decoflair

Not All Green Jobs Were Created Equal

Tom,
Have any of the stocks you have mentioned dropped into a "buy" range??

With 30-year mortgage rates now above 5.5% - a level which many predict will petrify new loan apps - Mike Shedlock wonders what Bernanke has planned for an encore: "What now Big Ben? You've already blown over a third of your $1.25T commitment, and all you have to show for it is more garbage on your balance sheet and a locked up refi market."

Machiavelli999
Good observation and conclusion.
Rates were low because the economy was terrible and people had great fear of a depression. Now, stabilization in the financial sector and economy brings us slightly higher rates.

eBay's Ticker Might Be 'PYPL' in Three Years

This idea certainly causes me to take a closer look at Ebay.

Investing in Healthcare: Blue Chips vs. the ETF

I see that an investor who buys an ETF receives solid diversification However, looking at the top 10-15 positions within an ETF offers an astute investor the opportunity to select 2-3 of the positions that offer superior growth. If so, the performance of one's portfolio could, indeed, be improved. The two choices mentioned above (abt & jnj) certainly would fill the bill from the XLV ETF.

Using DRIPs for Faster Compounding of Dividends

Anarchist is correct. From what was mentioned here with the additional paperwork, we are better off receiving the dividends and buying a few shares of the same company.

Solar Stocks: Citi Says Still Too Early to Buy

I can no longer accept any stock/financial advice from any financial institution that cannot manage their own house.
WHAT A JOKE! CITI giving out financial advice.
These financial firms have destroyed their credibility by financially destroying their own companies.
I am to take their advice?

Citigroup: The Death of Buy-and-Hold Investing?

Well, well, I must say that there are more intelligent people today calling or the end of "buy and hold" strategies. Soon, there will be a magazine with a cover showing the death and burial o the securities industry. Tonight, Warren Buffet is speaking about our economy in a 'shambles.'
WOW! We must be close to the buying opportunity for the next ten years.

The last time there was so much negativism was the early 1980s when people were proclaiming that the United States was going to become a third world country (the rust belt mentality). Prior to the 1980s there was 1974-1975 when a major national magazine issued a report declaring "The Death of Equities."
Let's give ourselves some credit or our past achievements. Yes, we are in a jam, but we are working to find a solution. We will get ourselves out of this mess.

Buffett Takes Advantage of the Wall Street Addicts

Well said, my friend!

What to Buy and Why: Barron's 2009 Roundtable, Part III

Help! Help! I am drowning! Drowning in debt!

Help! Help!

Too Much Optimism for Gilead Sciences?

This may be a great long term hold for those of us that are inclined to hold a stock longer than a few days.
However, the insider sales are quite disturbing to me. I find it difficult to think that officers of the company would be dumping such hugh numbers of their shares if they were firm believers in the near term performance of GILD. I will buy on significant pullbacks, though.

America: Is This the End of an Era?

During the 1970s our factories and steel mills - our wheels of production -had grown old, worn and rusty. People throughout the country said that the United States was finished as a world power. Our nation's confidence was shattered by the oil embargo of 1973, the loss in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, and a President who resigned his position in disgrace. Yes, some folks said we would become a "third world power."
They were wrong! Wrong! Wrong! The American people have always come back. We have a never give up spirit. We will overcome these present challenges and the result will be an economically stronger United States.

Intuitive Surgical Becomes a Sorry Story Stock, Red Flag

I, too, believe your insights on ISRG at these lower level prices is shortsighted. Heck, many stocks are significantly lower since spring. Yes, ISRG was over priced over the past year, but you cannot make that argument now. Rather, you deserve a pat on the back for the call that ISRG was too hign at $357, but a Bronx cheer for failing to see the potential upside for this stock and company over the next few years.

Are U.S. Home Prices Reasonable?

I realize the importance of all the numbers you folks are presenting to prove whichever opinion one has in regard to the housing market, but all of you fail to consider and factor into your conclusions the HUMAN FACTOR.
We Americans love our homes. Unfortunately, the financial side got a bit out of hand due to the greed of those involved in the industry, speculators, and buyers who could not actually afford the upkeep and mortgage payments for their homes. Owning a home is a major desire for many working Americans. It is a dream that inspires us to work harder, work that overtime, or work that extra job to buy and keep our home.
The dream still lives and will eventually fuel new buying in the housing market in America. The pent up demand that is growing will lead to a shortage of new homes on the market within 5 years. Give Americans a lower price for homes combined with a lower fixed mortgage interest rate and the housing market will again stabilize and continue its inflation price increase as it has done in the past.
THE AMERICAN DREAM IS NOT DEAD!!!

First Call of a Double-Dip Recession: Setting Up a Market Bottom?

Since 1974 I have been a student and investor of the stock and bond markets -watching the gyrations along the way. The DOW index hit the high $500s back in the mid 1970s (yes, the high 500 mark-not 5000). Later, in the 1980s the government 30 year bond yield hit 15% as the Federal Reserve worked at ringing out inflation from our economy.
Over the past few decades millions of Baby Boomers (like myself) entered the stock market and regularly invested our excessed dollars into our 401Ks. 403Bs, IRAs, and so forth. Along the way, I had ammassed a small amount of money through the market to help supplement my retirement income when that stage of life began. Unfortunately, I and many others like myself, have witnessed the loss of most of what was accumulated in stocks over the past four decades. Once in 2000 and again at the end of 2008. Realize, that the rise in the stock market over the past four decades was a direct result of the Baby Boom generation.
Do you think at 60 years old that we Baby Boomers are going to continue investing in stocks for 10-15 years accumulating a small sum
to help at retirement time only to watch the portfolio disintegrate in 10-15 weeks?
Many Baby Boomers no longer have the long term horizon needed to build up a healthy stock portfolio. No, we are done. My fellow Baby Boomers have pulled their funds away from stocks and do not plan to return.
So, the real question to ask ourselves is what type of long term return will the stock market offer if the great number of stock market investors of the Baby Boom generation stops investing in the stock market?
Yes, there will be rallies. However, we could be entering a long period in which the market meanders and may not see new highs for a few decades. We Boomers helped to create the great bull markets we have witnessed since the August 1982 DOW low of 782 and without our dollars remaining invested or moving into stocks it could be many decades before we see 20,000 on the DOW.

Best Stocks for 2009

How easily that we accept the recommendations in regard to which stocks to buy from Forbes, Motley Fool, Jubak, and others. Why not have a SEC regulation that forces financial advisers to show past performance records on prior stock recommendations? After what happened in 2008 it is obvious that it is time to "tighten up" the financial services industry. The best way to do this is to have these folks show their past records of performance on all stock picks (not just the chosen few winners that beat the market). Otherwise, my life experience of exposure to these folks tell me that they are overpaid fortune tellers.