Thursday, February 26, 2009

General Motors, the worst company in the world BAR NONE

General Motors losses.

Quarter: $9 billion.
Day: $85 million.
Hour: $3.5 million.
Minute: $58,333.
Second: $972,21.
Maybe they could be profitable if they would pay their union workers $100 an hour to put a wheel on a car... instead of the $70 they pay them today...
It's mindboggling!


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Monday, February 23, 2009

So how screwed are some people's mindset in the USA?

This school bus driver, I repeat, this school bus driver wants Obama and the US taxpayer to bail her out, because she is losing her $800 000 home.
That's pretty messed up!
Couldn't embed it, CNN link

We purchased a new cat

We bought this cat fromt he volunteers from the Animal Hospital. We thought of naming him: Yeti or Manneke Pis but decided to settle with the name "Fortis".
We now have 3 cats, Toschi (F), Ramses (M) and Fortis (M).







Saturday, February 21, 2009

Why rent when you can "owe"


That is one funny typo.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Phx-Bru plane tickets June 1st - June 30th


Prices have dropped from $1600/ticket a few months ago to $1250/ticket a week ago. Today tickets are $1050 ...

This could get really ugly

+ scenario: double bottom and we bounce back up slowly
- scenario: we fall through 7300/7500 and we crash down to 4000 in no time










Dow overview
June 25
August 15
October 13

On National TV, bond expert of CNBC, ANARCHY

"'The government is promoting bad behavior. Do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages. This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard!!!"

7.5 ounces of gold buy 1 share of the DOW

All that glitters is gold.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The foreclosure plan

Obama’s example of a family that would benefit from his plan was one that had searched for a good home, secured a fixed-rate mortgage at a reasonable rate, made a down payment and made their mortgage payments each month.

Well, that is probably a whole whopping 3% of all homebuyers of the last 5 years...

Obama's plan could offer relief for Maricopa foreclosures

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Grand Canyon Las Vegas Trip 2 / 2

We partied at Tryst




Checking in at the Wynn, we asked for a transfer to the Encore which is an all suite hotel.

Fancy, fancy, fancy!


Las Vegas - Phoenix 418 miles. We drove it in a little bit more than 5h30.

Here comes the capitulation phase



Republican senator Kanjorski:(+/- 2:10)
Look, I was there when the Secretary and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve came those days and talked with members of Congress about what was going on. It was about September 15th [2008 -- that would actually have been the evening of 18th-19th].

Here’s the facts, and we don’t even talk about these things. On Thursday [that would have been September 18, 2008], at about 11 O’clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of … money market accounts in the United States. To the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help. They pumped $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide.

We were having an electronic run on the banks.

They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic out there. And that’s what actually happened.

If they had not done that, their estimation was that by 2 o’clock that afternoon [Sept 18, 2008] $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States — would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.

Now we talked at that time [Sept 18th-19th?] about what would happen if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it. And that’s why, when they made the point we’ve got to act and do things quickly we did.

If the DOW Jones drops below 7500

we will have DOW 4000 and food riots soon.
10 year chart Dow Jones


So who is going to give "Julio" a "real" job?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Grand Canyon Las Vegas Trip (1 / 2)

We saw the Grand Canyon in the sun, in the fog ... and now in the snow.

A must see, pictures don't do the magnitude of the Grand Canyon justice.


Having fun in the 3rd row of the car.
Hoover Dam, an incredible construction site.

This is 1/4th of a bridge over the Colorado...

We waited 2 hours for the "All you can eat-Brunch-Buffett" at the 5* Wynn.
$30 per person

The buffett:
Pastries.

(fake) Champagne (all you can drink)
We stayed for about 2h30, then we tried to crawl back to the room

D-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n

California Housing Market