Kangaroo Money

We have been asked, “So where have you been, KM Team?”

Well, nnnnoooottttt exactly.  But we have been gone for awhile.

When you are one of only a few that spends most of your time doing something, it becomes very disconcerting when suddenly EVERYONE is trying to do what you do.  For the KM Team, it has been more than a little uncomfortable watching every channel on the television report for hours on end about the economy here in the USoA and just as uncomfortable when we get into the car then search for a radio station that is playing music without any financial comment overtones.  The KM Team and KM Partners soon found our voices lost in the constant babble that was going on every minute of every day about the economy.  Worse than that, the babble was only looking at the PAST, trying to find someone to blame and worse still, trying to find the way back to the Fall of 2007.  Suddenly, everyone knew everything about the economy and was trying to tell everyone else.  Well, they knew everything except how to fix the economy and exactly who to blame but, they wouldn’t shut up anyways.  We all felt it was a good time for a rest.

Between our day to day jobs, our independent work, our personal interactions AND this, our favorite blog website, well, the KM Team took some major mental hits and fractures during this rest period.  The base of the KM Team is still here, back to working and writing but not all of the satellite teammates made the move.  Some are still struggling with the increased work loads in their life due to cutbacks and cutdowns.  Others are struggling with the added personal load that real life changes have wrought in this economy.  And a few, well, a few are just going through growing pains and they need extended rest.  After all, this is an economy the likes of which haven’t been seen in about 35 years.  That takes time to study and digest with lots of trips to the library and lots of listening to old timers tell you about the last time the economy was this way.  For a great example of this, pop on over to the Wall Street Journal website and read this article about the last time life was this way — http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124001598168631027.html#mod=todays_us_money_and_investing  — not the long time past down days of THE Great Depression but rather the real life hard times of a recent “economic downturn”.  Sometimes, people don’t want to study up on that kind of knowledge.  Sometimes, people don’t want to open old wounds and recall how bad things were back then.  For some of us, “back then” isn’t as long ago as watching an MSNBC slideshow on the 1930’s but rather just remembering childhood.  In any case, some of the KM Team are now on “extended leave”.  But just like the economy, they’ll be back, they always come back.

So, what have been up to with the site while we’ve spent our downtime?  Let’s start with the picture up at the top of the page.  Real beauty isn’t it?  I’m sure that you have all said to yourself that the picture looks familiar but there is something wrong with it, something not quite right.  In some respects, your comment is correct but maybe not for the reasons you think.  The shot above is the very first Earthrise ever seen by Man.  It was taken by the Apollo 8 Lunar Module Pilot, William Anders ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Anders ) on the 4thorbit of the spacecraft around the Moon.  The previous 3 orbits did not allow a view of such a sight and as the crew of Anders, Frank Borman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Borman ) and Jim Lovell ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lovell ) were trying to set up their preprogrammed list of duties on that 4th orbit, up popped the Earth over the Moon horizon out of the module window.  It surprised all three astronauts at the time, especially because this was something that had never been thought of back on Earth during the whole planning time of Apollo 8.  Now the Earth floated like a giant blue-white-green balloon over the horizon and getting a snapshot of it for history wasn’t even on the schedule of things to do!  Grabbing the handy and durable Hasselblad camera, the shot above was taken — a black and white still shot for prosperity.  Quickly finding a color cartridge to slam home into the camera, the astronauts snapped two color shots before relaxing and enjoying the show that the Earth and Moon put on that day, way back during Christmastime 1968.

The color shots are what people think of today.  Those two color Earthrises helped to inspire more Earth Day rallies in April 1969 than you can imagine.  This was a time when color television had just come into full blown use AND environmentalism wasn’t even a real word yet.  That black and white shot up above has been forgotten about much like the true first picture of a US flag being raised over Iwo Jima; it just doesn’t have the same zing as those color shots do.  ( for a great article and additional background information, please go here– http://movingimages.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/earthrise-at-40-the-accidental-first-snap-shot-of-our-home-planet/ )

Isn’t there something else strange about the shot?  Well, yes but you wouldn’t think of it unless I told you.  The Earth is indeed “rising” over the Moon BUT, it is coming up and moving in what would be called a “westerly” direction.  That’s because the picture is not pointed wrong and turned on its side but because that is how the Earth “rose” over the Moon when viewed by our three astronauts.  All three of these pictures, the black and white above and the two color pictures that followed it, got turned on ITS side by all of the newspapers and magazines back here on Earth so that people could see an actual “EarthRISE”.  In reality, the picture above is true to life.  Taken by the first three men to leave the pull of the planet Earth and travel somewhere else completely that Christmas over 40 years ago.  And in keeping with this weeks theme — not only is this event well in the mind & memory range of most people alive today but all three of those heroic men are still alive and part of all us today.  Great job guys.  Thanks for the postcard.

Our first week “back” and we’ve opened with a space history lesson with a little bit of financial history tossed in like an afterthought.  But maybe not.  We wanted to show you that our time away has allowed us to learn even more about this blogging stuff — after all, pictures are cool, don’t you think?  And along with pictures will come graphs, and multiple colors and and and — whoa, almost got carried away there!  Suffice it say that not only will all those things start to make appearances here at KangarooMoney.Com but we also have some additional surprises coming up as well.  The KM Team will have more history, more photos, more memories and more articles to report on as the weeks go by.  Like the space program, our heroes, the worldwide economy and KangarooMoney.Com, we ain’t dead yet.  Indeed, far from it.  We’ve just been gone for a little while but now we’re back.  And to start off our typical weekly quote feature, let’s try this easy one on for size and see how many of you great readers get it – “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth”.

Now, on with the show eh?

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We at KangarooMoney.Com and KM Partners realize and appreciate you taking your time and effort to read our blog.  All of us here at KangarooMoney.Com will continue to be here to help you find the way through the economic minefield that seems to have been created.  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 andearn for the future as we all find our way back from the fear and darkness that has been.

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First and foremost, the KM Team and KM Partners have 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 andKM 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 andKM 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 taking down the outdated websites and adding new websites to the BlogRoll that are more in line with our train of thought, have now come home to bear fruit.  Beginning that week, new additions to the BlogRoll began 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 second new addition of 2009 to the KangarooMoney.Com BlogRoll, the KM Team is adding the Republican National Committee website ( http://www.rnc.org/ ).  This is the balance that we promised for the addition of the new White House website.  No problems here — it’s the same counter balance that was there before except with the party roles reversed.  Even if the world doesn’t like it, the KM Team and KM Partners believe in fair balance for our politics.

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While it would be great to say that we have hundreds of articles to post up here this week, that just wouldn’t be true — kinda.  Actually, we haven’t had a chance to vet and edit all of our current stories just yet…a bit of a hold over from the changes and swap-ups that we spoke of earlier in the posting.  HOWEVER, next week there will be the usual banter and articles that you have all come to expect.  So, until then, enjoy the lack of bothersome ads, the new pictures and a little less to read!  Have a great week!

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Updates and Comparisons:

From Week 01 2008:KangarooMoney began to article 4 with the phrase “LET THE RECOVERY BEGIN!”  As the talking heads, radio shows, television networks and The White House have been saying for the last 2 weeks now, it appears that the bottom has been found in the market and the economy is stabilizing.  The KM Team had concluded that the US Dow Market bottom, the common reference market for talking about the US economy, would be 8000-8200.  When looking at the year 2009, there has been drops below that 8000 threshold but not for long.  What does this bottom estimate tell us?  The KM Team and KM Partners believe that great stock purchasing potential exist today, the likes of which have not been seen in a generation.  Take advantage of this and plan for the future.

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Market Mover of the Week 16 2009: The purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc. by Oracle Corp. is a serious changing of the tech market playing field in the USoA, holding off a big move by IBM and moving serious money in what has been a slow market sector.  This makes Oracle’s CEO, the one and only Larry Ellison, this weeks MMoW.  Mr. Ellison was able to move in during a critical stall in the IBM & Sun merger talks to make a better match for all products concerned and show a better balance sheet to Sun, both now and for the future.  As with all big mergers, the surface and up fornt feeling is that this is good match.  However, the devil will be in the details.  And the details are not Mr. Ellison’s stong suit.  We shall see.

Week 15 2009 Market Mover of the Week: Well, we have been here before, haven’t we?  And, like before, it’s really not fair for us to pick past winner after we already know the answer.  So, let’s pass on Week 15 shall we?  And we will go forward from here.

International Impact Incident of the Week: While the ongoing Israel vs. Iran war of words heats up, this time it would appear to be a time to worry.  Israel has never been really big about asking permission when it comes to attacking a precieved or real enemy, so this past weekend when it hinted around that it was really, REALLY ready to take out the Iranian nuclear “situations”, the news networks could not really find a good way to report that news.  Now, it appears that the news has been buried this week.  Past history would show us that news once announced rarely, if ever, buries itself.  Pay attention to this situation and don’t be surprised about any part of its outcome.

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DEFINITIONS:

Environmentalism: The broad social movement from the 1960’s that solidified during 1969 and 1970 in the Earth or Green movement that we are familiar with today.  The basis of the movement is for the conservation and improvement of the environment of Earth, although many groups form a very broad spectrum from radical return to nature totally themes to more complacent try to do no harm to your surroundings themes.  However, environmentalism and naturalism movements have been known to exist since the late 1600’s and early 1700’s.  The views of Earth from the Apollo missions helped to galvanize people into having the first recognized Earth Day on April 22nd 1970.

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( This weeks quote should be easy, based on the context it is delivered in.  From the Apollo 8 expedition during the Christmastime 2nd television broadcast after the crew had read the story of creation from the Book of Genesis, Commander Frank Borman signed off the evening with the quote above.  While the Apollo 8 crew took a very large amount of grief for bringing in so much religion on the space trip, they captured the world’s imagination with their achievements — and their incredible photos.  Now, a little over 40 years later, the KM Team and KM Partners salute the crew of Borman, Lovell and Anders all over again.  Thank you gentlemen and good night to YOU, our (still!) living legends. )

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’re all looking forward to swinging back up in the saddle and charging back into the fray once again.  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.

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