We here at KangarooMoney.Com and the KM Partners congratulate and welcome the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, to office.
The challenges of peacefully changing governments, leaders and directions in politics is a distinct and honorable American tradition. The public selection of President in the United States of America is also a distinct and honorable American tradition. The choice of a young, vibrant and broadly appealing man such as President Obama points towards the wish of all Americans for dynamic solutions for the problems facing our nation today. Only time will tell if the administrations’ solutions are the answers to our nations’ problems.
President Obama deserves all of our support and belief. We look forward to his leadership and his administration. Welcome President Obama.
The New Year 2009! ( Seems like the old year 2008…)
We at KangarooMoney.Com and KM Partners wish you and yours a wonderful new year and a much more successful financial year this time around. And all of us at KangarooMoney.Com will be here to help you find the way to what we believe to be the path of success. For this week, and going forward, the typical weekly information will appear up front and the new weekly information will appear down below. Enjoy, learn and earn for the New Year.
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First and foremost, the KM Team and KM Partners has decided to publish our Disclaimer as a separate posting effective January 2009. Please spend a moment reading that posting to make sure that you understand that the writers of this blog are expressing their opinions only. When you have finished reading the Disclaimer 2009, please spend some extra time going back and keeping us honest by reading some of our previous postings — and verifying the dates! — to see how the KM Team and KM Partners have been doing for the past year. The KangarooMoney.Com and KM Partners all think that you will find our “opinions” are better than some other peoples’ so called “facts”.
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You the reader will find the KangarooMoney.Com weekly comments here on this page with more detailed opinions and reasons following after you hit the ( click here to read more ) highlight. ( Currently, the KM Team has turned this feature off so that one and all can get a feel for our writing and to read all that is available. In the future at an to-be-announced date, this feature will be turned back on. ) As an educated reader, you know that anyone can tell you a “fact” in a one or two sentence blurb but, the KM Team and KM Partners like to back up our comments with our own views that you can read so that you can understand where we are getting our opinions from.
Below this weeks articles, there is the Updates and Comparisons Section, or the U & C as we call it here in the office. In the U & C, the KM Team will give you some of the latest information concerning some of the previous comments and articles that have been published here as well as comparing the KM Team and KM Partners take on things as opposed to some of our mainstream and blog world counterparts. The Updates and Comparisons section is a nice way to see if the KM Team is staying the true course in the stormy ocean of The Economy.
Down lower on the page, you will find our Market Mover of the Week feature, which highlights a prediction for the one person that the KM Team and KM Partners believe will be the one person most responsible for shaping and driving the USoA markets and / or economy for the upcoming week. Included in this feature is the follow-up on who the MMW was for the week just past as well as pointing out if KangarooMoney.Com was correct in our prediction of who this was and who we determined to be the real Market Mover of the Week.
Going lower, you will find a similar feature called International Impact Incident of the Week. The Triple I section will highlight an international situation either just passed or an expected upcoming event that the KM Team sees as having a major impact on the USoA financial markets. Similar to the MMoW feature in nature, a weekly review will be held each week and you can track how the KM Team and KM Partners preformed in their predictions. With our multitude of International readers, we expect you all to keep us pretty honest in this section.
Still lower you will find our Definitions of the Week. In this section there will be items that explain some of the more technical terms used in our articles of the week. New for 2009 will be a BlogRoll attachment that will allow you to go over to a complied dictionary for our DoW going all the way back to the beginning of KangarooMoney.Com. Feel free to hop on over to the Dictionary whenever you feel the need to get the straight scoop on what we’re talking about. Or even just to check out some of the financial / political expressions of the day.
At this time, the last feature we would like to mention is one that we hope will help you to see where the KM Team and KM Partners are coming from and where we are trying to go to. Up in the BlogRoll section of the page is a little something called the Stock Docket, which is a link to a list of companies and their stock symbols that have been mentioned here in KangarooMoney.Com. The link will take you to a spreadsheet that list the company names, their stock symbols, the index they are traded on, the week they were mentioned here, and a listing of stock prices that included the Friday just past closing price. The KM Team with a firm lead from the KM Partners also highlight which stocks we supported at the time of mention and those that we did not support. While this is a considerable undertaking on the KangarooMoney.Com Teams’ part, we all feel that this will help to determine how things are going and guide us through the minefield of the USoA Economy. Eventually ( meaning 2009 sometime — honest! ) this feature is planned to be moved into an interior page, so please comment on this feature as much as possible before that happens.
Those of us that started the Stock Docket would love to have been right each and every time in this area but we have to admit that the financial meltdown of 2008 caught us all off guard. We feel bad saying that but we also realize that we are in some pretty good company when it comes to “being caught off guard”. All we’re going to say is that Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are no longer with us and KangarooMoney.Com is still here. It is safe to say that the ending 2008 Stock Docket is nowhere near where the original Stock Docket started out. The dramatic dips, dives and drops of 2008 caused some serious reconfiguring of numbers as well as some reevaluations of stocks and companies. Because of those facts, there will be a last 2008 Stock Docket and then the new choices, new outlooks and new recommendations / not recommended choices will be put forth by the KM Team and KM Partners and will take effect. Like the real world teaches us, choices are rarely life long and unchangeable. We will leave the last 2008 SD up on the BlogRoll just so you can jeer at us in late 2009. Or maybe you will cheer us, as we expect you to. As we said, 2008 gave everyone a left hook from deep center but we didn’t lose the whole pile…did you? Just remember, a share here, a share there and pretty soon it all adds up to real money.
Please remember that the KM Team, KM Partners, KangarooMoney.Com and all of our contributors are not accountants, stock brokers or personal financial advisers, nor are we even Lawyers. Should any one be any of those professions, full disclosure will be made attached to their writing. In the meantime, you need to be sure that you do what YOU want to do. If the KangarooMoney.Com opinions can help you have a better understanding of what has happened, is happening and / or is going to happen in such a way that you decide upon a path to follow, then our blog is serving a purpose. You don’t have to agreed with us and you don’t have to follow what we publish as the end all - be all of the financial world. All you have to understand is that this blog is ONLY guidance and direction as we believe it. If you or yours uses ONLY our humble writings as your sole guidance and direction in the markets and economy dealings of the USoA to base decisions on, do NOT come crying, or suing, any member of KangarooMoney.Com, the KM Team, or KM Partners for something that has happened that we did not or could not foresee. We certainly hope that this clears up any questions you might have in that regard.
And finally, because we are writing this for everyone to read and enjoy, please don’t be afraid to drop us a comment and let us know how we are doing. This is an ongoing work-in-progress where we hope to bring fresh changes, new site additions and new page features to the blog as we go forward. As the days go by, we won’t forget to tell you how we think we are doing — so don’t YOU forget to tell US how we are doing! Seeing your comments up on the page for all to see is always a rush so be constructive and informative for the community, not selling junk and whining about something deeply personal. Remember, we need to moderate what is written so please be nice and allow us to publish you as is. For now, enjoy, learn and earn!
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In Week 01 2009, the KangarooMoney.Com team determined that some of the attached websites on our BlogRoll were no longer appropriate to be attached here and active. With that in mind, the multiple discussions that took place in December 2008 in the KM Team offices about adding websites to the BlogRoll came now all come home to bear fruit. Beginning this week, new additions to the BlogRoll will begin to take place, giving you the Reader new opportunities to visit some of the websites that the KM Team and KM Partners visit on a regular basis. These will be mostly financial based but not always, so check out the listing to see what new information is available.
For the first new addition of 2009 to the KangarooMoney.Com BlogRoll, the KM Team is adding The Wall Street Journal public website ( http://online.wsj.com/public/us ) – a true no brainer from our perspective. The WSJ has long been the best printed daily update of what is happening in the financial center of the United States as well as how Wall Street impacts the World and how the World impacts Wall Street. The WSJ website, even this public version, will inspire you to look a little deeper into the financial workings of the world. And with that start, it will inspire you to look a little deeper into the financial workings of your OWN world. If change is truly good, than this will be an excellent change.
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It has been a week, hasn’t it? In case you haven’t noticed it, oil has dropped to about $40 per barrel which is even lower than last week. And yet, also in case you haven’t noticed it, gas has increased per gallon about 20 to 30 cents in the last week. Huh? No, the numbers are correct it’s just that the logic is a little skewed for those of us who don’t have a public economics degree hanging on the home office wall. Oh yeah — there IS no “public economics degree” program in this country. Then let’s do a real quick study on why oil is down and gas is up in the USoA.
Pricing Quick Study Week 02 2009 — the company bosses who make gasoline have determined that it costs too damn much to make gas that sells at less than $1.50 per gallon, so the refiners are not going to do it; hence, the price of oil can drop to $4 per barrel and we will still be paying about $1.50 per gallon for gasoline, while tankers ride at anchor at sea fully loaded with crude that has no where to unload. Any questions? Thank you for attending today’s Quick Study Seminar.
Were the situation above only not true it might make the past week a little easier to understand. But in a week that saw Israel and Hamas continue to wage the modern day equivalent of urban warfare while very little to no national news coverage reported it; in a week that saw Steve Jobs not appear at MacWorld and get coverage but where Apple said it would not attend the 2010 MacWorld ( or any foreseeable MacWorld Expos ) because the company no longer needed a trade show to get attention; in a week that saw the Chairman of Indias’ huge company Satyam resign in shame by admitting his financial result reporting was “concocted” to put it nicely; and in a week when a 74 year old German multiBILLIONaire committed suicide by stepping in front of a train AFTER Adolf Merclkle had COMPLETED the financial twisting and turning of getting a bridge loan to keep his holding company up and running ( VEM Vermongensverwaltung GmbH ), it’s a wonder that anything is understandable. Perhaps most difficult to understand of all is this — where was the national news coverage on this stuff during Week 02 2009????
American Myopia is a problem that has existed for as long as America has. And make no mistake, the problem is alive and well even as you read this. So blind are most people to the impact of events that are not in their front yards or living rooms that they choose to look no further than their television sets for tomorrows’ conversations, which should be about football, “24″ and winter weather. Over and over on the KM Teams’ office television today was the replay of the next Presidential inauguration WALK THROUGH while the war in Gaza wasn’t on because of no live shots of bomb explosions going off. We saw repeated commercials for American Idiot across all channels ( starting next week at 9pm so be sure to tune in! ) but couldn’t get an ounce of news about Congress’ reaction to President-Elect Obama’s proposed stimulus package. Hell, we heard more about the Giant’s loss on Sunday than the worst American job loss since 1945 in December.
Is this any way to run an airline? We mean an economy but we hope you get the irony.
The United States of America is printing money so fast that the ink is hardly drying before the QC inspectors are waving it out the door and on to the armored trucks. By the end of January 2009, the US debt is expected to reach over a TRILLION dollars, mostly caused by the last 5 months of “stimulus packages” proposed by and delivered by Congress. The Democrats in the office are already assigning this amount to President Bush which the Republicans are assigning this amount to the US House “Bleaders”. Political discussions have been banned here due to that TRILLION dollar debt. And why the “stimulus packages” to begin with? So that things can go back to the way they were and banks start lending again in order to get our economy going again. ?? Don’t we realize that what we were doing before is why we’re here now? Or, is it that we were all just tired of having the Federal, State and Local governments take care of things that now you, me and everyone else is going to go back to paying for ourselves? Don’t believe it? If a city of 435,000 people can announce that it has a budget shortfall in 2009 of 81 MILLION dollars ( about $187 for everybody in town, reported here http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/virginia-beach-faces-record-812-million-budget-shortfall ) how about NYC? Or LA? Or Boston, Dallas, Chicago or Tampa? Services at the local level are going to be cut — schools, police, firefighters, jails, public services — that’s just a fact. The state level cuts are still to be worked out but again, services for the public level will be cut — special need people, non-violent criminals, highway repairs and rebuilds, welfare programs — oh, and jobs too. The national level cuts won’t be worked out until Congress is about to go on Summer Vacation, to be sure. In the meantime, you and me, them and us, they and those will either fill the financial gap left behind by the governments’ pull outs or…the programs will fold tent until money is available another day. Period.
Which brings us to this weeks quote, “Smile and grin at the change all around“. The quote refers to the fact that everything old is new once again. You’ll have to be a history buff and a music buff to find the reference, particularly from Who, but the meaning is the same. We have been here before folks. The same dark days caused by the same greed in all of us caused by the same top-of-the-wave feelings that we, our parents, and our grand-parents and so forth have had before. Don’t be fooled, things are the same not as different as they appear.
So let the screaming begin, eh?
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As Americans far and wide prepare for the greatest Socialism-ization of the USoA since 1933, they have shut their eyes and are now running with arms outstretched towards this chosen destiny with a whimper in their voice and a grin on their face. When the money and credit was coming in hand over fist, these same people would have turned up their nose at bailouts, handouts and community outreaches but now, they are demanding level playing fields, helping hands and a divine sense of community. ( click here to read more ) It seems like only yesterday when President Reagan quipped that the 10 most feared words in the English language were “Hi. I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Even more recently, a calm but defiant President Clinton stood in the halls of Congress during a State of the Union Address and stated “The era of Big Government is over.” But today, the incoming President grimly looks us in the eye, waggles a finger and says “Government is the solution.” Are we all buying this attitude? With $750 BILLION already earmarked and half(assed) spent to “bailout” the economy, President-Elect Obama is attempting to secure an additional $850 BILLION to put in place a THIRD “bailout” in less than a calendar year to help a beat down economy try to get back to where it was. Where that economy was before the US Treasury printing presses began running non-stop last year, was in correction mode as the weak economy teetered towards failing, the strong shouldered the burden and the economy ( i.e., you and me and our businesses ) found a solution to bad business practices by enforcing the laws of the land through foreclosure, arrests and bankruptcy. Now, using “The Audacity of Hope”, the incoming government is attempting to be all things for all people and spread the wealth of the country for the best holding action since the Alamo was defended. People want the past mistakes forgiven and their “homes” saved for them, even if they can’t afford them for 50 to 75 years of mortgages. People want banks and financial institutions destroyed because the big bets they made in their 401K and stock programs stopped paying off and that’s not fair! And people are screaming to get good wages for work performed no matter how harmful that pay structure is to the company who is paying them. THAT is Socialism. And THAT is a failed situation that has not worked in the past, will not work in the present and can not work in the future. As much as we would all like to live in the Land of Benevolent Big Brother Government, the truth is that sooner rather than later we end up living in the Land of Big Brother where Government is no longer helping us but completely controlling us. Don’t like or believe this opinion? Go ask Bear Stearns or Merrill Lynch or GM or the dozens of other now gone multi-national companies around the globe how they like it. Like we all should have done 4 or 5 years ago, beware people who say not to worry about the costs, we are here to help now. The costs is EXACTLY what we should be worrying about now. ( KangarooMoney.Com will be working a longer version of “The Coming Socialism-zation of America” into a white paper to be attached to our BlogRoll. Look for the article soon! — The KM Team )
From “The Perils of Peace”, by Thomas Fleming, on page 110, the author quotes the Warren Buffett / Allen Greenspan of his day, Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris with a line from a letter to George Washington saying that his decision to become superintendent of finance was contrary to his personal feelings but he accepted for only one reason: “the absolute necessity of a reformation” in America’s finances. A little lower down, Fleming quotes from a letter about America that Morris wrote to France’s Director General of Finances, Jacques Necker, that “We are likely to become an unruly, ungovernable nation…the confidence of the people being destroyed, the credit of the government lost, its vigour is of course gone, and this unhappily at a time when exertion is most wanted.” The very scary thing about these comments is that they were written in 1781! ( click here to read more ) Long time readers of KangarooMoney.Com will understand that we often visit history to get a better view of the present situations. At a time when most citizens of the USoA are running from one side of the Titanic over to the other side looking for more glasses to put all that ice in, the bigger and long term picture is being lost from view in much the same way as it was back in the Revolutionary War Period. At that time in history, if citizens of the American Colonies were not fighting the war, on one side or the other, they were trying to survive, to make money, to build a future for themselves and their families. Some thought that it didn’t matter who won the war because whoever was left in power would demand the same thing of them — taxes that went up every year. When Superintendent Morris was writing the words above, the war was at it lowest point for both sides. Britain was having financial issues because the Empire was far flung and almost all ports of call were at war with someone; in Europe with France and Spain, in India with the natives, in the West Indies with everyone, with Ireland at home and even with itself as members of the House of Lords became more For and Against than ever before. The Colonies had top notch people throughout Europe not only dealing with those governments for alliances and war supplies but also begging every dollar they could possibly borrow. The bottom line became the bottom line for both sides by 1781 and, as Superintendent Morris was finding out the hard way, getting the debt was easy but paying it off was going to be long, painful and difficult process. Plans were put in place to not pay the serving army, to have the States gather and collect higher taxes, to have a national impost tax collected at all ports and businesses run for profit services in and for the national government. Only those things would help to restore The Colonies credit and the public’s faith. Or so Superintendent Morris believed…along with others like Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin. The measures, as you may recall, were NOT put into place. Mostly because the Congress at the time could not come to a reasonable agreement about those subjects but also because these roads were too hard to travel at the time. The KM Team mentions all of this because the USoA, and indeed the World, finds itself at an eerily similar crossroads to those of 1781. The question at this time is not if that is a horse drawn carriage across the way there but if the nation will travel the dark and scary straight road ahead or take a more dark and scary turn to the left or turn to the right and end up deeper in the forest? We have faith that a straight and true path will be taken.
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Updates and Comparisons:
From Week 20 2008:( Yes, I know we said that for 2008, a separate BlogRoll posting would be put up, but to be honest, this is just too much not add to the top page this week. ) As of January 10th, 2009 the Washington Post reported that the US Bankruptcy Court in Richmond VA has cleared Circuit City to sell some or all its assets in order to pay off the companies existing creditors. Circuit City added to that ruling that they were in talks to sell the company but, if a buyer was not found by end of business on Friday January 17th, 2009, this, the Nation’s #2 electronic retailer, would go out of business. ( read the article here : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010903407.html ). As mentioned by the KM Team wwwwaaaaayyyy back in Week 20 2008, the article mentions, and we quote, “Analysts said the company also erred when it switched from commission to non-commission sales and fired top-paid and top-performing salespeople in a move to save money.” Further, in Week 42 2008, the KM Team, with the knowledge and backing of the KM Partners made the call that Circuit City would not exist as a company after Week 04 2009. KangarooMoney.Com and KM Partners are standing by that call…no matter how much sooner it happens. “Would you like the extended warrenty plan with that?”
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Market Mover of the Week 02 2009: In this week of post mortem Presidency and pre-administration Presidency, there is a President that is taking the forefront in world events this week. But it’s probably not who you think. The major Market Mover of the Week 02 2009 is going to be President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, especially as he deals with President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine as well as Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin. President Medvedev has been heard to be playing both sides of the fence this weekend going into Week 02 2009. On the one hand, he has been chewing out Prime Minister Putin and he has already been calling President Yushchenko. Will he sort out the natural gas problems between Russia and Ukraine which is also a problem with natural gas getting to Europe? Will he survive the backroom dealings of Modern Russia past the week? Will he make the markets dance around the world as KangarooMoney.Com believes? Wait until next week and find out!
Week 01 2009 Market Mover of the Week: The opening of the 111th Congress during Week 01 2009 played a major backdrop for the attempted placement of the junior Senator from Illinois as appointed by Govornor Blagojevich. On the other side of the KM Team pick for Week 01 2009 MMoW, Governor Richardson form New Mexico went quietly back to his home state and got back to business. At the same time, a host of other politicos made quite the crashing sounds as they thrashed their way through the news during the past week. So who actually broke up some of the log jam on Wall Street during Week 01? Former US Secretary Robert Rubin and soon to be former Senior Counselor and former Director of Citigroup moved to the forefront of the list and became Week 01 2009 MMoW. Mr. Rubin is leaving as the Federal Government pushes his former employer, Citigroup Inc. to breakup, spin off parts of its current self and, in a serious backpedalling move, change its opinion on how it Citigroup would exist in the future as a banking company. Mr. Rubin had brought skill and panache to the company but is leaving it with tarnish on his credentials and future. The moves by Citigroup this week helped to drive the overall Wall Street numbers down but not without help from unemployment figures and, in a surprise, rising gasoline prices. Still, Mr. Rubin wins this weeks MMoW.
International Impact Incident of the Week: While the ongoing Israel vs. Hamas fight in Gaza has lost rating points and been dropped from most US news coverage — embedded reporters in Israel fighter units just hasn’t seemed to have caught on yet — that war has not seemed to have rocked the US or Global Markets as much as first thought. However, that situation did capture Week 01 2009 Triple I and while it is an ongoing issue the attention doesn’t seem to be there this week. Another interesting battle, of a sort, is catching the financial markets eye however — Russia versus Ukraine over natural gas movement and costs. As of Sunday January 11th, 2009 andagreement has been reached and signed by both parties which has allowed natural gas to flow normally again to the EU countries — BUT WAIT! Sorry. Russia, after signing the deal, decided it didn’t like the deal and we are all back to square one. Considering it is a nasty winter in Europe, this little jockeying for control by Russia and Ukraine will rate the KM Team’s Triple I of Week 02 2009. Let us all deeply hope that this does not become a shooting war also.
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DEFINITIONS:
Socialism: a theory of social behavior based on the idea of equal opportunities for all individuals coupled with an equal or deemed to be fair distribution of wealth; modern socialism developed in the late nineteenth century, primarily in Europe; the basic government form has moved from Europe to South America to South East Asia and is currently back in favor in South America; the various attempts to have socialism prevail as a modern government have to date all failed but there are movements under way in Africa as of this writing
EU: abbreviation for the European Union; an economic and political union of ( currently ) 27 nations with almost 500,000,000 citizens in its make up; first coming into force in November of 1993, the EU has a standard set of laws and a common trade policy; the EU makes up approximately 30% of the world’s gross world product
Pay to Play: a phrase which typically is used to describe the exchange of money in order to be allowed to “play” / engage in certain activities; previously used to describe past prime athletes paying to continue at a lower level, also to allow music to be played extra times on radio / television shows to embed the music in the public’s mind for purchase later ( see “payola” ); currently being used to describe the payment of cash for the right to be a political person and/or selection for a high ranking posting
“The Perils of Peace” sub-titled America’s Struggle for Survival AFTER Yorktown: a current book written by Thomas Fleming copyright 2007; the story of the end of the Revolutionary War, the financial crisis and political intrigue gripping the Colonies at the time and the men who brought the separate States out of the dark and into the light of Nationhood and world wide power; an enjoyable read for the parallels to the modern situations in the world today
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( This weeks quote is from the middle of something that, much like last week’s quote, needs a complete reading to be clearly understood as to how it applies to today’s real world. In 1971, a song came out with the lyrics of not only the above quote but also “The change, it had to come; We knew it all along; We were liberated from the foe, that’s all; And the world looks just the same; And history ain’t changed; ‘Cause the banners, they’d all flown in the last war”. The artists are The Who and yes, I said 1971. They were writing about the difficult times of the 1960’s, not the 2000’s, although the words are as good then as they are now. *sigh* But the KM Team thought 1992 was a long time ago, imagine how we feel about hearing 1971 was appearing in this weeks post? “Meet the new boss; Same as the old boss”…( read the lyrics here — http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/csimiami/wontgetfooledagain.htm )
History has a way of changing, even in mid-flight as the minutes tick by. Hence, the KM Team is having some difficulty in keeping our article update listing current and up to date. It’s sort of like tracking Mr. Madoff’s cash and gift mailing lists. More stuff just keeps popping up all the time. Still, the new year is finding the KM Team able to spend some time in the office to get things done to our satisfaction AND still spend time in our “real world” offices doing our jobs to our bosses’ satisfaction. That being said, we all expect a reasonable week of quiet leading up to President-Elect Obama being sworn in on January 20th, 2009, in Week 03 2009. The recap of KangarooMoney.Com 2008 is still ongoing but don’t worry, a Special Notice will be published when the recap is ready to read. Going forward, the KM Team and KM Partners want to thank you all for reading us and keep those comment coming in. As always, enjoy, learn and earn! The KM Team and KM Partners.
We at KangarooMoney.Com and KM Partners wish you and yours a wonderful new year and a much more successful financial year this time around. And all of us at KangarooMoney.Com will be here to help you find the way to what we believe to be the path of success.
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First and foremost, the KM Team and KM Partners has decided to publish our Disclaimer as a separate posting effective January 2009. Please spend a moment reading that posting to make sure that you understand that the writers of this blog are expressing their opinions only. When you have finished reading the Disclaimer 2009, please spend some extra time going back and keeping us honest by reading some of our previous postings — and verifying the dates! — to see how the KM Team and KM Partners have been doing for the past year. The KangarooMoney.Com and KM Partners all think that you will find our “opinions” are better than some other peoples’ so called “facts”.
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The start of New Year 2009 is going to allow many things to happen here at the KangarooMoney.Com site. For example, we have gone back and examined our BlogRoll addition websites and blog sites, just to check to see if they are the same sites that we first saw and read when we agreed to carry them here. Alas, the old saw that says nothing remains the same is quite true. So with that thought in mind, the following sites are being dropped from the KangarooMoney.Com BlogRoll ( sorry folks but some of you must leave! ):
http://articlenewsdirect.blogspot.com – this blog seems to have stopped publishing which means it’s information is no longer maintained; sorry “Article News Direct” but 2009 is not your year
http://www.isralog.com/ – right now, it appears that this blog is undergoing some, well, radical changes which is rending it reasonably unreadable, even after attempting to contact the blog owner; sorry “E-Commerce Blog” but we’ll be back again when things revert to previous form
http://www.johnmccain.com – in case you didn’t notice it, Senator John McCain did NOT win the general election for President of the United States; as with all such situations, the site is still active but static with just a “Thank You” note for all to read — thank YOU Senator McCain but better luck next time
We here at KangarooMoney.Com bid a fond farewell to these 3 blogs and wish them all well. While we have no new sites to add to our blog roll at this moment, it does mean that we have decided to keep some sites that you might find a bit curious for us here at an US Economy blog site but please, allow us to explain. In keeping the site http://www.barackobama.com/index.php or BarackObama.com, the USoA President-Elect maintains a website presence to counter balance the still included http://www.whitehouse.gov/ or The White House. Both of these sites hold a large influence on the US Economy so they get to stay. After January 20th, 2009 President-Elect Obama will own the White House site of course, so the Republican National Committee website or a suitable similar site will also be here on the blog roll. An easy choice to keep was the http://marketplace.publicradio.org/ or Marketplace from Public Radio because there is no question that this website and radio program is in keeping with the KangarooMoney.Com theme of explaining the US Economy. So, what about the site http://whatiseeoutmywindow.blogspot.com/ or What I See Out My Window? Well…it’s just a cool site to visit when you need to take a breath and relax, that’s all. Please, go visit our BlogRoll partners and watch for new additions during the upcoming 2009 year.
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You the reader will find the KangarooMoney.Com weekly comments here on this page with more detailed opinions and reasons following after you hit the ( click here to read more ) highlight. ( Currently, the KM Team has turned this feature off so that one and all can get a feel for our writing and to read all that is available. In the future at an to-be-announced date, this feature will be turned back on. ) As an educated reader, you know that anyone can tell you a “fact” in a one or two sentence blurb but, the KM Team and KM Partners like to back up our comments with our own views that you can read so that you can understand where we are getting our opinions from.
Below this weeks articles, there is the Updates and Comparisons Section, or the U & C as we call it here in the office. In the U & C, the KM Team will give you some of the latest information concerning some of the previous comments and articles that have been published here as well as comparing the KM Team and KM Partners take on things as opposed to some of our mainstream and blog world counterparts. The Updates and Comparisons section is a nice way to see if the KM Team is staying the true course in the stormy ocean of The Economy.
Down lower on the page, you will find our Market Mover of the Week feature, which highlights a prediction for the one person that the KM Team and KM Partners believe will be the one person most responsible for shaping and driving the USoA markets and / or economy for the upcoming week. Included in this feature is the follow-up on who the MMW was for the week just past as well as pointing out if KangarooMoney.Com was correct in our prediction of who this was and who we determined to be the real Market Mover of the Week.
Going lower, you will find a similar feature called International Impact Incident of the Week. The Triple I section will highlight an international situation either just passed or an expected upcoming event that the KM Team sees as having a major impact on the USoA financial markets. Similar to the MMoW feature in nature, a weekly review will be held each week and you can track how the KM Team and KM Partners preformed in their predictions. With our multitude of International readers, we expect you all to keep us pretty honest in this section.
Still lower you will find our Definitions of the Week. In this section there will be items that explain some of the more technical terms used in our articles of the week. New for 2009 will be a BlogRoll attachment that will allow you to go over to a complied dictionary for our DoW going all the way back to the beginning of KangarooMoney.Com. Feel free to hop on over to the Dictionary whenever you feel the need to get the straight scoop on what we’re talking about. Or even just to check out some of the financial / political expressions of the day.
At this time, the last feature we would like to mention is one that we hope will help you to see where the KM Team and KM Partners are coming from and where we are trying to go to. Up in the BlogRoll section of the page is a little something called the Stock Docket, which is a link to a list of companies and their stock symbols that have been mentioned here in KangarooMoney.Com. The link will take you to a spreadsheet that list the company names, their stock symbols, the index they are traded on, the week they were mentioned here, and a listing of stock prices that included the Friday just past closing price. The KM Team with a firm lead from the KM Partners also highlight which stocks we supported at the time of mention and those that we did not support. While this is a considerable undertaking on the KangarooMoney.Com Teams’ part, we all feel that this will help to determine how things are going and guide us through the minefield of the USoA Economy. Eventually ( meaning 2009 sometime — honest! ) this feature is planned to be moved into an interior page, so please comment on this feature as much as possible before that happens.
Those of us that started the Stock Docket would love to have been right each and every time in this area but we have to admit that the financial meltdown of 2008 caught us all off guard. We feel bad saying that but we also realize that we are in some pretty good company when it comes to “being caught off guard”. All we’re going to say is that Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are no longer with us and KangarooMoney.Com is still here. It is safe to say that the ending 2008 Stock Docket is nowhere near where the original Stock Docket started out. The dramatic dips, dives and drops of 2008 caused some serious reconfiguring of numbers as well as some reevaluations of stocks and companies. Because of those facts, there will be a last 2008 Stock Docket and then the new choices, new outlooks and new recommendations / not recommended choices will be put forth by the KM Team and KM Partners and will take effect. Like the real world teaches us, choices are rarely life long and unchangeable. We will leave the last 2008 SD up on the BlogRoll just so you can jeer at us in late 2009. Or maybe you will cheer us, as we expect you to. As we said, 2008 gave everyone a left hook from deep center but we didn’t lose the whole pile…did you? Just remember, a share here, a share there and pretty soon it all adds up to real money.
Please remember that the KM Team, KM Partners, KangarooMoney.Com and all of our contributors are not accountants, stock brokers or personal financial advisers, nor are we even Lawyers. Should any one be any of those professions, full disclosure will be made attached to their writing. In the meantime, you need to be sure that you do what YOU want to do. If the KangarooMoney.Com opinions can help you have a better understanding of what has happened, is happening and / or is going to happen in such a way that you decide upon a path to follow, then our blog is serving a purpose. You don’t have to agreed with us and you don’t have to follow what we publish as the end all - be all of the financial world. All you have to understand is that this blog is ONLY guidance and direction as we believe it. If you or yours uses ONLY our humble writings as your sole guidance and direction in the markets and economy dealings of the USoA to base decisions on, do NOT come crying, or suing, any member of KangarooMoney.Com, the KM Team, or KM Partners for something that has happened that we did not or could not foresee. We certainly hope that this clears up any questions you might have in that regard.
And finally, because we are writing this for everyone to read and enjoy, please don’t be afraid to drop us a comment and let us know how we are doing. This is an ongoing work-in-progress where we hope to bring fresh changes, new site additions and new page features to the blog as we go forward. As the days go by, we won’t forget to tell you how we think we are doing — so don’t YOU forget to tell US how we are doing! Seeing your comments up on the page for all to see is always a rush so be constructive and informative for the community, not selling junk and whining about something deeply personal. Remember, we need to moderate what is written so please be nice and allow us to publish you as is. For now, enjoy, learn and earn!
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Well, here we go Kangaroos. A big, shiny new year to work with, to our feet back under us and to drive forward to the future. Was 2008 a difficult year? According to the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary ( found here at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary ) the word difficult means = “1) hard to do, make or carrryout; 2a) hard to deal with, manage or overcome; 2b) hard to understand”. We must all agree that 2008 was “hard to deal with, manage or overcome” and it was certainly “hard to understand”. But was it “hard to do, make or carry out”? If you followed the herd and panicked in full flight from all things stock and investment related the, yes, 2008 was “hard to do, make or carry out”. The reality of life is that all things must change, that a status quo cannot be maintained for an excessive amount of time. Even the Sun will burn out one day. With that in mind, you as an investor and as a person must be prepared to face new status quos in your life. 2008 was a clear indication that change was, and remains, a necessary thing.
Now the KM Team and KM Partners are sure you are asking your computer screen “But a change to WHAT??” The snap back that the American Public has made over the last 4 months of 2008 towards a more reasonable debt load and much more planned spending should be a clear indication of the path that most people are going to take in 2009. “Staycations” were all the rage in 2008 as people quit jumping on planes to spend the weekends cavorting in places that they only remembered when the next credit card bill came in the mail. Car pooling, electric cars, energy conservation and alternative fuels were also big items that got excessive ( some would say nauseating ) coverage during the same time period, especially as oil not just reached $100 per barrel but shot past it to finally reach the top of $147.27 per barrel on July 11th, 2008. How much did that price affect the American Public? Try the fact that Americans drove 3.5% less in October 2008 than they did in October 2007. Was this a big number, I mean, really? Well, according to a press release from the Department of Transportation of the USoA dated December 12th, 2008 that 3.5% decrease represents a change of 8.9 BILLION vehicle miles traveled less for October 2008 than for October 2007. Read that number again — 8.9 BILLION miles less in one month on a year to year basis. If you can understand that number try this one — 100 BILLION fewer miles. THAT number is the decrease in vehicle miles traveled over American roads from November 2007 to October 2008. What Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush couldn’t convince us all to do, $4.00 per gallon gasoline did. ( to read the full DoT Press Release and follow leads to more details, click over here – http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pressroom/fhwa0826.htm )
When you compare what you “want to do” to the what you “need to do” in life, changes become easier to see and to do. Yes, having a television set the size of a bedroom wall would make watching “American Idiot” that much easier to do and maybe even more fun to do it. But is that where you want your retirement money to end up? Or your childrens’ school and college funding? And it’s not just the tvs we over reached on but most everything in life. Bigger cars, nicer clothes, larger homes, competitive lifestyles and much, much higher future bills. Into all lives the debt comes to be paid and it appears that 2008 was the Bill Collectors year. Oh well. At least we have the tv to watch, right? Which brings us to this weeks quote, “There’s fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on”. Too true if you don’t like “American Idiot” and it’s 56 spinoffs, don’t you think?
Now, let us begin again anew!
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There are so many people out there praying, hoping, willing a change in the reality that they find themselves in as of today that every supreme being and deity believed in by Man must have a ringing in their ears. The noise is so loud that the people bemoaning their fate can’t hear the answer that is being told back to them — “You did this to yourself so you can fix it yourself!” And shouldn’t we all listen to our chosen deity? ( click here to read more) The sole truth in the financial world today is the same message we all didn’t listen to when our parents were blathering on about us taking more responsibility in our world and cleaning up our acts. Back then the choice was simple — find the money to do or get what we wanted OR do without until we had the money. There was a certain MLM system that I know that preached and preached the “delayed gratification” method to all of its operators as a method to stay to the tried and true of only having something when they could afford it. The idea was to focus your desires on something that truly meant something more important than showing off or quick comfort. A bigger tv might originally be desired, for example, but why stop your dream there? What good was a bigger tv without a great sound system to go with it? And if you had a better sound system, why just a bigger tv when you get a projection system to bring out the full picture? But wouldn’t a full entertainment room be the best thing to put that stuff in? And you know, a full entertainment room wouldn’t be any good in the same old house, now would it? No siree. You need a whole new HOUSE for that stuff! And on it went until you truly reached what you thought was important, whatever that might be. The MLM was a little too material orientated back then but the truth it tried to teach was not. The idea was to put off what was a flash in the pan to work towards quality and lasting meaning. Somehow, it seems that forgot those values as we drive through the first decade of this century. Going without does not mean doing without though. How many channels can you watch on that wall sized tv at one time? Would you watch the news? Sports? Movies? Financial shows? Or something with your family and loved ones? Would it help you to waste time or to be a better person and have a better family? If you are only planning to get bigger tvsin life, instead of a better life, is that really the way to go? The change that we all desire is something we can all do. Maybe a little less driving around and a little more playing catch in the back yard? Perhaps a little less prideful finery and a little more sensible humility as we talk with our friends and neighbors? Even maybe a little less wasting of food and a little more time cooking and eating together? Change is in all of us, not on a bumper sticker or in a speech. Let’s change together and see how far we go.
Snake in the grass, the Universal Default Clause…The credit card companies have had the universal default clause buried in that pile of paperwork they send us all every month along with our bill for years. A growing number of banks that issue credit cards are now exercising the universal default language, much to our growing chagrin. ( click here to read more) In the past, this and other provisions in the credit contracts hadn’t been enforced. Withbanks trying to raise revenue withfees instead of just lending money to qualified borrowers, and with Congress failing to consider the fairness of this and other lending practices, even after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ( OCC ) issued an advisory letter to credit card industry as a whole, the credit card issuers continue to enforce this policy in order to gather revenue they feel they need to survive. We here at KangarooMoney.Com are purposely acknowledging and identifying the OCC advisory letters in the spirit of “change”. ( see the original OCC advisory letter from 2007 here : http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2007-54.htm ) If the incoming President-Elect Obama is going to bring relief to Main Street as promised, then addressing this situation would be as good a place to start as any other. The Universal Default Clause victimizes impacted customers by raising their interest rates, adding late fees and jumping up the over-limit fees. Changing terms in midstream with little or no notice to the impacted customer and failing to identify as to what or how they were late on making payments either to that creditor or some unrelated debt holder is a cold and ruthless business tactic harking back to the Gilded Age of Big Banks in this country. Some customer complaints to Congress and the credit card industry has listed the fact that had they been more aware that the universal default clause would be so ruthlessly enforced, they would never have gotten the credit card with that firm in the first place. So, how can you stop this practice? The old fashioned way — make sure you do not open an account that has this clause attached to it. Once the credit card companies lose enough business ( i.e., money ) they will stop this business tactic. In these perilous times, banks can not afford to be alienating their paying customers just to play the fee game, especially by feeing their customers who are paying them on time. For the current go forward on this situation, you need to try and be clear about your obligations when entering into this or any other loan. You need to pay your bills in a timely manner and to be sure to fight back if this situation happens to you. The government has enacted legislation to change this practice but the dates for most of these laws to be enacted don’t even begin until 2011 or later, so for now, it is up to you to protect yourself. ( sources — http://www.banrate.com/brm/news/credit-management/200400120a1.asp ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk-based_pricing ; http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/advisory/2004-10.doc ; http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/advisory/2004-10.txt ; http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2007-07-30-credit-cards_n.htm )
The old lament of “I wish I knew then what I know now” has been rearing its head for some time now in the financial world, both professionally and personally, as this “pick-an-industry-to-blame-name-here” crisis continues. Long term readers of KangarooMoney.Com will realize that had they been reading along and following the paths laid down here, they DID know then what they needed to know now. ( click here to read more ) For faithful readers of KangarooMoney.Com, you might remember that back in Week 16 2008 the KM Team spoke to you all about financial planning and how it wasn’t just for The Rich. Indeed, the article # 6 that week spoke towards getting your finances under control in one of the most basic ways possible. By just making a list of what bills you had, the payments that were necessary to support those bills and then making some determinations as to what you could and could not support, the reader was able to lay out a simple budget going forward. The KM Team weren’t harsh in our plan ( at least we didn’t think so ) as we said cut out unnecessary spending, know where you money is being spent, track all of your spending to identify possible low hanging fruit in money saving cuts, pay off your credit cards, check out saving and 401K plans and have six months of savings in the bank as a back up in case the worst ever happened either medically or job wise. Back on April 20th, 2008 when that posting went up there were some tweaks and shooting pains starting in the economy but nothing drastic just yet. Oil hadn’t peaked yet, the housing market was beginning to fall but looked like it could be saved, the first stimulus checks from Uncle Sam had begun coming in the mail, layoffs hadn’t really started yet and a great number of you thought we at KangarooMoney.Com were chicken littles pointing at the sky for no real reason. Well. How do you like us now? The sky is no longer falling little joeys — it fell. Hard. And while you might think that it’s too late to get a grip and move forward with any great success, the KM Team and KM Partners are here to tell you that you’re wrong. It’s never too late to move forward and to be successful. With New Year’s 2009 still ringing in our ears, Week 01 2009 is the perfect time to sit down and make out that budget like we laid out back in Week 16 2008. Go ahead back there and get the plan and focus the ideas that were so far fetched back then but now seem like your past self talking to your future self. It’s really not too late. But a word of caution to you all. Don’t cut out all of the fun in your life. Don’t eliminate electricity for candles or supermarket meat for roadkill. Don’t cut out a little treat at the end of the week or a favorite nearby place to visit to save on the gas to get there. We all need fun in our lives in order to remember why we live at all. True, you may have to moderate your fun a little, say a trip to the local beach instead of Miami or maybe lunch from a plain brown bag instead of fast food place everyday but, really it will all be worth it in the end. That burger and fries will taste a whole lot better when it’s not the same meal you’ve had each day for the last month. And when you DO get to Miami again – and you will little joeys, you will – you’ll enjoy yourself a whole lot more seeing old things in a new light all over again…as Yogi would say. As for Week 16 2008…well, it’s still posted so feel free to make use of the information already there and waiting for you.
Somebody has to make the call. So — Let the RECOVERY begin! The banks have to start loaning again at some point. They have been hiking fees and raising the credit card interest rates as well as using the dreaded Universal Default Clause to maintain their profit levels as best as possible. All the banks are doing are nickle and diming their customers, making for unhappy and lost business and driving investors back into the corner of their bedrooms. But there are other ways to turn a buck in the coming recovery. ( click here to read more) For banks and financial institutions, writing paper on real estate is where the money is and always has been. And yes, as long as the borrower can repay the debt the lender will write the paper. Hopefully, all of us have learned something from the sub-prime mortgage mess of 2007-2008. Say something like ten percent down, good credit and, dare I say it, verifiable income. Nobody can accurately call the bottom of the bad paper market but if we are not there now, we’re awfully close. Why do I say that? Because we are so close to a steady bottom now that it is an easy call. Let’s look at some figures and companies that bear that statement out. We’ve got Blue Chip Stock companies like General Electric ( GE, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.ge.com/ ) that has been battered of late like any other stock and that has been trading above $20 per share for the last ten years including the 3:1 stock split of May 2000. How above $20? Try from $57.81 in September 2000 to $25.50 in September 2008. Now GE is languishing around $17 per share. What has changed? People lost faith in stocks not in General Electric. Let’s look at Boeing ( BA, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.boeing.com/ ), a stock that has been reduced in value of late due to a long strike this past summer and fall in 2008. What? Investors don’t like the stock being down to $45.25 and having the company hold all those back orders while facing lengthening delays to fill those orders? Why? Again, what has changed? Let’s move over and look at some other different lines of business. How about Rite-Aid Corp. ( RAD, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.riteaid.com/ ) or Pier One Imports ( PIR, traded on the NYSE, not recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.pier1.com/ ) as companies to watch? Neither company is doing as well as they had done in the past but both are still with us at thistime and both have a large amount of stores and inventory to move if necessary. Or how about the local Ford ( F, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, a stock owned by KM Partners, http://www.ford.com/ ) or General Motors ( GM, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.gm.com/ ) dealership in towns around the country? You can at look the ones that are recently closed or the ones that appear to be closing if you want. Wouldn’t those choice locations be even better served by having a Pep Boys ( PBY, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.pepboys.com/ ) or Autozone ( AZO, traded on NYSE, recommended by KangarooMoney.Com at this time, http://www.autozone.com/home.htm ) move into those buildings, taking over those eight automotive service bays and off street parking to boot? All they’d have to do would be to change the signs and telephones then they’re open for business. In retrospect, what would those locations be worth if they were shut down and liquidated for pennies on the dollar to satisfy the paper holders desires? And let’s not forget the numerous licenses, variances and permits that the properties already have grandfathered in and are available for use? All interesting companies and all poised to rise with the coming recovery. This situation has been going on since the beginning of time. The survival of the fittest, over simplified? I don’t think so. After all, someone was successful with those companies and built on those locations. It’s all part of the evolution of life.
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Updates and Comparisons: The KM Team and KM Partners are going to undertake a mighty project in the next 7 days — update and compare the stories of 2008 to be presented as a separate BlogRoll article. In the meantime, this spot in Week 02 2009 will be for letting you know if anything dramatically changed from Week 01 2009. A little breather in the middle this week if that’s okay with you reader.
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Market Mover of the Week: It would seem that we have a dual award this week and both for the wrong reasons KangarooMoney.Com is afraid to say. Governors Bill Richardson ( D - New Mexico, state website http://www.newmexico.gov/?stnm= ) and Rod Blagojevich ( D - Illinois, state website http://www.illinois.gov/ ) are both under very large clouds for what is now being called “pay to play” scandals. In the old days, say pre-Obama, we used to call this graft, sometimes straight out nasty extortion when leading politicians arm twisted business people or other politicians to pay them for the rights to important ( i.e., valuable ) state or federal contracts. Governor Richardson has done an honorable thing by stepping aside from his possible Cabinet appointment to address the issues facing his administration and the state of New Mexico. Should he come out the current situation in reasonable form the KM Team believes he will be given some duty in the Obama administration. Governor Blagojevich on the other hand appears to be headed for the unemployment line at best and jail at worst. Both men however will shake up the US news this week and perhaps either distract the spotlight away from Wall Street or deflect that harsh glare right back to Wall Street where another scandal could erupt this week. By the way, why didn’t we choose Mr. Madoff as MMoW WK01 2009 you ask? Because we believe Mr. Madoff will have at least 26 to 52 other chances to be the MMoW in 2009. HIS spotlight is far from dimming anytime soon.
Week 52 2008 Market Mover of the Week: We can’t go back in time and fairly pick a name then point to ourselves and say “Look, we picked a winner.” We could, but it just wouldn’t be fair. With that in mind, the KM Team and KM Partners agreed that the MMoW for WK52 2008 was that retail genius himself, St. Nick. Or Santa Claus. Or Kris Kringle. Or, well, you get the idea…we hope. The dire forecasts of the most horrible Christmas shopping season ever really didn’t seem to come to pass. Oh the retail season was bad to be sure and there are still a couple of big store chains suffering through their last gasps ( KB Toy Stores, Circuit City and Toys R Us spring right to mind ) but we didn’t hear about pain and suffering at Wal-Mart, Target, Sears and K-Mart now did we? And to date the KM Team and KM Partners haven’t heard very much whining about what people DIDN’T get for Christmas this year. So old St. Nick seemed to hold up his end of the bargin last week. Let’s hope he can do it again for Christmas 2009.
International Impact Incident of the Week: With so much to choose from this week, it is difficult to pick just one situation that will draw everyone’s attention and actually shake the US Markets. From Indonesia comes several earthquakes, some as high as 7.1 on the Richter Scale, that have been shaking things up around that area for the last several days now. In Sri Lanka comes the reports that the Tamil Tiger capital city has been captured by government ground troops, although no one of importance appeared to be in the city at the time. The opposition leader, John Atta Mills, won the Presidency in Ghana. Slovakia adopted the euro, joining 15 other European nations in using that currency. The countries of Ukraine and Russia are fighting over natural gas prices thus affecting the supplies being delivered to Europe. hmmm, which one to pick, which one to pick? Oh yeah. Israel has taken on Hamas in Palestine in a shooting situation as it fights to put an end to having rockets fired without cause or reason into that country. On the whole, the KM Team and KM Partners will have to go with the Israel / Hamas battle as the Triple I of the week. Tough call eh?
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DEFINITIONS:
MLM: abbreviation for Multi-Level Marketing; a system also referred to as Network Marketing, that allows a parent company to have multiple unpaid workers under the parent selling products to consumers directly and / or recruiting and having unpaid workers under them doing the same selling process; these unpaid workers develop an income by earning a commission on each product sold by them and a piece of each product sold by the workers that have signed up under them; legal MLM systems are not pyramid or Ponzi schemes but are difficult to distinguish without careful review and using personal feelings
OCC: abbreviation for Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a branch of the US Treasury Department that charters, regulates and supervisors all national banks in the United States of America; there are four district offices in the USoA and a branch in London to supervise the international activities of US banks overseas; the Comptroller is appointed by the USoA President; that person also sits on the board of directors of the FDIC; see more here http://www.occ.treas.gov/
Universal Default Clause: typically a clause in your credit agreement fine print that states that if the payee is 30 days late in paying ANY payment to anyone, that credit rate can rise hugely and your credit score can be harmed and / or changed as well; as with all signed agreements, once a person has committed to the debt / loan, there is little that can be done to change or reverse the situation
Blue Chip Stock: derived from the fact that the blue chip is the highest denomination in the use of poker chips, a company is usually termed as being blue chip when it is a well established company with stable earnings and no or very limited liabilities and typically pays dividends to its stock holders; the term was reported to have been coined in 1923 or 1924 by Oliver Gingold, at the time a member of Dow Jones, who was impressed by the dollar value of trades coming across the ticker of some of the major stocks at the time; the term has stuck since that time and companies deemed to be “Blue Chip” are typically mentioned as being bellweathers of the daily and ongoing USoA stock markets
Yogisms: sayings of dubious quality from one time professional baseball catcher Yogi Berra; typically defined as a phrase that reads to be absurd but upon hearing it said makes a point but not necessarily sense; two of the best known Yogisms are “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” and “It’s like deja vu all over again.”
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( This weeks quote is from a place and time that seems rather remote today. It’s about a time when 57 channels was a HUGE number to choose from, especially for those of us who were used to only 3-6 channels. That gets lost in today’s world of satellite dishes, hard wired cables, internet and direct beaming technology where you might get closer to 5700 channels. Of course, the problem was the same with3-6 channels as with57 channels as with 5700 — THERE’S NOTHING ON TV TO WATCH!!! The man who first brought this lament to the forefront is back in the news as the 2009 Super Bowl Halftime entertainer this year – ladies and gentlemen, it’s The Boss, Mr. Bruce Springsteen. And if you need just a little more understanding about the reference and the song, scoot on over to http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/57Channels.html and read the full lyrics for yourself. A telling song about 2008-2009 from, you ready for this?, 1992. *sigh* Everything old is new again…. )
So here we are once again. The KM Team and KM Partners all running around, sitting around and yelling around the office once again after a nice holiday season. The news flowing in from the last few weeks and the pending forecasts and news items coming in for the upcoming month of January are keeping all the creative juices flowing. As we all make our way out of the darkness that was the worst financial meltdown in over 70 years, we need to take a moment and let our eyes and minds adjust to the new year standing before us. That will mean a recap of KangarooMoney.Com 2008 is coming with all the good, the bad and the ugly that we need to talk about. In the meantime, the KM Team and KM Partners want to thank all of our readers for doing what they do best and keeping us honest. Keep those comments coming because we do discuss everyone of them. And if you all could, enough with the attempts to make us post links to the Payday Loan websites eh? Let’s leave that old shoe in the past and move forward with confidence. For now, enjoy, learn and earn! The KM Team & KM Partners
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