Monday, July 27, 2009

Afternoon thread

OK, what's on your mind?
.
.
.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

McClatchy might not be out of the woods yet...

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/27/news/companies/earnings_surprises_wont_last.breakingviews/index.htm?postversion=2009072710

If the key to happiness is low expectations, then stock investors must be over the moon.

Over a third of the S&P 500 index constituents have reported second-quarter earnings. Even though profits are down about a third from a year earlier, more than three-quarters of the firms have beaten analysts' expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. That's on track to be the highest ratio ever. But investors shouldn't get ahead of themselves.

The idea that companies are handling tough times better than feared no doubt has helped lift the S&P 500 (SPX) by more than 20% since the end of March. Yet the foundations of a sustainable recovery look shaky.

That's because non-financial companies have managed to improve earnings only by sharply cutting costs. Manufacturing and trade inventories have also been falling since the start of the year, according to the Department of Commerce.

These relatively quick and easy fixes will be harder to replicate with every quarter that passes. If companies cut costs too far, eventually nobody is there to answer the phone or assemble the sandwich. Inventories eventually reach the minimum levels required to do business.

What companies eventually need is revenue growth, which is closely tied to economic growth. This is where the news is less good. Perhaps not surprisingly, the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far saw revenues shrink an average 2% from the second quarter last year.

The rise in spending by American consumers and businesses that might boost revenues doesn't look imminent. Companies are planning further cutbacks in both employees and capital expenditure, according to a recent National Association of Business Economics survey. That probably means lower sales of everything from clothes to power plants.

Furthermore, consumers and firms are squirreling away cash, repairing their balance sheets. Even when spending does turn up, it'll probably happen slowly.

Combined with somewhat more optimistic forecasts from analysts, all this suggests expectations will be much tougher to beat in the next quarter. Unless businesses and consumers open their pocketbooks soon, the rally in stocks could easily falter.

Anonymous said...

I want to know what Michelle Obama is doing to make sure her children understand and respect their white heritage. I think every fair minded person in the USA surely finds that a pressing concern as well, due to the Gates fiasco. What kind of person tries to hide his white heritage to further his career? One can’t let their
offspring’s true roots fade. Just because Mrs. Soetoro resents white people doesn’t mean she can’t appreciate the fact that her husband and children are of mixed white/black race.

Anonymous said...

Stock was up 19% today...almost enough for a 1/4 cup of coffee.

Anonymous said...

Did anybody notice during the President's speech on health care reform he accidentally...or was it intentionally...say Health INSURANCE reform at the beginning of his speech. Did anyone notice that the news media didn't catch that Freudian slip?

Anonymous said...

From www.powerlineblog.com

Remember the heady days of 2005 and 2006, when the New York Times and other newspapers blew the cover of one secret national security program after another? In those days, the fact that the Bush administration was doing confidential things to protect Americans against terrorist attack was deemed scandalous--by liberals, anyway.

You may recall the SWIFT program, in particular. We wrote about it here and elsewhere. The history of the New York Times' coverage of the SWIFT program, a successful cooperation with banks to block the international flow of funds to terrorist organizations, is revealing. As we detailed in the linked post, the Times first criticized the Bush administration for not acting effectively to cut off the flow of funds to terrorist groups; then published a breathless expose of the secret SWIFT program, acknowledging along the way the program's success; then, when public reaction wasn't as favorable as the paper had expected, defended itself by claiming that the SWIFT program hadn't been secret after all and "everyone"--except the Times, apparently--had already known about it.

The SWIFT program is back in the news again. The Associated Press reported today that the European Union has voted unanimously to expand its cooperation in the program:

EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the 27-nation bloc wants to give anti-terror investigators at the U.S. Treasury access to European operation centers run by the bank transfer consortium SWIFT, expanding an existing 2007 anti-terror banking data sharing deal with Washington. To do so, it needs to negotiate under what conditions U.S. officials would have expanded access to such sensitive banking information. ...

The U.S. Treasury already has access to SWIFT's American database, but the banking consortium is setting up a new European office in Switzerland, which would focus on European clients. American investigators now want access to this new database as well.

SWIFT's other two database centers, in the U.S. state of Virginia and in the Netherlands, handle all the consortium's transfer orders, including those of European citizens.

"It would be extremely dangerous at this stage to stop the surveillance and the monitoring of information flows," Barrot said, adding that the current pact, which only covers U.S. operations of SWIFT have been "an important and effective tool to fight terrorism financing and to prevent terrorist attacks."

It's one more instance of the Obama administration not only adopting but expanding the once-secret anti-terror tools that were developed by the Bush administration. Somehow, though, I don't think this time around the SWIFT expansion will be the occasion for exposes or critical editorials. Nor should we hold our breath, waiting for the Times to acknowledge that it was wrong when it reported that the Bush administration had not acted effectively to stem the flow of cash to Islamic terrorists.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:37 Thank you for the post!! I did always wonder what happened to the program.

Plus it was then, I learned to loathe Pinchy and his traitorous Times. May Mr. Carlos continue to slim Pinchy down

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:26 Great point.

Like Dear leader removing sanctions from Syria, or stopping the news ticker from the top floor of the Cuban diplomatic Mission, or allowing the dark side of affirmative action to dumb down America, the media and democrats intentionally focus away from what so many great Americans (who happened to be white) did for America and the world, and only focus on what they perceive Whitey has “done” and then apologize for it.

Anonymous said...

I would ask that the voting Guild members @ the SacBee approve the mandatory vacation proposal knowing that there's a chance we may eventually be furloughed.

Anonymous said...

The U.S. State Department said on Monday, in an effort to improve relations and philosophical solidarity with communist Cuba, Dear Leader ordered The United States has turn off a news ticker at its diplomatic mission in Havana that has long irritated the Cuban government

Anonymous said...

And this correction from the "Paper Of Record"...


“An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30. Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches. In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26. ‘The CBS Evening News’ overtook ‘The Huntley-Brinkley Report’ on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970. A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar. Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of ‘The CBS Evening News’ in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor. Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International.”--correction, New York Times, July 22

Anonymous said...

"I would ask that the voting Guild members @ the SacBee approve the mandatory vacation proposal knowing that there's a chance we may eventually be furloughed.

July 27, 2009 3:49 PM"

Pathetic...your gonna get the ax sooner or later...why prolong the agony!

Cue Janis Joplin...Furlough's just another name for gettin' laid off...

Anonymous said...

DON'T GO THERE: DEMS EYE 10% TAX ON BOTOX, COSMETIC SURGERY
http://www.drudgereport.com ^

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:06 The Times prove again what useless idiots they are!

Anonymous said...

Mandatory one week furloughs announced by The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, SC, today. The furloughs must be taken between Aug. 3 and Nov. 15.

Anonymous said...

"Mandatory one week furloughs announced by The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, SC, today. The furloughs must be taken between Aug. 3 and Nov. 15.

July 27, 2009 4:17 PM"

Might as well pack your stuff and clean out your desk to save time when you get back!

Anonymous said...

Thak you to Yahoo! news:

AP IMPACT: Dodd, Conrad told deals were sweetened (AP)

AP - Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation's largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.

Anonymous said...

4:36... this story about Dodd can not possibly be true. I just checked my local McClatchy newspaper (alleged newspaper) and there is nothing about these fine politicians of the democrat party persuasion taking bribes (well, that is what it is folks).

I will check again later. Maybe there will be a story about Dick Cheney eating orphans or something along with a story about Dodd and Conrad investigating the mortgage industry by accepting VIP treatment and loans.

Anonymous said...

more layoffs were done today at some McClatchy papers.

Anonymous said...

Obooma and Gates both halfers! Now we see the true outcome of affirmative action, and it is a million miles away from something desirable. ‎

Anonymous said...

Why didn't the liberal media lower the boom on Rev. Wright retiring to a mansion in a white neighborhood, after sucking millions from a black needy neighborhood? Maybe the gunfire kept him awake? Ya think?

Anonymous said...

Re: The NYT and so many corrections, they might as well write their feature story on the correction page. They could apologize for the stupid reporting in advance. That would save a lot of time. Why, they could probably layoff a person or two.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Daren, for all that good pre-election coverage. Yes indeedy, thank you very much! How can I ever repay you?
-----
Newsweek's Obama Correspondent Joins Administration

American Spectator
By Philip Klein

Daren Briscoe, a Newsweek correspondent who was embedded with Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, has taken a job with the Obama administration... as deputy associate director of public affairs for the Office of National Drug Control Policy as of Monday.

Anonymous said...

Newsweek is synonomous for DNC, and another rat leaves the lib nest for a stinkier pasture.

Anonymous said...

Before the election the MSM assured us that Obama was not really that close to Reverend Wright and his virulent anti white hate speech. Now we learn that Obama is also friends with Dr. Gates who has some of the same racist ideas as the Rev. Wright. Hmmmmm.