Financial Markets

Americans Under 30 the Most Cynical Bunch Ever. Good for Them. And Us.

Took a few days off to go canoeing on the Buffalo River in Arkansas -- always a fine way to clear the mind and ease the soul -- and came home to wonderful news: The Harvard Institute of Politics released its 23rd "Survey of Young Americans' Attitude Toward Politics and Public Service" today, finding ... More >>

Hedge Fund Says Tottering, Dallas-based Electricity Giant is Screwing Creditors

Aurelius Capital Management, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund and perpetual pain-in-the-ass for distressed companies like Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, sued the massive utility in federal court Tuesday for $725 million. It claims Energy Future made some sweetheart intra-company loans even as ... More >>

Del Frisco's Grille Expanding Empire with Two New DFW Locations This Year

Del Frisco's is planning to open two new area restaurants this year. The restaurant group is based in Southlake and currently has more then 30 restaurants across the U.S., including the flagship Double Eagle Steak House in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth, and the more casual trendy and casual Del Fri ... More >>

Was Hostess' Death a Murder, Suicide or Natural Causes?

Or was it all three?

Obama & Romney's Country-Club Sopranos

American banks are on a massive crime spree. The Presidential candidates hope you won't notice.

Like A Vampire, Wall Street Will Drain TXU Until There's Nothing Left

At least for now, Dallas-based electricity and transmission giant Energy Future Holdings, the former TXU, is paying off its debts. Technically, it's completely insolvent, but that hasn't stopped the Wall Street firms who purchased the company in the biggest leveraged buyout in history from extractin ... More >>

Chuy's And Del Frisco's Restaurant Offer Shares On Wall Street

Chuy's is now a publicly traded enchilada maker. This morning they offered nearly 6 million shares on the NASDAQ exchange for $13 each. By noon the stock prices had risen16 percent to $15.20, indicating Wall Street is at least temporarily bullish on Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom enchiladas. Chuy's plans ... More >>

America's Petro-Terrorists

How greedy speculators bought politicians and drove up the price of oil.

Know Any Steve Winwood Covers and Want To Party With A $20 Billion Hedge Fund Manager?

Just last Friday, our new Unfair Park guy Eric introduced us to James Dondero, Highland Capital's giraffe-eating, cheating, snooping hedge fund manager. In other words, the dude has a lot of money and likes to party.As such, his 50th birthday is approaching on June 22, and a person who works at High ... More >>

Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher: Energy Independence, As You Understand It, Is A Myth

Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher and a gaggle of other titans, from former U.S. Spec Ops commanders to Sam Gilliland, chief executive officer of Dallas-based Sabre Holdings, reject outright the idea that we can drill our way to energy independence. In an Energy Security Leadership Council ... More >>

Have a Picnic, While You Still Can

What's Occupying Tom Leppert

The Senate candidate doesn't like mobs of protesters. Someone alert the Tea Party.

As Feds Reveal Results From Operation Broken Trust, a Look at the Local Greatest Hits

​This morning in D.C., Attorney General Eric Holder met with the media to discuss Operation Broken Trust, a wide-ranging crime-bustin' effort conducted by an alphabet soup's worth of agencies intended to "protect American investors, to ensure the strength of our markets, and to prevent financial f ... More >>

Yo, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes. Niko Celentano of the Bronx Would Like a Word. And An Emergency Shareholders Meeting.

​One week ago today I received an e-mail from a "large stockholder" in Blockbuster -- a gentleman high on the movie-studio food chain, as a matter of fact. He copied me on a missive he sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he asked what in the wide, wide world of sports he could ... More >>

The First of Two Blockbuster Blockbuster Announcements: NYSE Is Delisting Its Stock

​In about an hour, Blockbuster will release a second press release concerning, well, what we're not quite sure -- more than likely, though, it will deal with the fate of CEO Jim Keyes, whose contract with the company expires today. And, perhaps, it will address whether or not the downtown-based co ... More >>

Come On, Get Happy! We've Found 50 Local Bars That Will Help You Do Just That.

The Reverse Splits: Blockbuster Has 45 Days to Get Back in NYSE's Good Graces

​A couple of weeks back, we read the entirety of Blockbuster's annual report and discovered one significant bit of bad news that had gone unnoticed elsewhere: The New York Stock Exchange sent the downtown Dallas-based company a warning that if it didn't get its stock price back above one dollar pr ... More >>

Did Tom Hicks Strike Out By Turning Down a Better Deal for the Texas Rangers?

​Perhaps I missed this elsewhere, but in the wake of Saturday night's announcement concerning Tom Hicks's having hammered out a deal with Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan -- otherwise known as the Rangers Baseball Express -- there's news that the deal's anything but done. It come ... More >>

No Justice: We've Bailed Out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind Our Financial Collapse?

Tom Hicks's Acquisitions Venture Tries One More Time to Acquire Something

​Tom Hicks has been all kinds of busy making deals; alas, none of 'em Rangers-related. Instead, it's his publicly traded investment company, Hicks Acquisitions, making news this week, as once more he tries to keep the venture from being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange, which threatened to ... More >>

Mayor Tom Leppert Goes to D.C. This Morning to Talk About Bonds. Municipal Bonds.

I see Schutze is finally cleaning out his closet ... Mayor Tom Leppert's in D.C. this morning at the invite of Barney Frank, whose House Financial Services Committee is set to discuss why it's become so danged difficult and cost-prohibitive for cities to issue bonds -- and how Washington can fix it, ... More >>

TI's the Latest in Line to the Courthouse Over $524 Million in Auction Rate Securities

Shortly before the bond market went straight to hell, boys, Texas Instruments snapped up $524 million worth of auction rate securities from Citigroup, BNY Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley. TI says, yeah, it knew maybe -- pardon, "possibly" -- that there was some "fail" potential, but, still, it wa ... More >>

Crappy Bond Market Could Make Convention Center Hotel Referendum Relevant

Patrick MichelsEven though Mayor Tom is committed to building the hotel before the May 9 vote, Assistant City Manager A.C. Gonzalez says it won't happen until the bond market turns around.While the city council continues to face delays regarding the selection of an operator for the convention cente ... More >>

Airline Execs Now Have Common Enemy: Goddamned Oil Speculators!

Psycho Killer, Christian Bale

See a fa-fa-fine film at the Inwood

Belo Corp. Now a Split Personality

Belo Market Value

Red light, Green light

Things get gray when it comes to green

Stock It To Ya!

ACS Loses CEO and CFO. Wuh-O.

Whole Foods By Half, More or Less

Pickens to Win

The Backdating Scene

A Kick in the ACS

The Backdating Scene

Can't Spell "Below Expectations" Without Belo

Wize Guys

Here's your chance to get rich quick -- or lose your shirt, in which case, GlobalTec disavows all responsibility for, well, anything

Heat, No Light

Young Conservatives make a fuss with immigration protest

Mark Cuban Going Broke

Plus: Jabari Sought Own Death; Who Saw This Coming?

Road Chew

For the most part, this Tucker stays on track

After the Gold Rush

For some one-time dot-com rich kids, it's easy come, easier go

Growth Industries

With the Vice Fund, you can invest in beer, cigs and other naughty stuff

Enron's End Run

To make a mess as big as the Enron debacle, you need some friends in high places--Texas Senator Phil Gramm and his wife, for instance

Stormy weather

Hot new computer game maker ION Storm appears to have all it needs for success -- top talent, plenty of money, and legions of anxious fans. So why is its future so cloudy?

God and mammon

Kathy and Richard Kingsmore seemed like such nice church folk. But the Feds say their greed trumped their gospel.

Joe Bob Briggs

Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, TX

Hot Product

World-class embezzler Gary Lewellyn rebounds with a fast-selling treatment for A.D.D.

BeloWatch

It's the stock price, stupid!

High-flying Danny Wettreich has shut down companies, destroyed jobs, and drawn the scrutiny of two federal agencies, But he says it's what the stock market thinks of him that counts.

Attack of the Killer Gadflies (Part I)

You don't take Rick Finlan and Don Venable seriously? That could be a mistake you live to regret.