abetterplace

Don't Count American Manufacturing Out Just Yet

I am afraid, sir, that your facts are twisted just as they are in the government reports. Manufacturing in the US today is but a fraction of what it has been. GNP is the best reporting tool for the manufacturing track but GDP looks much better to the masses as to how our country is doing. Domestic services should not be used in tracking manufacturing. Just look at DE,CAT,GM,Ford or Chrysler
products. Without all the imported parts they are assembled with (assembled being the key word, not manufactured) they would have no product. Look at what is left of our steel industry. Very little. A real look at manufactured goods would give a very different reading from those used today.

Are Unemployment Numbers Bogus?

Always remember this report :

This report finds that all reports, surveys, opinions and studies are flawed at least 50%, including this one.

The Bears' Skepticism Is Getting Old

You got it right Harry. Picture the market as a snowball, with the snow being optimism or pessimism and determining the amount of snow available and the length of the roll. In the end, the snowball always stalls and melts or keeps rolling until it finally bursts. It never knows when to stop at the optimum time.
The old snowball theory everyone knows.
About as good as the next theory.

There Won't Be a Recovery

Yea buddy. Just thinking of where all the happy, equal people are in the world after the upper echelon of citizens were robbed of their money for the benefit of the masses. UH. Uh. uh. Just give me a few minutes, I'm thinking.

The Federal Reserve Can Not Account for $9 Trillion in Off-Balance Sheet Transactions?

I wouldn't put much faith in the nature of any questions asked of anybody by a politician. They are always loaded in one way or another for political gains.

Has 'The Trampoline Effect' Come to an End?

I prefer calling it a "safetynet". Being that it is not held as correctly as possible, it sure beats splatting the concrete if you're the one falling.

Loss of Manufacturing Jobs Prevents Normal Recovery

Not being a union man, I fail to understand what's wrong with working 60 hours a week.Laziness did not propel this country to the greatest one in the world.

Dollar's Purchasing Power Annihilated - The Chart They Don't Want You to See

Just another doomsday chart with no common sense value.
Dollar values and supply must change constantly in any capitalistic society to allow for inflation that is an absolute.
The big catch is when inflation outruns money supply as has been seen in many, mostly under developed countries. It's not going to happen here, at least not in the near future.
If you happen to be old enough to remember 1971, How many people do you know that do not have it much better now than then.

Housing Recovery: Where Will Demand Come From?

Take a 25% figure of mortgages underwater.
Take a 10% unemployment figure. Would that mean that 2.5% of underwater mortgages are at risk? No.
How many of the 10% are renters? How many of the 10% have a spouse or other relative that will help maintain that mortgage until employed again? How many will get odd jobs or have a little stash to back them up, along with unemployment benefits?
There are lots of unknown variables. Most people will strive to stay in their home for many reasons. Three in particular.
1. To protect their credit. 2. To avoid the trauma of losing their home and having to move. 3. A man's home is his castle.

More Than 1 in 5 U.S. 'Homeowners' Actually Own Nothing

"The obvious question is this: why would anyone but a fool continue making payments on these homes?"

Mr. Neilson,
The answer to your question is called responsibility. Something that is sorely lacking in our current society.
Your view on additional housing devaluations is totally wrong also. The price of finished homes in most areas is now well below the price required to build a new home like it. Home prices are at or near their bottom.

Martin Weiss: A Depression Is Unavoidable

"I wrote this book primarily to help you and everyone protect their wealth and grow it in these difficult times, but I also wrote it for another reason, and that is to try to help the country."

Why sure you did Mr Weiss.
Mr Weiss, you're just like the fox in the hen house.
Get um while they're running boys and skin um good.
You and your publisher will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Week in Review, Part I: Global Economics, International and U.S. Equity Markets Overview

I have definitely decided to master walking on water. Once I have achieved that I will master the second hardest feat I know of, calling this market.

M3: The Money Supply Sure Doesn't Look Like Deflation

I am thinking that the absolute certainty of the inflation that is ongoing now and continuing to worsen will make gold lovers out of us all.

Nothing About This Economy Is Surprising

Einstein was indeed a genius, but not in all things. Knowing that I am about as dumb as dirt, I do not subscribe to his quote other than in very broad terms. One really cannot do the exact same thing over again. There is one element that will certainly not allow this and that being time. Under a controlled. scientific environment, time would probably make no difference, but in the real world many times it would. Whether it is spending a dollar in 1900 vs 2000, or an ounce of gold, there would be a difference in the results.
Much shorter time frames would also allow a different result.

That being said, I feel that the current economic situation is not to be blamed to any one entity. Yes, much more to some than others, but there is plenty of guilt to go around.
We as American citizens share in this. We have lived the good life and do not want that changed. We have become too liberal. Many want a Utopia. Everyone with a new house and car, a 30 hour work week or none at all.

Well, it ain't gonna happen. No matter what the banks and politicians do, this country is not going to recover without
some deep soul searching by everyone. We all cannot have what Joe has.Not unless we are willing to sacrifice and do what is necessary to obtain it through hard work and diligence. So please, quit blaming our lot on the banks and politicians. Take a good look in the mirror first.

Stress Tests Were Never a Serious Exercise

How does all this government conspiracy play into the fact that the banks got themselves into this mess all by themselves.
Greedy CEO's taking on way too many subprimes and other high risk loans, pumping themselves up for the big kill. Now we have much of the greed on the reverse side. Shorters hoping to line themselves up for the big kill on the down, spreading any kind of bad news gossip that can be gathered up and published.