Comments on Ali Khan's articles RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/ali-khan/articles http://seekingalpha.com/article/101410-mcdonald-s-costco-long-term-picks-with-immediate-entry-points?source=feed#comment-290684 290684 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:27:21 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/101410-mcdonald-s-costco-long-term-picks-with-immediate-entry-points?source=feed#comment-289116 289116 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:08:40 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/101410-mcdonald-s-costco-long-term-picks-with-immediate-entry-points?source=feed#comment-288718 288718 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:13:54 -0400 When you can't find someone to assist you in their high-end
electronic department and their in the low-end areas of the store
this is truly questionable. Why? In addition, how nice it would be when
your check out with you multiple $100..charges how nice it would
be if the clerk would say Thanks, or Thank you for shopping with
us or "Costco."
The Department Stores screwed up taking employees off commissions
and put them on straight salary...no one gave a hoot to go out of
their way to help the customers and their sales dropped radically.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-282426 282426 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:18:00 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-282183 282183 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:11:08 -0400
Remember for every sell, there is somebody buying out there !! Think why the buyer is putting money in ? ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281721 281721 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:43:35 -0400
This time, the financial crisis is actually not limited to the financial companies. I think it makes more sense to believe that the crisis has a lot more reach, and therefore should be more severe and long lasting. This bubble has created a false sense of wealthiness. For the past 20 years, how much growth in the economy was actually engineered by borrowed funds instead of real spending power? If your financial leverage has now being drastically diminished, can the economy really keep up the growth. For the United states, this means that you are expecting the Americans to still spend more than previous years. In order for us to recover, you have to believe that the American spending habits will only temporarily weakens, and then pick up the steam later. However, if you believe the American spending habits will weaken for a prolong period, then simply put it, we won't recover soon.

To gain knowledge and insight, I believe all of us should spend time in seeing what is happening around us at the current moment. Don't just always look back at pass incidents.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281674 281674 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:56:41 -0400
It'll be bad - that's for sure. Stop trying to time the market mania. If you're not retiring tomorrow and a patient investor, keep your head up and keep throwing more cash in. Thanks for the comments.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/97127-this-financial-crisis-too-shall-pass?source=feed#comment-281667 281667 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:48:59 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281513 281513 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:33:56 -0400
I started buying when VIX hit 50 and bears dominated per AAII. That's historically been a successful buy signal. But this selloff set new records so I was early. But I bought mostly technology based on trough valuation levels from Oct 2002 adjusted for differences in fundamentals today. From Ocgt 2002 the weak ones doubled, the stronger ones were 3- and 4-baggers. I like those odds.

One more critical point. No investment is considered unless the balance sheet is stellar and it is cash flow positive or very close. I don't want a GM where you wonder if recovery will come before they burn through their cash. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281483 281483 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:33:29 -0400
Is everyone so blind to not realize that all the bears are now left cherry-picking very specific examples to support their case? Like Haskell over here, picking this one period of no returns - and failing to mention a position in cash from 1966-1994 would have given an inflation-adjusted LOSS.

The national sport is now to compare this with what is now the ONLY worst stock market crash in history, the great depression. And somehow nobody sees how for this one case there are the 99% of other cases where did NOT go down in flames.

Thanks to the author - it's a welcome commentary. I've been short or out of US equities most of the year thankfully, but I wouldn't go as far as try to rely on the downfall of the US to try to support my investment case here.

To the other commenters: the choice is yours. You can either participate in this economy and produce meaningful economic output by working and invest in its talent.

Or you can sit aside, put 100% of your productive capacity in a completely non-productive asset such as gold, and step aside with your arms crossed with the hope the world burns. Just keep in mind the reason we are in this mess is because we allocated two much of our productive GDP to non-productive levered assets (real estate). Gold isn't any better. You are part of the problem, not the solution.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281410 281410 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:09:22 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281277 281277 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:56:49 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281126 281126 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:21:09 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/99643-history-says-that-we-ll-be-fine?source=feed#comment-281106 281106 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:22:36 -0400
Let's not be lazy.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/97127-this-financial-crisis-too-shall-pass?source=feed#comment-263815 263815 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:59:52 -0400 (Arlo Guthrie--Alice's Restaurant)
Adapted by William Banzai7

This song is called Hank's Restaurant, and it's about Hank Paulson, and the
restaurant, but Hank's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,
that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song Hank's
Restaurant.

You can get anything you want at Hank's Bailout Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Hank's Bailout Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the Federal Reserve Bank
You can get anything you want at Hank's bailout Restaurant

Now it all started Thanksgiving Day 2008- when my friend Warren and I went up to
visit Hank at the restaurant, but Hank doesn't sit in the there, he sits near a fella named Blank in Goldman Sachs
Wall Street office, in a big glass corporate tower. And being in a tower like that, they got a lot of
room downstairs. Havin' all that room, they decided that they didn't
have to take out their subprime garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the toxic subprime garbage in there, and we decided it'd be
a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the non-performing asset dump. So
Warren and I took the 700 billion tons of subprime garbage, put it in the back of a red Humvee
stretch limo, including CDSs and CDOs and other implements of mass financial destruction and headed
on toward the non-performng asset dump.

Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the
dump saying, "No Dumping on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump
closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off
into the sunset looking for another place to put the financial garbage.

We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the
side road there was another fifteen foot hole and at the bottom of the
hole there was a pile of Dot.com garbage, prospectuses, analyst reports etc. And we decided that one big pile
is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we
decided to throw our's down.

That's what we did, and drove back to the restaurant, had a thanksgiving
dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the
next morning, when we got a phone call from Attorney General Cuomo. He said, "Kid,
we found your name on an offering circular at the bottom of a half a ton of
subprime garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And
I said, "Yes, sir, Mr. Cuomo, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope
under that garbage."

After speaking to Cuomo for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we
finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down
and pick up the subprime garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the
NY AG's office. So we got in the red Humvee Limo with the
CDOs and CDSs and implements of financial destruction and headed on toward the NY AGs office.

Now friends, there was only one or two things that Cuomo coulda done at
the AG's office, and the first was he could have given us a medal for
being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and
we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out
and told us never to be see driving toxic asset backed garbage around the vicinity of Wall Street again,
which is what we expected, but when we got to the NY AG's office
there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was
both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said Andrew, I don't think I
can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid.
Get in the back of the patrol car."

And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the
quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about Wall Street, where this happened here, they got three Federal regulators, the SEC, the CFTC and the FBI, but when we got to the
Scene of the Crime there was all kinds of state and federal regulators running around, this
being the biggest financial crime of the last five years, and everybody wanted to
get in the newspaper story about it. And the FBI, they was using up all kinds of
equipment that they had hanging around the antiterrorist bureau.
They was taking plaster tire tracks, finger prints, dog smelling prints, and
they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach,
the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to
mention the aerial photography.

After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Cuomo said he was going to put
us in the cell. Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your
wallet and your belt." And I said, "I can understand you wanting my
wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you
want my belt for?" And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings." I
said, "did you think I was going to hang myself for subprime fraud?"
Cuomo said he was making sure, and friends Cuomo was, cause he took out the
toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took
out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the
toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Cuomo
was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Hank
(remember Hank? It's a song about Hank), came by and with a few
nasty words to Cuomo on the side, Bailed us out using Federal taxpayer money, and we went back
to the restaurant, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat,
and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.

We walked in, sat down, Cuomo came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten
colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back
of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up,
and Cuomo stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he
sat down, we sat down. Cuomo looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the
twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows
and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog.
And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry,
'cause Cuomo came to the realization that it was a typical case of American
blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the
judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each
one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And
we was fined $50 and had to pick up the subprime garbage

You can get anything you want, at Hank's Bailout Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Hank's Bailout Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the Federal Reserve Bank
You can get anything you want, at Hank's Bailout Restaurant

]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/97127-this-financial-crisis-too-shall-pass?source=feed#comment-263715 263715 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:01:32 -0400
Maybe, like rising fuel prices that are encouraging us to develop alternatives, this is a good thing and we will, with some miracle, move away from the major parties who have just given us the same for the last Century.

There is a plan B. ewebsmith.com/bus/taxp...
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/85148-autoliv-cashing-in-on-safety?source=feed#comment-208419 208419 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:03:01 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/85148-autoliv-cashing-in-on-safety?source=feed#comment-207400 207400 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:33 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/85148-autoliv-cashing-in-on-safety?source=feed#comment-206786 206786 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:27:52 -0400