Monday, May 18, 2009: As in most weeks before a holiday, there appears to be little earth shattering news. However, with the lack of bad news, the markets made their own news by posting stellar one day returns: DJIA +2.85%, Nasdaq + 3.11%, S&P 500 +3.04% and EAFE +0.37%. Oh those international guys never seem to be in step (EAFE).
The best news of the day for me was being on the cover of Lansing State Journal's Business Weekly, at http://tiny.cc/a5swA .
Tuesday, May 19, 2009: The Supreme Court agreed to hear a potentially significant appeal from Conrad Black., the jailed former newspaper CEO who was convicted under the broadly worded anti-fraud law that makes it a crime to deprive someone of honest services. Black was prosecuted for skimming millions of dollars from Hollinger International and the Chicago Sun Times.
His attorney says the vaguely worded criminal prohibition allows prosecutors to charge corporate executives and public officials with crimes, even without proving they wrongly took money for themselves.
This sounds, to me, like something that should be used on some of the CEOs from the banks and companies that screwed up the economy last year.
Another item Tuesday was an article on Ford adapting the EcoBoost system that BMW and Audi have used to create more energy efficiant cars. They are going to use it in their Lincoln MKS and MKT, Ford Taurus and Flex crossovers. In 2010 they plan to put it into their vehicle of choice for the Millionaire Next Door, the Ford F-150 pickup.
The EcoBoost combines turbocharging with the direct injection of gasoline to allow Ford to replace larger engines like V8s with smaller, more fuel efficient V6 engines without giving up much performance. http://tiny.cc/tLNtp
Wednesday, May 20, 2009: The Vex, a stock market confidence gauge, is showing investors are more comfortable and think they see more clarity in the stock markets than earlier this year. These same investors have less fear of the stock markets and are less panicked.
All this is as we appoach the General Motors chapter 11 filing deadline. Is it just me or does this look like a possible train wreck going somewhere to happen?
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