Leser

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

Suncatcher, you wrote the following:
"Leser and Bob55, You guys sound like you are dedicating your lives to make a really meaningfull difference to us lesser mortals. Please give me a honest list of your accomplishments in this area. I find that people such as yourselves pontificate about what should be done but don't get it on. How much of your own energy do you generate by solar panels? How often do you take public transportation when you don't have to, etc., etc., etc.? While you are floating up above us narrow minded and greedy basthads please do us some good and check the ozone layer." --
Suncatcher,
Sorry that I sounded to be "pontificating." To be sure, if I had done it to make myself seem superior to anyone, it would prove that I am less than one should be. Where I live I can't much use public transportation, but I conscientiously make a mental list before I run errands, using less gas and not doing errands until there is a reasonable need to do perhaps ten at a time. I bought a house very close to my work so as not to need to use as much gas to get to work. I use the heat and air conditioning as sparingly as possible. Sometimes I have special uses for grey water. The recent appliances I've purchased all have the Engergy Star symbol of conservation and save some resources, be it water or electricity. My replacement light bulbs all have the energy star. When I leave a room I shut off lights I am not using almost all of the time. I wouldn't necessarily have to for financial reasons. It's just the right thing to do. I really do recycle everything feasible in my region and believe in the "reduce, reuse, recycle, repair" motto. But you are right, I need to consider more ways to use natural low-carbon or no-carbon energy sources. When the Boone Picken's natural gas cars become a practicality and can be refuled in my area, I'll need to avail myself of that means of transportation. I've influenced my family and many others through teaching to think of the result of recycling, etc. and I know some lives have been changed. If you hadn't asked for an inventory, I'd never think of talking about myself, but your question is fair. When I write this I still think about how little that is relatively I am doing for the environment. I believe in investing more in companies involved in lower carbon emissions like natural gas and a no-carbon energy source like wind. So, sorry if I came off sounding superior, but I think everyone, myself included, can still do more to make the world a better place. I need to think less about my personal benefit and think more about society's. Doesn't everyone? We're all in this together.
Leser

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

Is the egomaniac mentality prerequisite to being an investor? What is espoused here in these comments is the greed that debilitates. It is saddening. Something humanizing was omitted in the nurturing and education of such commentators. Do you even recognize this incompleteness? You don't even think I'm writing about you. I am, if you are the sort who wouldn't invest in planting a tree, because you won't be the one to live in its shade. Egocentrism has reared its ugly head and will cost more than money. We fail ourselves and our fellow man when we forget to live an altruistic life.

Now Is the Right Time for a DRIP

Fashion had dividend stocks go out of style for sundry reasons. Now they're back and most logical to buy.
DRIPs went out of fashion also for various reasons. Now they're back again. Our author here, Ganesh Kumar, has several good points, as far as I can tell, and they are well explained. DRIPs provide good things such as dollar cost averaging as well as consistency and self-discipline in investing if one sets up an automatic withdrawl from one's checking or savings account. (Some DRIPs are as low as $10.00 minimum a month--and in great stocks.) There are no fees from many company that provide DRIPs and, in my opinion, forget about getting a DRIP from the ones that charge a fee. The fee probably should be of concern for the small and frequent investor, that's something commentor number one above is not taking into consideration. DRIPs have a place in our stock portfolios, probably if we are of that apparently dying breed called buy and hold. Or is buy and hold the next idea to return from the boneyard of investment theories? I would guess it should return and perhaps investing will be more investing in companies and less gambling with investment money to make the fast buck.
There is a logical good investment tool for each investor.
To understand this investment tool I suggest those interested to go to their bookstore and purchase one of many books about DRIPs and also investing in dividend bearing stocks.
All things old become new again it seems.

Nearly 20% of the S&P 500 Now Covered by No Short List

To "The World's Worst S.P." It wouldn't be happening ("the socialization of America") if the unbridled abuses of laissez-faire capitalisim hadn't reared their Medusa's hissing head first. It's a matter of necessary checks and balances. (I like your moniker: "the World's Worst S.P."--we're pretty much all of us keeping you company that way. Good luck to you!)

Largest Companies in the World

User 218405 and user 138602, everything can be overdone.
It's not just unions, but also management that can be excessive and seriously hurt the bottom line with tremendously bloated salaries and perks. The Golden Mean of the ancient Greeks, nothing in excess, is what we have to follow even now. Companies need to act ethically, workers too. So do we as consumers need to think of others.
When we're buying our cheaper goods from China, we are all supporting an immoral, criminal regime and acting irresponsibly towards U.S. and Canadian workers. When North American executive is making many millions while his/her workers are getting $8.00 (give or take a buck) an hour, s/he is being immoral--although perhaps not acting illegally. Society (we family members) need to teach our children to think about what's responsible and correct--not how can I take financial advantage of the people whom I work with. We need to stop pointing the finger at the other people, but develop a sense of fair play in ourselves, our colleagues and families. In the long run much more good for the company and the individuals involved is accomplished that way.

Young Jeezy's 'The Recession': I Think We’ve Bottomed Out

Nice article, Terence. The commenters on your article have points worth considering, too.
Sharksm makes a point which harmonizes with Terence, buy and hold quality dividend stocks. Even with DRIP's one can still buy at approximate lows. Let the dividends accru until in retirement. Then have them pay out a living income--or help other retirement payments while the stocks continue growing in value.
Wpdragon's point is valid, too, to avoid the sin stocks. Why profit on someone else's misjudgment? Suzi Ormann's mantra "people first" has much higher moral ground than Cramer's of the "I'm just here to make money" ilk. Lose that opening egotistical mantra to your show, Jim.
By way of a positive suggestion for you Terence, when you've finished writing an article, you should read your it again after a little gestation time and ask yourself what can I weed out, what have I already expressed elsewhere in this article in other words? Your articles will be more readable if shortened.
I think your thoughts are good.
Thanks.

Buy Value - Cramer's Lightning Round (7/29/08)

Once one is a Cramerian one must always be a Cramerian or one may lose one's shirt. We're to become puppets and lemmings. If he talks to masses, masses will react and someone who doesn't jump with the masses--in and out like a trained seal--will get hurt. That someone may end up being thousands of faithfull buh-yahers over the long run.
Probably one should watch his show and think of a strategy somehow parrallel to what he's suggesting, but probably not exactly what he's doing. If Cramerica is all doing it, who's ahead in the game? Not the innocent person who bought when advised, but missed the magical program that says sell, sell, sell (because he isn't advising us on buy and hold.) I'd say it's generally better not to buy companies he's commenting on, especially when you see everyone jumping in on them. I don't know, perhaps check volume of shares sold and movement up in the P/E ratio to see if those items are getting over purchased.
Anyway, there are people jumping in like sharks to feast on some of the Cramerian innocents who are only doing what the C said to do, but perhaps only heard the first half of the message, because they didn't see the subsequent program when the guru said to sell.
The format of the program is too frenetic--not organized in a professional enough way. Otherwise he would tell and show in a timely way graphics about changes in previous advisement. A logical chart of some sort telling about whatever was mentioned could even be posted online--or tendencies and dramatic changes at the beginning or end of the program (updates) could be scrolled down briefly instead of having so much of the corny Stueck that has become a part of the sensationalism of the program. The antics are not teaching people to invest with calm logic and doing homework, as he says he wants us to do. They are teaching us to react viscerally. I think that investing should be done with a cool head, as much as one can, not with unnecessary childish antics to illustrate the point. We're not dolts, as this attitude of talking to us might imply.
No doubt about it, Cramer knows much much more than most of us ever will, but he would better serve us by modeling a more logical approach, not ranting. I've had my say (or rant.) (Obviously, I'm not interested in ratings--which is probably what the antics end up being about. His producers like them, too, no doubt.) However, I believe one can be informative and creative and humorous--and have good viewer numbers--without being sensational.
Cramer, I seriously hope your health holds up. Tone it down, man, and speak with us instead of shouting so much on the program. We'll all profit from the cool and you'll last longer on the program. You've got a really great t.v. personality without the extremism.

Fox Business Network: Just Seven Decades From Victory!

toytoy is correct about not interrupting speakers. It isn't informative, much less courteous, to cut off a speaker before s/he has had time to finish a comment with all the applicable caveats they may choose to fine tune their answers.
It isn't smart journalism either. It isn't intellectual. It isn't listening, but rather is often an attempt for the interviewer to show his or her prowess on the topic, not her/his apt ability to get the most out of the interviewee. There's quite a difference.
One of the worst in not listening, but in putting together a show with him showing off is Kudlow. He's a bright and knowledgeable guy, but should let the respondents respond without browbeating them as he frequently does. As the moderator--is that what he is? Really? I think it's the Now Let's Hear Kudlow's Reiterated Version and Put Down Hour or, more briefly, the Kudlow Soapbox. (Lou Dobbs, do you know what a soapbox is? Your show used to be among the best, before you got the Agenda from Sisyphus. -- I still like the Dobbs and hope that he will get off his high horse and address a greater variety of issues rather than hammering at the tried and true, which probably help his xenophobic faithful viewers get their daily dose of bile.)
Kudlow, who is a gifted speaker (as is Dobbs) should express a well-tuned question spoken with some subtlety. Avoid the shout fest, Mr. K. You're not on the trading floor. (NONE OF US LIKE TO BE SHOUTED AT! DO YOU?) Otherwise the announcer is insulting to his audience as well as the program participant. So much of t.v. journalism is repellent for it's lack of civility and for coming into an interview with a heavy bias and Kudlow's cheerleading for capitalism and democracy and flag waving all help to pale the relevance of the interviewees' comments, besides seeming to remind one of being in high school. Kudlow's show is at the level of the repulsively conservative, mindless democrat-bashing Foxx's Bulls and Bears in its abysmal bias toward business without morality. It's not ethical at all.
To see business and culture discussed with more sophistication, check out Bloomberg. The interviewers talk, discuss, listen, modify questions in appropriate ways without the snake oil histrionics of CNBC. How I miss CNNFN! (P.S. I like Squawk Box--except when Kudlow is pontificating.) (You're a good man, Kudlow. Just get some cool.)
There are good things on all these channels, just tone it down people. Don't insult the listener with your personal bias. Let us decide whether to "Drill, drill, drill" or not, rather than yelling it at us daily with sophomoric pedantry. Grow up.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Quote from your text above: "On Sunday, the great engine war between GE (GE) and United Technologies' (UTX) Pratt & Whitney begun." (Mr. Hoffmann, sorry, I don't know how to email you personally. "Begun" should be "began."
Thanks for your information. Very valuable. You're always most informative.