Rumors: did they take down Lehman? Yes and no! On the one hand, as both rumormonger David Einhorn and pretty stiletto-wearing former Lehman CFO Erin Callan could tell you, that is how capitalism works. You short a stock, you start a word-of-mouth marketing campaign about how, say, "Lehman is the new...

Shares in Lehman Brothers plunged 44 percent today after talks with the Korea Development Bank, which had reportedly been considering purchasing a 25 percent stake for around $4 billion, came to an unsatisfying close. What will they have to sell to stay afloat? "Neuberger, its hedge funds, its high ...

Nine days ago in this space, I took a lot of heat for pronouncing John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as politically “brilliant.” My assumption, of course, was that McCain had actually seriously vetted the most important decision of his campaign (I was wrong), but, scandals and ...

Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C) An analyst who follows Citigroup (NYSE: C) believes that the financial services company will sell it Primerica division. The operation provides customer life insurance and investment products including mutual funds. According to Reuters, Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Ric...

8/22/2008 Elaine Meinel Supkis Gold coin sales have been suspended at the Mint due to lack of raw gold. This is a signal that gold will begin to climb again, not bounce lower. And this is the anniversary of the New Borrowing Window at the Fed. Worth reading how it all began. And stocks rose today on...

Speculation has begun that the shares in Lehman (LEH) are so cheap that the brokerage might become the target of a hostile takeover. Not likely. Dick Bove of Ladenburg Thalmann has begun a "rumor" that Lehman could be bought by a party with enough capital to hold on to the firm's distressed assets u...

Filed under: Analyst reports, Industry, Citigroup Inc. (C) The idea that the huge financial services conglomerates should be broken up has been around for a long time. The fact the UBS (NYSE: UBS) is cutting itself into pieces has brought the debate back to the fore. To some extent taking a company ...

As many of you may have seen by now, earlier today BankAtlantic Bancorp filed a lawsuit against well-known Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Richard Bove and his firm seeking damages for defamation stemming from a widely distributed report entitled “Who Is Next?” following the collapse of IndyM...

In a comment on my recent EPA post, Rob wrote: Claim that it's all the Democrats' fault and they're the ones who need to clean it up. Blame a generic "Congress" for not doing something your own party pulled every trick in the book to prevent. For 25 years. It's really those last two that t...

Washington - As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, federal regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year. But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how ma...