Wells Fargo (WFC) today released very encouraging earnings numbers today including increasing net interest margins, and strong profits led by mortgage refinancing.  The environment is getting better for these large banks and Wells Fargo certainly has the least volatile business structure due to their more vanilla and transparent business model.  It’s interesting to see bank...Read More

Radical changes in the regulatory landscape in addition to enormously expensive costs pertaining to dealing with problem mortgages, have elevated banks’ cost structures over the last several years.  Revenues have been flat due to lackluster economic growth particularly in the banks’ bread and butter areas of real estate and commercial lending.  To confront these issues...Read More

In the reps and warranties case including MBIA and Bank of America, a judge has increased the chances for a settlement by ruling that Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan must testify.  I think it is in both companies interest to settle this case as MBIA needs the cash flow, and Bank of America needs...Read More

When most people think of Warren Buffett’s investment philosophy they think of his large positions in iconic companies such as Coca Cola, Burlington Northern, Geico, Wells Fargo, etc.  These investments are core positions where he was able to allocate huge sums of money with the understanding that the franchise values would continue to grow over...Read More

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is blessed with wonderful assets and a management team that has regularly been leading innovators in the energy space as far as predicting trends and technological developments.  The problem with the company is that they are run like an aggressive “wildcat” firm as opposed to multi-billion dollar behemoth.  Balance sheet issues such...Read More

Alfredo Saenz is exactly right that the ECB needs to get in front of the issue and buy Spanish debt as yields climb.  As stated before this won’t solve the structural problems but neither will delaying the issue.  Policymakers have continuously waited for the market to force them to make a move instead of taking...Read More

Mortgage servicing problems and mortgage fraud have had a dramatic change in the industry.  The automated machinery to approve as many loans as possible on the basis that the collateral will keep the issuers protected is over after the huge declines that we have seen in housing prices.  While changes had to be made in...Read More

This article does a great job in outlining the importance of patents in the current environment in the tech sector. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335551794808074.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS INVOLVES RISKS. OPTIONS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS.Read More

With Best Buy struggling as a transformational shift from big box retail, to online distribution, more bad news occurred today with the announcement that the CEO is stepping down due to an internal probe.  Best Buy is a company that had a great model which is just becoming outdated due to the changing landscape so...Read More

It’s good to see AIG getting back into Real Estate while collateral values are still low.  This is a company that has a huge amount of float that they need to invest so they must remain disciplined and diversified.  Before their CEO Robert Benmosche took over AIG was winding down everything under pressure from the...Read More