On JPM’s Dimon’s still unassailable position and Facebook as the new Yahoo

I spoke to Paul Waldie and Brian Milner of the Globe & Mail on BNN’s headline on Monday. The big story was JPMorgan Chase and the London Whale trades. JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon, as the leading lobbyists for the hands-off regulatory approach for US banks, has become a lightning rod for criticism of too big to fail banks in the US. Even so, I think it’s unlikely that Dimon will be forced out of his position. We also talked about Yahoo and the oversubscribed Facebook IPO. They are going to have to execute really, really well to justify the IPO valuation

[Premium] More on Apple’s Fantastic Quarter

A brief note on why Apple did so well this quarter

[Premium] Apple almost gets its whisper number

This is just an update to this morning’s post. The numbers were profit of $12.30 a share ($11.62 billion), up from $6.40 a share ($5.98 billion) last year

[Premuim] What to expect from Apple’s earnings

Apple reports earnings after the close of business today. This will be a closely watched report. Here are the things to look for

Facebook Snaps a $1-Billion Photo

“What made Instagram worth $1 billion to Facebook?”

When asked this question recently, I responded with an immediate, “Nothing.”

I’m not usually so terse or emphatic with my answers, as any longtime reader knows. But in this case, there really was nothing inherently valuable inside Instagram that made them worth the unbelievable sum Facebook agreed to pay. Yet they did it anyway. Clearly, there’s something missing from a traditional valuation analysis here

Video: The Transparent Factory

I thought I would mix it up a bit with this clip of a Volkswagen factory in Dresden, Germany. The factory is very cool

Leveraged Populists

The latest deals bring to mind the days of mega mergers and technology stocks of days gone by

[Premium] AT&T raising charges by 33%

This is not an opinion on AT&T stock since AT&T benefits from a monopoly status in fixed line and oligopoly status in mobile telecom. But I did want to briefly flag something regarding the telecom industry and M&

Fear Factory: Jon Stewart on Foxconn

This is grim. Bill Black has the analysis; he thinks this is a criminogenic environment of control frauds

Anti-employee Control Fraud

Apple has released a report on working conditions in its suppliers’ factories. It highlights a form of control fraud that criminology has identified but rarely discussed. I write overwhelmingly about accounting control fraud because it drives our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. The primary intended victims of accounting control frauds are the shareholders and the creditors. Other private sector control frauds target customers (e.g., George Akerlof’s 1970 article on “lemons”), and the public (e.g., the unlawful disposal of toxic waste, illegal logging, and tax fraud)

Stop Censorship, Stop SOPA

Enemies of freedom will always tell you that there is some trade-off between freedom and civil liberties to get you to give up your freedom. This is a false dichotomy and always will be

The Bifurcated Society

There is less mobility in the work force because the computers are not simply displacing jobs, they are taking out the middle. Because they take out the middle, it is a lot harder to pursue the American dream by working your way up the ladder