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08 Aug 2011 11:10

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Biz: AIG sues Bank of America claiming they got massively defrauded

  • Defendants were engaged in a massive scheme to manipulate and deceive investors, like AIG, who had no alternative but to rely on the lies and omissions made.
  • A legal complaint filed by AIG • Revealing that the company, which still has a freaking massive taxpayer bill to pay off, plans to sue Bank of America for $10 billion dollars, claiming “massive fraud” on the mortgage debt AIG insured while the companies Countrywide and Merrill Lynch were still independent. (To put it simply, AIG feels that the companies lied about the quality of the debt, making them sound better than it was.) AIG is still working on paying back roughly $182.3 billion in bailouts, so the $10 billion would help. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Aug 2011 10:22

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Biz: As stocks go to hell, gold reaches new record high — and then some

  • $1,718 Glenn Beck was right or something source
  • » This is worth keeping an eye on: With the U.S. dollar facing new scrutiny as a result of the S&P’s credit downgrade, gold prices will reflect more than ever as a bellwether of how investors feel about paper currency. And so far, it’s not looking good. (Note: Price above reflects per-ounce price of gold, which means that if you had a pound of gold sitting around your apartment, you’d have one really expensive paperweight.)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Aug 2011 11:39

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Biz: Verizon: “Can you hear me now?” Workers: “No, because we’re on strike!”

  • 45,000 Verizon workers are now on strike source
  • » Verizon’s tough stance led to strike: In the first strike the company has faced in 11 years, many of the company’s field technicians and customer service workers were fending off a tough stance the company took in negotiations — they were hoping to make it easier to fire workers and also wanted to change the method they decided on raises. Verizon’s push is indicative of the evolution away from the more-profitable landline business and towards wireless.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Aug 2011 13:46

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Biz, U.S.: Jobs report: More silver lining than cloud, but it’s still cloudy out

  • positive After a couple of fairly mediocre months, the latest jobs report from the federal government was fairly positive, showing a dip in unemployment to 9.1 percent and an increase in jobs.
  • negative Problem is, the report happened to come the day after a massive stock selloff that followed a week of non-positive economic data. And a debt ceiling crisis. And a weakened worldwide economy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Aug 2011 14:54

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Biz: USDA knew about salmonella outbreak for two weeks

  • Officials knew that the infected ground turkey came from Cargill, inc. They just didn’t want to say anything because there was no way to know for sure. Cargill issued a voluntary recall yesterday, and the outbreak began in March. That’s kind of a long time — but with good reason. At first it was confusing to investigators because some people who didn’t eat the turkey would get sick, but when more cases of this particular strain of Salmonella became more widespread, an earnest investigation was started. Eventually it was traced back to Cargill, and the recall was issued — the third largest of its kind on record. Yikes. source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Aug 2011 10:13

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Biz: How the cookie crumbles: Kraft to split food business in two

  • before About 18 months ago, Kraft (an already big global brand it its own right) bought an equally big global brand — Cadbury, a brand which sells much more than chocolate eggs outside of the U.S. It was a buyout that Cadbury long rebuffed, by the way. Because, really, who wants to mix Velveeta and Trident gum, anyway?
  • now The company, seeing that it had two distinctly different product portfolios with different strengths — groceries (like Maxwell House and Kraft cheeses) and snacks (like Oreo cookies and, well, Cadbury), decided to take these two halves and pull them apart, like an Oreo filled with sweet, sugary financial success. source
  • » Part of a larger trend: A number of other companies have followed this splitting-the-company path lately — including Motorola, Sara Lee and Fortune, Inc. And just you wait. In a year or two, they’re all gonna want to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Aug 2011 20:23

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Biz: Latest salmonella outbreak forces recall of lots of freaking turkey

  • 36 million pounds of ground turkey; no word on how many giblets source
  • » One person killed, 76 sickened: Salmonella is no laughing matter, and Cargill is responding quickly to the crisis. “It is regrettable that people may have become ill from eating one of our ground turkey products and, for anyone who did, we are truly sorry,” said Steve Willardsen, who’s in charge of the company’s turkey-processing business. Ground turkey is particularly susceptible to salmonella contamination — at any given time, federal research says that 10 to 15 percent of all ground turkey is contaminated with salmonella. In the case of the Cargill outbreak, the meat was infected with a antibiotic-resistant variety called Salmonella Heidelberg. While cooking the meat at 165° F kills the salmonella, the problem arises when handling the meat, which can infect other foods nearby. Might want to be careful, carnivores.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Aug 2011 10:57

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Biz: Why July’s manufacturing results singlehandedly deflated stocks today

  • 50.9% activity level; not really a good number source
  • » The worst result since July 2009: To explain what you’re looking at, this number represents manufacturing activity in July. Any number above 50 percent is growth. Good right? Well, in this case, not really, because the previous month was 55.3 percent. And earlier this year, it was above 60 percent for a few solid months. This number is another sign that the economy is starting to slow down again. This result was so bad that it deflated optimism about the debt deal on the stock market this morning.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jul 2011 12:50

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Biz: GDP growth figures: Another crappy quarter of crappy results

  • 1.3% the rate of GDP growth the economy showed in its second quarter — which is pretty lame, by the way
  • 1.8% the projected rate economists projected in the second quarter; yeah, we missed that source
  • » One word — anemic. On top of all this drama, the rates for GDP growth in the first quarter was projected down to an even lower 0.4 percent growth. While this does not bode well for our recovery, it doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily have a double-dip. It just increases the chances of one.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jul 2011 10:58

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Biz: Exxon Mobil’s back to their track record of insanely massive profits

  • 41% the increase in Exxon Mobil’s profits in the current quarter
  • $10.7B the amount the company made in the second quarter (kind of a lot)
  • $14.8B the company’s largest quarter ever (in 2008), just for perspective source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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