December 2, 2009
Welcome to our Brighton Securities blog! We're looking forward to the opportunity to post useful information, economic and market observations, and other items of potential interest. You'll also find regular updates from our Tax & Accounting department to stay informed of changes to laws that will affect you - and you can expect to see a lot of change in federal and state tax policy over the next 18 months.
As a disclaimer, I would like to add that it's not our intent that this blog should provide specific investment recommendations. In the same way that a medical blog is great for general ideas about your health but should never be used instead of a personal diagnosis, we hope to be generally informative but you should always confer with one of our advisors about the whether you should pursue something specific.
On the wires today look for Kraft (KFT) to up its bid to buy Cadbury (CBY). Hershey has been preparing to make a competing offer but they don't have the financial muscle and will likely be shoved aside. That's probably a good thing for Hershey shareholders since buying Cadbury would have been a stretch - Cadbury is twice the size of Hershey.
The financial problems in Dubai will continue to make headlines but there will not be serious fallout in the US banking sector. Our biggest banks made plenty of bad loans to people who can't pay them back, but those people are mostly here in the US, not in Dubai. If Dubai defaults on its debt I will shed no tears for the bankers. Banks who lent money to build an indoor ski slope in the desert deserve what's coming to them.
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GTC