You have to like Hank Paulson. The Treasury Secretary grew up on a farm in Illinois. Many leaders in American history learned the value of hard work while planting seed and harvesting crop. George Washington was a farmer. Thomas Jefferson was a farmer and envisioned our country as a republic of farmers with a strictly limited federal government. That was when agriculture dominated the economic composition of the United States. Since then, the original federation of thirteen states has grown to fifty while the percentage of the citizenry employed in …

I don’t get things right as much as I’d like when it comes to the market but my Latticework Linkfest back in late February was spot on:
In times of recession, when unemployment is high, the unemployed go back to school to add marketable skills and increase future earnings power. The leading companies in for-profit education include Strayer Education (STRA), DeVry (DV), ITT Educational Services (ESI), Career Education Corporation (CECO), Capella Education (CPLA), Corinthian Colleges (COCO), and industry giant Apollo Group (APOL). Apollo operates the ubiquitous University of Phoenix campuses. This …

Henry Paulson, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury, recently announced a plan to purchase equity stakes in large public financial institutions to stem the tide of bankruptcies and failures brought on by the credit crisis. By buying shares in big banks, the government is essentially providing much needed cash to stabilize the companies and provide for some liquidity and credit stimulus. This is just one of many actions announced in an attempt to diffuse the credit crisis. Equally busy are Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. Paulson swears …

Have you ever wondered what could happen to the stock price of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) when its amazing CEO, Warren Buffett, is no longer able to captain the ship or passes away? This topic has swirled atop investors’ minds for at least a few years now and consistently keeps getting addressed by the Oracle of Omaha himself during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meetings. Last year, I sent my wife Cynthia to the shareholders’ meeting and she reported that the continuity or succession topic was one of the most widely talked about.
Let’s …

The stock market’s rebound has been so fast and furious that it might make folks forget that we just experienced a nasty credit crisis and market downturn. Have sinking home values not registered with the national psyche? Surf around on Zillow.com and witness the vast amounts of wealth disappearing over the last few months as homeowners see their most significant asset crumbling on a shaky credit foundation. Of course, institutional money managers are the ones buying furiously and fueling this market rebound. It is entirely plausible that, unlike the average …

Florida, one of the hottest real estate markets during the insanity of the housing bubble, is suffering from a barrage of wildfires that look suspiciously like the work of arsonists. When the credit crisis struck and housing values began to fade, I wondered about the potential for unethical and desperate homeowners willing to experiment with creative ways to escape their financial obligations. With many homeowners over-leveraged and paying for homes worth less than their mortgages, otherwise known as “underwater” mortgages, I thought that some homeowners would happily walk out of …

The technology sector gets a big surprise with Microsoft (MSFT) announcing that it will cease to pursue the acquisition of Yahoo! (YHOO). Most analysts and market pundits expected Jerry Yang & Company would ultimately accept a deal, albeit at a higher price than Microsoft’s initial offer. Expect Yahoo! stock to take a precipitous plunge at the market open and the announcement of class action lawsuits from its larger shareholders. While this saga of two tech giants unwinds, plenty of news in the rest of the tech sector deserves attention.
The Nasdaq …

Optimism abounds with the market resolutely shaking off bad news while focusing myopically on the good, or relatively good, news. The cheerleaders on CNBC (GE) can scarcely be heard uttering the dreadful words of inflation, recession, stagnation, credit crisis, and foreclosures. Happily, they talk about earnings beats. Surprisingly, there are a number of really substantial earnings beats that seem to justify the current sanguine tone of the market.
A lot of the beats thus far have come from blue chip companies that dominate their industries and sectors. Logically, this makes sense. …

 
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft (MSFT) puts on his best poker face with this letter to the Yahoo! (YHOO) board of directors. Ballmer isn’t known all over the world as an innovator, but as a former lawyer and one of the architects of Microsoft’s monopolistic business tactics, I’m sure he can hold his own at the negotiation table. Of course, that hasn’t been the case lately with the outlandish premiums he paid for aQuantive and Facebook. So maybe he’ll back off of this hard stance:
Dear Members of the Board:
It has …

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has a very informative piece on the credit crisis and its effect on startups. Apparently, many startups are putting their venture cash in Auction Rate Securities, financial instruments that are normally very liquid and provide better yields than typical bank savings/checkings accounts. Unfortunately, the perfect storm of the current credit crisis has put a freeze on the ARS market and startups are finding a difficult time to access their cash.
What really surprised me from the article was that many startups were putting their cash in …