Bernie Madoff, D.H. Blair, Michael Milken, and the Story of Dendreon ... -07/06/09 at 7:36 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

The first of the seven “colorful” hedge funds that held Dendreon put options (right when Provenge was on the fast track to FDA approval) was Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, managed by the Mafia-connected criminal who orchestrated a $50 billion Ponzi scheme while helping the SEC write a naked short selling loophole that came to be know...

No Such Thing As Bad Press For Goldman Sachs -07/03/09 at 3:42 PM CDTby Perry Rod

Matt Taibbi has written a scathing piece in Rolling Stone magazine about how Goldman Sachs (GS) is the "Great American Bubble Machine."  He basically makes yet another case that Goldman Sachs makes money by controlling America's politicians and regulators.  He is not the first to make this case. For example in 2006, Kyle Pope, a former writer a...

As Game Group PLC Struggles, Gamestop Shares Feel The Heat -07/02/09 at 3:20 PM CDTby Mahyar Hashemi

Shares of Game Group fell 13.4% in London trading as preliminary earnings results for the first half of the year failed to meet market expectations. "Our sales performance to date, together with our gross margin increases and continued cost focus, means that we expect to deliver first half profits before tax and non-recurring costs in line with plan at be...

The Madoff Exemption and the Story of Dendreon (Chapter 2) -06/30/09 at 5:32 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

In January 2007, some 15 months after CNBC’s Jim Cramer announced that the FDA had rejected Provenge (even though the agency had not yet reviewed Provenge), the FDA assigned “priority review status” to Dendreon’s application to have the drug approved. Such status is typically granted to drugs whose trials suggest that they can sign...

The Business of Drugs, Demerol, And The Death of Michael Jackson -06/26/09 at 4:07 PM CDTby Peter York

I decided to look up the manufacturers of Demerol, the drug which is said to have helped Michael Jackson end up dead at the age of 50.  Here are some names that come up under that and identical drug manufacturers of Demerol:   Abbott Laboratories (Public, NYSE:ABT) Hospira, Inc. (Public, NYSE:HSP) Sanofi-Aventis SA (ADR) (Public, NYSE:SNY) Eli L...

Viacom Drops The Ball On Michael Jackson (Update) -06/26/09 at 11:23 AM CDTby Peter York

Within an hour of Michael Jackson's untimely death, t-shirts of the pop legend were being sold to crowds in Los Angeles and New York, and Michael Jackson eBay items were being sold at more than ten times the previous value.  The cable news media and even some networks dropped everything and it was non-stop Michael Jackson on television.  But a c...

Michael Milken, 60,000 Deaths, and the Story of Dendreon, Chapter 1 -06/24/09 at 1:38 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

This story, like too many others, begins with Jim Cramer, the CNBC personality, making “a mistake.” On September 26, 2005, Cramer announced to his television audience the sad news (punctuated by funny sound effects – a clown horn, a crashing airplane) that Provenge, an experimental treatment for prostate cancer, had flopped. Thousan...

Talk of An Oil Worker Strike In Iran -06/22/09 at 2:23 PM CDTby Perry Rod

Reports are coming in from social networking websites that Iranians are attempting to organize a national strike in reaction to the country's disputed election.  A similar event happened in 1979, when Iranian citizens organized against the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi. Many writers are suggesting that the next move by defeated presidential candidate Mi...

Nerd Investors And Gaming Dorks Join Forces To Proclaim The End of Ga... -06/21/09 at 8:17 PM CDTby Perry Rod

If you're a person who makes a living making money in the finance world, I would think you're probably a totally "cool" guy.  You're the life of a party, amazingly handsome, and with the most seductive personality.  After all, isn't that what makes for a great financial analyst? You're probably a lot like cool video game industry writers who, t...

Sirius XM Radio Inc iPhone Application Does Not Include Howard Stern ... -06/17/09 at 11:46 PM CDTby Peter York

The first downloaders of SIRIUS XM Radio for the iPhone are reporting that the application does not include certain popular channels including Howard Stern's Sirius channel.  Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) posted an explanation on their website: "SIRIUS & XM offer all of the channels for which we have mobile performance rights. For that reason, certain cha...

Hopes For Democracy In Iran Dashed By Colossal Failure of American Fo... -06/16/09 at 4:44 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It began on July 8th, 1999 with a peaceful demonstration in Tehran, Iran.  But by the end of the week, the Islamic Republic was responsible for the killing of several students, the disappearance of dozens of others, and thousands of arrests.  There was mass rioting in the streets and Iran was thought to be on the brink of some kind of new st...