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otc: good work, now can you get my 26K back? LOL
Interesting story about savings - while I knew that we had a savings problem in the US, I did not realize that China had the opposite situation.
The U.S. and China's savings problem
The Chinese have taken thrift to excess, while profligate Americans have spent their way into debt.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/03/news/international/chinasaving_fortune/index.htm
OTC: Wells Fargo is now one of Warren Buffett's biggest holdings, he likes the way the current CEO is running the bank. Of course Warren owns GEICO, which is doing very well and when you talk to them and voice any concerns, they never fail to mention his name.
otc: Dish & Wells Fargo must be run by a bunch of Liberals. I would not doubt that they read the Koran everyday.
Geez, a salesperson filling in the blanks after leaving you a copy of the contract, how unusual... must be an oversight!
How about reading the contract and crossing through all the empty boxes and terms that do not apply.
I clearly would lay the blame here at the Federal, State and Local Level.
This was intended as a humor based post. I feel your pain, only when it happened to me it was for $26,000.00 from a panasonic copier dealer. Those Aholes went out of business, I eventually sold mine for cool cash. Positive attitude.
BTW - always found Wells Fargo to be a decent bank, you just need to escalate the problem to the right person.
Here is an interesting property for you sports fans.
http://tinyurl.com/gvcuf
Scottie Pippens house which I have heard was originally priced to go @ $4.3 million or so. Has been on the market for along time. It is a short walk from my house and is priced well above any other house in the neighborhood by a large amount. Would love to see how he got talked into this location.
OT: Ten Bag Defined, from http://pages.zoom.co.uk/leveridge/dictionary.html#O
FWIW - not much
Ten-bagger
Definition: Ten-baggers are stocks that achieve a ten-fold gain (1000%) very quickly. Often associated with Internet related stocks.
Derivation: A term derived from baseball, where a four-bagger is a home run. Its use was popularised in the UK by Alpesh B Patel, Financial Times columnist.
Citation: "I have started investing . . . a small part of my portfolio in the hunt for UK "ten-baggers" These are stocks that may rise ten-fold quite quickly. " Financial Times 2000-01-29
don't watch lou dobbs:
if your spelling was more accurate then i would have not focused on "religeous" and most likely would have seen "prohibits".. my very bad, excuse me for misreading and obviously knowing what I was talking about. Since no article of the constitution deals with religious expression, The First Amendment gives the important information Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
but instead of the wisecrack It is worse than I thought! asshole comment you could have enlighted us with your thoughtful answers. but that's not your point is it?
Which UAE company was awarded a Port security contract?
It was a British company acquired by the Dubai Company
Which article of the constitution prohibits public religeous expression?
First Amendment
Which govt agency is charged with being the first reponder in times of natural disasters?
The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters. FEMA can trace its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the century that followed, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.
How many counts have charged "Scooter" Libby with releasing classified information?
none
How much has Bush's tax cuts added to the national deficit this year?
i would guess none
What is the definition of Domestic wire-tapping?
don't know, but here is what Jay Leno said "I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?' "
Next time I am in Texas, can I stop by and kiss your hand, my lord? You are awesome.
LENTINMAN:
Actually, to each his own... if you are comfortable where you are.. enjoy it.
I guess that statement in my post was not clear enough without the bold!
Obviously you only like conversation to fit your framework, otherwise a terse nasty edgy reply is forthcoming. Who needs that.
Lentinman: Boy I sure will stay out of this fight. But as long as you brought it up, I am the complete opposite of you. I love the diversity of other cultures and people. I love being able to go restaurants and food markets that are owned by Thais, Chinese, Indians, etc. That is why I hated Sarasota White Bread Florida.... Boring and filled with dumb-ass bigoted racist people who hated everything that was different then themselves. My sons school is filled with kids from all over, it looks like the United Nations. It's cool, everyone is nice and friendly. The world will eventually be one or blow itself up.
Come Lentinman, don't be sucked into the Darkside, join us in the world of diversity. LOL
Actually, to each his own... if you are comfortable where you are.. enjoy it.
Bob Brinker: Within the hour of Brinker posting his March newsletter the market completely turned around. Pure luck or is he more widely followed then I thought?
He remains bullish.
bbotcs: I jumped the gun, I did not realize that those companies and your focus were on prevention. I have no problem with that at all. In fact I would encourage investment in Legit companies that can provide solutions.
But again, my original point was to lash out at GWB and the lame administration who is running this country. If the pandemic hits the US, we are in deep ****. They are planning on having 20 million doses of Tamiflu and other meds. Don't we have 285 million or so people?
You can bet that GWB will be riding it out at the Crawford ranch, fully medicated and with food for weeks.
Again, sorry for jumping on you...
GM: As long as you brought it up, did you see today that Consumer Reports picks the best cars and they are ALL JAPANESE. Not one American car makes the list.
What happened? How tough is it to have 1 car be better than anything Japan makes?
Everytime I need a new car, I research, test drive and make an honest attempt to buy American. When I have done so I get burned with a piece of crap.
At least I can still buy American, Wine, Beer & Gin... the imortant stuff that we can still produce.
SAD
bbotcs: Bird Flu, thanks for the info. However if I am dead from the Flu, I guarantee I could care less about the performance of the stock. I am not some great moral leader of the free world, I just have no intention of investing to personally reap benefits from the potential death of thousands, maybe millions of people. I would rather invest in a good supply of MRE's for my family and get ready to hunker down for a few weeks. I still have some leftovers from my San Francisco earthquake supplies.
My point is that our elected leaders (don't blame me) are clueless and after a lot of people die, it will be no great joy to see a video tape of GWB being told that we could have done more but did not because he is a ****ing moron.
Old Brownie sounds like he would have been a better leader than GWB.
What has happend with Bird Flu? Our quick to react Katrina Government seems to have gotten very quiet on Bird Flu. From what I have read and seen, immunizations are a long shot at best. The only realistic info was from several media people who said to stock up on food and stay indoors if the flu comes knocking in your neighborhood. Be prepared for 2 weeks at home.
Are we counting on the help of...................... (lying bastard)
Bush ‘warned day before Katrina struck’
NEW ORLEANS, March 1 (Reuters) - Ray Nagin, New Orleans mayor, said on Wednesday night he was shocked by video showing President George W. Bush being told the day before Hurricane Katrina hit that the city’s protective levees could fail.
The tape contradicts the president’s statement four days after the hurricane struck: “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.”
“It surprises me that if there was that kind of awareness, why was the response so slow?” said Mr Nagin, whose city was devastated when the August 29 storm and sparked massive flooding.
“I have kind of a sinking feeling right now in my gut. I mean, I was listening to what people were saying and I was believing them that they didn’t know. So therefore it was an issue of a learning curve.
“From this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware.”
Mr Nagin listened with headphones and watched an excerpt from the video for the first time as reporters, who had just heard from city officials how successful the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras was, stood around him.
The tape shows President Bush and Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security chief, being told on Auguest 28 that the hurricane could trigger breaches of levees that protect the city as well as threaten the Superdome, which became a last-ditch shelter for storm victims. The tapes were obtained by the Associated Press, which played Mr Nagin the excerpt.
“I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever resources and assets we have at our disposal after the storm to help you deal with the loss of property,” Mr Bush says in one part of the video. “We pray there’s no loss of life, of course.”
Trent Duffy, White House spokesman, said the tape was misleading.
“It seems to me to suggest that the president was not fully engaged in the response to Hurricane Katrina. The president was fully engaged and involved in meetings on the response,” he said.
Mr Duffy said the president’s involvement included making disaster declarations, and pushing publicly for evacuations and also urging state officials to get people to move to safer ground.
The Bush administration has been heavily criticised for its slow response to Katrina, which killed about 1,300 people along the gulf coast and sparked crime-plagued anarchy in New Orleans.
After watching the tape, Mr Nagin said it looked as if top officials, including Michael Brown, then-Federal Emergency Management Agency head, knew the storm could be devastating, that the Superdome roof was “a question mark” and the military would likely have to be brought in to help.
“I’m just shocked,” he said.
Last month, a congressional report written by Republicans said federal agencies were unprepared for the Katrina catastrophe and quicker involvement by Mr Bush might have improved their response.
Len:
I once had 3 beers at the same time! Was actually slightly woozy.
1. I thought you did not drink.
2. I remember seeing the great musician Rashaan Roland Kirk play 2 saxophones and a flute at the same time, but 3 beers at once seems odd. Did you stick 3 bottles in your mouth at once or just 3 straight beers? LOL
3. Today is my BD, so I might break the rules and go for 3 beers, and woozy myself to bed right after the kids...
OT: Laz: Nice family, nice website... I don't subscribe to the government food pyramid. I eat more fruits and veggies, no meat. I agree on a 2 drink max, but can't see any reason to take a day off. LOL
What's up with the flea's? Good thing I left CA, with those guys flying around. scary.
LAZ LOL: You did shoot yourself in the foot with that admission. 10 am Scotch sipping, if you could wait till after dinner I would join you. Even in my college days I would not let myself drink @ 10 am.
btw - LAZ, the 2 teaspoons of alcohol will kill you story sounds like a crock.
OT: Overstock/Cramer, don't forget Cramer is a School buddy of Spitzer, that goes along way to protecting him from flack.
ASPN: My soon to be unpopular reply to your question:
1. Shareholders love to see that a company promotes themselves by all means, CEO interviews, paid for articles and promotion. But to what end is this done? To raise the stock price and use the paper as an asset to acquire other businesses or more oil rights, leases, etc. (that would make me a buyer)
or: is it to allow the company insiders to enter into a little old automatic diversification of their financial holdings? nothing wrong with that you might argue, they deserve to sell some stock. cool, i just would not want to buy it from them.
2. There is no #2 in my arsenal.
disclosure: i made a small profit in ASPN awhile back having sold way to soon. i may buy back in at some point, although i doubt it.
We looked at Laurelhurst, very nice area .. .if i did not have kids i would have liked to be near Mt. Tabor... very few good schools in Portland and seems like they will be hurting even worse next year.
babycakes: West Hills - Forest Heights ... i am a NY'er, to CA, to FL, to OR... hopefully the last stop on the train. Tired of moving. My area is filled with Nike/Intel folks
len: I found his house, got out my magnifying lens and it was right under my thumb. It is a nice house which is way over priced like all California real estate. I hope he gets his money.
However you need to understand that when you buy one of those houses you are also buying into the lifestyle and a piece of the location. San Diego & San Francisco are two great places to live. I can easily understand the premium, although 819K for 1500 square feet is beyond what I consider a fair premium for San Diego. I love watching the planes land at the Airport in San Diego, my stomach churned a bit when it was my plane that was doing the landing however.
Where you live is a bargain compared to San Diego, however when you factor in the different lifestyle ... I would pay the San Diego premium without a second thought. I chose Portland because the premium is not anywhere near California prices, although it appears to be heading that way.
A Sign at a Business Establishment Philadelphia, PA:
"WE WOULD RATHER DO BUSINESS WITH 1000 ARAB TERRORISTS THAN WITH A
SINGLE JEW"
This sign was prominently displayed in the window of a business in Philadelphia.
Most would be outraged at the thought of such an inflammatory statement.
One would think that anti-hate groups from all across the country would
be marching on this business, and that the National Guard might have to
be called to keep the angry crowds back.
But, perhaps in these stressful times, one might be tempted to let the
proprietors simply make their statement. We are a society which holds
"Freedom of Speech" as perhaps our greatest liberty. And after all,
it is just a sign. You may ask what business would dare post such a sign?
Goldberg's Funeral Home
mikeo56: Welcome to OR... Todays Oregonian article stated that 27000 california licenses were turned in to Oregon DMV last year. A trend that is just starting up. Many are doing what you are and what I did. Although I made a stupid mistake of stopping in Florida on the way to Oregon. Seems like you will be only 260 miles from me, neighbor...LOL
You would think this stock would see some action with the Saudi refinery attack attempt. EKCS does have a presence in the middle east with some installations and is doing work for Israel MOD as well as other countries.
The perimeter systems they have are what is needed in many of these situations.
Len: I did not listen today, although I will...btw you can listen for up to 24 hours archived www.kgo.com
He does get in his fair share of politics.
It would seem to me that since the Saudi's effectively prevented any destruction in the attack, it should have gone down as a positive. Oils rise for the day makes no sense.
I would also think security company stocks should be going up.
any thoughts?
"Rise in long rates might be trouble-Fed's Ferguson" - Oh yeah and by the way I am leaving the Fed April 28th. Good luck Ben! .. Why is the vice chairmen packing it in? He says he has been there long enough. Or is he leaving a sinking ship?
Todays WSJ article said that money was pouring out of Money Market funds and into Stocks because other investments were not yielding enough (real estate).
Is this the wave of Bag-Holders that means near term market correction? That's my feeling.
len: seen this before, brings back memories of my retail store and the kids I hired who could not make change. none of them cried, they could care less if they gave the right change. sold the place as soon as I could find a buyer. the only person i had who could do change was an 80 year old lady who was stealing from the register, she was good... i was better!
nightmare memory
bones: I don't think that any foreign company or government should have anything to do with the operation of any entity that manages or controls our Ports, Airports, or any potential security problem.
No British, No French, No Swiss, No German, No Arabs.
Not racist ... just Americanism. Common ****ing sense!
Has nothing to do with muslims. The world is filled with muslims who wish to live in peace and bear us no ill will.
GWB is a stubborn SOB who is now fighting a battle against incumbent Repbublicans who want to get reelected. It is a pleasure to watch this battle.
It is laughable that he would VETO a bill to stop congress from preventing this nonsense. The guy has not used the VETO yet, most likely can't spell VITO.
echos
>>I already know there is no way you can privatize welfare.
I don't think it should be privatized, however I think it is filled with waste & theft. Able bodied people should be doing some form of work to receive benefits. There should also be a dis-incentive for having more children you can't afford to support.
>>And both of my parents depend on Social Security, so I'm not for privatizing that either.
That is a purely personal reaction, however most privatizing plans call for grandfathering in those already getting paid from SS. Also I would not be for 100% privatizing as I know that a certain segment of our population would figure out a way to blow the money and we would wind up supporting them with some public assistance.
>>Nobody wants to have to write a check to the fire department before they start to save your burning house.
You are right on that, don't they take Visa? Seriously I agree with you, but most Americans have no clue what libertarians stand for. They most likely would think it was related to lesbianism and would be horrified that you are solicting them to join the party! LOL
Lentinman: I landed in the libertarian category! I was amazed to read that only 200,000 people are registered Libertarians. I think that many more, millions in fact would find themselves in that libertarian camp. They obviously need some serious PR efforts...
Thinking of joining up
JUST READ THIS!
In the face of growing Republican opposition, President Bush today threatened to veto any congressional effort to block a deal that will allow an Arab company to take over the management of six major U.S. seaports, saying that any attempt to scuttle the arrangement would send "a terrible signal to friends around the world."
I think this guy makes me ashamed to be an American
echos, you are right, have not heard anything about those issues.
What about the alternative energy industry and how they laid off workers which they rehired just before Bush came to visit. A mystery $5 million appeared just for that. Have not heard anyone who follows this administration believe for a second that the "oilmen" Bush & Cheney want alternative fuels. It is a bleeping joke.
Two weeks ago, 32 workers, including eight researchers, were laid off at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. The lab helps develop the very renewable energy technologies the president is promoting.
Then, over the weekend, just before Bush's planned visit to the lab on Tuesday, the government restored the jobs. His trip to the renewable energy laboratory is part of a two-day, three-state trip to promote the energy proposals he outlined in his State of the Union address.
At the direction of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, $5 million was transferred to the Midwest Research Institute, the operating contractor for the lab, to get the workers back on the job, the Energy Department announced Monday.
Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said the decision restores only $5 million of the $28 million budget shortfall at the lab that forced the layoffs.
"The $5 million stopped the bodies from going out the door, but it doesn't provide the money for the (renewable energy) programs," Clapp said.
Interesting political quick quiz.
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html
yield: I have a Toshiba laptop which I have used for 5 years. Never had a problem with it. If I was to buy another one, I would stick with Toshiba and get the 17" widescreen... However I don't really travel much and if I did the size and weight of it would be cumbersome. Awesome screen and DVD viewing however and it would also be used as my desktop machine. So if you don't mind lugging around a big machine, take a look at it.
10bagger: You have a lot more experience in this area than I do, however nowadays many orders are internalized within firms. For example I have often placed orders with Schwab between bid and ask and get almost instant fills. Schwab publicly agrees with what you say and will always tell me that someone picks up the phone and makes a call on OTCBB stocks, but it is not possible to do so in 15 seconds from the time I placed the order, to its execution. Therefore I know that the order system has orders sitting to be matched up internally by computer.
Each time you see a bid or offer less in shares or price than your order on the books and you get a fill a human has gotten between you and the book
Barrons.com free this weekend: Found this!
New Kids in Town
THOUGH 2005 HAS FEATURED SERIOUS consolidation in the online brokerage industry, some brave souls are still starting up new firms, dangling enticements such as low prices or different ways to invest.
One that might appeal to the cost-conscious investor is TradeKing (www.tradeking.com), which features commissions of $4.95 per equity transaction, and $4.95, plus 65 cents per contract for options. The firm was started by a group that in the 1990s founded Suretrade, which at the time was one of the low-price leaders, with $7.95 trades. Suretrade eventually merged with Quick & Reilly's online brand, which was part of Fleet Financial; Fleet since has been absorbed by Bank of America.
"Over the past couple of years, we've felt, with all the industry consolidation going on, that online investors are being neglected," said TradeKing's co-founder and CEO, Donato Montanaro. "We came together and said, 'We can do better.'"
Montanaro, when putting together the package for his potential customers, wanted a pricing scheme that is easy and understandable. He feels that tiered pricing is confusing and divisive, so the firm's commissions are a flat $4.95, including trades placed with a live broker. Margin interest is also flat, currently at 6.75%, regardless of the outstanding balance. The firm also eschews fees for low balances or lack of activity. "We despise hidden fees," says Montanaro.
The Electronic Investor was given a preview look at the site prior to its public opening on Dec. 19. At the initial login, the customer is presented with a Summary page, which can be customized. The main menu is displayed at the top of the screen; additional choices display as your mouse rolls over the menu boxes.
The site has quite a few features that will appeal to options traders, including a way to build multi-leg options that displays the net delta -- a measure of risk -- of a potential position. You can select the strategy you'd like to look for, such as a "calendar call spread," and it will find contracts that fulfill your needs.
Another interesting feature for options chains is that the pricing is displayed as bid, ask and "mid." If you click mid, a trade ticket is populated with the price between bid and ask, rather than assuming that you'll buy at the ask and sell at the bid. Montanaro says this feature is designed to save investors money on their trades, since the price they can get is more to their advantage.
Filling out an order ticket can take several pages, however, including a step that has disappeared from most online brokerages: entering your password to confirm the placement of an order. You can turn that requirement off if you'd like.
The Holdings page lists your current positions; each option contract has a checkbox to its left. If you're in a multi-leg option, you can click on the box for the various legs, and then identify the strategy for that group of options -- for example, a "butterfly." Clicking on the strategy opens a multi-leg trade ticket with the symbols filled in that will allow you to close the position quickly. The way it's organized forces the trader to remember which strategies have been employed, however.
Another research tool that provides intriguing results is the Probability Calculator, which shows the odds of success for a given strategy. To use this, you enter a stock symbol, and the date in the future for the calculations. You can also estimate two potential future prices, perhaps representing your stop-loss and your desired gain. The tool shows the probabilities of the option expiring at the underlying price shown, which also translates to the stock reaching the prices you've entered.
TradeKing is also introducing some community-building features, such as blogs and rankings of articles of interest to customers. The firm says it will offer downloadable educational podcasts, and will also track the truth of what bloggers post to avoid pump-and-dump scams.
Setting up a quote watch list is a little clumsy. Users have to type their desired symbols into a box in the Setup area; it would be easier to use if you could design the watch list while you're looking at a quote screen, which is the method used at most brokerage houses that allow user-specified watch lists. Similarly, customizing reports has to be done from the Setup area rather than while viewing the report itself. These sort of issues, however, aren't unusual for a brand-new offering.
If you're cost-conscious, want to work with an investing community and are willing to deal with a few startup idiosyncrasies, check out TradeKing.
ANOTHER START-UP, aimed at those focusing on exchange-traded funds, is XTF Advisors (www.xtf.com). The firm, which launched its Website in mid-September, is offering both online brokerage accounts and separately managed accounts (SMAs), and has set themselves a lofty goal: to change the way Americans invest.
The first two options are implemented through XTF's self-directed brokerage service. If you want to go it alone, you pay $14.95 for online transactions, and the Website functions much like a traditional online brokerage -- albeit one that focuses on ETFs. You can also go through one of the asset-allocation programs on the Website and pay a fraction of a percent of your account value. This latter approach is similar to Ameritrade's Amerivest and requires an opening deposit of $5,000.
The third option is to open a separately managed account with a minimum of $50,000 and let the advisers at XTF manage your portfolio for you. They use a specialized ETF planning tool to set up your initial investments, then rebalance the holdings periodically. This approach costs an annualized 0.65% of your account value, due in quarterly payments. If you have $100,000 in your account, you'd pay $650 per year, or $162.50 quarterly, but you would not be charged individual transaction fees.
The site offers several ETF screeners, free of charge, based on MarketWatch and Lipper data. Once you've built a potential portfolio of ETFs, you can backtest their performance against other types of investments. XTF's proprietary econometric model substitutes indexes for the ETFs to simulate how an index-based ETF would have behaved in the years prior to its existence.
Sander Gerber, XTF's Chairman and CEO says that the company is in the middle of an internal study about the tax efficiency of mutual funds compared to low-cost index mutual funds and ETFs. He says that "The bottom line is that as the population of mutual fund holders drops the remaining holders will take the hit on capital gains." The firm plans to summarize the conclusions on its Website, with the intention of educating investors about the tax inefficiencies of mutual funds.
XTF's President Robert Adler says that the firm is setting up a mutual fund analyzer that lets clients compare mutual funds with ETFs. Punch in the ticker for a fund and the tool will show an analogous ETF and compare the performances. Adler says the tool is ready, but there are still some regulatory issues to overcome.
Gerber says, "We're not looking to be a trading shop. We want people who buy and hold. Our website exists to guide people into ETFs as investors -- not traders."
Why do they continue to do it? Do any of these people have any common sense anymore?
Pyleva gets two-year ban for drugs