Search Results for: dollar tree

The High Price Paid For Free

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The greatest problem facing many businesses today from the solo practitioner to the multinational conglomerate is the ever-increasing cost of “Free.” This dilemma is not isolated to a certain product offering. Nor, just a shipping issue. It’s far more encompassing.

Since this period now known as the “information age” began. Far too many of us tend to forget if this new “age” were a person, we would still classify it as being young enough to remain as a child on its parents health insurance. For all intents and purposes, it’s still in the development stage though it’s now viewed as been around forever. The iPhone® itself as of this writing would only be old enough to enter the first grade! (more…)

Sometimes It’s All About Timing

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There are times one just can’t help oneself from contemplating just how ignorant (or down right stupid) people are. You might think I’m speaking about the “mis” or uninformed. Or, the “under” as well as uneducated in matters of business, finance, politics, and more. Oh contraire!

I’m speaking of the people whom fill some of the highest positions within those very industries. Once again I have been left with my jaw planted firmly on the floor by some of the revelations or “explanations” from the so-called “smart crowd.” To paraphrase an old adage: “It’s better to keep ones mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it as to remove all doubt.” (more…)

There Is No Curtain (by Mark St.Cyr)

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Just like in that famous scene in the land of Oz when everyone
becomes fully aware that it’s only one person pulling the strings, we
just witnessed that moment in real life this week. Unlike the movie,
there was no attempt to yell: “Pay no attention to that man behind the
curtain!” Rather, it was more akin to, “Let’s remove all doubt and shine
a spotlight while we give him great round of applause!”

Of course I’m talking about Ben Bernanke’s appearance before both the
House as well as the Senate. However, the truly telling change was what
transpired during his House appearance.

Maxine Waters (D – California) is notorious for holding bankers of any
stripe not only in contemptuous disdain but also once caught mixing her
words when excoriating bankers as to “socialize” their banks. It seems
she’s possibly received even more than she might have once wished: complete control of both banks and markets by way of the Federal
Reserve.

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An Inconvenient Truth

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Wednesday’s
sell-off is just a taste of what’s to come…

Pay no attention
to what the press has to say.  Pay no
attention to what the Fed has to say. 
All is not well.  I said the same
thing before the subprime and housing fiascos, the Dow collapse to 6,500, and
the UK economic collapse.

No one trusts
this market. Volume is very low.  Traders
are still on the sidelines.  And the
billionaires are running scared.

Warren Buffett –
who is now complaining about ‘disappointing performance’ in companies like
Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods – has been
drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer buying
habits.

Considering 70%
of our economy relies on consumer spending, that’s worrisome, to say the least.

John Paulson –
who made a fortune betting on the subprime disaster – is selling, too.  His hedge fund just dumped 14 million shares
of JP Morgan, for example, as well as positions in Family Dollar and Sara Lee.

George Soros
just sold massive positions in bank stocks, including JP Morgan, Citigroup, and
Goldman Sachs.

Just why are
these guys selling in one of the biggest rallies we’ve ever seen?

Because even
they know the truth…  They know the
market rally based on easy money printing has run its course. 

We’re not
recovering.  We’re far from it.

The press can
try to convince the sheep otherwise, but I’m not buying it.  I never have. 
And I never will.  I’m interesting
in making money for myself and for readers. 
I’m not interested in following the sheep off the edge of the
cliff.  And neither are these billionaires.

Tell me this.

If our economy is doing so
well, why are retailers closing their doors?                      

Best Buy is
forecast to close 200 to 250 stores.

Sears is
forecast to close 100 to 125 stores.

JC Penney is
forecast to close 300 to 350 stores

Blockbuster
is closing 300 stores and cutting about 3,000 jobs.

Hasbro may
be reducing its work force by about 10 percent.

Wal-Mart is
having a disastrous month.  The company’s
president of finance just said this is “the worst start to a month I have seen in
my 7 years with the company.”

Reader’s
Digest just filed for bankruptcy.

Atlantic
City’s newest casino just filed for bankruptcy.

There’s no
plan to solve Detroit’s financial nightmare, and bankruptcy could be around the
corner.

The CEO of
Town Sports International just said the company is struggling because consumers
don’t have “disposable income” any more.

And corporate
insiders are selling hand over fist.

Still,
the press would have you believe the economy is great.

What
will the press say when millions of federal workers face painful furloughs?

As
long as things look okay, that’s good enough. 
Right?

No…
not any more.

I’m
not a pessimist by nature.  I’m a
realist.  And I’m tired of watching Wall
Street railroad Main Street over and over again.

So
we’re fighting back… We’re making money playing by our own rules at Speed
Retirement. 

Getting
even,

Ian
L. Cooper
Speed
Retirement System

Good Grief

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Yesterday I drove the family up to Santa Rosa for a fencing tournament, and since it was going to be a long day, I decided to take my daughter ice skating and to the nearby Charles Schulz museum (I took a couple of photos, shown below). I had been there years before, and I really enjoyed it, but she had never been.

0128-peanutsComics have always been a big part of my life, and I've got many thick volumes of comics that I enjoy. They tend to be more out of the ordinary stuff, such as Zippy and This Modern World, but I've also got my fair share of Dilberts and the like. I've never had any Peanuts, pretty much because they're all stored in my head anyway and I don't need a book.

Indeed, comics are such a big share of my cultural touchpoints that, before Slope, I was seriously going to focus my blog on bitching about comics. I was going to call it The Comics Curmudgeon, and I already had my sights set on inexcusable crap like Garfield, Cathy, and Family Circus. Of course, that blog would have starved itself of material pretty fast, so I never really bothered. The world will never know of Barfy's Theorem and other pontifications I planned.

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