sharebuilder.com SCAMMING small investors Now Playing: Sirius Right Topic: Voodoo Economics 101
I am sure many of you have seen the ads for [b]sharebuilder.com['b], and for $4 a transaction it SEEMS the best deal on the internet...but what happens when you need the money???
It COST me $16 to sell this morning, so i'm $20 in the hole on that transaction, but HERE COMES THE KICKER---it takes THREE DAYS before MY money is available, and $14 more if i want it in my bank account by Monday morning!!! So unless you bought Google on the first day, you're out $34.
According to the phone help @ sharebuilder.com, THIS is an SEC REGULATION...so the small time investor is in essence PAYING FOR THE RICH people's ability to buy and sell as is their whim. Don't invest in sharebuilder.com unless you have REALLY disposable income. MORE on this story as it develops...WAITING to hear from the SEC!!!
A Wal-Mart nation Topic: Voodoo Economics 101
The big bad By Melinda Welsh
Let's deal with the size issue in one obit-like paragraph:
Wal-Mart is the most giant corporation in the world. It's the largest retailer, grocer, private employer and jeweler, and--oh yeah--it owns the nation's largest trucking fleet. The company is also the richest one in the world, employing one out of every 115 Americans. If Wal-Mart were a sovereign nation, its gross domestic product would be larger than that of 80 percent of the world's countries.
Phew, that's a lot of large. But does big have to be bad? It's a good question for Sacramento citizens to ponder right now, since a Wal-Mart Supercenter may be plunked into Downtown Plaza soon, despite some indications to the contrary.
A just-published paperback by occasional SN&R contributor John Dicker may help inquiring minds find the answer. The United States of Wal-Mart--which doesn't pretend to be neutral about the retail giant everybody loves to hate--is a compelling and irreverent read that provides everything a reader ever wanted to know (and then some) about the empire that Sam Walton built.
It details Walton's personal story: his storied childhood; his retail rise; and his most triumphant victories over Sears, Kmart and JCPenney. Readers get a good feel (satirical stereotypes notwithstanding) for what the Wal-Mart ethos is really all about--the down-home, thrift-rules philosophy (everyday low prices!) that Walton managed to steep deep down into his company's stew.
The United States of Wal-Mart was clearly written by an author who is both horrified and fascinated by his subject matter. The book is broken into two parts. The first, credits much of Wal-Mart's success, interestingly, to its vast and intricate data-mining operation. The mega-corporation's database carries virtual oceans of information, the better to wipe out costs and competition. Wal-Mart owns the largest satellite and computer systems outside of government and is ultra-adept at using this advantage when it comes to buying, stocking and sell-sell-selling. In "Size Matters," Dicker also touches--perhaps not enough--on how Wal-Mart, with its $256.3 billion in annual sales worldwide, is the muscle behind the push for globalization, siphoning off good manufacturing jobs from industrialized countries to developing nations.
The second half of the book, "The United States of Wal-Mart," puts a focus on Wal-Mart's influence from a political and cultural standpoint. The company is the second-largest corporate political-action committee in the country, giving mostly to Republican candidates, especially President George W. Bush. So, its political influence is strong. Dicker examines its cultural influence based on what it does and doesn't allow on its shelves. But it's oversimplifying to label Wal-Mart a flat-out censor, warns Dicker. Better to ask a question: "Are Wal-Mart's conservative tendencies shaping the larger culture in its own image?"
What's the future for this massive company? According to Dicker, it's more growth and more controversy. Famous for its union-busting ways and what Dicker calls "everyday low wages," Wal-Mart's 2002 plan to enter California with 40 new Supercenters was the real spark that ignited, in Southern California, the longest and most bitter grocery-worker strike in recent history.
There is no denying, at least for now, that the Wal-Mart cheap-and-homogenous ethos dominates, to a near-religious degree, in populist America. We've become crazy for a good bargain. After all, writes Dicker, "How do you convince a poor person that a $28 DVD player sucks?" Still, the author wants to know: Why is it that all we Americans can agree about, at this pivotal point in history, is our right to "everyday low prices"?
With the economy gearing up for a downturn that is going to shock this country into realizing that you can go warring whilst tax-cutting, i just have to start a new category!!!
Ironically, the term voodoo economics came from George the First when he was running against Ronald Reagan, and the elder Bush realized then that welfare for the wealthy was no way to run a country, but i guess since his daddy lost to a man who wanted to sink billions into a "defense" system based on a fairy tale, George the Second, like most dittoheads, probably saw Ronald (6) Wilson (6) Reagan (6) as his personal lawd & saviour---ER
Dow plunges 190 points, steepest drop in 2 years
By James F. Peltz and Thomas S. Mulligan / Los Angeles Times
Stock prices suffered their hardest fall in more than two years Friday -- with the Dow Jones industrials plunging more than 190 points -- as evidence mounted that the U.S. economy's once-robust growth is slowing.
Even another drop in oil prices, to nearly $50 a barrel, couldn't ease the malaise on Wall Street amid a growing debate over whether the economy is merely hitting a soft patch, or is at risk of a more serious pullback.
Either way, "investors are in a lousy state of mind," said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at the investment firm A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. Another sharp downturn Monday could put the Dow Jones industrial average below the psychologically significant 10,000 mark.
Friday's retreat was partly a reaction to disappointing profits at IBM Corp. and a slump in consumer sentiment, as reported by a widely watched survey.
But the sell-off began Wednesday, triggered by data signaling that the stout economic growth of the past two years has slowed, hobbled in part by high energy prices. Reports on retail sales and industrial production both failed to meet expectations this week.
"This suggests an economy that is rapidly losing steam," Kathy Bostjancic, senior economist at Merrill Lynch & Co., said Friday in a note to clients.
The blue-chip average plummeted 191.24 points to 10,087.51, its steepest daily drop since March 24, 2003, and its third consecutive decline of 100 points or more -- the first time that has happened since January 2003.
That gave the Dow a loss for the week of nearly 374 points or 3.6 percent, its worst weekly showing in more than two years, and dropped the average to its lowest level since Election Day last Nov. 2. Broader market indexes also suffered sharp declines.
Some analysts said Wall Street was overreacting, contending the economy isn't in danger of falling into recession and in fact is continuing to expand at a respectable pace.
Anthony Chan, senior economist with J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said the markets have shifted in just a matter of months from believing that the economy was overheating to fearing that it would plunge into recession.
"Both of those extremes were exaggerated," Chan said.
Even so, warning signs abound. IBM -- a bellwether for technology spending -- posted a disappointing first-quarter profit after the market closed Thursday. Its shares plummeted nearly 7 percent on Friday to $76.70 a share. Because IBM is a major component of the Dow, it contributed heavily to Friday's damage on Wall Street.
The stock market is seen by many as an indicator of future economic trends, since investors are buying and selling based on whether they see the economy, corporate profits and consumer spending rising or falling in the coming months.
Stocks had rallied for the past 2 1/2 years -- with the Dow hitting a four-year peak of 10,940.55 on March 4 -- as the economy grew briskly. After the economy expanded 4.4 percent last year, its best showing in five years, many analysts predicted that growth would slow a bit this year.
One reason: The Federal Reserve, concerned that the economy was heating up inflation, has been raising short-term interest rates since mid-2004. The higher rates, combined with high energy prices, have indeed helped brake the economy, many analysts say.
Continued strong economic data in January and February probably created unrealistically high expectations for full-year growth, said Richard D. Rippe, chief economist for Prudential Securities. The March numbers were a cold shower, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, he said.
"I'm not sure the markets want booming growth," Rippe said. For one thing, the pause gives the Fed more flexibility to continue raising rates gradually or even take a break from rate increases, he said.
In any case, Joseph LaVorgna, a senior economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., said the recent "lousy" economic data strikes him as merely "a pause that refreshes," rather than a sign that the economy is poised to fall off a cliff.
"We're still pretty bullish," LaVorgna said.
Indeed, another bellwether company -- the industrial conglomerate General Electric Co. -- reported an unexpectedly strong 25 percent gain in first-quarter profit Friday. Its stock rose 25 cents to $35.75 a share.
Corporate profits overall are expected to grow another 7 percent to 9 percent in the first quarter, which is down from their torrid double-digit growth last year but still a healthy advance, some analysts said. (Notice no mention of salary increases---ER)
"The economy is doing just fine, but the economic recovery is in its fourth year and it's slowing down," Goldman said. "Yet investors are looking at everything as though the glass is half-empty."
Positive signals seem to be ignored by investors hunting for data that confirm their pessimistic views, LaVorgna said. Another example is how Wall Street has largely ignored the drop in oil prices from record highs set two weeks ago.
Richard B. Hoey, chief economist at Dreyfus Corp., said that things seem to be working out according to the Fed's plan. Since the Fed started raising rates last June, he said, its goal has been to slow economic growth -- but not squelch it -- and keep inflation moderate.
