Monday, June 1, 2009

On the first Monday in June, 2009

GM will file a petition for voluntary bankrupcty. A 100 year-old firm that was for decades the largest corporation by sales in the world bites the dust. Why? Management stupidity and union greed. The industry and product did NOT evolve away. New products did NOT replace the need for automobiles. Very large automotive manufacturers DO exist today. This is simply a matter of human failures at GM. People and their decisions do matter. Tolstoy was wrong.

More strange news coming out ...

FT: China’s manufacturing sector continued to expand for the third straight month in May, according to the country’s official purchasing managers’ index, a sign that the government’s stimulus package is starting to have an impact and that the recovery is likely to broaden. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing on Monday said the index pulled back slightly to 53.1 in May from 53.3 a month earlier. A reading above 50 signals an expansion while one below the threshold reflects a contraction.

Well, well, communist leaders in China seems to know how to do an economic stimulus program better than Americans. Remarkable.

Or maybe there is something to decoupling. I think there is. It’s not a perfect decoupling. Who ever said it would be perfect (other than big mouth pundits on Toshvision)?

WSJ: GM to file for bankruptcy today after a majority of bondholders voted to accept a revised offer. Obversely, Chrysler might come out of bankruptcy today as a unit of Fiat.

Futures are up big this morning. Copper prices are up. The German DAX is up over 3%. I wonder if the GM BK and its not being the train wreck that pundits forecast and bears were salivating over signal a capitulation of a large group of bears ?

Snidely Whiplash was a character in the old Dudley Doright cartoons that were part of the Rocky & Bullwinkle TV show that I watched with joy as a boy. He was a caricature of evil and bad behavior. The modern Snidely Whiplash seems to be banks. The WSJ has an article how they violate the spirit if not the letter of the law by grabbing social security and disability benefits to pay fees on garnished bank accounts. This populist libertarian is sick of banks and their rapacious efforts for make more and more money from simple products.

Only so much money can be made from services such as checking accounts and credit cards. Banks simply should accept that and cease these endless piranha bites. For example, after using my Bank of America Visa card in London, I received a notice that in the future, Bank of America will charge 4% [sic] for foreign currency transactions. How ridiculously greedy! What will I do? Easy, use a different credit card. To me, anything over 2% is simply robbery. After all, the banks are already getting some interchange fees on the transactions and the foreign currency conversions done in bulk cost them next to nothing.

Capital One is reported to charge nothing extra for foreign currency transactions. I now plan to obtain one of their credit cards for the future.

Further in the saving bits of money department, I see from an ad in Barron’s and checking it out, that Ameritrade is now robbing me on the cost of margin loans. I suppose this goes back to the Lehman debacle. From memory, they were once fair. They are now charging over 8% while the broker call rate in Barron’s is 2%. I’ll call them today to let them know that I’ll be changing accounts to Interactive Brokers over this matter. IB charges about 2%, and the commissions are lower, too.

Actions

My Krypto Fund asset allocation model commands me to sell some emerging markets funds and buy REIT funds. As an intraday trading tactic, this morning early I'll let some VWO go, but will wait for a late-morning or midday pullback to buy the VNQ. This has worked well recently.

Word of the Day

"Panoptic" - adjective [$10]
Panoptic means showing or seeing the whole at one view.
Sentence: If any government official has panoptic vision over the economy, he is Battleship Ben.

Le Mot du Jour

"Faillite" - noun, feminine
Faillite means bankruptcy (d'entreprise); collapse, failure (d'espoir, méthod).
La Phrase: GM déclarera en faillite aujourd'hui.
Sentence: GM will declare bankruptcy today.

33 comments:

Bunkerman said...

looks like my little trading tactics is failing. Sigh ...

Stil waiting to buy the VNQ.

Frosty said...

nice opeing missive bunky...LOW sorry to have doubted you Mrs B..."buying stock based upon washermachine purchase"...shame on aasshead for being so rude...he's a punk Mrs B...nonono worries, your the best.

Bunkerman said...

bought the VNQ - capitulated on the "trade tactic" - looks like it cost me money. Darn.

Serve me right.

Bunkerman said...

thanks, frosty.

Mrs. B is the best, no doubt.

Well, azzhead admits he's a ping-pong player and knows zilch about stocks LT.

I found my Samuel Johnson dictionary.

Maybe 'jobbernowl' fits him: a loggerhead, a blockhead.

;)

Bud said...

i bought a real sweet toaster this weekend..............hot and crispy


long WSM

maverick said...

out last few days need specifics on new washer machine purchase.

Bunkerman said...

I suppose that Q was a joke, but its a Fisher & Paykel "ecosmart" toploader made in New Zealand. Not too big.

Quiet, does a good job. Mrs. B is very happy with it.

Bunkerman said...

bought at Low's. Installed by them, too, and old one taken away.

maverick said...

well done Bman...thanks for the reco...

Bunkerman said...

part of cause for sell HD, buy LOW trade by Mrs. B last week.

Bunkerman said...

warning to anyone using Daily Graphs: they are gouging you as they call a "year subscription" 360 days, not 365 days.

I just cancelled mine in anger. This gouging has to stop.

Bud said...

buying and selling a stock based on a sample size of 1.............are you f'ng serious????



what a bunch of thumping tosh

Bunkerman said...

well, it's really a +1 and a -1

HD store here has peeling paint.

Great for a home improvement store.

Bunkerman said...

hmmm I guess those "time diversification" adds worked out.

Some were calling it "buck fever"

;)

Bunkerman said...

well, not "some" -> "one"

Bud said...

yup............time diversification did work..........forces of light mean business


south alaska jobbernowl was makin fun of it

Frosty said...

"buck fever"...LMAOOO...amazing what five bars on an hour chart can do...tounhem all bunky, well played sir

Bunkerman said...

Do any of "youse guys" use IB (Interactive Brokers).

I once used them, the interface sort of sucked, but I coped.

But these commissions and margin reates are too good to pass, it semms. And I could do futures, too in same account.

Anyone have problems ?

Bud said...

dailygraphs ?? interactivebrokers?? that sure doesn't sound like a 'semi-retired' investor


long-term long only investing indeed

Bud said...

bob where are your 2 lil' minions??........the fag-boys


prolly washing your pool

Bunkerman said...

lol

that margin interest is a lot of moolah on a big balance.

And daily graphs saved me some time and was a habit. Which I can now forego (thieves).

Bunkerman said...

I compute savings by how much beer I can buy with it.

And that's a lot of beer.

Bunkerman said...

margin interest adds up fast for a long only "investor" since the balance stays outstanding for months.

mfl59 said...

$70 oil bodes well for a busted consumer....

"Lets go green"

Spin-em said...

Budd-ee..Shouldnt you be praying at the mosque or buying a paddle at CAB....cuz if something happens to Liz..ur up Shits Creek.....and that aint a river in Egypt...looool

mern said...

be very very careful at IB! its the best platform around but it goes down a lot. and when it does gud fucking luck trying to call a trade in. they wont take opening orders over the phone. and when u want to close a position it literally takes them 20 minutes to do the order and they usually fuck the order up and dont refund money or anything. getting my money out of there was next to impossible. bud told me to call the FBI, and i did. amazingly 30 minutes later, my money was wired out.

im seeing a lot of activity in constrution around here. new homes and tons of commericial stuff. there is no way in hell any of this stuff needs to be built. its complete insanity. soon ill have a publix, super wmt, super tgt and a sweet bay within 3 miles of my home.

so the economy is contracting and inflation is going up. and the fed is issue bonds like mad and buying them at the sametime.

if u go up 30,000 feet in the air and look at this "recovery" its a steaming pile of bullshit.

mern said...

hey the $ is down 15% since this rally started.

is that gud for inflation?

Frosty said...

bunky what are your heros at the SEC doing...if they would get that uptick back in place we could move sharply over spiddy 1k...stop running in the fins today the beefer game....what a shame.

mfl59 said...

the real shame in all of this is that if beefers didnt exist GM would be a viable company today...

Bunkerman said...

obvious baiting, mfl. Wrong, too.

GM hasn't been viable for 30 years - it's been an ongoing liquidation - transfer of all to unions.

Bunkerman said...

rounding the bases ....

Bunkerman said...

SEC is getting paid off by Street & beefers, what else is new?

mfl59 said...

lmaoooo....wonderful discipline at the plate Bunkerman

back to Triple A for now...