February 8, 2019, T+37, Day 14 Of Open Border Negotiations.

Ta-ta, so many story lines in this Reuters story -- data points:

• Tata Motors Ltd, New Delhi, India
• owns British-made Jaguar Land Rover
• Tata Motors: "stunned markets"
• posted the biggest-ever quarterly loss in Indian corporate history of about $4 billion
• due to slumping Chinese sales
• JLR's China retail sales almost halved in December quarter (4Q18) as overall demand in the world's biggest auto market constracted last year for the first time since the 1990s
• JLR also buffetted by Brexit woes and weaker business for diesel cars that make up the bulk of its sales in Europe  
• Tata shares slumped as much as 30%
• Jaguar Land Rover brings in most of Tata's revenue (sort of like iPhone for Apple?)
• And it gets worse:
• Tata warned that the JLR unit would swing to an operating loss in year to March (1Q19) vs an earlier projection for breakeven, given weak sales

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Occasional-Cortex: removes her FAQ page from her homepage regarding her socialist program -- it was noted to be removed yesterday. Hawaiian counterpart says that eliminating air travel -- as advocated by Occasional-Cortex -- would make it difficult for Hawaii. I don't know. Elon Musk could step in with underwater tunnels as the Norwegians are proposing. One simply has to think "outside the box."

Occasional-Cortex: becomes more irrelevant by the day. Even Pelois is blowing her off. But OC certainly provides a lot of entertainment. See this from The Federalist.

Note: Ocasio-Cortez’s office has taken down their page describing the Green New Deal.

A number of Democratic Party presidential hopefuls — including Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julián Castro, and Beto O’Rourke, for starters — have already endorsed or expressed support for the “Green New Deal” (GND). Today, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Edward J. Markey dropped details about her plan.

It is not hyperbole to contend that GND is likely the most ridiculous and un-American plan that’s ever been presented by an elected official to voters. Not merely because it would necessitate a communist strongman to institute, but also because the societal costs are unfathomable. The risible historic analogies Markey and Ocasio-Cortez rely on, the building of the interstate highway system or moon landing, are nothing but trifling projects compared to a plan that overhauls modernity by voluntarily destroying massive amounts of wealth and technology. That is the GND.

Apple: now advertising their best-selling iPhone ever, the XR for as low as $18.99 / month. And folks tell me the iPhone XR -- the best phone on the market -- is too expensive.

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SunTrust, BB&T, and Coca-Cola

Updates

February 9, 2019:

• WSJ op-ed: Elizabeth Warren's bigger banks -- the BB&T-SunTrust merger is an attempt to compete with the giants.  Best comment: if Elizabeth Warren can claim to be an American Indian, why can't these two banks claim to be laundromats?
• WSJ headline article: BB&T and SunTrust merger deals a blow to Atlanta. SunTrust's planned departure in $30 million deal stuns city where it has an outsize presence. Not one mention of Coca-Cola in this fluff piece. This suggests to me the writer doesn't know much of SunTrust's history.

Original Post

SunTrust bought by BB&T, posted earlier (scroll down at the link). I missed this. It's too long to go into now, but I will come back to it later. A reader brought this to my attention: no one could have afforded to buy SunTrust had it not divested itself of all of its Coca-Cola shares at the "behest" of its primary regulator, the Federal Reserve. Apparently the regulator felt SunTrust might "go under" if Warren Buffett decided to sell all his KO. From another source:

SunTrust was forced to resubmit its capital plan – known as Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) – after it failed part of the stress test in March 2012. The Coke shares (or any stock holding) held by SunTrust would weigh on the bank's capital ratio under new capital rules within Basel III. Thus, SunTrust decided to accelerate its plan and sold the Coke shares earlier than expected.

CCAR: annual "stress testing" mandated by Dodd-Frank.

KO: Coca-Cola. Sold for 66 cents/share in 1980. Today about $50/share. Whatever. Pays about 3%.

TKO: technical knock-out.

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Canadian Pipelines

Canada's most important pipeline right now: Enbridge Line 3. Status (no links, simply my understanding of "where" we are):

• November, 2018: Minnesota regulators continue to support
• December, 2018: protestors begin fund raising to stop the project
• will probable be in the news in spring, 2019; expect to see ND/StandingRock/DAPL veterans in northern Minnesota once the weather improves