Month: January 2014

Pershing Square's Herbalife Analyst Gets The Boot

After the epic fail of Pershing Square’s Herbalife short, aka the stock we predicted, correctly, in January 2013 has Volkwagen-like short squeeze potential, it was only a matter of time before the analyst responsible for the trade got the pink slip.

From Pershing Square:

From: Pershing Square-IR
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 06:59 PM
To: William A. Ackman
Subject: Shane Dinneen

 

Dear Pershing Square Investor,

 

For several months, Shane Dinneen, a member of our investment team since late 2007, has expressed interest in leaving Pershing Square to pursue other interests.  As Shane is one of the most talented investment analysts I have ever worked with and someone I hold in high regard, I have done my best to convince him to stay with the firm.  Recently, he decided it was time for him to move on to areas of his own interest outside of activist investing.

 

Shane has been a great contributor to Pershing Square.  Shane did superb work on GGP, Burger King, and most recently Herbalife in addition to many other successful investments.  As our Herbalife investment has moved from financial analysis to a regulatory and legal execution, Shane has not been leading this investment for some time.  Roy Katzovicz, our Chief Legal Officer, and David Klafter, Senior Counsel, have led the Herbalife regulatory effort over the past year and have made significant progress.

 

We wish Shane success in his future endeavors and have let him know that we will keep a seat open for him on the investment team if and when he decides to return.  Shane intends to remain a meaningful investor in Pershing Square.

 

With respect to Herbalife, we remain convinced that the Company has operated an illegal pyramid scheme since its founding.  We are encouraged by the recent regulatory developments concerning the Company.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill

Source: VIC


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1mXxTKD Tyler Durden

Pershing Square’s Herbalife Analyst Gets The Boot

After the epic fail of Pershing Square’s Herbalife short, aka the stock we predicted, correctly, in January 2013 has Volkwagen-like short squeeze potential, it was only a matter of time before the analyst responsible for the trade got the pink slip.

From Pershing Square:

From: Pershing Square-IR
Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 06:59 PM
To: William A. Ackman
Subject: Shane Dinneen

 

Dear Pershing Square Investor,

 

For several months, Shane Dinneen, a member of our investment team since late 2007, has expressed interest in leaving Pershing Square to pursue other interests.  As Shane is one of the most talented investment analysts I have ever worked with and someone I hold in high regard, I have done my best to convince him to stay with the firm.  Recently, he decided it was time for him to move on to areas of his own interest outside of activist investing.

 

Shane has been a great contributor to Pershing Square.  Shane did superb work on GGP, Burger King, and most recently Herbalife in addition to many other successful investments.  As our Herbalife investment has moved from financial analysis to a regulatory and legal execution, Shane has not been leading this investment for some time.  Roy Katzovicz, our Chief Legal Officer, and David Klafter, Senior Counsel, have led the Herbalife regulatory effort over the past year and have made significant progress.

 

We wish Shane success in his future endeavors and have let him know that we will keep a seat open for him on the investment team if and when he decides to return.  Shane intends to remain a meaningful investor in Pershing Square.

 

With respect to Herbalife, we remain convinced that the Company has operated an illegal pyramid scheme since its founding.  We are encouraged by the recent regulatory developments concerning the Company.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill

Source: VIC


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1mXxTKD Tyler Durden

Georgia DOT crews working non-stop to clear metro roadways

UPDATE Wednesday, 9:40 a.m. – Temperatures in the mid-teens early Wednesday challenged Georgia Department of Transportation crews working to keep roadways clear of snow and ice, not just in metro Atlanta but statewide.

GDOT is utilizing all its resources in clearing roadways; in Atlanta, almost 300 workers have been scraping ice and treating the highways.

read more

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1cuvoya

Roads continue to be slippery; multiple stores closed

Best advice may be to stay home as officers direct sand trucks to slick spots on roads, streets

With ice and snow clogging local streets and a number of Fayette highways facing the same fate, citizens are being advised to stay home except for an emergency.

Ga. Highways 92, 279 and 85 have a number of icy spots, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation. A number of Fayette residents reported on Facebook that it took seven hours or more for their commute home yesterday afternoon, with some stretching past the 12-hour mark.

read more

via The Citizen http://ift.tt/1mXwweW

The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations for State of the Union Addresses Has Got to Stop

I’m as guilty as the worst offender of treating
annual State of the Union as beneath
contempt,
instantly forgettable, and
worse.

It was George W. Bush – whose SOTUs were uniformly awful and
misguided (cough, cough,
Axis of Evil) – who talked about battling the “soft bigotry of
low expectations” for minority kids in K-12 education.

But the same standard should apply to State of the Union
addresses. Everyone fully expects them to be useless laundry lists
of barely connected guaranteed-applause-getters (GAGS) punctuated
with shout-outs to jes’ plain folks who magically appear in the
gallery for this one special night (when is a billionaire prankster
in the tradition of Terry Southern’s Guy Grand in The Magic
Christian going to get a president to note Dick Hertz in one
of these things?).

This has got to stop. I’m fond of saying that the tragicomedy of
America is that we get the government we deserve.

And we deserve better.

There’s nothing stopping a president from actually giving a
substantive speech for the State of the Union (or even forgoing a
performed speech altogether) rather than clearing out his office
closet for every rag-tag idea that’s been gathering dust. And stop
with the least-convincing soft-feature anecdotes this side of an
NBC Olympics broadcast. 

President Obama’s speech last night was genuinely terrible,
packed
with empty boasts, fantasy policy prescriptions, and outright
falsehoods. That doesn’t make it stand out as a State of the
Union address, it just makes it the same as all the other ones we
struggle to recall from years and presidents past. If Obama really
wanted to lead in a positive way, he could use the next three SOTUs
to actually start a discussion about a single issue or topic –
immigration, foreign policy, whatever – and then follow that up by
trying to build a consensus in Congress and across the country.
That sort of speech would not only be worth turning on but actually
worth listening to.

Until that happens, Cafe Hayek’s Don Boudreaux is right to
characterize SOTUs as “political
vaudevillainism” and, I fear, to tune out from such
spectacles.

from Hit & Run
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Gartman Comedy Hour

Two days ago, when the market was plunging, this is what Gartman released to the several subscribers he has left:

If long of stocks anywhere, get less long… demonstrably. If one is net long of gold, get longer; if one is long of emerging market currencies, get out… at whatever price one can get. If one is long of commodities or commodity related investments, at very least reduce that exposure materially. This situation in China may pass and it may actually be, as the Chinese have said it is, a problem of “system maintenance” and nothing more; and we certainly hope it shall pass or that it is a mere problem with the “system,” but we fear that this is the first of the cockroaches, and there is never just one cockroach… ever.

Subsequently the market surged, and the lira imploded by 2000 pips in the span of 48 hours.

This morning, in the aftermath of the Turkish “bailout” (rest in peace), and when futures were still soaring, this is what Gartman’s expert opinion advise same several subscribers:

… we have to remain bullish of shares generally… and certainly we cannot and we will not adopt a bearish perspective until that trend line clearly has been broken from above.

How about now? Or now? Or now?


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1iLjUdl Tyler Durden

S&P Futures Collapse Over 30 Points – Back To Pre-Taper Levels

After tagging the stops above 1,800 overnight following the Turkish rate hike, S&P futures have collapsed over 30 points and are hovering back at pre-Taper levels from 6 weeks ago. For now USDJPY 102 is critical support for stocks. 10Y bond yields have slammed lower testing 2.70 and the lowest levels in 2 months.

S&P futures have collapsed over 30 points from overnight highs…

 

 

Still think its about fun-durr-mentals…(JPY carry is in charge)

 

Charts: Bloomberg


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1dNOjQ0 Tyler Durden

S&P Futures Collapse Over 30 Points – Back To Pre-Taper Levels

After tagging the stops above 1,800 overnight following the Turkish rate hike, S&P futures have collapsed over 30 points and are hovering back at pre-Taper levels from 6 weeks ago. For now USDJPY 102 is critical support for stocks. 10Y bond yields have slammed lower testing 2.70 and the lowest levels in 2 months.

S&P futures have collapsed over 30 points from overnight highs…

 

 

Still think its about fun-durr-mentals…(JPY carry is in charge)

 

Charts: Bloomberg


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1dNOjQ0 Tyler Durden

Obama's State of the Union's Most Despicable Moment: Using Wounded Vets as Props

The most
emotionally powerful moment in Barack
Obama’s State
of the Union address was
also its most morally dubious. The nation’s commander in chief drew
attention to a wounded warrior while eliding any responsibility for
placing the young man in harm’s way.

A record number of Americans – 60
percent – think the government is too powerful, says
Gallup, which also finds a near
record low percentage trusts the government “to do what is
right.” Who can blame us? The government under Republican and
Democratic presidents has spent virtually the entire 21st century
sending young men and women to fight in ill-defined and
unsuccessful elective wars. That’s bad enough, but then to use them
as props in political speeches? That’s positively obscene….

[Army Ranger Cory] Remsburg’s sacrifice is plain to see: He has
a long, visible scar on his head and, the president 
explained, he “is still blind in one eye” and “still struggles on
his left side.” Regardless of political affiliation and ideological
positioning, all Americans can appreciate Remsburg’s willingness to
serve while questioning whether President Obama is right to use
such a soldier as an applause line in a political speech….

What exactly was Remsburg – or any of his fellow soldiers –
fighting for in Afghanistan? The president didn’t offer any
explanation in his State of the Union address and you’d search his
past speeches in vain for a clear and compelling reason, too.

That’s from my newest piece at Time.com’s Ideas sections.


Read the whole thing here.

from Hit & Run
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Obama’s State of the Union’s Most Despicable Moment: Using Wounded Vets as Props

The most
emotionally powerful moment in Barack
Obama’s State
of the Union address was
also its most morally dubious. The nation’s commander in chief drew
attention to a wounded warrior while eliding any responsibility for
placing the young man in harm’s way.

A record number of Americans – 60
percent – think the government is too powerful, says
Gallup, which also finds a near
record low percentage trusts the government “to do what is
right.” Who can blame us? The government under Republican and
Democratic presidents has spent virtually the entire 21st century
sending young men and women to fight in ill-defined and
unsuccessful elective wars. That’s bad enough, but then to use them
as props in political speeches? That’s positively obscene….

[Army Ranger Cory] Remsburg’s sacrifice is plain to see: He has
a long, visible scar on his head and, the president 
explained, he “is still blind in one eye” and “still struggles on
his left side.” Regardless of political affiliation and ideological
positioning, all Americans can appreciate Remsburg’s willingness to
serve while questioning whether President Obama is right to use
such a soldier as an applause line in a political speech….

What exactly was Remsburg – or any of his fellow soldiers –
fighting for in Afghanistan? The president didn’t offer any
explanation in his State of the Union address and you’d search his
past speeches in vain for a clear and compelling reason, too.

That’s from my newest piece at Time.com’s Ideas sections.


Read the whole thing here.

from Hit & Run
via IFTTT