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Thanks for the contrarian buy signal :D

Surely you can't compare a few bank failures in 2002 to 2004 to today's situation. The context is completely different. Even in good times you'll get a few banks to fail from their own mismanagement or simply bad luck in the marketplace. One should not underestimate the seriousness of the...

I would agree with you if portfolio value does not change when not trading. If you take a day off from trading the asset values of stocks held changes whether you trade or not. That alone makes the stock market non-zero-sum. Trading does create value. Look at the price of oil -- how much is...

When I bought my first home in the early 90's you could get fixed rate or variable loans but it was with full docs. There was no negative amortization, there were no no-docs, no interest only. Sure, there was subprime, but the rates were much higher and the loans weren't being stuffed into...

Yes, banks and lenders are highly regulated -- NOT. They were so highly regulated that they were allowed to write mortgages without any documentation from the borrower. The fact that "liar loans" even came into existence and that subprime loans were allowed to be stuffed into CDOs without proper...

Reagan happily signed that bill. He said in his remarks during the signing ceremony: "All in all, I think we hit the jackpot." Little did he know that later it was elements of organized crime and other fraudsters who hit the jackpot, ultimately at our expense.

Trading isn't a zero sum game. On Wikipedia they give the example of a slice of pie as an analogy for a zero sum game. If you take a bigger piece, then everyone else must have a smaller piece. That's zero sum. Now consider company ABC. They have 100 million share outstanding and are at...

The Republican Party is 3-for-3 on bank failures. It's an incredible string that dates back to the 1930's: Herbert Hoover. 11,000 out of 26,000 banks failed during his term in office from 1929 to 1933. Little or no action was taken by the Hoover administration while many people lost their...

Funny how different people look at the same charts and reach different conclusions. I don't think you're wrong, I can easily see how these could all be bull traps. But with all the market negativity it's time for a rally and I'm seeing potential here for the bull case in this sector. I think...

Looks bullish to me... I like how some of the bigger names are providing leadership. Will need to see follow-through but I think this move will have some legs. ABBOTT LABS WYETH CELGENE FOREST LABS

I agree, we've got to send all the Bush-Cheney-Condolezza cowboys packing. I can't think of any administration in this country's history that has done this nation more harm. Yes, I think Bush has been worse than Nixon, worse than Johnson, worse than Carter. So what if Iran has a nuke? If they...

Low volume. It really stands out on the monthly chart. Looks like the smart money cashed out last January: Of course, the traditional interpretation of a low-volume decline is bullish as it signifies a market correction. Another interpretation, more likely given the negative fundamentals...

Bingo. A few years ago, Bush would ask rhetorically, "does anyone really believe the world would be a better place if Saddam were still in power?" You don't hear that being asked anymore because the answer is not so clear. While he was a tyrant to his own people, Saddam did stabilize the M.E...

Obama is correct. Stock margin requirement is 50%, but for oil futures the margin requirement is only 5%. Why should speculators be allowed to use 10 times more leverage on oil futures than for stocks? Excessive margin and easy credit contributed to the 1929 stock market crash, so why repeat...

Yes, the current capital gain tax is bad. Do you think the budget deficit is good for the country? Do you think the budget deficit is good for the dollar? People need to stop thinking about themselves for a change and start thinking about helping the country. Raising taxes to balance the...

To be honest, I think your trade is not risk free. The odds are actually stacked against you. Look at it from a purely statistical viewpoint: SPY higher in 10 years = 50% chance true, 50% chance false Canadian Dollar lower in 10 years = 50% chance true, 50% chance false Since you want...

Right, it's a good journal but he's also way below his profit targets. Maybe that's the most valuable thread on ET -- showing how easy it is to give back profits.

source: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/net/page6.pdf GDP Component | 2007Q4 | 2008Q1 Final Sales 2.37 -0.21 [down big!] Consumption 1.58 0.68 [consumers tightening] Fixed Investment -0.62 -1.50 Nonresidential 0.63 -0.28 [R.E. slowdown hits office space]...

Yes, the Democrat won because Joe Sixpack sees Four Dollar Gas and all the good factory jobs are gone. Joe also knows that while he's barely getting by the fatcats of the world got filthy rich, mostly at his expense. Joe Sixpack has heard all the Limbaugh/Fox News propaganda lies like Obama...

Experience -- all three candidates lack executive experience in leading large organizations, regardless of what Hillary says. "Socialist" -- the rightwing propaganda machine has been spreading that lie along with the Obama is a Muslim thing. Obama has not advocated any socialist policies...