Posted in Economy on Jun 6th, 2008 No Comments »
National unemployment numbers were released this morning and the monthly increase in unemployment was the largest in 22 years, signaling the economy continues to slip.
Crude oil futures also spiked 5% first thing in the morning to about $134/barrel. The trend of oil had been moving downward over the last few trading days, but has quickly [...]
Posted in Economy on May 28th, 2008 No Comments »
By now, most of the dirty laundry within the banking industry has been aired. The federal government has also signaled its intention to “bail out” or rescue troubled lenders in order to ward of an economic calamity. These factors lead me to believe that the time is right to start slowly accumulating shares of the [...]
Posted in Economy, Investing on May 21st, 2008 No Comments »
Five executives representing BP America, Shell Oil, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, and Exxon Mobil were questioned (grilled) by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I think the politicians are so off-base on this issue it’s not even funny anymore. But in an election year, the only thing on the minds of politicians (Republicans and Democrats alike) is [...]
Posted in Economy on Apr 23rd, 2008 No Comments »
In my local area, regular unleaded gasoline rose to $3.69 per gallon yesterday. It is strange that the price we pay for gas in west michigan is always higher than the state and national average, despite having a fuel depot and extensive underground pipelines in my town.
While high gasoline prices are a nuisance, I don’t [...]
Posted in Economy, News on Apr 11th, 2008 No Comments »
I find it ironic, but not surprising, that American Airlines is attempting to “pass the buck” to the FAA for its recent spat of mass flight cancellations because of wire bundles in the wheel wells of their MD-80 aircraft. By acting as if the FAA is the one causing the inconvenience on air passengers rather [...]
Posted in Economy, Investing on Mar 17th, 2008 No Comments »
Shares of Bear Stearns (BSC) took a dive today amid news of a $2 per share buyout offer from JP Morgan and a government bailout. I’m truly upset that the federal government has had to resort to bailing out institutions who made horrible investing decisions and lost billions of dollars. It just really burns me [...]
Posted in Economy on Feb 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
The tax rebate that most American’s are expecting to arrive sometime this year will hopefully spur the economy, my check will not. I don’t plan on spending my tax rebate, instead putting the full amount ($600 as I calculate it) toward paying down student loan debt and boosting my savings.
But, many people will be spending [...]
Posted in Economy on Jan 30th, 2008 No Comments »
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has announced a further 50 basis point cut in the Fed Funds rate bringing it down to 3%. This cut is the second cut in 8 days and brings the total of recent cuts to 1.25%.
I think Bernanke has changed his position on a lot of things since [...]
Posted in Economy on Jan 29th, 2008 No Comments »
It’s interesting how the majority of analysts are predicting the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday January 30, 2008. I’m not sure if there will even be a rate cut, let alone a 50 basis point cut after the Fed’s emergency 75 basis point cut from last week.
Durable goods orders [...]
Posted in Economy on Jan 22nd, 2008 1 Comment »
In a surprise move, the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate by three quarters of a percent today. This response was most likely fueled by the massive global stock sell off that occurred over the United State’s holiday weekend. In two days many global markets sold of over 10% of their value because of [...]
