Rediff.com Soaring 5%
by Insider Scoop - May 31st, 2011 2:58 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Rediff.com India Limited (NASDAQ: REDF) shares are soaring nearly 5% on 1.1 million shares.
At around 2:55, shares just started to spike up. The rumor going about on Wall Street is that the company will like a Youtube like video service.
At last check, shares were up 61 cents to $11.03, a gain of 5.85%.
Rediff.com India Limited provides online Internet based services in India and to the global Indian community.
Visit Benzinga >
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn 
del.icio.us
DiggBillion Dollar Fund Managers Agree: The Government Never Fixed the Underlying Economic Problems, So We'll Have Another Crash
by Zero Hedge - May 31st, 2011 2:54 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
While the snake oil salespeople at the retail investing level and the bobble heads on the kool aid selling financial channels have been saying for years that we’re in a “recovery” (albeit a slow one), the billion dollar fund managers are saying that nothing has changed and we’ll have another crash.
As Bloomerg reports:
Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s emerging markets group, said another financial crisis is inevitable because the causes of the previous one haven’t been resolved.
“There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis,” Mobius said …“Are the derivatives regulated? No. Are you still getting growth in derivatives? Yes.”
The total value of derivatives in the world exceeds total global gross domestic product by a factor of 10, said Mobius, who oversees more than $50 billion. With that volume of bets in different directions, volatility and equity market crises will occur, he said.
The global financial crisis three years ago was caused in part by the proliferation of derivative products tied to U.S. home loans that ceased performing, triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in writedowns and leading to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.
Jeffrey Gundlach notes that we’ve still got a quadrillion dollar derivative overhang which dwarfs the size the of real global economy, the government hasn’t done anything to fix the basic problems in our economy, and so we’ll have another crash:
Pimco co-CEO Bill Gross has repeatedly said that the U.S. is running a Ponzi scheme and says:
Ultimately creditors and investors are at the behest of a central bank and policymakers that will rob them of their money.
Pimco co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian predicts that “financial repression” in the form of a negative real rate of return for savers is coming to America.
The New York Times reports:
Even some senior Wall Street executives acknowledge the lack of change surprises them, given how poorly the industry performed last fall and the degree of government support necessary to keep
…
Billion Dollar Fund Managers Agree: The Government Never Fixed the Underlying Economic Problems, So We’ll Have Another Crash
by Zero Hedge - May 31st, 2011 2:54 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
While the snake oil salespeople at the retail investing level and the bobble heads on the kool aid selling financial channels have been saying for years that we’re in a “recovery” (albeit a slow one), the billion dollar fund managers are saying that nothing has changed and we’ll have another crash.
As Bloomerg reports:
Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s emerging markets group, said another financial crisis is inevitable because the causes of the previous one haven’t been resolved.
“There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis,” Mobius said …“Are the derivatives regulated? No. Are you still getting growth in derivatives? Yes.”
The total value of derivatives in the world exceeds total global gross domestic product by a factor of 10, said Mobius, who oversees more than $50 billion. With that volume of bets in different directions, volatility and equity market crises will occur, he said.
The global financial crisis three years ago was caused in part by the proliferation of derivative products tied to U.S. home loans that ceased performing, triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in writedowns and leading to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.
Jeffrey Gundlach notes that we’ve still got a quadrillion dollar derivative overhang which dwarfs the size the of real global economy, the government hasn’t done anything to fix the basic problems in our economy, and so we’ll have another crash:
Pimco co-CEO Bill Gross has repeatedly said that the U.S. is running a Ponzi scheme and says:
Ultimately creditors and investors are at the behest of a central bank and policymakers that will rob them of their money.
Pimco co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian predicts that “financial repression” in the form of a negative real rate of return for savers is coming to America.
The New York Times reports:
Even some senior Wall Street executives acknowledge the lack of change surprises them, given how poorly the industry performed last fall and the degree of government support necessary to keep
…
An Inversely-Correlated Take On Corporate Profits And Dollar Destruction
by Zero Hedge - May 31st, 2011 2:51 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
One of the more interesting correlations (not causations) to have emerged following the surge in corporate profit margins is that of the inverse relationship between now record corporate profit margins, and net exports & services originating from the US. While we certainly will not imply one is a cause of the other or vice versa, we would be remiss to not point out the irony of what would happen should this correlation preserve itself in an environment in which US exports end up being curbed due to a surge in the US dollar once the frailty of the Eurozone no longer allows the EUR to appreciate on desperate one-time (if recurring) rescue measures. And with China largely ignoring US demands to revalue its currency and import more US goods and services (no laughing), is it safe to say that this chart is the one most direct confirmation that the weak dollar policy adopted by the Fed has had it most proximal impact nowhere else than on surging corporate profit levels (and Wall Street bonuses of course).
Via FRED, courtesy of Matt Stoller
CMS Says MPSC Approved Settlement in Gas Rate Case -Bloomberg
by Insider Scoop - May 31st, 2011 2:49 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Visit Benzinga >
Jim Grant And James Turk Discuss The Endgame Of The Keynesian Experiment
by ilene - May 31st, 2011 2:49 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
Two of our preferred commentators, Jim Grant, of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, and James Turk, of the GoldMoney Foundation, sat down earlier today to discuss the history and mission of the Fed, how mission creep has taken it wildly beyond its initial purpose into the territory of QE, ZIRP and other fiat currency experiments. While not breaking ground on any notably new concepts, they talk about "who benefits from zero interest rates and how savers are penalized by this easy money policy. They explain that the US has been off the gold standard since 1913, Bretton Woods being only a shadow of the classical gold standard."
The two also discuss the fiscal profligacy of the US government. Alas, they conclude that every paper currency in history has eventually gone to zero (see earlier piece on Roman hyperinflation). James and Jim also talk about ZIRP and the absence of the bond vigilantes after over 30 years of bull market in bonds. How traders no longer care about fundamentals, like balance sheets, but rather focus on very short time horizons and the spreads between funding costs and yields. How this situation is unsustainable. They see gold still as a very under-owned, misunderstood and marginal asset still shunned by institutional investors, with a few notable exceptions which indicate that the tide could be turning. They see a gold standard in the future, although timing is always uncertain. At the end they talk about the history of US post civil war specie resumption and parallels to a return to the gold standard in the future.
Courtesy of Gold Money:
Positive Rumors About Rediff.com India Ltd Circulate (REDF)
by Insider Scoop - May 31st, 2011 2:36 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Unconfirmed positive rumors circulating at Rediff.com India Ltd (Nasdaq: REDF).
Hearing chatter company will release a YouTube-Like site in India
This article may include mentions of rumors, chatter, or unconfirmed information. Readers should beware that while unconfirmed information may be correlated with increased volatility in securities, price movements based on unofficial information may change quickly based on increased speculation, clarification, or release of official news.
© 2011 Benzinga.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published in its entirety or redistributed without the approval of Benzinga.
Visit Benzinga >
Update on the Japanese Nuclear Crisis: Not a Pretty Picture
by Zero Hedge - May 31st, 2011 2:35 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
Experts have long said that Tepco’s projections for containing the nuclear crisis this year were unrealistic. Now, even Tepco is admitting that things won’t be stabilized this year. As Kyodo News reports:
Stabilizing the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant by the end of the year may be impossible, senior officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday, throwing a monkey wrench into plans to let evacuees return to their homes near the plant.
***
On May 12, it was confirmed that a meltdown had occurred at the No. 1 reactor, forcing the utility to abandon the water entombment idea and try to install a new cooling system that decontaminates and recycles the radioactive water flooding the reactor’s turbine building instead.
Given that the contaminated water has leaked from the No. 1 reactor’s containment vessel, a Tepco official said, “We must first determine where it is leaking and seal it.”
The official added, “Unless we understand the extent of the damage, we don’t even know how long that work alone would take,” noting the need for one or two months more than previously thought to establish an entirely new cooling system.
In other words, Tepco has no idea how long it will take to contain the leaking reactors.
As has been obvious from the start, Tepco has also covered up vital information. Now, even the Japanese government is lambasting Tepco for its secrecy. As Kyodo News notes:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not fully disclose radiation monitoring data after its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government revealed Friday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, after being informed by Goshi Hosono, a special adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told reporters that he instructed Tepco to sort out the data, make it public and make doubly sure no more information-withholding occurs.
Coming a day after he blasted Tepco’s flip-flop over the injection of seawater into the plant’s reactor 1, Edano said the government “cannot respond to this matter on the premise” that no more undisclosed information will emerge.
“There is a distinct possibility that
…
Pentair’s Schrock May Sell Up to 5% of Stock/Options Holdings -Bloomberg
by Insider Scoop - May 31st, 2011 2:34 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Visit Benzinga >
Big Dams = Big Drought? Ask China
by Zero Hedge - May 31st, 2011 2:32 pm
Courtesy of Bruce Krasting
Way way back in the late 70’s early 80’s I was working for Citi. One role I had was related to the construction of the Guri Hydroelectric dam in Venezuela (a minor involvement). The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank provided a big chunk of the financing. All the big banks were lending money to the Venezuelan government and to the local electric company EDELCA. There were foreign contractors from every country involved. Money was moving in every different direction. I handled some of the FX transactions. As I result I became familiar/interested in this mega-construction project.
On paper, this was an absolutely beautiful project. A true perpetual energy machine was being created. The hydro dam was being located at what looked to be a perfect location. Two maps:
For millions of years the warm water of the Caribbean produced huge quantities of moisture that rose into the air and drifted southwest over Venezuela’s high plains. When that wet air runs into the Andes mountains it creates rain. Lots of it. This pattern created big rivers like the Orinoco that bring the water back to the ocean.
This endless cycle created an ideal condition for generating hydro power. So Guri was built. A 10,200 MW facility that flooded an area of 1,641 square miles. That’s big.
The flooded area was greater than the state of Rhode Island. The lake was 25Xs the size of the District of Columbia, 70Xs the island of Manhattan.
Your average coal plant produces only 700MW. A big nuke like the two units at Diablo Canyon produce only 2,300MW. Fukushima Daiich (4 units. Top ten globally) produced at its peak 4,700MW, less than half of the capacity at Guri.
Anything you might read about Guri will say it was a successful project. But here is my side story:
Many years later I was wearing a different hat. I was on the ‘buy-side’. Investing in (very) distressed assets. Venezuela was in the crapper at the time and EDELCA bonds (owner of Guri) were trading at 30 cents on the dollar with 5 years of interest coupons attached for free. So I took a look. I noticed that the MW production…
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
Chinese
Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(