Lost decade? Only if you aren’t looking?
By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com
Baltimore — (TFN): You don’t believe all the hype do you? As we close out another year and another decade, the pundits are busy rehashing the action of the past ten years.
The political types are discussing the rise and fall of the Bush administration, a couple of wars and the nation’s first black president. The Hollywood folks are talking about the end of the sitcom, the death of an icon and the phenomenon that is American Idol.
And, of course, the financial types are talking about the decade that never happened. You know, the fact that at the start of the decade, the Dow was actually worth more than it is today.
Sure, if you happened to be…
Stimulus 2.0: Give a Penny, Take a Penny
Get ready for Stimulus Version 2.0. With unemployment in double-digit territory, credit still tight and consumers refusing to part with their cash, it’s obvious Washington’s first bailout did nothing but put the nation even further in debt and give China an even larger stake of the country’s financial future.
Stimulus 2.0: Give a penny, take a penny
By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com
Baltimore – (TFN): Get ready for Stimulus Version 2.0. With unemployment in double-digit territory, credit still tight and consumers refusing to part with their cash, it’s obvious Washington’s first bailout did nothing but put the nation even further in debt and give China an even larger stake of the country’s financial future.
Instead of stepping back and searching for a viable solution (if there is any), Obama is jumping right back into the stimulus game.
But of course, the word stimulus is nowhere to be found. This is a jobs program.
Sure, it contains another $50 billion for roads, bridges and water projects… just like the first version.
Sure, green energy and “weatherization” is a strategic focus… just like the first…
My first prediction for 2010
Baltimore — (TFN): Do you think Rupert Murdoch and his multi-billion-dollar buggy whip factory is getting nervous? Unless the prince of print media single-handedly transforms an industry, his empire will come crashing down.
This story goes well beyond Murdoch’s decision to start charging for his company’s online news content. It is a debate about monopolies and the government’s role in protecting or destroying them.
In case you missed it, there is a great editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal by the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt (scroll down for link). In the piece, the doctor doesn’t necessarily lash out at Murdoch and his recent attacks aimed at Google, but the desire to call Murdoch a crybaby is obvious.
Schmidt makes it clear that…
I’m not a sissy. Are you a sissy?
Baltimore — (TFN): It’s like pulling off a Band-Aid. We can do it quick and get the pain over with, or we can torture ourselves with slow, steady, hair-ripping pulls that make us want to gouge our eyes out in pain.
Since I first scraped my knee chasing the neighbor’s cat across the street dozens of years ago, I have been a fan of the get-it-over-fast strategy. Rip the stitches, dry the tears and move on. Dilly-dallying is for sissies and I’m no sissy.
But the nitwits in Washington beg to differ.
After the first round of trillion-dollar stimulus failed to ignite anything but tempers, Congress is hitting us with a slow, but steady stream of economy-boosting spending. They won’t call it…
Hyperinflation – where is it?
Keith Fitz-gerald (Whiskey & Gunpowder):
Everything we know about classic economic theory suggests the U.S. economy should be experiencing Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation right now, thanks to the nearly $2.2 trillion the U.S. Federal Reserve has pumped into the system.
But we’re not…yet.
Classic economic theory says that money supply can be used to stimulate the economy and our central bankers seem to agree. That’s why they’ve pumped more than $1 trillion dollars into the economy, engineered countless bailout bonanzas for zombie institutions, put Detroit on life support, and delivered a bunch of financial Band-Aids to the trauma ward — all in a desperate bid to make Americans feel better about the global financial crisis.
To their way of thinking, the trillions of dollars have been…
Hyperinflation – where is it?
Keith Fitz-gerald (Whiskey & Gunpowder):
Everything we know about classic economic theory suggests the U.S. economy should be experiencing Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation right now, thanks to the nearly $2.2 trillion the U.S. Federal Reserve has pumped into the system.
But we’re not…yet.
Classic economic theory says that money supply can be used to stimulate the economy and our central bankers seem to agree. That’s why they’ve pumped more than $1 trillion dollars into the economy, engineered countless bailout bonanzas for zombie institutions, put Detroit on life support, and delivered a bunch of financial Band-Aids to the trauma ward — all in a desperate bid to make Americans feel better about the global financial crisis.
To their way of thinking, the trillions of dollars have been…
Investment Basics: Ten Rules for Success
Keith Fitz-Gerald (Money Morning):
With all the financial woes in the global economy, the worst thing an investor can do is to “freeze up.” With all the ups and downs in the market, it’s all too easy for investors to allow their emotions to take control. That’s when the smallest mistakes turn into the biggest mistakes.
There’s one antidote for this problem … remembering a few basic rules. Just embrace the 10 ideas that follow and you’ll be in line to make some serious money in the months ahead.
Rule Number 1: Invest on the Right Side of Major Economic Trends:That old investing adage “Don’t fight the Fed” serves as a good example here. Rising interest-rate environments make meaningful gains difficult to sustain…
Bailout worries for government mortgage backer
Want to buy a house with just 3.5% down and high monthly payments? Talk to the Federal Housing Association, which still backs loans on terms that private lenders would never go for.And now, the FHA is having so many problems that it may need a taxpayer…
Citigroup offloads its $100 million man
Citigroup (C) had a giant headache in the form of Andrew Hall, its rockstar energy trader in line for a controversial $100 million bonus.Could
a bank that received $45 billion in bailout funds really get away with
paying one employee $100 million…
Can Democrats Anchor Unemployment Without Doing More Damage to the Deficit?
With the unemployment rate soaring alongside the U.S. budget deficit, the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats are struggling to solve the nation’s problems before next year’s midterm election.
But they may be struggling in vain.
Since 1945, the party that has controlled the White House has lost an average of 16 House seats in the president’s first midterm election, according to the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan publication in Washington. However, losses for the Democrats could be far steeper next year if they fail to put unemployed Americans back to work.
Then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and the Democrats lost 52 House seats in 1994.
“Unemployment is the leading economic indicator when it comes to politics,” Democratic pollster Peter Hart told The Wall Street Journal.…
Buy the common, sell the preferred
I’m going to sell W.R. Berkley Capital Trust 6.75% Preferred (WRB-A) shares out of Jubak’s Picks as of Wednesday. They’ve given me what I wanted — a good return and safety — while the market and economy were at their shakiest.
But the reward for sta…
The Lehman of 2009
Naturally, at the focus of renewed market pessimism is a struggling financial: CIT Group. (NYSE:CIT) The company — a hundred-year-old staple of small/medium business lending — is no stranger to walking the credit tightrope. They narrowly averted fiscal meltdown late last year with $2.3 billion in TARP bucks… then again in July by goosing bondholders with a $3 billion a debt-to-equity deal. Back then we joked, “Look for this crisis to repeat in a couple weeks.” We were wrong… it took a couple months.
So with some historic irony, one year and two weeks after Lehman Bros. bit the dust, another debt-burdened, credit-reliant, potentially “too big to fail” institution is looking to either stick its bondholders with a raw deal or enter…