The U.S. policies have driven short-term interest rates to Japan-like levels, creating “free” money for banks, creating a massive carry-trade speculative investment funds flow,  financially crippling low and middle income senior citizens who have historically relied on bank deposits to supplement their meager Social Security checks, and pushing very hard on investors to leave the short-term Treasury “nest” to take flight into riskier assets.

The goal, of course, is to rehabilitate the banks; but they are doing so at the expense of taxpayers, at the expense of savers, while forcing cautious investors into risk assets they do not prefer at this time, while creating a massive tool for the carry-trade speculators, and while restoring enormous bonus potential to financial executives whose Boards will reward them for seeming to have solved their company’s problems (when free money will have been the main medicine).

Never before, and we hope never again — or Japan

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Ford (F), CarMax (KMX), AutoNation (AN), Apartment Investors (AIV) and Equity Residential (EQR).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

CPI Up on Cars, Energy

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October rose by 0.3%, a little bit hotter than the 0.2% that was expected. If one strips out volatile food and energy prices to get the core consumer price index, prices were up 0.2%, also one tick higher than the 0.1%

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The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October rose by 0.3%, a little bit hotter than the 0.2% that was expected. If one strips out volatile food and energy prices to get the core consumer price index, prices were up 0.2%, also one tick higher than the 0.1% expected. A rise in energy prices was not unexpected. Heck, one only has to see what the price of crude oil and natural gas have done over the last month or so. For the month, the price of energy rose 1.5% overall. The rise was sharpest among energy commodities, like gasoline and heating oil, which rose by 1.9%. Energy services, like electricity rose a more moderate -- but still steep -- 0.9%. The rise in core consumer prices was a bit more of a surprise. However, the rising prices were very narrow, with almost all of the increases due to ...

November 11, 2009 ndash; Analyst Comments -nbsp; Pacific Crestrsquo;s Mark Bachman commented on A123 Systemsrsquo; Q3 financial results this morning, noting that the results were ldquo;solidrdquo; and there is no change to his long-term thesis. He rates the stock at SECTOR PERFORM. Financial Resultsnbsp;nbsp; Q3 revenue of $23.6 million, up from $22.9 million for the same period last year. Product revenue increased 42% on Y/Y basis, while Ramp;D revenue increased 59% Y/Y. The company reported anbsp; net loss of $22.8 million, or $1.78 per share, compared with a net loss of $1 million for the same period last year. It had $494 million of cash on hand at September 30, 2009. Bachmanrsquo;s Key Takeaways middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; ldquo;The loss of ($1.78) per share looks much worse than our estimate of ($0.20), but all but $0.03 of the miss was driven by a share-count discrepancy.nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; A123 is confident about Chrysler, but the implications are ...

American Axle (AXL) posted a net loss of 18 cents before special items in the third quarter of the year. This is better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 37 cents per share. Net sales dipped 22% to $409.6 million. However, in absolute terms, it is the highest quarterly sales of the year. The lower sales were on the back of a 18% decline in customer production volumes for the North American light truck and sport utility vehicle (SUV) programs that American Axle currently supports for GM and Chrysler. American Axle’s content-per-vehicle (measured by the dollar value of its product sales supporting GM's North American light truck and SUV programs and Chrysler's Heavy Duty Dodge Ram pickup trucks) fell to $1,396 from $1,453 in the third quarter of 2008. Non-GM sales constituted 18.3% of total sales in the reported quarter. The company’s non-GM ...

U.S. stocks wobbled Tuesday and ended the day mixed even as automakers reported improved auto sales and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway said it would buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.  Traders were reluctant to place big bets as they awaited the outcome of a two-day FOMC meeting which got underway Tuesday and Friday's monthly jobs report.  Although expectations are the Fed would keep interest rates in the 0-0.25% range, Wall Street has been speculating if there would be a change of tone in the policy statement. 

On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average closed down 17.53 points, or 0.18%, to 9,771.91.  The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index added 2.53 points, or 0.24%, to 1,045.41 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 8.12 points, or 0.40%, to 2,057.32.  On the NYSE, volume slowed to 1.38 billion shares.  

The news of a sale of 200 tons of gold to India sent

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The driving philosophy of corporate America used to be based on the principle of in-house development. If it wasn’t made in-house, companies simply weren’t interested. Companies wanted things over which they had full control, and from which they could enjoy 100% of the profits. Total independence. Total control. If a good idea came along that wasn’t developed in-house, the temptation was to find some way to tweak it and claim that it was developed in-house.

All of this led to some pretty nasty lawsuits. One of the best known cases, popularized in the movie Flash Of Genius, was that of Robert Kearns. Kearns was a Detroit engineer who developed the electronic intermittent windshield wiper for automobiles, getting his first patent for it in 1967. When he failed to get the major automakers to buy his idea and then saw them come

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Labor unrest at Ford’s (F) auto supplier plant in India has prompted the company to shut down its Oakville, Ontario, plant for the week, which employs 3,000 workers in two shifts. The closure would cost Ford 5,000 vehicles. The idled employees would get 65% of regular pay from a combination of funding from the company and employment insurance.  The strike at Rico Auto Industries in the state of Haryana in India turned violent after an employee died recently during a protest. It has triggered a shortage of transmission parts to the Canadian plant. The plant produces Edge SUV, the Flex and Lincoln MKT seven-passenger vehicle and the Lincoln MKX.  Last week, labor trouble had erupted at some of Ford’s plants when some members of United Auto Workers (UAW) declined to ratify the modifications to its 2007 labor contract. The modifications include banning strikes over wages or ...

Autoliv (ALV) has shown a profit of $33.7 million or 37 cents per share in the third quarter of the year, after reporting losses for the preceding three quarters. The Sweden-based supplier of automotive safety systems has also beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 24 cents per share. Nevertheless, earnings declined from $34 million, or 44 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2008. Autoliv believed higher light vehicle production from the "Cash for Clunkers" program and other stimulus packages boosted its earnings. Consolidated net sales declined 14% to $1.32 billion while organic sales (i.e., sales excluding currency effects and acquisitions/ divestitures) fell 12%. Segment Performance Sales of airbag products decreased 12% to $858 million. Organic sales in the segment dipped 11% compared to an 18% decline in light vehicle production (LVP) in the Triad (i.e. North America, Europe and Japan) due to new ...

Ford Motor Co. (F) has finally reached a tentative national agreement with 250 leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on modifications to its 2007 labor contract. The deal, which runs until 2011, will help Ford end its cost disadvantage while securing jobs for the union workers at the same time. However, the deal has yet to be approved by the 41,000 UAW members at Ford. Voting will begin this week. Ford was upset with its higher labor costs compared to its Detroit rivals, General Motors and Chrysler. Both of those companies were given concessions as they headed into bankruptcy protection earlier this year. However, the deal will enable the automaker to lower the labor costs to match those of its rivals. If the members ratify the agreement, they will be given bonuses and additional work with investments at some factories. The $1,000 bonus is payable ...