Remember when PE firms backed out of signed deals in droves? They looked like jerks at the time, but in retrospect, they were probably smart to avoid the overpriced, highly leveraged deals they had aggressively pursued for the past three years. Taking into account the Dow’s record breaking drops l...

In April 2007, I transfered Meandering Passage to Media Temple (MT) based upon the promise of their Grid Service (GS) hosting solution…scaleable and able to spread a load across a wide array of servers and disk units to give reliable hosting. What I’ve experienced with Media Temple and t...

This is an interview we ran back in September 2008 that got overwhelmed by the crisis and TARP stampede in DC, but I think is one of the more important things we’ve ever published.  It gives you a ground level explanation of the silly risk/reward choices made by AIG. In a positive vein, this ...

Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary, head of Goldman Sachs (GS), and recently departed senior board member at Citigroup (C) has been telling anyone who will listen that "mark to market" accounting ruined big banks. That is to say, his reputation would be fine if CPAs has simply done the right th...

According to Reuters, Honda (HMC) sales in the US fell in January. Reuters reports that the premier of China sees hopeful signs in his economy. Reuters reports that hard times make government jobs more attractive. Reuters reports that online games are moving into Western markets as cheap entertainme...

The Big Banks vs. America: A Roundtable with David Kotok and Josh Rosner January 26, 2009 ~~~ “Banking bailouts were sold to us as a “necessary evil” because we were told only our existing network of banks could irrigate the economy with cash and so rescue industry. Now we know the...

Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Stock screen, Stocks to Sell It's been a long time since I wrote here, mainly because I've been busy busting my butt---I was up 197% in ...

Words from the (investment) wise for the week that was (December 8 - 12, 2008) Despite a litany of bleak economic and corporate news confronting investors during the past week, global stock markets digested the bearish fodder with a sense of aplomb. The MSCI World Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets...

Filed under: JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Financial Crisis This post is part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst in Money 2008 feature. In a year of financial chaos, how can on...

“NOTHING the Government does will work until they get rid of these nightmares. Letting credit default swaps (”CDS”) redefine insolvency as failure to post collateral means systemically critical counterparties such as Lehman Brothers or Bear are certain to fail once they wobble and,...