John Paulson has finally had his desired impact as the Hartford Financial Group (HIG) announced that they will be winding down their annuity business, to focus on P&C Insurance, employee benefits, and their mutual fund business.  The annuity business created too much stress on the Hartford as declines in the market caused extreme volatility that...Read More

It appears that the ratings agencies are back at it with a possible downgrade to AGO announced by Moody’s.  This makes absolutely no sense when you look at the earnings, capital, and the moves the company has made to reduce risk in the portfolio.  If you don’t like volatility AGO is not a good stock...Read More

This was a fun little article on Ben Bernanke.  I think you can criticize him and Alan Greenspan for their attitude as the bubble built and lending standards declined, but I can’t criticize his reaction once he realized the gravity of the problems the economy was facing.  In my opinion he has been fighting as...Read More

After reviewing the Jefferies earnings call I’m very optimistic as to how this quarter should shake out for the other financials.  CEO Richard Handler has done an amazing job with Jefferies, in the most difficult of environment.  I really appreciate the way that he has opportunistically bought back stock and debt at favorable prices, and...Read More

In what seems like a pretty horrendous investment to me, HSBC is offering a structured note that pays 7% a year as long as AAPL doesn’t fall by more than 7.6%.  After the huge run-up in the stock a 7.6% drop in price would be nothing, and to give up the potential upside on this...Read More

The US Treasury announced that they have liquidated the $225 Billion of mortgage debt acquired during the financial crisis for a profit of $25 Billion.  Much of this debt was termed “toxic” and was the source of tremendous trepidation during the worst of the crisis.  It is important to keep in mind that price is...Read More

Citigroup locked in profits by selling a small stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.  This is significant due to the fact that Citigroup is continuing to improve their capital position by shedding non-core assets.  Due to the substantial losses Citigroup has incurred during the financial crisis, increasing profitability both increases capital through retained earnings, but also...Read More

At TTCM we have long been advocating the undervaluation that we see in the Swiss drug maker Novartis.  The company is valued as though it has no growth prospects, but when you look at the pipeline, and the different components of the company, we believe that they have the ability to grow EPS by 7-10%...Read More

This was a timely article after our recent analysis on CSX.  We believe that coal demand is likely to continue its decline as the glut of natural gas will cause utilities to take advantage of the cleaner, and less costly fossil fuel.  Also the once in a lifetime construction boom seen in China seems to...Read More

Transocean RIG has had a terrible couple of years ever since the Macondo oil spill.  Fears about liability exposure, and substantial operating difficulties due to regulatory changes resulting from the spill, have forced RIG to remove many of their most profitable offshore rigs while they are under repair. Our investment thesis has been that the...Read More