In America, if a company can’t make a profit and loses money, they have one choice and that’s to file for bankruptcy.  Just because a company is big doesn’t mean that the government has to lend them taxpayer’s money to save it.
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It’s amazing to see how the CEO’s of these big corporations have destroyed the company so much that they need the assistance of the U.S. government and the American taxpayer to save their skin. How can these men with such education be so stupid to take on the extreme risks that they did?
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What I really want to know is how stupid is Congress to keep on bailing out these companies that shouldn’t even be allowed to operate as a business after losing that much capital. Using the excuse that they’re such big business’ within the United States is a lame one at that. Yes, many people will lose their jobs and the unemployment rate will jump into the double digits, but what other choice do we have? Do we keep giving them money until the Federal Reserve runs out of paper to print more? The airline industry went through bankruptcy years ago and they’re still in business (except for Eastern of course).
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Do you really think that if the big three automakers go into bankruptcy that they (or we) won’t survive? We as American people have to not fall for the hype that the CEO’s, Congress and the mainstream media are trying to feed us. Look at all the money that’s was given to the financial industry and now it turns out it wasn’t used for what it was meant to be used for.
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What about the banking system mess? These companies along with Congress have also done the wrong thing to the American people. If it wasn’t for Congress passing all those bills in the 1990’s that allowed the financial sector to lend money out in sub-prime mortgages, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
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What has me really PO’d is that none of the people who are actually at fault, are being held accountable. Hank Paulson, Dick Fuld, Christopher Cox, Frank Dodd, Barney Frank and the President-elect are all to blame for the financial mess. Dick Wagoner, Alan Mulally and the UAW are to be blamed for the failure of the auto industry. I would like to blame Bob Nardelli from Chrysler too, but he just got there (I will blame him for the fall of The Home Depot).
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Capitalism is what this country was built on, if we are to continue as a capitalistic country we need to let companies fall when they fail to make a profit.
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When the decision was made to let Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy, the company had no other choice but to restructure everything and sell of the assets that they had to clear their debt. If the American automakers are forced to do the same, they too will do what they have to to make the company survive. If they need to sell off assets, I’m sure that there’s an entrepreneur some where in this country that is willing to make profitable business out of the ashes. He could name the first model Phoenix.

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photo by joe shlabotnik

In this election year we have heard a lot about what will happen to the American people more than I can remember since I’ve been voting (which covers over 25 years). One of the major things being spoken about is taxes and yes it’s a topic that is discussed every election, but with the condition of the economy, it’s more important than ever.
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I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that I’m a Libertarian (a party that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves). I believe that our federal government has gotten too big, it spends way too much money than it should. The one true way to reduce taxes is to reduce spending.
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The reason why I bring this to light on a blog that deal solely with the stock market is that this year we could have our investments effected in ways that will hit us on many levels. If some of these ideas come to pass we may have more money pull put of the markets that will continue to cause the markets to fall.
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Take into consideration that if any one political party was to control the Presidency, the Senate as well as Congress, they would be able to mold the laws and pass bills that could take decades to change. At the present time the Democratic party controls the Senate and Congress. With the way Congress has been sitting on their a$$ for the last two years from all the filibustering that causes the delays in decision making, we can’t afford to let most of the candidates go back to Congress to serve this country again.
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Please be aware of the politicians that were involved with the issues that help cause the collapse of the housing market as well as the credit crisis. These candidates will most likely continue to do more of the same if they were to get re-elected.
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As for the Presidency, below is a link to help you think of a few other things that will be effected if the wrong person is voted in office. Remember Wall Street and Main Street are one and the same. Where does average Joe have his 401K plan? On Wall Street, that’s where we all have them.

Target the Investor Class in 2009

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Today the DOW had one of it’s top 6 days in history after it’s worst week in it’s 112 year history. Everybody is jumping for joy and looking forward to the rest of the week. But let’s be real, I said in my earlier post this morning that the markets don’t turn around this quickly.
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We still have a lot of work to do before we can reap the rewards of what has been done in the financial sector over the last few weeks. I’m very happy from today’s gains, but I’m realistic in the fact that this has to come down from profit takers within the next few days. With my interest in Morgan Stanley, my portfolio is up an average of 25% today.
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What we witnessed today was investors and traders getting in on some great deals after a major sell off last week. Most of the trading wasn’t based on fundamental, but on the fact that many hedge funds and other entities were trying to raise capitol and cover margin calls. no matter what you were invested in (except GE and ABX), you made some big gains.
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If you are up in any stocks at this time, you might wnat to think of taking some off the table for when we will have a down day (and believe me, we will have one soon). It’s better to miss out on some short term gains than to lose out on the ones that you made already.
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DOW @9,387.61 +936.42 (+11.08%
NASDAQ @1,844.25 +197.74 (+11.1%)
S&P 500 @1.003.35 +104.13 (+11.58%)
Oil $81.85 (+$4.15)

Hang in there and happy trading.

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last week you know that the economy is in deep trouble and it looks like no matter what anyone does, it’s not going to do any better. This has been the worst week in stock market history. The DOW drops over 6% in this week alone, as the NASDAQ falls 9% and look what happened to the S&P 500, it dives 9.4%.
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The week started off bad on Monday (it was the worse of them all) by dropping 777 point on the DOW. Congress couldn’t leave their feeling at home that they went ahead and voted against the “invest In America bill (mostly because Nancy Pelosi can’t shut up) that would have help the American people and gave a little confidence to Wall Street. We heard all week from the politicians that Wall Street and Main Street are two different groups of people. Let’s see how different they are when the residents of Main Street get their 401K statements by November 3rd and realize that their portfolio has shrunk quite a bit in this quarter (which ended September 30th).
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We listened as Citigroup bids and signs the papers to acquire Wachovia, only to see Well Fargo came in with a better offer. Now Citigroup has filed a lawsuit against wachovia because of this issue. All the while the rest of the financial sector takes a slow ride downward all week long. To add insult to injury, when the bill was finally sign by Congress today, Wall Street, with it’s good solid gains for the day, took it all back and then some. For what reason, I don’t know. I guess Wall street lost that confidence they had while waiting so long for Congress to come back to the table.
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So what’s to come next week for the markets? More of the same, I would guess since it’s so evident that we are in a recession/depression period, the smart money is going to start moving their money into more stable vehicles (bonds and such). I myself think that’s a pretty good idea at this time. If you have capitol tied up in stocks, you may want to take good hard look them and see which ones are one that you shouldn’t have during a recession. I’ve read a lot of articles that say that the way to go right now is consumer staples (McDonald’s, Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson etc.). If you own any, hold on to them. If you’re in a stock that is sensitive to the price of commodities, then it might be time for you to sell into any rally you get. Remember, the old saying… “cash is king”. But then again, who knows what’s going to happen to the almighty “greenback”.

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The economy may be slowing down, Consumer confidence is low and consumer spending is dropping, but no matter what people want to go to McDonald’s more and more it seems. McDonald’s same store comps rose last month (August) 4.5% in the U.S. and 8.5% worldwide. I’m not surprised in the news because when you are out and running around (like most Americans) you just want to get a quick bite to eat, Where do you run to first? McDonald’s has made it a point to buy key properties in all cities over the life of the company that it’s hard not to find one when you’re in a rush to grab something.

They are also building new restaurants everyday all over the world so how could they not beat their comps for the previous month. I do expect this to continue on the basis that more countries are eating more American-ized type food and McDonald’s are leading the way.

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As for any other fast food restaurant, they can’t compete with these numbers. Wendy’s stated in August that their same store sales were up, but only 0.01% and in Burger King’s 4th quarter, their worldwide comps were only up 5.3%.

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This is a company that I will look into because if these comps were better than expected, it could mean a good earnings report when they report next month on October 22nd. The stock is up over 10% since the beginning of the year and up30% since it’s low of $49.36 at the end of January. it has shown great returns over the long haul and with a dividend yield of 2.4% who can really complain? I do have some concern with the fact that the dollar has gained some strength and could possibly hurt international operations.

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As with any interest in buying stocks, you need to do your research and due diligence before claiming a stake in the company. Happy trading.

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