Goldman Sachs Reports First Ever Quarterly Loss

    The company went public some 9 years ago and this is the first quarterly loss since.

   Goldman posted a net loss of $2.12 ( $4.97 a share ) for the fourth quarter which ended November  28, but, the news that it wasn't as bad as was expected sent Goldman's stock price up 14.4% today. This jump in price helped rival Morgan Stanley also as their stock price went up 18.3%.  

   Why the jump in prices of stock?

               News Daily

The loss exceeded the average analyst target of $3.73 a share, according to Reuters Estimates, yet privately many investors feared the results could have been as high as $6 a share.

"The fear in the market was that the results would be much worse," said Walter Todd, a portfolio manager at Greenwood Capital Associates in Greenwood, South Carolina.

  So how bad was Goldman's fourth quarter?

Goldman was forced to seek $21 billion in fresh capital from the U.S. Treasury, public investors and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc -- and converted to a bank holding company hoping to reassure investors it could survive.

Goldman slashed its balance sheet by nearly 20 percent to $885 billion during the quarter, boosting its capital ratios and paring leverage. The bank also cut its payroll by about 2,500 employees in the fourth quarter, down about 8 percent from the previous quarter.

  Morgan Stanley's fourth quarter results will be released on Wednesday. Should be an interesting read.

Technorati Tags: Goldman Sachs,Earnings,Wall Street,Bailout,Morgan Stanley

Bush Performs Another " Midnight Rule Change " For The Railroads...

     as if we should be surprised by this asshole any more.

    CSMonitor

New York

The Bush administration has finalized a controversial regulation that will allow railroads to continue to ship dangerous chemicals through major cities.

That has infuriated some city officials, security experts, and environmentalists because it preempts all local efforts to control if, when, and how those railroad tank cars move through their communities.

Federal security officials have long considered railroad tankers full of such chemicals as chlorine or anhydrous ammonia to be potential weapons of mass destruction. If attacked by a terrorist or disturbed individual in the middle of a city they could cause thousands of deaths.

  What I can't believe is that Bush still has supporters in our population who think that this asshate is a good man and President. WTF!

   it is bad enough that we have to concern ourselves with a terrorist attack on these chemicals while they are being transported through what could be your town or city during the busiest time of the day. Here's hoping that the states tell the Bush White House to go and fuck themselves!

Technorati Tags: George Bush,Railroads,Midnight Rule Change,Chlorine,Chemicals