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SMALL BUSINESS
Economic stimulus for everyone else: Washington considers $84 billion plan
If you're one of the 0.057 percent of Americans -- roughly 175,000 out of 305 million -- who are in line for $140 billion in Wall Street bonuses this year, you may be wondering why the government is spending $787 billion of your hard-earned tax dollars for "economic stimulus." After all, your employers got their $23.7 trillion bailout for causing the financial crisis and everything is hunky-dory now. Your bosses spent $5 billion for lobbying in Washington over the last decade and got an ample return on that investment, so why not just pull up the stairs and take off?
But if you're among the 15.1 million unemployed or part of the other 99.943 percent of America who are not doing so well these days, you might feel that the government is not doing enough for you. While the administration claims that its stimulus plan has saved or created a million jobs so far, that is nowhere near enough. But more help from Washington is coming: Fortune reports that another $84 billion in government spending and tax breaks is headed your way.
Galleon shutters $3.7 billion hedge fund -- no government bailout required!
Galleon Holdings, the $3.7 billion hedge fund run by accused insider-trader Raj Rajaratnam (pictured), who is now free on $100 million bail, is shutting down. The big reason is that many of its investors -- college endowments such as Colgate University and state pension funds including the Virginia Retirement System, according to Reuters -- are not comfortable keeping their money with a firm whose CEO has been indicted.
Don't you just love it when the free market works? I realize that Wall Street does not have an entirely free market, because when it gets in trouble, the U.S. steps in with $23.7 trillion -- a nice return on Wall Street's $5 billion investment in Washington over the last decade. But in this case, the free market looks to be rapidly hoovering up the little mess left in Galleon's wake.
Wells Fargo earnings reach a new high, but loan losses keep mounting
Wells Fargo (WFC), the fourth-largest U.S. bank, reported its third-straight record quarterly profit as lending and deposits increased. The San Francisco-based lender said third-quarter net income for common shareholders rose to $2.6 billion, or 54 cents a share, compared with $1.6 billion, or 49 cents a share a year ago.
Those results outpaced analysts' profit estimates of 37 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. And yet Wells Fargo's stock dropped in pre-market trading, possibly because the strong results also hinted at some lingering concerns that many analysts and investors have harbored over its performance.
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Banks too big to fail: Should they be propped up, or split up?
How can the U.S. solve its systemic banking issues? If you're former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker (pictured) or Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, your answer would be: Let's split up the banks. Volcker would like to see some form of a Glass-Steagall-like bill passed to reconstruct the wall between commercial banking and investment banking. Glass-Steagall, a law passed after the Great Depression, was repealed in 1999.
But from actions they've taken, it appears that others, including current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, think propping up the largest banks is the best way to go. In fact, they clearly like to see big banks getting bigger. John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley (MS), has spoken of the pressure he faced from Bernanke and Geithner to merge Morgan Stanley with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) during the depths of last year's crisis. Bank of America's (BAC) tale of woe regarding how it was pressured to acquire Merrill Lynch is very similar in tone.
Chipotle rolls out rooftop solar plan: A new era of green fast food joints?
Rooftop solar power is the next item on the menu for Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).
The popular burrito chain announced today it had plans to install solar panels atop 75 restaurants during the next 12 months. Collectively, the panels will produce 500 kilowatt hours of electricity. That will make Denver-based Chipotle the largest direct producer of solar power in the restaurant business, according to the company's press release and an article in Environmental Leader.
Cramer on Bloggingstocks: Bearish analysts wrong on Texas Instruments
The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that they should recognize that what's more important than being a bear is being right.
Ah, the lot of the bear is a beautiful lot -- never wrong, always having fun at the bullish optimists, never going down for defeat. For them, every day is a day when the St. Louis Cardinals will face the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, even after they have been eliminated.
Cases in point: two reports yesterday on Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) (Cramer's Take) from the Joy Luck Bear Club, Christopher Danely from JPMorgan and Alex Gauna from JMP Securities. Both of these gentlemen have fought the good but totally wrong fight against Texas Instruments. After what was a monumentally good quarter for the company, Gauna, who has Texas Instruments as an "underperform," raised his price target dramatically from $16 to $18. That would be totally in keeping with the direction of the earnings (way up), except that the stock's at $23.50.
Boeing's earnings miss and lowered guidance mean time for a CEO change
This morning, Boeing (BA) reported lower-than-expected earnings and slashed its expectations for future earnings. That report makes Morgan Stanley (MS) analyst Heidi Wood's suggestion that investors lighten up on their Boeing holdings, which I posted on Tuesday, look good.
Of course, that advice would have been far more useful if it had come back in September 2007, when the stock peaked at $105 on optimism about the 787 Dreamliner. With the share price now at $50 and dropping, it looks like Boeing's CEO Jim McNerney has gone and "f$%^ed it up" -- just as Wood feared he'd do back when he took the job in 2005. Is it time for prodigal son, Ford Motor (F) CEO -- and former Boeing executive -- Alan Mulally to come home?
GE's Immelt: Happy with NBC, wishes network put more content on Hulu.com
GE Corp. (GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt came to the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Tuesday to show off an impressive pocket-sized ultrasound device that's not much bigger than an iPhone. The device was amazingly sleek and could prove both useful and an affordable option amidst a sea of red ink in medicine.
Alas, when facing a crowd of reporters, the affable Immelt primarily got barraged with questions about the conglomerate's plans for NBC Universal as scribes spent much of a brief press conference pinging him with questions about GE's present and future media strategy.
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Symbol | Last | Change | Volume | ||
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C | 4.48 | 0.05 | 1.13% | 224.22M | |
SPY | 109.78 | 0.57 | 0.52% | 92.87M | |
BAC | 16.85 | -0.16 | 0.94% | 87.10M |
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SLM | 11.31 | 2.41 | 27.08% | 22.49M | |
CLW | 50.30 | 6.06 | 13.70% | 202,590.00 | |
TEN | 16.43 | 1.65 | 11.16% | 1.18M |
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FBS-A | 6.92 | -1.08 | 13.50% | 450.00 | |
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