Wotka World Wide

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Zero Hedge has an interesting piece on the Hostess liquidation.  While it is being spun in most news outlets as a union vs. private equity battle, they fail to mention that the private equity groups in question are associated with Democrats, with major Democratic donor Tim Collins heavily involved, as well as former Congressman Dick Gephardt as an equity owner and deal broker.  Funny how that part doesn't get mentioned.  Hit the link for all the details.
Will the new capital requirements of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation kill small banks across the country?  Some sure seems to think so: 
Emmett Daly, a Sandler O'Neill dealmaker who specializes in small banks, predicted at an industry conference put on by Mergermarket on Thursday that the number of banks in the U.S. would shrink to a few hundred. There are currently more than 7,000. Bill Egan, head of financial institutions investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, agreed, but said the weeding out process was likely to take more than a decade.
Indeed, the deal this week to buy bank adviser KBW by rival larger rival Stifel Financial appeared to be motivated by the belief that more banks would have to make deals. Says Rochdale Securities bank analyst Dick Bove, "It's fairly clear that 50% of the banks in the U.S. need to be recapitalized."

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Why was there no October Surprise?  Because every freaking day for the last four years has been an October Surprise!  A partial list of the scandals and blunders is included, great pre-election reading.
Here is why Nate Silver probably has his predictions wrong, and doesn't even realize it.  I still think this is related to the "blinders" mindset that accounts for the liberal view of reality.  We'll see come Tuesday.
Following Hurricane Sandy, proposals like this for storm surge gates will probably get a lot more traction.  It will be interesting to see if the environmental activists who were flooded out in NYC will be interested in protecting their city in the future.