The old fogies at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today tried to figure out what those crazy kids are doing with technology by interviewing a group of five Bay Area teenagers. The session, moderated by former Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy, rambled and eventually degenerated to teenagers free associating on different companies (”Google?” “Simple!”), but the most compelling part for me was seeing their visceral dislike of Twitter.
October 2009
10/22/2009
Web 2.0: Teens love Facebook and Apple, confused by Twitter
Posted at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
HOPE NOW Pushes HAMP for Unemployed Homeowners : HousingWire || financial news for the mortgage market
The HOPE NOW Unemployment Committee collaborated with the Obama Administration to develop a new tool to help identify the eligibility of unemployed homeowners to for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
Posted at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Castor Requests Housing Loan Modification Details | Florida RealEstateRama
Washington, DC - October 22, 2009 - (RealEstateRama) — As thousands of Floridians continue losing their homes to foreclosure, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor is calling on the Treasury Department to provide detailed information about the number of trial loan modifications offered to at-risk homeowners. Castor joined with Chairwoman Maxine Waters demanding that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner provide the requested information about the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by next week. Waters, of Los Angeles, is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.
Posted at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
New Tool Unveiled to Help Unemployed Homeowners Verify Income Received From Unemployment Compensation
WASHINGTON--(ENEWSPF)--October 22, 2009. The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the creation of a new Unemployment Benefit Estimation Tool that allows mortgage companies and housing counselors to project a homeowner's unemployment insurance income for loan modification purposes. The tool was created as part of collaborative effort among the Labor Department, the U.S. Department of Treasury, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Reserve Bank and the Hope Now Alliance.
via www.enewspf.com
Posted at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
U.S. slashes pay at bailed-out firms | Reuters
By Karey Wutkowski and Mark Felsenthal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. pay czar on Thursday slashed cash compensation for the top earners at seven companies that received massive taxpayer bailouts, while allowing for some increases to retain key talent.
Kenneth Feinberg, charged with reworking pay contracts for the 25 highest-paid employees at the seven banks and automakers, said their cash compensation rate for the remainder of 2009 would drop by more than 90 percent compared to 2008. Overall compensation rates would be cut in half, on average.
via www.reuters.com
Posted at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
New Castle Set Back by Galleon Liquidation, Loss of UBP Deal - Bloomberg.com
Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- New Castle Funds LLC’s efforts to survive the arrest of its co-founder in the Raj Rajaratnam insider-trading case were set back as a Swiss bank ended a partnership and Rajaratnam decided to liquidate his funds.
Union Bancaire Privée liquidated a fund that it hired New Castle to manage, the Geneva-based bank said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. The Luxembourg-registered Market Neutral U.S. Equity fund had assets of $36.1 million at Aug. 4, according to Bloomberg data.
Posted at 01:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Benefit From Mortgage-Servicing Hedging - Bloomberg.com
Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. earned almost a third of its pretax quarterly profit by hedging mortgage- servicing rights, producing gains similar to those that have helped some of the biggest U.S. banks offset weaker consumer- lending businesses.
Posted at 01:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
10/21/2009
In Insider Trading Case, a Deal That Lost Millions for Galleon - NYTimes.com
October 21, 2009
In Fraud Case, a Deal That Lost Millions Raj Rajaratnam, the authorities say, masterminded one of the biggest insider-trading schemes in a generation.
But if Mr. Rajaratnam was trading on insider information, apparently he was not very good at it.
A close examination of the trades that led to his arrest last week reveals a startling fact: In all, Mr. Rajaratnam lost millions from what prosecutors characterize as illegal trading.
One bad trade, in the shares of the chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, cost his hedge fund, the Galleon Group, $30 million. That loss more than wiped out the profits that prosecutors claim Mr. Rajaratnam and his accomplices reaped with their scheme.
via www.nytimes.com
Posted at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Findings - For Decades, Puzzling People With Mathematics - NYTimes.com
Toothpick Giraffe Puzzle. Five toothpicks form the giraffe shown above. Change the position of just one pick and leave the giraffe in exactly the same form as before. The re-formed animal may alter its orientation or be mirror reversed but must have its pattern unchanged. (Click image to see solution.)
via www.nytimes.com
Posted at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Recent Comments