Finance Matters

Archive for December 31st, 2009

Deputy Editor Joe Weisenthal and Managing Editor John Carney talk about the movers and shakers of 2009. Then they speculate on the big names of 2010. Here are the highlights:

• Ken Lewis’ fall from grace
• The fallout from the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch merger
• Jamie Dimon: 2009′s Banker of the Year
• Names to watch for in 2010
• A Ken Lewis Book in 2010?
• Keeping an eye on John Paulson

Watch Also – 2009: The Year Of The Great Reversal

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Video: TBI Calendar Click HERE >

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See Also:

• Ken Lewis Booted!
• The Amazing Life And Career Of Jamie Dimon
• John Paulson Is Killing It Again This Quarter

The amount of venture capital thrown at green technology companies was down in 2009 compared to 2008.

Although the amount of deals increased slightly, from 350 to 356, investments in the sector this year totalled just $4.85 billion, a significant drop from 2008′s $7.6 billion.

Venture capitalists are still trying to spin the numbers in a positive way, saying that the “quality of entrepreneurs in the indistry is improving.”

CNET’s Green Tech Blog: In terms of technologies, solar continues to garner the most attention, having brought in $1.4 billion with 84 deals in 2009. Biofuels, another capital-intensive area, received $975 million in 44 deals.

After that, Greentech Media said the next three segments to attract money were energy efficiency and the smart grid; automotive; and batteries, fuel cells, and storage.

Despite the drop in overall spending, new energy-related companies are still taking the plunge and going public. The Battery maker A123 Systems went public earlier this year, and both the solar module manufacturer Solyndra as well as biofuel company Codexis filed papers to go public this month.

Continue reading here.

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• Solyndra Hauls In A $238 Million Deal
• New Investment Fund To Bankroll Green Projects

Thanks to a gossipy blog post on “what really happened” to Tiger Woods the night of his car accident, retired sportswriter Furman Bisher is a great deal more famous than he’d like to be.

On his blog “Bisher Unleashed,” Furman writes that he intended the post to be read only by “friends who indulge in my personal blog,” but that “the darned thing developed legs of its own.”

Furman’s daughter, who manages the blog for him, told him the post was eventually read by over 43,000 “people with all kinds of attitudes.”

Now Furman just wants all the strangers to go away.

He writes:

[The post] was not intended for anybody but those who are plugged into my blog—which is free of charge. No subscription charges are involved. Since I retired from daily columning, I simply like to write a few things now and then, and stay in touch with friends, and pass on information from trusted sources. Anybody else who got it is an intruder, no friend of mine. God knows, how 43,000+ people who have nothing to do but peep in on such an insignificant website as mine irritates me. That, I suppose, illustrates my electronic illiteracy. But, if you are among the offended, then stay off my website. It’s for friends only.

Photo: Funky Tee

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• What Really Happened To Tiger Woods That Night (And Since)*

AT&T becomes the latest sponsor to dump Tiger Woods, reports WSJ. The news was timed, obviously, to get minimal play on a day when most people aren’t paying attention.

Others include Accenture and Gatorade (which dropped its Tiger Woods line of drinks).

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See Also:

• Accenture Launches Frenzied Global Campaign To Disappear Tiger Woods
• Accenture Completely Dumps Tiger Woods
• Gillette And Accenture Bench Tiger Woods

Despite the historic expansion of the federal government’s involvement in, intervention in, and control of the economy — including Bailout Nation; takeovers of banks, car companies, insurance firms, Fannie, Freddie, AIG, GM, Chrysler, and GMAC; large-scale tax threats; overregulation; an attempted takeover of the health-care sector; ultra-easy money; a declining dollar; and unprecedented spending and debt creation — despite all the things that would be expected to destroy the economy — all this socialism lite and the degrading of incentives and rewards for success — despite all this, the U.S. economy has not been destroyed.

In fact, it is coming back. In 2009, the stock market had one of its greatest rebounds in history. And in 2010, we’re likely to witness a mini boom in economic growth.

Read the full column at Kudlow’s Money Politic$ –>

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See Also:

• Kudlow and Carney: The Federal Housing Administration Is Likely To Go Broke
• Did Larry Kudlow Get The Best Of Paul Wilmott?
• Larry Kudlow: Louder, More Conservative In Person