Goldman Workers To Stay In Their Penthouses, Firm Sets Aside Record Amount For Pay

- OR -

According to reports from Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has set aside a record $16.9 billion to pay salaries, benefits and bonuses in the first nine months of the year. This tops last year's $16.5 billion figure for the whole year. Link to Article

Meanwhile, some Bear Stearns' (NYSE: BSC) traders and salespeople will be setting up their cardboard boxes next to the dead-beat mortgage borrowers whose loans were packaged and sold by Bear, leading to the collapse in the credit markets.

Ben Bernanke - Just Call Me 'Fiddy'

Along with 'Uncle Ben', 'Helicopter Ben', and 'The Beard' Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will now like to be called 'Fiddy Cent' following his 50 bp cut of the Fed Fund rate and the Discount rate.

Fed Gets It Right, Hawks Shut Up

The Fed just cut the fed funds rate by 50bp - Bravo! This was a must. Uncle Ben got it right. He finally got over the Helicopter Ben-complex and let it fly.

All the inflation hawks will be crying and are booking appearances on TV as we speak. Yeah food is up, yeah energy is up, gold too - but housing is crashing. How can the largest household asset plummet and people not even mention it in the inflation argument? The crash in housing will also lead to a drop in rents - a huge household expenditure for those that don't own. Worried about a little inflation? How about another depression you fools.

The fed got it right - period. Inflation hawks shut up.

IAC's Diller Calls Faber "Honey"

IAC/InterActiveCorp's (Nasdaq: IACI) CEO Barry Diller may have proved rumors he is gay by calling CNBC's David Faber "honey" in an interview at a Wall Street media conference. Link to CNBC video (About 4:45 minutes in)

Does Countrywide's Mozilo Have a Right To Call Someone Else "Irresponsible"?

I find it amusing that Countrywide's (NYSE: CFC) CEO Angelo Mozilo is out saying the Merrill Lynch analyst was "irresponsible" for mentioning a worse case scenario 'bankruptcy' in his 08/15 downgrade of the company.

Let's look how "irresponsible" Mozilo has been:

1. Giving loans to people who could never pay them back.

2. Telling the world how great your company is and how much you would capitalize on the demise of others while your business model was collapsing.

3. Telling CNBC a recession was coming. (I find this a little self serving)

4. Dumping millions of shares for "diversification" purposes. "I have a big family" and "lots of college expenses" Mozilo said to CNBC. What a joke.

5. Bragging about your ample liquidity and strong financial position just weeks before drawing down your complete credit facility and giving away the house to Bank of America.

6. Calling the Banc of America investment a 'vote of confidence' (How about buying your own stock for a 'vote of confidence').

These are some off the top of my head. I'm sure there were many more irresponsible words and actions.

New Site Easystockalerts.com is Live

Check out our latest site http://www.easystockalerts.com

Benefits
- Never miss news on stocks that you follow.
- Easy to use
- Create a custom conslildated RSS feed, that you can easily add to any RSS reader
- Receive SEC filings on your stocks (10K, 10Q, 8K, Form 4, 13G, 13D, etc)
- Get Upgrades, Downgrades, New Coverage Alerts From Wall Street Brokers
- Find out what bloggers are saying about you stock
- Find out which funds are buying and selling your stock
- Find out about Wall Street rumors on your stocks
- Find out what Wall Street analysts are saying about your stock.

Ford CEO Mulally Yucking It Up on the Links While Company Falters

So the company you just took over is going down the tube fast and just racked up a record $12.7 billion loss. What do you do? Golf I guess.

The Detroit Free Press sports section has an embarrassing article on Ford's (NYSE: F) new CEO Alan Mulally discussing how he is spending more time on the links then in the corporate office lately.

RIDICULOUS

From the article:

"The news is bad all around, and Alan Mulally is playing golf. Five days before Ford Motor Co. announced its record $12.7-billion loss for 2006, the chief executive officer played in the pro-am of the PGA Tour's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic near Palm Springs, Calif.

Two weeks after making the historic announcement, Mulally was back on the PGA Tour, this time teeing it up in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

That means Mulally has played in more PGA Tour events this year than Tiger Woods." Link to the Article

Renaissance Technologies Disclosed a Number of New 5%+ Positions

Renaissance Technologies disclosed a number of new 5%+ positions today in various 13G filings. Renaissance Technologies, started by Jim Simons, is considered one of the most successful hedge funds. Renaissance is a "black-box" fund, using sophisticated computer models to predict market movements.

New 5%+ positions:
Zoll Medical (Nasdaq: ZOLL) 6.05% stake.
World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) 8.4% stake
Versant Corporation (NASDAQ: VSNT) 5.2% stake
UTStarcom, Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI) 8.45% stake
Sigmatel (NASDAQ: SGTL) 5.75% stake
RadiSys Corporation (NASDAQ: RSYS) 5.25% stake
QLT Inc. (Nasdaq: QLTI) 6.8% stake
PortalPlayer, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLAY) 9.16% stake
Planar Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLNR) 5.81% stake
Northstar Realty Finance (NYSE: NRF) 5.49% stake
Northgate Minerals Corporation (AMEX: NXG) 5.72% stake
Nortel Inversora S.A. (NYSE: NTL) 5.47% stake
NewMarket Corporation (NYSE: NEU) 5.84% stake
Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: NWK) 5.36% stake
NDS Group plc (Nasdaq: NNDS) 6.4% stake
National Telephone Company of Venezuela (NYSE: VNT) 5.59% stake
Mothers Work, Inc. (Nasdaq: MWRK) 6.58% stake
Microstrategy Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR) 6.09% stake
Mercury Computer Systems (Nasdaq: MRCY) 5.42% stake
Mentor Graphics (Nasdaq: MENT) 5.29% stake
McData Corporation 7.59% stake
Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Inc (NYSE: IHR) 6.15% stake
Magnetek, Inc. (NYSE: MAG) 5.79% stake
Infospace, Inc. (Nasdaq: INSP) 6.11% stake
LTX Corporation (Nasdaq: LTXX) 5.69% stake
Kellwood Company (NYSE: KWD) 5.54% stake
Infocus Corporation (Nasdaq: INFS) 5.49% stake
HEICO Corporation (NYSE: HEI) 8.1% stake
ESS Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESST) 5.53% stake
Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENZN) 7.85% stake
Eagle Broadband, Inc. (AMEX: EAG) 5.46% stake
Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment (NYSE: DDE) 8.15% stake
Dolby Laboratories (NYSE: DLB) 5% stake
CT Communications (Nasdaq: CTCI) 5.88% stake
Credence Systems Corporation (Nasdaq: CMOS) 6.15% stake
CPI Corp. (NYSE: CPY) 6.25% stake
Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises (Nasdaq: CTCO) 6.58% stake
Cell Genesys, Inc (Nasdaq: CEGE) 6.17% stake
C&D Technologies (NYSE: CHP) 6.81% stake
Brocade Communications (Nasdaq: BRCD) 5.37% stake
The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) 7.49% stake
Avici Systems (Nasdaq: AVCI) 8% stake
Angeion Corporation (Nasdaq: ANGN) 6.66% stake

Stocks to Watch Tomorrow 01/31

Today's "we-have-a-technology-that-if-not-successful-you-will-lose-everything" micro-cap stock was Sulphco Inc. (AMEX: SUF). The stock was up 23.6% today on heavy volume. There was a recent shake-up at the top after the former CEO was thrown out by the board after trying to impose his will on the company.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is reporting after the close tomorrow and will be 'the stock' to watch. Other biggies reporting tomorrow include: Before the open: Altria (NYSE: MO), Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX); After the close: Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) and Western Union (NYSE: WU).

NutriSystem Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRI) is starting to lose that "momentum" feeling. The stock was down 10% intra-day and is down another 11% after the close following Q1 guidance that was below Wall Street.

Every time I hear a report on CNBC from Maria Bartiromo I keep thinking she is going to make a confession about her escapades with Citigroup's ex-wealth management chief Todd Thomson. Did you or didn't you join the mile-high-club Maria? Wall Street wants to know.