June 2009

Once again I ask -- did anybody bother to read what's actually in this 1000 plus page bill that your elected Republicans and Democrats are voting on whether it should become THE LAW OF THE LAND, enforced in the end by police, courts, and prisons. And I also ask this, after reading a part of what's in this 1000 plus page climate bill -- Does anybody really think making the following the law of ... read more

Before I ran a hedge fund, but after a few years after I'd been a stock broker, I worked for a tech incubator and eventually ran the wholesale division of a billion dollar telecom company that's actually still around. (Any guesses what CLEC I once worked at?) One of that telecom company's biggest successes was when we signed AT&T, the long distance carrier, as a customer when they were trying to ... read more

I'm walking down the 47th street yesterday and a dude in a suit on the sidewalk hollers out, "Hey, Cody -- what do I do about my Motorola?" Yup, even as the financial marketplace as we knew it in our lifetimes died in the last year or so, even as the economy turned recessionary and the stock markets plunged, even as credit has dried up, the world still goes on. Investments must be made, gambles ... read more

So the Republican Democrat Regime in power and the regulators and bureaucrats they've appointed think that enabling Blackrock to become the largest wealth manager in the world, with some $2.8 trillion in assets is a good idea.  Here's a few reasons why the Department of Justice or the Supreme Court or anybody else with some power to do something about this merger should stop it in its ... read more

The Democrats like to say they're for helping poor people get a level playing field and perhaps even a leg up. The Republicans like to say that they're for preserving your rights and perhaps even honoring the Constitution (though it's a little bit radical among the Republicans to actually use the C-word). Tell me why then, the Democrats want to punish the renters and other non-ownership-class ... read more

Here's what'll be rattling around in my head this weekend - * I'll have a piece up early next week all about how we're in the midst of a vicious DEFLATIONARY cycle with the things we OWN even as we're in a vicious INFLATIONARY cycle with the things we BUY. In other words, real estate, stocks, Treasuries and (soon) gold are all declining in price while food, clothes, energy, most staples, and ... read more

Here's what I was tweeting about so far this week. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/codywillard if you're into that kinda thing. * Texas Representative Ron Paul, whom my brother votes for, makes his debut appearance on Happy Hour tonight at 5pm.  I've asked rhetorically if Ron Paul is actually part of the Republican/Democrat Regime or not... * I was shocked to see this come by my own ... read more

The government’s been bailing out entire industries left and right. The Fed’s got their Fed Fund rates at 0%, giving banks the ability to borrow taxpayer money at no cost in this country. The Fed’s guaranteed trillions in worthless debt at the world’s biggest investment banks. You’d think the money supply in this country would be exploding right now. Certainly, ... read more

Citigroup has taken in tens of billions of dollars in direct welfare infusions from TARP in order to make payroll and keep the lights turned on. Vikram Pandit, the CEO who's also the guy who started a hedge fund using money fronted from giant investment banks like Citigroup and sold the start up hedge fund to Citigroup so that it could risk and lose its depositors money in the stock market, had ... read more

Wanna laugh? Read this and notice the date: NEW YORK, February 15, 2006 — BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) today announced that they have reached an agreement to merge Merrill Lynch's investment management business, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), and BlackRock to create a new independent company that will be one of the world's largest asset management ... read more