| Besides terrorism, piracy is making a come-back. This time, they went 180 miles offshore and captured a Saudi super oil tanker! Somalia is a failed state and now there are "pirate ports". Like "Ye Pirates of Olde", they use grappling hooks. Otherwise, they use AK-47's and rocket launchers, instead of swords and muskets. |
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Pirates of Somalia (as Opposed to the Carribbean)
Posted on 14:30 by Unknown
Monday, 17 November 2008
New Stock Market Terms
Posted on 12:52 by Unknown
CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer. CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer. BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius. BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex. VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower. P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing. BROKER -- What my broker has made me. STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell. STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock. STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves. FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been disconnected. MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks. CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet. YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share. WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share. INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse. PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use. |
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Palin, Africa, and Her Wardrobe
Posted on 10:26 by Unknown
| It looks like McCain aides are complaining about her even more - now that the election is over. They say she didn't even know Africa was a continent, and she might have spent more than $150,000 in donor money on designer clothes. It looks like she also pressured underlings to put clothes on their credit cards, and she might get audited now by the Republican Committee's lawyers. |
Yet Another Use For Duct Tape...
Posted on 07:29 by Unknown
| ...it was used to restrain an unruly (and probably drunk) woman on a United flight. The flight was supposed to be from Puerto Rico to Chicago, but got diverted to North Carolina so she could be removed from the flight. |
Friday, 31 October 2008
Is Porsche the New Goldman Sachs?
Posted on 14:15 by Unknown
On Wall Street, it looks like the cowboy investment bank days are over, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley trying to become regular banks.
It's Germany, of all places, that seems to be a wheeling-dealing casino these days, because of Porsche.
As I mentioned in an article a couple of days ago, Volkswagen briefly became the world's largest company because Porsche, while trying to buy out VW, acquired control of 75% of its stock and caused a panic among short-sellers.
After I wrote that article, a friend from Switzerland forwarded me this Times of London article that goes into some interesting details.
Interestingly, the 71 year old founder of Volkswagen is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. The grandson, Ferdinand Piech, wants to succeed through being a leader in automotive design and engineering.
Porsche, on the other hand, is being called "an investment bank with a car show room attached". Since 2006, Porsche has made 4 times as much money through finance than selling cars.
While the VW takeover has made the heads of Volkswagen and Porsche instant billionaires, the hedge funds who did the shorting have been clobbered with 30 billion euros in losses.
To add insult to injury, the sudden rise in the price of VW have caused the German exchanges to reduce its weighting in the stock indices. This, in turn, causes the German market index funds to have to trim their positions. They were the ones who lent the stock to the hedge funds to short. Now, they want their stock back so they can sell.
It's Germany, of all places, that seems to be a wheeling-dealing casino these days, because of Porsche.
As I mentioned in an article a couple of days ago, Volkswagen briefly became the world's largest company because Porsche, while trying to buy out VW, acquired control of 75% of its stock and caused a panic among short-sellers.
After I wrote that article, a friend from Switzerland forwarded me this Times of London article that goes into some interesting details.
Interestingly, the 71 year old founder of Volkswagen is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. The grandson, Ferdinand Piech, wants to succeed through being a leader in automotive design and engineering.
Porsche, on the other hand, is being called "an investment bank with a car show room attached". Since 2006, Porsche has made 4 times as much money through finance than selling cars.
While the VW takeover has made the heads of Volkswagen and Porsche instant billionaires, the hedge funds who did the shorting have been clobbered with 30 billion euros in losses.
To add insult to injury, the sudden rise in the price of VW have caused the German exchanges to reduce its weighting in the stock indices. This, in turn, causes the German market index funds to have to trim their positions. They were the ones who lent the stock to the hedge funds to short. Now, they want their stock back so they can sell.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Volkswagen World's Biggest Company - Fallout for Goldman Sachs and German Banks?
Posted on 11:35 by Unknown
| Yesterday, after its stock climbed 250% on Monday and 93% on Tuesday, Volkswagen passed Exxon to become the largest company in the world (by market capitalization). Volkswagen is now more valuable than Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Daimler, Renault, Peugeot, General Motors, and Ford combined! Why did this happen? It's a massive short squeeze. It turns out that a lot of people shorted Volkswagen stock. When someone shorts a stock, they sell shares that are borrowed from others. The key is that, eventually, the party doing the shorting has to return the stock by buying it back. Porsche is trying to acquire Volkswagen, and they owned 35% of the stock. The government of the Lower State of Saxony owns 20% of the stock, and are trying to block Porsche's takeover. Porsche figured out that there were a lot more short positions on VW then expected, and they decided to capitalize on it. If they can't get Volkswagen, they can at least get rich. Taking advantage of lax German disclosure laws (that are to be strengthened next year), Porsche secretly bought more stock. In addition, they bought call options on WV from Goldman Sachs and German banks (such as Commerzbank). The banks thus have short call option positions in WV - and would need to buy the stock to cover rising prices. Over the weekend, Porsche dropped a bombshell by announcing that, not only had they increased their stake in VW from 35% to 42.6%, but they had options to buy another 31.5%. This means that Porsche controls (directly or indirectly) just over 74% of VW stock. Since the Lower State of Saxony owns 20%, this leaves less than 5% of VW stock that short sellers and the option sellers (Goldman, etc) can buy to cover their positions. The shorts and banks are basically screwed, and have to bid up prices higher, while Porsche exercises the options and locks in prices. |
Monday, 27 October 2008
Ridiculous, But True, Reasons Employees Missed Work
Posted on 10:17 by Unknown
These are from the results of a recent Careerbuilder Survey:
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