Caddies: Steve Williams-some never learn as Woods does Damage control

Tiger Woods has had a great run with his current caddie Steve Williams. Williams seems to be 100% in Tiger's corner, confidant and friend with his boss. He has always kept his exposure to the media to a minimum and seemed to understand that Tiger expected his caddie to keep his opinions to him self and to keep from doing anything that would take focus away from winning golf tournaments. No doubt Williams has become wealthy thanks to Tiger. Even if Williams is the world's greatest caddie, Tiger can win with him or with out him.

Recently Williams made some inexcusable comments about Phil Mickelson, one the world's other top golfers. The dismissive and derogatory comments were more telling of William's immaturity and pettiness than a description of Mickelson. Mickelson handle the situation with dignity and class as usual and made reference to how lucky he was to have such an excellent caddie on his bag. It was a telling moment for Mickelson, who is an extremely popular player. His comments were even more dismissive than those of Williams and showed that Mickelson as skilled in public relations as he is with his 60 degree wedge.

There was not a lot Tiger Woods could do other than cringe once Willams was recorded. He did make a phone call to Mickelson. I am sure both professionals know it is better for everyone to put this behind them but a gag order for Steve Williams might be put into place by the Woods camp so this hole doesn't get dug deeper with inept and insincere apology attempts. The truth and reality of PGA tour caddies is that they are to be seen and not heard-especially in the media. Mickelson made it clear that good caddies know their job does not include spouting off to the media.

Any other issues that call for Tiger to step up and do damage control will likely send Steve Williams to his home........... back down under.

Raising the Estate Tax?

I thought this was America. A place where people could work hard, be productive, get ahead and build their wealth without having the government try to take it all from them. Why is it whining when the rich people complain about taxes but it is ok for the whiners who resent successful people???? I think it about time the government cuts the ridiculous spending. First and Foremost why doesn't B Obama give back the 400 k that he gets paid to be president? Just for starters.....then cut the salaries on all the senators by 12% and cut out their vouchers for flying back home every weekend and let the go back and stay for two weeks and then go back to DC in dc two weeks (one round trip ticket per month). After they make a few sacrifices they can all sit down and talk about raising taxes. The estate tax is un-American plan and simple. Remember there was revolution, a revolt partly again excessive taxation.

Bank CEO's put on notice by Geithner

The smartest thing I have heard by the government was that they will consider dumping bank CEO's....finally. They have needed to hear this for a long time so they start to fix their own problems more quickly. Nothing better to focus the mind on solutions then to put their job on the chopping block. Most of the high profile CEO's know that if they get bumped out now they will forever be tagged as one of "those guys". I won't be surprised if the banks are more cooperative and more focused on resolving bad loans by any means necessary in order to get back to more predictable profitability. Just a thought...

Financial System Too complicated? Probably not

It is not complicated. It is just the people in charge like to think they are smarter than everyone else.....and try to keep everyone else thinking the process is so complicated so they don't question those running things. The government still controls money flow and the banks are just a conduit for distribution. The system works most of the time reasonably well but the major fault is that the government has the best option--the banks----and several other options that are far less effective. The banks have learned that if they are big enough (allowed to get big enough) they can manipulate the system and strong arm the government. They will continue to exploit this fault. They will maximize profits and ride the wave to the end of good times, then hoard cash just enough to panic the entire world...(the months right before a major election cycle will always be the best time to ask for funds and threaten to shut down the circulation of capital) at the beginning of a recession. We have seen it this year and last year. Banks may now be making profits again and could earn their way out of the hole. However, they have milked the system and the tax payer for about 18 months. I am not sure the new regulation will prevent similar situations from occurring the future. The economy needs to grow or we all lose out. The assumption of growth is always factored into any economic forecast unless we are in a recession. We likely will never hear the government forecasting negative GDP growth if we are not in a recession already. Banks do the same thing and continue to take collateral based on future growth as a recession begins and to some degree while it is in progress. Asset price depreciation of more than 5-10% is enough to cause major problems. It is a huge issue, as we have seen, if real estate is declining excessively across the country. The reserve system of banks is not set up to tolerate 25% losses in asset prices nationwide and banks have a difficulty generating earnings or circulating funds if the collateral still declining. The derivatives and leveraged products just multiply the losses just as they multiply the gains.

Real Estate Valuations by Banks and Appraisers questionable.

Here is a question about what has happened with the banking system.

Does the fact that banks have done well in the past make it

ok to have pillage the taxpayer, deceive share holders, make massive misses on forecasting, accept of fraudulent appraisal values all ok too because they were profitable before and will likely be profitable later? If we all except this premise we will always be on a roller coaster ride. The large banks failed massively by taking millions and even billions of dollars worth of loans on over valued property from appraisers that were in bed with the bank. There was absolutely no way to support such a rapid increase in prices in the standard appraisal process without some manipulation. I don't see how most appraisals during 2005-2007 could be considered fraudulent. There are 3 valuation methods given on a standard appraisal: Comp sales, income capitalization rate, cost approach (similar to replacement cost used by insurance companies-typically will not give a usable market value price). How could prices jump 30% in one year if an appraisal was done properly? Residential real estate is typically appraised by weighting the sales comparison approach most heavily. In theory a property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it at that time. There is no chart, or diagram or formula that can tell you the exact value of a property. However, if appraisals use comparable home sales it seems to be an extreme stretch for a house to be priced 15 % -30% more in most cities in America on year over year basis.

Mark to Market Relief? Relief for taxpayer?

Mark to market discussions may lead to changes or a relaxation of the the rules so banks can have more flexiblity when pricing assets. The link for an article in Business Week is where you can read the entire story.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2009/db2009041_492116.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_policy+%2Bamp%3B+government

Completely ridiculous. Banks have used smoke and mirrors until they couldn't get away with it any longer, they come to government for a handout so they can clog the entire financial system because the accounting rules to work to their advantage. We have pumped billions in to these banks and they could have been selling the toxic assets all along the way. They have delayed and cost all of us billions and brought the economy to a halt and we keep giving them more money. The banks with help of congress have fleeced the taxpayer. Why don't well all try to get the same deal? we can wait for better prices for our house, but we have to pay, they banks are doing the same thing and they aren't paying. The government is paying the to sit on assets or they would have had to sell by now. This is crazy.