simplesimon

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    • Sat May 10th 08:55 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      What If We'd Been on the Gold Standard?
      Thanks for that reality check. I was thinking perhaps a precious metal standard would help-but I see that it would not.
      I wonder now if you would comment on the 'mob mentality' that prevails in these matters...the herd chasing the latest 'craze', vis 'get rich quick' scheme ( I can think of Tulips in Holland about the time of Rembrandt ) and , of course, the 'dotcom', and lately the REIT craze...and now the barrel of oil craze. It seems to me that in order to distract from who is actually causing inflation to double, we can 'fan the flames of disdain for oil companies and their "greed" ', while we functional retards chase the get rich quick commodity bubble, and thus not be "blamed ourselves" for causing all the above boom and bust cycles? What can you offer us here?
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    • Tue May 6th 11:03 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Saut: Are We Entering a New Kind of Investment Environment?
      re: new environment. I haven't read much on these pages about the change brought about by such easy access to the markets, vis online, worldwide. Perhaps I missed all of it some years ago. I would appreciate more analysis around this subject. I beleive the consensus is now narrowing its focus on those 'mob investors', let's call them until I hear an official designation, who tuen in to CNN and elsewhere for the latest 'hot tip'; and rush like the proverbial lemmings to, in this case commodities. It seems that all day these flames are fanned by experts claiming to have the inside track-hence the mob buying, that in turn has inflated oil from its former $20 a barrel to $120. Do these folks realize and udnerstand how they are driving inflation? Am I wrong? The more too many dollars chase after too few fast buck opps, the more these same investors push themselves and their finances to the abyss ( by drivign up the cost , nay doubling the cost, of virtually everythign they have to purchase with their "winnings".
      It's my personal (simple ) opinion that this is a dangerous trend. Immediately, more reasonable securities advisors need to populate the satellite airwaves. It is kind of a panic with two faces, investor schizophrenia? -hence the volatility? I think we'd all like to see cooler heads prevail...but I'm not going to hold my breath for that day. I will hold out hope for it, albeit.
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    • Sat May 3rd 14:32 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Considering Disaster
      Always good to see current events put in perspective. We few, we pitiful few are such wind up dolls at times-rushing after this ' rare, valuable butterfly; then that glimmer of gold there "...I can think of a number of securities that are vastly overvalued; yet the mob keeps piling on; ignoring every last bit of historical example that shakes a bony finger "no, no!"
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    • Mon Apr 28th 09:43 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Market Bulls: Everything's Coming Up Roses?
      It's good to consider both the optimists, and the pessimists. I think it's fair to say that energy doubling practiclly overnight had a lot to do with the what may be known later as the wake up call,nay, fire drill that flushed a gargantuan chunk of disposable lucre out the exhaust pipes. Like John, the voice crying in the wilderness, we former leaders of the free world in technology, just might regain that feather in our cap via renewable energy entrepeneurs dotting the landscape =geothermal, wind, internal combustion assist to electric engines, etc. It will take another 5 or 6 years to come on line, but the nice consideration would be the 'jobs now' aspect of this newfound pollyanna optimism. I think we will have another 6 year climb in the Dow, as usual. AFI ( adjusted for inflation-with the dollar now worth about a dime ) puts value in perspective-namely that Ford and U.S. Airways can be bought at 75 cents a share, and DRYS at about $8. I can't conceive of of an infinite vanishing point for the Dollar-"maybe&quo... I like to think we can do this. Call me Ishmael, but I think we can and should start thinking of the internal combustion engine as a lumbering, thirsty dinosaur; a white whale that only the obessesive compulsive would insist on pursuing, given the fact that these new ideas are already in the pipeline. Couple that with countless millions of investors seeking the new 'fast buck' path, and in so doing, jump start these new enterprises. All that is need now is to locate these companies, and hook up our jumper cables.
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    • Sat Apr 26th 10:01 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Two On McCainomics
      Wow...boy did this article strike a range of chords in readers. As a combat vet of 40 years ago, I recall calculating how much fuel our 72 F-100's were drinking down daily. My estimate was something like a Mississippi River of oil required. Yet one corp, like Exxon, netted some 40.6 billion this past year alone. There's money for lots of things, including the hunt for Islamic Fascists.( practically a hobby ) Consider that the U.S dollar has fallen to ten cents in value since my F-100's, and you get an idea that a billion here and a billion there is chump change-AFI ( adjusted for inflation -vis 40 years of AFI-this means DRYS is selling for approx $8 a share. ) What is really needed is some vision...we have geothermal, solar, wind energy coming on line, and such things as the Chevy Volt...we just all got distracted by our overwhelming inclination to narcissistic avarice, and material one upsmanship ( after reading books like "How to get rich in Real estate, overnight" ). Now let's focus on restraint, innovation, self discipline, actually working for a living, ( as opposed to shuffling too much information from one hard disc to another; and slinging hamburgers; and shopping at flea markets...our "industrial base , sigh ) ..I'm describing America 40 years ago. it can still be done. Call me a terminal optimist; who will soon be dead under the trample of the vast sea of get something for nothing fast buck geeks all around me.
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    • Fri Apr 25th 09:06 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Trina Solar: Best Value in the Solar Space
      Very interesting, and nicely objective. I wonder if your specialty includes wind power analysis? I hear that GE has billions in contract; and there is another company in Pennsylvania ( saw it when one of the candidates toured the plant -which, optimistically, was to replace jobs lost in steel ). All of these 'emerging technologies' may well hold long term promise. Or at least , it seems people are willing to die trying; let's "let them give it the good college try". That is what owning shares is all about. It used to be what America was about.
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    • Wed Apr 16th 08:41 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Losing All Respect for the System
      Bravo! Once we were an industiral giant, leading the world in technology and production of high quality discretionary products. If the 1948 dollar , backed by precious metals, was a full dollar; then what is it today? A nickel? If we're going to try to make it by trafficking in information; let's bring back 'truth in lending', and expand that to include 'realistic remuneration for CEO's'. NoO one needs that much intoxicating filthy lucre. And while we're at it, how much money is being raked in by the lottery and the casinos? Enough to pay for the war? Does anyone remember Rhett Butler? The fellows who profit from war, while Atlanta was burning to the ground? And entirely new Congress, and Senate ( sans country club lawyers and their 'bedfellows ) ? What do any of them really know what it's like to find work when every plant in the state is a shattered window, weed choked, crumbling home for rats?
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    • Wed Apr 16th 08:17 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Housing Crisis: Personal Responsibility and Wishful Thinking
      Refreshing to hear the 'real assesment'. It's nice to know the statistic re. almost a 1/4 of the population was engaged in speculative buying and 'flipping'. When I heard the term, 'flipping', it gave me pause; the same pause I had when silcon vally IPO's were raking in enormous amounts of capital, and hadn't had any sales , or prospects of sales and profit of any kind. All one has to do is wake up and notice the ubiquitous availability of gambling, on the reservations, and even at the local stop and go -the lottery, that touts 'the education of our children'...when in fact the schools are having to cut staff, etc. What's wrong with that picture? It has a lot to do with vice, and good old fashioned narcissistic avarice. Some poor old "ignorant" small town hicks call this sin. Perhaps you've heard of it?
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    • Fri Mar 21st 09:22 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Main Street Sacrificed to the Gods of Wall Street
      It is refreshing to read a financial opinion relevant to the real world. I sometimes wonder if any of the -as described above-NYC pundits ever worked as a self employed working stiff in small town USA? I have. I can tell you frankly that all that is required for your small scale, but "actually build something for America" business to stumble into " kick you out in the street arearrages" is a week or so of bad news from the desks of, again, NYC news producers. And we have had more than a week or so of grim news, and even 'grimmer' forecasts.
      I've heard more than one astute advisor remark on these pages, that a good deal of the very real capital vanishing in the market can be traced to the old fashioned term 'panic'. Yes...vanity, and excess did indeed run us into the ditch. ( who among us has not seen the Hummer turn in front of us at the intersection without the slightest hint of a turn signal...(too busy talking on their cell phone with comments like "Have your little people get in touch with my little people" ) ..are the term "vanity and excess" starting to emerge out of the inchoate gas of our manifold reasons for economic woes? We don't really need 8 mile a gallon behemoths, while Norway, for instance suffer $9 a gallon gas! We don't really need a house with 8,000 square feet...but the banks "need" the large derivitives from lending money to the vain and extravagant, don't they?
      It may sound over simplistic...but some leadership with vision, inspiring self discipline, could help...like return to working on realistic vehicles and homes, and renewable energy, like geothermal and wind...and there are crops that yield more fuel energy, such as "tropical maize"...never heard of it, huh? All you have heard is doom and gloom, n'est ce pas? So some natty ( translate arrogant, and greedy ) financial demigods ran us in the ditch...with the media 'fanning the flames' of fear...the world will not come to an end. In tandem with the efforts to 'shore up the markets', we could all use a little less fearmongering, which we receive every day, even on Good Morning America...something frightening and disturbing every single day...less of that, please. For the love of God!
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    • Mon Mar 17th 08:56 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Warning Signs of a Modern Depression: See 1990 Japan
      This dose of reality is 'refreshing' the way taking a shower with the electricity cut off, and having no hot water on tap. We wish more cautionary remarks were extant a few years ago. It was, in a small way-vis the general reaction of the public over such things as "Do we really need a 'hummer"? A home at a cool million? It seems over simplistic, but some leadership in Washington that knows what it's like to live on a modest income. What is it , exactly when we tune in to Barbara Walter's "Ten Most Fascinating People"-aren't we all being led and ancouraged to idolize the lives of the rich and famous; and in so doing, throw volatile organic compounds on a tinder dry economy already breaking out in fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, while we wave permanent goodbye to our industrial base? It seems all we have left now is the great breadbasket. Let's hope those folks are still 'living right', and a drought, crop failure, that is to say, is not in the offing. For that is connected to the food chain, vis, overall health of our economy the way exorbitant cars, trucks, and housing is all tied to imprudent credit consumption to feed our unrestrained appetite for things we think we 'deserve'. What we deserve is a cold shower, and a thousand things for supper...every one of them beans.
      May I suggest a $2500 car ( TaTa Motors-TTM )...geothermal, and perhaps wind energy (GE already with billions in contract for them ). Cheer up, sleepy Jeanie...we can do this.
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    • Sun Mar 16th 09:56 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      A Dozen Notes on Our Manic-Depressive Credit Markets II
      Re: the note above that while the dot com bubble was expanding, there were a few noteworthy commentators expressing caution. Chief among them was the late Louis Rukeyser, who, smiling, remarked, (words to the effect), "These silicon valley start up companies might make for a good investment...if they were only generating some income other than the sale of their IPO's ! "

      Many of us, like me who visited Norway in 2003, and discovered $7/ gallon gas way back then; and a 25% tax on everything, at every turn...then, returning to the U.S., saw people driving Humvees, and Escalades without any thought to conservation, or mitigation of ostentatious display of wealth...including 4,000 sq ft. homes for a cool million, that NO one really needs...and cheap illegal aliens with no rights exploited in the rush to "rake it in" building , literally, tens of thousands of homes, mass produced and all virtually identical, built in (cheap to develop) farmer's fields, representing a two hour drive to gainful employment ( more egregious waste of fuel)...can you say "overproduction/o... consumption"? Or how about "unbridled, vanity driven avarice"? There are "adults" in the world of high finance, born after 1965, who honestly don't know what a recession/sever market correction IS ! I'm afraid they're about to learn the hard way, when a little review of history might have helped mitigate the severity of this current crisis.
      One last note about kids in high finance: the reporter following the democratic primary in Nevada/Las vegas, was beign chauferred by a young black fellow, who formerly was a mortgage broker, prior to the subprime meltdown-and now a limousine drive in Las Vegas -was asked by the reporter who he was going to vote for...Hillary or Barak. And the young man confessed that he wasn't allowed to vote, having been convicted of a felon.
      (ouch)...a little screening of our mortgage banking employees might have been a judicious decision, n'est ce pas?
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    • Thu Mar 13th 08:21 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Spitzer: Self-Destruction
      On a site called 'elephant-donkey' - a 'get in the frey' kind of blog site, I pointed out that none of the candidates are addressing moral decline. A mistake in my view, which vastly underestimates the fervor of tens of millions of voters who never attend political caucuses or rallies of any kind, yet vote in enormous numbers, with decline in integrity and morals much on their mind. Add to this 'formula' a kind of avarice and arrogance of the power elite, usuallly lawyers in congess, etc. who lose sight of reality in such high positions -namely that the laws they write don't really apply to them, but to the 'servile class'. It's how we see a lion campaigning to round up white collar criminals but never think of themselves as belonging to that group. Hence, we have over a million prostitutes in this country-not an exaggeration-, and one in four teens with STD's -not an exaggeration, The epidemic of porn and the opportunity to gamble at every convenience store ( lottery supposedly for schools, yet the schools are constantly in need of funds! What's wrong with that picture?) One of my opponents on said site told me plainly, "Morality is not important any more; this is 2008". My response was "Isn't it sad when cousins marry?" The next couple days after my comment both the stories broke about Spitzer and the Teens. Morality and decline in morality IS the issue...to wit, the avarice and arrogance that led to the credit crisis, and a prolonged recession...the auto industry and the arrogance and greed there is now dragging them down...and it won't be over for a long time. It won't kill us all to clean up our act...starting at the top.
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    • Tue Mar 11th 11:16 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      General Electric: Buy Now and Wait
      Of all the grand old U.S companies, GE is one with all its irons in all the right fires - namely energy, finance, innovative development, international, and not just poised for lucrative contracts, but already has them in pocket. AFI ( adjusted for inflation) GE is a great candidate for long term -with the dollar driven to a 'dime' by all standards; this, in my view, is the dream ticket at $3.20 a share(AFI) we all wish we had bought 'back when'...back when what? Back when the heebie jeebie securities market was all 'a-doomsdaying'. If you think about it, the media makes a lot of dough pointing out some 'disturbing new frightful thing' ..and does so every single day. Jungle hunters ussed to do this, via the whole village gathering to beat on drums, and drive the prey into a trap. Well. your lion is in the trap. Go get a piece of it. ( disclosure: bought , then sold, and am now waiting on a low price like this one-still waiting and watching for a 'bottom' - Perhaps one more round of economic 'booga-boogla' will do it. )
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    • Sun Mar 9th 17:25 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Misleading Jobless Rate
      compliment to sethian. There is a huge number of people off the radar. The employment stats have always neglected them. Gen.Westmoreland never counted the viet cong, or non uniofrm, civilian combatants in V/N, and they numbered in the millions. Stats should always be viewed with a jaundiced eye. The notion that a 'great industrial nation' such as ours can go on without being, in fact, and industrial nation-is another myth. What? Information/web technocrats( a vast flea market via ebay)/line cooks? This can all be thought of as morning fog, easily burned away by the first deep, prolonged recession. Throw in a dead auto and hosuing industry, and 50 million websites, and you can begin to see the efficacy-dilemna of e commerce.
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    • Sun Mar 9th 12:02 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Gas Price: We've Had It Good for a Long Time
      I spent a summer in Norway 4 years ago, and was stunned by the $7 a gallon gas. And too, the universal health care which was not free, considering the 25% tax on everything, sales tax, income, imports. I then realized the points made above - that the dollar is essentially worth a dime, adjusted for inflation. In a sense, we are back to 35 cents per gallon, so to speak; and 20K for the average home. "Starting over" would be a possibility, were it not for the fact that we now have no industrial base. Two 'hopes'? We can still provide food for the world-and possibly renewable energy systems -e.g. wind, solar, geothermal, methane. Let us all hope for some visionary leadership now. Meanwhile, in view of the above, GE (wind energy success) is trading for $3.20 a share, so to speak! There are some good buys. I'd stock up on these before the sovereign investors do, and won't sell them back!
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