November 2008

A big issue in the Presidential election revolved around the notion of "fairness."    The thought that those who can afford it should pay their "fair" share in taxes.  It was a word that came up frequently.  If there must be "fairness" with taxes, we must have the same concept in mortgages. This morning Citigroup became the latest mortgage lender to announce a plan to rework mortgages and ... read more

Quick thoughts from Virginia... The local CBS station in NYC is reporting that New York City is considering tolling every major bridge or roadway into New York City: http://wcbstv.com/politics/michael.bloomberg.east.2.859306.html For those outside the New York City area, right now about half of the bridges and tunnels into NYC are tolled and about half are free.   CBS is reporting that the ... read more

Opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal following up on the Detroit story... A Detroit bailout would also be unfair to other companies that make cars in the U.S. Yes, those are "foreign" companies in the narrow sense that they are headquartered overseas. But then so was Chrysler before Daimler sold most of the car maker to Cerberus, the private equity fund. Honda, Toyota and the rest ... read more

Ever notice that when we talk about GM and Ford these days there is almost no mention of cars?     All the discussion now is on how much money they are losing, why they are losing it and how they are going to stop losing it.    Now that Congress is debating more aid for the automakers, it's important to understand why more aid may not help in the long-term.   The problems that these ... read more

General Motors (NYSE: GM) today said what many have speculated over the past year: it is running out of cash, fast.   The company reported a net loss of $2.54 billion dollars and said it burned through $6.9 billion in cash last quarter. More worrisome, the company said it has enough cash and short-term money to get through this year, but without significant cuts, a major uptick in ... read more

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Wall Street Journal that she is considering a two-staged effort to boost the shaky U.S. economy, arguing for action now on a stimulus package of $60 billion to $100 billion, followed early next year by a companion measure that would include a "permanent tax cut." It appears Speaker Pelosi isn't wasting any time to get out ahead of the new ... read more

The tap on the bailout keg is still flowing and the new home builders are the latest group looking for a drink. Fox Business’ Senior Washington Correspondent Peter Barnes reports that less than 24 hours after the election the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is ready to slap a proposed bailout bill for new home sales onto Congress. Here are some of the details Fox ... read more

A funny thing happened this morning following last night historic win by Barack Obama.   I got on the 6:45am train in New Jersey, hopped on the subway for my short ride to Fox studios, and realized that things seemed relatively ... well ... normal. My fellow commuters sipped their coffee, read the paper and tapped away furiously on their blackberrys.   In other words, doing what they do ... read more

Changes to the tax laws may be coming.   If that happens, watch companies such as H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (JTX).   When tax codes change, more people may require personal advice.  We may also see more married couples filing separately instead of jointly to avoid higher tax bills based on income.   That means more returns filed. Additionally, if more ... read more

Stocks traditionally don't move much the day after Presidential elections.   Below are the Dow Jones Industrial Average percent changes the day following an election from 1972 until 2004. Note that the data from 1972 - 1980 is calculated from the day before the election because until 1980 the market was closed on voting day. Bush 2004: +1.01% Bush 2000:-0.40% Clinton 1996: ... read more