New French President Francois Hollande is very much interested in changing Franco-German relations.  The current economic policy being instituted to deal with the European crisis is based almost 100% on austerity.  The leadership of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been strong but I believe slightly misguided in that not enough has been done to boost...Read More

It is absurd to think that because Facebook’s IPO hasn’t resulted in instant gains for investors that bought at the IPO price, the banks that led the underwriting are at fault.  IPO’s have the odds stacked against them for retail investors as insiders are selling their stock to the public.  They aren’t selling their shares...Read More

It appears that the loss in the CIO division of JP Morgan (JPM) is now effecting their willingness to buy back stock, even though stock buybacks at current prices below tangible book value would significantly boost intrinsic value.  I don’t think JP Morgan is making the right decision to do that as it reduces confidence...Read More

AIG’s investment strategy is to embrace distressed mortgages which are trading at discounted prices and offer attractive cash flows, in lieu of equities which are more impacted by shifts in the equity markets.  While AIG’s mortgage portfolio got them in a considerable amount of trouble during the “Great Recession” the primary problems that the company...Read More

Goldmans Sachs (GS) is staying aggressive by taking principal investments in the tech sector similar to a venture capital firm.  While the strategy has worked out quite nicely for Goldman lately I’m somewhat surprised to hear this due to the Basel III guidelines which reduce the attractiveness of principal investments for banks.  I would expect...Read More

This was a great article outlining the improving conditions in the U.S. auto sales market.  Of the three stock mentioned we at T&T Capital Management believe that GM offers the most compelling opportunity.  Europe has been a huge problem for the company, but if U.S. sales perk up over the next several years GM has...Read More

The conflagration in European financial markets has been gaining steam due to the ineffective policymakers.  The lack of a TARP-like program has investors and market participants questioning European banks capital.  The threat of a run on the banks is significant and the longer policymakers wait to address the situation the more expensive this issue ultimately...Read More

Kudos to Yahoo for getting this deal done with Alibaba despite the Scott Thompson debacle.  This should remove a significant overhang for the stock and the price seems quite reasonable.  The biggest risk now for Yahoo shareholders would be a poor acquisition that would be value destructive. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304019404577416571623411072.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL MARKETS INVOLVES RISKS....Read More

Here is some further evidence that the real estate market is coming back as high end houses are seeing increasingly robust demand from buyers.  While the high end of the market is more insulated from the pricing pressures such as short sales and foreclosures that are plaguing the main stream market, it is important to...Read More

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associate shares some very pertinent insight into the deleveraging processes taking place in both the United States and Europe.  He correctly identifies that the closest parallel to the current European crisis is situation the United States of America found itself in when it had the Articles of Confederation before the establishment...Read More