Sunday, July 22, 2012

Will Airbus Ever Figure Out How to Produce the A380 Profitabley?

Despite six years of effort to build Airbus A380 superjumbo jetliners more efficiently, the European plane maker must still cut the cost and time needed to produce its two-deck airliners. WSJ's aerospace correspondent Dan Michaels reports:

What's next for ETFs?

The ETF industry has seen phenomenal growth, but there are obstacles ahead says Fleming Meeks, Barron's Executive Editor, and Beverly Goodman, Mutual Funds Editor: 7/14/2012

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

"Opinion: The Dimon Principle"

Paul Gigot is the Wall Street Journal's editorial page editor. The pols are after my favorite banker. Listen to to his commentary last May 14th on the political assault on J.P Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and regulatory failure.







Does Europe Need an Alexander Hamilton?

 Every year, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Mundell, the intellectual powerhouse behind supply side economics, hosts a conference with Central Bankers held in Siena, Italy. On speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line," Sara Eisen reports: 

Udvar-Hazy Strikes Again!

Steven Udvar-Hazy founded International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) which is both the pioneer and, until the financial crisis, the powerhouse of the aircraft lease business. Eventually AIG bought ILFC so that AIG became Airbus's and Boeing's biggest customer

Then came the financial crisis. AIG got into financial trouble holding the bag for structured financial products engineered for investment bankers' profits and bonuses rather than its own financial health.  AIG lost its investment grade rating and had to give controlling interest in the firm to the U.S. Treasury in return for TARP funds.  ILFC lost access to financial markets and the entrepreneurial Hungarian found himself reporting to federal bureaucrats.

So what did Udvar-Hazy do?  He jumped ship and started all over again.  He is now the chief executive officer of Air Lease Corp.  He has reentered the big time with a whopping order for 737s at the last Farnborough air show two years ago a bigger one for the Airbus 320neos subsequently and now a $7.2 billion order of Boeing Co.'s 737max planes at the current Farnborough air show.

In this video from yesterday (July 9) he speaks with Guy Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop:"