These are excellent news!

This keeps up you might be able to afford that ninth wife.

H.eck, he may as well round it up to an even 10 - lol! Add a few more continents in for good measure.

Oh no , I am a moderate man, 9 wives would be perfectly fine with me.

Banks are back



UPDATE: GMAC Still Fails Stress Test; Other 9 Cos Are OK - Fed

Nov 9, 2009 15:35:50 (ET)

(Adds further details, background, in the first and sixth through eighth paragraphs.)


By Luca Di Leo and Darrell A. Hughes
Of DOW JONES NEWSIRES


WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Federal Reserve said Monday that auto lender GMAC Financial Services was the only one of 10 bank-holding companies that hasn't yet met capital requirements under its stress tests.

However, the central bank said in a statement that GMAC is expected to meet the capital ratios required by accessing the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, automotive-industry financing program.

Despite extraordinary help from the U.S. government, including $12.5 billion of federal funds and access to cheap debt, GMAC is struggling to return to the black as it takes hit after hit on its mortgage unit, Residential Capital LLC.

GMAC is in talks with the U.S. Treasury to get a third infusion of up to $5.6 billion in TARP funds.

The Fed said the other nine bank-holding companies that were found not to meet capital requirements earlier this year had now raised enough capital or improved the quality of capital sufficiently.


Looks like Barney will need to find another way to justify a take over. Moor's latest flick isn't providing the proper motivation or direction to that end either.

2nd UPDATE:GMAC Seen Passing Stress Test Via TARP; Other 9 OK

November 09, 2009: 06:27 PM ET


(Adds further details from GMAC reaction in paragraph five and from Treasury statement in pargraphs seven and eight.)

By Luca Di Leo and Darrell A. Hughes

Of DOW JONES NEWSIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Federal Reserve said Monday that auto lender GMAC Financial Services was the only one of 10 bank-holding companies that hasn't yet met capital requirements under its stress tests.

However, the central bank and the U.S. Treasury said that GMAC is expected to meet the capital ratios required by accessing the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, automotive-industry financing program.

Despite extraordinary help from the U.S. government, including $12.5 billion of federal funds and access to cheap debt, GMAC is struggling to return to the black as it takes hit after hit on its mortgage unit, Residential Capital LLC.

GMAC is in talks with the U.S. Treasury to get a third infusion of up to $5.6 billion in TARP funds.

"While we still need additional capital to meet the (stress test) requirement, we have been focused on transforming the company, restoring financial health and maximizing the investment for our shareholders," said a GMAC spokesperson.

The Fed said the other nine bank-holding companies that were found not to meet capital requirements earlier this year had now raised enough capital or improved the quality of capital sufficiently.

"In January of this year, there was very little confidence in the financial system. Financial institutions could not borrow without guarantees provided by the government, and we faced the real prospect of having to use taxpayer resources to recapitalize the banks," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Now, the Treasury said it was borrowing less and taxpayer support for the financial sector had declined because banks were meeting their needs in the private markets and repaying the government.

The Fed said the 10 companies, including GMAC, had boosted their capital by a total $77 billion, mainly by issuing common equity or other eligible securities.

In May, Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. ( WFC), GMAC LLC and Morgan Stanley (MS) were told they need to raise capital. Regions Financial Corp. (RF), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), KeyCorp (KEY), PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC) and SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI) also were told to bolster their reserves.

By contrast, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), American Express Co. (AXP), BB&T Corp. (BBT), State Street Corp. (STT), MetLife Inc. (MET), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) were told they didn't need to raise additional capital.

In its stress tests of 19 large banks earlier this year, Fed economists designed dire economic scenarios and measured the resilience of big banks against those scenarios. Fed officials expect to make those stress tests a model for future supervision.

-By Luca Di Leo, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6682; luca.dileo@dowjones.com

13 month market high today. Hopefully, this is a sign things are looking up, FINALLY. It's been a long haul.

Profits are Back


Wall Street Profits Return, Big Bonuses Likely Next - Report

Nov 17, 2009 12:15:26 (ET)


By Brett Philbin
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The Broker-dealer operations of New York Stock Exchange member firms returned to profitability in a big way in the first half of 2009, reaching a level more than 1.5 times the previous annual peak, according to a report from the New York State Comptroller.

The firms posted a combined $35.7 billion in profits in the first half of the year after reporting losses of $11.3 billion and $42.6 billion the past two years. The previous high-water mark for profits was in 2000.

"The national economy is slowly improving, but Wall Street has recovered much faster than anyone had envisioned," the report said.

With soaring profits, the era of the big bonus has also returned as the nation's six largest bank holding companies set aside $112 billion for compensation in the first nine months of the year, the report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office said. These firms are Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC).


The likes of Pelosi and others are doing their best to keep from showing their joy. Not that things are getting better. Nope, to institute some of the most obscene tax levels ever devised. Just wait and see.

And so are the whiners

Lloyds Employees Protest Job Cuts In Spain

Nov 17, 2009 11:38:12 (ET)

MADRID (AFP)--Several hundred employees of Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) protested in Madrid Tuesday against proposed cutbacks in Spain as part of the bank's plans to slash 5,000 jobs worldwide.

The demonstrators blew whistles and chanted slogans for about one hour outside the headquarters of the bank in the centre of the Spanish capital.

Lloyds announced last week it would cut 5,000 jobs by the end of 2010 as it continues to reduce overlap following its merger with HBOS PLC (HBOOY).

The U.K. government has a 43% stake in Lloyds after bailing out the company in the wake of the fierce global financial crisis.

LBG, created in January when Lloyds TSB bought rival lender HBOS in a state-brokered deal, has now axed about 13,000 jobs since the start of 2009.


Socialism at it's finest. Do these people have a grasp of how an economy functions? Do they realize their employer isn't their parent? Or for that matter, who owns the bank? I bet not a one owns a single share of Lloyds bank. I do, and I say you're either with us or against us. Obviously these clowns blowing their whistles and putting on a show see their jobs as entitlements. Why aren't they at work showing their bosses how valuable they are and worthy of being kept on board? The British labor party brain washed them into this nonsense of jobs being a right instead of something earned. No wonder the productive class is in mass exodus.

Socialism at its finest, or democracy in action? I can't imagine such protests being staged on Tiananmen Square or in Pyongyang, in Riyadh or in Damascus.

Once upon a time ..... @ 2:03

Lets see, Tienanmen, Communist. Pyongyang, communist again. Riyadh, that would be a Monarchy. Your Syrian reference isn't socialist either. More of a military martial law state.

What is socialism versus a democracy? Should the freedoms bestowed only extend to those who are employees and stop short of the employer? Where in the business license does it say parentage is assumed? Staying within the confines of the intended point. Socialism should not impede free enterprise to the extent it does in those countries. The amount we've had thrust upon us in the form of unions have done more than enough damage. GM is the poster child of what even a little socialism can cause. They're story isn't over yet. The last chapter, 13, has yet to be written. You can count it coming.

The truth of this fallacy is revealed in where people come from and where they want to go. Many who come here do so because of the opportunity that exists. Since our economy is more capitalist based it stands to reason it's the best. Otherwise, we wouldn't have the immigration problems we do. I guess it could be said, a wrong goes to show a right.

If GM CEO was Muslim they would never go bankrupt.
All it would take is hanging and beheading few employees guilty of engineering and assembling unsellable cars.
If they only knew and made davda GM CEO

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OldE,

If I were the CEO I would have structured the bankruptcy to break the unions. The population of Detroit should have strung up the union leadership for causing their jobs to be exported to China and Brazil. It will be impossible for them to compete with the likes of Toyota who has no union membership in this country. Chapter 13 is only a matter of time for the plants still active in this country.

quote:

Originally posted by davdah:
If I were the CEO I would have structured the bankruptcy to break the unions. The population of Detroit should have strung up the union leadership for causing their jobs to be exported to China and Brazil. It will be impossible for them to compete with the likes of Toyota who has no union membership in this country. Chapter 13 is only a matter of time for the plants still active in this country.

Well, there is no alternative but to become a Muslim CEO if you want to have your cake and eat it too.

Because if you force your laborers to work and get as little as they do in China and Brazil or make their life miserable as H.ell you also would need very strong-armed system of execution to compel them to show up at work and perform to your expectations.
Pointing a gun at some plant employees and shooting them at workplace would be helpful to achieve such ends.

Do not compare US to Japan. Never will happen in America, never will Americans work as Japaneese under similar to Japan's conditions.
Japan has deeply rooted traditions unlike anything you can imagine in America.
It's a strictly cultural thing.
Japanese were still bowing to their Emperor AFTER Japan was defeated in WWII. It should tell you something about attitudes of Japaneese which , i would say, is unparralleled in world history of other nations.

A few things to consider. One is simple economics. Are we going to force people to buy cars no one wants in order to justify those jobs the socialist believe fall from heaven as a god given inalienable right? Or, are we going to balance the reality of output to input and realize entitlements are a burden that must be done away with given the competitive nature of the global markets as they are now? Cost is cost. There is no way to dilute the price of employee labor in comparison to the rest of the world if we're going to allow the rest of the world to compete in our home. Not with all the add ins brought about by unions and government bureaucracy that drive our competitive bus off the cliff.

Why mention how supposedly honorable this culture is or that. Or how much more devoted to their job, emperor, or what ever they are. Rubbish, all of it. Some dribble about bowing to a fallen king is supposed to carry some amount of significance? What? It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. In the end, it matters only where you stand right now. If those historic things amounted to half of what they're being pitched as then the conviction of failure is deserved even more for being where they are now. You should never rest on laurels. Besides, those are Americans working in those Japanese plants located in our country. So much for not measuring up in the same environment.

quote:

Originally posted by davdah:
A few things to consider. One is simple economics.

It's not so simple to begin with.
Free market forces force everything towards leveling off as necessiated by supply & demand.
While social, political and historical conditions in those countries vary drastically.
It's a big headache for any policimaker and solutions are anything but simple, just like the problems. It's all rather very complex.

quote:

Are we going to force people to buy cars no one wants in order to justify those jobs the socialist believe fall from heaven as a god given inalienable right?

Of course not, that's not what i said.
Nobody can force anybody to buy what is not needed.

What i said was that paying $30 a month to assemblyman on GM won't make things better either.

Like with every other impending issue, necessity itself eventually will force solution and if it's in error then conditions will force further adjustments until working solution is found.

If nothing works out then the business will go bankrupt and other rivaling businessess will take it's place which have better ways of managing their resources or better overall conditions giving them competitive advantage.

All i can say is that when things go sour the difference between brilliant and stupid policy maker is that stupid one will hit the wall 20 times and make all possibly wrong decisions up to the total failure, while gifted policy maker will bring efficiency from the outset and may even save from ruines the hopeless company.

Don't ask me what the solution is. I am neither gifted policy maker nor have enough expertise to give a billion dollar worth of answer. But i can tell you that paying American workers $20 a month to make competitive with Toyota cars won't be working solution.

quote:

Or, are we going to balance the reality of output to input and realize entitlements are a burden that must be done away with given the competitive nature of the global markets as they are now?

If the real problem is that American laborer at GM plant lazily smoked cigarettes and chatted woth coworkers 7.5 hours a day while putting two bolts together before going home, well, of course you would have to either fire such worker or yourself, union or no union.

But if you have certain realistic output in your mind that you expect from your workers, you must understand that they have to be motivated to do that.
One known source of motivation is money and rersulting lifestyle.
Another is dedication to one's job and having almost patriotic feelings about plantation one works at (i can't imagine such a thing in America, though that's how i heard they work in Japan). Finally, but not least importantly, management and working environment that additionally increases the output. Changing latter in favorable direction is an art and science in itsself.


However really big problem with GM cars must have been engeneering and more than anything esle, since as you note somewhere else American laborers who assemble Japaneese cars in US seem to be doing their jobs allright. GM cars end up cheaper on dealers lots than their German or Japaneese counterparts, so it must be the engeneering and the performance or some other aspects of US cars that make them unattractive to American buyers. How did unions or other labor related issues affect poor performance and output of GM cars as opposed to input from it's engeneers, who i would assume must have been very well paid professionals without much need in unions?

Since i haven't done any comparative study of US vs Japanese managed factory in US, i don't know all specifics to give more accurate account of labor management practices and their effects of production.
But i think engeneering and planning must be looked at as well.

quote:

Cost is cost. There is no way to dilute the price of employee labor in comparison to the rest of the world if we're going to allow the rest of the world to compete in our home. Not with all the add ins brought about by unions and government bureaucracy that drive our competitive bus off the cliff.

I don't know much about the totality of the issue, i don't know all or even most factors as far as car production goes.
But i would think that the US labor cost must have been cheaper to pay than the protectionist import taxes, or else Japanese wouldn't be building their factories in US.
I also don't think German auto workers make much less than Americans while i don't see Chinese automakers in competition for American market (when that one comes to compete in auto industry it will be tough for everyone, including Germans and Japaneese. There won't be any easy solution then, escept the hope that Chinese salaries rise to equal that of world's most advanced economies or else they will by necessity and force of market laws drag down everyone else).

quote:

Why mention how supposedly honorable this culture is or that. Or how much more devoted to their job, emperor, or what ever they are. Rubbish, all of it. Some dribble about bowing to a fallen king is supposed to carry some amount of significance? What? It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. In the end, it matters only where you stand right now.

No, you didn't get the point and your mind quickly went in wrong direction.

It's not rubbish, first of all. I don't know may be Japaneese make up all these lies or have changed drastically as of very late, but i have seen documentaries where they show Japaneese factory workers before they start their work day. It's almost like a prayer every morning. A ritual.
When they get a job it's for life or very long haul.
It's a disaster and great shame to be fired or separated from their company. They rely on their job as source of livelyhood. And i could go on. Those are all very important factors and i don't know where else or in what country all those factors are at work.
Can you even begin to imagine these factors to be driving forces and motivation of American workers?
Can you deny the difference in overall output such difference in attitudes will make?
You also will not be able to change inner attitude and perception of American worker to that of Japaneese, since those cultural traditions don't built up overnight and can't even exist without certain historical and cultural preconditions.
So you have there, by default , competitive disadvantage that you must think very well on how to overcome and compensate here.

quote:

If those historic things amounted to half of what they're being pitched as then the conviction of failure is deserved even more for being where they are now. You should never rest on laurels.

I don't know what is this about or what relevance it bears to what i said above.

quote:

Besides, those are Americans working in those Japanese plants located in our country. So much for not measuring up in the same environment.

I addressed it earlier in this reply.

A lot of stuff you got there. I assumed much of what you posted came from a sarcastic slant and much of what I replied with originates from that same angle. Of course, under the premise of being understood the nonsense that is the socialist movement as it relates to jobs.

Any who. The way I see it. When it comes to GM versus Toyota the mistaken factor might be equality in other aspects aside the cost of labor.

Even if the bucket-o-bolts rumbling off the GM line is cheaper to buy than your pristine Toyota, which is the consumer more apt to pony up the dough for? The Toyota, even with the +$5000 price tag. Over the course of the last few decades each has earned the reputation it deserves based on quality of product.

GM had a policy of built in obsolesce believing people would continue to buy cars that died every 4 or so years. Toyota etc, did just the opposite. They tried to boost their image by manufacturing something that lasts beyond expectations. The results are better cars for more money. Consumers weren't as stupid as GM assumed.

The unions had their hand in it. To them, a job paying inflated wages was a right. GM, in order to stay afloat had to come up with a plan to insure constant production in order to avoid the corner they were being backed into by the unions.

Instead of playing fair and giving the maker some breathing room the unions got even more greedy. It was no surprise and everyone saw it coming. Sales were dropping in all segments and market share was being lost. Gm, under the constant threat of striking oafs and mafia styled union bosses, it continued down the path of self destruction. Here we are.

The problem now is nothing was fixed. What plants still in existence are destined to fail. They're going to continue manufacturing cars as a means of creating jobs instead of a happy customer.

The comment about Japan is even more illustrated by the documentaries you cited. In this country when a documentary is made about something foreign it's usually done with a very positive spin. Why, I don't know. If the film came from abroad we assume absolute faith in it's validity only because it's foreign. They never show the dark side. Or that worker who is so fed up with being forced to do jumping jacks in the morning that he beats the krap out of his family every night. That is, if they really perform that daily ritual when the camera isn't rolling. Who knows. We used to have presumed jobs for life up through the early sixties. Things change and you can't hold on to the past.

Good point there. As i said, who knows , may be Japaneese made up all that "work ethics" stuff for propaganda purposes. In which case you would need to think even harder as to what makes them produce better cars. I just don't think that raping assemblymen in the b.utt is what makes Toyotas the most sellable cars in the world.

If unions employ thuggish methods and get the employees paid at the cost of ruining the whole enterprise, well , that's like cancer and is self-defeating strategy for unions themselves. Cancer should be treated by surgical and all available aggressive methods before it kills the host body, we all know that.

But i would suggest to take a very good look and find out what went wrong and why GM (once world's greatest carmaker) ended up the way it did.

I don't know. You've seen how big those sumo wrestlers are? Maybe they've got a few of those roaming the plant floor looking for slackards, LOL.

I've looked long and hard at GM. Most of their ills were a result of unions and complacency. It was simple math. At GM it cost a bigger X number of dollars to produce an equally valued car than anywhere else. The rest is the consumer voting with their wallet.