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To: ChanceIs who wrote (207861)	6/22/2009 10:14:44 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 306849

Lol, what moral hazard? They're banks.

To: ChanceIs who wrote (207861)	6/22/2009 10:17:57 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 306849

Just in time-s- June 22, 2009, 4:58 pm Detroit Carmakers Improve Quality, Study Finds By Cheryl Jensen Consumers who are considering buying a Chrysler or General Motors vehicle but are hesitating because of the impact bankruptcy might have on quality can take some comfort from the new J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Initial Quality Study. New vehicles sold by Chrysler, Ford and G.M. have improved in initial quality by an average of 10 percent from last year, Finbarr O’Neill, the president of J.D. Power, said in a telephone interview. This compares with an 8 percent improvement for the industry over all, which J.D. Power calls “significant.” The Initial Quality Study grades automakers on the number of problems per 100 vehicles. Mr. O’Neill noted that the domestic manufacturers have narrowed the quality gap substantially with import makers. Last year the gap between the two was 10 problems per 100 vehicles; this year it is down to six per 100. And Toyota, with 101 per 100, scored only marginally better than Ford (102 problems per 100) and Chevrolet (103 per 100). Lexus, Porsche and Cadillac topped the list. More notably, Chrysler, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, and G.M., which is reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, improved their initial quality 11 percent from last year; Ford improved by 7 percent. “There is no correlation between what happened to the companies financially this year and how they performed in the study,” David Sargent, vice president for automotive research at J.D. Power, said at a press conference on Monday. But he did note that a lot of the decisions about the design of these vehicles were made a few years ago. So the real impact of what’s going on now might not show up for a few years, in the models that are being designed now. This year’s Initial Quality Study includes responses from 80,000 people who bought a 2009 model-year vehicle and were asked whether they had any of 228 possible problems (defects and malfunctions, as well as design issues). Of 37 brands, 12 ranked above the industry average of 108 problems per 100. They were Lexus (84 per 100), Porsche (90), Cadillac (91), Hyundai (95), Honda (99), Mercedes-Benz (101), Toyota (101), Ford (102), Chevrolet (103), Suzuki (103), Infiniti (106) and Mercury (106). The bottom two were Land Rover (150) and Mini (165). Keep in mind that the Initial Quality Study looks at “things gone wrong” after 90 days of ownership. A different J.D. Power study, the Vehicle Dependability Study, tracks quality three years down the line. And while the correlation between the two studies is strong, it isn’t perfect, Mr. Sargent said. In addition to ranking automakers by brand, J.D. Power also names the top three models in each of 10 car segments and eight of what it calls “truck and multiactivity vehicle” segments. Toyota (including its Lexus and Scion brands) topped all automakers with 10 segment awards [pdf]. E-mail This Print

To: ChanceIs who wrote (207861)	6/22/2009 11:10:01 PM
From: James Hutton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

"Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said he was surprised that some TARP recipients "already are in such difficult financial situation" that they are no longer making dividend payments. "It goes to show you that the due diligence performed by the Treasury was not sufficient."" Sounds like Gerard's knowledge of the banking industry isn't all that great either if he is surprised some TARP recipients are in such bad shape. How much due diligence could they have done in the relative few hours it took for them to come up with TARP, especially given the number of banks that took money?

To: ChanceIs who wrote (207861)	6/22/2009 11:25:54 PM
From: The Reaper	Respond to of 306849

Pacific Capital Bancorp, a Santa Barbara, Calif., lender that got $180.6 million from the Treasury Department in November, has since posted net losses of $49.7 million. Pacific Capital said Monday that it suspended dividend payments on its common and preferred stock as part of a wider effort to save about $8 million per quarter. A bank spokeswoman confirmed that the U.S.'s preferred shares are included in the dividend freeze. Crap, that was one I had as a potential GTZ. Was short it last summer until they ran it to 26 on a squeeze. They got me to cover and I never looked back. Should have revisited but the rules had changed so you never knew what was going to happen with the banks.

To: ChanceIs who wrote (207861)	6/24/2009 11:21:39 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Picked up a few puts on PCBC Mkt briefly resuscitated. --- SmarTrend(R) News Watch: Pacific Capital Bancorp Plummets on Deferrals and Moody's Downgrade Tuesday 06/23/2009 3:24 PM ET - Comtex Smartrend(r) Related Companies Symbol Last %Chg PCBC 2.79 5.28% As of 11:17 AM ET 6/24/09 Shares of Pacific Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ:PCBC) plummeted more than 19% in Tuesday trading after the bank announced the deferral of and interest payments to debt holders and suspension of dividend payments to common and preferred stockholders, including the U.S. government, which in turn led to a downgrade of its credit by Moody's Investors Service. Moody's downgraded the company 3 levels to Ba1, which is below investment grade. Shares of PCBC have fallen more than 59% since SmarTrend's Downtrend alert issued on May 1, 2009 at $6.52. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------