Bloomberg carries this story about Petrobras (PBR) possibly delaying their huge $25B share sale (17% of current market cap) to fund exploitation of some promising deepwater prospects off the shore of Brazil. Unfortunately for them, the recent global market slide has dropped PBR 15% and is endangering the transaction. Comparing PBR’s one-month chart to the [...]
Lost in the wake of last week’s market excitement was this article in the Wall Street Journal [$] detailing the REIT industry’s effort to persuade investors to allocate more real estate investment dollars in the public market via REITs. REIT supporters lament the possibility of losing capital to private equity firms under false assumptions that [...]
This week, Barron’s interviews Ian Bremmer [$] of the Eurasia Group, with the main theme being the fundamental incompatibility between (pseudo) market capitalism (U.S.) and state capitalism (China) and the possible fall-out due to friction between the two models. Bremmer’s musings continue a seeming trend in which economists and historians, most notably, Niall Ferguson, see [...]
Consider this article in the Wall Street Journal on increased prescription drug prices last year, despite the “Great Recession.” Obviously, the drug makers are trying to get their licks in now before the health care overhaul takes effect, despite transparent denials by their various spokespeople. This serves as yet another example of the difficulty of [...]
Following on last post’s observation of the implications of an economic recovery taking hold, I present readers with a trio of intriguing stories from the Wall Street Journal. First, EOG Resources (EOG) announced a change in focus as it seeks to apply new horizontal drilling techniques to search for oil. Despite the company’s assertion that [...]
Last week’s inflation numbers sparked a series of posts and articles commenting on the matter with the proclamation that inflation is nowhere in sight: Buying [Treasuries] on the Death of Inflation (WSJ) Inflation Issuance Hits Record $200 Billion; Predictably Wrong Hyperinflation Calls; Ducks in a Row (Mish’s blog) While these two articles seem to share [...]
