grh1212

Time to Replace the 'R' in BRIC?

It is premature and probably unsound to replace Russia in the BRIC honor roll now. I bought some RSX last month and it has already gained 34 pc. In fact i bought some in March of this year but panicked and sold in August with only a 63 pc gain rather than the 123 pc i could have had. Sure, i've lost on at least my share of trades but i certainly cannot complain about the R in BRIC. Yes, Russia is loaded with commodities including water even but they also have Vladimir Putin. If only we could have traded George W Bush for him. It is a great nation with not only copious natural resources but a large educated creative population , a proven ability to cope with horrendous historical challenges, an expansive geography, and a Judeo-Christian foundation.

Era of Unprecedented Inflation Just Around the Corner

Right on, DG. We must get a grip on the underlying cause of governmental corruption, namely capture. Until we prevent the corporations from reducing Congress and the various federal financial agencies to mere marrionettes, the debt will continue to pile on until some point of breakdown. It is essential to ban corporate political donations. Cheers.


On Oct 19 09:34 AM doubleguns wrote:

> We are not spreading the wealth, we are spreading the debt. The very
> people that this is supposed to help are the ones that will get slapped
> the hardest.
> ...
> Until we fix the corruption in Washington, expect more of the same.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

The years 1936-1936 were looking up so the Fed tightened and threw the US economy back into the soup for another 2 or 3 years, apparently the foundation had not sufficiently firmed up. Bernanke is right to be cautious. Cheers.

Tuesday Outlook: Commodities, Global Markets

I appreciate your remarks that are mostly historically correct but the correct analogy to the "tax and spend" ways of the Democrats would be the "borrow and spend" ways of the Republicans. Of course the Republicans only took on this destructive habit with the election of St Ronnie but they've held fast to it ever since.


On Sep 01 12:06 PM knoc wrote:

> "But the other was the election of President Obama, a completely
> unknown entity with liberal Democratic beliefs (tax and spend)."
>
> - as distinct from recent Republican presidents such as Bush who
> were simply spend. ...

Marijuana, LSD, Cocaine Now Legal in Mexico. Will the Economy Benefit?

Good for Mexico.

About 35 years ago i read a gut wrenching article in the Tulsa World about a 24 year old Texan who had already served 5 years of a 30 year sentence for smoking and possessing Marijuana. The article stressed that he had very little of it on him. I marveled that i lived in a nation so wealthy that it could afford to pretty much throw it's young men and women on the waste heap and accept moral responsibility for savaging the lives of people over trivia. Shame on America for this.

Market Cycles: A Look at the Historical Evidence

Bravo,j-duh. You have nailed the PC commentary from the news industry, especially from the financial reporting. Who dictates this single voice in the respectable media? Cheers.


On Aug 06 09:16 AM j-dub wrote:

> Wall Street's NEW reality 8/09
>
>
> beginning of month = rally
> end of month = rally hard
> end of quarter = rallying too hard for words
> California BK = fiscal rejiggering
> Michigan next in line = never mentioned
> CRE depression = REIT's explode higher
> Housing JUNE sales edge higher = housing is rebounding(again)
> GS front running trades = liquidity preservation
> Banks own congress and the Fed = bank rally
> consumer is insolvent = consumer is saving
> mass layoffs = across the board earnings' improvement
> earnings are not improving = earnings are beating street's expectations
>

Investing in Russia: A Nation of Contrasts

On Aug 06 10:43 AM ZviadKavteli wrote:

> The article fails to address the following problems:
Is there anything in this list that does not apply to the US?

> 1. Russia is notorious for its CORRUPTION and red tapes.
Our congress effectively on the payroll of the health insurance companies, big pharma, and Wall Street. Hence no possibility of universal health care at 9 pc of GDP or meaningful reform of the financial industry.

> 2. LACK of democracy and transperancy leads to deepening social instability
> and corruption.
The US presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen. Even Obama is not quite legitimate because the Democratic Party primaries were questionable and the DNC violated it's own rules to make sure that Obama was selected, not to mention the appalling bias in the nes industry coverage.

> 3. LAWLESSNESS results in illegal squeezing and expropriations of
> large and small businesses, most notably Yukos, Mechel, BP, etc.

Isn't this what the republicans have been screaming about regarding such entities as AIG, GMC etc?
But in truth Russia has special problems in coming off 70 years of communism. When they finally decided to go capitalist, i said that we must all hope that the shjares for existing economic operations will be fairly distributed to all Russian families so that the people will all have a significant stake in Russia's future and all share in the benifits of Russia's future prosperity. We all know how that came out. Putin is trying to wrest outsize influence and political control from the worst of the oligarchs.

>
> 4. RACISM and XENOPHOBIA. If you are of African, Asian, or Mideastern
> origin, you should not walk in Russian streets without well-armed
> team of security professionals. Large NAZI gangs (5-20 gangsers per
> group) are literally hunting for racial minorities.
Well thank God that there is no racism here. But in fairness there is plenty of it in pretty much all of the Eastern Europe countries and it goes back centuries.

> 5. Economic DISPARITY between the rich and poor is huge and the middle
> class is less than 10%.
The economists say that the economic dispairity in the US is the greatest it has ever been since the late 1920s.

> 6. Investing in Putin's Russia is IMMORAL. During his leadership
> Russia killed more than 100,000 civilian Chechens, invaded Georgia
> and forcibly displaced (ethnically cleansed) 150,000 civilian Georgians
> from their homes.
The US has killed upward of a million Iraqi civilians and displaced millions more. If you think we have gotten away with this evil, you have not read Isaiah.

> 7. The future of Russia is significantly UNPREDICTIBLE. This is most
> evident from numerous threats of nuclear strikes against Eastern
> European Nato member states, such as Poland and Check Republic.
>
The US has a much greater tendency to launch unjustifies wars than pretty much anyone else since the Axis powers of WWII. Certainly Russia did go into Afghanistan but we managed to make that situation far worse. They have also sought to put down the Islamic rebellion in Chechnya with only partial success. Their war on Georgia was to protect two provinces whose nationality was unsettled but whose people have wanted union with Russia since the breakup of the FSU. Russia will not see these taken by force. Look for South Ossetia and Abkhazia to be incorporated into Russia.

> 8. Russian political landscape is largely AUTHORITARIAN or TOTALITARIAN.
> 65% of the Russian parliament is occupied by Putin's party, 20% belongs
> to COMMUNISTS, and 15% is taken by the FAR RIGHT, including NEONAZIS.
> Less that 5% of Russian voters support Democratic parties and these
> parties have been unable to secure a seat in the parliament. If Putin's
> party loses support, the next party to take over are either Communists
> or NeoNazis.
During the 8 disasterous years of GWB, the Republican Party completely froze the Democrats out. It was exclude and force thru all the way.

In short, the US has lowered itself to the status of an ordinary middling country at best. It is not in a position to throw stones except at the most outrageous nations of Africa and the Middle East and one or two odd ones like Myanmar.

Cheers.

Rail Traffic Data Tell a Different Economic Story

Yes, where is Nostradamus when we need him?


On Aug 04 04:19 PM Stone Fox Capital wrote:

> What will the rail traffic be in the next 3-6 months? Heck of a lot
> more important then the last 4 weeks.

Five Reasons the Market Could Crash This Fall

Thank you for this important and insightful article. It has shown us that our present state is as though someone has set off a nuclear device with a timer of unknown duration and we are holding our breath. For myself ,except for mro, i only have tips, gld and a few overseas oriented etfs centered on the bric counties. Good luck to all.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Good for Bernanke! It's about time somewhat told Congress that they need to do their job instead of trying to set up the Federal Reserve as a patsy under his leadership. They should at least grasp that Greenspan is the main villan inso far as the FR does have responsibility in pushing our economy into a ditch. Of course the long Republican reign in Congress has done decisive damage, especially in kicking Glass-Steagall under the bus.

Why has Coingress still not held serious hearings on how this fiasco developed so that a definitive report can be written? Why have they not reinstated the uptick rule and Glass-Steagall and changed the incentive of bond raters so that corruption is not assured.

Why have they not brought CDSs under insurance regulation and not done something about the screwball "instruments" like SIVs, CDOs,, MBS and all the other financial WMDs? Are there not instruments that should be going thru a clearing house recording process so there is a bit of visibility out there? Shouldn't Congress see that the incentive for CEOs in the financial industry to make transactions that create insanely risky revenue?

Or is it too important to make a show out of being seen raking BB over the coals on live TV?



"Bernanke stressed the importance of central bank independence, warning against the dangers of too much political scrutiny of the Federal Reserve, and told lawmakers they should focus on cutting 'unsustainable' budget deficits".

Why This Is No Time for Buy and Hold

Yes, it's true. The proof of what you say is confirmed with a vengeance by our experience with George W Bush and his gang. By 2004 all cognizant or at least sentient Americans knew that he and his crew had buried us in debt up to our eye balls, lied us into a senseless war, and were torturing people. Yet 51% of the electorate marked their ballots for him! Again, i agree with you. Cheers.


On Jul 20 01:18 PM TeresaE wrote:

> Until they prove it, we continue to hope for the best in people.

>
> The oddity is when the individuals DO prove it, yet we continue to
> ignore facts because we don't want to believe the worst.
>
> By the time we all believe, I fear it will be too little, too late.

Washington's Dilemma: This Isn't a Recession, It's a Collapse

You are correct that California's problem is self generated. I lived in that state until my late 30's. During all that time the state had responsible governance until my last couple of years there when the sheeple voted the entertainer into the governor's seat. St. Ronnie's notion that you don't have to pay for what you spend landed with a vengeance and proposition 13 followed. Now the new entertainer will not agree to a tax increase and the lege won't agree to filling the gap with service cuts alone. What to do?

Obviously they should have to face the consequences of their fiscal irresponsibility. Let them default if that is their choice - and it would be their choice, not Washinfton forcing them into bankruptcy. The feds must not let themselves be extorted or all the other states will understandably follow.


On Jul 16 08:58 AM bricki wrote:

> California is perfectly capable of fixing it's own problems. It has
> the 8th largest economy in the world fer chrissakes. Just dig a big
> trench around Sacramento, fill it with oil and set it on fire. Done.
>
>

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

You need to lay off the coffee or mind altering drugs you may consume. I have been a member of two unions, one of them the UAW while i worked on the GM assembly line in Torrance, CA - Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs in summer of 1955. Paid good money. Nobody ever made me vote for anyone. Ever hear of the secret ballot? It's a US tradition. Cheers to all.


On Jun 10 02:28 PM ScroogeMcduck wrote:

> IMPEACH OBAMA!
> Thats the reason GM got handout after handout, to protect the union
> and their workers that were forced to vote for him.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Perhaps you are concerned about BHO's intention to let the GWB tax cuts for the richest 1% of families to lapse in 2010. This was only intended as a temporary cut in the first place but i know that many consider not making it permanent will amount to a tax increase and fear the US will sink like the Titanic as a result.

When Clinton proposed his tax increases on the richest 1.2% of families in 1993, many predicted doom for America. Newt Gingrich said, “the tax increase will kill jobs and lead to a recession and actually increase the deficit.” Dick Armey opined that it would “grow the government and shrink the economy. It will mean fewer jobs for ordinary Americans.” Then Senator Phill Gramm claimed that “we are buying a one-way ticket to a recession.”

Following passage of the bill, the budget deficit continued to shrink until it finally turned into a surplus and we began paying the national debt down. Unemployment shrank and prosperity reigned.

If it's any consolation to the right wing readers of SA, the peace that the nation experienced under President Clinton had nothing to do with The Clinton-Gore 1993 Deficit Reduction Act.

Cheers to all.


On Jun 04 10:03 AM User 197681 wrote:

> We may need to study chaos theory to understand where BHO and the
> new left are taking us, because there's no way any rational, economically
> educated adult would propose the things they are and expect the successes
> we have accomplished in this system since it's creation and evolution......beware.

PIMCO's Bill Gross Sees a Bleak Future

Unfortunately we have had anything but a vibrant economy under the recent years of Reagan, Bush1, and Bush2. The notion that you needn't pay for what you buy doesn't work. As for those nasty Europeans being in deep doo doo, it amuses me when some Republican gets on CNBC and shakes his head sadly saying "I just hope the US doesn't go the way of France". Yes God forbid that we should have free college and University education, free quality medical care, free child care for the working mothers and new mothers getting 6 months of paid maternity leave. and every worker getting 30 days of vacation per year. Of course they do pay 3% more tax than us.

We pay a fair amount of tax ourselves but we get two wars that we can't seem to put away with another possibly developing in Pakistan and much sabre rattling over N. Korea. We also get decaying infrastructure. But let's not go the way of France!


On May 31 08:15 AM CautiousInvestor wrote:

> ...
> Taken together all of these taxes, assuming they pass through Congress,
> will drain the live out of what was once a robust and vibrant economy.
> This will come to characterize our new normal, something the Europeans
> have been dealing with for some time inside their sluggish and sclerotic
> economies.