Continue reading Closing Bell: The Market Advances Without Conviction (BA, YHOO)

Closing Bell: The Market Advances Without Conviction (BA, YHOO) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Global trade growth seen continuing despite WTO setback

Global trade growth seen continuing despite WTO setback originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today's Democratic Party is not the Democratic Party as your grandfather knew it. If you think that the Democrats are all about working peoples' needs and how best to serve them, you may wish to think again. The days when the powerful labor unions were backed by legislation-wielding hot-dogs who were ready to step into the gap to protect the working class in wages, safety, and working conditions have faded away. In fact, I'm of the mind that the decline actually began way back with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa and the slow ugly death of that empire once known as the American steel industry.

Fast forward to NAFTA and GATT, and you'll find two of the most damaging pieces of paperwork that the American economy has ever endured. Do I need to mention the one name most closely associated with both of those documents from the American side? I'll give you a hint, his ex is now looking to plant her feisty butt in the oval office.

Take a look, if you dare, at the link I have provided. It's an article called "Dems Sell Out on Trade" and surprisingly enough it's written from a slightly Democratic perspective. Read it, digest it, and then look at the past three decades in light of it. No, today's Democratic Party is not the Democratic Party that your grandpa supported. The new breed means business . . . in a stinkingly non-American, global sense.

Why you might still think twice about voting Democrat originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 May 2007 21:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As I watch the retreating of prices on a selection of consumer goods I wonder where this is all going. Housing prices have dropped nationwide. Consumer electronics are sliding downward. The "big three", Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Daimler Chrysler (NYSE: DCX) and General Motors (NYSE: GM) are reducing sticker shock to the customer. Sure, these are nice things relative to the bottom line as consumers, but is this the signal of hard times to come? If I was seeing an overall increase of incomes at the same time as these price declines I'd be more excited about the "recession". Although the government says we're earning more, at ground level I just don't see it.

No, what I think is happening is the rising of a monster that I have feared for quite some time. We have lost such a significant share of the world's manufacturing output relative to our population that our economy is adjusting itself to compensate for the losses of those well-paying jobs. Don't let Washington fool you. Just because they say employment numbers are good doesn't mean you can sleep better tonight. When it takes three employees in the warehouse at a retail outlet like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to earn the same income as one dude used to earn building cars or vacuum cleaners, that's a sad state of affairs. Those three warehouse workers won't be buying flat screen TVs. The auto worker could have bought a couple of them.

Will our government wake up and send word to the World Trade Organization that we're starting to get a bit edgy over here? Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the WTO is a major obstacle to our success. They hold us to marketing price structures that are unrealistic by instituting tariffs and controls that strangle real free trade. At the same time, they refuse to have a hand in requiring the implementation of solid requirements regarding the compensation and treatment of the world's work force. Add in the inability of our own governments, both federal and state, to control spending and the continued upward spiral of out-of-control taxation and you have an economy that is being held hostage to the whims of a limited and scary percentage of power mongers. What can we as wage earners and consumers do about all this?

I'm open for suggestions.

Should there be a deflation index? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.