Archive for April 24th, 2009

GM employee 401(k) plan sells all 75 million shares of GM

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Detroit News Story

The trustee of the GM Employee 401(k) plan has dumped all 75 million shares over the past 3 weeks for under $2 a share .  That leaves very little doubt that GM is going into bankruptcy.

– If this was done based on knowledge of a definite decision to proceed with bankrupcty, someone is in serious legal jeapordy.  It seems unlikely they aren’t aware of the situation and the law.   Trading on non-public information is a crime called “insider trading”.   “Tim Geithner told us it is okay” is not a legal defense.

– if your employer holds much of your 401(k) plan in company stock, you’re working for a bad employer.  GM (until recently) required 1/2 of all 401(k) contributions to be in GM Stock.

Tags:
Posted in Bankruptcy Watch | No Comments »

Bankruptcy Watch – Charter Cable

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Charter is already in the bankruptcy process – so this isn’t about a new bankruptcy.

According to the International Business Times here, Charter’s plans to get in and out of bankruptcy fast have run into a snag. Wells Fargo and JP Morgan have both objected to the “quick prepackaged bankruptcy” and will not agree to it.

Are you listening Tim Geithner? GM? Chrysler?

Seeing how the CEO of Bank of America is being treated now for “going along with the government”, look for a lot more resistance to being told by the U.S. Treasury “the way things are going to work”.

It’s possible that a US Bankruptcy judge may have more power than the U.S. President.  Perhaps people working at the Federal Reserve bank didn’t know that.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Financial Collapse, Timothy Geithner Watch | No Comments »

BofA/Merrill – the other shoe drops

Friday, April 24th, 2009

One of the principles of a good lawyer is you don’t ask a question of a witness unless you already know the answer.

NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released to the SEC details of his questioning of Bank of America Kenneth Lewis. What has become clear is that as BofA was becoming aware of how much money Merrill Lynch was losing, they wanted to back out of the deal.

Then Secretary of Treasury Henry (“Hank”) Paulson and current Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke threatened Lewis that the entire management of BofA would be fired if he didn’t complete the merger and conceal the financial mess Merrill Lynch was in from Bank of America’s shareholders. Paulson and Bernanke were in clear violation of US Securities law, according to the former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt and other industry experts according to the Bloomberg News Story.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Financial Collapse, Politics, Timothy Geithner Watch | No Comments »

The future of Health Care

Friday, April 24th, 2009

The Washington Times has a story today about problems with the EMS ambulances in Washington D.C.   It’s primarily a local story (Washington Times is a local newspaper in addition to trying to have a national audience), but it has clear national implications.

Washington DC is peculiar in the entire country in that it is a city run by the Federal Government.  D.C. is not part of Maryland or Virginia – the city gets its funding from Congress.   The normal city funding model of using Property Taxes can’t work in D.C. because so much of the real estate is owned by the Federal Government and cities and states are not allowed to tax the Federal Government.

The District sent its paramedics off to be evaluated to see how evaluate there ability to perform life saving tasks were.   Only three of 95 paramedics tested had passing scores for entry level paramedics. 

What has been the ciy’s reaction?  They threatened to take legal action against the Washington Times for disclosing the results of the testing.

Welcome to your new heath care system, America.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Politics | No Comments »