The Financial Decoder

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• Greece Bailout: Drachmas From Heaven

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 9, 2010 | 1 comment

  Investors are betting that it’s soon going to be raining drachmas in Greece. Stocks are up strongly from yesterday’s wash-out, but are there still problems lurking in Greece and the other PIIGS? Jack Otter and I discussed it in today’s Reality Check. [video=391762]

• When PIIGS Fly: Why You Should Root For Stock Market Drops

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 9, 2010 | 0 comments

  Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 10,000 (9908) for the first time since November. After a staggering 70% rise from last March’s lows, the blue-chip index is now down 7.6% from the 15-month high set on January 19th. I discussed the falling stock market this morning with Harry Smith on The Early Show. [video=391665] The [...]

• Will Super Bowl Indicator or John Thain Help Stocks?

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 8, 2010 | 0 comments

  Oh, how I hate old Wall Street chestnuts, like the “January effect”, “sell in may and go away” and any other so-called market predictor. But after four consecutive losing weeks for stocks, maybe it’s time to embrace the Super Bowl Indicator. Here’s how this one works: if an “original” National Football League team wins the Super [...]

• Editor-At-Large: Episode 1

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 5, 2010 | 0 comments

  Here’s a new video series we’ve launched…you never know when a tall woman might offer free financial advice!

• Jobs Report: The Great Thaw Begins

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 5, 2010 | 1 comment

  The January Employment report is out and it was a mixed bag. Still, the big take-away is that the employment deep-freeze of the past two years is finally starting to thaw. Everyone will focus on the 9.7% unemployment rate–please try to ignore this particular factoid, because it can be a statistical sleight of hand based on [...]

• NY AG Cuomo Files Charges Against Bank of America Former CEO Lewis and CFO Price

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 4, 2010 | 1 comment

  This is huge. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed the complaint this morning, which alleges that Bank of America former CEO Ken Lewis and former CFO Joe Price hid losses at Merrill Lynch from shareholders and manipulated the government to get the taxpayers to bail them out. From the release: NEW YORK, NY (February 4, 2010) [...]

• Can’t Wait To Buy A Toyota

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 4, 2010 | 4 comments

  Call me a contrarian, but I think the Toyota recall will be a great buying opportunity.  Not for the stock (TM), because I have been burned so badly by Japanese stocks over that last decade, that I swore them off. But I’m going to need a new car in the spring and I have my [...]

• Volcker, Dodd and the Death of Regulatory Reform

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 3, 2010 | 0 comments

  Former Federal Reserve Chairman and current Obama financial reform cheerleader Paul Volcker appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to pump up his eponymous “Volcker Rule,” which aims to limit the scope of banking activities. Watching yesterday’s testimony, I’m left with a sinking feeling that we’re watching a slow death of regulatory reform. Critics contend that the [...]

• Foreclosure Fiasco

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 3, 2010 | 1 comment

  According to a CBS News poll, most Americans believe that the worst of the housing crisis is over. I sure hope that’s the case, but the numbers look grim. The New York Times cites data from First American CoreLogic that showed that almost 4.5 million homeowners were upside down on their mortgages, “with their home [...]

• Groundhog Day For Housing

  By Jill Schlesinger | Feb 2, 2010 | 0 comments

  Last week, the housing news was all doom and gloom. Today, the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales ticked up last month. Which is it? Take a clue from Punxsutawney Phil, who saw his shadow today–we have a lot more than six weeks to go before housing recovers. The Washington Post reports that a [...]

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