July 2008

Yesterday on Money for Breakfast, Paul Atkins, one of the commissioners of the SEC, whose tenure expires this Friday, joined me to discuss the SEC's temporary naked short sale progress. By my measure, since the day that the SEC announced the emergency rule change on Tuesday July 15th, the SEC has seen its plan manifest itself in a big move to the upside in the stocks that were given access to the ... read more

This morning on Money for Breakfast Commissioner Bart Chilton of the CFTC joined me to discuss yesterday's charges against Optiver for manipulating the price of oil. Bart has been on many times and we discussed the merits of the announcement and its true impact on oil prices since we're talking about a very small firm who made a million on these transactions. While a million dollars is a good ... read more

On Money for Breakfast this morning I talked to Democratic Congressman Lampson of Texas, the author of a bill that was defeated in the House yesterday to tap into the strategic petroleum reserve and replace the barrels removed with new barrels of cheaper, harder to refine oil.  Improving the technology or modernizing the spr's technology to refine the heavier crude in any easier and more costly ... read more

New York Giants Chairman and Executive Vice President Steve Tisch joined me on Money for Breakfast this morning to talk about his Super Bowl champs, the upcoming season, the new $1.6 billion privately financed stadium, the biggest private financing of its kind, the controversial psl's (personal seat licensing policies) and what he has in the works for new blockbuster movie releases. In case you ... read more

On The Opening Bell this morning Robert Albertson, the chief strategist at Sandler O'Neill joined me. We talked about the state of the financials and he raised some great points about the problems with mark-to-market accounting, a FASB rule. He noted that the accounting rules which make banks mark their assets to a market price is not fair or accurate, particularly given this climate. He also, ... read more

This morning's foreclosure data was disappointing to say the least. Once again we're making new records with foreclosure filings rising to all-time highs. Right now the inventory of unsold homes is the highest in history or since the data was collected. This morning Jonathan Miller, Doug Pope and Mark Sunshine joined me to discuss the Housing Bill expected to become law this weekend and the ... read more

On The Opening Bell today I talked to Bob Greifeld, the NASDAQ OMX CEO, about the acquisition of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. They have been on a big consolidation binge here in the U.S. and overseas and for the first time in history on Friday traded more NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) listed stocks on the Nasdaq then on the big board (otherwise known as the NYSE). That's a huge deal for ... read more

This morning I made my first appearance on the Don Imus radio show called Imus in the Morning on WABC 770AM here in New York. As you're well aware he's on a ton of other ABC stations across the country and his show is simulcast on RFD-TV. My parents have been fans of his show for years, as well as many of their friends. It was a lot of fun to talk to him about everything from the economy, to ... read more

This week's market maven was Liz Ann Sonders, the Chief Investment Strategist with Charles Schwab. She's a terrific guest and always has such sound advice about what to do in any environment like this. She recently wrote a great piece called "A New Paradigm Ahead" where she listed all of the economic problems facing this country  and then went on to talk about how this "new paradigm" could ... read more

Every once in a while you interview someone who really impresses you--someone you know virtually nothing about--but still surprises you, and in the process, teaches you a ton. That happened this morning on Money for Breakfast when I interviewed Congressman Joe Sestak from Pennsylvania. He is an Obama supporter and is a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. He spent 31 years in the ... read more