Archive for October, 2007
Soldier Funeral Picketers Slammed In Court
Oct 31st
The father of a fallen Marine Lance Cpl. who served in Iraq sued the founders of the Westboro Baptist Church and was awarded almost $11 Million in compensatory and punitive damages.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Westboro Baptist Church, they organize pickets at the funeras of fallen United States service members with signs saying “God Hates Fags”, “Thank God For Dead Soldiers”, “Thank God For IED’s” and routinely sing “God Hates America” to the tune of God Bless America. This church believes that the soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan are being punished by god for America’s “tolerance of gays homosexuality.”
Now, everyone in this country is entitled to their opinion but to picket a funeral and disgrace a fallen soldier is absolutely intolerable and I’m elated that the court ruled against this extremist religious organization. Whether or not one agrees with the war, a picket at a funeral is unforgivable.
The judgment is considerably higher than the net worth of the defendants, Fred Phelps and his two daughters. I hope that their wages are garnished and assets seized until the judgment is satisfied and that their organization is shuttered permanently.
Technorati Tags: fred phelps, funeral pickets, soldier funeral, marine, iraq war, westboro, hate crime, extreme religion, shaun carter
Federal Reserve Cuts Fed Funds Rate 25 Basis Points
Oct 31st
The federal reserve reported today on the status of the economy and issued a federal funds rate cut of 25 basis points or 1/4% to 4.50%. This cut has been completely priced into the market and the recent price action on the Dow and treasuries suggests that traders were expecting, or at least hoping, for a larger cut of 50 basis points.
The credit market turbulence continues as Merrill Lynch took a $7.9 Billion writedown this quarter, and reported its largest loss in company history, to cover its part in the subprime mortgage backed securities fiasco.
This drop in the fed funds rate will also be putting upward pressure on oil prices, which I think will hit $100-110 per barrel sometime within the next 30-60 days. The fed used some interesting wording regarding potential strength in the economy in their statement and will leave people guessing until the next meeting. There was one dissenter on the decision to lower rates and that was Thomas Hoenig from the Kansas City regional fed bank, otherwise the vote was 9-1 in favor of the 25 basis point cut.
Technorati Tags: federal reserve, rate cut, federal funds, discount rate, interest rate, shaun carter, ben bernanke, money, investing, saving, credit, oil, merrill lynch
Greenbacks Not Good Enough For Apple
Oct 28th
Apple Inc. has announced they will not accept cash for buying an iPhone. This is absolutely ridiculous! When a company won’t accept genuine United States currency, they won’t be getting my business by credit or debit card either.
Apple says they are trying to ward off reselling of the phones by tracking who is buying them. That in itself seems like an invasion of privacy. The company has been scrambling to try anything and everything to disable phones that attempt to be unlocked and now appears they want to track those who unlock their phone as well.
I’m glad I’ve never been an Apple customer and now I’m certain that I won’t ever be.
Technorati Tags: apple. iphone, unlock, currency, greenback, credit card, debit card, shaun carter
Quixtar Strikes Back
Oct 26th
It seems that Quixtar’s post a couple months ago named “Just Go, Team” didn’t accurately convey Quixtar’s feelings toward TEAM.
Quixtar is now filing a lawsuit against TEAM’s parent company, Signature Management Team LLC, and seeking any and all damages possible. The lawsuit claims that TEAM is soliciting IBO’s, using confidential and proprietary company data, disparaging Quixtar, and more.
I think the most humorous analogy that Quixtar posts on their blog announcing this lawsuit is:
“If you leave your place of work today, you would leave behind your tools and information so that those who remain can carry on the business. You can’t help yourself to your computer, the stapler, the coffeemaker—or the company’s customer list.”
This just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever… if Orrin Woodward or Chris Brady stole a coffeemaker, computer or stapler from Quixtar’s Ada, Michigan headquarters, then by all means prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law! But he didn’t steal anything, Quixtar is trying to reach much further than they legally should be allowed to – claiming that any customers and IBO’s that Woodward brought into the business are the property of Quixtar just like their computers, staplers, and coffeemakers within their walls.
I disagree with Quixtar that all the people leaving the business are only doing it because Orrin Woodward or Chris Brady told them to. A lot of people I talk with are simply upset with the way Alticor is handling this whole situation and dragging their name through the mud. There are also many people upset with the pending name change back to Amway. People still haven’t forgotten all the negative stereotypes associated with Amway and I think that will come back to bite the company in the ass.
Another interesting accusation from Quixtar is that the recent Louisville convention that TEAM put on was a meeting designed to coerce people out of Quixtar and into the TEAM system. But nobody who was at the event every recalls the name Quixtar even being brought up. I’m sure Quixtar had its employees or private investigators in the convention recording everything that was said the entire weekend.
This lawsuit fails to show specific examples of the accusations and just brushes some broad strokes which, I’m assuming, will be filled in with more detail when the case goes to court. It is very possible that a Quixtar win in this case will cause TEAM to go out of business.
Technorati Tags: alticor, amway, quixtar, team, team of destiny, shaun carter, orrin woodward, chris brady, convention, louisville, lawsuit, signature management team
Should You Invest In Sin Stocks During a Market Downturn
Oct 26th
I recently read a great post about investing in so-called Sin Stocks (tobacco, gambling, alcohol, etc) during a market downturn. After the dot com bubble burst these Sin Stocks performed much better than the overall market. Perhaps it’s time to invest in these stocks again.
Technorati Tags: investing, sin stocks, tobacco, gambling, alcohol, stock market
Winners of the two $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Cards
Oct 25th
Congratulations to Shawn Knight and Rob Schultz for winning the Barnes & Noble gift cards that I provided for John Chow to gave away during his RSS subscriber competition with Shoemoney.
Last Chance To Win Gift Cards
Oct 21st
I have donated a couple $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Cards for John Chow’s RSS contest with Shoemoney and tonight is the last chance for you to enter. There are a couple other prizes up for grabs in tomorrows drawing and as long as you stay subscribed you will continue to be entered to win the many prizes John has to give away through the rest of the month!
Technorati Tags: john chow, prizes, giveaway, contest, sweepstakes, barnes and noble, gift cards, free, shoemoney, shaun carter, rss
Dow Jones Industrials Down Over 360 Points
Oct 19th
Stocks took a beating today as fears of recession flooded the markets. This has been one of the worst weeks for the market in a couple of months and is being fueled by the continued subprime credit mess and the continued new record setting prices of crude oil, recently flirting with $90/barrel.
The irony of the huge selloff today is that today is the anniversary of the 1987 Black Monday when the Dow dropped 23% in one day. I have very little invested as I stated earlier because I want to wait out the earnings reporting to get a feel for where the market is headed in the fourth quarter and which sectors will have the best growth going forward. Banks, both national and regional continue to be weak and report worse than expected earning. Technology is the clear winner going forward as Google leads the way with a 40%+ increase in profits.
Technorati Tags: investing, dow jones, stock market, shaun carter, black monday, google, technology, banks, oil, recession
Shoemoney RSS Competition Prizes
Oct 19th
Shoemoney has come forward with a contest of his own to rival that of John Chow’s to see who reigns supreme at the end of the month by gaining the most RSS subscribers.
Shoe garnered $13,000 worth of prizes from his readers and is giving them away to people who subscribe to his blog by e-mail and also through an RSS feed reader. This tactic is very interesting as it will generate more than one RSS reader for each person who participates.
Here is a full list of prizes:
So what do you have to do? Its VERY SIMPLE:
1) Make sure you are a email subscriber and your account is active (you have confirmed). THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
2) Sign up and add shoemoney.com rss feed to the following services: (you can get up to 1 entry per service per day).
3) Every day for the next 14 days there will be a “Click Here To Enter Todays Contest!” Link within the RSS Feed. You simply click on that link From your rss feed reader service and then enter your name and your email you subscribed to in feedburner.
Technorati Tags: shoemoney, john chow, shaun carter, contest, rss, prizes, money, gifts, sweepstakes, feed reader, subscribe, free
Is $100/Barrel Oil Possible In 2007?
Oct 18th
Crude oil has been on a bullish tear recently as it keeps setting new record highs. Recently MF Global announced during a CNBC interview that they anticipate oil reaching $100/Barrel by the end of the year and now more analysts and traders are coming on board with that hypothesis.
Oil is now just barely under $90/Barrel heading into the prime heating season in the northern hemisphere and with the turbulence in the middle east, any little political event could set the price of oil on a crash course to $100.
The all-time high price of oil, adjusted for inflation, was during the 1970′s oil crisis and hit $106-108/Barrel. Goldman Sachs believes that’s where the price of oil is going to be in the near term. I think it’s possible to see oil well over $100 in 2008 and continue on this hyper inflated price appreciation as Russia, China and India continue to demand ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels.
Technorati Tags: oil, barrel, fossil fuel, shaun carter, goldman sachs, mf global, russia, china, india, energy, cnbc, gasoline
