Wise Owl

National Bankruptcy? Not Quite Yet

China's currency would be the safest bet, due to their balance of payment and future increase in internal consumption.

Yuan/dollar ratio would increase, there is high probability.

Google CEO on YouTube, MSFT-YHOO, and New Google Projects

Google would have to monetize some of the services it develops. But, advertising model is better. I am not sure that with 3G mobile phones, I would not pay for current services. I think, restaurants may pay, but, it may not be sufficient to generate revenues...

6 Signs of a Range-Bound Market

A very thoughtful article. I have seen that VWAP type of price action on SPY and other indexes. Also, there are opportunity to trade high Beta Stocks....

Learn from Japan and Have a Plan

Yes, we should have a plan. There is no disagreement there. I think, a plan of specifics by the Author would be welcome.

USA is not Japan where consensus building was most important and everybody sacrificed some instead of letting some implode.

It is the much hated Sarbaines Oxley Act that is casuing banks to mark their inventory to market, that is making a lot of companies guess or actually try to sell some inventory that is causing the large writedowns.

I think, banks and other financial companies like Master Card, Mortgage Lenders and others need to be required to have some capital requirements. We have heard a lot of issues with Fannie Mae for years.

So, our system allows a lot more of imploding than Japanese ever allowed. And, I donot see the problem like the 1929 and US is a lot more part of GLOBAL ECONOMY than Japan will ever be as it is still very closed, just like France and Russia are,as they donot like people from abroad owning their companies. No, such openness issue in USA.

So, plan needs to be in place. Identify which areas to avoid and where to take losses for each trade that is open on the books...

Buybacks: A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

Buybacks are being used to reduce float of the stock and thus keep the earnings per share increasing, even though the actual earning as a percentage of sales is not increasing.

This does raise the price of stocks, but, may be it good way to avoid dilution caused by option grants....And, also reducing the outstanding debt has not been popular as the interest rates have been so low...

So, WE HAVE OVERSTATED FINANCIAL ASSETS ( both stocks and bonds also) . And, we know that COLLECTIBLES are at all time high and so is REAL ESTATE. So, everything is hyped up.We know that markets in China and India are at all time highs...

What gives...INFLATION and continued expansion in world economy is critical and if US consumer has a misstep, we could have global slowdown. India and China will be impacted less, as they have pretty good internal consumption...

WISEOWLTX

What's So Puzzling About TIPS?

A trusted money manager had recommended buying tips several years ago. And, I bought them reluctantly. My viewpoint has been that we are living in deflationary times, on a global basis. And, actually we are seeing both inflationary and deflationary cycles at the same time.

US living standards should go down due to our inability to sell to other countries who export to us. But, we provide the critical markets for their goods ( Chinese Clothes, goods, Indian software skills, Saudi's Petrochemical Exports, capital markets for extra dollars etc.etc. while we consume these items and somehow pay for it through credit that is used to pay interest on the treasury bonds. We are all interdependent economies creating and consuming and providing credit markets, capital markets etc. etc.

It does not make sense, but TIPS are doing better than AGG's why. Because inflation in living costs are here, except, it is not being measured by CPI... It is in good food costs, increased travel costs etc. for a person who pays for these bonds on a preferential basis....

I hope this makes sense.

Wiseowltx

Verizon Finally Unveils iPhone Competition, Or "iPhone Equalizer"

Did anybody test this phone for usefulness. Does it have anintutive interface....

In Houston, we have a pretty good AT&T network...

Wiseowltx

Why I'm Tempted by Under Armour

Analysts crave attention and love to move stocks by their unusual comments.

Cramer, who is very perceptive and wise due to his experience. has provided a lot of positive blurbs for this stock UA, is in the same arena, as lot of people who listen to Cramer, buy the stocks on his verbal recommendation.
Lot of these become momentum stocks. And, sometimes they end up badly. But not right away. So, buyers beware...

Where ETFs and Indexing Are Getting It Right

ETF's are being sold rather than purchased by informed investors and I agree with that assessment.

It has become more and more important to provide exposure th foreign markets like BRIC regions and they will be the low cost producers for most of the goods and services for some time to come.

INP, a ETN for India is difficult to figure out with an overall expenses ratio of 1.0 percent. It seems that the sponsor has done this exposure to 58 or 68 stock basket...

I like the ETN, but donot know, if it safe to trade...

I think the money in Mutual Funds will be less and less, due to subpar performance as well as higher expenses...

Thanks...and welcome o the world of ETF's and ETN's..

Apple to Exceed 500,000 iPhone Sales This Weekend?

I was at an Apple Store in Houston. I likeed the iphone as well as other people were so engrossed in using it, they were oblivious to other users.

Apple support was good, but I did not see much buying. But, there was a steady line of purchasers.

I was impressed that the response was good as well as the camera was good.

I think, the internet surfing would be too slow on ATT edge network. But, one can get on other netowrks like tmobile hot spots in Starbucks...