The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday asked for a jury trial related to its lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for misleading shareholders about bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees before the companies merged in January.   U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff last month rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America over the $3.6 billion in bonuses. The District Court Judge said that SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must go to trial. The date of trial is set for March 1, 2010.   Though BofA overpaid for Merrill Lynch, the deal makes strategic sense now. With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, BofA gained a global investment-banking platform, profitable retail brokerage addition and significant equity-underwriting capacity, all of which it lacked earlier. For the first half of 2009, Merrill contributed $1.84 billion....

I've decided to do a follow up on Geothermal Energy. Back in December of '08 I did some research on the industry, which you can read here:br /br /a href="http://briskycapital.blogspot.com/2008/12/alternative-energy-look-at-geothermal.html"Alternative Energy: A Look at Geothermal/a.br /br /a href="http://briskycapital.blogspot.com/2008/12/more-news-on-geothermal-front.html"More News on the Geothermal Front/a.br /br /Since that point, we've seen economic pressures increase, and very recently (maybe) improve. The key to growth in the Geothermal, or any alternative energy for that matter, relies on a couple of key factors:br /br /1) strongPolitical will/strong. This means commitment of enticements (tax credits) or legislation requiring a switch (such as renewable portfolio standards).br /br /2) strongPrivate capital/strong.br /br /#1 is happening. The Obama administration had shown that they are not going to let the financial situation stop them from plowing through their agenda. This can be both good and bad, but politics aside, its good for alternative energy. For example: a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iefPrJhVWg96r7HllsLMJF5ehNmwD97SA01G1"strongemEnergy Sec. announces ...

Every week when I get span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" style="color:#000099;"stronga href="http://online.barrons.com/home/main"Barron's/a/strong/span, I take a look at the insider transactions. I use it mostly for a barometer of market sentiment. Do these guys think their own shares are worth buying or unloading? I'm aware that there are many reasons they can sell their own stock, and it doesn't necessarily mean the stock is overvalued. But I look for trends. Large groups of insiders selling, or specifically different companies within the same sector seeing insider activity.br /br /Well, one of the groups I've focused on in the past couple of weeks, casual chain restaurants, has seen some activity. Here are a few posts:br /br /a href="http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/04/americas-hottest-sector-casual-dining.html"America's Hottest Sector: Casual Chain Restaurants/a. (via Fund My Mutual Fund)br /a href="http://briskycapital.blogspot.com/2009/04/insider-selling-quite-strong.html"Insider Selling Quite Strong/a.br /a href="http://briskycapital.blogspot.com/2009/04/not-so-fast-pf-changs.html"Not So Fast, PF Chang's? /abr /br /With my opinion that their latest batch of strong earnings will be tough ...

The purpose of IBOR is to protect financial markets and to create self-sufficient investors who produce economic growth instead of government deficits. IBOR standards create transparent financial markets, regulate speculation, and protect retirement portfolios. Here’s a sampling:

Section One: Product Transparency. All investors have a right to see precisely what securities are inside any investment product by accessing real time information that includes names and cost-based allocation percentages.

Section Two: Regulation and Education.

Section Three: Protection from Speculators. Investors have a right to protection from risks added to portfolios without their control, knowledge, or permission.
Naked shorting, index fund ownership of large share positions, and all naked option transactions would be prohibited.

Section Four: Controls of Hedge Funds.

Section Five: Brokerage Account Statements. Investors have a right to account statements that: 1) help manage asset allocation targets, 2) report realized gains and losses, 3) track …

SIBORAP includes these ten specific sections: (1) Product Transparency, (2) Regulation and Education, (3) Protection from Speculators (4) Control of Hedge Funds, (5) Brokerage Account Statements, (6) Retirement Account Investments, (7) Executive Compensation, (8) Corporate Financial Statements, (9) Taxation of Investment and Retirement Income, and (10) Transactional Greed and Fear Controls.

Section Seven: Executive Compensation – continued from Part Three of the SIBORAP report.

Every dollar paid to corporate executives, directors, and employees (in any form whatsoever) in excess of two million dollars would be matched by a ten-cent per share extra dividend to all shareholders and a 10%-of-annual-pay bonus to all employees.

All golden parachutes, separate “non-qualified” retirement plans, stock option and deferred compensation programs, and others that do not benefit all employees and shareholders will be unwound over a three to five year period. Any employee who receives …

SIBORAP includes these ten specific sections: (1) Product Transparency, (2) Regulation and Education, (3) Protection from Speculators (4) Control of Hedge Funds, (5) Brokerage Account Statements, (6) Retirement Account Investments, (7) Executive Compensation, (8) Corporate Financial Statements, (9) Taxation of Investment and Retirement Income, and (10) Transactional Greed and Fear Controls.

Section Five: Brokerage Account Statements.

Investors have a right to brokerage account statements that: (1) help them monitor and manage their asset allocation, (2) report realized gains and losses for the year, (3) track both the cost of their holdings, and their net account deposits, and (4) emphasize the long-term, cyclical nature of the investment process.

Under SIBORAP, all brokerage firms would be required to maintain cost basis information on all holdings, and the ACATS system would be required to provide it in all transfer transactions. Mutual funds would be required …

SIBORAP includes these ten specific sections: (1) Product Transparency, (2) Regulation and Education, (3) Protection from Speculators (4) Control of Hedge Funds, (5) Brokerage Account Statements, (6) Retirement Account Investments, (7) Executive Compensation, (8) Corporate Financial Statements, (9) Taxation of Investment and Retirement Income, and (10) Transactional Greed and Fear Controls.

Section Two: Regulation and Education (continued from Part One of the SIBORAP report).

Security industry regulators will be charged with many responsibilities: (1) educating investors with respect to product content; (2) developing a “hierarchy-of-risk” tool that identifies the risks in all things sold to investors; and (3) preventing the spread of unregulated Internet based investment advice offered by persons of unknown qualifications.

Additionally, they will be responsible for:

(4) Preventing the development of multi-level, multi-leveraged, WMFDs; (5) requiring that all financial blogs include appropriate caveats that speak to the qualifications of …

We the securities investors of the United States, in order to form more transparent financial markets, establish effective regulations, defend against destructive speculation and manipulation, promote financial well-being, preserve working capital, and protect retirement income, do establish this Securities Investors Bill of Rights and Protections (SIBORAP).

These rights are intended to replace, amend and/or abolish all laws and regulations currently in conflict with SIBORAP, and are to be implemented by all parties to financial transactions.

Any institutional efforts to create and/or market securities and/or derivative products that do not comply with the spirit of SIBORAP will result in fines to corporate officers and directors, congressional oversight committee members, regulatory agency directors, and their financial or legal counsel.

All derivative investment products of any kind, any investment programs or specific recommendations promoted in any medium by non-professionals and professionals alike, SEC …

On December 4 2007 I wrote a piece called Roll with Landstar, Short CHRW, saying:

“Based solely on sales or operating margins, Landstar (LSTR - Annual Report) is about 35% the size of CH Robinson (CHRW - Annual Report). If it had the same relative valuation, it would trade at $52 per share.

CH Robinson’s forward price-to-earnings multiple is 24.6, compared with 19.3 for Landstar. At 24.6 times estimated 2008 earnings, Landstar would be trading north of $54. Assigning CHRW’s 1.67 PEG ratio (P/E ratio related to its growth rate) to Landstar would give it a $49 value.

CH Robinson has a lofty 16.1 times EV/EBITDA ratio. If Landstar got that multiple, its stock would be $60.”

The day I wrote the article, Landstar closed at $43.02 and CH Robinson was $53.03. Today, they are in a dead heat price-wise, with LSTR at $55.59 and CH Robinson at

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My latest column is up at RealMoney.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in May increased slightly to $213.6 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced last week. This was the first increase in three months, and it followed a 1.0% April decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.9%. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 0.6%.

Behind that bland summary, though, is usually a wealth of information that I believe could be useful for picking the best industries in which to invest. This month, the signal was clear. Get defensive. Among a sea of industries seeing declining sales and orders, one stood out for its strength: defense aircraft and parts.

Disclosure: At time of publication, William Trent has no financial position in the companies mentioned in this article.

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