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Non-Tech : Banks--- Betting on the recovery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (801)	4/16/2010 12:13:05 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1428

Yeah, didn't see that one coming. GS, the stock, has not been doing well for weeks. I thought it was worries about earnings. WRONG! And Cramer is keeping his mouth shut for a change [he used to work for GS].

To: Road Walker who wrote (801)	4/16/2010 12:16:08 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1428

Citigroup Sitting at a Crossroads By Laurie Kulikowski NEW YORK. (TheStreet) -- Citigroup(C)'s fleeting foray above $5 this week underlines the importance of its upcoming first-quarter report. There's no doubt sentiment about the stock is miles better than it was at the start of 2010 as Citigroup has continued to make progress in cleaning up its balance sheet and get back in the game against the other money-center banks, but now that it's battled back, where does it go from here? The improvement began in early March when a number of respected voices, notably Bruce Berkowitz and independent research firm CreditSights, made favorable comments about the company, and the shift has kept up since then as the company did much better than expected with the Primerica(PRI) IPO, and the stock showed itself able to take news that the Treasury would be exiting its 27% stake in 2010 in stride. Of course, the rally has been far from company-specific as the bank stocks in general have outperformed, buoyed by the rise in the broad market on the perception that the economy is on stable ground, and Wall Street's belief that credit costs reached an inflection point in the first quarter. But that doesn't mean Citigroup isn't under particular pressure to meet or exceed investor expectations this quarter, especially after JPMorgan Chase(JPM) -- a good comparable in many respects -- came through with blowout numbers on Wednesday. The fact that the stock stalled Thursday after breaching $5 for the first time since mid-October, ending in negative territory on massive volume of more than 1.5 billion shares shows there is still some trepidation out there. Let's not forget, by its own admission, Citigroup still has a long ways to go. CEO Vikram Pandit said Monday the company's goal remains bringing assets down 40% from their third-quarter 2007 peak. That leaves it with nearly a half trillion more to shed from its balance sheet. read more............ thestreet.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (801)	4/16/2010 12:33:24 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1428

Goldman Responds 4/16/2010 12:05 PM EDT "The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation," Goldman Sachs has said on BusinessWire.

To: Road Walker who wrote (801)	4/17/2010 4:24:08 PM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1428

U.S. May Face Housing Shortage in 2011 Economist Says, Foreclosures Notwithstanding, Housing Inventory Isn't Keeping Up With Population Growth abcnews.go.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (801)	4/19/2010 12:18:04 AM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1428

Clinton Says He Got Wrong Advice on Derivatives By Joshua Zumbrun April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Former President Bill Clinton said his Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers were wrong in the advice they gave him about regulating derivatives when he was in office. “I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take” their advice, Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week” program. Their argument was that derivatives didn’t need transparency because they were “expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of people will buy them and they don’t need any extra protection,” Clinton said. “The flaw in that argument was that first of all, sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency.” “Even if less than 1 percent of the total investment community is involved in derivative exchanges, so much money was involved that if they went bad, they could affect 100 percent of the investments,” Clinton said. The show was taped yesterday and broadcast today. Tighter regulation of derivatives trading is part of a package of financial reforms being pushed by the Obama administration against Republican opposition. The Senate is debating a bill introduced by Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd that would also give the federal government the authority to unravel institutions whose failure threatens the financial system. Bush Blamed Clinton also said the Bush administration contributed to the financial crisis with lax regulation. “I think what happened was the SEC and the whole regulatory apparatus after I left office was just let go,” Clinton said. If Clinton’s head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Levitt, had remained in that job, “an enormous percentage of what we’ve been through in the last eight or nine years would not have happened,” Clinton said. “I feel very strongly about it. I think it’s important to have vigorous oversight.” Levitt is a director of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News. Levitt and Rubin declined to comment. Press aides for Summers didn’t respond to requests for comment. Summers, director of Obama’s National Economic Council, said in a Bloomberg Television interview last week that the Obama administration supports “the principles that derivatives need to be traded in the sunshine, that there needs to be centralized clearing.” Rubin’s Testimony In April 8 testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Rubin said “derivatives should be subject to collateral and margin requirements, standardized derivatives should be exchange traded, and customized derivatives should have a clearinghouse or, at least, greater disclosure requirements.” Clinton also said that Republicans who controlled Congress would have stopped him from trying to regulate derivatives. “I wish I had been caught trying,” Clinton said. “I mean, that was a mistake I made.” read more................ Last Updated: April 18, 2010 17:38 EDT bloomberg.com