Podcast links moving to libsyn.com

When I started the www.lubetkin.net website, I thought 600 mb was a lot of webspace. That was before I began podcasting with high-quality 192kbps MP3 audio files to take advantage of the stereo quality I can achieve with my Olympus DS-2 digital audio recorder.

Fortunately, thanks to my friends Shel and Neville at For Immediate Release.biz, I learned about LibSyn, a podcast syndication service that offers cost-effective hosting for podcast files. So we're moving the CompuSchmooze podcast archives (and future shows) off the main server.

So effective immediately,  all of our podcasts  for our different blogs are now being stored on our new podcast server at http://lubetkin.libsyn.com. You can also download our podcasts there for Lubetkin's Other Blog Podcast, RatingAgency.com,  CompuSchmooze and our audio syndication feed for radio stations, Lubetkin Broadcasting.

RSS feeds for all of our podcasts/blogs remain at Feedburner.com. I will republish all of the blogs with the revised links.

Pfandbrief Conference Planned for U.S. Institutional Fixed Income Investors

Pfandbrief Conference Planned for U.S. Institutional Fixed Income Investors

Conference, Sponsored by Association of German Mortgage Banks (VDH), Slated
for New York City on June 7th

The Association of German Mortgage Banks has scheduled its annual U.S.
Pfandbrief Investor Conference for Tuesday, June 7th. The event, directed
at institutional fixed income investors, will feature John Lipsky, Chief
Economist of JP Morgan Chase and will be held at New York City's
Metropolitan Club from 8.30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

The German Pfandbrief represents one of Europe's largest fixed income
markets, worth some 1 trillion euros. Presentations will focus on the
distinctive characteristics of the Pfandbrief, its credit quality and
liquidity, the impact of recent changes in the German Mortgage Bank Act, as
well as the latest developments and prospects for this market. For more
information, visit http://www.pfandbrief.org/ .

Ed Emmer Appointed Head of S&P's Equity Research Services

Message from Kathleen A. Corbet: Ed Emmer Appointed Head of Equity Research Services


To: All Standard & Poor's Employees
From: Kathleen A. Corbet, President
Subject: Ed Emmer Appointed Head of Equity Research Services

I am pleased to announce that effective immediately Edward Z. Emmer, executive managing director, will become head of Standard & Poor's Equity Research Services.

Ed's appointment to this position enables us to leverage our strong ratings experience in the institutional research segment to help grow our equity and other research offerings to this important market. At the same time, Ed will lead our equity research team in further developing our offerings to the retail marketplace through financial advisors, brokers and the Wall Street Settlement firms. Ed's extensive international experience will help support our European and Asian growth objectives for equity research. In his new role, Ed will report directly to me and will become a member of the S&P Executive Committee.

I would like to thank Jim Branscome, who has served as interim head of the Equity Research team over the past five months. Jim's leadership has been greatly appreciated during this very critical time in the growth of our equity research business. Jim will continue to chair the IS Analytical Policy Board and work on special projects, reporting to Rik Kranenburg.

Reporting to Ed are: Andrew Cursio, managing director, Advisor Services; Michael Dreher, managing director, Institutional Research Services; Stanton Green, managing director, Vista Research; George Gulla, vice president, Strategic Alliances and Partnerships; Steve Marriner, vice president, Business Development; Kenneth Shea, managing director, Global Equity Research; and Burt Shulman, vice president, Marketing Services/Publishing.

Prior to this appointment, Ed served as head of the Corporate & Government Ratings group, overseeing the global analytical practices of Corporate, Government and Financial Services Ratings. He has held numerous management positions in both Corporate and Financial Institutions Ratings, and headed our International Ratings department from 1978 to 1990, serving the last two years in London. Ed has represented S&P on the CRISIL board of directors since 2001. He began his career at S&P in 1969 in the equity department and is a three-time recipient of the McGraw-Hill Excellence in Management Award.

Until a new head of Corporate & Government Ratings is announced, Ed's direct reports will report to Vickie Tillman.

Please join me in wishing Ed success in his new role.

EDITORIAL: Imitation is sincere flattery...thanks, FT!

Looks like other publications are picking up on our RatingAgency.com theme that investors are interested in the backgrounds of the analysts who work for the large ratings firms.

 

Despite efforts by the rating agencies to prevent publications from interviewing/profiling the analysts about anything other than the credits they analyze, profiles will happen because the investment community wants them.

 

This weekend, the Financial Times featured Scott Sprinzen, the managing director at Standard & Poor's who leads S&P's analysis of the auto industry. We mentioned Scott's background two weeks earlier in our first issue, in the story profiling DBRS Managing Director Kam Hon, who plays the same role as Scott at Dominion Bond Ratings.

 

As we noted in our first issue, repeated requests for interviews with Scott Sprinzen at S&P, and counterparts at Moody's and Fitch met with stony refusals. S&P cooperated partly, by providing Scott's bio and photo, but none of the rating agencies except DBRS was willing to have their analysts speak to our publication.

 

The FT story, available to only to paid subscribers to FT.com, is here. It's called "S&P analyst emerges into the spotlight," by James Mackintosh. It begins as follows:

 

"Forget Bill Ford, chairman and chief executive of Ford Motor. Forget Carlos Ghosn, the hyperactive chief executive of both Nissan and Renault. Scott Sprinzen, of whom few outside the bond markets have ever heard, could be the most powerful man in the motor industry right now."

 

Perhaps articles like the FT piece -- and publications like RatingAgency.com -- will make the ratings giants realize that there is not only an appetite for more information about analysts like Scott Sprinzen, who wield so much influence on capital markets -- and the fates of large companies -- and will actually open their doors to legitimate requests for personal profiles of these analysts.

 

S&P? Moody's? Fitch? Anyone out there?

GM Debt Reduced To Junk (The Housing Bubble)

GM's debt was reduced to "junk" this morning. "Standard & Poor's cut General
Motors Corp.'s debt ratings to junk status on Thursday in a move that will
reduce the automaker's avenues for raising funds as it struggles with global
competition and rising healthcare costs."

"The rating outlook is negative. S&P said the move reflects its conclusion
that management's strategies may be ineffective in addressing GM's
competitive disadvantages."

The market rallied yesterday on the basis of this move, which doesn't look
so smart now. "The bid by Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. to increase its
ownership stake in GM represents an additional uncertainty, S&P said, but
said this was not a factor at all in the current rating action."

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHousingBubble?m=541

RatingAgency.com Newsletter First Issue Available

The first issue of the RatingAgency.com newsletter (ISSN 155-0397) is available for subscribers.

If you want to subscribe, please download and complete the order form.

Download April 2005 Inaugural Issue. This is an encrypted PDF file.

April 2005 Podcast: We conduct a telephone interview with Kam Hon of Dominion Bond Rating Service. (15:20)