Weird’s Deep Thoughts: (Friday Morning Transformative Insight Edition) Dow Nears Record, But Is It Just Another Bubble?

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow are nearing all-time highs. While getting to this point seemed unimaginable not long ago, the Dow industrials are nearing an all-time high after a tumultuous recent past and a decidedly uncertain future.

A Dow Jones Industrial Average trading over 14,000 seems like a quaint relic that hearkens back to the days before subprime, before the near-collapse of Wall Street, before the economy depended on Federal Reserve printing presses to stay afloat.

Looking ahead, the market confronts a set of circumstances with cross purposes: It needs the Fed to keep pushing stimulus but eventually must break free from that support if the gains are going to be sustained…..

Find the answers at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100405576

Zuck to host campaign fund-raiser for NJ Gov. Chris Christie

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is opening the double-wide doors at his $7 million Palo Alto, Calif., home for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.  The Web wunderkind will host a fund-raiser reception on Feb. 13 for the governor’s re-election campaign at $3,800 a head.

“Mark and [wife] Priscilla offered to be helpful, and Governor Christie is grateful for their support,” Christie’s spokesman, Mike DuHaime, told The Post.

According to a Facebook spokeswoman, Zuckerberg, whose political affiliation is undeclared, supports the Republican governor because of their shared interest and efforts toward education reform….

Find out more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/friending_chris_MuK4whlWpyc9SsRlvfuWFK

Whoa! Triple Dip Recession for Britain?

Shocker: Britain's economy shrank more than expected at the end of 2012 with a North Sea oil production slump, lower factory output and a hangover from London's Olympics pushing it perilously close to a "triple-dip" recession, Reuters reports..  The country's gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday, sharper than a 0.1 percent decline forecast by analysts.

The news is a blow for Britain's Conservative-led government, which a day earlier defended its austerity program against criticism from the International Monetary Fund. It needs solid growth to meet its budget targets, keep a triple-A debt rating and bolster its chances of winning a 2015 election.

Sterling fell to its lowest in 13-1/2 months against the euro and hit a five-month low against the dollar in response to the data. The euro was also buoyed by a stronger-than-expected German Ifo sentiment survey.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/25/us-uk-gdp-idUSBRE90O0CP20130125

Here's The 'Schmuck Insurance' Contract That Started A Decade-Long Feud Between Carl Icahn And Bill Ackman

According to BI it's all out being put out there now. The feud between hedge fund managers Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn reached a fevered pitch yesterday, when Carl Icahn told Bloomberg TV's Trish Regan that Ackman was "disingenuous" in his short against multi-level marketing firm, Herbalife.

Last night, Ackman responded simply by detailing the root of he and Icahn's animosity, a 2003 deal over Hallwood Realty.  At the time, Ackman's hedge fund, Gotham Partners, was going bust. He needed to do a deal so he called up Carl Icahn and offered to sell him shares of Hallwood for $80 a share. It was trading at $60, but Ackman thought it was worth $140.

The deal was, if Icahn sold the shares within 3 years and made a profit of 10% or more, he and Ackman would split the proceeds. To ensure that the deal went off without a hitch, Ackman and Icahn signed a 10 page agreement they called "schmuck insurance."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ackman-icahn-hallwood-contract-2013-1#ixzz2J0FtFlnY

Read This and Weep! Fired Trader Loses $53 Million Bonus

Deutsche Bank’s Christian Bittar, one of the firm’s best-paid traders, lost about 40 million euros ($53 million) in bonuses after he was fired for trying to rig interest rates, three people with knowledge of the move said.

The lender dismissed Bittar in December 2011, claiming he colluded with a Barclays Plc (BARC) trader to manipulate rates and boost the value of his trades in 2006 and 2007, said the people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. His attempts to rig the euro interbank offered rate and similar efforts by derivatives trader Guillaume Adolph over yen Libor are the focus of the bank’s probe, the people told Bloomberg…..

Read all about it at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-25/deutsche-bank-trader-fired-over-rate-rigging-loses-53-million.html

Schwarzman Dude, you’re not getting Dell.

That’s the conclusion Blackstone Group reached after weighing a rival takeover bid for the struggling PC maker, The Post has learned.

Blackstone, the buyout firm led by Steve Schwarzman, talked with Citi in recent days about helping finance an offer before deciding it would be too difficult to pull off, sources said.  Ultimately, the executives who gathered at Blackstone’s offices, including Citi’s vice chairman of global banking, Chad Leat, decided that it would be tough to come up with some $5 billion in equity to top an offer from rival buyout firm Silver Lake Partners.

Silver Lake is expected to kick in $1 billion in equity, while CEO Michael Dell is putting in stock valued at $3.6 billion. Microsoft is also said to be mulling throwing in $1 billion to $3 billion.Schwarzman

More?  Turn to http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/schwarzman_shut_out_of_dell_bidding_eN3PvLWkdDbERqWTo6erLL

Yellow Alert: U.S. Strategic Supply of Million-Dollar Homes Is Dwindling

From Gawker: Tthe Great Recession of the past several years took many things from America: our jobs. Our financial resources. Our pride. But as the economy returns to its former glory, we now face a new peril: our national supply of mansions is getting dangerously low.

The WSJ reports that sales of high end luxury homes roared back this year (and let us take this opportunity to congratulate you all on your million-dollar home sales in 2012—finally!). Good news? Sure—for the Soviets. How many terrorists, communists, and socialists enemies of this nation are rubbing their hands together in glee, waiting for us to deplete our precious Mansion Reserves before they strike?:

From the WSJ: At the current sales pace, it would take nearly 12 months to sell the supply of million-dollar properties available for sale in October, down sharply from 21 months one year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. The supply shortage is becoming particularly acute in the West, where the supply of million-dollar homes stood at just six months in October….

http://gawker.com/5971768/americas-strategic-supply-of-million+dollar-homes-is-dwindling?tag=the-rich