Cyberonics, Inc. (CYBX) entered into two collaboration agreements in the field of EEG-based seizure detection technology to bolster its leadership position in epilepsy. The collaborations are with NeuroVista Corporation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The License Agreement with NeuroVista Corporation entered on Oct 1, 2009 provides Cyberonics with access to a wide range of technology and patents in exchange for payments extending through Apr 2011. Details regarding the payments have not yet been disclosed.  The NeuroVista technology includes an algorithm for seizure detection, a rechargeable battery system, wireless communication, and an implantable lead and will help Cyberonics accelerate its development of an implantable pulse generator. NeuroVista Corporation is an early-stage medical device company pioneering new technologies in the management and treatment of epilepsy, a central nervous system disorder characterized by loss of consciousness and convulsions.  In early 2009, Cyberonics entered into an Exclusive Patent ...

Richard W. Fisher, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas,  was once one of the most expressive economist imaginable often using graphic and sensationalist words and expressions to get our attention when describing the ‘nightmarish predicament’ and ‘monstrous challenge’ that has finally engulfed us. It was only a year ago that he warned that a ‘frightful storm is brewing’ – ‘the mother of all financial storms’ – that could well plunge the U.S. government deeper into a ‘fiscal abyss’ causing the country to become submerged in a ‘vast fiscal chasm’. Fisher has not always been so dramatic in spite of saying recently ‘I am a Texan and Texans speak plainly and directly’ and he is not being very direct these days either.

Fisher once was distracted from the truth but today it would seem that he is being compelled to ignore his very own words of warning referring …

Wherever we’re going, are we there yet? Nope! But we’re getting there. That is, America is sleepwalking its way into poverty. China is performing a kind of financial alchemy. And Australia finds itself subject to American-style problems, but benefitting from China’s Grand Economic Strategy.

But how about those powerful idealists on U.S. markets? Both the S&P 500 and the Dow were up nearly three percent. If you can believe it, they were led by financial stocks and retailers. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) finished up 9.9% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) put it on its “conviction buy” list. Home hardware retailer Lowes was up 8.1% after a survey of U.S. homebuilder confidence surged.

By the way, what the hell is a “conviction buy” list? Does that mean you can only recommend stocks in which the executives have been convicted of a crime? And if it means a share you can buy with

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The IMF finally announced it's Latvia "bailout" plan on Friday. The plan involves lending about €1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) to Latvia to stabilise the currency and financial support while the government implements its economic adjustment plan. The loan, which will be in the form of a 27-month stand-by arrangement, is still subject to final approval by the IMF's Executive Board but is likely to be discussed before the end of this year under the Fund's fast-track emergency financing procedures, and it is not anticipated that there will be any last minute hitches (although I do imagine some eyebrow raising over the decision to support the continuation of the Lat peg). The Latvian government admits that some of the IMF economists involved in the negotiations advocated a devaluation of the lat as a way of ammeliorating the ...

I have some bad news for the U.S. government; the taxpayers are not prepared to loan anything to anybody! Hell, total debt-to-GDP is over 350% already, maybe 450%, which is, either way, the highest, by far, of anything I’ve seen in U.S. history…

When I woke up, it was morning, which meant that the economic world did not blow apart during the night, abruptly waking me up by setting off loud alarms in the Mogambo Big Battle Bunker (MBBB), rudely alerting me to another outbreak of serious financial trouble from the economic cataclysm (”bust”) that I figure is right around the corner, now that the decades of irresponsible over-creation of excess money and credit by Alan Greenspan and his misbegotten Federal Reserve (”the boom”), and the rest of the central banks of the world, are wreaking their inevitable damage.

Which is not to mention the inevitable wars that usually break out about

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After a weekend in which the deepening U.S credit crisis sent one top investment bank to bankruptcy court and a second into the arms of a “White Knight” suitor, U.S. stocks yesterday (Monday) recorded their worst day since the 9/11 terrorists attacks seven years ago. Indeed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 504 points, its biggest one-day point decline since Sept. 17, 2001 – the day the markets reopened for trading after the attacks on New York and Washington. Wall Street entered last weekend anticipating a government bailout of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH), but exited with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) agreeing to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for nearly $50 billion – and with Lehman announcing it will seek bankruptcy in a bid to avoid a total ...