Henry “Hank” Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs for many years. He has too many friends in the financial sector as well as on Wall Street. The man should never have been selected by President G.W. Bush, but he was and at the time everyone thought it was a great idea.
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Why was it a great idea? Because at the time the markets were recovering from the tech bubble collapse in the Stock market. He was also one of the guys who help redesign the hedge funds (another reason we have this financial meltdown) as well as pushing the idea of sub-prime mortgages. The Democrats loved him because he was full-filling the “American Dream”, getting everyone into the house they wanted, no matter what.
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It’s now come to a point that he’s out-lived his usefulness in the Treasury Department. He’s been having press conference after conference in just the last couple of weeks that shows that he doesn’t even know what to do for the economy while still trying to help his cronies within the financial sector.
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I’m counting down the days until Paulson will be out of the position. The job will now fall on Obama‘s choice for Secretary of Treasury. Timothy Geithner will fill that position next month. The man has a long history with the economy and the Treasury department as well as being in charge of the New York Federal Reserve. Timothy Geithner has made a name for himself on Wall Street and some of the rallying in the markets last week was most likely due to the decision.
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Unfortunately the rally the only last so long in what is now “officially” a recession. That’s right the news was released Monday. The economic advisors and experts have now made it official. Like anyone with a half a brain couldn’t see that two months ago.
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The markets typically show the signs of a recession before it actually is made official. With that in mind, it’s nice to think that a recession is usually 8-12 months long. Looking back the markets have been showing signs of it for at least four months, which means that we can be half way through this mess already.
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As I’ve been saying for the last to months, build up some capital (40%-60% of your portfolio) and wait for the right time to buy to build a new position in the stock market. That time is just about upon us, so I say when the DOW reaches 7500 points again, start putting your money to work behind all that research that you’ve been doing.
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Citigroup (NYSE:C) Is now the center of attention now within the financial sector. Of course it’s expected since they too were doing what the rest of the industry has been doing for the last few years.
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Over the weekend the Federal Reserve and the Treasury department have been talking on how to stabilize the company. The discussions are still going on and not much more is being revealed. Speculation is that they are thinking of assuming some of the risky assets held by the company. As with the rest of the trouble assets that the government has taken over from the other troubled banks. Removing the assets off of Citigroup’s balance sheet will give them the chance they need to put them in a better position to do business and raise capital.
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From all the news coverage I’ve followed over the last few days, Citigroup has declined to comment.
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I was on vacation last week and while spending my time with my family, I didn’t follow any news, but to come back to find out that Citigroup lost nearly 60% of their stock value brought me back to reality real quick. Having Citigroup collapse could possibly bring the end to the entire sector. They are too intertwined within the sector.
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When you think about it, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this is happening. Look what happened to Citigroup last month when they tried to acquire Wachovia (NYSE:WB). They lost the opportunity to Wells Fargo Corp (NYSE:WFC). They are no longer the big dog on the block. As a matter of fact they are probably the most vulnerable of all the financial institutions out there.
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Who knows what is to come this week. Last week the DOW lost 5% and that’s after the 500 point gain on Friday. I’m going to catch up on the thing I missed and watch the action from the sidelines.
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With all the talk about the state of our economy, Obama being more of a socialist-type leader and the out-of-control bailouts, one wonders what is the idea of capitalism that this country was built on.
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Wikipedia defines capitalism as,”Capitalism is an economic system and a form of society, in which resources are controlled by private power, as opposed to a state or public institution.” (to read the rest…)
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If we are to survive as a capitalist country and continue what our fore fathers started two hundred and thirty two years ago, we must stop saving companies that are not doing the right thing to make it in the market.
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The government should have never started with all this financial assistance to save companies that have been doing the wrong thing to make money. Things that could be considered morally wrong and legally questionable at best. If a board of directors want to give millions of dollars to a man that makes decisions that will eventually cause the company to lose billions of dollars, well then they get what they ask for, bankruptcy.
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The big three automakers are another set of companies that should face the music like all other smaller companies must face if they don’t do the right thing to preserve their future. Chrysler became a privately held company about a year ago. The company choose Bob (corporate raider) Nardelli to be the CEO. If you guys are not familiar with Mr. Nardelli let me give you some first hand insight.
In the six years that Nardelli was the CEO of The Home Depot he removed more associates from the floor as well as eliminating many of the employee benefits. In effect of his decisions he ruined the customer service that The Home Depot was known for and help them stand out amongst the competition. How do I know this? I worked for The Home Depot before he got there and was there after he left. As a matter of fact, they fired him to get rid of him knowing that they would still have to give him $209 million departing package.
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Let’s get back to capitalism. If this is the way the government is going to start defining the meaning of the word, well then I suggest that if you have a company the isn’t making the money that it needs to make payroll and pay your suppliers, go to Washington and ask for a bailout.
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I don’t know about you, but I go into business to make money and I have only two choices… to either make it or break it and if I break it, it’s my problem not anyone else’s.
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