Powell and Limbaugh feuding

Rush Limbaugh had a problem with Colin Powell saying that Limbaugh represented everything that was wrong with the Republican Party. I don't know that that is an entirely accurate statement, but there is some truth behind it. Limbaugh represents the views of mostly the extreme right of the Republican party and the farther you go in either direction, right or left, you are bound to exclude more and more people. I always say that I am an independent, but if I really think about it, I gues center-right is right on point. Because republicans lost many seats in this round of elections (House, Senate, and Presidency), they have began to feud with eachother, point fingers and try to really define what the republican party will stand for. I have some advice for both party's. Stay away from any kind of extremism and they will be much better off. I do think the republican party needs to tone it down on some social issues like abortion and gay marriage. Live and let live; if you don't agree with abortions, then don't have one and if you don't believe in same sex marriage, then marry someone of the same sex. I don't believe anyone is qualified to make those decisions for anyone else who is a fully capacitated adult. Other than that, the party is just fine as far as fiscal and defense issues go. Hopefully, one of the big guys reads this...

Fed Cuts Key Rate

Ben Bernanke, who is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, announced that the Fed would use "all avialable tools", and take unprecedented measures to ensure that lending does not come to a screeching halt, which would devastate our economy. The Federal funds rate, or inter-bank lending rate, was reduced more than expected to between 0-.25%, the lowest in history. The Fed also announced that it does plan to purchase upwards of $600 billion of direct debt from Freddie and Fannie to help increase the amount of lending they are able to do. Investors loved this news and it showed when the DOW climbed just over 350 points in afternoon trading. This is good news also for average consumers, becuase right now lending is still pretty tight; if Freddie and Fannie are able to charge very low rates, they would force other banks to also begin lending or face going out of business. Lending at similarly low rates would be the only way banks could stay competitive. Hopefully this all unfolds sooner than later.

GM continues to adjust while their bailout is stalled

GM announced a cut in production of 250,000 vehicles for the first quarter of 2009 and also that several production plants throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico would remain closed for the entire month of January. GM reported that sales for November are down 41% and it is doing all it can to keep the lights on until some kind of financial assistance is given to General Motors. The factory workers who will be temporarily laid off can continue to receive a portion of their salary from GM and will also need to file for unemployment benefits from the states. Good luck with that because states receive their income from various sorts of taxes such as sales taxes which are down, and property taxes which are also down or not being paid at all in many cases. Hopefully everything works out for the best for the workers; The company's on the other hand need to get it together now. Efficiency is key for these companies because the way lending has tightened up, the amount of potential buyers has seriously dwindeled.

Playboy cover very controvercial in Mexico

The popular men's magazine is under fire in Mexico after choosing to place an almost naked girl with only a shawl/blanket covering her (resembling the Virgin Mary) and placing her next to a stained glass window. During the month of December (the 12th) they celebrate the Virgins "day" as she is one of the most popular religious icons in Mexico. Under the picture were the words, "Te adoramos Maria" translated to, " We Love/adore you Maria." Playboy, insisted that the model on the cover is really named Maria, but the damage was done. I think it would probably be a good idea to avoid defacing religious icons for any business that needs people to buy their products. At the end of the day, I'm sure everything will work out fine for the magazine, cause their base (mostly men) is sure to be more forgiving than the clergymen and women who were offended.

The Remains of Caylee Anthony may be found

On December 13th a utility service worker found a black trash bag in a wooded area. When he picked it up a small human skull rolled out and that reignited that spark that this case desperately needed. The mother of missing toddler Caylee anthony, Casey Anthony was been in jail on murder charges for over a month now and all the while has maintained her innocence and even that her missing child, who she neglected to report missing for over 1 month, was still alive. As of right now, all though almost everyone who has been involved in this mysterious case has a gut feeling that the remains do belong to the young toddler, the state has maintained that until a positive ID can be made, they will not speculate as to who they have found. This has also barred the defense team from having their experts present during autopsy and DNA testing preformed on the remains. It is a sad story because the grand-parents have remained by their daughter's side and because of that, have been treated like criminals by many people and even some media. What can you expect parents to do; they want to hold out hope for their daughter. This new development in the case has come as a strong blow to the Anthony family, who was desperately hoping the young toddler was still alive.

Biggest Ponzi Scheme EVER!!!!!!!

On December 11, 2008 FBI agents showed up unannounced at the door of New York money manager Bernard Madoff, and arrested him for leading the biggest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history in which he blew about $50 BILLION of investors' money. Just as puzzling, it all came crashing down when Madoff confessed to family members what he had done, that he was sure he was going to jail, and that he wanted to hand out the remaining 2-3 hundred million he had to family, friends, and employees. Following this confession, his own family hired a lawyer and then tipped off regulators as well as the FBI. This is yet another stain on the already damaged reputation of the financial industry in America, especially that of hedge funds. Hedge funds have remained un-regulated in the financial services industry and have been involved in one way or another in every scandal that has taken place in Wall Street. Once more, in a time when America's future and our ability to remain as a super-power depends heavily on foreign investment, we can not allow these kind of people to walk around freely. I heard a comedian say a while back that they were more frightened to walk through a corporation than the ghetto; "If I walk through the ghetto and get robbed, they might take what I have on my person, but I have never walked through the ghetto and been robbed of my future!!!!!"

President Bush receive's a "unique" welcome

At a press conference with Iraqi Prime minister Al-Maliki, a man in the crowd hurled two shoes at the president in a show of resentment to comments made during that meeting when President Bush announced that after almost 6 years, "The war is not over."
I wanted to write about this story because it is a very sad situation. President Bush's will forever be remembered by a questionable win for the presidency against Al Gore, and a very unpopular war in Iraq. I realize that his decision to invade Iraq when he did was very premature to say the least, but I can't help but wonder what history will teach us in maybe 40 years or 50 years. I am pretty sure that when President lincoln freed the slaves he was pretty unpopular, or that when schools in America were desegregated in the 50's, that was an unpopular decision as well. I am not trying to justify what has happened; I am only saying that before we begin to disrespect the leader of the free world, we should really look at what is going on. I am also not saying that we have to agree with everything that our leaders say or do. In America we cherish our right to free speech and can respectfully voice our concerns or disagreements when we choose to. In fact, I bet the man who threw the two shoes at President Bush didn't even stop to think that he could not have done that a few years ago. Opposition to Sadaam Hussein meant certain extermination; not anymore.

Gov Blagojevich still in office??

Shamed Governor Rod Blagojevich has still refused to resign as Gov. of Illinois and he has left spectators in awe by continuing to show up to work daily as if nothing was going on and attempting to handle state business as usual. The problem is that with an impeachment almost inevitable, the thing on everyone's mind is, "what is this guy thinking?" Blagojevich was spotted meeting with the hot shot attorney who has represented people like R. Kelley, Conrad Black, and many other corrupt public officials for four hours last week; we should know by Monday if this meeting will result fruitful for the corrupt Governor. Some people think that the Governor might be trying to leverage his seat as Governor the same way he was trying to do with President-elect Obama's seat in the senate; this would not be surprising at all as shameless as Blagojevich has been.

Bailout rejected by Congress, but still hopeful??

"My hope is that the administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required." -President-Elect Barack Obama
The bailout bill for the auto-industry was rejected in the senate last Thursday, and surprisingly, now the Bush administration has stepped in and gone as far as saying that assistance must be given to the Big 3-->even if it meant tapping into the TARP funds which President Bush had long maintained was out of the question. What is going on? Congress is supposed to be the authority, the law-making part of our government. Now the executive branch is brushing them aside for whatever reason. I don't understand what the problem with a chapter 11 bankruptcy is which will give the Big 3 the opportunity to restructure their business model and become much more efficient. All of this comes despite the fact that the Big 3 have said that this is simply a bridge loan and that more funds will be needed next year when the new administration comes into office. The government is handing money left and right; maybe we should all ask to have our bills paid. Everyone has to live on a budget and so should businesses.

Workers at plant in Chicago sit-in/protest

A group of upset workers (about 200 of them) are staging a sit in at their now shut-down factory after they were all abruptly laid-off and refused severence and vacation pay. The Company owners said they were forced to close the doors when profits dropped from 6.9 million annually to 2.9 million annually. These workers have come to symbolize the struggle that millions of laid off Americans are experiencing and even the president-elect Barack Obama has shown support for what they are trying to do. Company reps have rejected several opportunities to comment, and really only said that they have no control or money to meet the demands of the employees because their financing was cut off by Bank of America, who finances their business activities. If I have it right, each employee is asking for $3,500.00 and some benefits be paid to them. It's very unfortunate that so many employees be laid-off right before Christmas; most of the employees that worked at this plant made approximately $30,000 annually. This is another sad story to add to the gloom of 2008 in American history.

More corruption in Chicago

Governor Blagojevich of Illinois was placed under arrest about two days ago for various criminial accusations including fraud, soliciting bribes, etc for trying to sell the senate seat that was left vacant after President-elect Barack Obama won the presidential election in November. This guy is finished; I've been listening to some of the wire taps that the media has been releasing and its very bad. This guy is definately going to prison no matter what kind of deal he is offered by the FBI; its just a matter of time before heads start rolling cause Blogojevich is almost certainly going to talk. One of the notable names being mentioned right now is Jesse Jackson Jr. Throughout the presidential campaign, we heard about the corrupt political machine that was at work in Chicago and now we (outsiders) are finally getting to see what every one was talking about. Apparently, the former Illinois Governor is also sitting in prison for criminal actions he committed while in office. Looks like he's going to have company.

Unemployment is pretty high these days

Unemployment is now at 6.7%, up from the once much lower 4.7% we enjoyed last year. That means that another 1.9 million Americans have lost their jobs since last year bringing us to grand total of 10.3 million out of work. This does not mean that we are nearing the great depression as some news stations might subtly hint at (MSNBC), where unemployment was at an astonishing 25%, but it does mean that we are looking at a pretty long recession. Before the the new report was released this month from the BLS, some economists had predicted that we may begin to see some small growth in our economy as early as next year. Now, economists from Moody's are suggesting that we might have to wait until the Spring of 2010 before we see a rebound, and when unemployment may hit 10%. I'm very curious to see what the new incoming administration will do to remedy this situation. I don't see how President-elect Obama would still want to raise taxes (capital gains, payroll, etc.) in this kind of environment. That leaves GOV with less money for handouts, and I'm very anxious to see which programs he decides to keep and which of his programs he cuts out.

OJ sentenced...

OJ Simpson received a sentence of 9-33 years in prison, 9 being the minimum before he can parol out. I watched the sentencing hearing and saw OJ almost crying, with his voice cracking as he was apologizing; the judge didn't care too much for that and called him ignorant and pathetic. The Judge, Jackie Glass made it a point to say that this sentence had absolutely nothing to do with anything else that might have taken place in OJ's past, but I don't buy it. I think that although this might not be payback, there was absolutely no way he would receive any kind of a break; try finding a juror that thinks OJ was an honest and decent man going in to the trial. So about 18 years after he should have been sentenced to at least life in prison, OJ finally sits behind bars, on lesser, but still very serious charges. It's about time.

Oil Prices...Down again

Oil hit a low of $40.83 per barrel, which puts it down about 72% from less than 5 months ago when it was sitting at about $147 per barrel. At every gas station regular unleaded gas is well under $2 per gallon; in most places its about $1.79. Who would have thought this would happen so soon. The last time I remember paying such low prices, I was still a Junior in highschool. Now, the talk is that gas prices could dip down to a $1 per gallon, where just five months ago, it was fear that it might hit $5 or more per gallon. What does this mean? The bad thing is that this is definately a sign that our economy is very weak; the last time oil was near $1 was in 2001, 3 months after the terrorist attacks in NY. The good thing is that these cheap oil prices may be just what we need to help the economy turn around.

Update on Auto Bailout

I have been following this story for a few weeks and it has been very interesting to me. On the surface, it looks like another hand out with a tin-cup, but in actuality millions of American jobs are at stake. It's tough to say whether bailing the auto-industry out is necessary, or if it would simply be throwing more good money (That we don't actually have) at bad money. It looks like the bailout is going to happen with lots of oversight; the best Barnie Frank can come up with. The 3 CEO's actually drove to Washington this time in Hybrid cars and pleaded for 2 days on why they desperately need the money to keep the lights on. What's upsetting to hear is that whatever money is set aside is only meant to hold them over until March, which will give the new incoming Obama administration a couple months to study this case and figure out what to do with it; This may include more money. Worst case scenario; if the big 3 go under, unemployment could hit 11%. Currently, we are at about 6.7%. Good-luck figuring this one out congress..

Opec Meeting Results

I had heard analysts speculating that Opec's call for an emergency meeting could possibly result in a cut in supply (1 million barrel per day cut) as a last ditch effort to raise the price of oil to a "fair" price. Most of the oil minister's say that a fair price is somewhere between the $70-$80 per barrel range. Some said that the cut in production would not come until early next year (2009). It turns out that after the meeting was done, no new cuts were announced yet. I guess that's good for us, and not so good for countries like Venezuela. Apparently, some analysts suggest that Venezuela needs oil at least at $90 per barrel to finance its activities and meet its debt obligations. Equally interesting, independent researchers suggest that opec would have to cut production by 3 times per day to raise the price of oil to $65 per barrel and for the smaller countires that may not be feasible because that would cut a tremendous chunk of revenue from their budget. So, I guess we can enjoy the lower prices for now, but keep in mind that next year, the price of oil will rise again; to what levels, who knows.

Man trampled at Wal-Mart

This is a very sad story. An employee at Wal-Mart was trampled over and killed during the black Friday shopping event; just as bad was that people continued to shop while the injured employee was receiving first aid from paramedics and were even pushing the paramedics around. Its amazing that this stuff still happens after so many black Friday experiences. I would think that retailers would have figured something out by now to keep everyone as safe as possible. I realize it must be hard and that people must also modify their behavior in order to prevent this kind of thing from happening, but I do think that retailers must do their part to ensure that people have a safe shopping experience. After all, they are inviting people to come in t0 their locations and shop, so they are charged with taking necessary precautions to ensure that everyone has a safe trip. I've seen some retailers set up lines outside of their locations with security guards and let a fixed number of people go in and shop at a time. Maybe that is just what needs to happen because I don't think that saving a couple hundred bucks is worth dying for. Obviously, whatever safety precautions are currently in place right now are not working.

Transporter III -------> Commercial??

I went to see Transporter III this weekend and when it was over, I felt as if I had just sat through the longest Audi Commercial ever!!! The car practically has a star-role in the movie. Here are some examples of what I saw; You can see the Audi logo in almost every scene during the move, the car does ridiculous stunts, the car is racing through streets and then stopping on a dime, the car handles great even when off-roading a bit, the car beats a Mercedez in a high speed chase and then pushes it off a cliff (to show dominance I guess), the Audi car falls in a lake and then is pulled out and still works. Talk about product placement; and then, when then movie was over, I heard people walking out of the movie theatre talking about the cool Audi car instead of the plot of the movie?? It would be interesting to see how much of the movie-budget was covered by Audi??

OUR NEW PRESIDENT

The election of Barack Obama as our 44th president is a historic event. Everything seemed to fall in place for Obama on through the entire campaigning process. From his acceptence speech at the DNC falling on the anniversary of MLK's I have a dream speech, to the collapse of the US/GLOBAL economy 4 weeks before election day. There is a lot to learn about how he and his staff managed to run an almost flawless campaign. His ground game was unbelievable; they used text messaging, youtube videos, music...It was amazing. They had people going door to door the old fashioned way, and they hit many college campuses to enroll new voters and to encourage the existing registered voters to actually go out and vote (Except for ACORN, they suck). His campaign raised the bar to an entirely new level and I can't wait to see what the next round of elections will have in store for us. It also didn't hurt that his campaign managed to raise so much money; I heard that his campaign had so much money left over they paid all staff a bonus worth one month's wages and let everyone keep their lap tops and blackberry's. That's pretty cool.

President-elect Obama's cabinet??

So, I was watching the news today and of course the talk was (has been for a few days) about who President-elect Obama might have in mind for his cabinet appointments. Sen. Clinton for secretary of state ??? But, then I heard a really comforting thing; assuming it actually happens. News anchors hinted that Obama may want to create a cabinet of enemies, as President Lincoln had done in the past with the hope that the best end results can be achieved this way. That sounded very good to me. I have always said that the most in-effective way to solve problems is by surrounding yourself with a bunch of yes-men/women. Forcing people to consider different view points and then find a way to compromise with eachother might not be the easiest thing in world to live with, but the end result would be the best solution possible for the people it will affect, and that's really what government ought to do. Hopefully, this idea materializes.

Maddow is not Responsable

I can not believe how biased MSNBC is. Rachel Maddow and Keith Oberman are the worst. About a week or two ago I tuned in to the Rachel Maddow show just to get a different perspective on things and I was astonished. She was showing a clip of Carly Fiorina saying that none of the Presidential or VP candidates were qualified to run a fortune 500 corporation; and I noticed that the clip Maddow played for her viewers was cut short after the names of the Republican candidates were mentioned just before the names of the Democratic candidates would be mentioned as well. That seems like very irresponsable journalism. I was able to watch the whole clip on Fox were all four candidates were mentioned in Fiorina's statement, but I can't help but think that many people who did not watch the whole clip or who do not avidly follow politics can be persuaded to vote a certain way by that kind of mis-information. Very BAD!!!

The Bailout Did Not Go Through

I'm not sure if anyone was following the proposed $700 billion bailout, but it was rejected in the house today. Treasury secretary Paulson tried to provide assurance to Investors that he and the treasury would do their part to provide support for the hurting market, but about 32 minutes before the close of the market, the DOW was down over 500 points. I intern with an investment company and I attended a conference about a week ago where they talked about playing it safe and sticking with mutual funds. This way, you are not as exposed to the market like stockholders are. All we can do now is hope this is just one of the cyclical contractions that are seen in the market from time to time; the market will eventually purge itself of the toxic waste and then recover. The average recession is about ten months; if this is what happens as a result of the bailout, at least we know what to expect.

Largest GOV'T bailout EVER!!!

WOW!!! I always watch the news; I don't have that much free time so whatever time I do have usually gets spent on watching news channels. I had been following the news on the GOV'T bailout, and had heard numbers being floated back and forth ranging from hundreds of billions to even slightly over $1 Trillion dollars. Finally, this morning the Los Angeles Times reported that the bailout would cost tax payers $700 Billion; apparently, according to most economists this unprecedented move was as necessary as it is outrageous. I guess we should just be happy that saved about $300 billion right? Now there's talks about bringing back a new version of the RTC (resolution trust corporation), or MFI if John McCain becomes president. This could be good if the bad debt the RTC/MFI/or whatever they decide to call it, appreciates in value and the government can later turn around and sell it for a profit. It is a bit of a gamble, but since it worked for the S & L (savings and loan) industry in the past there is hope that it may work again.
I understand that this bailout may have been necessary, but it sort of brings other issues into the light. How is it fair for thousands of workers to loose their 401 K's and stock options and jobs, but the CEO's get multi-million dollar severance packages? This is not the free market operating at its best. Government intervention of this magnitude should also not be necessary. I understand that the market is not actually 100% free; rules and regulations are needed to try and maintain a somewhat level playing field. I also don't think this is a time to let our emotions and fears takeover and begin to regulate everything; this would essentially lead to socialism. Many people were even drawing parallels between the US government takeover of AIG and the Venezuelan government takeover of the Shell Gas business. So what do we do? Try to stay calm, focus on long term investments, and ride this thing out. We've gotten out of these messes before. Oh, and don't panic; Money market accounts will be government insured at least for the next year and they may even raise the FDIC amount to prevent bank runs.

Week 1 &2 at CLU

I just transfered to CLU this semester from Moorpark College/Cal State Dominguez Hills and I love it. The campus is close to home, and very nice. The past two weeks have been very hectic because I work full-time and go to school full-time and was recently hired part-time by an investment company where I was interning for the summer. Since I transfered to CLU late (first week of school) I have a lot of catching up to do. Lucky for me, the professors have been very understanding and have been very willing to work with me so I can get caught up. Becuase I have such a busy schedule, there is not a whole lot of room for fluctuation from week to week for me. Mondays and Wedensdays are my longest days; Work in the morning at the investment company, then go to school from 1:00pm - 4:35pm, and finally go to my other job from 5pm to 1:30am. Tuesdays and thursdays I have school in the morning and work at night. The rest of the time is split between doing homework for all of my other classes so I don't fall behind; actually, I try to get a little ahead if possible. Although it seems like a ton of things to try to manage, I have learned to manage my time very well, which keeps me from ever feeling stressed or overwhelmed. This week nothing really changes; school and both jobs will be my priorities.. I'll let you know if anything new pops up..