Spots © Rich Con Artist

News comments:
At this stage of a new year we expect to see a spot bursting.

A celebrity death or misadventure, a natural disaster or an economic event to give us food for thought.

Nothing yet. Nothing but people talking and red tape and conference calls that should never have happened.

Take Einhorn. Insider dealing. They have a call and learn about something that may happen in the future. They act on it. It is deemed inside information and they get fined. Why? They had a large stake, it was obvious they were winding down their position, no need for Sherlock Holmes. No wonder faxes, ink and paper, and lunches at places in back and beyond are back in fashion.

Take Mervyn King. He hasn't much to do these days expect print more cash. Which is what he wants to do. QE = Cash = Bonuses. Bankers are going to have another bumper year of failure and bonuses. (cityam)

Take Merkel. She loves to talk. She loves to tell us the Euro is safe, the Euro is fcked. Today Greece is fcked but we know that already. Portugal is fcked. We are all fcked. (europa). HSBC is fcked (cityam).

Today's shorts:
Hedge Fund managers to be plastered onto cereal packets: "Have you seen this overpaid man?" (ftalphaville)

Transparency kills the hedgie star (cnbc)

Today's longs:
Flat tax to hit the UK very soon and about time too (telegraph)

Hedgies get the upper hand over the Greek refinancing debacle (bloomberg)

Gossip:
Grangers in Notting Hill. 202 London in Notting Hill. 90:1 Female / Male ratio. Inside trading gossip off the menu as too many distractions ...

Orgasm © fintag

News comments:
The ECB as new lender of last resort is causing us all to scratch our heads.

Risky banks can now borrow dirt cheap money with crap-for-collateral. Risky sovereign states can now sell their high yielding govt debt to their risky banks who are awash with cheap cash. Banks get a margin, and governments get to see another day. The ECB is like a drug dealer handing out below market rate drugs or high class hookers for dollar a trick rates. The banks are addicted; sovereign debt yields are falling; liquidity is restored. The ECB is buying up government junk that it is indirectly guaranteeing and so enjoying its yields.

The ECB is risk free. The responsible banks are being forced to lend overnight to the ECB because capital adequacy is turning the only tier 1 asset to ECB debt / LTRO.

This is win-win-win all round. The Euro survives, Governments survive and the banks get to orgasm on easy profits. But how long can this go on for for it is the tax payer who is funding all this? (felixsalmon)

One thing is sure. Cash=Bonuses. Just as the UK and US helped prop up the bank's bonus pools with its QE, the ECB is doing the same but in more spectacular style. No wonder bankers are expecting huge bonuses in the next 5 years.

What is very clever about this scheme is the ECB has the banks and the governments by the short and curlys. The EU has at last got full control of the European banking system and can enforce any rules it wants. So that means another winner - the regulators. Regulation means jobs means socialism means the end of capitalism.

So please explain how this can continue? Will the IMF offer even cheaper debt? Will China muscle in and grab some of this cheap debt too? Will the US banks starting shouting "trade war"? Will this be the beginning of hyper inflation? Will the ECB steal the banks profits? I wish I knew. This is all so unprecedented.

My head is scratched and now I am bald.

Today's shorts:
Siemens turns into RIM (cityam)

Will Harry Rednapp do a Diamond Back? (hedgeweek)

Today's longs:
Food is the growth stock for 2012 (cityam)

Mitt Romney enjoys capitalism (the rest of the little people suffer from incomeism) (bloomberg)

ECB looks to save Portugal (wsj)

Gossip:
ECB to become the new IMF.

Greek fight © Greece

News comments:
The fight of 2012 is on.

Well it's been on and off for a few months now. In the blue corner are the hedge funds. In the red corner are Merkel and Sarkozy as team Merkozy.

The Hedge Funds have teamed up with some rogue French Banks and the Merkozy team have the eurocrats firmly behind them.

The IFF is the referee and the contest is like a trade union wage dispute. The hedgies want 100%; Merkozy are only prepared to give them 20%. Merkozy hate the hedge fund locusts and despite hating the Greeks who will benefit from a decent debt write off, wish to see the hedge funds take a smackering loss. As you know hedge funds are having a torrid time and Merkozy can sense blood.

How many hedge funds bought discounted Greek debt? That would be lots. I doubt many of them saw the skinhead haircut and the 30 year bond swap that isn't guaranteed by the EU coming either.

Winner? Well whoever wins, Greece loses.

Today's shorts:
Do any hedgies play by the rules (businessweek)

Today's longs:
UK tobin tax fudge (telegraph)

As we said they should (fintag oct2011), RIM changes course (wsj)

As we said they should (fintag jan2011), Tesco changes course (telegraph)

Gossip:
RIM to get their new dos driven blackberry device to be built in Greece.

So if we post this image, are we too in breach of copyright?

More importantly, is this the beginning of the end of the hippy free internet we all love so much? Next it will be porn, extreme political views and the NRA...

Google's days (fintag) are truly over.

Privacy law postponed (bbc)

Google © Google

News comments:
Google hasn't delivered. (abc).

Google is facing unprecedented threats from all angles.

Here are some:

Copyright and IP: Google search links to sites that sell illegal services and goods. If PIPA and SOPA and the EU's copyright laws kickin, it will make Google culpable for its content distribution. There is no way Google will be able to continue as is. The attacks on Youtube have been contained but taking down a video clip is easier than 57.7 million blogs and websites linking to piratebay.org. The challenge is very challenging.

Android may appear to be "open source" but with Apple et al hitting the courts for IP theft, it is possible Android could be taken out of action. Does Google want to end up funding lawyers? As Google has said its greatest threat is itself (nytimes nov2011)

Google is now of age. It is sweet sixteen and is already obese and prone to tantrums. It has too many offices, too many people, too much corporate red tape holding back innovation, and is too big (anti-trust, monopoly arrogance). It made the mistake of going public too.

Tax mitigation and avoidance is putting Google on par with Mitt Romney. Only little people (on minimum wage) pay more in percentage taxes. (amazon)

Forays into social networking like G+ are not working. Google doesn't know what its core competency is anymore. (wiki)

Google servers are contributing to global warming and they are looking to move them to Iceland and Norway. That is admirable but the business model is wrong. Client - Server cloud maybe ok for holding files, but search indices? New kids on the block are looking at free peer to peer search using all those devices that always on to be the "servers" for search. (YaCy)

Google ads are superb. Easy to set up, easy to get paid, it is brilliant. It has enabled Google to grow extremely fast because it is so cost effective. But others are catching up and like the iPhone, others are starting to do it better and cheaper. (5 alternatives).

And as for Google Wallet ... (stinks)

So where next? Buy, Sell, Hold? Ask you local equity analyst. RBS seems to have a quite a few .... (efinancialcareers)

Today's shorts:
Google best place to work in the USA (mercurynews)

Grrrr hat-tip (CO)(businessinsider)

Today's longs:
IBM and Microsoft dinosaurs show how it should be done (sky)

Gossip:
Very few Google employees use google plus.