| Cliff Notes on Financial Maelstrom
Bear Stearns was fed to the wolves, an easy correct forecast from last early autumn. Denials nowadays constitute confirmations, from mere mention. Their refusal in 1998 during the LongTerm Capital Mgmt bailout to act like a Wall Street team player was the hidden motive to carve them into pieces. One must ask why last Friday it traded around the $30/share price all day long after 10am. The answer is easy, as they wanted to give insiders a chance to sell most of the 186 million shares, a gift of $5 billion sure to anger many. My view is that JPMorgan took its best assets at discount, tossed much of the damaged assets into their Wall Street garbage can, which is never emptied, never sees any balance sheet, blessed by the US Federal Reserve, protected to new security laws. If Bear Stearns share holders reject the JPM seizure takeover, then the gem Bear Stearns headquarter building in Manhattan can be bought by JPM for a song.
Quebec digs into Hydro's pockets
The story behind Finance Minister Monique Jérôme-Forget's balanced budget yesterday is that the government is counting on Hydro-Québec to pay its bills. Without an $1.8-billion reserve, most of it generated from the sale of the Quebec-owned utility's assets in China and South America, and its growing dividends, Jérôme-Forget would have announced a $1.3-billion deficit in her 2008-09 budget. And the minister served notice she is taking a bigger bite from Hydro-Québec's profit stream, increasing the government's dividend to 75 per cent from 50 per cent. .
Levitt Corporation Reports Financial Results For the Fourth Quarter and Full Year, 2007
Levitt Corporation (NYSE:LEV) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2007. For the fourth quarter 2007, Levitt Corporation ("Levitt� or "the Company�) reported a net loss of ($8.3) million, or ($0.09) per diluted share, compared with a net loss of ($10.7) million or ($0.53) per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2006. For the full year ended December 31, 2007, Levitt reported a net loss of ($234.6) million, or ($6.00) per diluted share, compared to a net loss of ($9.2) million, or ($0.46) per diluted share, for the year ended December 31, 2006. The fourth quarter results include various expenses related to the bankruptcy of our homebuilding subsidiary, Levitt and Sons. The 2007 year end results includes impairment charges of $217.6 million related to the Levitt and Sons inventory of real estate compared to $36.8 million in 2006.
Plunging enrollment closes in-debt Benoit
A southeast-side Catholic school that is more than $300,000 in debt to the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese will close after this school year, Bishop John M. D'Arcy announced Thursday. Benoit Academy, 3029 E. Paulding Road, will close and most students will be sent to St. John the Baptist School, 4500 Fairfield Ave., while others could be transferred to other Catholic elementary schools in Fort Wayne, D'Arcy said during a news conference. The school has lost 77 percent of its student body since opening in 1994, with only 73 students this year and an estimated 56 who would enroll next school year. "The school, which was once a leader educationally, has not been able to return to that level," D'Arcy said. "Some classes have less than five students. This is not educationally sound." The declining enrollment has also increased the amount of money it costs the school and the diocese to educate each student.
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