Recent Comments:
Hot Seat: Lincoln Wrong to Fight Civil War? {Politics Daily}
Dec 26th 2007 4:24PM I think that Mr. Paul's foolish remark about Lincoln not needing to wage a war to bring the Confederacy back into the Union reveals an astonishing gap in historical knowledge of anyone aspiring to be President. The Civil War wasn't one of those foreign military adventures that Mr. Paul has rightly pointed out were not necessary, but the fundamental crisis in American history. That slave owning class that dominated southern life was not at all satisfied with what they already possessed, but were, due to the nature of their system, constantly looking to extend slavery's territory. If Lincoln had adapted the same policy as his predecessor, Buchannan, it's quite likely that the Civil War would still have been fought, just in another time frame and in a different part of the US. The Civil War was our most terrible conflict: 600,000 combatants died on both sides, a huge part of the south was left in ruins at its conclusion, but it was as much a necessary war as World War II.
Cramer on BloggingStocks: The clock's running on Citigroup {BloggingStocks}
Nov 26th 2007 12:19PM There is no one like an erstwhile free marketeer such as Mr. James Cramer to howl more frantically for government intervention when it suits him to do so. For some time Mr. Cramer has been demanding that the Federal Reserve bend over backwards in favor of the speculative interests and keep lowering the cost of money. And as they do so our currency has become almost worthless. Now he wants the government in some unspecified way to bail out a private corporation, Citigroup, from its own failings. When Citigroup was riding high on the premise that making risky loans was good business, the profits weren't being shared with the general public. Mr. Prince was probably incompetent to run that organization, but Citigroup has a board of directors with the power to remove him at any time. Their failure to do so is a big problem for Cititgroup's employees and shareholders, but not for the taxpayers.
The dollar continues its fall {BloggingStocks}
Nov 23rd 2007 9:00AM The free falling dollar wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing if this country was a net exporter. The almost worthless dollar has now helped to revive what's left of our industrial base and given a big boost to the agricultural sector. Unfortunately, this country is the world's biggest importer, and routinely runs trade deficits of 60 to 70 billion dollars in a typical month. The biggest problem right now is that, with oil demand and supply in such a tight balance, that we could find that the countries we depend on for better than 60% of our petroleum needs will start to refuse payment in dollars and instead demand payment in hard currencies. All the more reason that we had better get serious about developing alternatives to imported oil, and sooner rather than later.
Ohio court gives victory to homeowners facing foreclosure {BloggingStocks}
Nov 15th 2007 10:39AM I think as the national lending crisis continues that we will be seeing a lot more of the kinds of lawsuits as in this example in Ohio. Years ago when a bank made a mortage, it held on to the mortgage until it was paid off. Nowadays mortgages have become freely traded financial instruments that are passed on through many hands. Eventually the connection between a specific property that the mortgage covers and the holder of that mortgage has been lost. Which I think will not only help to forestall foreclosures where the mortgage holder is not the original lender, but also increase the losses to the unhappy holders of those mortgages. Yet more collatoral damage from the harebrained schemes hatched on Wall Street during the real estate bubble.
Cramer on BloggingStocks: Keep a close eye on tech {BloggingStocks}
Nov 9th 2007 9:39AM To believe Mr. Cramer's comments above is to believe that a head of a major and quite successful tech company, Cisco, knows less about general business conditions in his industry than a talking head on a TV show.
Will subprime meltdown cost $4 trillion, $400 billion, or $104 billion? {BloggingStocks}
Oct 27th 2007 9:39AM I would suggest that an absolutely necessary reform of the current lending system would be a requirement that any bank in the business of writing mortgages be required to keep a minimum percentage of loans on their own books. What made it acceptable for banks to take on crazy risks with people that any experienced loan officer had to have known were likely to default was that they anticipated selling the mortgage to someone else about as soon as the ink on the document had dried. It's interesting in observing recently reported quarterly earnings to note that community banks with a conservative approach of keeping close tabs on their customers have fared a lot better than large banks who did everything by remote control.
Hershey (HSY) earnings not so sweet {BloggingStocks}
Oct 18th 2007 12:16PM About two years ago the price of milk on the farm was at real adjusted levels not seen since the Great Depression, especially the manufacturing grade milk used by companies such as Hershey. Perhaps the management at Hershey got a little too used to that situation and didn't plan ahead for the time when milk prices would inevitably rise to a more reasonable level.
Rescue on the way for Massachusetts homeowners nearing foreclosure {BloggingStocks}
Oct 15th 2007 10:21AM Whatever measures that Massachusetts can come up with, it's just an attempt to bring some order to what is already a disorderly process of liquidating what turned out to be foolish purchases and loans. Ultimate responsbility for this mess has to rest with the lenders. Nobody forced them to make loans to borrowers and suspend all of the normal and prudent rules of lending developed over a long period of time. When you don't require a down payment, structure mortgages with low teaser rates and qualify borrowers based on those temporary interest rates, and not even require proof of income, assets and liabilities, what can anyone expect other than what we are now seeing?
Cramer on BloggingStocks: A slumping dollar will make earnings pop {BloggingStocks}
Sep 28th 2007 12:39PM When you read Jim Cramer's comments on the good things to come for corporate profits from a weak dollar, you would never guess that the United States is a net importer rather than an exporter. We're running 60 to 70 billion dollar trade deficits in a typical month, with absolutely no sign of that gap narrowing in any significant degree. A weak dollar is very good for exports such as agricultural products and those industrial companies based in the US that make a lot of sales abroad such as Caterpillar or Boeing. But it's going to heavily impact all of the importers such as Wal-Mart or Target that have to sell goods that will gradually become more expensive for their customers. And if the dollar becomes any weaker, as it is very likely, it's only a matter of time before those selling us vital goods, such as the 60%+ plus of the oil we consume, demand payment in a hard currency rather than a soft American dollar.
Holy wheat bubble {BloggingStocks}
Sep 25th 2007 2:59PM I'm also distrustful of anything that goes up too much too quickly. But upon what basis are you making the case that wheat of necessity is going to fall dramatically in price? Right now demand is outpacing supply worldwide, with reserves lower than at any point in the last 30 years. The only country with really large stocks to sell to wheat deficit parts of the world is the United States at this time. The foods made from wheat: bread, noodles, pasta, etc. are about the cheapest things that anyone can eat, so poor people or the more affluent looking to eat as inexpensively as they can have nothing to substitute that would be of lower cost. And since none of us knows what the weather will be, which is the primary determinant of supply as well as acreage, your opinion that wheat is going to fall just because you say so isn't what I would call useful investment advice.
