Frankie62

Moral Hazard: A Danger to Our Financial System

Very well done indeed. Unfortunately many believe morality is relative - your evil is not my evil. As was said in "Wall Street", "Greed is good". Sadly the average American and his IRA / 401K is paying dearly for that greed.

General Electric Presents a Dividend Opportunity

I am in the GE DRIP through a previous employer which was sold by GE when it didn't live up to GE expectations. This is one thing which GE does particularly well - divesting divisions which don't perform well enough. I have recently bought more GE because the dividend rate is higher than any CD you can buy, and there is expectation of increase in share price - since the price is now so low. With so much of its earnings coming from outside the US, the value of the US$ also helps. And I trust GE Capital (Financial) is much better at risk management than most US banks.

Some Consequences if Oil Prices Stay High

Sad Oil Git - Re Nuclear Waste - Do you realize there are often volcanos in that ring of fire around the techtonic plate edges? And mountain building goes on around techtonic plates - it could end up on top of or inside a mountain - what a great waterfall that would be. And do you really want to gamble that the waste will have made it down to the magma before a volcano erupts? Now that could be an interesting volcanic eruption if it included nuclear waste. That volcanic ash cloud could circle the globe in a short time. And those old familiar claims that we can bury the waste deep enough not to reappear in the ground water - I don't want to drink any of the "spring water" from that area - do you?

General Garbage

It's silly to compare GM and GE - they are totally different, except that they both have "general" and a major financial division. What about General Dynamics? They have done well in the last few years and they are in a totally different business too, although GM used to build the small military vehicle and GE has been developing a substantial homeland security division. I still believe that GE has possibly the best CEO in his peers. This "market" is directionless so one needs to choose the best companies with the best CEOs and hang in there.