"You know what the news is-- in a minute, you're going to hear the rest of the story"- Paul Harvey
On Wednesday, famed hedge fund manager George Soros- speaking at the London School of Economics- said "that recent market gains mark a "bear-market rally" that will wilt as the global credit crunch continues to run its course".
He went on to say the recent rebound is "just a bear-market rally based on the false conception that the authorities can handle all these crises."
Thanks George, I happen to believe as you do.
This morning, UBS said it would sell new shares at a nearly one-third discount to raise the 16 billion Swiss francs ($15.6 billion) it needs to strengthen its balance sheet. The new shares will be sold at a 31% discount to Wednesday's closing price.
I'll bet that UBS is cursing the day that they joined forces with Paine Webber here in the US. The once safe bank thought they could make in-roads to the US investment banking business, and now they are hanging on by the skin of their teeth to survive.
Standard & Poor's Equity Research upgraded Wachovia (WB), Sovereign Bancorp (SOV), and and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) from sell to hold Thursday, saying that a recent drop in share prices makes the firms attractive.
S&P raised their price targets for Capital One by $4 to $50, by $2 to $9 for Sovereign Bancorp and by $1 to $26 for Wachovia. Wow, nothing like going out on a limb!
Gold futures closed sharply lower Thursday, as the dollar rose and oil prices declined. Gold dropped $10.30 to end at $918.30 an ounce.
Pimco's Bill Gross said the U.S. government has been understating inflation. Thanks, Bill. We already knew that.
Excluding profits from the major integrated oil companies, US corporate profits are showing their worst profit increases in ten years. Without the $70 billion earned (???-stolen) by the oil companies, profits among the overall S&P 500 fell 26 percent and 30.2 percent as of last week.
Energy profits made up almost half the income growth reported by S&P 500.
The Rest of the Story
I was talking to a young man from England during lunch, and I asked him about living England, and about their heath-care system. He said, "oh, you must have seen the Michael Moore movie Sicko". I told him that I did, and asked him if everything Michael said in the movie about the NHC system was true. He said it was.
Get this. If you are too sick to get out of bed, the doctors in Britain come to your home. He said he went to a US doctor once and all they wanted to do was test after test, and when all was said and done he was charged $3000 bucks.
For profit health-care is a crime. US health-care providers want their piece of the American dream whether or not you need the test, operation, or dental filling. Accept it, that's just they way it is.
To add insult to injury, this young man from England also said there is no tuition for students who want to go to college.
Excuse me if I'm wrong, and I might be mistaken, but isn't Great Britain a democracy? If so, what the heck do you call what we currently have in the US? Survival of the fittest? Dog eat dog? Die if you can't pay?
Ok, enough of that. You know you're being screwed, so why rub it in. The people who push the buttons in our nation know there really are no Republicans or Democrats anymore. They just want you to believe you have a say, and want you to align yourself with a political party to keep you fighting for something that will never happen.
While we are bickering among one another, the big boys just sit back, ship jobs overseas, work on open borders, buy up land in Mexico to profit from the upcoming North American Union, and sit back and laugh at us silly "little people".
If you watch the "fat cats" long enough, you'll see that once in a while they'll throw the little people a bone- the NASDAQ bubble of 1998-2000, and the 2002-2005 real estate bubble, lower interest rates.
The cool thing about fat cats is they give the little people a chance to become prosperous. But they know that the majority of the little people cannot handle the success. They know that greed eventually destroys the little peoples chances of acquiring wealth.
When faced with economic prosperity, many little people cannot handle the success. Have you heard about the "Curse of the Lottery Winners ?".
Here are a few examples;
Winning the Lottery, Curse or a Blessing?
As the old saying goes;
"The Lord giveth, (and people screw it up) and the Lord taketh away".
