The Wall Street Journal's Early Reporting on the Seizure and Sale of Washington Mutual (WM)

From the Wall Street Journal:

In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co....MORE

Report: U.S. seizes Washington Mutual (WM)

From UPI:

The U.S. government Thursday took over struggling savings and loan Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) in the largest bank seizure in U.S. history, officials said.

The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported.

The government has begun selling off pieces of the institution to JP Morgan Chase in what The New York Times, citing people briefed on the plan, called an emergency transaction intended to protect taxpayers from being saddled with a bill for another bank....MORE

From CNN MONEY:

JPMorgan Chase acquired the troubled thrift Washington Mutual Inc., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced late Thursday, marking yet the latest stunning development in the ongoing credit crisis.

Under the deal, which was arranged by federal banking regulators, JPMorgan Chase will acquire all the banking operations of the Seattle-based WaMu, as well as its assets and financial contracts....

...The Office of Thrift Supervision shut down the bank on Thursday and named the FDIC as receiver.

"For bank customers, it will be a seamless transition," said FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. "There will be no interruption in services and bank customers should expect business as usual come Friday morning,"...

...Federal regulators were quick to point out Thursday evening that the WaMu-JPMorgan Chase deal would not have any impact to its insurance fund which covers customer deposits when banks fail.

"WaMu's balance sheet and the payment paid by JPMorgan Chase allowed a transaction in which neither the uninsured depositors nor the insurance fund absorbed any losses," Bair said....

J.P. Morgan to buy WaMu's operations: report (WM)

From MarketWatch:

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will acquire most of Washington Mutual Inc.'s operations, according to a report published late Thursday....

...The sale isn't expected to impact the bank-insurance fund, according to the report....MORE

From the Hometown newspaper, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Report: JPMorgan Chase to buy bulk of WaMu

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that JPMorgan Chase & Co. was expected to announce as early as Thursday night a deal to acquire the bulk of Washington Mutual Inc.'s operations in a deal that would mark the end of more than a century of independence for what once was the largest U.S. thrift.

Federal regulators have been heavily involved in orchestrating the transaction, which comes as WaMu was besieged by a mountain of bad mortgage loans, the Journal reported. CNBC reported that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. planned to seize WaMu, perhaps as part of the deal.

JPMorgan scheduled a conference call with investors at 6:15 p.m. Pacific time....MORE

Oil Deals (not) for the Geographically Challenged

From DealScape:

In a move aimed at fueling China's insatiable appetite for energy assets, China's Sinopec group has agreed to acquire Tanganyika Oil Co., a Canadian company producing oil in Syria, for C$1.9 billion ($1.8 billion)....

What would Jesus short?

From FT Alphaville:

Or perhaps more appropriately: Money lenders in the temple?

From PA:

CHURCH OF ENGLAND ACCUSED OF SHORT-SELLING TACTICS

By Paula Fentiman, PA

The Church of England was accused by a think-tank today of using short-selling tactics to maximise profit on its £5 billion investments.

Ekklesia weighed into the debate on the ethics of financial investments and stock market speculation in response to comments made by senior clerics in the wake of the recent banking crisis.

Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu branded the traders who cashed in on falling share prices in troubled bank HBOS as “bank robbers” and “asset strippers”, while Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams called for fresh scrutiny and regulation of the financial world....MORE

FDIC May Need $150 Billion Bailout as Local Bank Failures Mount

On September 8 (jeez that seems like a long time ago) we posted "The Next Bailout" on the status of the FDIC insurance fund. This morning I had meant to post the Bloomberg story whose headline you see above. My forgetfulness is your gain because you now get a twofer, the story and the FDIC's response.
From Bloomberg:

...The IndyMac debacle is taking a large bite out of FDIC reserves, and if scores of other banks fail in the year ahead, the fund will be depleted. Taxpayers will have to step in.

Worst Wave

Americans have gotten used to the idea that bank failures were as rare as a category five hurricane. No banks went bust in 2005 or 2006. Seven collapsed in 2007 as the credit crisis began to exact a toll. So far in 2008, 12 more, with total assets of $42 billion, have fallen -- that's the worst wave of bank failures since 1992.

IndyMac, which had $32 billion in assets when it went into receivership, is the most expensive bank failure the FDIC has ever covered. And that record may not stand for long.

By the end of 2009, about 100 U.S. banks with collective assets of more than $800 billion will fail, predicts Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a Torrance, California-based firm that sells its analysis of FDIC data to investors.

``It's not going to be Armageddon,'' says Mark Vaughan, an economist and assistant vice president for banking supervision and regulation at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia. ``But it's going to be bad.''>>>MUCH MORE

Remember, Wilbur Ross thinks it will be closer to 1000 failures.

From the FDIC:

Open Letter to Bloomberg News about FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund

Bloomberg reporter David Evans' piece ("FDIC May Need $150 Billion Bailout as Local Bank Failures Mount," Sept. 25) does a serious disservice to your organization and your readers by painting a skewed picture of the FDIC insurance fund. Let me be clear: The insurance fund is in a strong financial position to weather a significant upsurge in bank failures. The FDIC has all the tools and resources necessary to meet our commitment to insured depositors, which we view as sacred. I do not foresee – as Mr. Evans suggests – that taxpayers may have to foot the bill for a "bailout."

Let's look at the real facts about the FDIC insurance fund. The fund's current balance is $45 billion – but that figure is not static. The fund will continue to incur the cost of protecting insured depositors as more banks may fail, but we continually bring in more premium income. We will propose raising bank premiums in the coming weeks to ensure that the fund remains strong. And, at the same time, we will propose higher premiums on higher risk activity to create economic incentives for poorly managed banks to change their risk profiles. The fund is 100 percent industry-backed. Our ability to raise premiums essentially means that the capital of the entire banking industry – that's $1.3 trillion – is available for support....MORE

HT: Calculated Risk for the pointer to the FDIC letter.

House Speaker Pelosi reassures market on rescue plan

From MarketWatch:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that financial markets can rest assured that Congress will act on the White House plan to buy up to $700 billion in toxic debt. Pelosi said the exact timing of the House vote would depend on the outcome of closed-door meetings currently underway on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reassured financial markets that a rescue plan would come to the House floor soon. "Please be assured that we will have a package that will speak to the issue in a very substantial way to send a message to the markets of our seriousness," Pelosi said at a press conference.

How could I be so certain in yesterday's Odds Of Government Bailout By End of Month at 80%?:

DO NOT make investment decisions based on this factoid. (that said, I think the odds are closer to 100% and should probably get a bet down on the mispricing)...

My thinking wasn't based solely on this story at Bloomberg last week:

Pelosi, Kerry May Share Pain as AIG Stakes Evaporate

The market storm that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., American International Group Inc. and other pillars of U.S. finance may have also blown holes in the portfolios of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress.

Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers' aides didn't respond to calls seeking comment.

Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. -- some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics....

No their personal losses weren't the only reason for my confidence. The cynic in me thought the Congressional leadership might be more attentive to the issue though. The real reason I thought Congress would would move was, I believe, that Secretary Paulson was able to communicate something like this:

ALMOST ARMAGEDDON: MARKETS WERE 500 TRADES FROM A MELTDOWN

...Had the Treasury and Fed not quickly stepped into the fray that morning with a quick $105 billion injection of liquidity, the Dow could have collapsed to the 8,300-level - a 22 percent decline! - while the clang of the opening bell was still echoing around the cavernous exchange floor.

According to traders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, money market funds were inundated with $500 billion in sell orders prior to the opening. The total money-market capitalization was roughly $4 trillion that morning...MORE

The Great Deleveraging (and what it means)

Deleveraging is Deflationary. Ignore the talk of any immediate Inflationary effect. That comes later. Anyone telling you to buy gold now is a fool, a liar, a knave or a nut. The time for AU will come but it is most assuredly not now.
From FT Alphaville:

Conditions more or less resemble a bank run on the system.

As the freeze in the money markets persists, credit is rapidly becoming either completely unavailable or punitively expensive. This presents the world with an immediate risk of a surge in defaults as borrowers are unable to refinance. Needless to say, without an ability to lend, an economic depression threatens, as defaults erode bank capital and lending ability further. The countdown to a dramatically bad economic outcome is therefore running at very high speed. Unchecked, the current crisis would turn into a self-reinforcing vortex of defaults, bank capital contraction and deep recession within a matter of weeks.

From the man at Barcap, Tim Bond.

The numbers on which Bond bases his analysis couldn’t really be clearer. Interbank lending really has collapsed on all but the shortest maturities of debt.

The commercial paper markets have choked off the supply of credit to America’s corporations.

Unless the TARP plan is instigated within the next few days, a systemic crisis could well be realised.

Even if the TARP is launched, however, the outlook is not positive. As Bond notes, the process of recapitalisation will be a lenthy and convoluted affair for banks.

Consider, for example, the significance of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley reclassifying as commercial banks and Merrill Lynch being taken over by one.

Bank of America’s leverage ratio - similar to most commercial banks’ is 11:1. In contrast, Goldman Sachs runs a ratio of 24:1, MS 30.9 and Merrill Lynch 46:1.

To comply with regulatory requirements all of those banks are going to have to go through a very significant deleveraging process. As Gillian Tett noted in the FT earlier this week:...MORE

Three posts at MarketBeat this morning touch on credit contraction and money hoarding:

GE Is a Microcosm of the Economy. This Isn’t Good Right Now.

...The announcement makes painfully clear how GE serves as a microcosm for the economy, in a number of ways. For one, it needs money, so it’s hoarding cash....

Fortress Locks Up Dividend

Private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC won’t pay a third-quarter dividend, electing instead to retain capital and invest it....

And in the latest, he spells it right out:

Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Exist

Once again short-term funding rates have ballooned, as investors avoid committing to any paper riskier than what the U.S. government has to offer and any paper with a greater maturity than “sometime in the next few days.”

“We haven’t seen this degree of tightness in the money market sector like this probably ever,” says Guy Lebas, fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery.

What has become increasingly clear over the last 12 months is that operations in these markets carry on as an article of faith. One borrows under the expectation that they will have sufficient funds to repay their lenders. One lends with the hope that they will get their money back. These expectations may be well-founded ones, based on decades of history of such operations proceeding without drama on a daily basis.

Except when there is drama — and then, hoarding occurs....Read it all

Bailout will encourage stupid acts by big firms, says Wilbur Ross (AGO)

It appears the Congressional negotiators have a bailout deal.
Wilbur Ross, having specialized in the distressed/bankrupt arena, seems like someone worth listening to on the current financial gumbo. We kicked this link-o-rama off with his Monday appearance on CNBC which we titled "A Guy Who Might be Smarter then Warren Buffett Talks About the Financial Mess (AGO; BRK.A)". You'll find more of our posts on Mr. Ross below. On to the links. The headline story is from Reuters via Financial Week:

Large companies rescued, smaller ones left to wither, claims turnaround guru; 'terrible pattern'

Bankruptcy expert and investor Wilbur Ross said on Monday that none of the recent actions to stabilize the financial system addressed the root of the problem—helping Americans make their mortgage payments.

He also said he was concerned by decisions that saw selective institutions bailed out.

“I am disturbed about the slippery slope that we have gotten into, where if you’re stupid but really big the government will bail you out; if you’re stupid but medium-sized, you die.” >>>MORE

Also from Reuters:
Ross says Fed actions don't address root

Bankruptcy expert and investor Wilbur Ross said on Monday that none of the recent actions to stabilize the financial system addressed the root of the problem -- helping Americans make their mortgage payments.

Ross told the Reuters Restructuring Summit that a recession could last at least through next year, and said that a large part of what happens to the economy depends on what the new U.S. administration does....MORE

And:

Wilbur Ross: Mark-to-market was a mistake

Rules requiring financial companies to value assets at current market prices were a mistake and their implementation was botched, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said on Monday.

"I think it was a huge mistake -- both the general concept of it and more specifically the way that it was implemented," Ross said at the Reuters Restructuring Summit in New York on Monday.

He said the main problems with the rules, were that accounting treatments for the exact same security can be different for different companies, based on whether they decide to hold them to maturity, or mark-them-to market as part of a trading portfolio.

Similar inconsistencies also affect mark-to-market rules about the valuation of complex securities, like credit default swaps, Ross said.

"If I write credit protection as a credit default swap I have to mark it to market," Ross said. "But if I write it as a monoline insurer there is no mark-to-market, even though I'm taking precisely the same risk.">>>MORE

Among Mr. Ross' investments is insurer, Assured Guaranty. He was rumored to be a savior of monoline Ambac last January. He knows this stuff. In August, AGO as a followup to a July story we posted:

Don't Bet Against Wilbur Ross- Assured Guaranty (AGO)

On July 22 AGO got hammered, opening at $8.67, down from the prior day's $18.02 close. We posted "Wilbur Ross takes a beating on Assured Guaranty (AGO)" which quoted Notable Calls as saying : "..Notablecalls: I suspect AGO may be a buy here around $10 as...", it closed at $11.32. The stock drifted back down to $10.37 on the 28th and closed yesterday at $14.41....

The stock closed yesterday at $17.42.

So what else is he up to? He raised $4 Billion, for starters (again from Reuters):

Wilbur Ross sees Recovery Fund IV invested by January

Turnaround specialist Wilbur Ross said on Monday he expects his latest distressed assets fund, the WLR Recovery Fund IV, to be fully invested by January or "early next year," from 30 percent currently.

"If I had to make a rough guess, I would think that sometime early next year we'd be drawn down," said Ross, chairman and chief executive officer of WL Ross & Co, speaking at the Reuters Restructuring Summit in New York. In a follow-up comment, he said that he expected the $4.2 billion fund to be 100 percent invested by January.

Ross, one of the world's best-known turnaround specialists, has helped restructure more than $200 billion of defaulted companies' assets globally, including International Steel Group and International Textile Group....MORE

And bought some more AGO. From MarketWatch:
Assured Guaranty Ltd. Announces Agreement with WL Ross & Co. LLC to Purchase Up To Five Million Additional Common Shares of Assured

Here are some of our earlier posts on Mr.Ross:
Wilbur Ross: "1000 Banks to Fail". Nine down, 991 to go. What an Opportunity

Wilbur Ross: Run-Up in Oil Prices Is a Bubble

Seeing Oil Bubble, a Contrarian Bets on an Indian Airline

Follow-up: The bond insurers, a $200bn problem and Wilbur Ross (ABK; MBI; BRK.A)

FT Alphaville has a different take on the hot new boy-band:
Wilbur & The Monolines....

We apologize for the "Wilbur and The Monolines" bit.

Billionaire to rescue of crisis-hit US insurer (ABK)

If you are running a mismanaged monoline insurer you DO NOT want this man pulling into the parking lot. His presence means the jig's up and you're buffing that résumé. He is a VERY serious dude.

Bond play: Ross is 'keen to take advantage of a coming wave of consolidation'

Washington Mutual seeking private equity takeover - WSJ (WM)

From MarketWatch:

Troubled mortgage lender Washington Mutual has approached several private-equity firms about a potential takeover, according to a published report Thursday. Carlyle Group LLC, and Blackstone Group LP are among the firms considering a deal, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources....MORE

From the New York Times:
Washington Mutual May Be on Block

Federal regulators are moving quickly to broker a deal for Washington Mutual as the savings-and-loan comes under mounting financial pressure, according to people briefed on the talks.

Even as Washington moves to bail out financial institutions, the fortunes of Washington Mutual have spiraled downward. On Wednesday, Standard & Poor’s, a major credit rating agency, downgraded Washington Mutual’s debt further into junk territory, citing the increased chance that the company might have to be split up to facilitate a sale....MORE

Faber Says U.S. $700 Billion Rescue Plan Isn't Enough (But Stocks to Rally 14% after Passage)

From Bloomberg:

...The government should buy out struggling home owners, Faber, managing director of Marc Faber Ltd. and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told reporters on the sidelines of an investor conference in Hong Kong. He's also predicting Chinese economic growth to ``disappoint'' and Indian stocks to decline...

...Faber also forecast the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will rally to as high as 1,350 points following the approval of the bailout plan because stocks are ``oversold.'' That level is about 14 percent higher than the gauge's close yesterday.

`Earnings Bubble'

Still, ``I'm not playing that rally,'' he said. ``I'd rather think that stocks are not particularly cheap. We don't have a valuation bubble. We have an earnings bubble. In 2009, earnings will disappoint.">>>MORE

GE (GE) Cuts Guidance, Its Credibility Destroyed

From 24/7 Wall Street:

GE (GE) was one of the last men standing in corporate America. The company said the credit issues facing the economy would not damage GE Financial. The conglomerate indicated that it could make its way through the downturn.

No one lied, but a lot of people at GE must have miscalculated.

GE only offered one piece of good news as it cuts its guidance for the rest of the year. It will maintain its dividend. On the less positive side of the ledger, it will cut its share buyback.

GE Financial did turn out to be the rough spot at the company. The announcement about earnings said "GE now expects that its businesses will earn approximately $2 billion in the third quarter, which, while impacted by current market conditions, is expected to exceed the earnings of any financial services company." That is remarkably poor PR work. It masks bad news with a thin coat of crap....MORE

Where's the P.R. guy from this story: "GE gets grant to install GE solar panels on GE headquarters"?:

The PR flack was quoted as saying:

“It’s a good demonstration project for the technology,” O’Toole said.

Asked why a large, profitable corporation like GE would need financial help from the state, O’Toole said one reason “is to show you have to invest in new technologies. Companies cannot do it alone.”

HartfordBusiness.com

In other GE news, spokesmen did comment on whether PR spin could be harnessed as an inexhaustible and eternal source of power....

A Guy Who Might be Smarter then Warren Buffett Talks About the Financial Mess (AGO; BRK.A)

I'll have a "lots O'links" post on Mr. Ross tomorrow, before the open. In the meantime, here's an interview from a couple days ago.
From CNBC:

Ross: It's About the Liquidity Mindset, Not Credit

Today's current crisis is not so much about credit as it is about liquidity, according to one billionaire investor.

"I think liquidity was more the issue. That was what was driving the money funds bad, not so much credit," said Wilbur Ross, CEO of WL Ross & Co., on CNBC Monday. "Credit was a little tiny part of it. It was more the illiquidity and the rush of people to exit."

He suggested that psychology will have to change in order to combat the problem.

"I think we have two problems with liquidity. One is the physical issue, but the other is the psychological one. The same banks that weren't afraid of anything the last several years now are afraid of everything. You've got to change that if you're going to have liquidity come back into the system." (See his full comments in the video)

But there's a danger, he warned.

"I think it creates an odd situation for the money funds, in that during this one-year period, will their yields be higher than the yields on bank deposits? If they are, you're liable to create an inadvertent run on the banks.">>>MORE

You can pull our "Wilbur Ross" posts via this 'Search Blog' link.

Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants

From Reuters:

Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award, told a philanthropic meeting in New York City that "the world has lost ground to the climate crisis."

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause.

"I believe for a carbon company to spend money convincing the stock-buying public that the risk from the global climate crisis is not that great represents a form of stock fraud because they are misrepresenting a material fact," he said. "I hope these state attorney generals around the country will take some action on that."...MORE

Odds Of Government Bailout By End of Month at 80%

DO NOT make investment decisions based on this factoid. (that said, I think the odds are closer to 100% and should probably get a bet down on the mispricing)
From Bespoke Investment Group:

Go to Bespoke for their commentary.

WaMu Debt Cut From ‘Junk’ to ‘Junkier’ (WM)

That's the headline at the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat blog. I know a lot of depositors are concerned about the bank, that's why we've posted so much on WM but that headline got to me.
I'll link to the post when I stop laughing. Okay. Better now. Here goes-

Donna Kardos reports:

As Washington Mutual Inc. attempts to find a buyer amid the downturn in the real estate business, Standard & Poor’s, citing fears the ailing thrift may not be sold in its entirety, cut the preferred-stock rating on the thrift further into junk territory, while also slashing its junk-level counterparty credit rating five notches closer to default status....

...S&P warned that if WaMu is not acquired in its entirety, “holding company creditors face losses, because the assets at the holding company are not sufficient to cover the full repayment of the $14.4 billion of rated unsecured debt outstanding.”....MORE

Trina, You Little Tease (TSL)

Continuing the self-referential (reverential?) commentary, in our post relaying the news of the Senate's passage of the ITC and PTC, we took pains to mention:...

Trina (TSL) has done a lot of groundwork* to build U.S. market-share and has publicly stated that passage would increase their business, but I think the largest initial move will be in the first five names....

As of, well, the last time I bothered to look, Trina was one of only three Chinese solar Co.'s with U.L. approval, required to do business in the U.S.
Today we get a flurry of Trina related stories, this first one is a biggie.
From Reuters:

CORRECTED-Trina sees 20 pct silicon cost drop in 2009

Trina Solar Ltd (TSL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expects its silicon costs to drop by as much as 20 percent in 2009, while the average selling price of its solar modules will fall by a more modest 5 to 6 percent, an executive said on Wednesday.

That decline in silicon costs versus the more modest selling price decline would lead to a "a significant margin expansion," Arturo Herrero, Trina's vice president of sales and marketing, told Reuters in an interview....MORE

From the company via Yahoo Finance:

Trina Solar to Power North America's Largest Single Rooftop InstallationTrina Solar Limited

(NYSE: TSL; "Trina Solar" or the "Company"), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, founded in 1997, today announced that shipments began this month to provide more than 13,400 solar PV modules to power the Atlantic City Convention Center ("ACCC"). This supply comes as part of a signed agreement with general contractor American Capital Energy, who is managing project integration and installation for Pepco Energy Services and the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority ("ACCVA"). The agreement provides for up to four additional megawatts ("MW") to be supplied during 2009....MORE

Also a mention in this Reuters story:

UPDATE 1-Solar stocks jump after Senate backs tax credits

*From September 11: "Trina Solar Close To Signing Its First US Integrator Deals (TSL)"

I say tease because Trina has a history of great operational and strategic strengths and ridiculous middle management and shareholder moves (SNAFU's). A couple examples of the latter, they got a $158 million contract and the only press release was from the buyer, in Italian:

Siglato un contratto quadro del valore di 158 milioni di dollari
GreenergyCapital e Trina Solar, accordo per il fotovoltaico

Raymond James reiterated a 'Strong Buy', so of course the only mention was from one small news service, in German:

Rating-Update: St. Petersburg (aktiencheck.de AG) - Die Analysten von Raymond James stufen die Aktie von Trina Solar (ISIN US89628E1047/ WKN A0LF3P) unverändert mit "strong buy" ein. Auch wenn sich die Solarbranche Unsicherheiten gegenüber sehe, sei...

S&P initiated coverage on Trina, the information was only available to subscribers for a couple days:

I don't have a link I can give you but I just double checked MarketScope, here's the short version:

S&P INITIATES COVERAGE OF ADSS OF TRINA SOLAR WITH A BUY RECOMMENDATION...

So we'll see. I'm betting that superior marketing and operational execution overcomes the support goofiness.

Impact of the Renewable Energy Subsidies on the Solar Stocks-First Take

Yesterday we wrote:

I would expect the biggest pop in the U.S. based companies, ENER, ESLR, FSLR, SPWR and in the installer biz, AKNS....

Today's early market action seems to verify the idea. The group above is up an average of 12.03%. A group of Chinese manufacturers (chosen for no particular reason other than they are on one of the screens) JASO, LDK, STP, TSL, YGE is up an average of 7.87%.

Not really deep insight, just thinking that the market would figure the benefits would accrue first to the folks with the home field advantage.

So Why No Climateer Investing Comment On the Buffett Goldman Deal? (BRK.A; GS)

Long time CI readers know that we've been stalking Warren for a while (I didn't understand BKHT at $800, he said shame-facedly).
This $5 bil. deal has some very intriguing ramifications for both financiers and policymakers. It also contains insight for investors that I want to think through.
In the meantime, use of the 'Search Blog' box for Buffett or Berkshire is good fun. Possibly rewarding too.
Or try 'Munger', not nearly as many results but not bad. The first hit is:

The 5 a.m. Buffett Breakfast Club
They’re rich. They’re cheerful. They’re morning people.

a few results later, the best senior management 'all purpose turn-around' I've ever seen:

"Think about it a little more and you will agree with me because you're smart and I'm right."
-Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway

Democrats to let offshore drilling ban expire

From the AP via Yahoo:

Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer...MORE

From CNS News:

Republicans Suspect Democrats May Punt Oil Drilling Ban Past Election
Senior Republican congressional aides told CNSNews.com that they believe the Democratic leadership may now roll the dice by allowing the ban on new offshore oil drilling leases to expire at the end of this month while planning to renew it early next year if they manage to win the White House and maintain control of Congress.

That would allow them to avoid a potentially politically damaging showdown over offshore drilling in the month leading up to the November election.

Such a tactic could succeed, the Republicans say, because no new drilling leases could be auctioned in intervening time.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), meanwhile, suggested in an interview with CNSNews.com on Thursday that he was aware Democrats could allow the ban on offshore drilling to expire without immediately risking new drilling in domestic waters.

“Nobody’s going to be drilling offshore in the next three months,” Durbin told CNSNews.com....MORE

Ah politics. I'm cynical but the folks in Washington, both parties, show me up as an amateur.