Weird’s Deep Thoughts (Sunday Noon Pre-game Insight Edition) What’s Gone Wrong At Apple

“….Specifically, The NY Times’ Paul Kedrosky thinks that, in the power-vacuum following Steve Jobs' death, the design team, led by Jony Ive, have been given too much latitude--such that Apple is now designing products that it is not capable of manufacturing as smoothly and quickly as it needs to to meet demand.

“When Jobs was alive, Kedrosky implies, this "tension" between the design teams and manufacturing teams was in almost perfect balance. Jobs's brilliance as both a product designer and business executive kept the company from "over-designing" its products, or, just as bad, focusing so much on the numbers that its design standards sagged. And this balance, Kedrosky suggests, allowed Apple to continually out-design and out-produce the competition. But now that Jobs is gone, Kedrosky suggests, Jony Ive's design team has been given too much power--without a critical check and balance on whether Ive's products can actually be produced in the quantity and timeframe that Apple needs to produce them to meet demand….”

Read all about it at : http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-kedrosky-on-what-has-gone-wrong-at-apple-2013-2

Warren Buffett's Greatest Fear Has Nothing To Do With Money

According to BI’s Linette Lopez, Warren Buffett is the fourth richest man in the world, so you would think money would be his tip-top priority, but it's not.

What he's really worried about, according to Morningstar (h/t Josh Brown) is a nuclear, biological or chemical attack on Washington D.C. or New York City. At least that's what he said in 2002.

From Morningstar:

"We're going to have something in the way of a major nuclear event in this country. It will happen. Whether it will happen in 10 years or 10 minutes, or 50 years ... it's virtually a certainty."

Buffett's worried that the technology it takes to make these terrible fears a reality are becoming more accessible to those that wish to do the United States harm, and eventually our enemies are going to get their hands on these awful weapons.

Can't say The Buffett sweats the small stuff.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffetts-greatest-fear-2013-1

Dell Buyout Deal Could Come as Soon as Monday

Dell is nearing an agreement to sell itself to a buyout consortium led by its founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, possibly announcing a deal as soon as Monday, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC

Michael Dell is expected to take majority ownership of the world's third-largest personal computer maker, which currently has a market value of $23 billion, while Silver Lake and Microsoft Corp would become minority investors, a third person familiar with the matter said.

The final price the group is expected to pay Dell shareholders could not be immediately learned. The deal would mark the largest leveraged buyout since the global financial crisis.  The transaction is set to be finalized over the weekend but the buyout consortium is working on last-minute details and the timetable could still slip, the people cautioned, asking not to be named because the matter is not public.

Read all about it at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100425886

And We're B-a-a-c-k! Dow 14,000 Fuels a New Wealth Boom

From CNBC: The next American wealth boom has officially begun.  It may not feel like it for many Americans. But with the Dow breaching 14,000, shareholders and investors have recovered the more than $8 trillion in wealth lost during the recession and attained levels of paper wealth they haven't seen since the Roaring Oughts.

The stock market has gone from wealth destroyer to the nation's largest manufacturer of new millionaires and billionaires. The market moves are creating a new virtuous cycle of confidence for the wealthy. A new survey from Spectrem Group shows that millionaire confidence in the economy hit the highest level in two years, led by their bullishness on the economy and corporate earnings.

The big question now is what the next Gilded Age will look like, who will benefit and how long the market-fueled prosperity will last.   The population of millionaires in America is now at or above its 2007 high. According to Spectrem Group, the wealth research firm, there are about 9 million American households with investible assets of $1 million or more. The final tally for 2012 is not yet released, but George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, said he expects 2012 and 2013 to to approach, or even match the all-time high of 9.2 million in 2007….

Read all about it at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100420112

Biotech IPO balm for Madoff investors

 For once, according to the NY Post, convicted Ponzi king Bernie Madoff has produced profits that aren’t too good to be true.  A $2.2 million investment that he made in a small biotech company years before his house of cards came crashing down in December 2008 more than doubled in value this week.

Stemline Therapeutics went public on Tuesday, selling 3.3 million shares at $10 a piece. The stock closed down 2 percent yesterday, at $10.75, valuing Madoff’s initial $2.2 million investment at $5.5 million on paper.  That’s good news for Madoff’s burned investors, who stand to benefit if Irving Picard — the court-appointed trustee tasked with clawing back money for victims — succeeds in grabbing those shares.

According to a lawsuit Picard filed against a Madoff family fund, the Stemline shares “rightfully belong to... customers.”   According to Stemline’s latest regulatory filing, Madoff Family LLC holds 515,203 shares. That represented 14.82 percent of the company before it went public. After the IPO, the fund held the same number of shares but controls 6.87 percent of the public company….

More?  Check out http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/biotech_ipo_balm_for_madoff_investors_GhdEaKOdggeYrhhBD7duGO

Fab to Goldman: Bye Bye

The NY Post reports that the divorce is official.   Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre — accused of misleading investors in a trade that ultimately cost the firm $550 million in fines — has left the building for good, sources said.

The trader had been on paid leave since shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of fraud in April 2010 for putting together the now-infamous Abacus bond deal.

In November 2011, Tourre quietly changed his status to unpaid leave, a company spokesman said. Then, in December 2012, he left the Wall Street firm completely.

The SECT fraud charges allege that the 35-year-old trader orchestrated the sale of complex mortgage securities to an investor that a hedge fund bet against…

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/fab_takes_leave_of_goldman_vPp1nCIo8jYNSyEY6OgmDK

Dr Doom and Gloom’s predictions for 2013

From the SCMP: It’s always good value listening to the thoughts of Marc Faber, otherwise known as Dr Doom. The eternally bearish investment guru can always be relied on to pour cold water on market exuberance, no matter how buoyant things might look.

He notes the S & P 500 is getting very close to the all-time high of 1565, but he’s not big on equities full stop.  “If you look back at equity performance over the last 15 years, it has not been good. The Dow hit 1100 in March of 1999 and we’re only getting close to 1,4000 now,” he reminded RTHK listeners.  In fact, equities have done miserably in the last 15 years, he concluded. So isn’t it about time that they are the place to be? Not really, he said, pointing out that the Dow Jones and S & P Stock performance, dividends included, averages out at a pretty unexciting 6 per cent per annum.   

When you print money, he sighs, it tends to go to the people closest to it, so the rich guys get this money at the expense of people at the lower end. But he doesn’t think we’re anywhere near the 16th or 3rd centuries where massive social upheaval erupted. But when food prices go up, you get more social problems. Not so much for the partner at Goldman Sachs because as a percentage of his total income food expenditure is maybe 3 per cent, “unless he is a heavy cocaine user.”  But in India people spend 50 to 60 per cent of their income on food, so when food prices rise, it hurts the lower income recipients most….

‘

Wait, wait..there’s more at http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1140044/dr-doom-and-gloom-makes-his-investment-predictions-2013