Feeling greatly depressed?

It’s 10K week here at footnoted which means lots and lots of filings. And one of the themes we’re finding pretty interesting is the number of companies that seem to be mentioning the Great Depression in their filings. So much so that we’re tempted to pop a Xanax (or two).

Take Caterpillar, which filed its 10K Friday afternoon, noting that “Throughout our 83-year history Caterpillar has successfully managed through the Great Depression, several recessions, a world war and numerous other adversities. We’re a strong company with a management team that’s been through tough times before.” That same day, in the 6K that it filed, Prudential (PUK) also mentioned the Great Depression.

So we decided to go back and take a closer look and it turns out that a growing number of companies are mentioning the Great Depression in their filings: 76 times for the year ended Feb. 20, 2009 compared with just 13 times a year earlier. And almost all of those references were historical in nature, as opposed to talking about the current state of the economy. So far in February, 14 companies have mentioned the Great Depression in their filings compared with just 3 in February 2008.

But here’s another interesting tidbit: the only company last year that began talking about the Great Depression in a non-historical way was Indymac, which folded last summer under the weight of too many subprime loans. In this 8K filed last Feb. 12, Indymac noted that “The 4th quarter of 2007 marked the eighth quarter of the current housing downturn (as measured by housing’s contribution to GDP), making it already the fourth worst housing downturn in modern times, and many now predict that, before it turns around, it is going to be the longest and deepest since the Great Depression.”

At the time, Indymac’s warning seemed a bit cataclysmic. But given how many other companies have jumped on the Great Depression bandwagon, it’s seeming a bit prescient.

Posted in market meltdown Tags: 10-Ks, economy, new disclosures

2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Feeling greatly depressed?”

1. KJ Rodgers Says:
   February 24th, 2009 at 10:38 am

   It is almost a bit eerie for all these companies to be simultaneously discussing the Great Depression. I also think that the Indymac was just a beginning of what to see next year.

2. Frank Graham Says:
   February 24th, 2009 at 11:09 am

   Yes lot of verbiage to disguise the current mess. Maybe that
   notorious motor mouth Joe the Biden has an answer.
   February 24, 2009
   Stanford Had Links to Fund Run By Bidens: Report
   By REUTERS Filed at 12:01 a.m. ET

   (Reuters) – A fund of hedge funds run by two members of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s family was marketed exclusively by firms controlled by Texas financier Allen Stanford, charged by regulators with an $8 billion fraud, the Wall Street Journal said.

   The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens’ Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity, and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund, the paper said.

   Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors and also invested about $2.7 million of their own money in the fund, the paper said, citing a lawyer for Paradigm.

   Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the vice president’s son, Hunter, and Joe Biden’s brother, James, according to the paper.

   Paradigm’s attorney, Marc LoPresti, who represents Hunter Biden and James Biden, as well as Paradigm, told the paper he did not know which Stanford entity invested the roughly $2.7 million.

   He told the paper the Bidens never met or communicated with Stanford.

   Joe Biden’s office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

   The paper cited LoPresti as saying the fund offered to turn over the $2.7 million investment it received from Stanford’s firm in 2007 to a court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s civil fraud case involving Stanford.

   Stanford was charged by the SEC last week with fraudulently selling $8 billion in certificates of deposit with improbably high interest rates from his Stanford International Bank Ltd (SIB), headquartered in Antigua.

   (Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Anshuman Daga