Tell It To Al

I’m disappointed financial reform legislation has so far overlooked the most obvious question: Dude, where did you get all that stuff?

Conspicuous spending is often a sign of conspicuous crimes. 

Click here to read column. I also talk about it with Fox Business News anchor Cheryl Casone.

BP CEO Tony Hayward must be getting ready to resign, because the company’s official position is that he’s not resigning.

Click here to read more on the resignation rumor.

The best bet in reading the oil spill news is that whatever BP says, it’s really the opposite.

At this point, it seems clear that Hayward should not be given the opportunity to resign. He should be fired. Not just because of all the stupid things he’s said, like “I want my life back,” while 11 of workers are dead, an oil rig lies on the sea floor, and the Gulf is being poisoned before our very eyes. Nor is it because he had the temerity to race yachts in the middle of a crisis that has grounded thousands of fishing boats.

He should be fired according to the very standards he set early on in this spill.

On the front end of this disaster, Hayward said BP would be judged not by the spill but by its response to that spill, which he called “extraordinary” in a May 13 video. Click here to read my column on this video. And click here to see the video.

The only thing “extraordinary” we see in the news is the continuing gaffes in stopping the leak and containing the spill.

Shouldn’t Hayward be held to the very criteria he set for himself?

Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio put up a good fight, but in the end, he’s still doing about six years in prison. I talk about the latest in his case as well as the limitations of finance reform in Washington with 9News anchor Eric Kahnert.

I know what you are thinking about this post before you even read it: Ho, hum. Another day, another Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a complaint against Kenneth Wayne McLeod, and his consulting firm Federal Employee Benefits Group of Jacksonville, Fla., for allegedly running a $34 million Ponzi scheme.

That’s of little concern to McLeod. He’s dead at 48. He died suddenly on June 22, the SEC said. He had a great life, too, taking 40 of his friends to the Super Bowl every year, according to the SEC.

Extravagance is hardly unusual for an alleged Ponzi artist. What makes McLeod noteable to me was that many of his victims were law enforcement officers.

They thought they were entrusting their retirement accounts to a guy who was steering them into safe goverment bonds.  Now that’s some real moxie for ya, kid. But hey, if you’re going to steal, why not steal from law enforcement officers?

McLeod also had no qualms about using the old “I-am-not-a-Ponzi” routine.

“With all of the Ponzi Scams going on around the world I wanted to insure you that this account is 100% secured by US Gov’t Securities,” McLeod once wrote in a newsletter to investors. “The principal is never touched until liquidated.”

Didn’t Richard Nixon teach us long ago that whenever someone is forced to say “I am not a crook,” they probably are? You’d think the police, of all people, would know that.

Click here to read the SEC’s complaint.

What do Russians admire about America? Our bankruptcy court system. On track to top its 2005 record of 2 million personal bankruptcy filings this year, the U.S. bankruptcy system is a marvel of production. Andrey Egorov, right, a staffer on Russia’s Supreme Commercial Court and Russian judge Dmitry Surkov seemed highly impressed during their visit to study our system, sponsored by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sid Brooks of Denver. Russia is considering a plan to finally establish a bankruptcy law for consumers.

Click here to read column.

It was a long walk for a little sugar.

Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio had his sentence cut after years of trying to appeal his conviction and sentencing on insider trading charges. A judge on Thursday reduced his six-year sentence by a full two months. Click here to read more from The Associated Press.

Nacchio went through quite an ordeal for this ruling, being transferred from Minersville, Pa., to Denver via Con Air, with a long stopover in Oklahoma City. Click here to read my last column on Nacchio.

The economy has not really been in a recovery. It’s just been propped up by bailouts and tax credits.

The latest evidence of this viewpoint is new home sales. Tax credits end, new home sales virtually stop. Click here to read about the latest numbers. Sales of new homes collapsed 33% in May.

Yesterday we received news that sales of existing homes were starting to slip, too. Click here for more on that. This smaller dip came despite the fact that tax credits were still available for existing homes in May.

Meanwhile, the foreclosure crisis that started this mess is showing some signs of leveling off. RealtyTrak reports a 3% decline in foreclosures in May, but attributed some of that decline to banks working faster to deal with troubled properties. It also noted bank repossessions hit a record high in May. Click here for more on that.

When you get right down to it, not much growth is happening without government stimulus spending and crediting. The job market improvements are largely attributable to temporary census taking gigs. The improvements we see in banking, finance and even the stock market are largely due to nearly 0% interest rates.

Ask yourself this: How can the U.S. economy truly recover from a housing-induced recession unless housing recovers first?

Have you ever written an email you wish would disappear?

Plenty of people on Wall Street sure have.

Entrepreneur Joseph Collins has created an online communication system called VaporStream. Messages on VaporStream can’t be copied, forwarded or saved and disappear after they’ve been read.

Click here to read my column on VaporStream.

Naked Cowboy is acting like a  more and more like major corporation every day, sending out cease and desist letters and threatening lawsuits whenever someone else wants to strip down on Times Square.

Now he’s asking 50-year-old Sandy Kane, a.k.a. Naked Cowgirl, to pay him a franchising fee for use of the concept. Click here to read about the battle in the New York Post. Would you believe there’s already another Naked Cowgirl who is paying him a fee?

How much would you pay for the priviledge of standing nearly nude on Times Square. Naked Cowboy wants Naked Cowgirl to pay him $500 a month. I guess he needs a clothing allowance for all those tighty whities he’s going through.

I wrote a column on Naked Cowboy in 2008 when he was in the middle of a lawsuit with Mars Inc. for dressing up an M&M as a Naked Cowboy Candy on its Times Square billboard. Click here to read column.

BP missed a great opportunity to turn around it’s PR image last week after agreeing to put $20 billion into a cleanup fund to ease everyone’s nerves.

But before anyone had a chance to start feeling good about BP, it’s CEO, Tony Hayward went yatching. Yep, he’s got his life back now. I’d sure like to see him take his boat through the Gulf, but you can bet that’s not going to happen. I talk about it on Denver’s 9News.