With at least a mini Citigroup (C) break-up plan coming to fruition, there is chatter that the U.S. government has a hand in some of these decisions. The justification is that the TARP program has resulted in the government directly injecting capital into banks like Citigroup, and as a result ... Read more

I have written previously, as have numerous other investment managers, that in order for Citigroup (C) to have the best chance of being nimble enough to grow and be managed efficiently it needed to be broken up. The vast number of businesses they have, coupled with the dozens of countries they c ... Read more

Aluminum giant Alcoa (AA) kicks off fourth quarter earnings season after the closing bell today and there is little doubt that they will be the first in a series of profit reports over the next few weeks that will be absolutely brutal. Fortunately, most investors already know that, so the market ... Read more

In recent months it would have been difficult to find a stock that Wall Street analysts were more pessimistic about than struggling smart-phone maker Palm (PALM) . According to Thomson/First Call, 23 analysts follow the stock, 10 have sell ratings, and only 2 had buy ratings (the rest were neutr ... Read more

I have heard it twice on CNBC already this morning, and the market has not even opened yet. For some reason people are claiming that since the market is up more than 20% from its lows that we have entered a new bull market. This idea that any rise of at least 20% constitutes a bull market is just ... Read more

After a near 40% decline in the broad market in 2008, there are tremendous bargains for investors willing to commit capital when the headlines are dismal. With the spread between treasury bond yields and equity dividend yields the widest since the 1950’s (the S&P 500 pays 3.1% versus the 10- ... Read more

Last weekend’s issue of Barron’s highlighted a money manager’s bullish stance on shares of luxury retailer Saks (SKS) . The stock is up more than 10% since then, and now fetches $4.50 per share. The manager in question believes Saks has normalized earnings potential of 50 to ... Read the ... Read more

As more and more news comes out about Bernie Madoff and how he managed to defraud many very smart people out of billions of dollars, it is useful to ask a simple question; what should we learn from what happened? From my perch the answer is very basic. The few people who avoided Madoff’s ... Read more

Shortly after the U.S. government lent the Big Three $17.4 billion, we learned Monday that an additional $6 billion of taxpayer money is headed to GMAC, the large General Motors finance arm. Where will this money go? Well, GMAC said Tuesday that it will immediately resume automobile financing for ... Read more

As you may have already read in Business Week’s 2009 Investment Outlook issue (dated 12/29-1/5), I highlighted the recently formed Anheuser-Busch InBev (AHBIF) as a potentially attractive bargain pick. Despite various other mergers failing to get done in the current credit environment, ... Read more