User 118604

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  • The U.S. Dollar: A Six Month Outlook
    Good article and good comments. The one area that no one touched on was how do we get the debt under control. How to fix the dollar,which is the weakest that I have ever seen, is going to take multiple solutions.

    1. Abolish the Fed and go back to gold backing- not sure this is a viable solution at least in the short run.
    2. Balance the US Federal budget- how? Let's face it- the politicians are going to have to bite the bullet and implement tax reform starting with raising taxes. I know this will raise an outcry those from those who will have their ox gourd but even Buffet and Soros who are capitalist have stepped forward and admitted that there is going disparity between the haves and have nots in this country. Tweaking the tax system to get our National debt under control will strengthen the dollar and curtail inflation.
    3. Privatize Social Security- can not agree with this solution. It be a wind fall for those in the investment field but unless there is a mandatory program for SS, Americans will not fund any safety net no matter how trival it may be. I recognize that SS is not a life support system especially the way it is currently set up, but at least it provides something to those who don't know how to manage and save for retirement. If anything, the collection system needs to be revamped to properly take into account the spiraling inflation that is not measured accurately by our BLS.
    4. Abolish Medicare- again a crazy idea. If anything, this needs to be resolved with a system that provides for the those who are not covered with medical insurance. I would support a duel system of private insurance and one government funded.
    5. Get out of Iraq- how?? I agree but one cannot leave there without filling the vacuum that would be created by our leaving. If anything, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. So leaving Iraq doesn't mean we are goig to be out of the area. We had no business being in Iraq and the consequences of our conduct never really measured by those who put us there. But, we are there and the situation needs to be resolved properly. It appears progress is being made and a government may be coming together.
    6. Unregulate the US economy so that it can at least compete on an even footing with the other un-regulated economies in nations where all our jobs have been going. Not sure this is the answer as I look at what happened when we did that in the Airline industry- now in collapse, the steel industry, the communication industry, the banking and financial sector ( total collapse had the Fed not stepped in to save us in the BSC situation and we are not done yet), and what about the energy/ utility industry that brought us ENRON. Government has a role to play but it too must be controlled in what thye do and how they do it. I don't have the answers but I know from life experience that wild swigs occur when things are left to there own ends.
    Jul 05 20:02 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Dividend Aristocrats: Top Dividend Growers
    Mixter, you speak the truth about the arrogance of this bank. I too stopped using the bank to do everyday banking based on their business model. However, as an investment, they seem to be doing just fine. From the customer service stand point, they are terrible and have caused me to move to more friendly and response banks.

    As for the subprime mess that we are in, I suspect that many banks including B of A will be soon chopping their dividends. Right now they have an ideal set up with the Feds giving them cheap money and keeping loan rates high. That is one way or them to cover the pending losses resulting from the sub prime loans made by them.

    I do not see where they will gain much from the Country wide take over- at least in the short run. Maybe in the long run if the current banking crisis doesn't blow up into a full blown collapse this will turn out to be a good strategy for them to increase their exposure to the home mortgage market. We will come out of the housing down turn I believe, but in the immediate future, there will be some blood in the streets.
    Mar 31 04:23 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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