Now this one may be a stretch, but if you find yourself unable to make those mortgage payments because you bought a house that you cannot afford or lied on your stated income form or thought an ARM loan was the best thing since sliced bread then all you have to do is foreclose and then blame it on those evils banks.

I won’t comment on President Bush’s lack of ownership on his administration’s actions.  I don’t want to send the terrorists “mixed signals” or “embolden” them anymore.

What I will comment on is the serious lack of responsibility we as a nation are taking with so many aspects of our lives.  What happened to saying, damn I shouldn’t have done that instead of I got hurt because YOU let me?  When did it become someone else’s responsibility for your actions?  The logic behind blaming someone else for your actions is so backwards that I just can’t fathom that it should be pointed out and much less explained!

It would sound pretty absurd (and stupid) if I told my son (hypothetical son) to run across the street without looking and if he gets hit by a car then we will sue the driver.  It would also be foolhardy for me to visit an internet chat forum to get anonymous stock tips, make investment decisions based on those tips, lose my shirt, and then complain to the government that I should get my money back.

Now that I think about it, I’m rolling around in my sleep wondering who is going to sue me for breaking into my home, stealing one of my dinner forks and then shoving it into an electric socket!  I wonder if I can get some kind of ‘Stupidity’ insurance.

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Now, there are thousands of workers literally hanging out in rooms doing everything from sleeping, doing crossword puzzles, and offering community service and getting full time pay and benefits. This program is costing GM alone more than $400 million a year!

Yet another example of workers’ unions trying to stave off the last of their inefficient existence. Instead of protecting these workers from getting laid off, they only delayed the inevitable. The UAW even today seems to think that it is GM and Ford’s responsibility to give these workers something to do. The NPR report says that, “[u]nion officials say the companies should simply put those drawing checks from the Jobs Bank to work.”

Now that GM and Ford are both in the hot seat with investors and are in trouble waters, it is very likely that something to the tune of, ’stop wasting $400 million dollars a year on workers we don’t need!’ will be said by the likes of Kirk Kerkorian. If I was one of the largest shareholders in GM or Ford, I would be yelling this at the top of my lungs ever so less eloquently.

NPR Article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5185887

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I was impressed with Bush’s presentation – well done; but I am not moved. He continues to polarize and aggitate. He continues to call anyone who disagrees with him a defeatist, isolationist (incorrectly), or a protectionist.

America is a great nation, but I think it should be more humble; and that includes refraining from saying things like ‘we are the envy of nations’.

He mentioned lots of new initiatives as well as the effects of previous ones. Again, I am not moved. Why he would mention the succes of the No Child Left Behind Act when he has continued to stifle it by not funding it adequately, I can only guess. He says that our economy is doing well… well, I am not a doomsdayer, but I think the jury is still out on that one.  Hold off for a little longer Mr. President.

You see, while you mention GDP I think about higher interest rates and how that will affect spending (the engine of choice in our current economy) as well as how higher short term interest rates will affect the housing market in the long run. I am also deeply concerned about stagnant wage growth and the increasing gap between the rich and poor.

Instead of giving the nation a real state of the union address, he gave us a sugar coated pep talk. When I buy shares of stock in public companies, I listen to the quarterly conference calls made by the top level executives. I, as well as most other prudent investors, tend to respect and give credibility to those executives that highlight their mistakes and problem areas and how they will be addressed. Those executives that simply walk up to the podium and say, “everythings going great guys” deserve that much more scrutiny.

After all, didn’t Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling say that everything was ok?

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I knew that the dividend payout was not sustainable and in fact, any serious investor would agree that to turn this ailing behemoth around, it would need to cut that dividend payout. Yes, saving up to $1 billion a year in dividend payouts would be a start to a more competitive and profitable road for GM.

I only wonder why someone like Krikorian, who is probably GM’s largest shareholder, took so long to ask for this.

Here is the related article.

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