Seeing as how I won't be able to get Social Security till my late 60's, and the retirement plans through my employer will be gutted as well, I've become an active investor.
I go through all the charts and examine the trends and fundamentals and other stuff investors are supposed to do. For the most part that's all nonsense. The real deal is investing in whoever has the power to do whatever it wants. Nobody has more power than Halliburton.
I use the word "nobody" to describe Halliburton since the republican elite chosen one, Mitt Romney, and the Supreme Court have declared corporations individuals.
Grand old bag of the republican party, Barbara Bush, just endorsed Mitt Romney. I guess this means the Bush clan is saving Jeb for 2012. It also means Halliburton will get more juicy government, no bid contracts. This is whether or not President Obama wins in November. Just as information was manipulated to get us into Iraq and made Halliburton a fortune, information will be manipulated to get us into something with Iran making Halliburton another fortune. Everyone, and that includes our representatives in Congress want to be seen as "tough."
I'll put my creds as a lefty against anyone. When I was a freshman I took the pro Jimmy Carter position and debated it in front of most of the high school student body. But I'm also a realist and greedy pig.
Today I bought shares of Halliburton stock. I feel dirty. But it's a good, naughty, like I saw dirty pictures when I was an adolescent and got away with it kind of feeling. This must be how Dick Cheney felt when he and his energy company pals thought up an energy policy that made them loads of money and knew there was nothing anyone could do about it.
It's not bad being Dick Cheney.
Go ahead and invest in tobacco.
ReplyDeleteI guess this means the Bush clan is saving Jeb for 2012.
ReplyDeleteIt is 2012. March 5, 2012.
The privatizing of so many gov-related functions, even in war, is ominous. The only interest of corporate entities is to make money, and those who assume that morality is in any way intrinsic to capitalism are deluded. The moral impetus has to come from beyond that economic system and guide it, or it will be brushed aside as irrelevant in the rush to make money.
ReplyDeleteAs for Romney, money can do quite a lot, but at the higher levels of politics, I suspect, it can't quite buy somebody an election. 2012's general election will give us a real test of that proposition, of course, now that spending is virtually unlimited. But Romney is outspending his opponents by a ridiculous factor in many of the state primaries and caucuses, and up to this point it nets him only a slim plurality or majority. He barely beat a way-right opponent in Michigan, one of his own "home states." If you spend ten times more than anybody else and people still can hardly stand you, you've got an image problem that no amount of money is likely to deal with.
President Obama looks more and more like a winner to me: he's a spirited campaigner and he's running ON his record rather than FROM it -- a leader who runs from his record is easy to defeat, but one who runs on his accomplishments presents a much greater challenge. It's Romney who is actually running FROM his own moderate record as governor of Massachusetts, and every time he does that, he looks weak. Unless the economy tanks altogether, I'd say Biden's "Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive" quip just about sums it up.
The only downer is that Obama at times finds himself having to defend his accomplishments as if they never happened. I think that's partly due to race -- an African-American president who has in fact done a good number of significant things often gets treated as if he had been sitting on his hands for the last three years. Somehow, I doubt that such treatment surprises him or any thoughtful observer. Of course, it's also due to the fact that so many Republicans don't exist in the same reality-fact continuum as other people, even aside from any ugly racial anxieties or sentiments some may harbor. These are people who hear "health insurance for many more people over several years of incremental reform" and process it as "gubmint death panels gonna getcha. Run!" The election will no doubt be much closer than it really should be, despite the unimpressive quality of the president's opponents.
Altria is an excellent stock Flying Junior.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason for Obama to lose. I think he's done a great job. Just think of how great he would have been had it not been for the obstructionist republicans.
These jokers control the hearts and minds of conservatives so I figure why not use their good feelings about Romney to profit.
Information is being manipulated every day in the negative ads run by Super PACs. Of course, these Super PACs are funded by the bold billionaires directly and the stealth billionaires that use the "secret option" by funneling their money through the non-profit front groups. Don't you wonder if they feel dirty when they manipulate the votes of millions of low-information voters to preserve their tax cuts?
ReplyDeleteThey don;t feel guilty. They think it's good for America to destroy unions. Deny women health care and make obscene profits.
ReplyDeleteRick Santorum and God told them it was okay.
As long as both extremes continue the current "game"for total control the reasonable thinking individuals will continue to get screwed.
ReplyDeleteInvest heavily in petroleum jelly...
I think Haliburton uses that stuff for lubricating drilling rigs as well as the thing you're referring to RN.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Halliburton and it's continuing profitability in the future because if I did I'd be the biggest and best brokerage house on the Street or the manager of the most sought after hedge-fund on the market that even make Bernie Madoff would weep with envy. What I do know is that the Bush family have been around for centuries and that if there's one family that knows about power, money and timing then they are it. They know it's not Jeb's time yet, it wasn't 4 years ago, it's not now and it may never be but none of that matters. It's the family that counts and as long as no one is throwing away it's fortune, they can afford to wait. The country isn't going anywhere and neither are the Bushes.
ReplyDelete