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22 Jan 2011 10:53

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Biz: Bank of America takes epic charge on its hot mortgage mess

  • $2.24
    billion     the amount the bailed-out Bank of America lost in 2010, hurt by charges due to their Countrywide merger
  • $4.1
    billion     the size of the charge they had to take for investors with claims against their mortgage securities  source
  • » Why such a big charge? Apparently, someone at Bank of America (or Countrywide) was really bad at doing paperwork, or was trying to push through half-baked mortgages. Because both were named as factors in creating the huge charges which resulted from investors making claims against them. Most of the fees are headed to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by the way. Had this charge (and a separate $2 billion goodwill charge related to the Countrywide merger) not been there, Bank of America would’ve been profitable in the fourth quarter.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Aug 2010 09:55

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Biz: AOL has another big loss, caused by a “goodwill charge” this time

  • $1.06
    billion     the size of AOL’s quarterly loss, caused partly by declining advertising and partly due to a “goodwill charge”
  • $1.4
    billion     the size of that “goodwill charge,” partly due to selling Bebo for pennies on the dollar source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jul 2010 08:49

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Biz: BP’s quarterly losses huge – hey, just like the oil spill!

  • $17.2 billion the size of BP’s quarterly loss, their first since the oil spill
  • $32.2 billion the size of the pretax charge they took due to the oil spill source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 May 2010 21:03

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Biz: Still not “Lost”: Zappos.com screws up, recovers brilliantly

  • dumb Zappos.com’s sister site,
    6pm.com, accidentally caps the
    price on all their items at $49.95.
    The gaffe lasted for six hours.
  • smart Rather than ignore the sales,
    the company has decided to
    honor them – at a cost of $1.6
    million. Great PR. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 May 2010 11:24

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World: The British elections: Nobody really came out ahead this year

  • +88 number of seats the Tories gained (not enough to lead outright)
  • -94 number of seats
    Labour lost (enough to fall out of power)
  • -5 number of seats Lib Dems lost (so much for big gains) source
  • » So what’s next, anyway?: With the hung Parliament, nobody has enough votes to lead completely, so right now, the two major parties are trying to court the Liberal Democrats. Whoever can win them over will have proxy leadership over Parliament.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2010 10:16

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Biz: Chrysler: Big losses, bright spots since exiting bankruptcy

  • $4
    billion     the amount Chrysler has lost
    since exiting bankruptcy; they’ve turned a corner though
  • $143
    million     the company’s operating profit
    this quarter, due to all the cuts
    they’ve made source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Apr 2010 10:42

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Biz: GM lost a little pocket change in the second half of 2009

  • $4.3 billion in losses – and that was after bankruptcy source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

26 Feb 2010 11:11

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Biz: AIG’s post-bailout earnings remain full of failure

  • $8.9
    billion     the size of AIG’s losses this quarter alone, which is laughable
  • $182.3
    billion     the size of the many bailouts the U.S. government has given it source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 09:22

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Biz: Bank of America lost the TARP, posted huge losses. Coincidence?

  • $2.2B in losses this year, despite a strong upswing at formerly faltering Merrill Lynch
  • $4B the amount Bank of America spent on killing off those pesky bailout funds
  • $5.6B the amount Bank of America lost at its global credit cards division; oof source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jan 2010 08:59

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Biz: December’s job outlook not so rosy, but not catastrophic, either

  • -85k number of jobs that were lost in December
  • 10% level of unemployment – it’s staying steady
  • +4k number of jobs ADDED in November (?!?!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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