Blog

Tuesday, after the market closed, First Niagara Financial announced that they will issue $450 million of new common stock plus an additional $350 million of preferred stock and $300 million of bonds, to finance the acquisition of branches from HSBC. The additional shares represent nearly 20% more th...

I follow news about Eastman Kodak closely. In Rochester, who doesn't? But over the last few months what I have heard seems to define two very different companies. It's was late September when Kodak hired Jones Day, a law firm with a specialty in restructuring, (that's just another word for "can't...

American Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy: Parent company AMR filed Tuesday, the only major air carrier not to have done so since Sept 11th 2001. American has been saddled with higher costs than its rivals, all of whom lowered their own costs partly through the bankruptcy process. The hop...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued an "Investor Alert" to warn IRA investors to be wary of fraudulent advisors promoting "alternative" investments for your self-directed IRA. http://http://www.sec.gov/investor.shtml As the recent volatility in the financial markets has shaken...

What would I like for Christmas? The recognition of toxic assets, balance sheet transparency and a central clearing house for all things financial. Let's toss everything on the table, figure out who owns what, who wants what, and what must be written down to clear the mechanism once and for all. Unt...

Word is that many people will do some online shopping today. If you didn't shop last Friday (and who could blame you if you didn't) perhaps you'll go online and look for a deal. There are a few tips to follow for a good experience getting something for the people on your list. My interest is how...

Last word from the Congressional "Supercommittee" was that the august body of 12 members of Congress had failed to reach an agreement on their required task: finding a way to reduce the Federal budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. Let's look at that number in digits rather than words: $1,200,00...

Investors have plenty to worry about lately, though that is nothing new. They were worried about Thai banks in 2004, and the Indonesian elections a dozen years back. Not all investors, certainly, but plenty of them, and there always seems to be some new thing to worry about, helpfully served up dail...

We are the 91% who are employed (92.9% in Rochester).We are the 66.9% who own homes and the 25.9% who rent.We are the 94.1% of Americans paying their mortgage on time.We are the 88.4% who are staying put.We are the 53% who pay income taxes. So who are the 1%? You'll find CEOs of the biggest banks on...

In recent years many of our income tax deductions have been temporary breaks with a shelf life of a couple of years. Over the next 14 months dozens of tax breaks will be expiring. Some may be extended and others will probably disappear. From year to year you cannot assume that the same benefits wi...