The Great Escape?

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Wed, 01/01/2020 - 03:15

Simply brilliant. Carlos Ghosn springs out of house arrest and ends up in Lebanon before Japanese authorities knew he was gone.  Just for reference, it is normally a 16 hour flight from Tokyo to Beirut.  This is not the first time Japan's legal system is used to to eliminate a business problem. It was done to Livedoor's Takefumi Horie to get him out of the way.  Ghosn's efforts to finalize the merger between Renault and Nissan rubbed legacy Nissan the wrong way.  The solution, do a Horie.  But if Ghosn has pulled off the escape, way to go!

Of Course Obamacare will Stay (at least the tax)

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Mon, 12/30/2019 - 18:45

AP released an article today about why after 3 years no Obamacare replacement.  The simple reason is money.  For the month of November, the US spent $434B. The amount of cash the government took (revenue to a business, tax for a government) is $225B.  So the government is spending nearly 2x of what is taking in. But that is OK, because just issue debt, which is what is being done.

WeWork...WeBust

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Mon, 12/23/2019 - 21:33

The spectacular failure of WeWork is dragging on Softbank as Softbank is having a hard time getting the financing in place to keep WeWork alive.  Flash back that is your typical SiliValley Unicorn that is revolutionizing the world as we know it while not making money, not having a survivable business an at least this time the public market is not left holding the bag. 

US Steel Cracks

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Fri, 12/20/2019 - 23:55

US Steels drops dividend by 80%, stops buyback and eliminates a factory and 1500 jobs..

All is not well at US Steel.  Unfortunate notification for those at the Great Lakes Works facility.  1500 people will be out of work leaving the total loss in that area at 1700 jobs out of this factory.  Pulling back the way USS is, does not reflect the narrative of everything is awesome.  The approach of pulling back to consolidate their efforts is not out of place.  Not like Detroit area needed another major failure in their area. But they got it.

FedEx Off Track?

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Wed, 12/18/2019 - 00:38

Earnings came out and the withdrawal of Amazon hurt.  But on another level, their forecasts may be overly optimistic based on their assumptions of moderate US growth and stable international trade.  Neither of these options seeing playing out well in 2020, but can't blame them for being optimistic.  

Where's the Money?

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Mon, 12/16/2019 - 13:35

The money is coming from the Fed in the form of overnight Repo. But everything is great, right?  The Fed had to spur the overnight funds for the banks. The banks putting up their Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and TBills to get the  cash.  Basically the banks aren't lending and the Fed is having to prop it up.

Super Shuttle Done

Submitted by Chris Ducret on Sun, 12/15/2019 - 15:16

Super shuttle is done this year.  Is this the result of Uber/Lyft environment or just a model that was no longer valid?  Super Shuttle is made up of Super Shuttle the blue vans that would carry multiple people (like a slimmed down bus service) and Execucar.  My experience was with the later and it was excellent at a time when the only other option was a cab.  

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