S2S

I'd imagine there is some opposition from Chinese banking authorities given the turnaround at CCB is still in process and BAC's withdrawal of support, both expertise- and reputation-wise, could prove troublesome. While on topic, this McKinsey report might offer another view on what "normalized earnings" look like for moneycenters; Source: http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/investment-banks-face-bleak-future More detail on the report here: http://news.efinancialcareers.co.uk/newsandviews_item/newsItemId-34625?source=RSS:efc_eu=3863

You still don't get it. It is never just about the names; we know why Carson Block and then John Hempton short Sino - both are willing to put their investment theses through the court of public opinion. A few bulls attempted to poke holes here and there (something, by the way, you never did), but net-net Block's short thesis held up well. There is no such transparency when it comes to your favorite "major investors". As far as the alleged credibility that mere mention of their names bring, well, as given2invest said, there are always at least a couple of those "smart guys" in every single blowup. Let's not even mention the rampant ad hominem in your posts. Tell us again, why should we care about what parties Block went to in college?

A couple of can't-miss paragraphs there... The rescission seems attributable to legal technicalities more than anything. The Ontario Securities Act doesn’t allow the commission to force the resignation of a corporate officer in a temporary order without a hearing.

If you have soldiered through Alice Schroeder's weighty tome Snowball, you would quickly deduce that Quick must be the latest addition to WEB's circle of women; the same "harem" that features Susan Buffett, Astrid Menks, Kate Graham, Sharon Osberg, Schroeder etc. etc. Not that there's anything wrong with it. More power to the guy. ;D

I actually think this analysis is wrong and he got an even better deal. The rub is in valueing his pref @ 6% yield vs current market at 8.5%. I believe his pref will be called within 2 years so it's not really trading at a huge discount to the 8.5% public prefs. Point taken. WEB would be getting the warrants for free and then some (the prefs alone are worth over $5B) if your assumptions prove correct.

Here's a spreadsheet put together by DealBreaker's Matt Levine (formerly of Goldman Sachs) that takes a stab at how much Buffett paid. https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aij6EG4ObjGidF8zb2NrUjM5ZHI0Szk5Wnh5Qk9LMUE&hl=en_US Link to article here: http://dealbreaker.com/2011/08/how-much-did-warren-buffett-pay-for-bofa-anyway/#more-50897 His guess (based on certain assumptions) is $5.28. Certainly not something accessible to your average Joe yesterday.

Yep.

Bill Miller.... Just kidding, there were no good investors in Lehman. I'm going to pretend there weren't a survivor bias here. ;)

LOL Since this message board is "the Value Investor's Haven", a quote from WEB seems fitting: Another one:

+1 I'd vote Angelina Jolie to play Chiesi in Hollywood's version of the Rajaratnam tale though. For obvious reasons.

Are you taking on new investors? I interact with sell-side analysts on a regular basis. The profession (and its professionals) might be the butt of many jokes, but in my estimation, collectively, the group's average IQ would probably come in at 135 or so. And even though they might bat .500 at best when it comes to estimating near(to say nothing of long)-term future performance, they still understand their coverage universe better than 99.9% of investors. I don't know any analyst who thinks he/she knows what the next 10 years look like for one company. Never mind the overall market/economy with thousands after thousands of constituents.

Congratulations on the move. I like the new UI, very clean; speed is notably improved as well. Thanks!

Guess who holds (or held) 23 million of HPQ shares? http://on.wsj.com/oR0beI More forced selling must be happening just now... stay tuned.

What about institutional (not retail) Sales & Trading? The prestige doesn't compare to, say, i-banking or research, but it allows direct exposure to security analysts on both side of the table (Street analysts and buy-side analysts/PMs of various backgrounds). You used to run your own business (plus a Communications degree), so maintaining and developing business relationships could very well be your forte. The lifestyle is manageable if you don't mind getting up well before dawn for morning calls*, the heavy traveling / socializing etc. I've seen folks break into investments mid-career through this path. It's probably not easy, but what is. With some industry experience under your belt, you can then embark on the CFA program. The ROI is likely better than getting a top MBA education at this stage. * a great way to learn, since you pretty much have to grasp 30 second stock pitches well enough to later relay them (intelligently) to clients.

+1. Some argue that eliminating mortgage deduction would cause housing prices to collapse. Well, UK and Canadian taxpayers don't enjoy the free ride, yet last I checked, real estate there is doing just fine.

The classic Bloomberg terminal still triumphs all in my experience. FactSet has a pretty UI and allows extensive customization but speed is lacking.

I'm not one who cares to defend TRE but the impressive work member niels12think concerns another Chinese RTO stock, Orient Paper (ONP), which many bulls like to bandy about as the one example of a Carson Block-shorted stock that is not in shambles.

Another terrific Ed Thorp interview at this link: http://www.edwardothorp.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/Interview_with_The_Journal_of_Investment_Consulting_2011.pdf

Good read; the Paulson in question, however, is ex-Treasury secretary, ex-Goldman CEO Henry Paulson. ;D Thanks.

+1 BAC, another forum favorite, is collapsing today. Steve Cohen must have got up on the wrong side of his bed.

A different perspective on the new pricing scheme: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/why_im_happy_netflix_raised_it.html

Yeah that makes a great deal of sense. I wanted to stop macro discussion on this board, hence I started a thread that naturally invites macro discussion. ??? I reckon there might be animosity against Meeker from value investors who lived through the 90s, but hey, booms and busts are a part of life - some of the great enterprises (eg Amazon) and essential amenities we enjoy today (eg high speed Internet, ecommerce) would not exist had animal spirit not run high during the period. And Meeker is still highly respected within tech circles for a reason. Chillllll, please. Personally I like the presentation because it shed light on important but often hard to find data on the US government's balance sheet nd did so in a clear, easy to digest manner.

Must-see presentation, IMHO, if you have any interest in the US government debt crisis and/or the long term well being of the US of A. http://www.kpcb.com/usainc/ The slide in PDF format and and full report are also available at the URL above. Mary Meeker as some of you might remember (fondly or otherwise ;D) was a "star" tech analyst at Morgan Stanley who gained fame during the run-up of the dot-com bubble. Ms. Meeker joined venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins last year and penned a WSJ editorial on the same subject, USA Inc., sometime last year.

Sanjeev, the disclosure, a part of which I quote below, is on the front cover of MW report and featured prominently on its website as well. And pretty much everyone at this point knows that Block's outfit is a pseudo hedge fund rather than just a research provider. You should assume that as of the publication date of any report, Muddy Waters, LLC (possibly along with or through our members, partners, affiliates, employees, and/or consultants) along with our clients and/or investors has a short position in the stock (and/or options of the stock) covered herein, and therefore stands to realize significant gains in the event that the price of stock declines. I'd go so far to say than a great deal of forum posting here (and Yahoo! Finance, SiliconInvestor etc etc) is done by members who have financial interests, one way or another, in the topic matters. I wouldn't personally expect every opinion to be objective or even 100% accurate (in other words, professional investors, Street analysts, Carson Block, investment hacks, fraudster all make mistakes at some point - it's part and parcel to putting one's opinion out in public).

Below is a link to the video (I'm not affiliated to the blog or its owner) http://financetrends.blogspot.com/2011/07/bloomberg-profiles-michael-burry-on.html Enjoy.