formerhawk

Welcome to Salvation (aka Mark to Myth)

Sorry son, your 7K credit card bill is still 7K and yes you do sound kinda rediculous.

The Bear Market Takes a Breather

You call Friday a breather?

The Rally, When It Comes, Will Be a Doozy

Already have


On Mar 06 09:09 PM Paulo wrote:

> Well, if there is a huge rally (and at some point there will be),
> it might provide an opportunity to those who averaged down (among
> other strategies) a chance to bail out of positions they no longer
> want to hold (particularly if currency variables are favourable).

Five Things That Could Resuscitate the Markets

Definition of full bailout: gov't assisted bankruptcy

The Dow: An Historical Perspective

Trendline for S&P is probably around 1,000. Look at the credit induced bubble that appears to occur in the last 20 years. Credit cards were introduced in late 60s. Widespread use started to occur around 1985-1995. I noticed that my use of credit for staples with payment of the monthly credit card balance gave me an additional month of cashflow vs paying cash.

Market Death Spiral Continues

"It's as if this administration is mad at anyone who worked for what they have, and didn't give their money to losers, so Obama is going to do that for us."

Obama to Joe the plumber: "Spread the wealth around."

Sorry folks, anyone who heard the unscripted comment from Obama above and did not believe it and now has remorse needs to drag out a mirror, look into the eyes reflecting back and say "you are the reason for this." Maybe you'll like what you see in 4 years but my odds say from present performance (questionable friends, nominated tax cheats, proposed budget) you probably won't. BTW I hope my odds are wrong.

U.S. Rejects Nationalization of Citi and BAC

apppro, you are right. Somebody needs to do what you said!

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

eddie- that isn't out of the box, that is how money is normally loaned. Congress just doesn't appear to be normal.

Another Bloodbath?

Gabe, You didn't say anything about oil. Decrease production and the price goes down? That has to be causing Chauvez some real heartburn for a change (sorry side comment off subject). That gives further support to your thesis since that money(or most of it) goes somewhere. So what is this economic engine going to create in the future? Energy alternatives including alternative power for transportation, alternative energy for homes including battery packs that are reusable and are not part of the current power company grid, longer life batteries for anything that needs power, think unpluged from power and don't have to recharge. Health care new diagnostics, less invasive diagnostics, e-healthcare(I don't have to go to your office) although all of the above will require a real shift from the current mindset of the medical associations which will be gotten when their palms are greased, robotic surgery(look at the Davinci), software programs that diagnose. Food, and we will need a lot more of that, pesticides or alternate pest control, fertilizers (think potash last summer), better agricultural chemicals overall, better agricultural practices (we are probably the leader in the world of producing food), agricultural research(think about current problem with bee collapse syndrome) Education, every other country's wealthy send their kids here to be educated and last I checked there are a lot of kids in this world now, requires landguage translation. I could go on. The point is the rest of the world got a taste of middle class affluence. They are going to want more. Darn, I forgot the flush toilet! 2.5 billion people on this planet don't have one of those. Buy plumbing!

Comparing This Past Week to the '87 Crash

If that 400 billion hasn't been paid yet it will be in short order. That money is going somewhere. My bet is the market.

Stop the Week, We Want to Get Off

iThinkBig- right about government debt problems not until 2011. Obama runs national debt, not to fight a war that the rest of the world secretly knows has to be fought or their own hides are in for trouble, but to provide health care and other social programs for citizens of the US. The world calls in their debt, we go bankrupt, our dollars are worth 0 and this little blip in the market looks like a walk in the park. I hope for our sakes I am wrong.

Amity Shlaes: Paulson Plan Bring On Accounting Deja Vu

Well I'll comment. Just suppose that the toxic assets that have been marked to 20 cents on the dollar turn out to be worth 40 cents, or 60 cents on the open martket after the fed auction begins. Think about mark to market then. All of a sudden everybody turns a profit this quarter until the next time when the asset goes down again. Mark to market just increases volitility in an incredably volitile market. I have a problem with this because I am an investor, I invest in companies that I expect to have value and profit from their endeavors. I am not a gambler. My view of what this market has become is a gambling casino where anyone with a terminal can participate. Mark to market contributes to this volitility. Mark to maturity may be a better choice. We must take back our markets and stop the casino mentality. Your comments....

The Calm Before the Storm?

Good comments. JasonC I agree with you. I think Ben-Paulsen are sorry they didn't prop lehman up when they had the chance. Most ordinary people don't undertand the involvement that the banking/investment system has with each other. They just expect a good interest rate but don't understand how they get it. Long ago when I was deciding where to put my money I determined that if a large collapse happened I would be better off owning well run and well capatolized businesses that provided goods and services that people would need. That is why I am still in the market. Just look at the money markets that "failed" (3% lower is failed when you talk about cash). These people would have been better off in equities. Same is true of bonds. Any of you have Fannie and Freddie? Will those pay in the future? Are they worth anything? Lehman probably had a ton of them. And how about the false security of the FDIC. Yes I do have a percentage of funds in those government backed CDs and yes the FDIC is a good thing but if the government fails are your funds backed by anything? I hear you all saying that isn't going to happen but I also hear you all saying how the markets are really strange too. Time to bailout folks. It's probably our only hope.