Swine Flu vaccines and Wall Street

Some of New York's biggest companies, including Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, received doses of swine flu vaccine for at-risk employees, drawing criticism that the hard-to-find vaccine is going first to the privileged.

Hospitals, universities and the Federal Reserve Bank also got doses of the vaccine for employees who need it the most, such as pregnant women or chronically ill workers, according to the city's health department.

In order to receive the vaccine, companies had to have their own medical staff. Distributing large doses of the vaccine to such businesses is "a great avenue for vaccinating people at risk," said Jessica Scaperotti, spokeswoman for the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

But critics said Wall Street firms should not have access to the vaccine before less wealthy Americans.

"Vaccines should go to people who need them most, not people who happen to work on Wall Street," Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said Thursday.

"Wall Street banks have already taken so much from us. They've taken trillions of our tax dollars. They've taken away people's homes who are struggling to pay the bills," union official John VanDeventer wrote on the Web site of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union. "But they should not be allowed to take away our health and well-being."

Meanwhile, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a letter Thursday to state and local health departments asking them to review their distribution plans and make sure the vaccine is getting to high-risk groups.

Dr. Thomas Frieden said any decisions that appear to send vaccine beyond high-priority groups "have the potential to undermine the credibility of the program."

Swine flu vaccine has been in short supply nationwide because of manufacturing delays, resulting in long lines at clinics and patients being turned away at doctor's offices. The vaccine started trickling out in early October, and there are now nearly 36 million doses available.

The government-funded vaccine is being distributed to states, where health departments decide where to send the limited doses.

In New York, doctors at companies that have employee health services can request the vaccine along with other doctors but must agree to vaccinate only high-risk employees, Scaperotti said.

Last month, the city began offering vaccine to schoolchildren, as well as to pediatricians and obstetricians who asked for it. Scaperotti said two-thirds of the pediatricians in New York City have requested vaccine.

New Yorkers who cannot get the vaccine at work are receiving it from their doctors — if their doctors have it — or at community health clinics.

About 50 people waited to be vaccinated Thursday at a city-run clinic in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Matt Bohart said he and his 82-year-old father, Eugene Bohart, had been waiting for three hours for both swine flu and seasonal flu vaccines.

The younger Bohart said the fact that employees of some companies can get the vaccine at work seemed "not really fair."

But he added, "I don't begrudge the people who get it as long as others can get it as well."

Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University, said allocation of limited vaccine is tricky. CDC guidelines provide a list of patients who should be at the front of the line: children and young people through age 24, people caring for infants under 6 months, pregnant women, health care workers, and adults with health conditions such as asthma and diabetes.

Schaffner said that if corporations are giving shots to at-risk people, the distribution may have been appropriate. But he acknowledged there's "an appearance of potential irregularity."

Still, he said, "I have a feeling that if it were a Ford dealership that got vaccine, there wouldn't be quite as much excitement."

Scaperotti said 50 employers in New York City have received the vaccine so far. Besides Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, they include Time Inc. and hospitals such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Goldman Sachs has received 200 doses, and Citigroup has received 1,200, health officials said.

In statements, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said the vaccine would only go to those in high-risk groups.

"Goldman Sachs, like other responsible employers, has requested vaccine and will supply it only to employees who qualify," spokesman Ed Canaday said.

Morgan Stanley received 1,000 doses of the vaccine for its New York and suburban offices, but the company turned over its entire supply to local hospitals when it learned it received shipments before some area hospitals, spokeswoman Jeanmarie McFadden said.

Associated Press writers Stephen Bernard and Sara Lepro in New York City, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta and Valerie Bauman in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Bad Bank

Now that the strike is over, look for GM's stock price to dip back down. GM still remains at a competitive disadvantage over international companies, which do not There was big news today from Goldman, and it pertained to Merrill Lynch. Now is a good time to sell Merryl. And Bear Sterns may sell off a portion of its bank to either Wachovia, Bank of America, or Chase; that is unless Warren Buffet doesn't buy them first.

BS
All of that said, now is a good time to buy Bear Sterns. The price is still at the $115 point, but it will bounce back. This is "buy low" time. If BS does sell off a portion of its banking functions, that will only drive the price higher. I would not be surprised to see Bear's stock jump as high as $135 in the next two weeks.

Target
Target released bad news, they number of customers going into its stores, the problem is that now that WalMart is going green the outlook for Target is not looking good. They need to improve their logistical supply chain. I would not suggest buying Target in the short-term; the market that they compete is in way too tight and profit markets are very slim.

Strong Buy
Advanced CustomVue the company that owns the Lasik laser is a good choice to buy. They have bounced back from a recent recall and will be getting a shot in the arm from outerspace. NASA will give its stamp of approval, allowing Astronauts to have Lasik surgery. This after the Air Force will being allowing fighter pilots to have the procedure as well. Also, they have 5 new products that will be rolling out over teh next few months.

Don't Quant On It

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Global Alpha Hedge Fund took an unheard of hit in the month of August - 22.5 percent! The Fund made numerous poor decisions, with stocks, bonds, and currency investments; many rooted in shaky economic theory… at best. Alpha Fund has lost more than one-third of its market capitalization value this year alone. After word of this drop in value, investors informed the Fund that they wanted to pull out 1.6b in cash, totaling 20% of the Fund’s current liquid assets. This is what should have been expected, if any public company lost 1/3 of its value in 9 months, there would be a massive sell-off.
Alpha uses numerous mathematical models to evaluate potential trades, this strategy is known as Quantitative Investing. "We still hold our fundamental investment beliefs that sound economic investment principles couples with a disciplined quantitative approach can provide strong uncorrelated returns over time," Goldman Sachs Inc. said in an unsigned report that discussed on the funds drop.
While Quantitative Investing does take into consideration market trends, and prevents active managers from entering into a trendy market too late, it also attempts to find patterns and predict the Market’s next move; essentially stripping away the human bias. When you remove an active manager from the fast paced, hands on, boot in the trenches, 20 hour work day side of his job, its like removing his soul, emasculating him of his very essence. Just ask Martha Stewart.
In the world of Private Placement and Alternative Investments, accredited (especially high net worth) inventors are looking for long term wealth management and sustained growth. So when you have a math wizard who is able to apply a theoretical formula ONLY, you loose something. At what point did their formula fail to realize that they were hemorrhaging capital? Why were there no "stop limits" in place? These answers are simple: when a manager relies heavily on formulae he becomes much less nimble and tends to trade within a predefined set of parameters. For traders who are more hands on, it is the opposite; we are often examining sectors, and working 20 hour days. I feel sorry for the investors here, but not the managers. Financial markets are dynamic, never static and a hedge fund manager must be the same. Many have tried, most have failed: you simply can not stop the Market from moving, and when it moves you have to move with it. Quant Managers are not “active manager” they are more like conveyor belt puppets.
At Landes we have a philosophy: be like water; no matter the obstruction, remain fluid enough so that we may just flow around it, and not miss a beat. The current will trade up to the Ocean.

Happy Investing,

Fund Manager, Landes Capital Management