September 2009 Archives

Hertz is suing research firm Audit Integrity over its inclusion in a list of twenty companies likely to go bankrupt this year. It seems like Audit struck a chord. I don't understand why public companies feel the need to lash out at independent commentators like this. I bet that most serious financial minds view this as akin to a list of the twenty celebrities most likely to go AWOL by the end of this year rather than a prediction from Nostradamus.

In the land of artful PR tactics, what Hertz is doing here is like screeching "I know you are, but what am I?" In response to being called a dumb-head in the sandbox. All they've done is elevate this list to the attention of a wider audience who all of a sudden has a suspicion that Hertz is having trouble.

NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ.N) has sued an analyst for defamation over a report it said suggests the world's largest car rental company could go bankrupt.

In a complaint filed Friday with the Bergen County Superior Court in New Jersey, Hertz accused Audit Integrity Inc and its chief executive, Jack Zwingli, of defamation and trade libel over a Sept. 15 report that included Hertz among 20 large companies "most likely to declare bankruptcy" within a year.

Mark Frissora, Hertz's chief executive, in a statement on Monday called the lawsuit "an appropriate response to the publication of false and harmful information" about Hertz.

After a remarkably sleepless night and a couple of practices punctuated by my bronchial wheezes I decided it might be prudent to buy some pills: some to make me sleep, some to make me healthy.

The medicine isn't the story, but rather the circumstance. Having made my selections and paid for them, I waited in limbo as my ATM card talked to some people and made assurances to the pharmacy that I could indeed pay my way (six dollars, there was a sale.)

It was in this purgatory that I noticed how inexpensive cigarettes were in the great state of Idaho: a mere five dollars for twenty doses of sweet nicotine. For those who have never smoked, this graph gives a pretty good hint of what I perceive cigarettes to taste like right now (recently quit).

So it was with pride that I strolled out of the Rite-Aid - having turned down a steak stuffed with tiramusu for the low price of five dollars - that I notice two local children moving perniciously towards my bicycle.

Neither could have been older than fourteen, but both needed immediate professional attention. The least drastic of the two simply looked like any orthodontist's dream client; save for the fact that she was about to attempt to rip off my bike seat to make some money.

The second looked like a demented Cheshire cat. Her head was lumpy and her body fat was oddly distributed through her diminutive blond frame. Because I am taking an art history class, I can say she was the type of person who Frans Hals might have painted. One of his works is below.

What does one do when he catches 17th century dutch peasants trying to steal his bicycle? I'm obviously not going to press charges on a couple of (extremely) unfortunate looking fourteen year olds, especially because I know they were likely doing little else than trying to get some pocket money.

A little bit of my youthful innocence died today. I had long thought that ACORN (the nonprofit that has been used as a punching bag by certain republican talking heads) was probably no big deal...just another way to disparage the Obama administration with half-truths.

In perhaps the scariest turn ever, turns out Limbaugh & Co were understating what was going on. Video has been released of a young man and woman pretending to be prostitute & pimp receiving tax advice at acorn headquarters. Included in the advice was how to use thirteen El Salvadorean girls as a deduction and where best to hide ill-gotten hooker money.

In response to the video, the CEO of ACORN released a statement, which included

• An immediate in-service training for all frontline staff has been ordered within 48 hour

It's almost unfair for me to comment on that...so I'll leave the snarking to Jon Stewart.

I just listened to a fantastic marketplace segment on NPR which featured a discussion of our elected officials buying and selling securities based on insider knowledge gained in the course of performing their duties. Two senators may or may not have sold shares based on insider knowledge during the financial crisis...whether they did or not is largely irrelevant: the scary thing is that it's not illegal.

Rep. Brian Baird has proposed the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act," or H.R. 682.

Seems like a good idea to me...though somehow I have a feeling this will stay in committee for a while. The bill's description:

To prohibit securities and commodities trading based on nonpublic information relating to Congress, and to require additional reporting by Members and employees of Congress of securities transaction, and for other purposes.