RusticFrank41

Ireland has been sending away their educated and uneducated since 1845. Remittance men were commonplace in North America. Indeed some economies today are considered remittance economies. To my thinking it may well be a good thing for countries which welcome legal immigrants, like Canada and the USA, to profit from the tenacity and the desire to succeed of these remittance men. The fact that it is now affecting Spain, though unusual for Spain, is not unusual from a global perspective. It will be very good for the ones that leave their countries as so many of us have. For those who remain, the crush of competition will doubtless abate somewhat. All a part of the rich tapestry of life.

Kelowna BC/Ft Myers Fl

As an aside, I bought myself a Toshiba Thrive a few days ago to replace my laptop for travel and am quite delighted with it. It can Google video call my grandkids, email, has a USB port, HDMI port, browser, the works. Very handy for travel. Costs less than Apple.

Oh, I forgot to mention that even if you eat as healthily as possible and live as frugally as possible, you will probably only add about 10% to your lifespan. That 10% comes at the end, not in the first few decades. Who wants to die at 110 rather than 100 years of age ? ;D

This is definitely THE funniest thread I have ever read on this board. Some of the comments are are almost inspired - like: " are you incarcerated", or "you must be a fun date". As a grizzled , but not yet totally demented member of the board, I would caution the young, overly abstemious members that shrouds do not have pockets ; but even more important than that is the fact that life is not a trial run. You only get one go at this, so if you can afford it, spend it. Travel, fine wine, beautiful women- or men, truffles, beautiful jewelry for the women, a fine home with all of the modern conveniences; those are just a tiny few of the things that make the capitalist system work. Since we are all capitalists on this board, we should not be trying to destroy the system by hoarding every penny. Consider reading "Silas Marner" if you haven't yet done so. Have a ball.

Thanks all for your suggestions. I looked at BAC on Google finance and saw that BAC was down over 20%, so I scrolled down to see how the other banks did and I saw this headline : Crabtree & Evelyn NEW ANTI-BAC MOISTURISING GEL giveaway | Chic ... Having a somewhat perverted mind I got quite a chuckle out of the headline. I thought that BAC was giving away moisturising gel to its investors. I hope that I do not offend anyone with this. fdef

For those of us who may have a few shekels left, I would like to ask members to indicate which is their one best stock idea at this present time in the market. fdef

This is a very interesting discussion, with so many fascinating concepts mentioned. Having read the MW "expose" and the company's ( TRE) response I am amazed at the imbalance between the response and the accusation. I am not much of an investment guru, remarkably ignorant in fact, but I do know how to read and interpret the written word. MW calls TRE a "Ponzi scheme" and a " fraud from its' inception". It accuses the officers of being "thieves". These are not mild accusations. I would expect that if MW are wrong they will be bankrupt regardless of how much money they may have made in their history and the names of the would truly be mud forever. Any prudent person will have checked and rechecked each item in their accusations, they will have documented and have legal proof of same, or face catastrophe. However I am appalled by the spelling and typographical errors in the document. It appears amateurish. The response to the accusations of " Ponzi scheme", "fraud"and "thief", has been, we have struck a committee, and hired counsel and by the way, they missed the point on these two items. Surely any other multi-billion dollar company would state something to the effect that "the MW report is a noxious and perfidious attempt to destroy a perfectly reputable company and we have instructed our lawyers to seek redress by filing suit immediately in the courts against each and every member of this nefarious entity whose name, Muddy Waters, so aptly describes ,not only the odious minds of its principals, but also its ethics and morals. We have also instructed our counsel to prepare documentation demonstrating the truth of every financial transaction and each legal entity with which TRE does business which MW challenges in its report." In other words, I would expect TRE to be angry and show it. What kind of entity could expect to get away with this type of attack if it is all fabricated? This is the corporate equivalent of attempted murder, surely? But it is all very interesting. Hell, I haven't been this excited since the hogs ate Lukie.

Phenomenal article. Thank you for posting it. fdef

I saw a reference to Mr White today in an article in Financial Post. Der Spiegel wrote and article with the above caption ( in english). It is a very good article and worth reading. If it has been referred to previously I missed it. Here is the url:http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,635051,00.html

The following article from WSJ was seen on another board: Naked short selling (finally) in lawmakers sights By MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN and KARA SCANNELL June 5, 2009 WASHINGTON -- The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to take further steps to crack down on "naked" short selling, U.S. lawmakers said Wednesday, after government auditors recommended more aggressive action to prevent market manipulation. In a short sale, traders sell borrowed stock with the expectation they can buy it back later at a lower price. In a naked short sale, traders sell stock they haven't borrowed. Some executives argue naked short selling allows market manipulators to drive down shares artificially. One idea is to require that traders borrow shares before they try to sell a stock short, known as a preborrow. Last summer, the SEC issued an emergency rule requiring preborrowing for certain financial firms' shares, but the industry said it was too expensive, and the requirement was abandoned. A bipartisan group of senators said the SEC needs to consider new restrictions to help quell naked short selling. "Unless the SEC can develop an appropriate alternative, a strict preborrow requirement may be the only way to adequately protect shareholders' rights," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said in a joint release with Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Penn.). The statement came after the Government Accountability Office found that SEC regulations issued earlier this decade only temporarily slowed cases of "failure to deliver," which occurs when the seller of a security doesn't deliver the security to the buyer during a required period. These cases can occur for a variety of reasons, including naked short selling. An SEC spokesman said the SEC appreciates the GAO's recommendations and is focused on short selling, including examining a preborrow requirement. Write to Kara Scannell at kara.scannell@wsj.com

Financial Times Report: China Cosco to cancel or delay ship orders The world’s largest dry bulk shipping line plans to cancel or postpone some of its vast portfolio of ship orders, scotching speculation that the transport company might be forced to increase its order book to support China’s shipyards - Apr-23

Although BAC-L (google finance) has been doing quite well BML-Q has in fact become cheaper over the past couple of days. The BML-Q is a preferred taken over from Merrill Lynch, I believe, and wonder why this discrepancy in price should be so. I saw a reference, very vaguely worded, to the unwinding of the purchase, as well as an investor move to unseat some of the BAC board. Comments appreciated. BML-Q now at about 20%, BAC-L about 17%.

Moodys has just downgraded WFC preferreds to junk. May be a buying opportunity to those who believe the company has enough cash to avoid cutting the dividends