ERCaptain

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

There is so much crap in the first few sentences of this article, one hardly knows where to begin.
1) "real calm" -- Are you on a massive prescription of anti-depressants?!?! There is a group of people who love Obama, but whether or not you agree with them, there are nearly as many who despise and fear him. Some people are fearful that Obama is taking the US straight into the arms of Stalinesque socialism. There have been record sales of firearms and ammo. A lot of people are freaked out. This is not real calm, for many it is outright PANIC.
2) "He has been wildly successful" -- Are you also writing history books after 6 months of his presidency? Many people are drawing on the parallels of the current administration with the Carter administration. Obama is wildly successful only in the same circles where Carter was wildly successful (oh, and Chavez and Castro).
I think you judgement is seriously flawed. This article is only beneficial in as much as it shows how an ardent Obama fan thinks.

Why Economic Dogma Threatens Our Future Prosperity

A little humility in the approach would make this article more digestible. I suspect I would like Professor Weigand in real life, but this article was too much.

I guess if we disagree with any of his points we are suffering from cognitive dissonance. Brilliant! Thus the article and professor are beyond critique.

Where do we begin? Macro assumptions? His read on market sentiment? Health care? His assertion that CNBS and Fox have "carefully-scripted narrative" (there must be a plethora co-conspiratorial analysts coming on those shows)?

The professor puts himself in opposition to the recently released paper of the San Francisco reserve regarding the value of tax cuts.

As long as we are going after Keynesian, why not go back to Roosevelt? "Ronald Reagan is the inventor of borrow-and-spend government." Really? I thought Roosevelt gave us a primer.
I have found it interesting that there has been very little recent main stream criticism of Obama's modern application of keynesian economics, while Reagan took a beating a la "Voodoo Economics".

One would imagine that Professor Weigand would have more followers after this insightful post. Imagine a professor still taking an opportunity to poke at Reagan. Isn't it innovative thought? (Like Rob I am being rhetorical!) I am not sure I would want to pay the good professor for credit hours sprinkled with that level of insight.

First Read of House Health Care Reform Act (H.R. 3200)

Want to see the current example of governement run health care? It is the VA system. A visit takes a day; quality is often questionable; the infrastructure is usually terribly outdated..
for veterans, it is often used, but would they if they didn't have to?

How about other social programs?
Medicare? Disaster
Medicaid? Broken
Social Security? Disaster

And now we want to turn over your Health to these morons in Washington....

Have we all lost our minds ?

Pharmaceutical Dollar Rationing by Results

The US gov is working at a feverish pace to ensure they pass some version of socialized health care now. Controlling legislative and executive branches gives them the ability to do it if they can maintain party loyalty.
There is also the issue of timeliness. If they can push it through quickly, and without a large national debate, they can avoid the problem of all those pesky people pointing out how much their plan stinks.
The US is still the destination of choice for the world's wealthy when it comes to quality and timely care. Waiting for months for urgently needed treatment, such as occurs in the UK or Canada, is an emotional and physical nightmare. Rationed care with fewer doctors is not a program that anyone wants. But many doctors I know are looking for the exit if the goverment controls fall into place. Worse yet, many parents of bright children who have expressed an interest in becoming doctors, are instead encouraging their children to pursue other careers.
I hope we can yet find a solution that does not result in any kind of rationed care.

UBS Halts Inverse and Leveraged ETF Trading

UBS is not the first firm to do it. The problem is that too many people do not realize the risk and that these leveraged ETFs. They are not intended to be long term holdings. The volatility often eats up the gains.
If someone wants to speculate, there are better and more cost efficient ways to do it.

CIT's Failure Could Threaten Financial Sector's Overall Recovery

CIT has jumped through hoops to try to meet FDIC requirements. They did not come to the serving line early enough to get any bailout money. The system is not prepared to adsorb one million companies that do their financing through CIT.
If CIT fails there will be enormous negative impacts on the markets.
If CIT fails there will be enormous negative impacts on small business.
If CIT fails the government can socialize the small business funding practices and put more power in the hands of the beaurocrats. Small businesses are traditionally not your Democractic voting block, so this will be pay back. To bad CIT isn't unionized -- that may have helped.

Unemployment: Historical Chart Sends Scary Message

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.
Milton Friedman

Preliminary Analysis of the House Health Bill

Want to see the current example of governement run health care? It is the VA system. A visit takes a day; quality is often questionable; the infrastructure is terribly outdated..
for veterans, it is often used, but would they if they didn't have to?

How about other social programs?
Medicare? Disaster
Medicaid? Broken
Social Security? Disaster

And now we want to turn over our Health to these morons in Washington....

Have we all lost our minds ?

The San Francisco Fed on the Effectiveness of the Stimulus Plan

Thanks for the laugh. Not only was that really funny, but it is also true.

There are real problem with both sets of people. Keynesian practice has created massive debt and the Turbo Tax expert just executes whatever plan he is given because he is the quintessential bureaucrat. But, tsk-tsk, even bureaucrats should get ready to pay much higher taxes to cover the future being painted for us by the Keynesians!

What Were the People of California Thinking?

What Were the People of California Thinking? They were thinking that the government should have to do the same thing that individuals and families do when they have less money... STOP SPENDING AND MAKE CUTS. Every normal person with a modicum of decency, self-respect, and self-discipline would live on a real budget.
Why is it viewed that the only way to fix this situation is for the state of California to increase their income from the people? Why is that the tax payers are the ones being viewed as irresponsible?
It is time for the government to live by the following basic principal. You live on the income you have, not the income you wish you had.

Massive Bank Shareholder Dilution Ahead

And WFC, and BAC, and regional banks... this is how socialism starts under our very noses.
The government knows best? They are telling banks that they will not allow them to re-pay if it is not in the "best interest" of the American people or the American economy?!?! Are we going to say this to banks that did not want the "gov loans" to begin with?
To me this is truly scary territory. Since when does the government know best (outside of prudent regulation to curb the basic problem of theft, etc.)
Many banks would like to be free from the gov imposed rules - but we are happily giving up free markets in exchange for a "our big brother knows best".
Wierd, I have never been a conspiracy person or an alarmist. But very quickly I am beginning to worry that I may not even have the freedom to write this. I could be in trouble with the government because what I am thinking and writing here may not be in the best interest of the American people or the economy?

Not All Dividend Stocks Are Overvalued

You would be well served by getting a second opinion ASAP! Ask for the prospectus for the product (oh, wait, there isn't one!) These "guaranteed" products also give you massive surrender penalties -- the indexing to the market performance is complex. Can you describe to me in detail how it works? There are "participation rates" (Do you understand how those work?) which can be impacted by decisions you make.

You are in the "FREE LOOK" period right now (if you don't know what the free look is ask someone other than the person who sold this to you what it is). Do yourself a huge favor and look at the SEC website that warns about these products (which are sold as an investment, but are really nothing but an insurance policy dressed up to look like an investment.) Also review the nightline investigation and the AARPs warnings about these products. Just be sure you fully understand this. Most people I know who have bought these are greatly dissapointed when they begin to discover what they really have and what the "costs" are.

A good rule of thumb is -- if it is too complex for you to really understand how it works, you probably should not own it. The studies that have been done show that most insurance sales people really do not have a good grasp on the product they are selling. And remember, an insurance product does not have a prospectus!

FREE LOOK and live.


On Sep 10 09:42 AM axelrod608 wrote:

> You can get "returns" like this from a CD without the risk of share
> price dropping.
>
> Unless you're buying them in a tax advantaged account like a Roth
> IRA, the dividends are taxable. These sub-4% returns are less than
> inflation and taxes. Plus they have risk.
>
> Last week I put a small chunk into a fixed Allianz annuity with a
> 10% bonus, guaranteed 7.5% annual interest PLUS it has an opportunity
> for market gains, should there be any. The interest accumulates tax
> free. It is GUARANTEED to at least double in less than 10 years.
> And it is written by a RESERVE insurance company. Not one person
> has ever lost a penny with a reserve product. No risk. It is semi-liquid,
> you lose the bonus and pay a penalty to close it. If I die, it goes
> tax free to my kids.
>
> I don't have enough money to buy risky low-return dividends that
> don't keep up with inflation and taxes. So I don;t "get" these piddling
> dividend stocks.
>
> Yes, there are many kinds of annuities, most of which are risky and
> written by non-reserve companies. Yes, you have to know what you're
> buying. But in this market and what I see on the horizon, I see no
> future for sub-4% dividends to keep up with inflation and taxes.
>
>
> I have no interest in Allianz.

Six Companies with Sustainable Dividends

One can argue about the quality of the individual stocks listed, but one cannot argue the power of a rising dividend.

With a strategy of having dividend stock portfolio of rising dividend stocks, and investor would have outperformed their non-dividend paying counterparts by about 7.7% a year for the last 20 years (rising div 11.2% non div 3.5% -- source "Factset, returns 7/31/88-7/31/08")

Thanks for the article.

The Feds and UBS Reach a Squeal of a Deal

Comrade -- it is patriotic to pay taxes!

The Fatherland over all?!?!

To which country should I pay taxes? The one I like the most? Where I earn it? And after I have earned it and and paid taxes, am I free to take my money where I want to? Who does it belong to? In a global economy what gives the US the right to know everything about what I have anywhere in the world? If I earn my money outside of the US why should I bring it back to the US?

When we die, should we pay taxes again?

I am not encouraging criminality, but I am encouraging fairness and privacy. I say that we should stand up for global freedom and not tyranny. What I do with money outside of the US is not the US's business. Their authority ends at their shores. The ugly tactics used by the US to strongarm Switzerland and others to comply with US rules is scary at best! Are we creating global "Big Brother"?

"I wouldn't mind paying taxes - if I knew they were going to a friendly country."
Dick Gregory

How about these unpatriotic folks?
Calvin Coolidge said
"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery. "

Milton Friedman
"I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible."

John Maynard Keynes
"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward."

The Swiss have been great about avoiding global tyranny in the past. I think this is a sad chapter in Swiss history.

On Aug 13 08:50 AM Alan Young wrote:

> I find it strange that the first three comments all took the side
> of the tax evaders against the U.S.
>
> How patriotic!

Is a Case of Quant Trading Sabotage About to Destroy Goldman Sachs?

My first question is -- who is the major benefactor here? If Goldman secrets went to someone else...
It looks like all of their competitors have rapidly increased their trading volumes. The only glaring difference that I can see is that Goldman has simply dropped from the list.
Something smells fishy in Denmark. Thanks for bringing this to light.
Short Goldman?
I am long on GS preferred D (as an inflation hedge).