Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

19 Apr 2011 11:04

tags

Biz: That was a big loan: Goldman Sachs just paid back Warren Buffett

  • $5
    billion     the amount Warren Buffett loaned to Goldman Sachs at the nadir of the financial crisis back in 2008; wish we could loan out that kind of cash
  • $5.64 billion the amount they paid Warren back last quarter, including interest earned — that’s on top of dividends they already paid out source
  • » A pretty hefty one-time charge: While Goldman Sachs’ profits for the current quarter, $2.74 billion, were down 21 percent from a year earlier because of the payday to their sugar daddy, if you don’t count the payment to Warren, their profits — $8.38 billion — would have been up by 49 percent from a year earlier. In other words, they’re richer than we are and Wall Street is celebrating.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Apr 2011 21:12

tags

Biz, U.S.: Question: What company wants to hire a lot of people, stat?

  • 50,000 new jobs, but there’s a catch source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Apr 2011 12:59

tags

Biz: S&P official: Blame bickering politicians for this credit-rating mess

  • Looking at the gulf between the parties, it has never been wider than now. It takes a lot of political will to bridge this gulf.
  • Standard & Poor’s global head of sovereign ratings David Beers • Suggesting that both parties aren’t going far enough to fix their deficit problem which could lead to a decreased credit rating down the line. Essentially, they think that the two parties are so divided that they won’t solve the problem. Standard & Poor has downgraded the credit rating of many countries of late, most recently Britain. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Apr 2011 09:52

tags

Biz: Amid deficit, S&P warns about U.S. credit-rating dangers afoot

  • Because the U.S. has, relative to its ‘AAA’ peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable.
  • A statement from the Standard & Poor’s • Revealing that, while they affirmed the United States’ spectacular “AAA” credit rating, they were suggesting the the outlook of said credit rating could go negative in the future. They want the country to figure out its budget mess by 2013. “If an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation is not begun by then,” they write. “this would in our view render the U.S. fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer ‘AAA’ sovereigns.” Feel that? That’s the grumble of the money beast, wanting to be fed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Apr 2011 12:01

tags

Biz: Google’s Larry Page deserves praise, not criticism, for earnings

  • Doing what Google needs to do to be a fast-growing dominant company in five years means sacrificing some of the bottom line this year and next (and maybe forever). It also means spending less time kowtowing to Wall Street and more time focusing on products and users. In his first few weeks on the job, Larry Page is doing exactly that. And if Wall Street doesn’t like it, whatever.
  • Business Insider’s Henry Blodget • Offering a spirited defense of Larry Page and Google, which just felt investor rage over a quarter that didn’t meet their expectations. We’re with Henry. They’re already making more money than God, so why give them crap over not making every penny they can, and trying to think long-term? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 20:48

tags

Biz: Google’s shares drop precipitously after earnings announcement

  • $2.3 billon in profits this quarter, up 18 percent from last year
  • 6,000 number of new employees Google plans to add to its coffers by the end of 2011
  • 4¢ the amount (per share) Google missed its profit targets by … despite profits being up
  • 5% the decline in Google’s stock price today in after-hours trading —over $30 source
  • » A tough coming out party: New CEO Larry Page, who started in the position just a week ago, got to feel investors’ wrath the hard way. For what it’s worth, he’s totally optimistic about the changes he has in store. “We’ve really hit the ground running,” he said. “I’m tremendously excited about all of the things that lay before us as a company.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Apr 2011 10:34

tags

Biz: General Electric’s tax refund story: A complete, total hoax

  • NOthis story isn’t true … the AP fell victim to a hoax source
  • » Moral of the story: The AP really annoys the crap out of us sometimes.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Apr 2011 11:23

tags

Biz: The weather’s getting nicer? Time to start bitching about gas prices

  • $4.11 the average peak price per gallon that gasoline reached back in July of 2008
  • $3.77 the current national level, culled from a survey of 100,000 gas stations nationwide
  • six the number of states reportedly paying more than $4 per gallon right now source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Apr 2011 21:09

tags

Biz, World: Exports: China’s focusing less outward, more inward

  • $1.02B China’s trade deficit in the first three months of 2011
  • $140M the trade surplus China had in March alone, which is tiny, by the way
  • seven years since China last had a quarterly trade deficit source
  • » Less global, more domestic: You can blame the decline on two things. First, as global economies (particularly the U.S. and Europe) start to improve, there’s less of a need to import things, creating lower demand. And secondly, in the face of criticism about its exports-first economic policy, China is giving its own domestic economy a little more love. So exports are down in China, but that’s because they’re becoming less reliant on exports.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Apr 2011 10:41

tags

Biz, World: How the Japan quake and tsunami has affected the auto industry

  • parts Many auto manufacturers — especially in Japan — are struggling to return to their normal level of production after last month’s earthquake hurt numerous key factories in Japan.
  • labor Manufacturers at Toyota, Nissan and Honda plan to get their workers back on the job very soon — but only at half-time. Toyota’s U.S. factory workers also haven’t had as much work lately.
  • colors Ford, which isn’t Japanese, has its own problems — see, a key metallic pigment they use comes from a factory near Fukushima. Good luck getting a “tuxedo black” car. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>