b2 gurus | business news

Hello fellow readers, I would like to apologize again for not keeping a consistent weekly newsletter for the last while. Quite a few interesting events happened last week, especially on Friday, relating to the financial markets, technology markets as well as my own internet market failure… thanks to Rogers Communications.

Moving on, so, in the financial markets, the two largest mortgage companies were slashed almost in half, on Friday. Fears of major losses in mortgages drove away investors by the flocks. Estimates of losses rose to nearly $30 billion for these each of these two mortgage companies. Together, FreddyMac and FannieMae hold about $5 trillions worth and guarantees of mortgages. If they collapse, then we would be in major economic turmoil….

Depression *gulp*

!930s *tears*

Well, everyone knew this was coming, ever since the fall of Bear Stearns. Yep, Buffett was right about that long and painful recession. The Fed is again stepping in and preparing a backup plan, a.k.a., a buy-out. Tax-payer dollars are at rick, yet again, and the role of government in market economies is at question. In Canada, this sounds all too similar, with auto-companies, and the application of band-aid packages. Also, recently, GM announced more slashed, this time, in marketing and engineering. Wow, the two backbones of survival are being cut-off, maybe its the executives that need to be slashed. Say goodbye to innovation and next-gen designs from GM forever. It looks like governments are always wasting tax-dollars to fund bad business decisions. I think Canada tried to avoid loss of jobs and excessive strains on unemployment insurance, so they kept GM afloat, but now, nothing can prevent them from leaving.

Derivatives, and speculation are also at blame and I believe the Fed is also trying to regulate the shorting of Fannie and Freddy, to prevent huge sell-offs in the future. Many say the process of shorting even played a role in 1929, so markets learn from their bruises. Lastly, in the tech sector, Apple is expecting a billion dollar weekend from the release of the iphone, RIM missed expectations while Intel shined from foreign streams of revenue. Speaking of the iphone, Ram actually got one, so hopefully he will be able to write a product review soon, but apparently, his plan has enormous costs. Thanks to Rogers yet again, high phone plans and faulty internet services.

Signing out,

ZEZ