rcraig

Refiners Finally Increase Margins

Think about it. The chemicals the refineers use also have a price. You can't crack crude to turn it into any usable petro product without certain chemicals.
I wonder how the chemical companies did when the crude prices spiked.
For a quick snap shot take a look a Quaker Cheicals

Looking for Diamonds Amidst the Rubble

No news is good news.
Why do so many experts know what went wrong now?
How come they couldn't see it several years ago?
If you add all the little problems with the market together at one time you end up with a crisis.
Now, where did I put my crystal ball?

Anatomy of a Crisis: Learning from the I-Banks’ Mistakes

Wrong, anyone who has an inkling of basic personal financing knows you need to evaluate your financial plan on a regular basis. Just don't over do it. These clowns obviously were evaluating their financial positions on a daily basis without realizing many of the rapid changes they were watching were being conducted by computer software programs.
Yes, many leaders in the financial world did over done it. In my view as a novice they totally forget or ignored the basic's of economics or were absent from class on the morning the professor gave his lecture on the subject. In short there is no excuse for such mismanagement by such well educated men and women.
Seems to me there will be so many of these men and women who are in violation of federal laws there will be an outrage by the men and women who have lost their jobs because of their mismanagement that no new special prisons will be constructed to house them. If they are not placed in prison more outrage will be ignited. It is coming down to the simple fact that the average working man and woman like myself are tired of being abused by lying executives, board members, and politicians.
It doesn't matter who takes the presidential office at this point in the financial chaos we are witnessing, so long as they do not enforce massive socialist policies by taking more away from the few men and women trying to keep their employees and scrap out a profit.
I don't want to be any part of any government placing limits on how much a man or woman can make but, do believe there should be restrictions on "golden parachutes" for idiots. If the government is going to regulate the process then they should require a certification test for any man or woman submitting to take over any corporation classified as a large cap stock.
I'm sorry, but, every common sense rule you listed was violated by these idiots who have financially raped the world finances even if we are going through a natural historical adjustment.

Two World Views: Buffett vs. Lahde

I at odds to determine if it is taking the the upper road or depression for the profits taken at others expense that has Ladhe siting on the sidelines. After all here in Bakersfield, California the FBI recently busted a few very successful business people who were involved in international drug smuggling and use. Seems to be a trend for people who are becoming successful at the expense of their employees to turn to drugs in an effort to subdue their emotional fits of concerns over how they are making their millions.
Buffet on the other hand is in conflict with his nature and apathy since his wife's death. If he truly wanted to give away his millions he wouldn't fight so hard at tax time to keep everything he earned. He would also be generous with his money and turn it over to the government for the good of the people. He could set an example for the socialist principles he and so many Hollywood elites beat the drum for.
Too bad these people can't live with their conscience. I can help them if they would send me just a portion of their millions they have. I would even send them a personalized thank you card, which more than they will get by giving away their money to the government, charity funds, or stting on it waiting to get rich sometime in the future.

Coming Soon: The $600 Trillion Derivatives Emergency Meeting

Can we get rich by by passing or heading off any calls on the CD's. (i.e. buying a share of the Palm Island and World Island in Dubai before the Prince calls in all CD's to help make his construction bills).
If nothing else happens maybe there will be a mandatory 12 Step Program for investors who over extend there personal financial limits and financiers who over extend their financial institutions.
Lots of luck folks. I hope you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty in your backyards while you plant vegetables to survive on. Too bad about city covenants that prohibit farm animals within the city limits.

Republicans Running Out of Arguments

Man I can tell the author of this article is a glutton for punishment.
The safe bet is to fire all incumbents no what party affiliation.
Remember who knew what when, and thias is a clue on how you can tell.
1) The government stopped using the M3 method to determine inflation just before the big crash.
2) The housing committee ( lead by Barrny Frank, a Democrate) after having a special hearing last year claimed Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae were in good shape and ther was no forseeable problems to be concerned about.
3) Eli Broad (aka; Uncle Eli, Mr. Orange Cuonty, ect) started bailing out of AIG three months before the crissis. Sounds like possible insider trading may have been in play.
4) Every one of the board member unanomously approved bonuses and increases in their salaries just before the crissis.
5) Printing extra money always causes a weaked confidence in the dollar and creates more inflation.
6) Real estate and housing prices were growing faster than they shold have placing a stain on the econmy and shutting down the market for eligible buyers.
7) Men like Carlton Sheets were like flies on the TV selling their latest and greatest method on how to get rich off of realestate for the last ten years without any legal action. (buying, selling and trading homes without any money down and borrowing money to use as a down payment in many cases)
8) Look at the money. Who gave what to who and when. Alll of the big money came from guess who. The big boys and girls in trouble today and they have the solution on how to get out of the mess.
You can go down a long list of small and large issues both with the government and with the private sector.
Wake up people we let our government go stale. We didn't hold the politicians accountable.

What Just Happened?

I don't get it, the media eats up this sort of stuff. After all they are in the business of entertainment. If you don't believe it take Jim Camer for example, he is the biggest clown on TV, a pure entertainer with no common sense or memory (or banks on the bet that the views don't have a memory) or realization of what kind of panic he can stir up on Wall Street.
from what I can tell, the over regulation by Congress was the cap on the ice berge that cause it to tip over. What ever rationalization Congress had behind their forcing banks and lenders to provide loans to people who couldn't afford homes in the first palce was a bad idea. The logical action would to have place a cap on real estate values and the profits that big buildres were making on the self financing and sells of homes that can't weather natural forces any better than a straw home built by the Three Little Pigs. You add the esclating cost of real estate to the transfer of responsibility for shoddy home to the insurance industry and you have the perfect financial storm without Congress forcing the banks to sell home to people who can't afford them.
After all the medium price of the average home kept going up higher and higher while the average blue colar income remained suppressed. You would have though the homes that were being built were intended for the blue colar worker. So how could hey afford them if the price kept climbing while their income stayed relativly fixed. What idiots in the industrial sectors were in charge along side Congress and their crazy regulations. Mind you I am not an economics expert, but how can anyone in any industry ignore the core basis and factors that make a company profitable and disregard the stress factors that could cause them to fail?
I guess ther is no law against collective stupidity. Let's all suffer with the morons.

Candidates Are Off Course On Picks For Treasury Secretary

One thing to remeber whomever fills the position from either side came from the same school of thought that got us into the mes we are in.
The safe bet is to cler out any incumbant in office and clean up the regulator mess of forcing lenders to provide loans to people who can't afford them. This will also force builder to keep the housing prices in a realistic range and keep real estate prices down. In the long run inflation is best kept under control when the natraul forces of economics are not tampered with and and natural scacity for any given product is allowed to drive the prices up.
Who really cares which person is selected for any cabinet position except the politicians trying to control every aspect of the average man and womans life under the pretense they are doing it for the good of the people. I think we have all heard that cry once or twice before from historic maniac figures who led their nations into one war after another.
All we need now is the rest of teh nut cases to come out of the wood work and say "their prays are answered and Ala has punished America again".
Just get the politics out of the way and let the market operate on a natural cycle. No one needs to get rich in a hurry except a crazy person. After all who the hell needs as much money as some of the goons on Wall Street get. Already they have proven they make more money than they know what to do with and when they do try to use the money they made they have made bad decisions.

The Short Case on KBH Homes

Look a little deeper. KBH was founded by the same guy who founded Sun America who then bought a controlling share of AIG then sold it just a few months before the financial crissis hit the media.
AKA Uncle Eli, Mr. Orange County, Eli Borad, the same individual who virtually owns the Michigan University (Accounting Campus) or there abouts. The same man who bought Bill Cliintons way into the White House.
Smart man or a very careful crook. I would really like to know what made him so special that he could smell money in the Chinesee Insurance market and smell mre money just in the nick of time to bail out of AIG.
Something tells me this streches just a little bit beyond good financial management.

High Yield Stocks for Those Who Need Income Now

REIT's and trust have an expensive tax form that go with them. If you are just getting into them make sure you can pay for the form to be done for you or complete by yourself.
Just working small potatoes when I first got involved with them and ended up loosing money on them the first year, even though I was tickled pink over the dividends they paid throughout the year. Learned my lesson the hard way.

Is There a Bounce Opportunity in the Energy Sector?

What do you expect when all the CEO's are playing catch up with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. When all the money the compaies make goes to salaries and compensations you expect the numbers to look a little odd.
What needs to take place is a freeze on executive saleries until the financial mess is cleared up. This is a little extreme but an action that needs to be done to flush the good old boy network out of the market and allow reasonalble people run the companies.
The other thing the government can do for the economy is freeze the use to automatic computer generated trades.
With all the profits the oil companies are making they could create or manipulate an alternate energy source to complement the auto indutry without skipping a beat in the economy.

A Possible 10 to 1 Bet on AIG

I feel very ill I sold my shares of KFT a little over a year ago.If the market wasn't down so low I could sell off some excess and reenter with holdings in KFT.
I just din't see the train wreck coming.
I wonder how big holders like Bill Clintons best friend Eli Broad and Dick Rhordin are doing with their shares of AIG?

Gold Prices Finally Catch Fire

Face it folks, the idiots are running the markets right now. They sit back in their easy chair and let the software program make all the decisions for them.
A computer program doesn't have the ability to predict what is going to happen in the future no more than any person trading stocks does.
By all reason of human nature people should be loading up on comodities to shore up their position and ensure the confidence in the base medium used for trade (the dollar). Unfortunately computer programers never considered haveing to tread on this sort of ground. all the programers though of is a market that would continue to go up endlessly.
News flash, there is a maximum level of confidence a certificate of trade can provide without demaning someone showing off the goods they represent in the trade.
I perdict a new standard for all currencies around the world in the next five years. Some counties will start using consumable goods, some will use gold, and some will use other prescious metals. Get the picture, we will all soon revert to the old caveman standard of barter if the confidence in the US Dollar completly collaspses.

How AIG Will Affect Homebuilders [Housing Tracker]

Builders still make a profit with the way they are building homes today.
Think about it, why have so many of the big builders turned into their own financial institutions. No one wants to be holdig the bag on a bad decession.
Want to blame it on a single person, Blame it on A. Onassis for coing up with the concept of selling a mortage for a portion of the interest he would have collected if he held the loan until it was paid off.
As far as blaming politicians, remeber the checks and balance system of our government. Blame all of them equally.

Obama and McCain Don't Understand the Markets

Only an idiot goes to Vegas and gambles in a game they know nothing about. The even up your chances you have to at least know the odds of winning before placing a big bet on a tilted bet.
The rules are not being enforced and part of the reason has to do with the internet regulation laws congress passed. To clean up the entire mess we need to scrap all computer ran trading and start from scratch and work our way through the process one program and regulation at a time.
Computer ran programs designed to create a profit from short selling is and has been a dangerous toy to play with in a sensitive economic market. Long purchases are alright, daytradig causes more problems.
Anyone willing to take a look at historical charts and the introduction of computer ran trading?