An old episode of “I Love Lucy” demonstrates perfectly why banks can’t keep up with their own foreclosure mess.
Click here to read my column on the mess in The Sunday Wall Street Journal.
Archive for October, 2010
Sean Mueller, the alleged Ponzi schemer who took millions from John Elway, looked like a man resigned to a horrible fate when he appeared in Denver District Court on Friday.
Click here to read my column on Mueller’s hearing. I also talk about it with Eric Kahnert of Denver’s 9News.
I’ve been writing a lot this week about John Elway losing millions in an alleged Ponzi scheme and some of his other financial misadventures.
Click here to read my latest column on Elway.
But what about the guy who allegedly defrauded Elway? Isn’t he the bad guy?
Indeed. Sean Mueller allegedly created fake financial statements, assuring one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history that he was making money. The alleged ploy was so convincing that Elway and his business partner Mitch Pierce came back in March with another $15 million, according to court records.
Nothing worse than being the last investor into an alleged Ponzi. I feel bad for Elway, as well as all the other investors, whose only real mistake was meeting Mueller.
I’m looking forward to seeing Mueller, who has been jailed in lieu of a $2 million cash bond, at his advisement hearing in the morning. Allegedly ripping off Elway has cinched his place in history. And just maybe he’s sharing a cell with a Broncos fan.
The old joke about psych majors is that they went into their field of study hoping to one day cure themselves.
So how’s that working out?
Only 26% reported being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their careers. That’s the lowest in a survey of popular majors explored in a Wall Street Journal study. Click here to read more in the Wall Street Journal.
The next least satisfying majors were economics, environmental engineering, marketing, communications, English and political science.
Business majors posted among the more satisfied with 48 percent saying they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied.”
- Sean Mueller
John Elway and his business partner Mitch Pierce were among the last investors to put down a significant amount of money in an alleged Ponzi scheme run by Sean Mueller, according to documents they filed in Court on Tuesday.
The former Denver Broncos quarterback and Pierce are co-owners of Crown Toyota in Ontario, Calif. They invested millions with 42-year-old hedge fund manager Sean Mueller, who was charged on Tuesday with theft, securities, fraud and racketeering, court documents said.
Elway and Pierce are seeking to collect ahead of other victims in an alleged Ponzi scheme.
They argue their investments were separate from other investors, and they seek a declaratory judgment for the return of their funds, in documents filed in Denver District Court.
Football hall of famer John Elway is listed among the victims of a dramatic Ponzi scheme in Colorado that was uncovered in April when hedge fund manager Sean Mueller threatened suicide after writing his investors about massive losses.
Ol’ No. 7′s investment in Mueller Capital Management had been widely rumored since the alleged scheme came to light. He’s consistently declined comment. Mitch Pierce, his business partner in Crown Toyota in Ontario, Calif., is also listed. Pierce has declined comment.
In previous court filings, Colorado Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph has said there were three victims in this case that had invested more than $20 million apiece. And that many others also lost significant sums.
Click here to read charging documents in the Mueller case.
ALSO, read on to see my column on the case.
State and federal governments blew more than $9 billion between 2003 and 2008 on college dropouts, according to research released today by the American Institutes for Research.
Only about 60% of students who go to four-year colleges graduate within about six years, according to the study, titled “Finishing the First Lap: The Cost of First-Year Student Attrition in America’s Four-Year Colleges and Universities.” The study didn’t even look at community colleges where the drop-out rate is even worse.
The U.S. spends more than any other nation on higher education, but that’s not going to make the nation any smarter if its kids don’t make it past their first year.
“We continue to spend far too much money on students who don’t even finish the first lap, let alone fail to cross the finish line,” the study’s authors wrote.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average held above 11,000 as the week kicked off, but please try to contain your excitement.
The index first crossed 11,000 in May 1999. And it has done so 37 times since then as the market has bounced as high has 14,000 and as low as 6,500.
To say the Dow is up is to lose track of history. The Dow is simply trapped in a range-bound market, and has been for more more than a decade. In fact, it’s really gone no where since 1999.
Bully for you who rode the wave from the recent depths of 6,500. Keep rockin’ on. But know that the market is being driven mostly by record-low interest rates as the government keeps trying to bail us out from the Great Depression Part II.
With interest rates this low, there’s no where else to invest money, except for maybe gold, and that’s just crazy, right? Next thing you know, after gold you’ll being buying canned food and ammunition (my two favorite sectors, by the way).
Ever wonder why gold keeps going up. It’s almost as if it’s God’s little messenger that all is not right with the debt levels of the world. Gold is now over $1,350 an ounce. (Who could have predicted this? Me. At the beginning of the year. Click here to see my old post).
The old saw says you can’t fight trends. Low interest rates mean higher stock values. Watch for the Dow to go higher, but don’t be surprised when it’s bouncy history repeats itself. As for gold, well, its looking even more golden.
There’s no inflation. If you don’t believe that, just ask anyone living on Social Security.
They may be paying more for food, gasoline, utilities, and in some cases even rent but they’re not getting a cost of living adjustment in their social security checks in 2011. This is the second time this has happened since cost-of-living-adjustments began in 1975.
Apparently, consumer prices are still lower than they were two years ago. You remember. Before the bottom totally fell out of the housing market and gasoline prices spiked to $4. Economists constantly worry about deflation hitting the market, but if you eat, you sure don’t see much deflation these days.
Click here to read more from The Associated Press.
New research from Notre Dame University labor economist Abigail Wozniak shows college graduates entering the job market amid economic downturns make 5% to 15% less their first five to 10 years.
Click here to read my column in The Sunday Wall Street Journal. I also talk about it with Eric Kahnert, anchor at Denver’ NBC affiliate, 9News.
