DebNTampa

What’s wrong with this picture? On “60 Minutes” last night, President Obama sternly tells the country that “did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street.” Less than 24 hours later, Citigroup announces that it’s repaying $45 billion in TARP loans. It’s a study in cognitive dissonance, also known as Washington, D.C. Let’s get something straight — The Treasury Department is doing Citigroup (C) a walloping big favor in letting the company exit TARP. - DebNTampa

Amazon’s (AMZN) announcement of spot pricing for EC2 resources is actually a critical stage in the development of cloud computing overall, offering an important institutional facility as well as a challenge that will start to face IT departments and vendors alike. Amazon's EC2 = ( http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix... ) - DebNTampa

You have to love the irony of a current debate — including threatened legal action — b/n Nielsen and media buying agencies w/which it does business. Even as the agency world tries to push Nielsen into measurement methods that take into account new technologies, WPP ’s Group M and Publicis’ SMGX, are upset b/c Nielsen decided to change how it will report ratings for local TV stations, ie time-shifted viewing via DVR. At the crux of the dispute is the fact that many major buyers of TV time have bought it based on so-called “live” ratings only, in other words, TV viewing that happens at the time the particular program is actually airing. The new Nielsen reporting kicks in January, when some deals negotiated using the old ratings will still be very much in force. The Television Bureau of Advertising sent out a letter congratulating stations for getting Nielsen to change its ratings data unlike Media Policy Committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies said - DebNTampa

Heartland Institute, a Conservative think tank “Kill AIG now,” has been said before, but seldom as coherently as it’s expressed by Eli Lehrer, director of the Center on Risk, Regulation and Markets. Lehrer works for the Heartland Institute, a Conservative think tank, but don’t hold that against him. While he has distinct libertarian views, he knows insurance and has followed the Florida flip-flops of Gov. Charlie Crist as he tries to finagle his way into a U.S. Senate seat while stopping State Farm from packing up and leaving. Lehrer analyzed American International Group and concluded: Kick it to the curb. It’s not worth keeping the insurer going and its continued presence is depressing the rest of the insurance industry. Other insurers such as Chubb Corp. would undoubtedly agree. They compete against AIG and resent the fact that it has the deep-pocket support of taxpayers. Congress would probably agree too. - DebNTampa

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Earlier this month, the Treasury Department allowed ten of the nation’s largest banks to repay their TARP funds, bringing up the question of what to do with the warrants that the government received in exchange for TARP money. According to an analysis by University of Louisiana professor Linus Wilson, the plan that Treasury announced last Friday to sell those ten banks their warrants — which are options to buy stock sometime in the future — will shortchange taxpayers by a cool half billion: "The anticipated value of warrants for 10 of the largest banks that repaid their Troubled Asset Relief Plan funds is $3.3 billion using the Treasury’s valuation process, compared with $3.82 billion with a more conventional method", Linus Wilson, a finance professor in Lafayette, Louisiana. At DealBook, Steve Davidoff made some suggestions for how Treasury can fix this: First, make the banks’ initial repurchase offer public. Davidoff’s first point about transparency is important. - DebNTampa

AshleyMadison had wanted to emblazon cars with the words “Life Is Short. Have an Affair,” but transit authorities didn’t want a client who advocates lying, according to the National Post: “When it’s a core fundamental value around cheating or lying, we’re not going to let those kinds of ads go on,” [a commissioner] said. “It’s not about sexuality, it’s about cheating. We would not have accepted an ad that said ‘Life is short, cheat on your exams.’ It’s frankly a no-brainer.” - DebNTampa

Auto Affordability Reaches New Index Best, Comerica Bank Chief Economist Reports - DebNTampa