In Search of the Perfect Investment

Elizabeth Warren on Charlie Rose. She’s the brilliant chair of the Congressional Oversight Committee.

This interview will blow your mind. She’s afraid of a double dip recession. She’s afraid of the toxic assets — chiefly commercial real estate — on the books of the banks. She’s afraid that the banks are hoarding their money — not lending it — to strengthen their own balance sheets. She’s afraid of the hollowing out of the middle class. She’s a realist who speaks sense and logic. Click here.

Scariest chart you’ll ever see. From Clusterstock, “We can debate whether today’s (Friday’s)  jobs number was good or not, but this much is clear, compared to other recessions, the job losses, and lack of job gains, are truly unprecedented.”

Technology thrives. For the Economist’s latest (and as usual, excellent) Technology Quarterly, click here.

Google continues to come back. No other search engine has been able to hurt Google, which continues to thrive. And, best yet, the stock is coming back.

Clearly I like Google. It will be back over $600 shortly.

Eastman Kodak as a turnaround story? Cary J. Amann is founder and portfolio manager for A-V Capital Management. He likes Eastman Kodak for a bunch of interesting reasons — including its new direction and its firing of 28,000 employees. I helped put myself through college and grad school by playing professional photographer. So I have a certain fondness for EK, though I no longer use any of their products.

His reasons are detailed in Seeking Alpha.

The derivatives mess at your local municipality. From Gretchen Morgenson on the weekend:

The Swaps That Swallowed Your Town

AS more details surface about how derivatives helped Greece and perhaps other countries mask their debt loads, let’s not forget that the wonders of these complex products aren’t on display only overseas. Across our very own country, municipalities, school districts, sewer systems and other tax-exempt debt issuers are ensnared in the derivatives mess.

Like the credit default swaps that hid Greece’s obligations, the instruments weighing on our municipalities were brought to us by the creative minds of Wall Street. The rocket scientists crafting the products got backup from swap advisers, a group of conflicted promoters who consulted municipalities and other issuers. Both of these camps peddled swaps as a way for tax-exempt debt issuers to reduce their financing costs.

Now, however, the promised benefits of these swaps have mutated into enormous, and sometimes smothering, expenses. Making matters worse, issuers who want out of the arrangements — swap contracts typically run for 30 years — must pay up in order to escape.

That’s right. Issuers are essentially paying twice for flawed deals that bestowed great riches on the bankers and advisers who sold them. Taxpayers should be outraged, but to be angry you have to be informed — and few taxpayers may even know that the complicated arrangements exist.

For the entire article, click here.

Quote of the weekend.