SgtSally

Ben Stein's Ethical Lapse

I the latest Credit Report commercials are clearly wrong. You can get the same thing for free. He is exchanging whatever legitimacy as a competent financial journalist to make a few bucks.

Another shocker on the same note is the Magic Johnson appearances for ads (at least in print) for a major rent to own firm. Encouraging poor people (who he purports to care about through his charities and investments) to entangle themselves in rent to own is unconscionable. He encourages folks to buy cheap, overpriced housewares for what amounts to hundreds of percent per year? He surely doesn't need the money that bad!

Are Camera Phones Killing the Digital Camera?

Verizon and other carriers I presume, cripple many of the features of these high end phones. I would be interested except by the time each provider overlays their own buggy limiting firmware, many of these features are gone or only available at extra cost.

Markets Soar as President's Aura Fades

Another lame attempt to pin the consequences of the Bush presidency on Obama.
seekingalpha.com/artic...

Since his election, a core right wing media question has been - when will it become the "Obama economy". Even before the election, FOX was attributing every down day in the market to expectations that the Democrats were going to win.
Even an Economics 101 student would realize the momentum that is carrying the market now is the consequence of inaction last fall.
Nothing that Obama and the Democrats have done since the election will even manifest itself untill late this summer at best. ... about when many economists (including Bernake) are looking to see improvement. Too bad Bush took a powder the last six months in office!

Wall Street Is Short Barack Obama

Another lame attempt to pin the consequences of the Bush presidency on Obama. Since his election, a core media question has been - when will it become the "Obama economy". Even before the election, FOX was attributing every down day in the market to expectations that the Democrats were going to win.
Even an Economics 101 student would realize the momentum that is carrying the market now is the consequence of inaction last fall.
Nothing that Obama and the Democrats have done since the election will even manifest itself untill late this summer at best. ... about when many economists (including Bernake) are looking to see improvement. Too bad Bush took a powder the last six months in office!

The Economic Meltdown: Dismantling, Yes; Doom, No

American chicken's will be coming home to roost. Already we see hyper militarized law enforcement bodies and our new 20,000-man Homeland Security force.

Family squabbles turn into hostage situations with sniper swat teams. Men dressed up like Terminator 3 stomp through our air ports.

Triple Leveraged ETFs On Fire

I use my margin acount to buy these.

Why eBay Needs Shipping Cap

There are 3 reasons I no longer use E-Bay.
1. Shipping costs are frequently outrageous. Even if you don't get gouged by the seller, the costs of shipping are very high.
2. Of the things I buy online, I can usually find it cheaper from a known, trusted firm.
3. E-Bay functions as a high tech fence for stolen property. Buying anything there that would be on a burglar's list of stuff to grab after he kicks in your neighbor's back door is 50-50 chance its stolen.

Sell Signal of the Day, Greenspan Edition

I watched nearly every one of his hearing comments on CSPAN as they happened. Between obfuscations, he most certainly gave many reassurances that the new types of mortgages and securities were good innovations and examples of a healthy modern financial market.

Energy Sell-Off Overdone

Over and over I hear that the reason for the excessive decline in energy sector is due to hedge funds redemption's or institutional investments. These are explanatory theories which have never been supported by any facts AFAIK. The danger is, repeated often enough, these statements will become accepted as fact.

Alternative explanations are economic slowdown, conservation, dollar appreciation, plentiful supplies, diminished speculation, cheating on caps by OPEC members, switching to alternative fuels, etc.

The Economic Cost of the Military Industrial Complex

The defense as a percentage of GDP argument as been debunked at length many times....use Google.

The author understates the true cost of the military. There are many hidden military expenditures in other government departments. For example NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Admin., most foreign aid is not for schools and hospitals but tanks and guns, etc.

There is also the intellectual opportunity cost of all our scientific talent going to develop weapons. Useful science and technological advancement has been retarded by decades. It has been conjectured that we will not be until the year 2025 where we would already be today if not for the siphoning away of our minds and money by the war industry.

Sirius-XM Merger Nearly Ready for Air Time

Doesn't CNBC have enough media presense? I thought Seeking Alpha was functioining as an source for alternative opinions.

The Sound of Silence in Financials - Cramer's Mad Money (7/8/09)

The next day after 911 I was horrified to think that that joke of a president would be horribly incompetent to react well to the attack. What has occured since is worse than my fears.

Now, as we face a financial Armageddon, he is still in charge and will quite likely be in Texas on vacation when the melt-down occurs.

Chatting With News Corp's Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch will burn in hell for subverting the free press in the United states.

1,238 Billion Barrels of Oil Reserves: Is This an Oil Price Bubble?

Hopefully we WILL run out of oil! Before burning it destroys the planet irreversibly.

Economic Report Summary: Huge Jump in Unemployment

5.5% is still historically very low.
Largest portion of the increase was in 18-24 yo bracket.
Initial jobless claims on the weekly was actually LESS than forecast.