Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Is The Economy Conning Me?

Who Put the Owwww in the DOW?
The stock market is down again today. Have you ever noticed that the pundits who analyze the goings on that occur on Wall Street always know exactly what happened AFTER it happened? I call it the John Madden syndrome, the paralysis of analysis. If the pundits are so smart why can't they tell us what is going to happen BEFORE it happens. Madden tells us when a quarterback is sacked that the linebacker was able to get to him. Wall Street analysts tell us that when the stock market drops it is because the price of oil is too high and GM announced a loss. Does it take a Phi Beta Kappa Harvard School of Business grad to provide us with that information? Reminds me of the old quote regarding the weather, "Everybody complains about it but nobody does anything about it."
The price of oil either has or will soon break the $ 100 per barrel mark. I'm not sure exactly what that means. I've never purchased a barrel of oil, I usually get mine by the quart and it comes with a change of filter. Nobody ever quotes the price of oil without the barrel, maybe that's the answer. Perhaps it is the barrel that is the culprit, not the oil.
General Motors, the company that brings you Cadillacs, Pontiacs, Buicks, and Chevrolets apparently has not brought you enough of them - or if they have, you preferred some other make because they just announced a $ 39 Billion loss. Can you imagine a $ 39 billion loss? That is about $ 130 for every man, woman, and child in America, not counting those who are here illegally. Or put it another way, if there is $ 3,900 profit in every Cadillac car sold, they'd have to sell another million just to break even. Of course, if gasoline prices continue to rise - the average just passed $ 3.00 per gallon in the US which is still less than half what they pay in other countries - maybe some of those Cadillacs can be used as planters. Then our houses will look pretty while we shiver.
The war in Iraq has cost us trillions, and I have never figured out how we will know when we've won, the economy is in the tank, and the once proud dollar has fallen in value against nearly every other currency including the Euro and Canadian dollar. I'm not sure if the politicians are the cause of all our ills - some seem to think so. Just in case they're right, I say throw the bums out and cut off their mainlining of dollars into the money pits.
Even if we do throw all the "ins" out next election we will still have their legacy of the best retirement plan in the world for them and their families. Still it is a starting point. My new mantra is "Out the Incumbants."
Dr. Forgot.

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