A very, very, quick summary, since I was traveling yesterday and didn’t give you one:
- DOJ Sues to Block AT&T, T-Mobile Deal (WSJ) — Man, that Obama just won’t let a simple bidnessman do nothin‘, will he?
- Defiant Gaddafi son vows to fight (BBC) — Will no one rid me of this turbulent junior tyrant?
- Dow Moves Into Black for Year (WSJ) — Don’t say I didn’t give you good news today.
- Petraeus Retires, with a Warning (NYT) — He’s kind of young. We shouldn’t LET him retire. Somebody find a loophole… Oh, but wait. He’s still planning to serve. I feel better now.
- 5-STAR USA sets up headquarters in Bennettsville (CRBR) — I just had to include this because it said “venture capital startup” and “global headquarters” and “more than 1,000 jobs,” which are terms I don’t generally hear in relation to my hometown. I expect folks in Marlboro County to say, “What language are these people speaking?”
- How US firms profited from secret rendition flights (Guardian) — Maybe we should start those back up, to stimulate the economy. (Smiley face!)
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You keep talking about the Dow being up as some kind of good economic news. Aren’t we learning now that there is a disconnect between the economy of what might be called the “investor class” and a huge swath of Americans? The market rising to me signals just another step in the jobless recovery. Here’s a stat for you: as this excellent article in the Atlantic points out, “from May 2009 to May 2011, daily consumer spending rose by 16 percent among Americans earning more than $90,000 a year; among all other Americans, spending was completely flat. The consumer recovery, such as it is, appears to be driven by the affluent, not by the masses.”
Mulling over the ATT thing. If I were a gambler I’d put my money on the merger. Anyway, I’ve probably said this a thousand times before, but I don’t see history’s repeats changing any time soon:
1.) Telco does something ethically questionable -er challenging.
2.) FCC rolls over on its belly and asks for a tummy rub. Begins chewing off its own leg until it gets the rub.
3.) DOJ threatens to sue or may even go through the motions.
4.) “Midnight hour” agreement is made just before any official decisions are made.
5.) Telco agrees to give new customers a discount rate for x time and to build out rural infrastructure.
6.) Telco purges any customers who have grandfather agreements (ATT is very consistent on this one at this stage of the process).
7.) x time passes and rates go up for everyone.
I honestly believe that the leaked memo wasn’t the action of a dumb intern, but a calculated effort to get the ball rolling on what might as well be a patented process.
If ATT does go to court, they’ll make it easy on themselves by stalling the real trial, set up a shell foundation to sue themselves on very similar but slightly religious grounds, win that straw man case and then argue that the whole thing flies in the face of previous legal precedent (as if two weeks age were the foundation of western civilization).
Still, all of this could be a part of a very different strategy, where they never had any intention on buying T-Mobile in the first place. These guys are masters of playing both sides of the street, but I still thing the memo was no accident. They are after all experts in the communications field.
but Phillip–Brad is an arbitrageur and hedge fund whiz in his spare time!
Buy and hold, folks. Buy and hold.