Is Moody&rsquo;s Investors Service a member of the free press or a financial advisory firm? If you listen to the credit rating outfit&rsquo;s arguments for some of the duff advice it has given investors over the years, you&rsquo;d think it was the former. But when it comes to determining executive compensation, it fancies itself as the latter.

Moody&#39;s: Have the cake and eat it

Business Standard

Ford: With General Motors&rsquo; Chapter 11 filing, Ford Motor stands alone among Detroit&rsquo;s Big Three in dodging a shareholder-crushing government bailout. If the car market continues to slide, that may be a short-lived accolade. If not, it&rsquo;s a testament to the carmaker&rsquo;s hard work, smart financial planning and competent management.

Unrewarded virtue

CIT: After a difficult landing, CIT slid into a well-foamed runway on Sunday. It fought hard to have its pre-packaged bankruptcy plan approved by creditors, including dissident bondholder Carl Icahn.

Now the hard part

Skype IPO: Skype looks like Silicon Valley&rsquo;s best hope for a blockbuster initial stock offering in 2010. With Facebook determined to stay private until next year, the former eBay orphan could steal the scene with a quick flip. Moreover, as a result of clarifying copyright issues and rewriting its code to attack the business market, the company may be worth twice its $2.75 billion price tag when eBay sold all but 30 percent of its stake last year.

Skype on deck

Wall Street summer: Wall Street can now officially start its summer. Goldman Sachs has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over fraud charges. The U.S. Senate has passed financial reform legislation. Even hapless BP appears to have finally capped its oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. All that on Thursday afternoon -- rounded out on Friday morning with the first profit increase in nine quarters for economic bellwether General Electric. The financial community can afford to take a breather, and maybe even to party.

Woo Hoo!

Facebook: Facebook may at last become a real, rather than virtual, money spinner in 2011. The social network doesn't need capital to grow, but expectations from backers and employees for an IPO are too high for founder Mark Zuckerberg to ignore. There&rsquo;s just one challenge: trading in Facebook&rsquo;s unlisted shares values the website at more than $40 billion. Getting to that number requires some astonishing growth assumptions.

Abstract expressionism

Italy is a global leader in fashion, food and art but comes up short on multinational corporations. That&rsquo;s likely to change as Fiat plots a full takeover of Chrysler. Going global, though, comes at a price: Fiat&rsquo;s Agnelli family may need to put pragmatism over sentimentality and move its headquarters from Italy.

Rob Cox

Rob Cox

Page 3 - Rob Cox

Moody's: Have the cake and eat it

Unrewarded virtue

Now the hard part

Skype on deck

Woo Hoo!

Abstract expressionism

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