freddie

Total Rating:
+3 / -5

22 Comments

    • Sat Nov 15th 14:39 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Is Buy-and-Hold Dead? Hardly
      Invest in beat down companies paying 5% or more in dividends for the longterm (paraphrased).

      Sounds great, very logical, prudent. But what guarantee is there that these companies will be able to continue to pay 5% or more? So is the reduction of dividend a sell sign?

      Just think how much those in "insured" cash have made by protecting principal while benefitting from the "miracle of compound interest."
      Over the last year, a minimum of 30%, up to 50-60%, in protected principal + compound interest, and when in state bonds, the addition of tax savings of about 40% to 44% on interest depending on individual state income tax. Hmmm. Looks good, unless the rush from gambling is worth the losses of those who bought into the "think long" and be "diversified"... mantra the talking heads are paid to throw at us daily.

      If you folks are willing to think in 10-year periods, think real estate and rents and appreciation and tax breaks galore. Get out there and pick up a few repos, especially duplexes and triplexes, and you will be very well off 10 years from now. If you play the market, you might as well go to Vegas or your local Indian casino, and play black and red on roulette, and play the 2-1 line, and don't forget to cover the house numbers with a 11-1 play. And there is no additional commission. But stay away from the poker tables where there are professionals working with partners. The poker tables are a lot like the stock market. LOL.





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    • Thu Nov 13th 11:43 AM | Rating: +1 -2
      Commented on:
      Let's Clarify "The Worst Economy Since...." Debate
      One fact makes it the "worst in 100 years." Nations did not go bankrupt in the Great Depression. Why do I get the feeling that we are at the beginning and not the "bottom" or "near bottom."

      And stagflation appears to be gaining momentum. I base this on empirical observation. I thought this would be a good time to remodel a house for rental. We are now completing the kitchen. Even high end sellers of kitchen equipment will meet Home Depot's prices. Yes, Home Depot now carries high end kitchen products. However, when I selected some high end stainless sinks, faucets, etc. after visiting several showrooms, when i returned just a week later to make the purchase, the price had gone up 8%! The explanation - supply is down - hard to get!

      And I decided to do deferred maintenance on my boat with a Volvo Penta diesel engine. Marine mechanics are now asking $90 to $100 an hour, and Volvo Penta just increased parts prices another 10%. Not scientific you say, but isn't this how we knew all along in our everyday lives that the Govt was BSing inflation rates? Look out for anything made of metals. You ain't seen nothin yet.




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    • Mon Nov 3rd 17:21 PM | Rating: +1 0
      Commented on:
      Bye-Bye Dividends



      On Nov 03 01:41 PM coolsoupy wrote:

      > Uh - I can't work - how else do I get monthly checks besides dividends?

      Coolsoupy,

      I too am retired. If "dividends" mean the bulk of your life's capital is in equities, that's a lot of risk since you can't earn it again. Besides having dividend paying stocks or stock funds, there are municipals, particularly very safe tax free state bonds, several kinds of Treasury notes and bonds, and plain old FDIC insured CDs. You don't need a fund to own them and pay no commissions. Also, in recessions, not only does the stock price take a hit, but dividends can and will be cut. So just suggesting that diversification means divident paying stocks but a good percentage in other investments that just about insure your principal. JMHO.
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    • Mon Nov 3rd 11:50 AM | Rating: +1 -3
      Commented on:
      Bye-Bye Dividends
      Wow, Famos, at least you honestly express your prejudice and warped, distorted view of just who has been "taking the Workers earnings."

      And to the others that claim to live solely off dividends, you need to quickly reexamine the word "diversification....
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    • Sun Oct 12th 13:02 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Bottom's Within Sight - Barron's
      I was about to write something in reaction until I read eddie64's comments. Now no need.

      I'll just add that many moon ago when I was living in Argentina, I read an article in Marcha, a left-wing Urugayan weekly, by James Petras, a leftist academic sociologist and specialist in Latin America. It was on the riots in the US in response to the assasinations in 1968. It was titled El Saqueo como Politica, y La Politica como Saqueo, which means Looting as Politics and the Politics of Looting. Petras noted that the rage of the disenfranchissed was directed to looting longed for commodities instead of in any organized political organizing. Decades later, the LA Riots in reaction to sanctioned police brutality were directed at massive looting. Just imagine what will happen in our urban areas once commodity consuption is restricted by no credit and increasing unemployment. The religion of America is consumption - you are what you wear, you are what you drive, or you are nothing. After 911, our Decider declared, "shop"!

      The US is bankrupt, and the credit bubble cannot be duplicated in the short term. Massive inflation is the only way to buy time, and massive public works and maybe a real physical green revolution can provide productive investment, but that means progressive decoupling from the world economy. But this is a violent country, and I fear you haven't seen nothing yet while you all await "the bottom" to try to make a few devalued bucks.
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    • Sun Oct 12th 12:24 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Where Is the Global Economy Headed Now?
      "Disclosure: I have no equity, debt or derivative positions in any financial institutions"

      Congratulations!!!
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    • Thu Oct 9th 15:30 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Global Coordinated Rate Cut: Nice Try, but the Party Is Over
      Real good article, but I think it misses the "special interest" nature of the rate cut which was not helpful. It sure won't be for the spread in mortage rates.

      Countries like Germany have guaranteed all deposits and the FDIC has temporarily raised coverage to $250,000 to get cash back to the banks. The change is POD coverage from "eligible beneficiaries" to anyone including your cat is even more important - you can load up on insured amounts and long term.

      But that isn't good for equity markets. So I think the rate cuts, yes coordinated, were lobbyied for to get money back to the stock markets.

      An example: on Tues morning, Wamu was offering 5% on 12 and 13 mos. CDs. Then the Bernancke speech, and within hours, Wamu reduced the rate to 4%. After the coordinated rate cut was announced on Weds., Wamu cut the 12 mos rate to 3%!!!! Two percent in two days!! The hope is to combine consolidation of banking with less options to lower savings rates and force some of the money that will go into MM and CDs with the enhanced insurance protection back into the markets. Whether this will work, who knows under the real economic conditions, but to me it demonstrates how political the economic process continues.
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    • Wed Sep 24th 11:11 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      What Should a Banking Crisis Bill Really Look Like?
      I tuned in to see if the 911 type fear tactics were working on the SA contributors. Yesterday I caught Cramer claiming that the bailout automatically guaranteed the end of foreclosures. His explanation: heck the govt can just sit on the mortgages and charge ZERO!

      And here I get Ed's considered analysis. Thanks Ed, you restored my faith that it is worthwhile to read SA.
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    • Mon Sep 22nd 12:20 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      U.S. Household Net Worth Is Up by 43% Since 2002
      It all depends when you bought and how old you are. I bought my first residential property in 1973 in coastal SoCal for $42,000. I still own it and live in it, and I could sell it tomorrow for $1, 300, 000. No mortgage now. I could care less that it has dropped 10-15% in value lately. My neighbor paid $1,500,000 five years ago. Huge mortgage and mounting debt in other areas of his family's life, and fear of losing his film industry finance job. He can sell it tomorrow for for $1,300,000. So what is your point, other than trying to provoke us constantly?
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    • Mon Sep 22nd 11:46 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      More On Global Subprime Banking Fallout [Housing Tracker]
      Thanks. Interesting synopsis of effects around the globe and a reminder that Alt-As are out there still to be resolved.
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    • Fri Sep 5th 14:36 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Obama's Windfall Profits Proposal Is Dangerous
      The participants in the site features the most sophomoric use of the term "Socialism" I have found. A windfall profits tax that exempts investments in alternative energy is Socialism, instead of a progressive spur to investment in alternative energy.

      Bailouts for Banks and brokerages are just smart measures, and so, so capitalist. Listen to Gross: he loves socialism for the rich:

      www.bloomberg.com/apps...
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    • Sun Aug 17th 12:23 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      America's Fiscal Crisis: Tough Decisions Needed Now
      Excellent summary essay Quinn. And Wiskey has the guts to state the full extent of the horror of what has been done in our name. If we had a parliamentary system, a political solution might be possible through a voting coalition of honest conservatives and progressives who have come full circle in their understanding of what has happened and what has to be done. Like P C Roberts and Pat Buchanan, I am so far to to the right now that I am all the way over to the left, or vice-versa. But we have one party with two wings both controlled by the same financial/industrial/m... conglomerates. The future looks bleak, and now the spectre of nuclear war is again front and center as Bush gives puppets like the Georgian leader the go ahead to attack civilians to provoke the encircled Russians. And he still has months to go in office with the spectre of two candidates to follow whose advisors only differ on the regional focus of empire building. I kind of chuckle sadly as I read this site dedicated to the little investor who is trying to defend petty principal in the face of the errosion of every sector of US civil and economic life, and realize that there are still too many CLHs befuddled out there.
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    • Sun Jul 20th 13:27 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Historic Financial Collapse Underway?
      "They will probably believe the lies they're told by the mainstream press about "greedy" speculators and evil oil companies. They will almost surely support the policies and the politicians who are actually responsible for their increasing poverty."

      LMAO! You begin and end coherently by describing 'greedy speculation' spurred by stripped away government regulation, lobbied ridiculous capital gains real estate give aways, inflationary interest rates maintained by Fed Reserves, private banks, and then conclude by exempting all players except the politicians who are under the material influence of the same forces of speculation!

      And you perpetuate the idea that Big Oil conducts its business through the spot and futures oil markets because you are so concentrated on physical gold and silver which IS traded on the spot market. And you left out one scenario that is happening right in front of you - statification. Don't you find it interesting that IndyMac Bank was not liquidated, but reborn as IndyMac FEDERAL BANK, F.S.B.???? And one more thing, you express concern for the middle classes (what, no working class?), but you are willing to throw the mass of seniors with dwindling resources on the mercy of private medicine by liquidating the most functional safety net we have and the model for a national health plan- Medicare. Yes, go ahead and take physical possession of gold and heavy silver bags of coins, and then hope you don't lose it all to a home invasion robbery if the scenario you hope for comes to pass.
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    • Mon Jun 16th 14:45 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      James Galbraith Joins the Obamanomics Team
      "He knows the Saudis (and maybe Russians) are setting the price of crude."

      Then he knows little about oil and either do you. All Saudi oil is sold by contract and none goes into the spot or futures markets whose prices are broadcast daily as the "real" price of a barrel of oil, and about 5% is ever delivered. Mexico does not sell into the spot or futures markets either - it comes here under a contract price, and itsure ain't $135 a barrel or the oil companies couldn't post record profits.

      If you mean the Russians and Saudis control the price by limiting production, then explain why the Saudis announcement to produce 200,000 more barrels per day resulted in increased oil prices. The speculative paper futures price is being taken advantage of to gouge the world economy. Joseph Pogue, head of Standard in 1928 stated, "it matters little who owns the oil, what matters is who extracts, transports it, refines it, and markets it." Nothing has changed.
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    • Sun Jun 8th 18:53 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Investors at Risk of Losing Everything
      garyccb,

      Obama = double digit interest rates. Hmmm, sounds good to me. As of last Monday I am totally in cash, except for SGen and IMMG. The only thing I'm willing to bet right now is an effective treatment for cancer.
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