Brendan Brown, and The Global Curse Of the Federal Reserve |
- Brendan Brown, and The Global Curse Of the Federal Reserve
- The Facts Ma'am - Just The Facts
- Ieng Sary, minister for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies in hospital
- Google Reader Shutdown a Sobering Reminder That 'Our' Technology Isn't Ours
- Tax Refund Too Good To Be True? Don't Spend It
- Ieng Sary, minister for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies in hospital
- Ideas are a Dime a Dozen. People Who Implement Them are Priceless
- 20 Brands That Help You Start a Business
- Pope Francis: A humble image, but complex past
- Xi’s election to presidency completes China’s leadership transition
- China's Legislature Selects Xi as President
- New pope promises to bring new look to Church
- Exclusive: Iran steps up weapons lifeline to Syria's Assad - envoys
- Exclusive: Iran steps up weapons lifeline to Syria's Assad - envoys
- 'Father Jorge' Rose From Modest Roots
- Jesuits Had Past Struggles With Popes
- New pope promises to bring new look to Church
- Google Reader Shutdown a Sobering Reminder That 'Our' Technology Isn't Ours
- The Profitable Way To Break Up The Giant Banks
- Dealing with IRS Collection Action
| Brendan Brown, and The Global Curse Of the Federal Reserve Posted: 13 Mar 2013 11:00 PM PDT The great British political economist John Stuart Mill long ago observed that 'most of the time the machinery of money is unimportant, but when it gets out of control it becomes the monkey wrench in all the other machinery of the economy." Notable about the quote is that Mill uttered it at a time when money, for having a commodity definition, could be considered unimportant. |
| The Facts Ma'am - Just The Facts Posted: 13 Mar 2013 10:54 PM PDT Clarity Matters. While clarity and brevity may have become a lost art, understanding the importance of clear, lucid, and straight-forward communication is nonetheless critical to your success as a leader. In today's column I'll reveal (clearly and briefly) the tricks of those who practice what I call "the black art of confusion" propagated by the ruse of ambiguity. |
| Ieng Sary, minister for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies in hospital Posted: 13 Mar 2013 10:28 PM PDT
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| Google Reader Shutdown a Sobering Reminder That 'Our' Technology Isn't Ours Posted: 13 Mar 2013 10:12 PM PDT When Google announced Wednesday night that it was shutting down its Reader product, it was met with a reaction that wasn't just furious, but personal. Many angered Reader-ites took to Twitter, looking for some outlet to express their anger, with some shouting "Save Our Reader!" in the hopes Google would hear their cries and keep their product alive. |
| Tax Refund Too Good To Be True? Don't Spend It Posted: 13 Mar 2013 10:08 PM PDT If you find $100 in cash, you could leave it there or pick it up and keep it. After all, finders keepers. You could also turn it in. Depending on where you find it there might be a variety of possibilities for turning it in. But however you handle it you probably will not be too worried about your legal liability. |
| Ieng Sary, minister for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies in hospital Posted: 13 Mar 2013 10:28 PM PDT PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Ieng Sary, who was standing trial for crimes against humanity during his time as the Khmer Rouge's foreign minister in Cambodia in the 1970s, died on Thursday, the court said. |
| Ideas are a Dime a Dozen. People Who Implement Them are Priceless Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:55 PM PDT "Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless." What a great quote by Mary Kay Ash, and so true! The world is full of incredible ideas that never go anywhere because great ideas are useless without someone full of passion to implement them. |
| 20 Brands That Help You Start a Business Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:55 PM PDT |
| Pope Francis: A humble image, but complex past Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:48 PM PDT
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| Xi’s election to presidency completes China’s leadership transition Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:12 PM PDT BEIJING — Xi Jinping was named China's new president Thursday, completing a months-long, highly choreographed transition of power. The announcement came after a largely ceremonial vote of about 3,000 parliamentary delegates at the National People's Congress, and acknowledging those delegates, Xi took two deep bows after his name was called. Xi has been China's top leader since November when he took control of the ruling Communist Party as well as its top military body. Read full article >> |
| China's Legislature Selects Xi as President Posted: 13 Mar 2013 10:33 PM PDT China formally appointed Communist Party chief Xi Jinping as the nation's president on Thursday, marking the beginning of the end of China's once-a-decade leadership change. |
| New pope promises to bring new look to Church Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:04 PM PDT
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| Exclusive: Iran steps up weapons lifeline to Syria's Assad - envoys Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:10 PM PDT
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| Exclusive: Iran steps up weapons lifeline to Syria's Assad - envoys Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:10 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran has significantly stepped up military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, solidifying its position alongside Russia as the government's lifeline in an increasingly sectarian civil war, Western diplomats said. |
| 'Father Jorge' Rose From Modest Roots Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:52 PM PDT The new Argentine pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is known to shun the lofty trappings of a cardinal and prefers to be called "Father Jorge" rather than more formal titles like "Cardinal" or "your eminence." |
| Jesuits Had Past Struggles With Popes Posted: 13 Mar 2013 07:16 PM PDT Jorge Mario Bergoglio's election as Pope Francis brings new attention to his religious order, the powerful and controversial Society of Jesus, better know as the Jesuits. |
| New pope promises to bring new look to Church Posted: 13 Mar 2013 09:04 PM PDT VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's election as pope has broken Europe's centuries-old grip on the papacy, opening the doors on a new age of simplicity and humility for the Roman Catholic Church, mired in intrigue and scandal. |
| Google Reader Shutdown a Sobering Reminder That 'Our' Technology Isn't Ours Posted: 13 Mar 2013 08:50 PM PDT When Google announced Wednesday night that it was shutting down its Reader product, it was met with a reaction that wasn't just furious, but personal. Many angered Reader-ites took to Twitter, looking for some outlet to express their anger, with some shouting "Save Our Reader!" in the hopes Google would hear their cries and keep their product alive. |
| The Profitable Way To Break Up The Giant Banks Posted: 13 Mar 2013 08:33 PM PDT Don't punish the banks because you'll be punishing their all suffering shareholders. The proper solution obviously is to break-up the banks into their stand-alone parts. Without government pressure, voluntarily, strategically, with the proper stated purpose of benefiting the banks shareholders, who have not gotten anywhere near back to the price of the their shares in late 2006 or 2007. (C is selling at 5% of its peak price; BAC at 25%, GS at 60%) I'm told there are hints of this solution bubbling amongst the bank analyst fraternity. Spin off the asset management division that manages several hundred billion of other people's money into a public company that will have the multiple of a T. Rowe Price, or a BlackRock, which will have a transparent cash flow and sell at some price-earnings multiple higher than a bank today and behave according to the way the stock market behaves. It would be regulated by the SEC and be dependent on its own performance and not a bunch of financial activities with leverage that few can understand, much less put a dollar value on. Then, spin off the consumer banking operation into a separate stand-alone business. Its profit margins will be transparent as the spread between the bank's borrowing costs and the yield on the loans or mortgages it finances. I'd be willing to bet these operations, with more predictable earnings and a steady dividend would also sell at greater than 10 times earnings. These spin offs would be regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), which might well strongly suggest a cap on the leverage that can be used of between 10 and 15 times. Thirdly, the wholesale banking operations, the collateralized loans, the derivative positions, the futures, puts and calls would be in their own unit. Investors and analysts and regulators would be able to evaluate these institutions more rationally, especially if they are forced to disclose more exactly what they are doing globally and with whom. We need to know who is doing what to whom in numbers, in amounts of debt, even if we don't know the identity of all the counter-parties. It's not clear to me this spin-off could sell well above 10 times earnings because the profits might be volatile. It would be regulated by the Federal Reserve Bank, which has the sophisticated understanding to guard the public interest from another run on the banks.(See my blog "Don't Buy Another Share of a Bank Until You Read This Blog" To maintain clean lines of independence I'd propose different boards of directors for each spin-off-- possibly including some of the most prescient hardest working CEOS and directors of today's institution, who would not have executive power over the spin-offs. The empire builders who are only happy getting larger by acquisition should be retired with a copper parachute. For the spin-offs to be successful, they have to be autonomous. Tomorrow, I will have a look at Citigroup, BankAmerica, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and try to describe what values might be created from this plan. I'd bet my net worth that creating three separate institutions for each of these giants will produce valuations greater than today's market prices. And be easier to manage without scandals and carelessness and terrible governance oversight-- and without the confusion of who is supposed to regulate their activities to keep their solvency. |
| Dealing with IRS Collection Action Posted: 13 Mar 2013 08:33 PM PDT To one of my posts warning of the perils of tax resolution schemes, reader Nick Sparagis commented: "Your article discusses what not to do. Can you tell people with tax issues what they should do? The IRS is horrible to deal with, so people need help." This article responds to Mr. Sparagis' request. Never Ignore Correspondence from the IRS |
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