Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: Doug Kass penned a column for TheStreet.com on Wednesday titled "The Earnings Season Racket." Kass argues that the earnings "beat" rate is so high this quarter because of lowered estimates, and that "companies almost always beat earnings forecasts even during rough economic periods." Below is a portion of his column: While it has been widely advertised by chest-thumping bulls in the media that at least two-thirds of the companies that have reported third-quarter earnings have beaten forecasts, there was less than meets the eye to third-quarter profits as in many cases the "beats" were on lowered estimates.Complete Story »
Rolfe Winkler, CFA submits: The 100th bank failure of the year is a baby… #100 Failed bank: Partners Bank, Naples FL Acquiring bank: Stonegate Bank, Ft. Lauderdale FL Vitals: as of 9/30, assets of $66 million, deposits of $65m DIF damage: $28.6m #101Complete Story »
Compete submits: Is online advertising a good vehicle for reaching brand advertising goals? Judged by their actions, more and more advertisers are voting “yes.” During the past several months, we’ve observed a gradual but decisive stride from an ambivalent stance toward a full embrace of online media as a branding tool. This past week, we witnessed a Ford (F) display campaign that to us represented a noteworthy waypoint in the development of online ads designed for branding objectives: ads that reject the click.Complete Story »
Jamie Moye submits:“Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin. And with death being a certainty, one would expect that the business of death should always make money. Of course, how much money is dependent on numerous factors, among which the most important would be how many people are dying. In short: demographics.Complete Story »
Marc Chandler submits:The East Asian Summit will be held this weekend in Thailand.Japan's new Prime Minister Hatoyama seems to be leading the call for an expanded trade bloc, which is partly seen as a way to take some initiative and balance off not only off the US, but China as well. China, as one would expect, has greeted Japan's proposals cautiously, as China, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea have already finalized free trade agreements with ASEAN.Complete Story »
Thursday’s buyout of Harvest Energy Trust (HTE) by the Korean National Oil Company (KNOC) typifies the difference on how the East and West are looking at oil. And it’s as simple as supply versus demand.Complete Story »
John M. Mason submits: Donald Markwell has written a very important book on the place that international relations had in the thinking of John Maynard Keynes. From his work at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and throughout the rest of his life, Keynes played a role on the international stage. This activity had a great impact on his intellectual development. Markwell writes that the “students of Keynes have not in any systematic or thorough way studied his thinking from the perspective of international relations.” The author tries to fill this gap with, "John Maynard Keynes and International Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace" (Oxford University Press: 2006). The Paris Peace Conference thrust Keynes into an international setting. It also put him in a position in which he could work to create a climate of world peace, something that was very important, not only to himself, but to his group of friends in Bloomsbury who were artists, writers and intellectuals. The fundamental concern for peace colored not only his worldly actions, but also permeated his intellectual efforts to build an economic model that would support his attempts to achieve workable solutions in the real world.Complete Story »
