T. Boone Pickens' Extremely Bullish Energy Bets [View article]
wkl,
Do you feel comfortable with our energy needs being completely dependent on very unstable regimes? The oil spike over the last couple of weeks just shows how fragile it is. This won't be the last time this happens either. And we have our men and women in Iraq for over 20 years now policing the whole region to protect the supply. Was it worth the multi-trillion dollar bill?
And good luck finding enough oil in the US, we are not going to find enough, no matter how hard we look.
T. Boone Pickens is right. We ARE the problem. It's just like drugs, we wave our fingers at Mexico and Colombia for growing the stuff, but we just happen to be the biggest users creating the demand for it.
Shadow Housing Inventory: The Coming Avalanche? [View article]
"Immediate solution: Open visas for 7 million software engineers from all over the world to move to USA. Encourage/tax benefits to companies who move overseas jobs back to USA. All your shadow inventory disappears in six months."
Let's use your idea but let's import surgeons instead.
Or how about let's do something common sense and let prices fall back to the mean that people can actually afford with their incomes?
The Disturbing Truth About Silver's Rally [View article]
"However, investment demand is notoriously fickle."
Oh man, no offense to the author, but you may get chewed out on this one.
There is a core group of investors who have taken a stand into silver and it's more to them than just about making money, it's a moral experience. It's their way of fighting back, by sticking it to market manipulators like JP Morgan, and calling them in on their bluff.
This group is vastly underestimated, and the same undercurrents of middle class angst, that you see manifesting itself all over the place, are in full overdrive with the silver crowd. This group is extremely hard to budge, and all these classic shakeouts by the big investors have absolutely no effect. Trigger a mass of sell stops to cascade? Good luck with that, it doesn't work on this crowd. They just wait for the dip and then pile in with guns blazing to pickup even more.
Steeled by the backing of a mysterious insider and two cartoon bears, they are out for blood, and I honestly think making a ton of money is actually the secondary motive to many of them.
You may eventually take them out, but they will go down swinging, and already made a fortune along the way.
T. Boone Pickens' Extremely Bullish Energy Bets [View article]
Well, what is interesting about the Energy Task Force (2001), which WAS headed by Dick Cheney, is that it has never released its records to the public. This is after the Department of Energy has been sued a couple of times and requests under the Freedom of Information Act have been denied.
Those we do know that did attend the energy meetings, were almost exclusively from the oil industry.
Energy affects all of us, and if we are to solve this issue as a country, why was this so secretive?
12 Dividend Stocks to Own in This Market [View article]
I backtested this portfolio going back 5 years using Folio's backtesting tool.
Rules:
1) 10,000 starting capital 2) Stocks holdings equally weighted at 8.3-8.4% of portfolio holdings 3) Dividends reinvested
Results:
1) S & P 500 (including dividends) : -12.73% total return 2) S & P 500 (no dividends): -21.22% total return 3) Portfolio listed above: 15.14% total return
Of course, past performance is no indication of future results, however, the results are pretty staggering.
With Mass Exodus of Manufacturing Jobs, American Labor Market Hitching Wagon to Service Economy [View article]
Every corporate job function now can also be offshored - HR, legal, you name it, so I don't see how much longer this transition from manufacturing to services will work.
Some commentators will say that this is a good thing because it allows the US to concentrate on innovation. Well outside of the financial services sector (we all see how THAT worked out), where is the innovation?
Everybody can't sit around designing ipods all day, there just aren't enough turtlenecks to go around for that, people need real jobs.
Great article which sums up the facts perfectly. There is still a long slow slide down, and the earliest of stabilization may not occur until 2012.
I think we need to find another driver for the economy, instead of looking at a housing rebound to do it. That's backwards thinking. Good economic conditions will support a healthy housing market, not the other way around. Artificial buoys, like the tax credit, only work as a stalling tactic to buy more time.
Technology was a driver in the 80s, Internet in the 90s, and housing in the 2000s. Of course you can make the case alot of that growth based on debt, but there was some real growth drivers underneath that mountain.
Facebook, iPhones, and McMansions aren't going to do it. That's 2007 thinking. We need to find something to pour our resources into areas that reignite the economy and create jobs. The obvious choices would be infrastructure and green tech, for a start, but I think we're all still looking for a breakthrough technology.
Corporations are sitting on a mountain of cash, but are too timid to hire and invest so are waiting for a green light to pounce. (HINT TO CEOS: Offshore hiring does not count and destroys the purchasing power of the same consumer you are counting on to buy your products and services! Duh!).
Getting out of Iraq by the end of next year (combat troops are all out by the end of this month) will also help, now we need to finish up in Afghanistan and stop wasting trillions and get back to business!
Well, though Jeff is intentionally trying to be provocative, his Dow number is a good teaching tool for reflection. He is correct to point out the fear factor with the way our media works. The CNBC Wall Street vigilante routine gets old, it's nice to hear some balance.
Do Dividends Matter? (Part I) What Modigliani And Miller Really Say [View article]
First of all, you're assuming they would disagree with the content of the article. I have read many of the points made in the article actually written by many in the same audience you are criticizing.
Secondly, it was a great article with a well thought out thesis and a level-headed demeanor, designed for learning and discussing, not provoking to generate page-hits (which has been the trend lately).
Pres. Obama's "original sin" is his "failure to demand a reckoning from the moneyed interests who brought the economy down," Frank Rich asserts - a simple explanation for the current troubles but not accurate, Derek Thompson counters. "Unemployment suffers today not because of, but independent of, Wall Street's success. That is the simple, boring truth." [View news story]
Look, most of the growth and job gains over the past decade were in:
1) Finance 2) Real Estate
Neither one of these were genuine organic economic engines, they were artificial bubbles blown, engineered, and then popped. Financial engineering does absolutely nothing for society other than siphon away money away from productive endeavors, and into black pools where it gets shuffled back and forth and the top skimmed off. I don't want to hear the typical nonsense about market makers, arbitrage, price discovery, and providing liquidity.
Wall Street is there to ASSIST the economy, not the other way around. It is not the epicenter of the universe. Instead of holding clowns accountable, they are courted and feared.
We need our kids to grow up to become engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs, because they are the true drivers of REAL economic growth. Not some spoiled hedge fund brats or the clowns sitting at the prop desk trying to figure out ways of scamming their own clients.
7 Dividend Stocks for the Ultimate in Deferred Gratification [View article]
Fantastic article, and for those who must live off of instant gratification to self-reinforce their investment strategy, you can replace it with the satisfaction of watching your dividend stream arrive every month. With dividend growth strategy, the really fun part about that is watching that number go up every quarter, compounding on itself.
"Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in." - John D. Rockefeller
T. Boone Pickens' Extremely Bullish Energy Bets [View article]
Do you feel comfortable with our energy needs being completely dependent on very unstable regimes? The oil spike over the last couple of weeks just shows how fragile it is. This won't be the last time this happens either. And we have our men and women in Iraq for over 20 years now policing the whole region to protect the supply. Was it worth the multi-trillion dollar bill?
And good luck finding enough oil in the US, we are not going to find enough, no matter how hard we look.
T. Boone Pickens is right. We ARE the problem. It's just like drugs, we wave our fingers at Mexico and Colombia for growing the stuff, but we just happen to be the biggest users creating the demand for it.
Shadow Housing Inventory: The Coming Avalanche? [View article]
Let's use your idea but let's import surgeons instead.
Or how about let's do something common sense and let prices fall back to the mean that people can actually afford with their incomes?
The Disturbing Truth About Silver's Rally [View article]
Oh man, no offense to the author, but you may get chewed out on this one.
There is a core group of investors who have taken a stand into silver and it's more to them than just about making money, it's a moral experience. It's their way of fighting back, by sticking it to market manipulators like JP Morgan, and calling them in on their bluff.
This group is vastly underestimated, and the same undercurrents of middle class angst, that you see manifesting itself all over the place, are in full overdrive with the silver crowd. This group is extremely hard to budge, and all these classic shakeouts by the big investors have absolutely no effect. Trigger a mass of sell stops to cascade? Good luck with that, it doesn't work on this crowd. They just wait for the dip and then pile in with guns blazing to pickup even more.
Steeled by the backing of a mysterious insider and two cartoon bears, they are out for blood, and I honestly think making a ton of money is actually the secondary motive to many of them.
You may eventually take them out, but they will go down swinging, and already made a fortune along the way.
Today was the "worst day of the Obama presidency" - the tax deal unraveling, his political capital spent, upstaged by a former president and by the Senate's farthest-left Democrat. Joe Weisenthal says this may mark the day Obama "officially became a lame duck." [View news story]
1) New Orleans nearly destroyed
2) 9/11
3) The dozens of "really bad days" related to Iraq
4) The world financial system nearly collapsing
Not such a bad day after all.
T. Boone Pickens' Extremely Bullish Energy Bets [View article]
Those we do know that did attend the energy meetings, were almost exclusively from the oil industry.
Energy affects all of us, and if we are to solve this issue as a country, why was this so secretive?
12 Dividend Stocks to Own in This Market [View article]
Rules:
1) 10,000 starting capital
2) Stocks holdings equally weighted at 8.3-8.4% of portfolio holdings
3) Dividends reinvested
Results:
1) S & P 500 (including dividends) : -12.73% total return
2) S & P 500 (no dividends): -21.22% total return
3) Portfolio listed above: 15.14% total return
Of course, past performance is no indication of future results, however, the results are pretty staggering.
Lumia Lifts Nokia Back To The Black [View article]
With Mass Exodus of Manufacturing Jobs, American Labor Market Hitching Wagon to Service Economy [View article]
Some commentators will say that this is a good thing because it allows the US to concentrate on innovation. Well outside of the financial services sector (we all see how THAT worked out), where is the innovation?
Everybody can't sit around designing ipods all day, there just aren't enough turtlenecks to go around for that, people need real jobs.
Housing: Still Flooded [View article]
I think we need to find another driver for the economy, instead of looking at a housing rebound to do it. That's backwards thinking. Good economic conditions will support a healthy housing market, not the other way around. Artificial buoys, like the tax credit, only work as a stalling tactic to buy more time.
Technology was a driver in the 80s, Internet in the 90s, and housing in the 2000s. Of course you can make the case alot of that growth based on debt, but there was some real growth drivers underneath that mountain.
Facebook, iPhones, and McMansions aren't going to do it. That's 2007 thinking. We need to find something to pour our resources into areas that reignite the economy and create jobs. The obvious choices would be infrastructure and green tech, for a start, but I think we're all still looking for a breakthrough technology.
Corporations are sitting on a mountain of cash, but are too timid to hire and invest so are waiting for a green light to pounce. (HINT TO CEOS: Offshore hiring does not count and destroys the purchasing power of the same consumer you are counting on to buy your products and services! Duh!).
Getting out of Iraq by the end of next year (combat troops are all out by the end of this month) will also help, now we need to finish up in Afghanistan and stop wasting trillions and get back to business!
What About Dow 20K? [View article]
Fire Hoses Pumping Again [View article]
Do Dividends Matter? (Part I) What Modigliani And Miller Really Say [View article]
Secondly, it was a great article with a well thought out thesis and a level-headed demeanor, designed for learning and discussing, not provoking to generate page-hits (which has been the trend lately).
Leave the trolling to the professionals buddy.
Pres. Obama's "original sin" is his "failure to demand a reckoning from the moneyed interests who brought the economy down," Frank Rich asserts - a simple explanation for the current troubles but not accurate, Derek Thompson counters. "Unemployment suffers today not because of, but independent of, Wall Street's success. That is the simple, boring truth." [View news story]
1) Finance 2) Real Estate
Neither one of these were genuine organic economic engines, they were artificial bubbles blown, engineered, and then popped. Financial engineering does absolutely nothing for society other than siphon away money away from productive endeavors, and into black pools where it gets shuffled back and forth and the top skimmed off. I don't want to hear the typical nonsense about market makers, arbitrage, price discovery, and providing liquidity.
Wall Street is there to ASSIST the economy, not the other way around. It is not the epicenter of the universe. Instead of holding clowns accountable, they are courted and feared.
We need our kids to grow up to become engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs, because they are the true drivers of REAL economic growth. Not some spoiled hedge fund brats or the clowns sitting at the prop desk trying to figure out ways of scamming their own clients.
7 Dividend Stocks for the Ultimate in Deferred Gratification [View article]
"Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in." - John D. Rockefeller
www.dividends4life.com...
Goldman's 10 Favorite High Yield Growth Plays [View article]
Now, which division within Goldman will also be shorting these stocks?