DOA thoughts on US Economy
Question: Do we still have an economy?
Is it today to read "US Economy DOA...Dead on Arrival--gone baby gone.
Is it our wants are so great we don't even care what sort of economy we actually have, as long as we have one? "Wanted US Economy. Dead or Alive."
I want one that is fairly stable, healthy, sound, just, and full of good things for all (Alive). Right? Now and possibly for the future it's fat,lazy, and bloated with consuming years of garbage (Dead or on its way). Right?
How do we fix it?
What happens if we let it be and pull the plug, and let it fend for itself in the wilds of Laissez-faire.
What happens if we pump it full of 700 billion dollars, essentially us (the government) footing the bill and maybe taking over companies?
I'm not an economist, broker, accountant or any sort of professional financial expert--but it seems to me the economic/financial system in our country has been suffering from a host of maladies and sins for at least the last decade.
Nobody has all the answers to solve these complex problems. This is because there are so many factors to consider in this brewing pot of corporate mismanagement and creative accounting (greed and lies), which wasn't just created by sub-prime mortgages--but instead an entire system based on a void of consequences and ethics.
We watch executives rewarded for doing a terrible job with huge compensation packages, when they are well... fired. We see hard-working honest people laid off because they are either getting too close to retirement, or too expensive with all their experience.
Our jobs are being "outsourced" to other countries, with higher populations of eager workers who have none or limited protection under the laws of their nations for themselves and the products and services they produce and provide.
I could go on and on about this--but I won't. Instead let's just figure out how the hell we all are going to get ourselves out of this mess...hopefully not dead, but instead very very alive.
Below are just some interesting definitions and facts to ponder:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported
The unemployment rate rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent in August, and non-
farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000)
Information is from the below Web site
http://www.dogsofthedow.com/dowcomp.htm
Blue chip stocks are stocks of well-established and stable companies. Blue chip stocks are typically from financially-sound companies that have a good record of producing earnings and paying dividends. The term “blue chip stocks” is derived from poker since the poker chip with the highest value is blue.
For example, the 30 companies that make up Dow Jones Industrial Average are some of the bluest of blue chip stocks. The Dogs of the Dow takes these 30 blue chip stocks that make up the Dow and selects the 10 that pay the highest dividends. Dogs of the Dow also has several pages that allow you to track the performance of these 30 blue chip stocks.
Symbol Company
NYSE / NASDAQ The 2007 Dogs of the Dow are listed in blue
PFE Pfizer
VZ Verizon
MO Altria
T AT&T
C Citigroup
MRK Merck
GM General Motors
DD DuPont
GE General Electric
JPM JP Morgan Chase
KO Coca-Cola
MMM Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing
JNJ Johnson & Johnson
MCD McDonald's
HD Home Depot
HON Honeywell
AA Alcoa
INTC Intel
CAT Caterpillar
PG Procter & Gamble
UTX United Technologies
XOM ExxonMobil
BA Boeing
WMT Wal-Mart
MSFT Microsoft
IBM International Business Machines
AXP American Express
AIG American International Group
DIS Disney
HPQ Hewlett-Packard
Laissez-faire (from http://www.economist.com)
Let-it-be ECONOMICS: the belief that an economy functions best when there is no interference by GOVERNMENT. It can be traced to the 18th-century French physiocrats, who believed in government according to the natural order and opposed MERCANTILISM. ADAM SMITH and others turned it into a central tenet of CLASSICAL ECONOMICS, as it allowed the INVISIBLE HAND to operate efficiently. (But even they saw a need for some limited government role in the economy.) In the 19th century, it inspired the British political movement that secured the repeal of the Corn Laws and promoted FREE TRADE, and gave birth to The Economist in 1843. In the 20th century, laissez-faire was often seen as synonymous with supporting MONOPOLY and allowing the BUSINESS CYCLE to boom and bust, and it came off second best against KEYNESIAN policies of interventionist government. However, mounting evidence of the inefficiency of state intervention inspired the free market policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, both of whom stressed the importance of laissez-faire.
Is it today to read "US Economy DOA...Dead on Arrival--gone baby gone.
Is it our wants are so great we don't even care what sort of economy we actually have, as long as we have one? "Wanted US Economy. Dead or Alive."
I want one that is fairly stable, healthy, sound, just, and full of good things for all (Alive). Right? Now and possibly for the future it's fat,lazy, and bloated with consuming years of garbage (Dead or on its way). Right?
How do we fix it?
What happens if we let it be and pull the plug, and let it fend for itself in the wilds of Laissez-faire.
What happens if we pump it full of 700 billion dollars, essentially us (the government) footing the bill and maybe taking over companies?
I'm not an economist, broker, accountant or any sort of professional financial expert--but it seems to me the economic/financial system in our country has been suffering from a host of maladies and sins for at least the last decade.
Nobody has all the answers to solve these complex problems. This is because there are so many factors to consider in this brewing pot of corporate mismanagement and creative accounting (greed and lies), which wasn't just created by sub-prime mortgages--but instead an entire system based on a void of consequences and ethics.
We watch executives rewarded for doing a terrible job with huge compensation packages, when they are well... fired. We see hard-working honest people laid off because they are either getting too close to retirement, or too expensive with all their experience.
Our jobs are being "outsourced" to other countries, with higher populations of eager workers who have none or limited protection under the laws of their nations for themselves and the products and services they produce and provide.
I could go on and on about this--but I won't. Instead let's just figure out how the hell we all are going to get ourselves out of this mess...hopefully not dead, but instead very very alive.
Below are just some interesting definitions and facts to ponder:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported
The unemployment rate rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent in August, and non-
farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-84,000)
Information is from the below Web site
http://www.dogsofthedow.com/dowcomp.htm
Blue chip stocks are stocks of well-established and stable companies. Blue chip stocks are typically from financially-sound companies that have a good record of producing earnings and paying dividends. The term “blue chip stocks” is derived from poker since the poker chip with the highest value is blue.
For example, the 30 companies that make up Dow Jones Industrial Average are some of the bluest of blue chip stocks. The Dogs of the Dow takes these 30 blue chip stocks that make up the Dow and selects the 10 that pay the highest dividends. Dogs of the Dow also has several pages that allow you to track the performance of these 30 blue chip stocks.
Symbol Company
NYSE / NASDAQ The 2007 Dogs of the Dow are listed in blue
PFE Pfizer
VZ Verizon
MO Altria
T AT&T
C Citigroup
MRK Merck
GM General Motors
DD DuPont
GE General Electric
JPM JP Morgan Chase
KO Coca-Cola
MMM Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing
JNJ Johnson & Johnson
MCD McDonald's
HD Home Depot
HON Honeywell
AA Alcoa
INTC Intel
CAT Caterpillar
PG Procter & Gamble
UTX United Technologies
XOM ExxonMobil
BA Boeing
WMT Wal-Mart
MSFT Microsoft
IBM International Business Machines
AXP American Express
AIG American International Group
DIS Disney
HPQ Hewlett-Packard
Laissez-faire (from http://www.economist.com)
Let-it-be ECONOMICS: the belief that an economy functions best when there is no interference by GOVERNMENT. It can be traced to the 18th-century French physiocrats, who believed in government according to the natural order and opposed MERCANTILISM. ADAM SMITH and others turned it into a central tenet of CLASSICAL ECONOMICS, as it allowed the INVISIBLE HAND to operate efficiently. (But even they saw a need for some limited government role in the economy.) In the 19th century, it inspired the British political movement that secured the repeal of the Corn Laws and promoted FREE TRADE, and gave birth to The Economist in 1843. In the 20th century, laissez-faire was often seen as synonymous with supporting MONOPOLY and allowing the BUSINESS CYCLE to boom and bust, and it came off second best against KEYNESIAN policies of interventionist government. However, mounting evidence of the inefficiency of state intervention inspired the free market policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, both of whom stressed the importance of laissez-faire.