I always find it odd how American Corporations are depicted as these evil entities that are killing America.  Corporations are popular targets for politicians looking to direct public outrage away from D.C. and Corporations are a logical choice.
Us Americans are always looking to blame somebody.  Rule number one of America is that it’s never our own fault.  Rule number two is that America’s politicians are also never responsible; they are always duped just like us!  Rule number three is that the blame should always fall on the party that seems …

Today, we received the best employment report in a months, with the job losses for the month of July only totaling 247,000.  Interestingly, while receiving this “good” news which rallied the markets even higher, I have heard multiple reports from close friends just in the last few days over more and more layoffs.
One story came from a regional bank which continued to lay off individuals despite the green shoots springing up all over the place.  A second story came from another financial / investment firm that works in real estate.  …

Our policy makers would tell you that we would be in much worse shape if we let the handful of large institutions fail that were on the brink in 2008.  Citi, Bank of America, General Electric, AIG, General Motors and others were all near the brink of collapse due to massive losses from risky bets mostly tied to real estate.  What’s done is done, but it’s still worth asking: where would we be today if we let these companies fail?
There are three major ramifications of this bailout policy that our …

Brunswick Corporation (BC), a large boat manufacturer has been hit hard by the recession.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.  They make boats.  I love boats and so do most people, but there are not many other categories of purchases that almost completely go away than boats.  Simply put, good times economically are pretty much a prerequisite for a boom in boat sales.  And, as we all know, good times have not be the case.
I’ve been playing this stock for several months now.  I’ve shorted it and …

This morning I woke up and read a few compelling pieces of commentary and news on the economy and the stock market.  Most of them were very bearish providing more evidence of a coming correction.
Interestingly, the market opens lower and is now down over 100 points on the Dow.  If the day continues as is, we’re likely to have the first significant down day in 3 weeks.
An article over at Seeking Alpha provides a really interesting comparison between the bear market rally of 1930 and the rally of 2009.  The …

Instead of incentivizing spending, why don’t we incentivize job creation?  There is a serious argument to consider that says encouraging people to take on debt to buy a new car is a terrible move for the long term health of the economy.
Also, some say that Cash For Clunkers merely pulls buyers forward, and this boost to car sales will only be temporary and result in a return to more depressed levels once the program ends.  Does this program do anything for the long term health of our economy?  No, it …

Despite some bad economic data pre-market this morning, stocks have pulled off their lows from the open and are mostly in positive territory.  The S&P has regained the 1000 level and is poised to move upward.
This is a clear strength signal regarding the momentum of this market.  I tend to this we will be slightly positive for the next few days and then the jobs report will be the catalyst after that.
Again, when momentum takes over, fundamentals are meaningless.  Fundamentals will come into play at some point, but in markets …

The stock market rally has been fierce.  I continue to point out specific stocks that are ridiculously over valued at this point, yet as soon as I speak, the stock goes up more.  So what’s the deal?
The problem is that the stock market can easily trade on momentum and technical indicators, ignoring fundamentals completely, for a lengthy period of time.  The old adage that the market can be irrational longer than you can be solvent definitely seems to apply to today’s market.  During the late 90′s tech boom, the market …