Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Oh Henry!

Capital One vs. General Motors

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
- Henry V

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stag,

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=COH#chart3:symbol=coh;range=5y;compare=cof;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

My most hated stock is outperforming yours. &%#$@&!

I'm not giving up hope though. I figure COH will fade in the middle innings and really fall out of bed in the 8th or 9th. By definition, vanity lasts longer than common sense (and credit).

Speaking of GM. Wow! The smartest guys on wall street over at Goldman threw a real curve ball today with that downgrade. Seriously. GM's stock price is only plumbing 40 + year lows. What's the rush? Why now?

Goldman's timing on their Citi down-grade today is much better - decades better actually!

If the smartest guys on wall street can't time the market or pick stocks, what chance do I have? It's probably best if I just stick to heckling. It's far more rewarding. Mentally & financially.

Behold the truisms: Buy & hold. Stocks for the long run. Short term correction. Dow 20K. The fed will save the day. JPM got a good deal. Deficits don't matter. It's good debt. The fed model says stocks are under-valued. Cash is trash. Subprime is contained. There is no housing bubble. It's not a bailout.

Stagflationary Mark said...

MAB,

The market is apparently trying to force my hand. COF was down 6% today and GM was down 11%. I'm leery of posting an "Oh Henry!" update though. It hasn't even been 24 hours.

What's an 11% loss though? You can safely make that up in about six years (~1.74% three month treasury bills) if you ignore inflation and taxes.

Here are some "Coach" quotes.

I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it. - Tommy Lasorda

No wonder we've got problems! Our manager IS the dove!

Listen, if you start worrying about the people in the stands, before too long you're up in the stands with them. - Tommy Lasorda

No wonder we've got problems! Our manager IS doing what he can to "fan" inflation!

Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure. - Tommy Lasorda

No wonder we've got problems! Our manager is under biblical level pressure right now!!

Whatever Happened To Inflation Targets?
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/06/24/inflation-fed-bernanke-biz-beltway-cx_jw_0625fed.html

"But under pressure from Wall Street he has gone back to doing the things that were mistakenly done in the 1970s and giving too much weight to the possibility of a recession."

Who knew pressure would remind of us of the 1970s? Where's the deflationary Great Depression when we need it? Wouldn't that offset some of the pain?