financial losses: ShortFormBlog

12:23 • 1 year ago

The argument that financial institutions do not need the new rules to help them avoid the irresponsible actions that led to the crisis of 2008 is at least $2 billion harder to make today.

Rep. Barney Frank • Discussing a $2 billion trading loss that JPMorgan Chase had suffered recently as the result of a misguided hedge fund strategy. Frank, whose Dodd-Frank financial reform law has come under scrutiny by the banking industry for being too restrictive, is using this as an opportunity to argue against loosening the standards — pointing out that the company argued it was going to lose $400 to $600 million from the regulations. ”In other words, JPMorgan Chase, entirely without any help from the government has lost, in this one set of transactions, five times the amount they claim financial regulation is costing them,” Frank said.

12:55 • 1 year ago

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook is in total flop, hurt-the-bottom-line mode

Tags: blackberry blackberry playbook financial losses ipad kindle fire nook tablet playbook research in motion rim tablets 7 • Permalink

150,000 tablets number of BlackBerry PlayBooks RIM sold in the third quarter; to compare, RIM sold 14.1 million smartphones
$450 million size of the financial hit RIM took in the third quarter, partly as a result of lackluster PlayBook sales source

» Why is the PlayBook flopping? If you asked RIM, you’d get an answer that sounds pretty jargon-y: “Recent shifts in the competitive dynamics of the tablet market and a delay in the release of the PlayBook OS 2.0 software.” Here’s the English version of that answer: “The iPad, the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire.” But that’s just us talking. Meanwhile, RIM has been trimming the price of the PlayBook from an absurd $500 to as low as $199 — in part to clear inventory for the next version of the device, though we’re guessing the fact that other seven-inch tablets are selling for roughly that price doesn’t help.

Read ShortFormBlog • Follow