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The (short) week that was

I hope you have tomorrow off. I do. So, my weekly podcast, After the Bell, is available now. Yesterday marked the start of the fiscal year for many states, and it wasn’t a good beginning. On this week’s podcast, I find out more about trading IOUs in California and what sneaky things banks might be up to behind the scenes. Musical assistance from Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elliott Smith and Ray Charles. In-house help from Phyllis Owens, Fiona Ng and Hunter Ochs. You can listen to the podcast below, but if you’d like it to download automatically each week, here’s the link for that. Happy 4th!

• Jul 2, 2009 12:50 PM PT — Scott Jagow
• 2 Comments

Don't try this at home

There’s a British guy who set out this year to build a toaster from scratch. Think about that for a second. He started by mining for the raw materials using a hair dryer.

Continue reading Don't try this at home

• Jul 2, 2009 12:29 PM PT — Scott Jagow
• 0 Comments

A must-read on AIG

If you want to know what happened at AIG, a new Vanity Fair article gets as deep as anyone’s been so far. The author - not surprisingly - is Michael Lewis, the guy who wrote Liar’s Poker. He knocks this stuff out the park. The title of the article is The Man Who Crashed the World.

Continue reading A must-read on AIG

• Jul 2, 2009 11:50 AM PT — Scott Jagow
• 1 Comments

Morning Reading

The job numbers are discouraging, although the unemployment rate only ticked up .1% in June. I think the worst statistic is how long people are going without a job — a median of four months. That’s twice as long as December of 2007. The number of people unemployed for 7 months has tripled to 4.4 millilon. But hey, Wall Street employees may have little to worry about.

Continue reading Morning Reading

• Jul 2, 2009 7:15 AM PT — Scott Jagow
• 3 Comments

I'd stop trading our stock if I were you

How often does a public company issue a press release telling investors not to buy their stock? GM did it today. It’s actually the second time in a month that GM has warned people — proceed at your own risk.

Continue reading I'd stop trading our stock if I were you

• Jul 1, 2009 12:31 PM PT — Scott Jagow
• 5 Comments

I owe you

California is on the fast track to a financial train wreck. The state legislature and the governor can’t agree on how to solve a $24 billion budget deficit, and the new budget year has started. So, beginning tomorrow, the state will have to hand out IOU’s to people, including contractors, college students and welfare recipients. This ought to be interesting.

Continue reading I owe you

• Jul 1, 2009 11:07 AM PT — Scott Jagow
• 4 Comments

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