7th Stock

Technology Companies 

In review you now have 6 stocks and 1 ETF.  Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) or another utility, Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) or another food stock, Eaton Corp (ETN) or another industrial stock, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc. (POT) fertilizer, and U.S. Bancorp (USB) or some other financial (Bank) stock of choice, an oil or gas stock my recommendation was Chevron Corp (CVX).  Last picked was an metal stock my recommendation was copper ore Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) but any metal mining sector stock would do.  Remember you can own any stock in the sector not the one I recommend.  I like the SPDR Gold Shares Trust GLD ETF. 

 

Wall Street will have buys on stocks until the company goes backrupt.  Review Enron’s story and the Wall Street’s Enron’s stocks recommendations if you don’t believe me.

Enron’s stock was recommended and loved right up to the fall.  The same can be said for Dell.  Dell Computer stock was loved until a few years ago.  So what about Apple stock?  Look at history at some point with every technology company consumers turn against them.  Doesn’t matter if it is desktop computers, energy electric utility exchanges or even Apple Ipads. 

Problem two with technology companies is you need to avoid most of them.  Stay away from the glamorous loved stocks like Apple.  Apple is a speculation stock so if you want to trade and speculate then buy and sell puts and calls in Apple.  But to invest in a Tech stock you want a steady eddy.  I would recommend Intel Corp. (INTC) which owns a monopoly and gives a 3.89% dividend, or Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) another monopoly with a 2.96% dividend.  Neither is a romantic lovable stock.  Let’s review my June 14 post Two New / Different Sectors.  Never trust a Technology company or its management, they are all liars.  You are just lucky if they are not financial falsifiers and cooking the books like Enron was.  In the last few years you lost money with the management practices of Facebook IPO valuation, Hewlett-Packard’s Mark Hurd, and Yahoo’s co-founder Jerry Yang.  All these men are rich beyond measure and lost you money and are less then ethical not caring about their shareholders.  If there is a hint of dishonesty you must sell a tech stock.  I am not saying that either of my recommendations INTC or MSFT have a problem or I think will have a problem in the future.

If you force me to I would pick Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) because it is so different from the rest of my portfolio picks, it is a software company and not a hardware company.  You want the opposite in a tech stock from what you would like in girl you are dating, so you want a stock that is not sexy or popular.  Ten years from now the 90% of the tech stocks of today will be dead and gone or dog stocks.  Tech is a tough sector.  I chose MSFT because I am not an engineer and will not know if INTC loses its edge with chips until I have lost a lot of money.  I will know sooner if Microsoft screws up with its software.  Do I trust Bill Gates?  The answer is no, he is no different than the first Rockefeller was.  Microsoft reminds me of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company both were / are monopolies and destroy / destroyed other companies and lives.  Both destroyed better companies by their monopolistic size.  Microsoft inserted inferior products into its Windows operating system and destroyed far better software.  Not honest so Microsoft management will not be honest with you the shareholder.

Don't Pity The Millionaire

The System is Still Rigged.  And, the GOP is Offering No Plan Just the Old Plan.

 

The system is rigged.  It doesn’t matter if you like President Barack Obama or not.  He at least is addressing the most pressing problem you have right now (unless you are a millionaire).  We are not playing on a level playing field.  We have been ripped of lied too and cheated by the upper 3%.  If you want to increase your wealth you need to start voting your class, which means for 97% of us we aren’t on the Bush millionaire welfare program.  Vote against the GOP and their shifting of wealth to the millionaires.  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/american-dream-alive-well-just-150811667.html  At every opportunity local, state and federal vote for Obama’s party until the GOP starts to become a party for of and by the middle class like it was until Teddy left in disgust.  That is the way you can most increase your net worth.

Ms. Warren addressed the issue best.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/48923451

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/elizabeth-warren-dnc-system-rigged-against-023115244--election.html   Wall Street chief executives have not gone to jail they are sitting next to Senators and Congressmen and writing laws.  Why?  Wealth was transferred. The guilty were rewarded. Nobody paid. I can’t get my Congressman Jeff Flake to return an email or phone call.  Billionaires pay a lower percentage rate in their income taxes than you do, why?  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/where-obama-romney-stand-bush-era-tax-cuts-201229348.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48768900  http://www.cnbc.com/id/49063849

Why we all are expected to pity the Billionaire now?  Romney says he pays taxes and is not a tax cheat, so why can’t we see that for ourselves?  He says he is honest so why is his company in court for dishonesty, and why did he lie about being in his company during the Utah Olympics.  He says he will get rid of The Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better but will not tell us what it is, why?  And, why did he allow his millionaire cronies make him take it back.  Romney says he will lower taxes, and do it by closing loopholes on the rich, but refuses to show us the Math?  Is he afraid of Math?  The GOP says we need to pity millionaires and billionaires instead.  Romney will get rid of Medicare and replace it with nothing http://news.yahoo.com/joe-biden-challenges-press-fact-check-185841196--abc-news-politics.html

The GOP does not like people to be fact checkers, why is the GOP lying?  By checking the facts we will we see through their lies?  Apparently Paul Ryan is one of those GOP candidates who don’t like fact checkers.  Seems Paul Ryan forgot he never ran a marathon in Olympic time?  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/runner-first-questioned-paul-ryan-marathon-time-speaks-155321505--election.html

I cannot believe Romney is telling the truth about what his plans are, or his taxes were either.  He is not honest or ethical.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/49001758  Seems the GOP has mastered the art of the big lie, tell it often enough and it sticks.  Seems to me that remembering if you actually ran a marathon or not would be hard, so it is a lie.  Another word for lies is propaganda, and propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented (hate and fear).  After all if we are rational we see that the GOP is obstructing the recovery, has no concern for the middle class.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/49059989  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slFZ8K2aBoY  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PGNN8DG5F8

Poor millionaires they are so picked on.  Romney wants to lower his taxes and the other millionaire’s taxes, after all 15% is much, much too high.  Of course Romney didn’t pay taxes for 2 to 4 years using those same tax loopholes.  I would bet you he only cut the loopholes used by working mothers supporting children on one income, after all Target and Wal-Mart pay so much?????

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-richest-woman-20120830,0,3323996.story

Class warfare or just fairness to everyone?  How dare we try to pick on those poor millionaires? It’s just not fair. After all, they’re the job creators aren’t they?  No they’re not!  The vast majority of businesses in this country are two or three people, working together. If business gets good, they hire an extra worker, increasing their workforce by 33 percent and trying to make more money.  Taxes are not included in the making more money calculation decision, jobs are added for profit growth. (Remember this never! Yes, NEVER make a financial decision of any sort using taxes as the decision point.  Make the money increase your income and worry about taxes later.)  That’s the way American business works. A tiny percent of millionaires are business owners. Millionaires are top salespeople and managers and professional athletes, they sit on the board of corporations.  They own stock and collect dividends, and pay 15% taxes because that is what they do.  They run large corporations and get paid to cut jobs.  Most came into their millions the same way Romney did they inherited it from Mommy and Daddy.  Refer to the graph, tax cuts only increase the deficit and hurt the middle class.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/opinion/taxes-the-deficit-and-the-economy.html

Bush-era tax cuts were the single biggest contributor to the deficit, the second largest contributor to the deficit was two unfunded and unpaid for wars.  What happened to the 2000 Surplus?  It was wasted by a GOP controlled Washington under Bush.  This is the same GOP group that is obstructing the recovery now. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthiest-americans-288-times-net-093200831.html

 

http://news.yahoo.com/report-documents-disclose-9-11-warnings-081156564--politics.html

http://news.yahoo.com/sad-truth-american-dream-131906803.html

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/where-obama-romney-stand-bush-era-tax-cuts-201229348.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48768900

Why this blog post on a stock blog.  Vote your class.  It is a huge factor in your net wealth increase and net worth over the long hall.  The GOP supports only the upper 3% and most of them are not the job creators.  The GOP does not represent you.  Unless you make over 250k per year then they are your party.  Vote for science not GOP pseudo-science we played the pseudo-science game under Bush and it makes the United States look stupid to everyone in the world.  Don’t hate or fear, when the GOP touts the hate and fear look to see what exactly they are trying to hide?

 

6th Stock

Farming and Food Production

In review you now have 5 stocks and 1 ETF.  Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) or another utility, Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) or another food stock, Eaton Corp (ETN) or another industrial stock, and U.S. Bancorp (USB) or some other financial (Bank) stock of choice, an oil or gas my recommendation was Chevron Corp (CVX).  Last pick was an metal stock my recommendation was copper ore Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) but any metal mining sector stock would do.  Remember you can own any stock in the sector not the one I recommend.  I like the SPDR Gold Shares Trust GLD.  

 

Let us go back to “The Limits to Growth” the study by Graham Turner, my next recommendation stock number six is a food production stock.  Notice I have created my own Sector.  Well I did that for your fifth stock pick too.  Notice in the gold line Food per capita.  Innovation and new technologies have bent the line upward.  But the problem and only problem is how many people can we support on earth?  I don’t know.  What I do know is when I was in High School the population was under 4 billion.  Now we have almost 7 billion.  The population growth line is from the lower left to the upper right and goes straight up.   http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/  We can stop making ethanol to feed more people, but unlike me most of the world doesn’t worry about loosing weight, but go to bed hungry now.  The population can’t keep doubling.  More people are eating meat too, which is wasteful if your goal is to feed as many people as possible, one ounce of meat takes 20 ounces of grain to produce.  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/18-million-u-households-struggling-feed-families-212702600.html



So I will tell you stocks that fit into this new sector.  E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co (DD) agriculture division that makes and sells hybrid seed and genetically modified seed, Monsanto Co (MON) seeds, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc. (POT) fertilizer, Deere & Company (DE) farm equipment, Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) the Home Depot of farming country.

These companies are interesting.  They are not the only interesting stocks just a few I watch.  I don’t own a agriculture sector stock yet.  If pressed I would pick a fertilizer stock.  POT is interesting to me just because it is a valuable commodity in limited supply, also it is located in Canada.  Any agriculture stock will do to diversify your portfolio.  This not enough food too many people eating is a long term tread.  Until the human population stabalizes or starts decreasing this is something you can count on to build your wealth.http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/vegetarian-2050-190426669.html

A Little Sparkle to Your Portfolio

Gold

I am not a gold bug.  Gold is just another currency like the Euro, Dollar or Yen.  Banks, Central Banks, Individuals and Countries own it.  It is a store of value.  You should own some too.  It can’t be printed, but more can be found which has the same effect on the price of gold as printing currency.

In and of itself it is a worthless metal.  It is too soft for coinage and almost all industrial uses.  It does not corrode and is a good conductor of electricity.  Yet it has few uses other than jewelry. 

In review you now have 5 stocks.  Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) or another utility, Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) or another food stock, Eaton Corp (ETN) or another industrial stock, and U.S. Bancorp (USB) or some other financial (Bank) stock of choice, an oil or gas my recommendation was Chevron Corp (CVX).  Last pick was an metal stock my recommendation was copper ore Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) but any metal mining sector stock would do.  Remember you can own any stock in the sector not the one I recommend.

I am not recommending a stock this post but a ETF.  Most of the ETF’s I don’t really like much.  This one is an exception for many reasons.  This fund owns the actual gold bullion.  You thus own the gold but don’t have to store it, liquidate it at a coin store, etc.

I want to recommend you own some gold.  My brother actually does own gold the medal.  He stores it and buys the coins.  He has both bullion and the newsmatic coins.  By all means own one of each.  Nothing is prettier than a gold coin.  Buying a collector coin or bullion coin is easy, the storing and licquading the investement is very difficult, and for that reason I recommend the ETF. 

This is the most beautiful gold coin the United States ever minted!  In my opinion buy this one if you are going to own a newsmatic coin.

You could own a gold miner, but why?  Gold mines are difficult to make a lot of money in for several reasons.  First gold mines are sometimes in unstable and / or dangerous parts of the world.  Second mines get strikes, flood, blow up, run out of ore or the ore gets to be a lesser quality, etc.

I recommend buying the ETF.  I like the SPDR Gold Shares Trust GLD.  There are other EFT’s in gold, just make sure yours can be sold easily on the open market and it owns the actual gold.

The GOP would like to go back to the Gold Standard. 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48776347  It just shows how unhooked from reality they are.  Like the Missouri Representative Todd Aki’s statement views on rape, he must believe that only witches float, because he does believe that "legitimate rape" does not lead to pregnancy.  He is on the House science committee no less.  Like Representative Aki’s statement is not science the belief that the gold standard will work is not economically sound. 

Early American had two things a drastic boom and bust cycle, and a majority of Americans lived on farms and their houses were paid for.  So during a bust it was back to eating the food you grew yourself.  The SS Central America sank in September 1857, along with more than 30,000 pounds of gold, causing to the Panic of 1857. In the early 1850s, there was much economic prosperity but the loss of so much gold was a factor that along with the general economic slowdown (business cycle) caused a depression.   The agricultural economy suffered little whereas the economies in the large cities made a slow recovery.  No reason to go back to being yoked to gold, other than looking good it has few uses.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-golden-opportunity/2012/08/29/3e7de69c-f1e1-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_story.html  Wonderland revisited with the GOP and Ron Paul.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/48831068    http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000111539&play=1

Could some adults be invited into the GOP?  Time to use real science not the pseudo-science and hate of the very vocal minority of Americans.  11% of American’s agree with Todd Aki, and no economists agree with the going back to the Gold Standard.  I will make you a bet, if the GOP wins, they will form a committee and study going back to the gold standard just like they did in the 1980’s.  The committee will find that it is unfeasible and recommend we do not.  A plant on their platform designed to confuse the uneducated.  Remember most of the National Debt was created during the Bush years with the GOP controlled the White House and congress.  The gold standard is what the uneducated think will force a balanced budget, it doesn’t just study History most of the history of mankind we were on the Gold Standard and governments overspent.