Snitzer

Expect a Spring of Retail Bankruptcies if Holiday Sales Don't Materialize

Come the first of the new year there will be a mass reassessment going on as we all step back and try to get a feel for the coming year. For many small companies surviving 2009 was just the first storm to be weathered, Q1 2010 will be the critical tipping point for many of us. Looking around it's good to still be here, but looking ahead there are still a million things that can yet take us out.

Seven Dividend Stocks to Take the Emotion Out of Investing

I like it when somebody writes something I agree with. Non-investors will render their condolences on a market downturn, I tell them to save their pity; I'm going hunting. And how did I miss LLY? I got it locked in a watch list, but there will be no buying today, maybe next pullback.

Another Crisis Looms Right Around the Corner

Be a lot of broken hearts out there when America weathers this latest crisis before blundering into the next. Other than my little stash kept back for true emergencies I'm all in, if we fall off a cliff (again) then at least I'm in at the bottom.

U.S. Government's Size: The Slow-Motion Crisis

Want a challenge? Just try to work up the actual cost of the federal congress, their pay, their sycophants, uh, aides pay, the benefits, the perks, the entire standing cost of the legislative branch of our government. Can't be done, or at least can't be done with the resources available to the common citizen. Not in just one lifetime, anyway.

The federal government has become the colossus, out of control and will grow until it collapses of it's own weight.

Recommended: Disband Congress, return all power to the states, have the governors appoint/elect the president and fund the federal government at vastly lower levels.

Lunatic Fringe? Yes, but total anarchy resulting from the collapse of government won't be any fun, either.

Three Intermodal Transportation Stocks to Play an Economic Recovery

One of my watch lists are made up of indicators only, and one of my indicators are JBHT, along with some gold, plastic packaging and other stuff.

Who Will Come Out Ahead from e-Book Success in College Classrooms?

At this stage, before price, utility, formats, etc; I'm hoping that the tech heads will give us an e-reader that one can "curl up with", like with a dead tree book, but with all the advantages of an e-reader. I want something I can read in my recliner, not something I have to sit at a table/desk with. And yes, along with the text I'd like to see color, maybe even a little video, along with the ability to access Edgar, the blogs and even web sites. Whoever gives me that gets my money and my adulation.

Washington Post: Print-Heads vs. Web-Heads

As more and more of the comics section go online my reason (s) for actually reading a printed newspaper fade slowly into insignificance. And it's been years since I've actually purchased a paper, the local fish wrapper arrives in the office every morning and I manage to slip the comics section out before the Boss gets in. The e-reader tech will sort itself out probably next year and that's when we'll see mass migrations from print to e-readers, of whatever flavor. As for how to invest, well, if Amazon's bubble bursts and the stock become less scary I may get in there, or one of the other guys may trip the public fancy and then we're off to the races. But for now there are simply too many what ifs, the tech hasn't yet sorted out enough to place any bets so I'm eagerly awaiting a winner, any winner, to emerge as, for a big reader, this has got to be the coolest thing ever to come down the pike.

Global Outage at eBay: Seller Confidence Shaken as Holidays Approach

As of right now (check time stamp) E-Bay is working fine, or at least it is with Safari, I didn't check with Firefox or anybody else. My sole use of E-Bay is to do the occasional market check on something I'm thinking of buying, and that's only if it's big ticket, and here lately I've not done a lot of that.

Market Volume: Still an Unanswered Question

We are Americans, and we've never let total ignorance stop us from forging bravely ahead. Now we know where Roddenberry got the "Go boldly where no man has gone before" schtick from; he time-ticked into "here and now", read a few financial blogs (S/A?), went home and the rest is (chuckle) history.

Commercial Real Estate Cliff-Diving Continues

The fly in the broth is that with all these super deals running loose I'm too broke to take advantage. It wasn't that long ago when I could have almost bought the Silverdome at it's last selling price, but then they would have wanted a lot more for the place. Make a helluva trailer park.

Options Trader Friday Outlook: Is Goldman Sachs Stupid, Or Evil?

READ the blogs, WATCH the news, LISTEN to the talking heads, KNOW the deal (yeah, it's rigged, but sometimes the riggers get in each other's way), MAKE your moves then KEEP your fingers crossed, and you just might come out alright. It's kind of like betting on horse racing, but with a zillion times more information (most of it inaccurate or deliberately misleading) on not only each horse, but on the breed (sectors), gender (exchange) and/or jockeys (CEO's).

Should Microsoft Be Scared of ChromeOS?

The only market share Chrome will get is leftover Linux, as their capabilities seem to be about the same. The Cloud, while enticing, has yet to achieve critical mass, and the desktop still has some years left in it. The computing world is far larger than just email and web surfing, with the likes of C4D, Maya, Sonar, Vegas, etc, tied to the hard drive for the near term future.

The Great Geopolitical Battle Over Natural Gas Transit Routes

Thanks for the glimpse into what amounts to be another world. Many people look upon Medvenev as Putin's bitch, but if he ran Gazprom then there has to be a bit of steel in that hand as well.

Still the Worst Deflation in U.S. History

The banks aren't lending, instead they are borrowing real cheap money from the Fed to play in the markets with. Where that path leads to I don't know, but it doesn't look pretty.
One good thing: I learned a new word; thanks, user353732, for "velleity". (Even though the spell checker flagged it, I know it's a good word, I looked it up)

Caterpillar Crawls Along

That was a waste of a Firefox tab.