Fudd Goes Dudd

Overpriced, sub-par food goes under. This is probably 20 years late but indicative of the market that is out there. Consumers simply do not have $15 to spend on a burger, fries and pop.

For a truly surreal experience go to a Sears and walk around - it's like being in a parallel dimension where the products are 10-15 years old, not laid out in specific departments and there are no workers on site. Be careful, you may get lost or mugged in a dark aisle.

Burger Chain Fuddruckers Files For Chapter 11

By JACQUELINE PALANK By ERIC MORATH

Burger chain Fuddruckers Inc. and its parent, Magic Brands LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday to ease the sale of its assets to Tavistock Group.

Tavistock Group, a private-equity firm that owns other restaurant companies, has agreed to pay $40 million for the company, including the Koo Koo Roo restaurant brand.

None of the 135 franchisee-owned Fuddruckers restaurants are included in the filing. More than 200 restaurants operate under the Fuddruckers name. The company plans to close 24 of the corporate-owned Fuddruckers by April 30.

"During the course of the transaction, Fuddruckers and Koo Koo Roo guests will see no difference in the quality dining experience they have come to expect in our restaurants," Peter Large, the chief executive of Magic Brands, said in a statement.

Magic Brands plans to subject the Tavistock bid to a court-supervised auction process. The company expects to complete the sale in 60 to 90 days.

Fuddruckers was founded in 1980 in San Antonio, with the goal of serving hamburgers that are cooked to order and made with fresh ingredients. The chain serves burgers ranging from 1/3 of a pound to one pound.

Magic Brands, based in Austin, Texas, purchased the chain in 1998 and has sought to broaden its appeal by expanding its menu.

Based in Windermere, Fla., Tavistock Group's holdings include interests in real estate, sports teams, energy and financial services companies. Its restaurant unit manages a group of boutique eateries, including ZED451, Blackhawk Grille and California Cafe.

According to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Fuddruckers' top unsecured creditors include food distributors US Foodservice Inc., owed $2.6 million, and Sysco Corp. (SYY), owed $290,000.

Economists: Stimulus Didn't Help

Don't rely on statistics - go with your gut. How many people do you know in your own life that are unemployed or unemployed? Those you do know that have jobs - how many are not in the service sector? How many engineers or factory workers do you know? How many products can you think of that are manufactured here in the United States?

How does your own economy look in your home town? Did the stimulus help you? Is the "recession" over for you and your family or is it getting harder and harder every month to make ends meet?

Economists Say The Stimulus Didn't Help

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The recovery is picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, but economists think the government's stimulus package and jobs bill had little to do with the rebound, according to a survey released Monday.

In latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics, the index that measures employment showed job growth for the first time in two years -- but a majority of respondents felt the fiscal stimulus had no impact.

NABE conducted the study by polling 68 of its members who work in economic roles at private-sector firms. About 73% of those surveyed said employment at their company is neither higher nor lower as a result of the $787 billion Recovery Act, which the White House's Council of Economic Advisers says is on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of the year.

That sentiment is shared for the recently passed $17.7 billion jobs bill that calls for tax breaks for businesses that hire and additional infrastructure spending. More than two-thirds of those polled believe the measure won't affect payrolls, while 30% expect it to boost hiring "moderately."

But the economists see conditions improving. More than half of respondents -- 57% -- say industrial demand is rising, while just 6% see it declining. A growing number also said their firms are increasing spending and profit margins are widening.

Nearly a quarter of those surveyed forecast that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, will grow more than 3% in 2010, and 70% of NABE's respondents expect it to grow more than 2%.

Still, the survey suggested that tight lending conditions remain a concern. Almost half of those polled said the credit crunch hurts their business.

When War Becomes Business (As Usual?)

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, KBR and others have quietly been building some solid gains in the past several months. Power Shares Aerospace & Defense, an ETF covering much of the industry has built up a head of steam since March.

Although equities have been rising in general, the defense sector has been outperforming the competition.

Headlines like North Korea Torpedoed South's Navy Ship: Report and heightened saber rattling in the middle east are cause for concern.

History Lesson

Economics, foreign policy and natural disasters team to create discontent - which feeds upon itself.

Food on hand in a time of crisis is even more valuable than gold and silver. Ask the hungry in UK...

How an Icelandic Volcano Helped Spark the French Revolution
Greg Neale - Guardian UK

Just over 200 years ago an Icelandic volcano erupted with catastrophic consequences for weather, agriculture and transport across the northern hemisphere – and helped trigger the French revolution.

The Laki volcanic fissure in southern Iceland erupted over an eight-month period from 8 June 1783 to February 1784, spewing lava and poisonous gases that devastated the island's agriculture, killing much of the livestock. It is estimated that perhapsa quarter of Iceland's population died through the ensuing famine.

Then, as now, there were more wide-ranging impacts. In Norway, the Netherlands, the British Isles, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, in North America and even Egypt, the Laki eruption had its consequences, as the haze of dust and sulphur particles thrown up by the volcano was carried over much of the northern hemisphere.

Ships moored up in many ports, effectively fogbound. Crops were affected as the fall-out from the continuing eruption coincided with an abnormally hot summer. A clergyman, the Rev Sir John Cullum, wrote to the Royal Society that barley crops "became brown and withered … as did the leaves of the oats; the rye had the appearance of being mildewed".

The British naturalist Gilbert White described that summer in his classic Natural History of Selborne as "an amazing and portentous one … the peculiar haze, or smokey fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man.

"The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. At the same time the heat was so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic … the country people began to look with a superstitious awe, at the red, louring aspect of the sun."

Across the Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin wrote of "a constant fog over all Europe, and a great part of North America".

The disruption to weather patterns meant the ensuing winter was unusually harsh, with consequent spring flooding claiming more lives. In America the Mississippi reportedly froze at New Orleans.

The eruption is now thought to have disrupted the Asian monsoon cycle, prompting famine in Egypt. Environmental historians have also pointed to the disruption caused to the economies of northern Europe, where food poverty was a major factor in the build-up to the French revolution of 1789.

Volcanologists at the Open University's department of earth sciences say the impact of the Laki eruptions had profound consequences.

Dr John Murray said: "Volcanic eruptions can have significant effects on weather patterns for from two to four years, which in turn have social and economic consequences. We shouldn't discount their possible political impacts." Greg Neale

NASA Cut

More money for bailouts, more money for wars...no money for research and development.

Obama's NASA Policy: The White House VS Neil Armstrong

It's not easy to go up against a living legend, but that's what President Obama will be doing Thursday when he gives a speech on new NASA policies that are being blasted by Neil Armstrong.

Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, criticized Obama's plans to scrap NASA's return-to-the-moon program and other projects.

"Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity," said a letter signed by Armstrong and two other famed ex-astronauts, James Lovell and Eugene Cernan.

Obama travels tomorrow to Cape Canaveral, Fla., to speak at NASA headquarters.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said an independent commission found some NASA programs to be "years behind schedule, (and) massively over-budget." Gibbs added that "the timetable prescribed was un-executable."

Instead, the president will outline a renewed strategy that "will provide more jobs for the area, greater investment in innovation, more astronaut time in space, more rockets launching sooner, and a more ambitious and sustainable space program for America's future," Gibbs said.

The press secretary also noted that Obama's plans have a high-profile supporter: Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon.

Cerberus Takes Nonprofits Private

Cerberus, (pronounced /ˈsərb(ə)rəs/[1]; Greek form: Κέρβερος, [ˈkerberos][2]) in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound (usually three-headed[1][3][4]) which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping.

This is beyond an outrage as this type of move is now ho-hum as the merger between state and corporate powers is solidified more each day. Politically connected equity groups are looting while the getting is good and positioning themselves for windfall profits from heavily lobbied new legislation like the health care bill.

Pop quiz for the day: Who heads up Cerberus Capital?

John Snow of course - the former treasury secretary under George W. Bush.
Who are the Clintons connected to - think largest company in the world from Arkansas.
How about the sitting president and his involvement in carbon trading companies?

Folks had better grow up and realize that by getting riled up and charging the blue flag (democrats) or the red flag (republicans) they are partaking in distraction while the financial matadors prepare for the economic slaughter.

Nonprofit Hospitals Now In Play

CHICAGO — Private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management LP yesterday said it would buy Boston’s nonprofit Caritas Christi Health Care for $830 million, taking over the Catholic system’s long-term debt and spending $400 million on capital upgrades.

The deal needs approval from the Massachusetts attorney general, which will make a recommendation to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, whose approval is needed for the charitable hospital to become a for-profit entity.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Archbishop of Boston also need to sign off on the proposal. Caritas is the second-largest hospital group in the state.

The announcement comes several days after another for-profit outfit announced a plan to take over a struggling, urban nonprofit hospital system, and three days after President Obama signed into law an overhaul of the country’s health care system.

Last Friday, Tennessee-based for-profit Vanguard Health Systems Inc. announced its intention to buy Detroit Medical Center — Michigan’s largest charity-care provider — for $417 million plus an additional $850 million for capital improvements.

The interest in the systems could be driven by the new federal law, said market participants.

“The fact that these two hospitals, which have struggled over the years and are situated in markets with lower incomes and higher uninsured patients, are targets of takeovers suggests [private companies] are looking at these types of systems as being beneficiaries under the new rules,” said Richard Ciccarone, head of municipal research at McDonnell Investment Management.

For-profit companies are “looking at areas for improvement of potential profitability because of wider insurance penetration,” Ciccarone said.

In both deals, the new owners would need to either retire all outstanding tax-exempt bonds or refinance it into taxable debt as the transactions would change the systems’ status to for-profit from nonprofit.

As of Nov. 30, 2009, Caritas had $243.9 million of outstanding bonds. As part of the transaction, Cerberus would either defease the bonds or refinance them into taxable debt — either way, the bondholders will be repaid, said Robert Fraiman, president and chief executive officer of Cain Brothers & Co., financial adviser to Caritas.

“From the perspective of the current debt holders, the expectation is that they will be repaid — the methods for doing that have not yet been fully determined,” Fraiman said. “This is a transaction that will take many months to reach closing because there are quite a few approvals that are required.”

It would be the first hospital acquisition for Cerberus, a private-equity group best known for its acquisition of Chrysler. The firm has said it is considering expanding Caritas and buying other hospitals across the country, according to reports.

Under the deal, Cerberus said it would maintain all 13,000 employees as well as the system’s current management team and its Boston headquarters. The firm also said Caritas would retain its Catholic identity and existing community-benefit policies.

A Catholic health care system that operates six acute-care hospitals throughout eastern Massachusetts, Caritas spent years struggling financially before beginning to see positive earnings starting four years ago.

Last year, Caritas, working with Cain Brothers, implemented a number of strategies to improve the system, including layoffs, the sale of a medical lab, and changes to its pension plan.

The restructuring increased profitability and prompted Moody’s Investors Service to boost its rating on the system’s debt to Baa2 from Baa3 and Standard & Poor’s to revise its outlook to positive from negative and affirm its BBB rating. Standard & Poor’s yesterday said its rating on Caritas’ debt is unaffected by the pending acquisition. If the bonds are defeased, the agency said it would withdraw its rating.

Cerberus and Vanguard are both taking over systems that are faced with aging structures in need of major capital improvements. The average age of a facility at DMC is 19.1 years and 15.3 years at Caritas — both significantly higher than the national average median age of 10.1, Ciccarone pointed out.

“They’re going to have a big transition period,” he said. “Someone is going to need deep pockets to get through that transition.”

Caritas reportedly had planned to issue roughly $100 million of new-money debt this year for capital projects and had also estimated that annual depreciation expenses total $50 million, according to a November 2009 report from Standard & Poor’s.

Caritas issued $197.7 million of bonds in 1999 through the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority. The debt featured maturity dates from 2000 through 2039, with the largest chunks maturing in 2015 and 2020. The system sold $113.6 million of bonds in 2002. That debt had maturity dates from 2003 through 2031.

Credit analysts have noted that much of Caritas’ debt matures through 2015, and that the system had considered refinancing some of the debt this year to smooth out debt service. The system has no ­interest-rate swaps.

The Ultraverse

A little perspective for Wednesday morning on our small place in the universe. To our knowledge, earth is the only habitable planet in the ultraverse (collection of universes across all 13 known/proposed dimensions) accessible to humanity at this point in time and is dwarfed by the size of other heavenly bodies. Analogous to this is the role of gold and silver, the only known stores of value out there. Like moths to a light investors flock towards the bright, enormous dense masses of paper whose overwhelming gravity pulls investors in only to scorch them.

As in the ultraverse, there are forces at work in the economy which cannot be sensed directly and are difficult to comprehend. Just because one can not see, touch or feel market cycles and capital flows which draw investors back to earth (gold and silver) like they cannot hear radio waves in their own ears, does not mean they are not out there.

US Mint

According to a US Mint employee, 2010 eagles will not be available to the public. There really is no comment needed here:

American Eagle Gold Proof Coins:
Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Gold Proof Coins will not be produced.

American Eagle Gold Uncirculated Coins:
Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Gold Uncirculated Coins will not be produced.

American Eagle Silver Proof Coins:
Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Silver Proof Coins will not be produced.

American Eagle Uncirculated Coins:
Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Silver Uncirculated Coins will not be produced.