Buy and Hold Plus

Start-up Scam Watch: Paying to Pitch

I can't believe that people are falling for the scam. If you've got an idea that will make investors money, they should pay YOU to pitch it to them. If you don't, then they can weed you out. Or if there is something there but you are not the one to make it happen, they can help you find someone who is and both you and them make money.

But charging you to pitch to them? Give me a break.

U.S. Median Income from 1999-2009: No Gain, Much Pain

That works for things that are technology based, like GPS and computers and iPods but what about things that cost more like food and housing. We are definitely paying more for a house than we did ten years ago and our paychecks have not gone up to match.


On Sep 14 01:42 AM The-Stock-Market-Crash... wrote:

> Statistics apart, the end game would be that things would become
> more affordable again. As incomes rise, so does inflation, beating
> the effect of the rising wages. For example: I was glad to buy a
> $750 GPS (price as of last august) for $300 recently. My income didn't
> rise but affordability certainly rose.

Welcome to Economic Hell

Do you really want the answer to that question? Both candidates for President in the last election pretty much promised us ponies if we voted for them.

The last candidate to tell the truth to the electorate was Walter Mondale. He said -- accurately -- that he was going to raise taxes, and so was Ronald Reagan.

We all know what happened then.

People want to hear that the budget will get balanced without having to hike taxes or that credit card companies raising interest rates is evil when they're the ones who ran up the balance.

They don't want a leader who will tell them what is up and tell them they will have to sacrifice.

On Jul 23 11:46 AM Prudent Man CFA wrote:
> Do we want leaders or panderers?

Ford Joins the 52-Week High List

Ford is doing what Goldman did. They are taking advantage of the turmoil at GM and Chrysler to grab market share and to boost their revenues. In Goldman's case, that resulted in record profits. For Ford, it resulted in much lower than expected losses.

There used to be an ad that Ford ran with the tagline "have you driven a Ford lately?" That may be a question investors want to ask about Ford's stock.

Stocks Going Ex-Dividend in July

One great way to add to your gains if you use the buying dividends strategy is to sell covered calls on these stocks. That helps boost your income.

Judgment Against Scrushy: A Hint of Wall Street's Future?

Keep in mind that Scrushy was able to sell himself as a sympathetic figure to the jury that returned a not guilty verdict during his criminal trial. He did all sorts of stuff to make himself look good. His defense attorneys also used all sorts of appeals to race and religion to make him look better.

www.washingtonpost.com...

This time, he didn't get a chance to do that. The judge who presided over the case was the one who decided it.

And that judge nailed Scrushy's lying ass to the wall. He deserves it.

Unemployment Data: Are We Really Seeing an Improvement?

Crap. It won't take a live link in the responses or I can't figure out how to do it.

open.salon.com/blog/to...


On Jun 20 09:39 PM Buy and Hold Plus wrote:

> It's worse. I blogged about that on some other board, and no, not
> my website.
>
> Yes, Virginia, The Economy Sucks
>
> It was 800 applicants for a school janitor job.
>
> As for the continuing unemployment claims dropping, I am of the same
> opinion as the author of the original post. I just can't see why
> people are getting excited about the decrease in continuing claims.
> Think about all the people who got laid off as a result of the closings
> of GM and Chrysler and yes, Toyota and Honda factories.
>
> Think they've found jobs in the last 26 weeks?
>
> On Jun 20 04:58 AM Al-USA wrote:

Unemployment Data: Are We Really Seeing an Improvement?

It's worse. I blogged about that on some other board, and no, not my website.

Yes, Virginia, The Economy Sucks

It was 800 applicants for a school janitor job.

As for the continuing unemployment claims dropping, I am of the same opinion as the author of the original post. I just can't see why people are getting excited about the decrease in continuing claims. Think about all the people who got laid off as a result of the closings of GM and Chrysler and yes, Toyota and Honda factories.

Think they've found jobs in the last 26 weeks?

On Jun 20 04:58 AM Al-USA wrote:

> I even read a story the other month where 500 people lined
> up for ONE janitor job at a school. Hard to believe, and I will
> present the link as soon as I find it.
>
> So, what do young people do who can't find employment in their field
> and who even find AWESOME competition for jobs at the janitor level?
> The future of a country is the young right? Just a thought.

Great Depression II? It's Not Even Close

Yeah, things are bad, but the predictions would have to be off by a factor of ten to get to Great Depression levels.

I get irritated when people talk about another Depression. We're talking about hitting double digit unemployment. That's bad, but it's a far cry from 25 percent unemployment.

People need to do a little reading and learn a little history before they start talking about another Depression.

Bank analyst Dick Bove brings us this chart of the shrinking U.S. banking industry. And Barry Ritholtz wonders "why it is in the country’s interest that 65% of the depository assets are held by only a handful of banks?"

I hate the too big to fail mantra. While it is true, why is nobody addressing the real problem?

Noriel Roubini said that mergers made the banking crisis worse. He's been so right on so many things and this is another one of them.

What we need to do is break up the banks so that none of them are too big to fail.

Have the mergers of the banks really done anything to benefit anyone? Think about it. Did shareholders do well with the megamerger that created Citi, for example? No, they did not.

And how about the consumers? Remember how the cost savings from the mergers would be passed on to consumers? Has anyone here been on the receiving end of those?

Nobody benefits from these megamergers other than the investment bankers who put them together and take them apart later.

Jobs Improve, Retail Sales Still Weak

The pundits were also talking about the decline in continuing claims. Maybe this isn't the good news they were talking about. What if it is bad news, as in people exhausting their benefits. Consider a former GM or Chrysler worker in Detroit, who gets laid off. He'll get 33 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Think he'll find another job in 33 weeks?

How many other people are like this hypothetical auto worker?

PIMCO's Bill Gross Sees a Bleak Future

It will take a long time before the dollar loses its reserve status. If he's talking about how it won't automatically be the place to turn when you're looking to flee to safety, that very well may have already happened.

But what is the alternative? The yen? Uh, have you seen Japan's economy recently? The euro? Because the EU doesn't have problems with its banking system or anything like that. The pound? Sure, why not give reserve status to a currency where the country may lose its AAA rating. The yuan? Do we really want a reserve status currency where a bunch of thugs control it?

I do agree with Gross that we will not see a typical recovery and we will not see the kind of growth we were used to. We've still got a lot of debt to pay off, in both the private and public sector.

Banks, Oligopolies and Ever-Rising Fees

You know how they sell these megamergers? They always talk about cost savings that will be passed on to the consumer. That line comes right after the "synergies" nonsense that has to be in any press release touting a merger.

Has anyone seen any of those cost savings that are supposed to be passed on to the consumers as the result of a merger?

Housing: 'We're About to Have a Big Problem'

Seem like the author knew what he was talking about.

I blogged about this on my website, but today the Mortgage Bankers Association released a report that showed 12 percent of all loans are delinquent.

In what can only be a shock to the pundits who contribute more to climate change than an entire fleet of Hummers due to the hot air that comes out of their mouths, this is due to rising unemployment.

Duh. On what planet do the pundits live on where they didn't see this? Hello? When people lose their jobs, they have a real hard time paying their mortgages.

Unemployment isn't projected to peak until early 2010. If that is the case, then we'll likely see delinquencies peak at around the same time.

Crossing the River Styx: Cerberus Makes the Government Pay for Its Mistakes

Did Cerberus get any of the money that was given to Chrysler at all? If not, then they lost out, but they're also responsible for larding up the company with so much debt that it was doomed.

Cerberus and the rest of the companies like it have taken a bath lately, as well they should have. If you look at companies that have failed and who have entered chapter 11 of late, a lot of them were taken private by companies like Cerberus.