Saturday, November 24, 2007

Marquis Daniels and his dinosaur sheep

Ok ya'll here is the pro athlete quote of the week...straight from the Dallas Morning News. This is from Marquis Daniels who was traded from Dallas to Indiana a couple of years ago and he is talking about the adjustment on moving from Dallas to live in Indiana:

"I got a field of llamas next to my house. Daniels said. "I never saw those before in my life. I thought they were dinosaur sheep. You don't see that in Dallas unless you go to the zoo."


DINOSAUR SHEEP?

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thoughts

After living in the dark for so long a glimpse of the light can make you giddy
Strange thoughts come into your head and you better thinkem
Has a special fate been calling you and you not listening?
Is there a secret message right in front of you and you're not reading it?
Is this your last best chance?
Are you gonna take it?
Or are you going to the grave with unlived lives in your veins?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Interesting quote from CNBC this morning

Here's a telling quote from CNBC this morning.....
The 5 scariest words in the human language -

"Hilary Clinton, Commander in Chief"

Interesting to hear how bad she would be for business....raise individual taxes .... raise corporate taxes .....raise the capital gains tax .....

Not good for business .... only good for those on welfare and in the low income sectors. I am all for helping the lower class, but not by stepping on the investor and middle class that make this country run. Raising corporate taxes will not help the lower class as it will be the lowest paying jobs that will be eliminated to make up for the loss of profits from higher taxes. Where is the progress there? By raising small business taxes you actually will eliminate the under $15 an hour jobs of the people you are trying to help.

CNBC

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Stock market drops....Buying opportunity?

Definitely the newsw of the day....Could be a good buying opportunity if you have the fortitude to look long term.

Wall Street suffered its second big drop in a week Wednesday, with investors worried about spreading fallout from the credit crisis at banks and about a dollar that just keeps getting weaker. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 360 points — just about matching its plunge of last Thursday. A passel of worries tormented investors, including the dollar, which swooned amid speculation that China will seek to diversify some of its foreign currency stockpiles beyond the greenback. Meanwhile, a record loss from General Motors Corp. owing to an accounting adjustment further dragged on sentiment.

Oil traded above $98 per barrel for the first time before retreating, and gold pushed higher, moves exacerbated by an anemic dollar.

The 13-nation euro hit a fresh record against the dollar — rising to $1.4729 — before falling back. The dollar fell not only against the euro but in Asia following a report that a senior Chinese political figure said China should diversify its $1.43 trillion foreign exchange reserves into the euro and other strong currencies.

The euro's rally put it well above the $1.4554 the currency bought late Tuesday in New York. The previous record high, also set Tuesday, was $1.4571. Financial stocks, battered in recent sessions by big write-downs by names like Citigroup Inc., fell again Wednesday amid fresh concerns about the extent to which bad debt tied to a faltering housing market will hurt balance sheets.

In late afternoon trading, the Dow fell 360.92, or 2.64 percent, to 13,300.02. The Dow, which had gained 117 points on Tuesday, had fallen 362.14 last Thursday, reflecting the extreme fractiousness on Wall Street these days. Broader stock indicators also pulled back Wednesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 44.62, or 2.94 percent, to 1,475.65 — moving below the psychological benchmark of 1,500. The Nasdaq composite index fell 76.42, or 2.70 percent, to 2,748.76.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Thoughts on the falling dollar

I thought this was a very interesting read:
The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45. The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century. Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800.

Have gold, silver, oil, the euro, the pound and the Canadian dollar all suddenly soared in value in just a few years?

Nope. The dollar has plummeted in value, more so in Bush's term than during any comparable period of U.S. history. Indeed, Bush is presiding over a worldwide abandonment of the American dollar. Is it all Bush's fault? Nope.

The dollar is plunging because America has been living beyond her means, borrowing $2 billion a day from foreign nations to maintain her standard of living and to sustain the American Imperium. The prime suspect in the death of the dollar is the massive trade deficits America has run up, some $5 trillion in total since the passage of NAFTA and the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1994.

In 2006, that U.S. trade deficit hit $764 billion. The current account deficit, which includes the trade deficit, plus the net outflow of interest, dividends, capital gains and foreign aid, hit $857 billion, 6.5 percent of GDP. As some of us have been writing for years, such deficits are unsustainable and must lead to a decline of the dollar.

A sinking dollar means a poorer nation, and a sinking currency has historically been the mark of a sinking country. And a superpower with a sinking currency is a contradiction in terms.

What does this mean for America and Americans? As nations realize that the dollars they are being paid for their products cannot buy in the world markets what they once did, they will demand more dollars for those goods. This will mean rising prices for the imports on which America has become more dependent than we have been since before the Civil War.

U.S. tourists traveling to the countries whence their ancestors came will find that the money they saved up does not go as far as they thought. U.S. soldiers stationed overseas will find the cost of rent, gasoline, food, clothing and dining out takes larger and larger bites out of their paychecks. The people those U.S. soldiers defend will be demanding more and more of their money. U.S. diplomats stationed overseas, students and businessmen are already facing tougher times. U.S. foreign aid does not go as far as it did. And there is an element of comedy in seeing the United States going to Beijing to borrow dollars, thus putting our children deeper in debt, to send still more foreign aid to African despots who routinely vote the Chinese line at the United Nations.

The Chinese, whose currency is tied to the dollar, and Japan will continue, as long as they can, to keep their currencies low against the dollar. For the Asians think long term, and their goals are strategic. China — growing at 10 percent a year for two decades and now growing at close to 12 percent — is willing to take losses in the value of the dollars it holds to keep the U.S. technology, factories and jobs pouring in, as their exports capture America's markets from U.S. producers.

The Japanese will take some loss in the value of their dollar hoard to take down Chrysler, Ford and GM, and capture the U.S. auto market as they captured our TV, camera and computer chip markets. Asians understand that what is important is not who consumes the apples, but who owns the orchard.

Other nations that have kept cash reserves in U.S. Treasury bonds and T-bills are watching the value of these assets sink. Not fools, they will begin, as many already have, to divest and diversify, taking in fewer dollars and more euros and yen. As more nations abandon the dollar, its decline will continue.

The oil-producing and exporting nations, with trade surpluses, like China, have also begun to take the stash of dollars they have and stuff them into sovereign wealth funds, and use these immense and growing funds to buy up real assets in the United States — investment banks and American companies. Nor is there any end in sight to the sinking of the dollar. For, as foreigners demand more dollars for the oil and goods they sell us, the trade deficit will not fall. And as the U.S. government prints more and more dollars to cover the budget deficits that stretch out — with the coming retirement of the baby boomers — all the way to the horizon, the value of the dollar will fall. And as Ben Bernanke at the Fed tries to keep interest rates low, to keep the U.S. economy from sputtering out in the credit crunch, the value of the dollar will fall.

The chickens of free trade are coming home to roost.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Democrats in charge? Here come the taxes

Hmmmmm get ready for 2009......here come the taxes.....
Cap Gains tax will go from 15% to 28%
Dividend tax goes from 15% to 28%
35% tax bracket goes to 38.7%

College Soccer Recruiting

This is for all the club soccer players that have a goal of playing college soccer. Available from Soccer-recruiting.com is a great packet with a ton of useful information on the college soccer recruiting process. Everything from identifying the right college soccer program to the best ways to contact that program as well as information on college showcasing and what to expect from the college soccer game.

Soccer-recruiting.com

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Oh No Don Vito in trouble!

Don Vito, the fat crazy guy nobody can understand from Viva La Bam is in big trouble it sounds. Seems he has been convicted of 2 counts of sexual assault of a child. YIKES!

Vincent Margera, 51, who was accused of groping three girls ages 12 to 14 during an autograph signing event last year at mall skate park in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, fell to the floor cursing and yelled, "Just kill me now." He faces a sentence of probation to six years in prison on each conviction. If he doesn't comply with sex offender treatment as part of the sentence, he could potentially spend life in prison, district attorney's spokeswoman Pam Russell said.

Hopefully he makes it out ok.  Who doesn't love seeing all the spots he gets himself into on Viva La Bam.  Personally he is my favorite part of the entire show every week with his crazy speak and reactions.