They Did Not Panic

Investors did not panic! The usual panic that depresses stock prices when things like the Government Shutdown occur, did not happen. I was poised to buy cheap and then sell high. Maybe common sense is returning to investors. Maybe.

Most people realized that the shutdown is a joke. It is only a partial shutdown. Workers that were told to stay home will probably receive their pay - even though they did not work. (When will we ever tire of paying people that do not work?)

Get ready to buy a few stocks

Get some money ready and make a nice profit as the budget battle panics others.

When news, unrelated to any stock, causes the investors to sell I will buy. A $3000 investment in a momentarily depressed stock will net a thousand bucks or more. I will look for solid stocks that sell below $50 a share and when they plummet I will buy all that I can. Before the end of the year I will sell, as the prices correct themselves. The last time I did this I sold at a profit within a few weeks.

No, I will not suggest which stocks I am buying. Learn a little on your own and put on your big boy pants.

Suppose I am wrong? Well, I will own stocks and eventually they will go up. Solid stocks always do.

Am I wrong? I don't see how. After all, I am buying stocks that I think are already good investments and I will be buying them because something unrelated to the stock caused people to panic and sell.

Security

We cannot even secure our prisons. We have walls, barbed wire, electric fences, search lights, alarms, armed guards, watch towers, cameras, a complete view of the inside and outside of the prison and photos of every person in the prison. We have dogs, horse patrols and concrete barriers. Yet, prisoners escape.

Tell me again how the fence on the border will work? Millions of people know that there are robberies, rapes, beatings, accidental deaths, kidnappings and murders awaiting those trying to cross Mexico and then enter the United States. These are highly motivated men, women and children. They come by the millions and we really believe that we will do better than our little prisons.

Perhaps we should consider why they come and address those issues. Nah, let’s just throw 20 billion a year at this issue and build 700 more miles of fence and double the Border Patrol, again. We doubled it twice during the last decade. Let’s just limit our approaches to those that have not worked.

We will not discuss a law that requires every American business that does business in or with a foreign country to pay a livable wage. If the wages in the foreign factories were doubled in Mexico the number of people trying to get into the U.S. would plummet. Also, Mexico would enforce their border laws more stringently to keep from being over-run by illegal immigrants seeking those jobs.

Nah, let's just keep focused on what does not work.

Immigration Reform and the Republican Party

Sometimes I do not like the realities of the times we live in, but accepting facts is far better than living in denial or the Land of Should.

Offering legal status to most of the estimated 11 million people in U.S.  on U.S. soil in violation of our laws will happen. It may happen now or a year from now, but it will happen.  It will also happen without stopping the tide of illegal immigrants.

Most Democrat and Republican voters recognize the inevitability of immigration reform. 

Corporations packed the bill with plenty of goodies so that they can continue and expand the current law that allows corporations to bring in relatively cheap worker under the guise of ‘we cannot find Americans to do the job’ because they lack the math, science, engineering, and programming skills. Corporations know that Americans could fill most of those jobs. That is why they insist that they should not be required to offer those jobs to Americans. Under current (and future) law there is no requirement to even advertise for those job openings before importing workers. So the big money wants the bill to pass because they will continue to be able to shaft the American workers and the number of American workers shafted will increase as they get their little nugget (more Hxxx visas).

Many Americans want a legal status and a path to citizenship for the 11 million. I am one of them. This shadow community of exploited workers is a disgrace. While there is a lot of talk about the immigrant law-breaker there is almost no discussion of the U.S. policies that enabled and encouraged illegal workers. Some people made the decisions that led to this situation. Somebody understaffed and manipulated the Border Patrol so that this situation could exist. Yet there is not even a squeak of an outcry for the heads of those politicians, bureaucrats, and campaign contributors. There is barely an outcry against employers.

Most voters do not realize that there is little in the proposed law that will make any significant changes to discourage illegal immigration. In fact, the current bill includes a requirement that only certain known areas of illegal entry into the United States will even be prosecuted! Even a child in a snowball fight knows that if one area is heavily defended, to move to another area. I can almost hear a Mexican saying, “You must be kidding! The United States will not prosecute all of us unless we cross at these places? Their own law only commits resources there? Follow me to Del Rio!”

Employers of small groups of illegal aliens (think almost every small construction company in America) will continue to enjoy the current policy of not being prosecuted. The Obama Administration has a written policy of not going after small companies that employ illegal aliens and there is nothing in the proposed bill to change that policy.

Sometimes a well intended strength of our Constitution, the separation of powers, causes huge problems. Congress enacts laws and it is up to the President, through executive powers, to enforce the laws. A partial solution is for Congress to create a law so exacting that failure to enforce the law would result in Impeachment. The current bill is so lax that it is a disgrace.

More plans for a fence and more plans for increased Border Patrol are required months after the bill becomes law. The term, secure border, is used without specific definition and there is not one word in the bill about actually reducing illegal immigration or the hiring of illegal immigrants.

Yet, the law will pass. Most people want immigration reform and I doubt that 1% of America will read the bill that is proposed. If the Republicans fight the bill they can forget the presidency for at least another two or three elections. In fact, the Party might become so irrelevant that it will be replaced. This is simple mathematics. People are weary of this issue and want some form of resolution. The Hispanic voters will continue to increase with or without this bill. A firm anti-Republican Hispanic voter block will crush the Party. It already may be too late.

I don’t like the facts, but they are the facts. Those that want to stand in the middle of a tornado and shout that it is just a little wind will be blown away. Accept the facts, adapt and move on. Of course there is the small possibility that the Republicans could propose a bill that makes sense to everyone, but that is not going to happen.

Drone On and On

Here is an interesting opportunity. The manufacturers of drones continue to press congress for appropriations to purchase thousands of drones to spy on Americans. There is even a ‘drone caucus’ and they accepted millions in donations to their political campaigns.

The opportunity is to see how many media reports are generated about illegal aliens and the need for drones. I have no problems with drones patrolling our borders and think it is a great investment. However, the real agenda is to generate public support for drones, without realizing that the overwhelming majority of these drones will be used far from the border. Drones will ‘patrol’ our city streets. It seems creepy to think about cameras that are virtual spy satellites.

My issue is not necessarily about the widespread use of drones. My issue is Congress enacting laws to specifically enrich certain companies. Our opportunity is to watch for the media reports about the sudden need for thousands and thousands of drones that will be purchased with our taxes.

Sandy and the President

It remains in the media’s interest to continue reporting on the Sandy storm in the most alarming way possible.  This keeps us reading, watching and listening.

Many people enjoy the sensationalism because it makes their personal ‘survival’ stories more dramatic. Drama queens (and kings) absolutely want these news stories to be as sensational as possible. In fact, if a story read that the tropical storm caused the predictable flooding in subways, tunnels, and construction sites because of the new discovery of gravity, people would be offended. Of course low areas, tunnels, subways and the gigantic hole in the ground near Ground Zero flooded. When the water runs uphill; that is news. Trees fell down and boats were lifted out of the water. This is also routine during a hurricane. However, we want our sensational stories.

The deaths are terrible tragedies and we all mourn the loss of life. However, more people died on our highways the weekend before the storm. More will die on our highways in a single day. Yet, there is no hue and cry for people to stop driving. In fact, people demand that speeders and those running red lights should not be punished if caught on camera.

Comparing the news stories with the warning issued by the National Weather Service clearly shows how hard the media tried to sensationalize every NWS warning and prediction.

Watching the news last night was laughable. A newswoman stood across the street from a single parked car. The water level was not even high enough to reach the bottom of the car doors. She breathlessly reported that when they first arrived the water was higher. She went on to say, "It is like that other shot. When we arrived, things were much worse. That car was completely under water. The water was up to the trunk."  What kind of vehicle can have water 'up to the trunk' and also be completely submerged?

Another newswoman breathlessly reported that the hurricane Sandy had ripped off these awnings. Still another newsman was standing on the street to tell us that when he first arrived, the street was covered with water and now it had subsided. Although he street was muddy, there was no water. If this is the best that the media could find they should have reported that the damage was light and that the storm water quickly subsided or they should have ran an episode of M.A.S.H.

The print media can run the same few photos of the storm and continue to simply provide the doom and gloom stories But here is the thing.

An unintended consequence is that these stories can be the tie breaker at election time. The president and his staff had a lot of time to focus on the national response. Governors and power companies across the nation worked out plans before the storm made landfall. Both candidates were forced to shut down campaigning during the storm. Mr. Romney was left with nothing to do. Mr. Obama was presented with an opportunity to be presidential. Barring any missteps be President Obama, this could be the tie-breaker for the election. His actions will be compared with Republican President George Bush’s actions during Hurricane Katrina. In a sense, Mr. Bush’s actions will be tagged with Mr. Romney since they are both Republicans. (“This is how Republicans help people in a national emergency and this is how Democrats help people in a national emergency").

This election will be one that is analyzed in political science classes for decades to come, regardless of the outcome. Sandy presented the President with an opportunity.

Gas Prices on East Coast

Just as gasoline prices jumped in California due to refinery shut-downs, the fuel prices on the East Coast will jump in the after-math of Sandy.

We all understand short supply. Refineries shut down and no trucks have been able to deliver gas. However, why the increased prices? How does paying more at the pump enable refineries and delivery trucks to deliver? When the storm is gone there should be no increase, but we don't live in 'the land of should'. We live in the land of giving the consumers the shaft.

Recently, many articles (and there will be more to come) have been printed to inform us that oil independence has nothing to do with what we will pay at the pump. The response to those articles should be: we have the solution. A federal law prohibiting the export of any fuel products until gasoline prices (including taxes) is at $2 per gallon. Such a law would cause a glut of gasoline in the USA and prices would tumble.

Our number one export is fuel. Let the oil barons take care of their country.

In the meantime, get out your wallets. Your gasoline will be more expensive because of Sandy.