Memjet vs. HP vs. Memjet - another brief update on court case

On January 18^th, Memjet filed (with the court) its answer to HP’s counterclaim, and, within the answer, Memjet basically denied all of HP’s counterclaims.  In the answer document, Memjet requested a trial by jury.

If this case does go to a jury, I’m positive that jurors will have an “interesting time” trying to understand Memjet’s and HP’s claims and counterclaims and the differences between Memjet’s and HP’s patents.  I’d love to be on that jury!

More on the establishment of Copy General in Budapest Hungary

On January 12^th, we put up this post about Copy General Europe’s beginning in Budapest, Hungary.

http://reprographics.blogspot.com/2016/01/from-current-issue-of-larry-hunt.html

Today, January 22^nd, Ed Avis posted an interview-article about the establishment of Copy General in Budapest.  For this article, he interviewed Dirck Holscher, one of the founders of Copy General Budapest.  Ed did a great job on this interview/article:

http://www.irga.com/“it-was-like-the-wild-west”-opening-a-copy-shop-in-budapest-/

Recession looming???

In a recent e-mail I received from a financial analyst who follows the stock market, he said that rail-car shipments have trended down and that that trend has always been a leading indicator of an upcoming recession.

I also want to point you to this .....

Dr. Hussman calls recession:

“Since October, the economic evidence has shifted from supporting a growing risk of recession, to a guarded expectation of recession, to the present conclusion that a U.S. recession is not only a risk but an imminent likelihood….”

And, Dr. Hussman expects the S&P to fall at least 40-55% (from its recent peak):

“We’ll certainly welcome outcomes that better reflect our experience in other complete market cycles, but we won’t do touchdown dances if the market collapses. The likely distress as the current market cycle is completed is something I wish on nobody. The unfortunate reality is that someone will have to hold stocks over the completion of this cycle, and it would best be those who have either carefully evaluated and dismissed our concerns, or those who have appropriate risk tolerances and investment horizons to weather the likely 40-55% loss in the S&P 500 that would comprise a rather run-of-the-mill retreat from the 2015 valuation extremes.”

Read Dr. Hussman’s most recent complete market-commentary at this link:

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc160118.htm

But, this guy says that we are headed for further growth in 2016!

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2016/01/private-investment-and-business-cycle.html

WTF! – Bespoke Tranche Opportunities??? - Where is Lewis Black when I really need him?!

Totally off subject (i.e., this post has nothing to do with reprographics!)

A couple of nights ago, I went to see the movie, “The Big Short”.  Although the movie was, I think, very well done (and Steve Carrell’s performance was absolutely terrific), the movie – well, the subject matter covered – made me very angry.  To think that there were a huge number of people involved in the enormous fraud (the fraud that caused a huge financial collapse and the Great Recession) and to learn that only one person was convicted of committing a crime – made me very angry, upset, yes, totally pissed me off.  (How anyone can trust a ratings agency is beyond my imagination.)  JFC!

During the Great Recession, there was lots of stuff written about:

-CMO’s (Collateralized Mortgage Obligations)

-MBS’ (Mortgage-Backed Securities)

-CDO’s (Collateralized Debt Obligations)

… and we also heard the words “tranche” and “tranches”

And, we learned about Credit Default Swaps (CDS) which, basically, were bets that obligations would fail (i.e., become worthless or become worth a lot less than what they were originally sold for)

We learned that junk mortgages (shit mortgages) were packaged into securities, securities which were fraudulently rated AAA, and sold to investors (all around the world).

Not only did most of the investment banks package and sell CMO’s, MBS’ and CDO’s, they also, when they realized that those packages were going to fail, began making bets (CDS’) so that they could earn huge profits on the junk they packaged and sold.  MF’ers!

At the end of the movie, a statement appeared on the screen that said that, within the past couple of years, a new type of “bet” has been created by Wall Street firms…..  “Bespoke Tranche Opportunities”

I sat there thinking, “WTF is a “Bespoke Tranche Opportunity???!!!”

Here are a couple of articles I found that explain that:

High Risk Investment That Brought Down The U.S. Economy Returns, With A New Name

When a restaurant fails a health code inspection, sometimes the easiest thing to do is to close up shop, let people forget what happened, then slap a new sign on the door and reopen under a new name. That’s essentially what the world’s biggest banks are doing with a complex, high-risk investment product that helped destroy the global economy less than eight years ago.

Goodbye, “collateralized debt obligations.” Hello, “bespoke tranche opportunities.” Banks including Goldman Sachs are marketing that newfangled product, according to Bloomberg, and total sales of “bespoke tranche opportunities” leaped from under $5 billion in 2013 to $20 billion last year.

Read the complete article at this link:

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/05/3619325/bespoke-tranche-opportunities-are-your-god-now-america/

And, here’s another article to read:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-04/goldman-sachs-hawks-cdos-tainted-by-credit-crisis-under-new-name