stoat1004's Comments

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:09:12 -0400

Subsidy-Eye I admire your idealism if not your choice of ideal. I would suggest your economic policy be a bit more based in the world that is instead of the world that "should" be. If you insist on being an idealist, might I suggest "brotherhood of man" or "liberty and justice for all" as more worthy of your devotion than "free market capitalism".

United States Energy and Economic Policy should be based on what is good for America and the citizens of America and not based on economic idealism or what is good for Brazil, India, and Dubai. To make my point about who is trying to influence our representatives I will quote some of a recent Barron's Commodities Corner dealing with a recent decline in sugar prices:

"The global sugar market has been saddled with a glut for years, since Brazil and India expanded cane output at mid decade. But a longer-term turnaround for sugar prices is expected..."

"Production in India is on the decline, where growers are planting more grains. Meanwhile, Braziliam sugar-based ethanol shipments to the U.S. have surged this year. It would be very bullish if the U.S. decides to reduce the 54-cents-a-gallon tarriff on Brazilian Ethanol. Sugar can in Brazil is grown on vast, contiguous fields, where labor and other inputs are cheaper than in the United States. India is aided by proximity to Dubai..."

P.S. What do you think used to be on those "vast, contiguous fields" of sugar cane in Brazil? (according to you and a recent Time magazine article corn based ethanol is responsible for deforestation...hmmm?)

Buy Rent-A-Center -- Cramer's Lightning Round (7/24/08)

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:24:46 -0400

Another excellent pick on Rent-a-Center.....From 2005-2007 net income declined by 43.8% while sales, general, and administrative expenses increased by 50.3% (Well run companies in good market segments tend to do the opposite of that Cramer...just a little tip for ya).....It also pays no dividend has 1.25 BILLION in long term debt compared to 947 million in share holders equity....Very cheap at 17times ttm earnings and 1.6 times book don't ya think?.......BTW Cramer folks who can't pay their credit cards can't pay rent-a-center either....Nother tip for ya.

Trading Psychology - Cramer's Mad Money (7/25/08)

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:04:14 -0400

Ha!! Good Advice? Let me simplify......Own Stock and lots of different sotcks....Buy and Sell....and whatever you do don't lose "confidence"....Well when your a confidence man working for folks who skim off the top of every buy and sell....you sure aren't going to tell folks to find two good companies with solid real returns and sell em only when the fundementals change or you have to.....No far better to Sell more often and buy more often in the name of "diversity"..... Teh simple truth is small investors do not have the level of capital necessary to make "diversity" an effective strategy for capital appreciation. If protection of capital with a real rate of return + or - 2%ish is the goal there are far better risk effective methods than this tired old crap.

Happy Days for Panera - Cramer's Mad Money (7/23/08)

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:52:10 -0400

Who can argue against purchasing stock in a company whose business segment is over saturated, highly competitive, and a product which is one of the top three consumers are eliminating from their budgets. Apparently not Cramer. Net income DECLINED by 2.4% from 2006 to 2007. While sales, general, and administrative expense increased by 16.4% over the same time period. It's cheap at 25 times ttm earnings and over 3 times book. Nice pick CRAMER!

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:01:01 -0400

Current corn prices $5.25 ish.....Did we suddenly stop making ethanol? That must be the decrease in demand that spurred a 20% or so decline in price.........Subsidy Eye Will you answer my question....Do you advocate growing something other than corn on current corn acreage or using the corn for some product other than ethanol?

Rate Hikes Might Be Around the Corner

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:32:07 -0400

A Fed rate hike would be the shot heard around the world...Wall Street, unaccustomed to gun fire, will mistake the sound for the popping of a cork and rally. Fed rate hike in '08 equals DOW < 6000 by Q1 '10.

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:37:55 -0400

On diverting 30% of the USA's corn crop....to my knowledge there are basically four uses for corn grown in the US.....the least of which is human consumption (almost negligable)....#1 Animal feed...this has been mentioned what has not been mentioned is what percentage of animal feed actually results in animals for human consumption a large percentage of that feed is for pet food...#2 Alcohol (not all of which is fuel grade some is food grade alcohol (Sky vodka anyone?)...#3 is corn sweeteners and corn starch.....ALL let me repeat ALL corn grown in the United States not used for the production of PET food contributes to the Human food chain....whether the starch is used for corn syrup, vodka, or ethanol....Now I am not an expert on world hunger but it seems to me to be quite a leap to talk about ethanol without talking about worldwide pet ownership...hmmm something tells me the more affluent china, india, and russia become the more pets their gonna keep (just a guess)....Commodity prices are result of monetary policy and demand issues (Ethanol playing a somewhat smaller role then critics claim)...I am seriously curious if Subsidy Eye is recommending that corn acreage be used for other crops or if corn grown be used for other products? I am also curious why subsidies for ethanol (which are a net tax gainer and not a "drain" on tax payers) are so honerious but the Oil depletion allowence...which is basically an accounting gimic which allows for write offs for Oil produced by treating it as an asset loss (which is several times larger then subsidies for ethanol) is not? The tariff on Brazilian ethanol equals the subsidy on domestic corn ethanol so that the U.S. tax payers do not subsidize Brazil (Ya'll are hearing the same talking heads I am who want to remove that)....If anyone doubts the tax benefit of mandates and subsidies just take a look at the plants built and employees hired....these are manufacturing jobs (remember those?).....anyway as I have said corn based ethanol is good for America not the Globe....Global issues are debated by the WTO and the UN....Our congress, president, and citizens should concern themselves with a somewhat smaller picture. As far as Carbon and CO2 go...something tells me Peak Oil and the indebtiness of the World's largest producer (US :) is going to take care of alot of that.

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:41:26 -0400

I am interested in where this new "prairie land" is....over 99.4% of Illinois is no longer in it's "natural" state....

Ethanol is not a good CO2 reducer...better than gasoline alone but not good

As far as the economics of subsidies...considerat... needs to be given to the formation of domestic capital, reduction of imports, state and local tax base support, etc. Let's not forget the economic devestation of farming communities from the 70's through the 80's and into the 90's...(anyone remember Farm Aid?)

The protection of and formation of domestic capital is a correct role of government within a capitalist democracy. I would even go a step further and say that the employment of government capital in the private sector to accomplish social and environmental goals which do not otherwise offer a competitive roe and/or roi is vital. I assume you agree and are argueing that the government's capital is better used elsewhere regarding CO2 emmisions?

My arguements in favor of corn based ethanol are primarily based in Nationalism both economically and politically....and a belief that the debate about corn based ethanol is primarily a matter of global vs. national economics. "In case you didn't notice, we just got our a**'s kicked" Corpral Hudson in the movie Aliens

P.S. the high demand for starch is primarily in the form of corn syrup for processed food products that without a great deal of sweetening are almost inedible....and in terms human terms about world hunger there is only a shortage of protein not sugar.

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:08:48 -0400

On whether or not ethanol production is a net gain or net loss in terms of "energy" consumed vs. "energy" produced....This is the arguement in which critics of ethanol get to have their cake and eat it too....The manufacture of ethanol is also the processing of grain into food products (that's right kids it's not food or fuel but food and fuel)....critics give ethanol no credit for processing grain into a food product and then PRESTO; the same critics charge the energy used in the production of food products to the production of ethanol....so ethanol manufactures get no credit for food production but are charged the energy consumed as if it was all used only for ethanol...pretty neat huh? One real world example: Aventine Renewable Energy operates a wet mill in Pekin, Illinois (this plant used to be a CPC grain processing plant which made corn syrup and other food products)...This plant still makes all the food products it made under CPC except for starch and corn syrup (corn gluten meal, corn germ, CCDS, Corn Feed, etc. are all still manufactured) Only the starch is used to make ethanol now instead of corn syrup....Now what a critic of ethanol does is compute all the energy used by the plant and then compute all the energy produce by the ethanol and PRESTO: Ethanol is horribly energy inefficent....But what about the food products and the energy used to process them from grain (The processing of grain into food has always been and still is always energy intensive).....The critics answer: What food products?

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:35:21 -0400

"Food" value lost is questionable at best...the FACT is that the ONLY part of corn consumed in the manufacture of ethanol is STARCH (sugar)....so if "food" value is measured in calories then it's loss is dramatic...Very little (3%-0%) of protein is lost from corn in the same manufacturing process...so if "food" value is measured in protein almost none is lost....as far as world hunger goes...I have two questions 1) Is there a worldwide shortage of sugar or protein? 2) Is anyone with money starving?.....The United States has two major energy issues 1) "We" rely too much on Oil 2) We rely too much on foreign sources of energy....Domestic Ethanol from Corn is Great National policy it is one of the few alternative energy sources that does something about both....Globally ethanol from sugar makes more sense, unfortuantely the United States is the best in the world at growing corn not sugar and replacing a dependency on foreign oil with foreign ethanol doesn't make much sense....Corn based ethanol is PART of a national energy policy not a GLOBAL energy policy....The problem is our news sources and information sources are largely controlled by people who fancy themselves Socially Conscience Global Capitalist...They over estimate the benevolence of capitalism as well as their own benevolence.