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Today was an interesting day, as I sat and ate samiches whilst ordering my sons around as they attempted to clear my ice-bound driveway, and thereby freeing me to do my “early” Christmas shopping.
A roommate of mine with four sons came up with an adage one day with which I have come to heartily concur. It states, “Four boys equals one man.” He now lives in Rochester and had addressed the adage specifically to snow shoveling. Very appropos, therefore, for me today.
Since only two of my sons are old enough to tackle hard work tasks like ice clearing, in effect I had one half a man working out there today. The fact that I had to take over, thereby endangering my back, but also assuring that I’d get to the malls before midnight tonight, is a testament to my friend’s adage. Truly, young teenage males are good for almost nothing save extraordinary food consumption at unprecedented rates.
Please let me know if you need a guest for your seven course holiday meals.
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With regaurd (sic) to the stocks (sic) market, I have heaped praises on Le Magistrate’s choice of CMI for over a year now. It has been a paragon of automotive (and trucking) ascendency in this lamely recovering economy, and even today it shows little signs of pausing. Nevertheless, we must be on our guard to pick up anything we can on a retrace, hence the following chart:
Another auto sector darling that has made even more auspicious returns in the same period that CMI has is the head of the Collective, the Borg Warner (BWA). Note how they have assimilated capital returns in an ever efficient, if soulless Locutus-like way over the same period as CMI….
I like this action almost as much as I like UPS looking to broach new all time highs. But we must be patient, and let the trade “come in” a bit, as le Magistrate would say. You can note my target levels, if you so choose.
Also, I think the PM’s have made an valiant effort to maintain here, which usually means there are buyers dying to get in. With that in mind, I bit the bullet and went to a 60% position on EXK, with a 5 k purchase today in the low $6.90’s.
The dollar is down as I type this, so perhaps my faithfulness shall be rewarded. Until tomorrow then, stay assimilated, Borg Collective plebs.
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BWA is a great LT pick – certainly overbought right here but their turbos will be in everything, especially Fords. Put my son into it mid-forties.
“Truly, young teenage males are good for almost nothing save extraordinary food consumption at unprecedented rates.” – Don’t forget the egregious production of testosterone!
Yes, the hormonal thing is amusing. One thing I don’t remember about my early teenage years was the “face morphing” for want of a better word. It’s like their faces become plasticized, and change almost from day to day, jutting out this way and that. We have no idea what they are going to eventually look like but they “all of a sudden” look much different than their cute pre-teen selves.
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Older teen-age males out-consume the younger ones, sleep more and do way less. Sort of like preparing for life during marriage.
I guess I’ve got that to look forward to. I just figured out that when I get those two out of the house finally, in about eight years (where, God willing they will be done w. college) I will have the third son just entering this stage. Oy.
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Question for you, sir: do you ever sleep? Honestly, what time do you get up in the morning, after posting at 2:30 am?
On the weekdays, about a quarter to seven, usually. Later when school is out. I am an owl, and hate mornings. I took yesterday off, however, as I was ice bound both by my steep driveway and my rolling hills neighborhood, so I slept in and was coasting off that.
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Funny and true. Bwa is a winner
My own grandfather had a similar saying, in his time:
“One boy is a boy helping. Two boys is half the help. And three boys helping is no help at all.”
Your grandfather got that one right.
FYI: FRG sold Aurora (Uranium) to Paladin Energy (PDN.TO) for 52m shares or about 7% of it’s o/s stock – Paladin is an Aussy uranium miner with interests in Africa as well as Australia.
“Paladin is uniquely positioned to advance Aurora’s Michelin Project by virtue of their demonstrated development skills, excellent financial strength and strong track record of social and environmental stewardship in communities in which they operate. With this world-class project added to their development pipeline, we believe Paladin will have one of the most exciting production growth profiles in the uranium industry. This transaction gives us the option of maintaining exposure to the uranium price through a meaningful shareholding in a high-quality, diversified uranium producer. Ultimately, this capital will be deployed to build out our Nevada gold projects, leaving our company in an exceptionally strong strategic and financial position.”
Sweet … new highs for FRG $12+
As you may recall, $12 was my second target (the first being $9) on this one. We are retahdedly overbot, so prepare for a bit of a pullback.
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RBC cut their target from $14c to $13c today … you lighten up or holding? My base is so low that I hate to let any go esp now that they are prepped for a spinoff of their PTN.TO holdings in the event of a buyout by a major.
How you feel about RBY these days with the consolidation after the huge spike? That use to be one of your favs … Buy/Sell/Hold?
I am pissed at RBY, but holding what little I have left (only about 5k shs).
I am not selling any more FRG either.
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Would you start an initial position in RBY here or expecting more consolidation?
As I said, I am harshly prejudiced against RBY. From an objective basis, it looks like a return to five would be the proper place to start anew.
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I thought you meant pissed cause the stock took off … in retrospect I assume you are referring to the McEwen sell out. That’s the reason I avoid IVN up here at these lofty levels. Wouldn’t surprise me if he pulled the same type of deal when he’s ready to sell out to RIO … that transaction could be more determined by the price of copper than gold.
Perhaps aforementioned children should get their father a snow blower for Christmas…
Not weurth it for one or two snows a year.
And this was ice, not snow. Maybe a jackhammer would be more appropos?
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Makes sense.
Imagine the fun your two teenage sons could have with a jackhammer in the driveway!
Yes and the local masons would love me as well.
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Some 50 lb bags of rock salt from Lowes would work. Not expensive, buy a bunch of them and keep in a dry place until needed.
This may be the best Xtranormal cartoon discussion evah!
Picture me talking to Teahouse….
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Hahaha …
This isn’t your daddy’s typical recession. 3-6 months bennies isn’t gonna cut it when it comes to consumer spending to stimulate the economy. Maybe the billionaire that will get $160k in tax savings (as opposed to the $3k the working class will get) will stimulate some foreign economies with the purchase of BMW’s and Coach pocketbooks, right?
My son just applied for a job at GE … 200 applications for 10 spots with engineering degree/experience. I guess things are looking up,eh? Some time in 2011 as unemployment #’s start to improve you GOP’ers can claim credit for the upswing as a result of the tax cut renewal and majority control of the house … what a joke.
Sure … people are sitting home collecting their $300/wk avg benefit with no initiative to seek a job. Right. Let the bank foreclose on the house and the kids can eat cake …. Get a clue!
I’m still waiting to see if our lame legislators are providing those excellerated investment tax credits to domestic investment only or if we’re subsidizing continued expansion of US. corps abroad so we lose more jobs … nothing would surprise me anymore.
So should a PhD hold out for 2 years? 5 years? At what point do they just start waiting tables at the pizza joint? It’s a broken system when there is incentive to not work!!!
It’s a broken system when a PhD is waiting on tables, no?
What’s “broken” is that PhD academic employment is limited by tenure, an artificial job featherbedding characterizing an artificial economic environment populated by artificial economists pushing fantasist economics.
Ironic, no?
PhD’s in the hard sciences have no trouble getting jobs in the private sector. Wall Street is full of ’em.
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Your son applying for a job at behemoth GE shows the extent of the problem. Fascist Obama has been supporting behemoth Fortune 50 firms like GE and what kind of employment are they able to provide?
Answer: negative employment, as Obama’s “help” is a competitive barrier to entry for people who would offer other jobs in competition with the slow moving behemoth. Instead those jobs are not created as Obama (and you) fight to take precious capital OUT of the market to give to the fascist-behemoth corporation nexus.
Congrats.
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“as Obama (and you) fight to take precious capital OUT of the market to give to the fascist-behemoth corporation nexus.”
Obama and me! Hahaha … lose the spiked eggnog Jake. The fascists are the Bush GOPers providing the support to the behemoths not the liberals or us pragmatists. At least you finally acknowledge the lack of employment support by the biggest US corps and the source of the problem. Small businesses such as the one my son is presently employed by don’t have the ability to expand not for a lack of capital but for a lack of demand … go back to school, you’re too jaded by your own politics.
Wrong. “Liberalism” is just another word for socialism, which when mixed with the big Corporate control of Congress becomes Fascism.
Look it up in your history books. It’s how Mussolini, Franco, and later Hitler kept control of the State — by cosseting and promoting the largest corporations and thereby the entire economy.
A playbook your Obamanites are currently following out of necessity, as they understand as little as you do about economics.
There is no lack of “demand” for innovative products that will make people’s lives easier. That’s why iPhones and other tools of convenience fly off the shelves, and why the great tech stories of Taxachussets took root even in the early days of the 90’s recession.
It is you that needs to return to school and understand that econmies recover on their own, when not inhibited by bureaucracies, regulators, and Byzantine tax structures.
All you and your government buds need to do is get out of the way, and your son can get a job with a nimble and innovative company that will drive progress. Tell him to stuff that GE club job… there’s no future in it.
History may repeat itself but it doesn’t need to be the “liberals” this time around as predicted by “The Road to Serfdom” …. so by extension, your support of freedom of speech for the large corps to spend freely on political contraband or influence peddling of our lawmakers indeud puts you in the support column of fascism in America. You can’t have it both ways!
The Obama machine put themselves in a tight box and chickened out for fear of too slow growth come election time. No doubt they are banking on massive job rehiring by our biggest corps first as holding out for innovation to lead the way to prosperity and re-election is a risky bet. There may be no lack of demand for innovative products but there is a lack of supply as most of those PhD’s that you pigeon hole as lazy are really just foreigners going home to ply their craft rather than staying here to the benefit of our businesses.
Economies recover on their own from recession …. what proof do you have that that is true of depressions? I’m with Fly when it comes to intervention from a depression – I’d rather endure the inflation that comes with the intervention than sit by twiddling my thumbs waiting to see if capital returns to our markets when there are better opportunities elsewhere – You can have Japan.
History may repeat itself but it doesn’t need to be the “liberals” this time around as predicted by “The Road to Serfdom” …. so by extension, your support of freedom of speech for the large corps to spend freely on political contraband or influence peddling of our lawmakers indeud puts you in the support column of fascism in America. You can’t have it both ways!
Wrong, again. Fascists despise free speech, which is why you see the Dems and Obama (and John McCain) trying to curtail political speech at every juncture, even to the extent of trying to get the FCC to censor the internet.
If you don’t like the large corporations lobbying for their day in court, curtail Congress’s ability to fuck with commerce, which is exactly WHY they are forced to get into the political game in the first place.
Businesses are going to use every advantage to build barriers to entry in their competitive space. As long as the weasels in Congress trade such barriers for campaign contributions you will have unfair advantage. Curtailing free speech is not the answer to such corruption, denying the ability to thumb the scales is.
The Obama machine put themselves in a tight box and chickened out for fear of too slow growth come election time. No doubt they are banking on massive job rehiring by our biggest corps first as holding out for innovation to lead the way to prosperity and re-election is a risky bet.
They should not hold their breath, as there will be little employment growth with Obamacare still on the books. Ironically, the Dems who complain about businesses moving their labor intensive parts overseas are the same fools who just chased out another army of jobs by vastly increasing the cost of domestic employment.
There may be no lack of demand for innovative products but there is a lack of supply as most of those PhD’s that you pigeon hole as lazy are really just foreigners going home to ply their craft rather than staying here to the benefit of our businesses.
This is insane. I never “pigeon holed PhD’s as lazy,” and believe if anything, they are less so than the general populace (or at least more diligent given their achievements).
However, anyone starting a business — no matter their academic achievement — needs risk capital, and that is what spurs innovation — intellectual capital + risk capital = progress.
Your swipe at foreign PhD’s aside, they would be staying here just as their ancestors did if the environment for risk capital were more friendly than it has been over the last four years of Pelosi-Reid-Obama. Instead, they are willing to give it a go at ironically more friendly climes in India and China. This situation must stop, as the brain-draining of other countries is America’s strongest competitive advantage.
If the Democrats could only realize that capital (both intellectual and investment) is mobile, they would not be wrecking themselves on the shoals of Reality every 30 or so years ….
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I disagree … the developed nations are in slow growth mode and/or declining … you know as well as I and all of Wall Street that capital is seeking growth and that’s in the emerging markets. Graduates are only following the money and it doesn’t hurt any for them to take pride in their own nation from their perspective. What free market ideology is gonna change that scenario at this point in the global economic climate we find ourselves? Survival of the fittest seems to be the current mindset and who could blame them? There needs to be some unforseen renaissance here as there has been over the generations to change that and it just isn’t on the horizon as of yet … color me pessimistic for now.
It’s always been survival of the fittest.
What, you think this is the dress rehearsal?
And of course we are going to have slower growth than the developing nations, we are starting from a much larger (and more developed) base. Would you really want to live in a place that has half of its population stuck in third world poverty (like China?) or more than half (India?).
So this place will always be attractive to ambitious immigrants as long as we allow them room to succeed.
If we do not, then someone else will, and then not only will the shit jobs that Dems lament about losing will go, but the ones that keep our standard of living above that of any nation on earth will as well.
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I was referring to investment capital moreso than the labor pool ….
Excellent video! Thanks for posting it!
Here’s an economic model that works much more effectively than Teahouse’s “Trickle-Up” kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZeQiJIvejg&feature=related
The Community Radio Act is now law. Apparently the supporters of the Act have not heard of the Internet, and rather than set up a local AND worldwide streaming Internet broadcast station in a day or two, they have fought for a decade for 100 watt low power FM stations (LPFM) that cover maybe 3 miles.
If someone wants to broadcast community programming or just their favorite obscure music, they can do it right now on the Internet. If “everybody knows” that over the air broadcasting is dead and the entire world is going Internet broadband, then why do thousands of people want LPFM stations? The FCC is already planning to swap broadcast spectrum for wireless Internet, why the disconnect with LPFM?
I’m not sure how a 100 watt volunteer based non-commercial LPFM station can survive, considering the Internet already provides unlimited soap boxes for local expression.
The ongoing viability and good sense of the over the air broadcasting model is recognized for LPFM, yet the remainder of the broadcasting industry is being thrown under the bus.
I acknowledge that the broadcasters created the financial bubble that is now destroying them. Most of them are just as underwater as many homeowners. Houses are still a good place to live, no?
It’s the debt, not the underlying concept.
This is not a bad thing as censorship encroaches the internet.
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/110865-un-considers-internet-censorship.html
Internet is an instant worldwide soap box and everything that comes with that.
I think a major part of the problem is too many people take what they see on the Internet as fact.
There is also the “yelling fire in a crowded theatre” factor.
Not sure that there should be any limits on free speech, no matter the variety. Pirate radio, however, has something of a nuisance factor as it can interfere with legally licensed broadcasts.
I’d have to know the specifics of the bill.
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Da Birds.
Hopefully, this distasteful episode, which heroicizes the Dog Killah, will put to rest forever the concept of a “PREVENT” Defense.
Perhaps we’ll get the double bonus and put to rest forever Tom Coughlin as well.
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Funny- http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Yjr7NtntWeQ
That Giants game was a Giant crash. How did they blow a 21 pt lead with 8 minutes left in the game?
The Eagle “trickled down” upon the Giant …. but alas, no success for the Giant now he too must sign up for unemployment.
Lame, even for you, Teapots.
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You’re sensative today …
Meanwhile, we’re eating Lobstah and drinking Sam Adams here in the great shitty of Bahston as the Pats win again and Pittsburg falls to the lowly Jets.
Ah, sweet victory is ours especially since your prediction of Cliff Lee blowing through our lineup is but a sugarplum dancing through your holiday embibed brain … Poof, your dream is but a pipe, just as your desire to control the WH, Senate and Congress in 2012.
I actually was rooting for Tom yesterday as I had him as my FF QB… he had a shitty night, relativey, however.
I also needed Pats to beat the Pack for the Giants Wildcard chances, so that was also a bonus.
As for the Senate and pResidency, much to your chagrin, and much to your son’s (and granchildren’s) delight, we will be sweeping the remainder of the socialist detritus out in November of 2012.
That is, unless Obama registers GOP soon, which looks like the direction that chickenshit is headed, lol.
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Not if the GOP kowtows to the Teaparty and starts cutting Healthcare, Social Security and Medicare in favor of their expiring tax cuts – that would be suicide for the GOP. Good luck trying to slash the budget while maintaining your sacred tax cuts for the rich … now who’s put themselves in a tight spot?
You mean preventing your tax INCREASES for the people that create ALL the jobs, don’t you?
You must re-watch that video, I don’t believe it sunk in the first time. Gummint does not create jobs, risk capital creates jobs.
As for the cutting of egregious government spending, it’s not so much the money that needs to be cut as the control of the money. In other words, block grants and vouchers need to be parceled out to seniors to allow them to make the best economic choices for themselves… more price transparent markets will bring about efficiency and yes, innovation.
You should not fear cutting taxes and wasteful government spending… it worked wonderfully in getting the nation out of The Depression you’ve never heard of…
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Too busy banking coin here …. I’ll revisit this later
They are not tax increases … they are temporary tax cuts that have expired and were just extended. You should be a candidate the way you’ve drinken the kool-aid and taken up the spin on the Bush Tax Stimulus in order to confuse and frighten the plebians … always good for a few % points at the polls huh?
So I take it that you see no point of diminishing return when it comes to taxes … we can keep lowering the tax rate and will always get a positive economic response and growth in tax revenues as a result no matter what the situation is economically? Just as lowering interest rates to 0% for 2-3 years as done, huh?
I’m beginning to suspect that you’d like nothing less than to see the gov’t starve from a lack of tax revenue in order to force spending cuts to programs that are vital to those least able to fend for themselves – elderly, children, sick, poor, unemployed, etc in the name of “survival of the fittest” or your capitalism. No, that’s not my capitalism but I also am no liberal or socialist either. There is a happy median out there somewhere but opposing sides will never reach it.
http://pragcap.com/we-are-not-repeating-the-mistakes-of-japan-yet
They are not tax increases … they are temporary tax cuts that have expired and were just extended.
That’s ridiculous. The tax rates we’ve had have been in place for over seven years. They are de facto, the current rates, no matter what the Democrats try to imply. Allowing those rates to lapse (the time period was just a ruse in the first place and the Dems know it), is a de facto and de jure TAX INCREASE.
All it will do is hurt the same people you Dems purport to want to help, by keeping unemployment sky high and investment capital at bay. Again, even Barak Obama understands this much.
So I take it that you see no point of diminishing return when it comes to taxes … we can keep lowering the tax rate and will always get a positive economic response and growth in tax revenues as a result no matter what the situation is economically? Just as lowering interest rates to 0% for 2-3 years as done, huh?
Are you daft? The tax rates ARE NOT BEING LOWERED. If you allow them to rise you are INCREASING tax rates, and in the middle of a deep unemployment recession.
Possibly the dumbest thing you could do, aside from implementing Obamacare. Are you really this economically illiterate?
I’m beginning to suspect that you’d like nothing less than to see the gov’t starve from a lack of tax revenue in order to force spending cuts to programs that are vital to those least able to fend for themselves – elderly, children, sick, poor, unemployed, etc in the name of “survival of the fittest” or your capitalism.
You are certainly correct about the Federal government, which never saw a program (bribe) that it didn’t love or want to repeat ad infinitum.
We can very easily cut the intrusive, expensive and largely useless Federal government away by allowing the moneys now allocated to DC to be devolved down to the states and local governments, for a time, and then cut off. If the states make good use of those moneys (which they should, at least in part, because there will be 50 experiments to copy instead of one) then those programs can continue to flourish. If not, then private concerns will take the helm, and operate far more efficiently than the government.
Let me ask you, how many charitable boards do you sit on? Are they run more or less competently than the Federal government? I could tell you stories…
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Jake > “The tax rates ARE NOT BEING LOWERED. If you allow them to rise you are INCREASING tax rates, and in the middle of a deep unemployment recession.”
Jake > “Possibly the dumbest thing you could do, aside from implementing Obamacare. Are you really this economically illiterate?”
Tea > Apparently I’m in good company …. Simon Johnson is a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a Bloomberg News columnist.
Simon Says > “At this point, we will have only two choices: Raise taxes or cut spending. Given that the Obama administration is unprepared for this scenario, and has no sensible tax-reform plans under way, this gives an opportunity to Republicans intent on big spending cuts. For anyone hoping to “starve the beast,” this will be a historic opportunity.”
“But there’s a problem. The U.S. government doesn’t take in much tax revenue — at least 10 percentage points of GDP less than comparable developed economies — and it also doesn’t spend much except on the military, Social Security and Medicare. Other parts of government spending can be frozen or even slashed, but it just won’t make that much difference.”
“That means older Americans are going to get squeezed, while our ability to defend ourselves goes into decline. Just because there’s a bipartisan consensus on an idea, such as tax cuts, doesn’t mean it makes sense. Today’s tax cutters have set us up for tomorrow’s fiscal crisis and real damage to U.S. national security.”
The game of chicken for one party to get re-elected or the other to starve the beast and regain political power has consequences that you are ignoring … politics is clouding your economic theory.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-22/tax-cutters-set-up-tomorrow-s-fiscal-crisis-simon-johnson.html
“Bisping’d’ again, old man.
Go celebrate the holidays with some fetus soup … asswipe
You’re dishing out “moderation” for the holidays as Fly did to you the other night?
Are you talking to me? I don’t do moderation. Sometimes the site just glyphs out people’s comments on it’s own and I have to go back in and retrieve them.
Where did you leave a comment that isn’t showing up?
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Why, the “prevent defense,” of course! Known scientifically to prevent nothing, even pregnancy.
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Jake,
Is it time to get back in AGQ?
SLV has bounced off of the rising 20 day a couple of times.The dollar, however continues strength.
Lots of mixed messages, so I go to THE MAN! for guidance.
Thanks, Bob
Too late to get into leveraged bets on silver at this juncture. Wait for the pullback.
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Woa woao woa woao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRmXEvviRMM
Tea biscuit,
fuck off with your hippie bullshit
Blow me cocksucker!
The Jake vs Teahouse.
At least I’ve got the balls to go toe to toe unlike most of the fags around here that disagree with his right wing politics …
Treu. I’ll give ya that. You’re always good for a ‘teachable moment’
Howsoever, your necrotic balls vs. his brains is really no match. You always get ‘Bispinged’, imo.
Key phrase there > “imo”
Who gives a fuck about your opinion … hahaha!
FYI — I do appreciate your arguments in good faith. If only you trusted the private sector as much as you trusted the bloated, corrupt federal government, we’d be making some progress.
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That’s where you err … I don’t trust the gov’t or for that matter anyone when we’re talking about the $ involved. Everyone becomes a crook with such a large pot … the private sector isn’t immune to corruption and waste nor do they always place the publics interest ahead of their own.