Gary Noffke

Focus on Exports to Revive the Economy

Mr. Hansen has a few good points. His statement: "The decline of American exports has never been a factor of quality or product – only price" is wrong. I think the US can be credited with some of the best and worst products ever manufactured with the bulk of them falling in the worst category. Take the failed auto industry which can no longer sell the big gas hogs even in the US where more is spent on glamorous advertising campaigns than research and development. Gasoline costs were approximately three times higher in Europe and much of the developed world ten to twenty years ago than here in the US. Seems this should have been a wake-up call for the auto industry. They also are as ugly and poorly made as they are inefficient. Of course the advertising and tax breaks that encouraged it worked well enough when the economy was ripping along, but no amount of hype can sell crap to idiots when they have nothing to spend. Reform the advertising, media and corporate tax laws that created this mess that promotes greed and ignorance and the trade deficit will go away. The cost of products will go down and the quality and value will go up. derryl is right as it is mostly the leading citizens and politicians who are the bloodsuckers in control. Where's the leadership and vision when it requires a total disaster to instigate reform?

Fund Managers Attempt to Calm Nervous Investors

This whole thing stinks. We have four star blue chip stocks that have dropped 30% of their value in ten years. We have inflation which has increased the loss in value that much again. We have corporate management stealing from stockholders, claiming their options and bonuses then immediately writing off billions. Next we have the US Treasury bailing out the the banks and corporations "too large to fail" with tax-payers money, the tax-payers, most of whom have already been screwed by the system. If anything is ever trimmed in a bureaucracy, it's the workforce, the products, but never the management. Then we get the doom and gloom journalism and media commentary about the economic outlook which causes fear and panic. Articles like this are a classic example of the media further screwing up a bad situation. Perhaps a constructive approach with facts rather than stupid negative speculation would be helpful.

Look for Market to Soar When Hedge Funds Stop Selling

This was my pick to read from seeking alpha this morning. Good article. Did you notice the gold market yesterday? It was up $30 between nine and ten AM and dropped $30 before one PM. Seems the same major players are buying and selling the same thing every day and taking the profits. If it is legal to do this, it shouldn't be. The same thing is happening with stocks. The general markets move slower than gold, but I suspect if live charts were available to observe a single stock's volume and price, you would find exactly the same thing going on. Small investors can't play this game. This is the first thing that needs to be fixed to stabilize the market. This has run the entire economy down and it seems the SEC, the FED and the US Treasury are encouraging it. It's the greed eating HedgeHogs rather than supply and demand setting value.

Dear Mr. President-Elect: Advice on Combating White-Collar Crime from a Convicted Felon

Interesting stuff about competency of boards, special committees , etc. I would agree with the author and Whidbey on their comments about the SEC and the military. Smells a bit of sour grapes, which is always the argument against real criticism from the self-serving elite who cripple their institutions. From my experience you can add education to the list of major institutions that has failed due to incompetent leaders. The scream for more accountability results in supreme cronyism, down-grading the best teachers and promoting the team players who in turn vote to support the leadership. Executive appointed committees are only as good as the executive and will forever reflect that. As Whidbey, I also am retired and my evaluation is based on 34 years of teaching in higher education. The quality of teaching is directly related to the quality of administrators who hire and promote them. It's time to distrust and critically evaluate the top as opposed to the bottom. My pick for the head of the SEC is Ralph Nader. I'll take a benevolent dictator every time over an ambitious idiot with the power to select committees to evaluate his own work.

Global Markets, Meet President Obama. Now What?

Appears most readers of these financial columns and big Wall Street players lost the election yesterday. There will be a new spread of wealth that benefits the country for a change, instead of those who believe the wealthier they are, the better off everyone else is.

Sell Signal of the Day, Greenspan Edition

"Half of what I have learned, I previously believed to be false." "I learn something new every day." These are Greenspam's own words. When and if the smoke ever clears he will get the bulk of the credit for crippling our economy and that of world. It's obvious the sub-prime loans and greed by all caused the problem. He set it up by lowering interest rates to near zero, then methodically ran it up. What was his idea with that, knowing there were millions of loans on over valued property with floating interest? Expressed above is the idea that property is now under valued. I agree with this, particularly considering the high rate of inflation we've had since this began. I saw this mess starting after 9/11/01 when our county commissioners went to bed with the development community. Now we have thousands of new homes, some unfinished, ghost sub-divisions and shopping centers in one county sitting vacant, as if they were built for an invasion of wealthy Martians. We have to give our local and state governments credit for the idea that all growth is good. Believe it or not, they are still conducting business as usual. Property assessments went up, in my county last year. It is with deep appreciation that I thank Bush, Paulson, The FED, and Congress for understanding this crisis a month ago and fixing it in three weeks. The solution to print more money, drive the dollar down and inflation up is as stupid as the eloquent speaking Greenspam. The real problem started when American industry relied on advertising to sell worthless, ignorant and inferior products. I have yet to see anyone's tax plan address the waste and stupidity of the advertising industry. Capping advertising tax write-offs of a company to the level spent for research and development would greatly improve the quality of all American products, including advertising, which is currently geared to lowering the average American IQ to zero.

Law of Supply & Demand Is Dead for Gold & Silver

Great article that was well researched. I have more than suspected manipulation of gold prices for the past few years. First I considered it to be speculation, but with the banks folding, gas going to $4.50, grains up, etc., it became apparent more was driving the market up and down than supply and demand. Rumors and short selling seem to be the culprit. I was trying to find hourly and daily volume charts for gold futures yesterday, but no luck. Find those and study them and you'll find this article more than credible. Buying futures without any intention of taking physical possession has turned Wall Street into a casino. Just find out who's buying and selling billions of dollars in commodities on a daily or weekly basis, jail them and put their funds in the US Treasury. Kim is right that this manipulation is going on and it's being done by the same individuals or groups over and over and over and over... Of course there's nothing wrong with it, it's just fraud.

Gold Futures' Dirty Secret (Part II)

I work in gold and have been buying small quantities since 1964. Except for the Hunt episode the price was relatively stable, closely related to rate of inflation, until 2000-2001. Then supply and demand and inflation took a second seat to speculation and manipulation. A few billion dollars bought or sold in gold drives the market up or down considerably. I'd guess a serious investigation would show the same individuals or groups are both buying and selling billions in gold every month or two. Gold is underpriced right now, so watch for another run to $1000 per. When it gets there, watch a big sell-out and see the price drop back to $800. This has been going on for years. Look at the graphs and the spikes. When it goes up $50 in an hour someone bought a lot. Also note the price of gold dropped around $250 per ounce in the last 4 or 5 weeks. This sure as whatever isn't caused by the rising dollar.