Buy American craze is crazy!

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 20, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments I wanted to address the strange and escalating movement of “Buy American” that is sweeping the United States. The first thing to state and categorically is: this is crazy thinking! Why? It is crazy because the very definition of economy is using resources efficiently. Is it efficient for me to try and grow coconuts here in the High Desert of New Mexico? Is it efficient for us to buy...
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Why did the panic ensue?

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 20, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments In the last post I hinted that I would be talking about this week’s collapse in the stock markets around the world. So what the heck happened? The short and simple answer is a raft of bad news that apparently most people were not expecting. It is my opinion that the biggest selloff happened because of the disappointing G-7 meetings the weekend of February 14-15, 2009. I think that many...
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My mistake in calling the bottom

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 20, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Hello everyone! Wow, is there a lot of stuff to talk about. It is hard to think of where to begin to start, but I will start by admitting my mistake in having called the bottom of the Dow Jones Industrial Average back in November. As you may know the DJIA has fallen past the low levels seen in November and has fallen to levels not seen for 6 years. Investors the world over are liquidating their...
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Obama’s press conference

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 12, 2009 in Blog | 2 comments OK, so I usually don’t like to talk politics on here, but in this instance I have to point out a subtlety that, to me, seems very important. Did any of you watch President Obama’s talk with the American people on Monday night? My wife Dawn and I watched it and I was very impressed with the President. What specifically impressed me was that he answered questions thoughtfully,...
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From raw to thaw

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 12, 2009 in Blog | 2 comments Believe it or not, the economic downturn is starting to show signs of abating. Amen! Specifically I am referring to the following encouraging signs: The London Inter Bank Offering Rate (alias LIBOR) has fallen to 1.2% from an October high of 4.8%. This is the rate that banks charge each other when they borrow from one another. Banks have “ready reserve” requirements that they must...
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Ranges

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 11, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Hello everyone, I note with great interest the financial market gyrations that have been taking place recently. We are up 200 points and then down 200 points and we seem to be confined within a well-defined range: 7900 to 8300 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Hmmm. The interesting thing is that the movements are now associated with news. The types of gyrations that we saw in the fall (no pun...
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Those funny media outlets are at it again

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 6, 2009 in Blog | 0 comments Happy Friday folks, Today was the release of January unemployment data. Not surprisingly the economy is estimated to have shed 598,000 jobs, bringing the unemployment rate up to 7.6%. This is the highest percentage unemployment rate since September of 1992. However, the media outlets that I follow are all reporting the job losses on an absolute, not a relative (%) basis. That then allows them to...
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