axelrod608

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

>> "Have you ever seen anything matching Japanese or German quality come from China at any price" >> Yes.

bobbob - I bought my son a Lenovo computer several years ago. Despite the fact that he never defrag's it or does any maintenance and visits the riskiest gaming sites, it has performed flawlessly. It is made in china and is every bit as good as any other PC.

China can and does make top quality products, NONE of which you will ever find in a Walmart.

You missed the point of my earlier comment - blame the company that contracts with the chinese company to make cheap crap, which they then stock and sell here. Companies in EVERY country make products to specs provided by the company that buys them, not to a high quality spec.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

>> "Can you believe how bad Chinese-made stuff is?.....pure junk" >>

Don't blame the Chinese. It is Walmart, DollarTree and many, many other AMERICAN companies that are buying the crap and stocking their shelves with it. Worse, companies like Walmart keep sqeezing their suppliers - to make more profit - resulting in the makers cutting more and more corners.

This is just another piece of the American/multinational corporate greed machine that will say, do or sell anything - no matter how shoddy or fraudulent - to make a buck.

American financials solicit, buy, package and sell risky MBS's while other American companies rate them AAA. It is the financials' equivalent of soliciting cheap shoddy consumables, stocking stores with them and selling them to Americans with little or no sensibilities about what quality is.

In the American and global economies, GREED is the factor driving all the deteriorating sectors.

These days, to ignore the old Roman saying, "Let the buyer beware" is to risk getting taken. And it applies to stocks, real estate, retail and every other sector.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

>> "Seems everyone who comments on Alpha postings has only negative things to say." >> I guess you haven't been following the Cetin rants, eh ?

Look, anyone, EVERYONE with money in the market the past three months is thrilled. There is a HUGE difference between the market and the economy. There is money to be made in EVERY market. And that sound you hear is the economy swirling in the bowl while the fed continues to flush it with more and more water (money).

Take off the rose colored glasses. We're NOT in Kansas anymore.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Rickman - the reason people don't dwell on the plight of veterans here is this is a FINANCIAL blog.

You want to submit an article ? Click on "become a contributor" above left.

Having said that, your piece is good and I totally agree. I'm a disabled Vietnam vet and I know the treatment I got from an ungrateful nation. Poeple mad at the war took it out on the vets. Disability compensation is marginally above the poverty level and VA health care is a nightmare.

The young guys I see at the VA hospital are almost all missing limbs and the emotinal trauma cases are way worse than for earlier wars. The COST of our misadventure in Iraq will be horrendous. These vets are going to need far more extensive rehab. I hope and pray that the majority of folks who say they "support the troops" will pay the tab. My generation got more lip service than medical service.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

This is silly. Already we have reports from financials that have been "modifying" mortgages that 50% of modified mortgages are re-defaulting or going to foreclosure. What is it about mortgage modification that policymakers don't get ??

Rocks are hard, water is wet and modifying mortgages DOES NOT WORK in the long term.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Could it be that Bush wants to make it unavoidable for Obama to continue his failed policies. He sure is handing the next Pres one helluva mess.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The underlying assumption of all these bailouts is that the US government cannot fail. It's beginning to look like that assumption may not be correct.

The derivatives problem is rather simple. There now exist worldwide over 1,000 $Trillion - yep, a QUADRILLION - in face"value" derivatives. Some (much ?) of that face value is based on real estate values, which in most parts of the world are in decline. Best case scenario is probably somewhere around a 12% reduction in "value" of derivatives and 12% of a quadrillion is an exceeedingly big number. Even if it were 2% it would be huge. And some derivatives have been sold at 25% of face value. Do the math.

The domino effect is in play. EVERY insurance company, brokerage, financial institution, REIT, pension fund, money market fund, bond fund, annuity fund, hedge fund, etc is holding derivatives. Therein lies the problem. First, they do not know the the market value of the derivatives they hold and second, those that have foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc, are producing less income. The net effect is that assets are less than face value and income is less than planned fior. Together they are a double edged sword affecting both capital and income stream.

Finally, Bernanke, Paulsen and the other bailouters are NOT looking out for the well being of the people. They are looking out for their buddies in financial businesses. The World Bank did a study on every national financial crisis for a 30 year period. Their conclusion was that in EVERY case, the crisis was proportionately lengthened and worsened by the amount of money the nation poured in to try to fix the problem. What the Treasury and the Fed are betting on is that this time it will work out differently. Which is what Albert Einstein said was another definition of insanity.

I hope I'm wrong. But if I were betting with my money - and we all are - I'm buying gold. Y'all might consider doing the same.