Alphameister

Two Stocks with Market Caps Over $250 Million that Sell for Under $10

Your yield figure is right on PDLI, but their dividend is $.50 paid semi-annually rather than $.25 paid quarterly. I have a substantial position in PDLI, which seems to offer exceptional total-return potential at a relatively low level of risk.

Four Signs that the Recession Continues

I agree that the recession continues notwithstanding the artificially-induced 3.5% GDP pop in the third quarter. Home prices will soon resume their slide despite an extension and expansion of the foolish tax-payer give-away to home buyers. Strategic defaults will continue to accelerate, spurred in part by public anger at the banks. Such defaults will cushion temporarily the recession's impact on retail sales, but consumers will gradually adapt to the new reality and pull back on spending while increasing their savings (as they must).

I think Wells is making a losing bet, but it might well be the best of available alternatives. If all banks would adopt the same policy, the pace of decline by housing prices would be ameliorated, but they're still headed lower.

U.S. Employment Picture Remains Ugly

Excellent article and comment by thotdoc. While there is no evidence in recent history that Republicans are ready to offer the radical change needed to escape the mentality of instant gratification that has led us to this mess, I am hopeful that recent election returns and the rising popularity of Glenn Beck's message could be harbingers of a new revolution that could lead us back toward the founding principles of this nation, the principles of individual liberty and responsibility that led to greatness.

Are the U.S. and China Currently in the Middle of a Trade War?

I think both sides understand that an all-out trade war between the two countries would be extremely harmful to both. I hope and expect that such a disaster will be avoided.

I do believe, however, that the jobs problem in the U.S. will prove to be so intractable that we can expect an increasing web of regulations designed to make it difficult (if not impossible) for American firms to go offshore with operations in pursuit of greater profits at the cost of American jobs.

The Glide Path Option

Our huge and steaily worsening long-term problems with social security and medicare/medicaid could have been resolved anytime within the past decade or more through reasonable "glide-path" legislation, yet Congress has never even come close to addressing those growing problems in rational ways.

As you look at current and expected Congressional legislation regarding health care and the environment, do you find any basis for hope we will find a reasonable "glide path" out of this continuing economic crisis? Our country and economy are being destroyed by economic and philosophical dolts who care only about maximizing their terms in the offices of power.

The Glide Path Option

A superb overview of our troubling situation, John, and the painful choices before us. I agree with you that we seem to be following the Japanese in our approach to resolving the problems resulting from the bursting of economic bubbles.

I agree with you that we are likely to get a value-added tax here, but I can't imagine it being accompanied by a reduction in business taxes generally that would more than offset the negative effects of the VAT on our global competitiveness. More likely, companies will shift even more of their operations oversees, leading presumably to new restraints on their ability to do so.

With a younger generation that has a sense of entitlement increasingly divorced from any commitment to excellence of performance, I cannot imagine them accepting graciously the burdens foisted upon them by older profligate generations.

(In your first paragraph about unemployment, I believe you intended to say that employment was reported down by 190,000 instead of unemployment being down by that amount.)

Ending the Job Destruction Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

I don't see the high-but-declining rate of job loss leading to stability followed by sustainable job growth. What "improvement" has been seen in employment indicators is surely linked to federal "stimulus" that must either expire in the next eighteen months or be renewed at further great cost to our grandchildren. Will state and local revenues recover enough to sustain jobs saved by this year's federal largesse to the states? Will construction jobs grow in the face of continuing massive home foreclosures and an excess of commercial space that won't be alleviated for a very long time? How will retail jobs fare in the inevitable further contraction of store space in the year ahead?

China: Is This Classic Post-Bubble Price Action?

Jeff Nielson has a much better take on China's markets. If China is experiencing a bubble, it has the resources to make it a much bigger bubble, along with an almost unlimited capacity for catch-up growth (as noted above by LR European).

There's No Bubble in China

Well argued article. I am a patriotic American who won't say the Pledge of Allegiance, first because my allegiance is not to a flag (which smacks of blind nationalism) and second because that flag no longer stands for the republic and liberties handed down to us by a group of founding fathers I deem infinitely wiser than the pathetic collection of politicians who "rule" our lives today. Loving life in the U.S. for now and enjoying the returns from my investments in China.

Senator Schumer Misses the Full Picture on A-Power's Joint Texas Wind Farm

Schumer is just another posturing politician playing to his base. As long as we accept that wind power is an inevitable part of our future, this APWR deal is win-win for both countries.

America Is Creating Green Energy Jobs...in China

He who has the money calls the shots. If we need China to finance green-energy projects in the U.S. (whether directly or indirectly), we should hardly be surprised that they are going to want a substantial percentage of the jobs that go with such projects. It's a win-win for both countries. APWR is one of my major holdings.

Property Values Set to Fall 43% from Current Depressed Levels

The provocative headline was guaranteed to get attention, and the author should have included some of the humility reflected in his comments in the original article, but I'm sure he never intended the "precision" suggested by a 43% figure. It's been humorous to read comments pointing to this summer's rally in prices (driven by seasonal and fiscal stimulus) as if they somehow disprove the long-term perspective of the article. There is a very simple message to be taken from the article beyond the rather silly 43% number and it's that, viewed in a long-term context and assuming real-estate excesses of the past two decades will be worked off to a considerable extent over the next two decades, housing is likely to be a very disappointing "investment" for a many years to come.

WSJ: Most Jobs for Chinese Wind Farm in Texas to Go to China

APWR looks like an emerging powerhouse, and the deal seems to ensure the US will not be overpaying for a clean-energy project that will be a plus for both countries. I'd like to see more of this.

Catching Argentinian Disease

I expect a value-added tax, and I also expect legislation to require all retirement plans (federal employees presumably exempted) to invest some specified percentage of their assets in treasury debt. Whatever the starting levels for such programs, I expect both to increase steadily over time. I expect a wide range of devastatingly destructive legislation out of the socialists now running the country. Coming at a time of great economic vullnerability, I see hard times for as far as the mind's eye can see.

One simple fix would hold the potential to fix the mess we are in: limit the vote to those who pay personal income taxes (above and beyond payments to the social-security ponzi scheme).

America, The Nanny State

The discourse has degenerated a bit, but I want to commend Mr. Quinn on a superb article that draws generously from several of my heros, including Sowell and Mencken. I also want to offer kudos to User 353372, one of my favorites, for one of the best comments I've read on SA.

Deconstructing social engineering is more the opposite of social engineering than merely another form of social engineering, as Bob Adamson suggests.

Although opposed philosophically to big government and all the machinations that go with it, I am grateful that the "day of reckoning" was postponed by quantitative easing. I'm grateful on a personal level, but also because permitting an economic collapse last year would have been blamed on capitalism (instead of all the socialist policies that actually led to the crisis), giving Obama and his ilk an even clearer path to diminishment of our liberties. I am hopeful that the inevitable failure of Obama to revitalilze the US economy will tend to diminish the allure of socialism.

As for how an investor can best deal with this unappealing outlook, my approach currently is to be net short US stocks (through TWM) and long a basket of Chinese ADRs since that company is moving in the direction of greater freedom and respect for free markets while offering a much more soundly based platform for strong economic growth well into the future.