Financial Transparency and Change Coming to LDK Solar? Thing Again.

That LDK Solar (LDK-$5.55), the world’s largest producer of multicrystalline solar wafers, kept up with most of its peers and blew past consensus sales and earnings estimates for first-quarter 2010 wasn’t too much of a surprise. The anticipated reduction of Feed-in-Tariffs (FIT) in Germany come July prompted customers to accelerate photovoltaic (PV) installations before that solar subsidy became financially less attractive.

Quarterly revenue rose 22.7 percent year-on-year to $347.6 million and reported net income was $7.2 million, or six cents a share, handily beating forecasts of $325.8 million and share-net of a penny, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Given an improving revenue and earnings picture, will the integrated solar cell maker finally move to improve its balance sheet health – as it had repeatedly promised to do numerous times in quarters past? Read More > ….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

Worried About Man-Made Disasters? Avoid Draw Muhammad Day

May 20 is being celebrated around the globe -- by infidels -- as "Draw Muhammad Day."

In honor of Draw Muhammad Day, we offer up this humble quote attributed to he who the fanatically devoted kill -- in his name -- and a shot at martyrdom and 72 virgins: "Worship God as though you see Him, and if you cannot see Him, then indeed He sees you." This quote is attributed to which religious leader:

Moses ___

Muhamad ___

Jesus ___

BP Finger-Points Blame on Transocean

Although the investigation into the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is still in the early stages, standard industry practice is such that unless BP can prove gross negligence by Transocean (RIG-$66.10), it and minority interest-holder Anadarko Petroleum bear ultimate liability for clean-up and recovery costs for the environmental damage resulting from the spill, not to mention likely punitive damage payments to all affected parties, such as fishery and tourism industries.

In predictable fashion, the finger pointing has already begun. Read More > ….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

National Enquirer Offers Million Dollar Bounty For Alleged Obama Love Tryst Video

In March 2010, average weekly print circulation — newsstand and subscription — of the National Enquirer declined year-over-year 16.1 percent to 732,000 copies. By comparison, total paid and verified weekly circulation averaged about one million in 2007, according to media observer Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

Declining circulation isn't just endemic to the Enquirer. Overall average paid daily circulation for the top 25 dailies fell 8.7 percent year-over-year for the six months through March, according to ABC. Weekday sales at the New York Times (NYT) and the Washington Post (WPO) fell 8.5 percent and 13.1 percent to 951,063 and 578,482 copies, respectively. In fact, only the The Wall Street Journal managed to eke out a gain, of about 0.5 percent.

What the Enquirer needs to pump up weekly tabloid sales is a good scandal – say, on the order of John Edwards and his love child. The Enquirer’s latest investigative controversy is a rehash of an alleged presidential cheating scandal between then Senator Barack Obama and a former campaign aide, Vera Baker (circa. 2004). The paper has offered a $1 million reward for alleged security video footage of the two entering a Wahington DC hotel together.

Can the Enquirer survive in the age of media-savvy competitors like TMZ and Perez Hilton? "Enquirering Minds Want to Know!"

Post Update: An "open-minded" reader -- (after looking at his blogroll links I suspect he probably thinks that the grand social experiments engineered by the likes of Chairman Mao and Stalin - in which millions were either slaughtered outright or starved to death very slowly -- were wonderful attempts towards the utopian plain of equality) -- had this assessment of my Nat'l Enquirer blog posting:

Ted K: I'm ashamed to say I had you on my blogroll. Not after this trash. Good luck keeping your blog going with this type "fair."

Me: Hey, Ted! What do you call a Muslim woman who previously favored western-style clothing, but after having an arm chopped off by the Iranian religious police only wears a burqa?

Answer: "Educated!

There you go -- How's that for transparency and fairness? Oh, my mistake -- only President Obama has a lock on those virtues.

Read More at BNET MEDIA > ….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

More Calls For CEO Blankenship's Resignation at Massey Energy

It has become a ritual at Massey Energy’s (MEE-$35.77) annual shareholder meeting for interest groups to stage protests and call for the resignation of chairman and chief executive Don Blankenship. Environmentalists and union activists have long alleged that Blankenship habitually fights against needed regulation of strip mining (gutting mountain tops for coal removal) and enforcement of safety rules that protect the miners – a disdain motivated by his desire to maximize the coal operator’s profits, according to his detractors.

An explosion at a West Virginia coal mine last month killed 29 miners and is expected to interrupt metallurgical coal shipments and sales through year-end 2010. Could Blankenship face additional calls to resign – this time from members of the board of directors?

Read More at BNET ENERGY > ….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

"Spill, Baby, Spill" - Or Not, Says BP

British energy giant BP ($49.78) initially accepted responsibility for the April 5 explosion aboard the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. However, with efforts to shut down the well failing, and more than 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil per day still spewing out of the broken pipe – and recovery costs climbing to $6 million a day and beyond – the British energy giant might be having second thoughts about paying all “legitimate and objectively verifiable claims.” In television interviews this week, BP executives noted that the disaster, in which 11 workers died, wasn’t directly BP’s fault, as drilling contractor Transocean was operating the rig on its behalf.

The spill is disastrous to the locals in coastal towns. The fishing industry in Louisiana could be impacted to the tune of $2.5 billion, and Florida’s tourism losses are expected to total around $3 billion, according to Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune.

How much will this spreading oil slick – potentially rivaling the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill into Prince Edward Sound, Alaska – ultimately cost BP, less insurance? Read More > ….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

Can Bristol Myers' Drug Pipeline Save Company?

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY-$25.31) derives almost 47 percent of its revenue from two key products: Plavix (sales of $6.1 billion in 2009), a platelet aggregation inhibitor for the prevention of stroke, heart attack and vascular disease, and the anti-hypertension drug Avapro ($1.3 billion). Chief executive officer Lamberto Andreotti says the company’s ambitious go-to-market model will mitigate expected erosion in sales and share-net earnings from the lost marketing exclusivity of these cardiovascular drugs come 2012. Read More >….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.

Forget Fed Loans -- Think Cool Cup Holders at GM

General Motors (GM) denies a deliberate intent to mislead the American public with recent televised advertisements, countering that terms of its accelerated repayment of government loans terms had been fully disclosed. To the contrary, having forfeited the confidence of the American public when it relied on taxpayer funding for its long-term survival, the company is desperate to improve its image — and sell more cars. Read More >….

Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.