DanM

Stay Away from AIG - Barron's

That sounds like a story you should bring to 60 minutes!

My worry with AIG, is he government at some point forego's its stake...... We've done it all sorts of other things.. I would not be surprised to see some sort of deal cut that releases AIG from its US debt obligations under some complex arrangement.....


On Aug 30 05:33 PM ECHealthInsurance wrote:

> I have a more interesting story to post about this, we are a life
> and health insurance agency in Florida, and we received a letter
> from the department of insurance in Florida warning us not to replace
> our AIG policies or risk license suspension.
> Forget about the stock it doesn't matter, but would you keep your
> life insurance policy or annuity with them? If you had a whole life
> policy with a significant cash value or even a term policy with none
> would you AIG as the company that was supposed to pay the claim?

IBM: Reflating the Corporate Bubble, GE-Style

Assuming they are debt financing the buyback i agree. Some companies, Microsoft for one have at times said we see no other real opportunity in the market right now for some of our cash hoard so we'll return it to investors.

The New Unwind

The "Average Joe" certainly shares the blame. When i went to buy my current house, the real estate agent (having my prequlaification letter in hand) started showing me houses much larger and twice as expensive. I told her, "NO" and eventually she found me something at my price point.

I know many intelligent people that acted like idiots, and that's no excuse....

I realize a solution may not be fair to all, especially people like me that played it safe but will have to share the burden. But no one should grant immunity to the general public in this fiasco...


On Feb 27 02:18 PM techzone12 wrote:

> The average Joe is not exactly responsible for this crisis. He was
> basically used. The banks encouraged people to take loans that they
> could not afford. And who doesn't like easy money? Who doesn't dream
> about becoming rich one day?
> Meanwhile the government (and the politicians) stood by and did nothing.
> Why? because they can not bite the hand that feeds them. Some people
> got rich in the process (Madoff anyone!). Meanwhile things went full
> circle, and the "average Joe" is the one who ended up picking up
> the bill!

Five Signals the Tech Slump Is Nowhere Near Over

Then we agree. My bad, I should have picked up on that since the article is about tech.... One reason i like the subscription and cloud computing models is it gives tech companies a more predictable revenue stream....

On the flip side, one good thing about tech's is they have no to low debt and oodles of cash. The recession will present huge buying opportunities for them and we're moving quickly towards an industry that will consist of maybe 10 players






On Dec 17 03:11 PM TradeRadarOperator wrote:

> DanM -
>
> Your point about tech gains being minimal is quite valid and I did
> allude to that concept in a post titled "Who needs tech in a recession?"
>
>
> As for the headcount reduction, I am referring to tech companies
> themselves, not their customers. It is not a sign of growth in the
> tech industry when tech companies are laying off employees.

Five Signals the Tech Slump Is Nowhere Near Over

I agree that the tech slump will continue, but disagree with the reasons.

So much of tech is bought because they have the budget for it. In big companies, often its a use it or lose it scenerio and buying technology provides an excuse to exist. The large r issue is we're hitting pinnacles in certain technologies where the gains are minimal and simply do not warrant the expense of money and time. Technology, over time, should allow a company to hire less people to get the same results so I disagree that headcount reduction is a sign of the prolonged tech slump. Its more likely managers are starting to ask for a ROI on such investments and simply not seeing it.