Barack Obama: Another Captured Pawn of Goldman Sachs' Wall Street -04/27/09 at 6:05 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It isn’t really a conspiracy or a criticism.  It’s just a fact. In 2006, The Los Angeles Times did a story entitled, “Goldman Sachs Rules The World,” pointing out that former President Bush’s team of economic experts were basically a team of former Goldman Sachs executives.  That list included Henry Paulson, who ra...

Collins Stewart Analyst Downgrades Apple and Western Digital -04/24/09 at 11:26 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Ashok Kumar, a little known analyst from Collins Stewart, has been making many negative calls as of late.  This morning he downgraded Western Digital (WDC) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), which may have caused those stocks to fall in the early morning hours on Wall Street. This week, Kumar also had negative things to say about AMD after its report, and last w...

Western Digital Guides For Higher Profit -04/23/09 at 5:53 PM CDTby Perry Rod

A day after its biggest competitor, Seagate Technology, reported earnings in line with their guidance, Western Digital (WDC) handily beat the average of fourteen analyst revenue and earning estimates this evening.  Even the highest estimate of .23 was too low, as Western Digital said it earned .30 before certain expenses.  The hardware maker's e...

Zenith National Insurance Misses Analyst Estimates -04/21/09 at 2:54 PM CDTby Perry Rod

Zenith (ZNT) National Insurance stock was halted in the middle of the trading day today, when they reported earnings that missed even the lowest of all eight sell side analyst estimates who follow the company. In unusual form, Zenith reports their earnings in the middle of the day.  The company, which does the majority of its workers' compensation i...

The Inevitable Future: Peak Oil and Socialism -04/21/09 at 3:13 AM CDTby Reggie Abaca

The current economic malaise was triggered by falling home prices and aggressive lending practices, they say. The other part of the story – where oil (OIL, USO, USL) prices shot up to $150 a barrel - has been largely ignored, for now.  But it happened. Worldwide peak oil is not a theory.  It has already occurred and the 2008 oil price shoc...

Woody Allen v. American Apparel Inc. - A Sign of Desperate Times -04/15/09 at 12:44 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It will be a very important court case, and perhaps a sign of troubled times when a company that is searching aggressively for profit invites itself to a scandal in order to get attention. It's not necessarily a new strategy.  Video game maker Electronic Arts (ERTS), for example, just released Godfather 2 complete with young bare-chested pixilated gi...

SEC Enforcement Chief Lands New Job - Overstock CEO and Others Stunned -04/14/09 at 7:37 PM CDTby Perry Rod

During Linda Thomsen's tenure as head of the enforcement division of the SEC, Harry Markopolis, a former investment officer with Rampart Investment Management in Boston, was writing a series of persuasive letters to the SEC informing them of the statistical impossibility of Bernie Madoff’s investment returns.  Despite being intimidated by the S...

Prediction: Google To Become the Most Profitable Company in the World -04/10/09 at 12:40 PM CDTby Ted Arrington-flowers

As a former stock broker, 20-year stock trader and serial entrepreneur my life experiences have given me a unique perspective to back the prediction made in this report that Google will become the largest and most profitable company in the world within 20 years. From investing experiences I learned as all savvy investors know by now that innovation that d...

Short Selling Activist Asensio Says Naked Short Selling Should Be Legal -04/07/09 at 5:25 PM CDTby Reggie Abaca

In a response to former SEC Commissioner Roel Campos stating that there ought to be a certain level of short selling regulation, New York hedge fund manager and activist short seller Manuel Asensio responded on Bloomberg-TV: "There should be no reason to borrow stock," referring to the requirement that one should borrow stock that they sell short.  H...

Our Watchdogs and the Financial Scandal of the Century -04/04/09 at 1:26 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

“Accountability – Integrity – Reliability” That’s the motto of the Government Accountability Office, and it almost makes you believe that there really is a functioning watchdog – somebody, aside from us Internet loons, to investigate and report on the incompetence and malfeasance that pervade our public institutions. Ce...

Religious Fanatics and Peak Oil: A Match Made In Hell -03/22/09 at 2:22 PM CDTby Peter York

We already knew that Iran is controlled by religious extremists.  Iran's real leader in ultimate power is not a president, but a "supreme" religious leader who punishes anybody who criticizes him or his authority.  That included the current supreme leader's younger brother, who was severely beaten for criticizing his authority years ago, along w...