Google's outgoing CEO Eric Schmdit has sold off his $335 million in Google stock holdings.

I don't dare use the E word (Enron) but you wouldn't sell $335 million dollars worth of stock in a company you thought was on the rise. This is precisely what Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling did on his way off the Titantic back in 2001.

Speaking of the Enron collapse...

What a display in faulty capitalism that was. Apart from the frivolous accounting practices (i.e not having any money but somehow turing a profit every quarter with phony energy accounts) Enron also tried to deregulate the Utility industry in California (in the name of capitalism) in order to turn a bogus profiting by orchestrating all of those blackouts back in 2001; blackouts they profited from by hedging that the price of energy would go through the roof. If not for those bogus blackouts there's no way in hell that Ahhnald Schwarzenegger would have had the momentum to usurp then active governor Gray Davis.

And then there's "Kenny Boy", as the Bushes called him, Enron CEO/founder Ken Lay--does anyone honestly think this guy did NOT take his OWN life in July of '06?

Consider the evidence:

-His trial began in January of that year, and there's no question that the Bush boys were going to be complicit in anything Lay would disclose from his early years. GW was of course in the White House at the time, and this thing could have brought a major storm on top of what was already going on in the country at the time. (Lay and George Sr. were absolutely business partners in the early days of Enron).

-He died in Colorado, a state that Enron and executives owned immensely (one exec was the second largest land owner in Colorado). Lay could have easily disappeared in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains with all his blood money.

-Since Lay's death, the case against him has been completely dropped; a legal decision that is virtually unprecedented. This would of course have left Bush Sr. in the clear, too. Thus it certainly would have been in Lay's best interest to drop off the face of the Earth.

And if Ken Lay could fake his own death, it just makes me wonder who else throughout history has done so.....

Yeah I had a pal who interned there as an Energy trader during that summer before the collapse and expected to be hired on after graduation, but even then folks around the country were already getting privy to the fact that Enron literally couldn't show any accounting for their earnings in spite of their soaring stock value and status as one of the fastest growing companies ever. One of the tipping points right before the crash(following 9-11 I think) was when they announced they would be the first company to trade....the WEATHER!? Those were some crazy times in corporate America with 911 and everything else.

Corporate fraud is something any honest businessman who enjoys what he does wants to extinguish. I'd compare it to athletes trying to eradicate steroid use from their sport because the bad guys ruin it for everyone. But for every Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay there's a Bill Gates.

From yesterday:

Dow Moves Past 12,000 for first time since June 2008



And a liberal blog inevitably will bring this up:

Jesus, the stock market dropped 166 points today. Cairo scared the shit out of investors apparently.

There is absolutely no scenario other than a beautiful bumper crop in which grain prices will go lower anytime in the near future....With the stepped-up demand from North Africa and the Middle East whittling away at global wheat stocks, there is no room for error with the winter wheat crop in the United States.

End of cheap food era as grain prices stay high: Reuters poll
Published: Friday, 28 Jan 2011 | 12:15 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. grain prices should stay unrelentingly high this year, according to a Reuters poll, the latest sign that the era of cheap food has come to an end.

U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat prices -- which surged by as much has 50 percent last year and hit their highest levels since mid-2008 -- will dip by at most 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to the poll of 16 analysts.

The forecasts suggest no quick relief for nations bedeviled by record high food costs that have stoked civil unrest. It means any extreme weather event in a grains-producing part of the world could send prices soaring further.

The expectations may also strengthen importers' resolve to build bigger inventories after a year in which stocks of corn and soybeans in the United States -- the world's top exporter -- dwindled to their lowest level in decades.

In a sign of more consumer pain on the meat front, U.S. hog futures hit a record high on Friday as South Korea stepped up imports after culling its herd due to disease.

The U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) pointed to sugar and meat as two primary commodities that helped to lift world food prices to a record high in December.

While grain prices remain below the historic highs of 2008, they could remain stronger for longer this year as intense competition among crops for land use and depleted grain bins make it an even greater challenge to restore equilibrium.

"Even if we have a good year, we are not going to have the inventories we've seen before. I really do think the time of cheap food prices is over, and that's just it," said analyst Chris Mann of Traders Group Inc in Chicago.

"Everything is set to the point where supply equals demand right now. But if you pull one thing out of it, or if you disrupt the equation in some little way or tweak it, I think, with inventories as tight as they are, it will really have an impact on prices. A drought, a flood, anything," said Mann.

A series of shocks brought the grains market to the brink last year.

A summer drought in Russia led to a suspension of grain exports, rains in Australia downgraded the quality of its wheat crop, and a lack of rain cut Argentine corn output. China bought near-record volumes of U.S. corn, and demand for corn-based ethanol surged.

Now prices must remain high to encourage U.S. farmers to plant more corn and soybeans in the spring, and traders will be on tenterhooks to see whether crops in the United States are enough to correct the deficit in inventories.

Full Article

Well the prices of hogs and cows are also increasing because when feed prices increase the farmers have to slaughter the animals earlier as opposed to letting them grow into mature animals and breed, adding to their feed costs. As a result, meat stocks are slim.

The U.S. cattle herd is absolutely at its smallest level in decades, especially in Texas and other big open range areas where frozen crops and lack of top soil is dwindling feed supply. McDonald's has already said it would raise prices this year because of higher costs (Sorry, college kids, but Mickey D's dollar menu is probably a thing of the past).

BTW Egypt is indeed the largest importer of U.S grain in the world; even more than China. It would be a good idea to send some over there right now as a gift to perhaps help ease the tensions, especially if you buy into the notion that these are essentially food riots there.

40% of Egypt's money goes to food, so to see a virtual doubling in the price of wheat would cause a revolution anywhere.

Algeria, Saudi Arabia, to name just a couple of nations have doubled their call for wheat over the past year causing prices to go even further through the roof.

Zee Germans are coming - Willkommen auf Wand Strabe
NYSE Traders Say Yes to Germany, No to Lederhosen

10 Feb 2011 | 6:12 AM ET


A German takeover of the New York Stock Exchange, the citadel of American capitalism, would have shocked its floor traders in years gone by. But not now.

The floor traders have been through wrenching times in recent times because of the dominance of electronic trading and merciless competition from upstart rivals.

Given that backdrop, the prospects of working for a more powerful transatlantic powerhouse are in some ways appealing.

Indeed, any concerns expressed about the news on Wednesday that Deutsche Boerse is in advanced talks to buy the exchange's owner NYSE Euronext were more lighthearted than anything else.

"I think culturally, if they're talking about changing the dress code, I don't look good in lederhosen," said Benedict Willis, 51, a 25-year veteran of the trading floor and the director of floor operations for Sunrise Securities Corp.

And some said they were optimistic about the proposed deal, hoping it would help to grow the exchange's business.

"We still have a presence on the floor and I don't think that will be impacted one way or the other," said Ted Weisberg, a floor trader with Seaport Securities who has been a member of the NYSE for over 40 years.

"You hope that the synergies are such that sum of the parts will be greater than the whole." The proposed deal also recalls a long history of German investment in New York City and on Wall Street, experts said.

"Wall Street for well over 100 years has had prominent German-Jewish bankers operating here," said Richard Sylla, a financial historian at New York University's Stern School of Business.

"I wouldn't really regard it as a German takeover of America's biggest stock exchange," Sylla said. "I would guess if there's any cultural effect it'll be the Americans will influence Germany more than the other way around."

Some of Wall Street's most famous titans were also of German heritage, Sylla said. They have included German-born Paul Warburg, who was nominated to the New York Federal Reserve's first board in 1918, and the founders of Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, Marcus Goldman and Henry Lehman.

"This German influence has been strong on Wall Street for a long time," Sylla said.

But some previous German deals have rattled the Americans. In a takeover finalized in 1999, Deutsche Bank bought New York-based Bankers Trust for about $10 billion, then the biggest foreign takeover of an American bank.

At the time, New York officials called on regulators to investigate if Deutsche Bank had profited under the Nazi regime. Similar calls were made when Daimler-Benz ate up Chrysler in 1998.

But the New York Stock Exchange's acquisition of Euronext in 2007 to create NYSE Euronext had already turned the company into a global entity and prepared the ground for a deal like this.

"You're creating the world's largest market in equities and derivatives, that's what language you're trading on, it's all the same language," Willis said, adding "It's the evolution of an industry, we are still here trading, we're doing what we've done for two hundred years."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41507138

Somehow the governor forgot to mention this plan to tax pensions before the election. So it goes.

I'm not at all a tax guy but I know the refund rates for little middle-income bracket guys like myself have gone up every year since Obama took office. I don't know how you made out with the IRS this year, but I was rather blown away with my return this tax season. In fact I take back anything disparaging I might have said about this president and his ideas on business. I love Obamaomics.

EDIT - So much so maybe I'll get fired and collect my 99 weeks of unemployment pay.

On his radio show yesterday Mitch Albom threw a serious snit about the proposed phase out of the Michigan film incentives. Albom is leaning more conservative as he ages but is probably still towards the liberal end of the spectrum. It was therefore funny to me to hear someone like that talk up the efficacy of targeted supply side tax cuts.

The governor wants to lower taxes for every business but Michigan would no longer provide the most generous film tax incentives in the nation. I did not vote for the governor (big surprise) but I agree that it's not necessarily fair to be giving all of that state revenue to one industry. Albom of course is very connected to that industry and didn't see things that way at all.

Most states are targeting public employees and retirees to cut costs right now.

Governor Perry in Texas has recently cut film incentives as well, Lilo, much to the chagrin of filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez among others. In Michigan, your Republican governor's proposed flat tax of sorts* for businesses comes with a loss of almost $2 billion in revenue; thus the proposed eliminating of several business tax credits, including those for expansion or relocation, research and development, advanced battery ventures, in addition to film tax incentives you speak of. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I actually think I heard today that Gov. Snyder now recommends budgeting around $25 million for film incentives.

And what about in Wisconsin, where the teacher unions are on strike and practically up-in-arms b/c the governor wants state workers to pay one-half of their pension costs, and 12.6 percent of their health benefits. Currently, most state employees pay nothing for their pensions and virtually nothing for their health insurance.

The Wisconsin governor came out and plainly said someting along the lines of, 'Well, we're going broke, what else are we supposed to do?'


* 6 percent Corporate Income Tax plan, only federally designated "C" corporations — major corporations that have shareholders — would be subject to the tax. An estimated 95,000 businesses would be exempt from filing a state business tax return.

Our local county employees may get their prescriptions filled with virtually no copay. The legislature proposed charging them more IF they didn't use the pharmacy in the county hospital. I thought that members of the union were going to take to the streets with pitchforks and torches. It's ridiculous.

Mitch Albom Supply Side Guru

The little man is po'd. It's personal. It's just business and he's taking it very personal!!

I am appalled only more so by the teachers and union workers in Wisconsin. This is a difficult time in our country with budget concerns (whoever or whatever caused them) and the Wisconsin folk should "pay in" a modestly small share for the sake of benefits. Calling in Organize for America to bus in protesters from other parts of the country to participate in these antics and make the crowds look big is not fooling anyone.

My understanding about the Wisconsin situation is that there wasn't a deficit until the new governor created one via tax cuts. Then to "fix" that deficit he's going after the unions, seeking to strip some key provisions from their right to collective bargaining.

That is why they are so upset. Ultimately they think they're paying the price for other people's decisions.

Yeah, Ice the Michigan governor is proposing to honor outstanding film credit commitments and give a $25 million grant for all future filmwork. In the link I gave above Albom derides that idea, calling it a drop in the bucket. On his radio show he said it was insulting and in his column today he again poo-poohs it.

Bottom line is that most of the studies I've seen claim that the film incentives were costing Michigan more, much more than they were bringing in in terms of revenue. So in the governor's POV the 42% film credits are just not something that Michigan can afford now. Both Albom and Jeff Daniels have gone on record stating that the governor promised them privately it would be at least $100 million. Like the Rosato Brothers, Albom and Daniels feel lied to..

Tax cuts for businesses ideally create jobs, and that's why you won't hear the president commenting much on the Wisconsin situation because his #1 goal for the 2012 election is getting that unemployment number down.

Jobless Rate Falls Further

I prefer cnbc and other news outlets over the usually biased and pessimistic wsj, but this is a good article about why the Republican tax cuts are perhaps finally getting the unemployment number down (forget not unemployment was under 4% with Bush and over 9% recently).

Well, given the events that have unfolded the past months I'll stand by that assertion I made back in November. Not to say the Fed's printing Monopoly money has been completely responsible for the food riots in the Middle east and soaring prices at the gas pumps, but it didn't help. Of course we haven't seen wage inflation or monetary inflation which makes it all the worse. But get ready, because QE3 is coming and then probably QE4. Yeah! Let's issue a bunch of government treasuries that noone wants to buy.

And there's nothing to say that the price of commodities will ever go back down, that's the pandora's box one opens when engaging in artificial production of monies. Gas usually comes back to an equilibrium but what about food and other essentials? If wages aren't increasing but the price of basic amenities such as food and medicine are, then that basically means the cost of living is going up and we have Bernanke and supposed quantitative easing to thank for this increased cost. I won't pin every worldwide catastrophe the past two months casued by inflation on Bernank and the Fed, but I think the case would hold up pretty well in a court of law. And you can bet QE 3 is coming despite the man saying otherwise.

The 10 year treasuries actually sold off pretty darn well yesterday, even from the viewpoint of the most ardent quantitative easing critics. The 3 and 30 yrs not so much, but I think the 10's went for around 3.49 and were valued at 3.32.

I bet tons of people missed the old simple 5 and 1/4 passbook they used to get. Who would ever have thought that we would see rates like this for so long!

Yep, and the Fed sold 13 billion in 30 yr notes at 4.595% today, or something close. Another HOME RUN so to speak, but mostly due to the fact everyone is scared to death right now, especially with the worries in Europe again, and thus they're flocking to treasuries. It's been many years since we've seen rates like this.

Japan Stock markets down 14%. Buckle your seatbelts tomorrow.

I shudder to think what the Market will do if one of the nuclear plants does a complete meltdown.

The NYSE dropped about 250 points in the first hour, this morning. That's not as bad as I thought it might be.

This may be the ultimate irony...

Struggling single mom sells Obama letter

Source: Yahoo! News

Well, you can't say he's not helping the economy!

I think that we can thank the rising gas prices for this stall in the recovery. The more people have to spend to get to work, the more it costs companies to deliver their goods, which is then reflected in prices for everyday items, the less disposable income out there. This also will then kill consumer confidence, which makes more people stop spending. It's all crap, and we can thank our dependence on oil once again.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Preliminary reports for Black Friday indicate that retailers may have seen their strongest sales ever during the all-important kick-off to the holiday shopping season.

Retail sales on Black Friday climbed 6.6% this year to an estimated $11.4 billion, according to ShopperTrak, which tracks foot traffic at malls and stores. Last year, sales climbed just 0.3% to $10.7 billion, which was a record one-day sales amount at the time, according to the company.