision making. “There will be a stronger European presence on the world stage,” said Peadar O’Broin, senior researcher at the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin. “A lot of people will start to take the European Union as an actor more seriously.” Signed in Lisbon in 2007, the treaty would also strengthen the European Parliament , create a European bill of rights, allow more joint EU policies in areas from immigration to space exploration, and keep alive the prospect of further EU expansion. Nearing Unanimity Ireland became the 25th of the 27 EU countries to ratify. While parliaments in Poland and the Czech Republic have passed the treaty, both require presidential signatures on the final paperwork. EU treaties require unanimous ratification to take effect. Polish President Lech Kaczynski “will be keeping his word and signing the treaty,” Mariusz Handzlik, a presidential aide, said in a telephone interview today. In the Czech Republic, allies of anti-EU President Vaclav Klaus filed a supreme court challenge last week, saying the treaty violates Czech sovereignty. The court yesterday barred further ratification steps until it issues a ruling, which may take weeks. Klaus, a self-professed EU “dissident,” went on Czech television today to assail the rerun of the Irish vote as “wrong” and said he “will wait for the decision of the constitutional court.” Meanwhile, Britain’s Conservative opposition is lobbying EU nations to oppose a bid to install Tony Blair as the region’s first president, according to the Times newspaper. The party’s lawmaker in charge of foreign affairs, William Hague , told the Times that “there could be no worse way to sell the EU to the people of Britain.” Potential Candidates In addition to the former U.K. prime minister, potential contenders for the post include Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende , Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen . Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt , holder of the EU presidency, called Ireland’s endorsement “a good day for Europe” and voiced confidence that the new rulebook will be in place by the start of 2010. He plans to meet on Oct. 7 in Brussels with Prime Minister Jan Fischer of the Czech Republic, a backer of the treaty. “It’s the right result for Ireland and the right result for Europe,” European Commission Vice President Margot Wallstroem told reporters in Brussels. “It might be worth a Guinness or two tonight to celebrate.” ‘Dishonorable’ Cowen agreed to hold a second ballot after getting guarantees from EU leaders to safeguard Ireland’s neutrality, keep power over taxes and retain an EU commissioner. Before the vote, Cowen said Europe’s help is aiding Ireland’s economy, as unemployment doubled to 12.6 percent and the banking system grappled with surging bad debts. “The biggest factor was the economic climate,” said Mary Lou McDonald , vice president of the Sinn Fein party, which opposed the treaty. “The government and opposition political parties told the unemployed that there will be no jobs if Lisbon goes down. It was dishonorable and inaccurate.” All of the major political parties, except Sinn Fein , campaigned for the treaty. They joined Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary and the head of Intel Corp.’s local unit, Jim O’Hara, who spearheaded the business campaign to reverse last year’s vote. “We wouldn’t really have got through the last few months without the EU,” said Terry Prone, a political analyst who runs the Dublin-based Communications Clinic. “It was cool to vote ‘no’ last time. It marked us as disaffected and independent thinkers. It’s not cool to vote ‘no’ this time.” To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Guider in Dublin at iguider@bloomberg.net ; James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net

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Dubai banks' real estate exposure seen at 23%

September 29, 2009

Meet worldwide manufacturers, wholesalers & importersin Alibaba now! UAE. The exposure of Dubai banks to the troubled real estate sector is 23%, the second highest in the GCC after Bahrain Khaleej Times reported, citing a report by Kuwait Financial

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PRESS DIGEST – Malaysia – Sept 28

September 27, 2009

the two other parties in the alliance its ‘best friends’. BUSINESS TIMES (www.btimes.com.my) – State-owned private equity fund Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) may take some listed companies private as one of its investment strategies, said Ekuinas CEO

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Video: In-Depth Look – Insuring Bloggers

September 18, 2009

Interview and discussion with the Former New York Times General Counsel, James Goodale. He talks about the media insurance. (Bloomberg News)

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The Rise Of Fed-Up Judges

September 4, 2009

Several reports over the last few days have featured judges who have gotten fed up with the shoddy paperwork turned in by banks that are trying to take back properties from hard-luck homeowners. The judges are fighting back. In Brooklyn, Judge Arthur Schack is making a name for himself battling bankers who haven’t done due diligence in their foreclosure paperwork. The New York Times reported that he’s tossed out 46 of 102 foreclosure filings that have crossed his desk in the last two years. “I’m a little guy in Brooklyn who doesn’t belong to their country clubs, what can I tell you?” Schack said. “I won’t accept their comedy of errors.” In Florida, a judge annoyed that bank lawyers had been skipping hearings reportedly told Deutsche Bank National Trust attorney Farzad Milani “that he would not do his work while [Milani] sits in his office in Fort Lauderdale smoking his Cohiba cigars and drinking his lattes,” according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal . The judge, John Doyle, ultimately removed himself from the case over complaints about his comments. And in Phoenix, Ariz., the New York Times reports that Judge Randolph Haines of the United States Bankruptcy Court allowed a homeowner to summon a senior Wells Fargo executive to cross-examine him about missing paperwork in her application for a loan modification. “The kind of story I hear from this debtor is one that I and other bankruptcy judges around the country are hearing over and over and over again,” Haines told the Times, referring to a woman who’d failed to get Wells Fargo to deal with her application, “Bankruptcy judges are more frequently expressing this frustration about lack of responsible record keeping by the financial services industry,” said Robert Lawless, a law professor at the University of Illinois, in an interview with the Huffington Post. Lawless blogged about a case in Ohio and pointed to another in Pennsylvania in which judges smacked banks’ lawyers for inadequate paperwork. In the Ohio case, Countrywide Home Loans (now part of Bank of America) was sanctioned by Judge Marilyn Shea-Stonum, who pointed out that “the problems created by the mortgage servicing industry have been pervasive in many of the cases on this Court’s docket.” But how much is this really happening? HuffPost readers: Know about a fed-up judge? Please tell us about it. Email arthur@huffingtonpost.com . Julian Hattem contributed to this report.

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Westcon Group Appoints Bill Hurley as Chief Technology Officer as Company Pursues Distribution of Groundbreaking New Technology Solutions

August 3, 2009

Hurley Appointment Helps Drive Efficiency and Profitability for Westcon and Its Customers During Economic and Technologically Challenging Times

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Obama Losing Control of Health Care Plan Debate, New York Times Poll Says

July 29, 2009

By Heather Burke July 29 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s influence on health-care reform is being hurt by opponents arguing proposed legislation will limit doctor choice and treatment, the New York Times reported, citing a poll the newspaper conducted with CBS News. The poll found 69 percent of those surveyed believed that their health-care quality would deteriorate if the government enacted a universal coverage plan, the Times said

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‘United Breaks Guitars’: Did It Cost The Airline $180 Million? Definitely Not

July 24, 2009

By now nearly 4 million people have watched the ‘United Breaks Guitars’ video that has made its way around the web. A quick catch-up: United Airlines passenger David Carroll had his Taylor guitar destroyed by baggage handlers during a flight earlier this year. After United declined to reimburse him for the damage, he wrote three now-famous songs decrying their customer service and their brand

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