Ryan Barnes

Eight Industries That Will Lag Behind Economic Recovery

It's funny - I agree with 6 out of 8 industries presented here (I patently disagree with metals and media lagging an overall economic recovery), but one is left to wonder if it's not just random or has anything to do with Moody's "negative watch" rankings or measures of default risk.

Until the credit rating agencies prove otherwise, they have absolutely zero credibility. They've somehow managed to stay in business despite slapping "A" ratings on what is now toxic debt across the board. They have been the latest to the game on every call since the crisis began. By the time they put a company on negative watch, the company is either within 24 hours of a bankruptcy filing or the stock is already down 90% and bonds trade for .25c on the dollar. I would take investment advice from my grandmother before I'd take investment advice from a major credit rating agency.

All that aside, nice article in all honesty. It gives a nice overview of the industries...But investors need to distinguish between recovery in the sense of things like job growth and recovery in the form of share price. Most retail stocks, for instance, have crushed the average returns of the market in the past 4 months, despite the negative trends mentioned. Stocks are always forward looking; by the time these industries are hiring workers again, I guarantee you the stocks will have run up by another 30%.

Best of luck to all in your investing efforts.

As Earnings Are Upon Us, Some Goldman Thoughts

Wow, quite the spirited discussion here, even if some of it has gone off the proverbial rails. I have been looking into the campaign contributions from the last go-around, and yes, Goldman is at the top of the list in terms of nominal dollars. And yes, the % towards democrats was high at roughly 70%.

But let's remember that this is a company based in New York City. They've been consistently funneling their contributions towards the dems at higher than 60% since 1990. Oh, and they've also donated $11 million to the Republican party in that time.
www.opensecrets.org/or...

So a company located in a highly democratic-leaning state where lots of employees make truckloads of money did what they've consistently done for 20 years. It just so happens that this time, their horse won the race.

Oh, and to boot, the total contributions from GS amounted to less than 1/2 of 1% of what Obama received in contributions. And they guy had close to $30 million in cash LEFT OVER once the election was complete. Objectively, I don't think the current Administration feels overly beholden to Goldman for anything.