Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
--In the words of my favorite comedian, Jim Carrey as Truman
Presbyterians, in my experience, always seemed to want to meet too much. I used to joke around that they might call a meeting to discuss having a meeting. Loved the people, but the system never really appealed to me much. I found one, however, that though long dead, said something very worth repeating… apparently between meetings. I lifted his words from Wikipedia, thank you very much.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
--William Boetcker, German born, Presbyterian Minister in the US.
According to: www.veegle.com; lockergnome.com:
One out of every 25,000 Americans is a millionaire.
One out of every 25,300 people will be medically treated for a snakebite.
One out of every 29,180 school children will be involved in a school bus accident this year.
One out of every 30,000 people die due to a flood
One out of every 30,000 people on earth are struck by lightning
One out of every 33,333 will die from a food-borne illness this year
On out of every 34,424 will fall victim to strangulation.
One out of thirty thousand is the number of Representatives of the House laid out in the Article One of the US Constitution.
And last but not least, one out of every thirty thousand barrels of oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico, spills into the Gulf. According to Gavekal’s research, since 1978, 27 million barrels (including the 4 million that Bloomberg estimates BP will have soiled the Gulf) have spilled out of 800 billion barrels produced in the Gulf.
Yesterday, from the Oval Office, and as if at war…I heard, “We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got,” the President said in his first address from the Oval Office. “We will make BP pay for the damage “their company” has caused. I salute the man as my Commander in Chief but…something bothered me. Send an underwater Tomahawk guided missile deep into the throat of that 20 inch hole in the bottom of the Gulf and be done with it…GREAT! I am all for FIGHTING THIS SPILL.
Who are we fighting? The Japanese, the Germans, the Russians, the Chinese? I will come back to this in a minute.
Oil which had been heading South for what appeared to be boost to the summer driving season has bounced 13% over the last 16 trading days. Canadaand Norway agreed (in support, how kind of them to limit production to bolster oil prices on their top exports just as prices were sinking) to slow down new offshore production. And now, there is a new moratorium that is being imposed by the US Administration that comes just two months after the Administration opened up all the new areas of the coastline to explore and pursue oil and natural gas drilling. BP is going to have to pay for the “lost wages” of oil industry workers affected by the moratorium on deepwater drilling. And, for the kicker, furloughed workers will be counted as jobs created or jobs saved in future payroll figures. That is a relief. I thought they might be unemployed if they were not working. But I guess, BP will pay them to not work. Wait, how are they going to do that?
So what’s in it for us?
So far 13% higher oil prices in the last three weeks…thank you for that…
And about BP paying…
As there are no significant INSIDERS holding substantial equity positions at BP, (nothing even approaching even 1%), the owners of BP, who the Administration is fighting mad to “make them pay”??
…I did a little checking. It turns out that in one way or another, THEY IS US.
First in our IRA, Pension, 401k plans, etc through mutual funds Shares, Purchase Price, Market Price…below…mostly US Mutual Funds…held mostly by US savers for the pension plans…again, thank you…
VANGUARD/WINDSOR II | 9,784,515 | $549,106,981 | $ 303,711,346 | |
VANGUARD SPECIALIZED-ENERGY FUND | 7,867,800 | $441,540,936 | $ 244,216,512 | |
VANGUARD/WELLINGTON FUND INC. | 7,136,000 | $379,706,560 | $ 221,501,440 | |
FIDELITY DIVERSIFIED INTERNATIONAL FUND | 6,650,000 | $353,846,500 | $ 206,416,000 | |
PRICE (T.ROWE) EQUITY INCOME FUND | 3,698,700 | $211,084,809 | $ 114,807,648 | |
VANGUARD/WELLESLEY INCOME FUND | 3,572,300 | $207,086,231 | $ 110,884,192 | |
American Beacon Large Cap Value Fd | 2,153,900 | $122,923,073 | $ 66,857,056 | |
FMI LARGE CAP FD | 2,146,000 | $122,472,220 | $ 66,611,840 | |
PRICE (T.ROWE) NEW ERA FUND | 2,114,473 | $120,672,974 | $ 65,633,242 | |
PUTNAM EQUITY INCOME FUND | 1,697,000 | $90,297,370 | $ 52,674,880 | |
$10,152,824,293 | $ 5,561,932,509 | |||
Secondly, to add to this outrage, brought on by countless “SMART GUYS”…Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, who were just bailed out by US have lost close to $1bln between the three of them and I would guess if I dug deeper I would find some more taxpayer bailed out banks in the same situation. No really, thank you very much…
Shares | Purchase | $ 31.04 | Now | |
WELLINGTON MANAGEMENT COMPANY, LLP | 34,841,626 | $1,988,411,595 | $ 1,081,484,071 | |
BARROW, HANLEY MEWHINNEY & STRAUSS, INC. | 16,700,677 | $953,107,636 | $ 518,389,014 | |
BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION | 13,911,165 | $793,910,186 | $ 431,802,562 | |
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE CO | 13,052,048 | $744,880,379 | $ 405,135,570 | |
PRICE (T.ROWE) ASSOCIATES INC | 12,442,139 | $710,072,872 | $ 386,203,995 | |
MORGAN STANLEY | 11,224,852 | $640,602,303 | $ 348,419,406 | |
FMR LLC | 7,854,986 | $448,284,051 | $ 243,818,765 | |
WELLS FARGO & COMPANY | 7,768,541 | $443,350,634 | $ 241,135,513 | |
Tradewinds Global Investors, LLC | 7,436,248 | $424,386,673 | $ 230,821,138 | |
GATES (BILL & MELINDA) FOUNDATION | 7,133,000 | $407,080,310 | $ 221,408,320 | |
"We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money."
--David Crockett, Member of Congress, 1827-31, 1832-35
“ BP Plc will pay for all damage caused by its “recklessness” and the government will commit to restoring the Gulf Coast.”
--Barrack Obama, President of the USA, in his first address from the Oval Office 2010
JUST ONE THING…
· Stopping marked to market accounting, really?
· Borrow over a TRILLION DOLLARS from US tax payers with no vote, really?
· Lend that TRILLION+ DOLLARS to the Fed, really?
· The Fed buys over a TRILLION DOLLARS of worthless assets with the money we loaned to the Fed, really?
· They Pay that money (over a TRILLION DOLLARS) to hundreds of terribly managed banks, several of which are deemed too big to fail, really?
· Those banks, because they are terribly managed, buy BP stock, really?
· BP stock tanks 46% in three weeks, really?
...well, it makes sense why they don’t want to mark to market.
Thank you sir may I have another?
We (in the US) should all be whipped soundly for allowing those currently in Washington to have been elected on both sides of the aisle.
And as far as making BP Pay?
Let’s see…(we) might have paid enough…
· 3,130,000,000 shares from 57 down to 31.04, that is down $97.74 bln dollars.
· debt downgraded 6 notches so future financing is hampered that is down billions more.
· taking an oil producer out of business so that its assets can be acquired by a member of the existing oil oligopoly…less competition…higher oil prices.
Looks like very sound policy… for the major oil producing countries. I know, they have told me, they appreciate it very, very, very much and they thank you. The government is so very good at oversight. I can see the story as the elections approach. “Congress has appointed a new clean up czar to head the new SLUDGE Dept.(Strategic Limitation of Underwater Discovery & Greasy Endeavors). The czar will oversee the new $40 bln budget allocated by Congress to keep us safe. Stay tuned, looks like another growth industry is budding with our tax dollars.
VIX INDEX again throwing caution to the wind….
Hey, market is up 7% in six days, everybody is happy. But there was a second quote from that German dude that made me think we need to DO SOMETHIN’, before they DO SOMETHIN’,
There are seven national crimes…
I don’t think.
I don’t know.
I don’t care.
I am too busy.
I leave well enough alone.
I have no time to read and find out.
I am not interested.
--William Boetcker
Time to start looking at the sidelines all geniuses… 7% in 6 days and I detect some DANCIN’... HUBRIS, HOPE, DENIAL, and PASSIVITY to follow.
Gotta do some sellin’ when they’re yellin’!
Butcherin’ time again soon in pigs ‘n hogs territory. Cover some of your short puts and if your longs flinch, deck ‘em.
Sooey!
Leon
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