Queercents

Though we certainly have a long way to go, most will agree that the economy is looking up. Just a few weeks ago, Jeffery wrote about positive signs in the real estate market.

In this article, I’d like to share with you my optimism on alternative energy stocks.

Both legislative and public sentiment has shifted.  Alternative energy is “in.”

1. People like the idea of not being at the mercy of companies like Exxon-Mobil and the like for their energy needs. When it cost over $100 dollars to fill up your SUV every week, you start believing in alternative energy. For a few quarters of excessive profits, oil companies will pay dearly.
2. Obama is definitive in his support, both verbally, and with lots of cash. Some of his goals : supplying 10% of all electricity used in the US with alternative energies by 2012, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.
3. The success of products such as solar panels, windmills, and the Prius is snowballing.
4. Much as many will never admit in the USA – global warming is a given. Ask the polar bears. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year when the stock market had tanked badly I wrote about how I wasn’t worried and adopted the attitude of “wait.” I also accelerated the contributions to my Roth IRA for the year at that time as well.

Well, yesterday the markets closed at a point where they have recovered the 25% they lost between January 1 and the markets low point on March 9 and are now up for the year… yes, only a tiny amount but they are back at least where they were on January 1.

Could it gyrate up or down again? Without a doubt it will.

Now a possibly painful question… Did you lock In your losses by selling during that 10 week period?

Are you kicking yourself because now you might want to buy back in but can’t get back as many shares as you had with the money you got from selling because the prices are higher?

They say the stock market is a rich man’s game… that’s not exactly true… it’s a game for those who have time… time to sit back and wait… and not sell off no matter how bad it might seem.

It eventually comes back… and this is the beginning of a recovery from the third such market collapse I’ve lived through… with the market coming back stronger every time.

However, if you “locked in your losses” you became one of the true losers. Did you?

Photo credit: stock.xchng.

Using part of my meager stock budget, I bought two (yes, TWO) shares of Google on December 16, 2008. Price – $334 per share ( including purchase and eventual selling fees.)

On Jan 20th, 2009, the stock fell to its lowest since my purchase, $283 (-15%.)

And Monday, February 9th, 2009, about 2 months since I purchased it, Google hit $379 (+13%.)  Tuesday, it fell to 358 (+ 7%)  in a very sad bear market. What’s the point here?

The point here is that William O’Neil – founder of Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) – advises selling any stock whose value falls to 8.5%  below the purchase price. That means I should have sold at my selling point of $305 (- 8.5%.)

Great advice in a normal market.

But, ok, we all know that today’s market is far from normal. Dramatic daily market fluctuations are the norm, and I could needlessly increase my losses following this advice.

So I asked myself, “Self, what is this telling me?”

The answer came screaming back: Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, this is a trick question. Millions of Americans, of course, are both, whether we like it or not. And we have our dismal 401k balances to prove it.

If you don’t have a 401k, come out of the cave and get one. If you ever want to retire, you have no choice. And if you’re not paying taxes, e-mail me the details on how you’re managing that.

So here I am, taxpayer and shareholder, $847 billion dollars later, again - because didn’t we just do this? – scratching my head, wondering why all of these supposedly really smart economists think it’s right to keep pouring non-existent tax money into the pockets of those same financial wizards that tanked all the banks in the first place.

We should be firing them, and prosecuting them, but here we are giving them another carte blanche. I wish my boss was that stupid. Read the rest of this entry »

It is terrible out there. There is so much to keep up with, between what happened with the Macs (Fannie and Freddie), then Lehman, then Merrill, then AIG, and then the Bailout, and now another Bailout, and all the while the market is seriously tanking. It is so overwhelming to figure out how all this affects YOU and WHAT YOU SHOULD DO. But, not to worry Queercents readers, that’s why we’re here. My three quick tips for what to do in this economic crisis are below. And in the comments, other Queercents writers weigh in with their best ideas.

1. If you’re about to retire, you should probably hold off for a bit and keep working. Continue to contribute to your retirement accounts. Otherwise, you’ll need to find a nice sugar daddy/momma to help you out. And I hear those are in short supply now too…!

2. If you have the majority of your short-term savings in the stock market, reassess your timelines. Can your short-term savings goal wait until the market rebounds? If not, see someone much more qualified than blogs like Queercents to help you extract yourself in the least damaging way. Perhaps a Certified Financial Planner? Read the rest of this entry »

But it may be the end of capitalism as we have known it. Let’s face it, without herculean and unprecedented concerted global governmental intervention in the financial markets around the world, to the tune of almost $2 trillion since last summer, there would be rioting in the streets of nearly every major city in every developed country in the world. I mean full scale social unrest not just by young hoodlums, but by seniors who used to have pensions.

Now what do we have? What do we call the current financial environmental conditions after such massive efforts? Who’s in charge of figuring out the real problems and then powerful enough to lead – force the world to drink the very bad tasting medicine of doing more with a lot less?

First of all lets not forgot one thing. The same people who said let, ‘Lehman Brothers fail’ (the dumbest decision especially in light of the saving of Bear Stearns – a much smaller investment bank). This was the first big explosion and tipping point giving rise to the current global mess. The same guys who made that decision are still in charge. Let’s hear a hip hip hooray for the Bernanke / Paulson team… most arguably the best and brightest minds we have at the financial tiller. I don’t know about you, but the little confidence I had before the Lehman failure, is totally non existent today. Read the rest of this entry »

Treasury Secretary. I also said that we should re-enact a form of Glass Steagall (Bring Back Glass Steagall). What can I say…no one listens!

And what I consider the worst part of this whole mess is that Lehman Brothers did not have to go bankrupt. Indeed, were I prone to conspiracy theories, I would say that Hank Paulson – who owns 10’s of millions of dollars of Goldman Sacks stock, should NEVER have had one word to say about what to do about the fate of Lehman Brothers. Did he recuse himself from discussions on Lehman Brothers? NO. Did he stand to gain personally – either positively or negatively – re the decision that the FED and Treasury would make about Lehman – YOU BET! Did he recuse himself from any of the meetings where this was being discussed? NO WAY.

Does it hurt Hank’s portfolio and huge holdings in Goldman Sacks that one of Goldman’s largest competitors has been effectively knocked out of the game? NOT ONE BIT!

Best of all, the proposal that Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers put forth to the FED and Treasury the weekend before they went under, was that they be allowed to become a “Bank Holding Company” which would have made it easier for the company to borrow. The FED said no – which all but guaranteed their demise. And guess what… within 5 days, Goldman Sacks, Morgan Stanley were permitted to become Bank Holding Companies. Read the rest of this entry »

“SH*T”… Us Bottom Feeders hate that.

Well folks, the Stock Market is following in Classic Form… Last week we had an enormous Panic Sell Off dropping the DOW by almost 7.5% in one day and the total losses so far are just over 40%.

Still not as bad as the early 70’s and the dot com crash of 2000 but its being made to look that way.

And yesterday… Monday… it’s rallied back by almost 1000 points… over 11%… and possibly hit the bottom though the bottom historically hasn’t been reached until the One Day drop exceeds 10%… though 7.5% is pretty good… so it just might lose that 11% and fall a little further.

Now… Who are the Winners and Losers?

In the game of “Some Days You’re The Windshield… Some Days You’re The Bug,” I much prefer being the Windshield. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right, I said it. It doesn’t matter how much money Mr. Paulson, Mr. Bernanke, President Stupid or every member of Congress approves to fill the greed bucket of Wall Street.

There is a crisis for sure, and no amount of money will remedy this… it is a crisis of in confidence.

How does one restore confidence you ask? By making tough choices, and then following through with them. What are the tough choices that need to be made right now? Here are a few suggestions:

1. The Proposed RTC’esq structure which would oversee the purchase of all the bad assets be allowed to be traded as a publically traded government insured entity. That would allow the American public an opportunity to [purchase “bad assets” on the cheap like the private equity funds that will when this entity finally takes shape. Read the rest of this entry »

At last our elected officials have realized that putting separate band-aids on separate bullet wounds … one at a time, could not stop the bleeding. Now that there is discussion of a RTC – Resolution Trust Corporation’esq – a government owned company that would buy the assets that banks and brokers don’t want, there is hope.

BTW… for all you folks – ordinary taxpayers who think you’re getting screwed, you won’t. Those assets that the government buys will be sold later on to private equity players for a handsome profit, which comes back to the tax payer in the form of lowering the debt., This RTC Corp could likely be funded by hundreds of millions of dollars – i mean a huge sum of money.

But this post isn’t really about what the government is now going to do after major firms like Merrill Lynch merged with Bank of America and Bear Stearns was rescued by JPM. No this post is about how Lehman Brothers – one of the best firms on Wall Street had the ultimate ‘bear raid’ put upon them in the form of several creditors pulling their lines of credit forcing the company into bankruptcy. And then… the Government says… sorry – we can’t help YOU. Read the rest of this entry »