JCCIII

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Good point, Old Trader. The US saves Iraq and they send their business to another country. Real gratitude! I agree with fed_alchemy; time to get out. And that goes for Afghanistan, also.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

"In a speech Tuesday, President Obama is expected to talk about using leftover TARP funds for job creation, although he may hit resistance from Republicans who want to use such funds for deficit reduction."

Obama may also hit resistance when he goes back and reads the TARP legislation, which does not allow for using TARP funds in the manner he desires. Of course, the rule of law did not slow him down during the Chrysler and GM bankruptcy proceeding, did it?

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Excellent Wall Street Breakfast this morning, Suzanne. A couple of comments:

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested recycling leftover funds from the $700B TARP fund to create jobs and boost some salaries." Why boost salaries, as we now live in a world of no inflation and 0% increases for Social Security?

"Interim GM Chairman Ed Whitacre will announce new responsibilities for Vice Chairman Bob Lutz as part of an overhaul of the management team this morning, sources say. Whitacre is building a team to run the company until a replacement is hired, in a push to make GM more nimble and to hold employees accountable." Wonder if any of the employees who will be held accountable are UAW members. And, aren't employees already accountable for what they do?

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

From above: "Barron's magazine's Andrew Bary urged Ben Bernanke to hike interest rates to a "more normal" 2%, or risk fostering another financial bubble. Barron's says with the economy recovering, the dollar falling, and commodities on the rise, keeping rates near zero will only fuel speculation and anger America's economic partners and foreign creditors - and potentially stoke inflation. Bary worries the Fed is failing to distinguish between normal accommodative monetary policy and crisis accommodative policy."

Couldn't agree more with the Barron's comments. However, Bernanke is an expert on the Great Depression and one of the lessons learned from the GD (rightly or wrongly) is that money was tightened too soon (i.e., interest rates were raised to soon); I think, based on the GD lesson learned and Fed comments, that the Fed will err on the side of easy money for too long. Also, raising interest rates will be detrimental to the gov't's borrowing; a serious conflict of interest. Also, if easy money produces inflation (an almost certainty), so much the better for the gov't; a huge tax increase without having to vote on it and repayment of debt with cheaper and more readily available (if/when jobs increase) money.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

To add to the bashing of the ratings agencies. They are, so far, the villain in the crash of 2008 that has not been held accountable for their shoddy practices and culpability. They must be, and maybe via law suits, will be held accountable. I agree with the comment above, that they should be paid by the purchasers of the assets they rate.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

I concur with Axelrod's comment. Also, I like being able to go to a list of all articles, chronological order, most recent first. Finally, it would be nice if the articles included a time stamp as well as a date stamp. Keep up the good work SA.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Climate change has been a cycling hysteria since at least the late-1800's; alternating between cooling (late-1800's, 1970's) and warming (1930's, early 2000's). The progressives will never be satisfied until they control everything, and they are well on their way with the current administration.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

"The Times ... is cutting non-union salaries at the New York Times and the Boston Globe." Interesting. Not sure is this supports more unionization (workers in the union benefit in the short-term) or less (the NYT can better respond to market conditions and increase their probability of survival long-term).

"Personal bankruptcy filings among those 65 and older jumped 150% from 1991 through 2007, according to a study released last year by AARP." Billp37, I suspect the population of those 65 and older also increased by a considerable percentage between 1991 and 2007. Can you provide that number? Thanks.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Our politicians want to disregard contract law, the foundation of a capitalist system, in order to get back a few million dollars from AIG people while at the same time spending billions of dollars in earmarks and pork in the recently passed and signed into law funding bill. What hypocrisy! Was this what the founders had in mind when they guaranteed the right to bear arms? I predict the tea party movement will gain momentum.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The US government should not send more tax payer dollars to the Big 3 without major concessions from the unions and major guarantees from management that they will start delivering quality electric, natural gas, and hybrid cars and trucks.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

I am also a small investor, like eddie64. While not as negative as eddie, I also do not understand how a naked short seller is allowed to sell that which he/she does not own; it just does not make sense to my logical mind.