1-2 Knockout

Famous Last Words, or: Credit Agricole is the New Bear Stearns

This came across the news wires earlier today:

14:23 05/20 *DJ Credit Agricole Chmn: No Reason  For Customers To Be Worried

I Think we all know how this one is going to work out...

fin

This Week in "Duh"

Venerable department store icon Macy's (NYSE: M)  is really at the forefront of retail strategy.  I'm totally not being sarcastic either.  WSJ has a piece about how Macy's is announcing the unprecedented move of tailoring items in its stores to local tastes.

Now, after Macy Inc.'s same-store sales dropped 1.3% in 2007 from the previous year, Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren is changing course. He is ditching the nationwide cookie-cutter approach in favor of tailoring merchandise at the world's largest department-store chain by sales to local tastes.

"What the consumer wants in the Galleria of St. Louis is different from what the consumer wants in State Street Chicago, or what the consumer wants in Portland, Oregon," Mr. Lundgren says. He now wants 15% of the merchandise in stores to reflect local preferences.

Duh.

I just hope they didn't pay McKinsey or BCG to come up with this brilliant, ground-breaing strategy.  Pretty sure this item speaks for itself, demanding no further comment.

Pro:Con::Progress:Countrywide?

Presented without further comment (from wsj.com), sigh...

 

US Government Bails Out Strippers

CNBC 'reported' this morning that 45% of all paper money printed by the Treasury is $1 bill denomination.  Everyone and their mother is so concerned about the Fed bailing out Bear Stearns that this has COMPLETELY flown under the radar.  Riddle me this Batman: which is the greater evil?  Bailing out exotic dancers or Wall Street executives?  It can be argued that both are, on the whole, largely over-paid, especially relative to performance.  The differentiating factor though, is that due to the Treasury's subterfuge, strippers represent a solid hedge in a struggling economy.  In a nod to our friends at Long or Short Capital, I suggest going long strippers (although you might want to keep size in-check), and short rich white guys (especially John Meriwether).