IMF To Germany: Europe Is On Course For Disaster [View article]
Interesting piece, James. This is in line with Felix Zulauf's thesis on the Barron's Round Table discussion last year that Germany will have to decide if it's willing to make the EZ a transfer union or not. Your piece seems to say they're coming up on this juncture very quickly.
It seems to be a two part question, the first part being binary: Will Germany accede to a transfer union (and treat it as a liquidity problem) or bail on the EZ (and bring on recession)?
If Germany agreed to a transfer union, with the Germans taking on the role of the ants and the Mediteranean countries taking on the role of the ungrateful grasshoppers, how the heck would that work over time?
Stryker Preparing For A Hard Slog In 2012 [View article]
Stephen,
I enjoy your pieces and found this one on Stryker interesting but it leaves me a little perplexed. After damning Stryker with faint praise you wind up saying, "Investors underestimate Styker to their own detriment...Stryker jumps out as one of the cheapest of the quality med-tech names today."
Is being "one of the cheapest of the quality med-tech names today" a good investment?
As an aside, SYK is on my top 30 buy list, as it does screen pretty well, but I keep waiting for a shoe to drop with the ECRI recession forecast and the Europe economic crisis. Long term, it appears to be a decent buy but short term, it could become an even better buy.
The Bakken Oilfield: TransCanada Keystone XL Project May Bypass Federal Review [View article]
Not sure about the validity of the claim but I've read that for the Keystone project to be a threat, spilled oil would have to flow uphill to reach the Ogallala Aquifer.
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
mark,
From The Stimulus Delusion: "...although some public debt can be beneficial, economists now recognize that once public debt reaches a certain level it becomes a drag on the economy." http://bit.ly/xGrOz0
Also suggest reading, "This Time It's Different," book by Reinhart and Carmen, an extensive review of cases in history when governments used the printing press to finance their spending. It's tragically predictable. Private economy growth rates take a whack. http://amzn.to/ACLjnJ
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
481086,
Likewise, I agree with your sentiments but can't go with the tax-the-snot-out-of-oil solution for a number of reasons:
1. It would probably throw the economy into a recession;
2. Western U.S. is built differently, spread out more, and dramatic increase in oil would be bad;
3. Don't buy the global warming muck. In atmosphere CO2 is a trace element makling up about .003%. Doubling, quadrupling or whatever would still be inconsequential. But even that doesn't matter since ice core samples going back in time show that increased levels of CO2 do not cause temperature increases. Instead, temperature increases cause increases in CO2 by slowly heating up the oceans, where about 93% of world's carbon is stored (excluding subsurface rocks). If the planet gets warm and heats up the oceans, their ability to hold gases is reduced and CO2 is expelled into atmosphere. If oceans cool off, their ability to hold gases increases and they take CO2 from the atmosphere. The oceans are huge heat and carbon sinks. Since we're in an interglacial period, the planet has been in a slight warming trend for thousands of years, with a few squiggles like the Little Ice Age (which the warm mongers tried to hide but were exposed when their emails over in England were hacked).
4. People generate about 5.5 to 7.5 billion tons of carbon per year, which sounds gigantic until you realize that Earth has been naturally generating carbon for billions of years at the rate of 120 - 200 billion tons per year. Human output of carbon compared to natural is quite small. The rift in the mid-Atlantic that's expanding a few millimeters per year has a corresponding funnel in the Pacific where carbon is naturally pumped down into the Marianas Trench and subducted into inner Earth for future expulsion into the atmosphere via volcanos (see natural generation, above). The air is cleaner today in the U.S. than it has been in decades, probably a century. And it's not getting worse, it's getting better despite what the Greenies say. They're the ends-justifies-the-means people who will say anything to achieve their Stalinist political objectives.
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
How about we stop trying to tinker with an economy to satisfy political agendas and let people vote on what they want with their purchases? Wouldn't that be rad?
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
This article is very misleading and not trustworthy. It starts out in the Corporate Income Tax section talking about RATES:
"The corporate tax rate in the U.S. is also too low."
and then in the next sentence switches to amounts PAID: "Based on 2009 data, the U.S. corporate taxes as a share of GDP was 1.9%.."
RATES and amounts PAID are two different things. In reality, U.S. Corporate income taxes rank among the highest per the Tax Foundation. http://bit.ly/zTnjui
Dividends, Drug Stocks And Owner Earnings [View article]
Nice piece, Peter. In general I agree with you but I'm not as sanguine on pharmas to negotiate patent cliffs as you. I'm curious, why were Roche, Amgen, and Johnson & Johnson excluded from the analysis?
Who Wants To Kill The Electric Car? [View article]
I doubt seriously the claims of reduced heart attacks, bronchitis, etc. through increased EPA regulation by the American Lung Association. The ALA was probably a fine organization at one time but now they're bought and paid for by the EPA using taxpayer money to justify more regulations and more bureaucratic power (larger budgets, bigger staffs) - http://bit.ly/xRcdr0
Steven Chu is not someone I'd bank on in estimating commercial viability. He called Solydra a success.
If you're going to compare the internal combustion engine to some other technology, electric cars, which can only be afforded by the 1%, would not be it. A more appropriate and affordable alternate would probably be horse drawn buggies - but then, that would degrade the environment.
The ambient air quality today is demonstrably and objectively improved versus just a few decades ago no matter how some people choose to spin it.
Whenever I see someone making planet-saving claims for whatever he's advocating, I know I'm dealing with an idealogue. It was true for Al Gore and it's true for Mr. Moore.
Stryker Preparing For A Hard Slog In 2012 [View article]
"Margins were less impressive, however."
"Stryker and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reported similarly mediocre results with Stryker being arguably even more mediocre."
"Stryker is not doing especially well here..."
"There's no real reason to expect orthopedics to get better soon for Stryker."
"With surgical procedure volume and implant pricing weak, there's not going to be all that much sales momentum for Stryker..."
"The overall healthcare market may be clouding Stryker's prospects beyond 2012."
IMF To Germany: Europe Is On Course For Disaster [View article]
It seems to be a two part question, the first part being binary: Will Germany accede to a transfer union (and treat it as a liquidity problem) or bail on the EZ (and bring on recession)?
If Germany agreed to a transfer union, with the Germans taking on the role of the ants and the Mediteranean countries taking on the role of the ungrateful grasshoppers, how the heck would that work over time?
Either way, the Germans seem screwed.
Stryker Preparing For A Hard Slog In 2012 [View article]
I enjoy your pieces and found this one on Stryker interesting but it leaves me a little perplexed. After damning Stryker with faint praise you wind up saying, "Investors underestimate Styker to their own detriment...Stryker jumps out as one of the cheapest of the quality med-tech names today."
Is being "one of the cheapest of the quality med-tech names today" a good investment?
As an aside, SYK is on my top 30 buy list, as it does screen pretty well, but I keep waiting for a shoe to drop with the ECRI recession forecast and the Europe economic crisis. Long term, it appears to be a decent buy but short term, it could become an even better buy.
The Bakken Oilfield: TransCanada Keystone XL Project May Bypass Federal Review [View article]
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
From The Stimulus Delusion:
"...although some public debt can be beneficial, economists now recognize that once public debt reaches a certain level it becomes a drag on the economy." http://bit.ly/xGrOz0
Also suggest reading, "This Time It's Different," book by Reinhart and Carmen, an extensive review of cases in history when governments used the printing press to finance their spending. It's tragically predictable. Private economy growth rates take a whack.
http://amzn.to/ACLjnJ
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
Step away from the Kool Aid that Mosler is offering and take a deep breath. He's just another Keynesian crackpot. The world's full of 'em.
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
Likewise, I agree with your sentiments but can't go with the tax-the-snot-out-of-oil solution for a number of reasons:
1. It would probably throw the economy into a recession;
2. Western U.S. is built differently, spread out more, and dramatic increase in oil would be bad;
3. Don't buy the global warming muck. In atmosphere CO2 is a trace element makling up about .003%. Doubling, quadrupling or whatever would still be inconsequential. But even that doesn't matter since ice core samples going back in time show that increased levels of CO2 do not cause temperature increases. Instead, temperature increases cause increases in CO2 by slowly heating up the oceans, where about 93% of world's carbon is stored (excluding subsurface rocks). If the planet gets warm and heats up the oceans, their ability to hold gases is reduced and CO2 is expelled into atmosphere. If oceans cool off, their ability to hold gases increases and they take CO2 from the atmosphere. The oceans are huge heat and carbon sinks. Since we're in an interglacial period, the planet has been in a slight warming trend for thousands of years, with a few squiggles like the Little Ice Age (which the warm mongers tried to hide but were exposed when their emails over in England were hacked).
4. People generate about 5.5 to 7.5 billion tons of carbon per year, which sounds gigantic until you realize that Earth has been naturally generating carbon for billions of years at the rate of 120 - 200 billion tons per year. Human output of carbon compared to natural is quite small. The rift in the mid-Atlantic that's expanding a few millimeters per year has a corresponding funnel in the Pacific where carbon is naturally pumped down into the Marianas Trench and subducted into inner Earth for future expulsion into the atmosphere via volcanos (see natural generation, above). The air is cleaner today in the U.S. than it has been in decades, probably a century. And it's not getting worse, it's getting better despite what the Greenies say. They're the ends-justifies-the-means people who will say anything to achieve their Stalinist political objectives.
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
Got any facts, gwendt01, to support that statement, "Large corporations don't pay any taxes"?
Should the U.S. Lower Corporate And Income Tax Rates? [View article]
"The corporate tax rate in the U.S. is also too low."
and then in the next sentence switches to amounts PAID: "Based on 2009 data, the U.S. corporate taxes as a share of GDP was 1.9%.."
RATES and amounts PAID are two different things. In reality, U.S. Corporate income taxes rank among the highest per the Tax Foundation. http://bit.ly/zTnjui
I suspect that David Hunkar knows this.
Dividends, Drug Stocks And Owner Earnings [View article]
Long: RHHBY and JNJ
Who Wants To Kill The Electric Car? [View article]
http://bit.ly/xRcdr0
Steven Chu is not someone I'd bank on in estimating commercial viability. He called Solydra a success.
If you're going to compare the internal combustion engine to some other technology, electric cars, which can only be afforded by the 1%, would not be it. A more appropriate and affordable alternate would probably be horse drawn buggies - but then, that would degrade the environment.
The ambient air quality today is demonstrably and objectively improved versus just a few decades ago no matter how some people choose to spin it.
Whenever I see someone making planet-saving claims for whatever he's advocating, I know I'm dealing with an idealogue. It was true for Al Gore and it's true for Mr. Moore.
Achillion's Hepatitis C Pipeline Is A Longshot [View article]
I will continue to hold IHNX for the full $26 from BMY.
A Bio-Pharma Buy And Sell List: Part 2 [View article]
2012 Europe Outlook: How The Fiasco Will Unfold, Part 2 [View article]
How can you be so dismissive of a continent with over 2,600 different cheeses? And that doesn't even include Ireland. Seriously now.