Charting Stocks

By Joseph Stiglitz
With all the talk of “green shoots” of economic recovery, America’s banks are pushing back on efforts to regulate them. While politicians talk about their commitment to regulatory reform to prevent a recurrence of the crisis, this is one area where the devil really is in the details – and the banks will [...]

Federal regulators  charged fmr. Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo with fraud on Thursday. Mr. Mozilo, along with the company’s former COO David Sambol and CFO Eric Sieracki.
Robert Khuzami, an enforcement officer with the SEC, alleges that the men “deliberately misled” Countrywide shareholders.
As the mortgage industry began to decline  in late 2006 and 2007, Mr. Mozilo cashed [...]

Hartford (HIG) CEO Ramani Ayer will be stepping down from his position as the company’s Chief Executive. Ayer spent 10 years at the top of the struggling insurer and will be retiring at the end of the year amid record company losses and shareholder pressure.
In our 2009 forecast, we suggested that Hartford’s future looked the [...]

Citi Shares Drop Below Their $1.50 ATM Fee
Last week, we warned that Citigroup and Bank of America would most likely be taken over by the US government within 60 days. Our prediction proved to be optimistic by 58 days, in Citi’s case.
Last Friday, amid growing “rumors” and in an effort to calm investor fears,  [...]

A recent IRS ruling will cause the dividend on REIT’s to disappear this year while costing the investor in taxes.
The December ruling allows REIT’s to skip on the longstanding requirement to pay 90% of pretax income to shareholders in cash. The companies will be allowed to keep the money instead of paying investors.
REIT’s can now [...]