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Latest Comments54 Comments
Investable Solar Sector Outlook
Through the incoherent rants, there wasn't an ounce of substantive comment on either the article nor an alternative suggestion.
Can't we all just be grown ups, get beyond our petty political leanings and help fellow investors through intelligent musings rather than pathogenic babble?
REITs: Is Now the Time to Buy?
With the combination of foreclosures, new baby boomers kids leaving the nest and job concerns, apartment REITs are well positioned for the near term (3-5 year) recovery from wherever the trough happens to be.
Would be interested in any comments from the author or more knowledgeable posters to these observations.
Practical Investment Ideas: Pay Attention To Yields, Rental Real Estate
Don't really care where you are sitting, but when you post dribble filled with political diatribe and call that constructive, don't expect that you won't receive a little constructive crticism back.
Still say that looking for dividend stocks and taking a gambit on a falling real estate knife does no service to your readers. Your right-leaning predilections does even less service to your credibility.
Do We Need Yet Another Stimulus Package?
The real questions are how do we re-structure The Mess so that we move away from the tragic economic direction we have moved toward for the past 28 years.
Not to bore you or your readers, but to consider how to now adjust our national spending and investment decisions the following observations are offered:
What got us here?
Flash back to the neo-con's answer to 1970's stagflation and Milton Friedman's Shock Economics Theory he plied so well in South America for right wing fascists.
Roll tape a bit forward to the Gipper. Cut taxes, spend on defense out the wazoo, run record deficits, de-regulate markets and watch Uncle Milties' magic work.
While every right wing neo-con tape loop is buzzing with out-of-control GSEs, we all seem to conveniently ignore how all of this silly and frightening theoretical economic approach played out around the world through the likes of the IMF, World Bank, Halliburton, and their ilk.
Look at any country where this supply-side, trickle down, deregulated gambit has played and look at how eeiry is the similarity between those countries and this one:
1. The top 1% control 40% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The top 20% another 52%, leaving the rest of us (80%) America's financial wealth at a whopping 8%.
2. In terms of inherited wealth only 1.6% inherit moe than $100,000. 91.9% receive nothing. Yet the "death tax" is the highest priority on the ultra-conservative agenda.
Now for some sobering reminders:
Under Clinton we enjoyed a $287 Billion SURPLUS that's now an ever-growing DEFICIT that at last peek was nearing $700 Billion and national debt that has grown from $5.7 Trillion to $10.2 Trillion in just seven years.
It wasn't because Clinton was an economic genious. He simply returned out-of-control revenue reduction (tax cuts) back to the Reagan rates and chose folks who shared his philosophy of government and its role. I'll put my money in the hands of the guys that believe that it's the government's job to invest in the 80% of us that need practical ways to grow our own wealth (smart energy policy, infrastructure development, education).
We are truly in new economic waters where the full weight of our national wealth needs to be invested in long-overdue infrastructure investments, new directions in energy policy and worker training.
Short-term stimulus, yes. Long-term national investment, yes!!!
Practical Investment Ideas: Pay Attention To Yields, Rental Real Estate
Thankfully, I got out of the Florida market in 2005, pocketing my share of the speculation, so I don't need any economics lectures.
If both of you would take a sobering look at what this economic direction for the past 28 years has left us, you might reach different conclusions about the future, but that might be difficult when one only tunes into CNBC and FOX News.
Some fools need to buy up the remaining glut for the real estate market to begin its turn, so if you define long-term holding and oh, 15-20 years, then I applaud your bravado. With people walking away from mortgages and thousands more unable to sell, the existing housing stock will more than settle the rental needs.
Buy away, and in the next five years watch both values and rental retreat do its inevitable number on each of you. Just desserts for those sitting at the Republicans' table.
Practical Investment Ideas: Pay Attention To Yields, Rental Real Estate
anger at the home loan practices dictated by Democratic Party social engineering and the Republican failure of leadership to stand up to such foolishness.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I am especially cognizant of how Chicago-style Democratic politics are played.
It is my belief that financial planners will begin to focus more on tax avoidance than security recommendations, just as they did in the era pre-Regan.
Do we notice a trend here?
The author offers mickey-mouse (Dividends now!) advice that a grade schooler could figure out, suggests that rental property investing is a panacea w/o considering the fact that increased supply will tamp price demand on property owners while inlfation drives up tax and maintenance costs, and expects us to look at his solutions as wisdom!
If he could look beyond his clouded rhetoric about The Mess perhaps he could start from a more basic assumption: how we got into this mess and what policies we should avoid like the plague going forward.
Consider this as a strating point the next time, Mr Feckless:
Flash back to the neo-con's answer to 1970's stagflation and Milton Friedman's Shock Economics Theory he plied so well in South America for the right wing fascists.
Roll tape a bit forward to the Gipper. Cut taxes, spend on defense out the wazoo, run record deficits, de-regulate markets and watch Uncle Milties' magic work.
While every right wing neo-con tape loop is buzzing with out-of-control GSEs and fear and loathing of the coming Democratic landslide, we all seem to conveniently ignore how all of this silly and frightening theoretical economic approach played out around the world through the likes of the IMF, World Bank, Halliburton, and their ilk.
Look at any country where this supply-side, trickle down, deregulated gambit has played and see how eeiry is the similarity between those countries and this one:
1. The top 1% control 40% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The top 20% another 52%, leaving the rest of us (80%) America's financial wealth at a whopping 8%.
2. In terms of inherited wealth only 1.6% inherit moe than $100,000. 91.9% receive nothing. Yet the "death tax" is the highest priority on the ultra-conservative agenda.
Now for some sobering reminders:
Under Clinton we enjoyed a $287 Billion SURPLUS that's now an ever-growing DEFICIT that at last peek was nearing $700 Billion and national debt that has grown from $5.7 Trillion to $10.2 Trillion in just seven years.
It wasn't because Clinton was an economic genious. He simply chose folks who shared his philosophy of government and its role. I'll put my money in the hands of the guys that believe that it's the government's job to invest in the 80% of us that need practical ways to grow our own wealth (smart energy policy, infrastructure development, education).
Where was FDR when we needed him 28 years ago, when this Milton Friedmanesque, neo-conservative insanity began?
What Happens When Banks Are Nationalized
Would you please define what you mean by capitalism? Every good definition has its theoretical backdrop.
I understood carey-jim's point. When you adopt your own world view, then god forbid that facts obscure that blind obedience. If your world view matches my earlier post about the direction of capitalism in the last thirty years, the god protect your portfolio!
The Most Dangerous Place to Get Investing Advice
If the author had simply dusted off his Burton Malkiel (A Random Walk Down Wall Street), he would see all of the metrics that indicate why it's not a good idea to speculate on market bets (value or otherwise). Malkiel makes an indisputable historic observation about the valuelessness of green-eye-shade technical analysis, stock gurus, actively managed mutual fund investing, and the inevitable market bubbles created by the greatest fool who is last to enter those boom periods.
A simple, more effective, and boring approach for a long-term investor is to dollar-cost average into broadly based indices and forget about trying to achieve what can never be achieved --- becoming the one who truly understands what a company does, what is its true value, and even worse, what it will become in the future.
The market is efficient, and those who try to predict do so at their own peril.
Putting It Nicely: British Bailout Better Than U.S.
It's an interesting solution to choosing the winners instead of rewarding the losers. Whether the Treas. and Fed. pick the least exposed, best capitalized banks and let the rest fail or essentially create the Bank of the United States of America, that $800 Billion leverages to ~$8 Trillion, assuming a conservative 10:1 ratio.
Renegotiating distressed mortgages and recaptilizing the markets through this strategy needs to be explored.
Candidates' Economic Advisers Debate
Flash back to the neo-con's answer to 1970's stagflation and Milton Friedman's Shock Economics Theory he plied so well in South America for the right wing fascists.
Roll tape a bit forward to the Gipper. Cut taxes, spend on defense out the wazoo, run record deficits, de-regulate markets and watch Uncle Milties' magic work.
While every right wing neo-con tape loop is buzzing with out-of-control GSEs, we all seem to conveniently ignore how all of this silly and frightening theoretical economic approach played out around the world through the likes of the IMF, World Bank, Halliburton, and their ilk.
Look at any country where this supply-side, trickle down, deregulated gambit has played and look at how eeiry is the similarity between those countries and this one:
1. The top 1% control 40% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The top 20% another 52%, leaving the rest of us (80%) America's financial wealth at a whopping 8%.
2. In terms of inherited wealth only 1.6% inherit moe than $100,000. 91.9% receive nothing. Yet the "death tax" is the highest priority on the ultra-conservative agenda.
Now for some sobering reminders:
Under Clinton we enjoyed a $287 Billion SURPLUS that's now an ever-growing DEFICIT that at last peek was nearing $700 Billion and national debt that has grown from $5.7 Trillion to $10.2 Trillion in just seven years.
It wasn't because Clinton was an economic genious. He simply chose folks who shared his philosophy of government and its role. I'll put my money in the hands of the guys that believe that it's the government's job to invest in the 80% of us that need practical ways to grow our own wealth (smart energy policy, infrastructure development, education).
Where was FDR when we needed him 28 years ago, when this Milton Friedmanesque, neo-conservative insanity began?
Who We Should Blame for This Crisis
All following the path of the wise man, Milton Friedman. Cut taxes, end regulation and get out of the way so the market can do its job.
Fast forward to the last time we actually diverged from this Friedmanesque, neo-con, IMF and World Bank led fiasco. Clinton had the audactity to return tax rates back to Reagan's level and invest in (Horrors!) government infrastructure programs. The result stimulated the economy and led to a budget surplus.
Pre-1929 it was laizzez-faire attitudes towards regulation, tax-cut mentality and ever-greater disparity between the haves and have-nots that were major contributors to the depression era. Sound familiar?
The Current Mess in fact did start with the 1999 repeal of a depression-era law (Glass-Steagall) that served to keep a check on commercial lending and re-packaging financial products into incomprehnsible paper that was constantly re-sold. Sound familiar?
In the waining hours of the 1999 Congress, that little weasal Phil Gramm literally stuck the final nail in the Glass-Steagall repeal that eliminated any oversight of the derivatives market.
If you really want to look at who was repackaging the clean mortgage paper into CSE's look no further than the same investment company that was the key reason for the passage of Glass-Steagall -- JP Morgan and the rest of the Investment Banking community.
Now for some shocking realities:
1. The top 1% control 40% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The top 20% another 52%, leaving the rest of us (80%) America's financial wealth at a whopping 8%.
2. In terms of inherited wealth only 1.6% inherit moe than $100,000. 91.9% receive nothing. Yet the "death tax" is the highest priority on the ultra-conservative agenda.
Now for some sobering reminders:
Under Clinton we enjoyed a $287 Billion SURPLUS that's now an ever-growing DEFICIT that at last peek was nearing $700 Billion and national debt that has grown from $5.7 Trillion to $10.2 Trillion in just seven years.
It wasn't because Clinton was an economic genious. He simply chose folks who shared his philosophy of government and its role. I'll put my money in the hands of the guys that believe that it's the government's job to invest in the 80% of us that need practical ways to grow our own wealth (smart energy policy, infrastructure development, education).
Where was FDR when we needed him 28 years ago, when this Milton Friedmanesque, neo-conservative insanity began?
It's Too Late To Sell Stocks, Just Wait
Malkiel makes an indisputable historic observation about the valuelessness of green-eye-shade technical analysis, stock gurus, systems, actively managed mutual fund investing, and the inevitable market bubbles created by the greatest fool who is last to subscribe to those techniques.
The market is efficient, and those who try to predict do so at their own peril.
What Happens When Banks Are Nationalized
excessive taxation have brought the American worker to ruin!! you say?
Pre-1929 it was laizzez-faire attitudes towards regulation, tax-cut mentality and ever-greater disparity between the haves and have-nots that were major contributors to the depression era. Sound familiar?
The Current Mess in fact did start with the 1999 repeal of a depression-era law (Glass-Steagall) that served to keep a check on commercial lending and re-packaging financial products into incomprehnsible paper that was constantly re-sold. Sound familiar?
And if you can get your head out of FOX Noise talking points about Freddie/Fannie, and if you really want to look at who was repackaging the clean mortgage paper into CSE's look no further than the same investment company that was the key reason for the passage of Glass-Steagall -- JP Morgan and the rest of the Investment Banking community. They were doing exactly the same thing they did in 1932 -- re-packaging debt into complex instruments and re-selling.
Now for some shocking realities:
1. The top 1% control 40% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The top 20% another 52%, leaving the rest of us (80%) America's financial wealth at a whopping 8%.
2. In terms of inherited wealth only 1.6% inherit moe than $100,000. 91.9% receive nothing. Yet the "death tax" is the highest priority on the ultra-conservative agenda.
Now for some sobering reminders during a period where taxes were raised not so long ago:
Under Clinton we enjoyed a $287 Billion SURPLUS that's now an ever-growing DEFICIT that at last peek was nearing $700 Billion and national debt that has grown from $5.7 Trillion to $10.2 Trillion in just seven years.
It wasn't because Clinton was an economic genious. He simply chose folks who shared his philosophy of government and its role. I'll put my money in the hands of the guys that believe that it's the government's job to invest in the 80% of us that need practical ways to grow our own wealth (smart energy policy, infrastructure development, education).
Where was FDR when we needed him 28 years ago, when this Milton Friedmanesque, neo-conservative insanity began?
Republicans Running Out of Arguments
The Current Mess in fact did start with the 1999 repeal of a depression-era law (Glass-Steagall) that served to keep a check on commercial lending and re-packaging financial products into incomprehnsible paper that was constantly re-sold. Sound familiar? If you really want to look at who was repackaging the clean mortgage paper into CSE's look no further than the same investment company that was the key reason for the passage of Glass-Steagall -- JP Morgan and the rest of the Investment Banking community. They were doing exactly the same thing they did in 1932 -- re-packaging debt into complex instruments and re-selling.
If we want to pin the blame, McCain chief financial advisor, Phil Gramm, literally inserted in the middle of the night the key provision that allowed the financial industry waters to be muddied with no distinctions between insurance, banking and investing.
Now for some shocking realities:
1. The top 1% control 40% of all financial wealth in the U.S. The top 20% another 52%, leaving the rest of us (80%) America's financial wealth at a whopping 8%.
2. In terms of inherited wealth only 1.6% inherit moe than $100,000. 91.9% receive nothing. Yet the "death tax" is the highest priority on the ultra-conservative agenda.
Now for some sobering reminders:
Under Clinton we enjoyed a $287 Billion SURPLUS that's now an ever-growing DEFICIT that at last peek was nearing $700 Billion and national debt that has grown from $5.7 Trillion to $10.2 Trillion in just seven years.
It wasn't because Clinton was an economic genious. He simply chose folks who shared his philosophy of government and its role. I'll put my money in the hands of the guys that believe that it's the government's job to invest in the 80% of us that need practical ways to grow our own wealth (smart energy policy, infrastructure development, education).
Where was FDR when we needed him 28 years ago, when this Milton Friedmanesque, neo-conservative insanity began?
A New Plan That Just Might Work
Would you please expound? Why isn't nationalization a good or bad idea?