Tirade #2 Pre 9/11 August 2001

In My Opinion - CCI Revisited

Miscelaneous news clippings:

USA TODAY
August 2001.
Consumer confidence fall comes as surprise
Sharp drop hints recovery won't be arriving soon
by George Hager

Worries about the weakening job market drove consumer confidence down more sharply this month than economists had expected, clouding prospects for an economic rebound anytime soon.

Gateway to lay off quarter of global workforce By Edward Iwata, USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO — As the personal computer industry flounders, troubled Gateway said Tuesday that it will lay off 5,000 employees, or 25% of its global workforce, and pull out of Asia. Market News Dow and Nasdaq stocks slump Dow Jones industrial average drops 160.32 points to 10,222.03; Nasdaq index falls 47.43 to 1864.98; 30-year Treasury bond yield drops to 5.41%.

08/28/2001 - Updated 08:06 PM ET
Symbolic leadership

Last year, when President Bush was running for office, Social Security was
sacred. Now, says the White House, it's merely "symbolic."

Funny, that's not what the GOP platform said last August. Dictated to the
Republican Convention by Bush's political operatives, it declared: "The Social
Security surplus is off-limits, off-budget and will not be touched."

Twelve months later, the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan agency
headed by a Republican appointee, now says that the government will need to
use at least $9 billion in Social Security revenues to make ends meet in the
year ending Sept. 30.

---

When it's time to unwind, Bush goes to
the dogs Spot, Barney -- latest in a
long line of presidential pets -- tag
along on vacation

By Laurence McQuillan
USA TODAY

CRAWFORD, Texas -- For President Bush, these are the dog
days of summer.

Since he left most of his top policy and political advisers in
Washington at the start of the month, Bush has had plenty of
time to kick back with his two pet pooches, Spot and Barney.

He drives them around his 1,530-acre ranch in a pickup. He jogs
with them, hikes with them, even fishes with them.

---

In My Opinion:

Somehow Bush going to the dogs is symbolic of the situation.

Greenspan has done his thing... Maybe it helped...

The Tax cuts have been mailed... I put mine in the Bank yesterday...

BUT things are not looking good... I hear the "R" word a lot...

I do admit that I am 1.2% ahead on investments ytd.
That's better than the -5.2% DOW Loss ytd.
And much better than the -24.5% Nasdaq Loss ytd.
It's mostly dumb luck on my part.
I go to Money Markets when we leave the country.
We did it in February for Cancun, and in June for the Bahamas.
We will stay in Cash while we are in France.
BUT It's uncomfortable dipping into Capital.

Ed's Economic Forecast

In January the "Market Perspective" will change:
The 52 week charts will no longer reflect the highs of the Prosperous Clinton Years.
It has been depressing to see those previous highs.
Once they are off the chart, the Bush year won't appear quite so bad.
Investors will think they are in a rising market.

It will be an Election year(2002), and Democrats will retake both houses.

Under economic pressure Congress will repeal the tax cuts which have not already been paid out!

My Confidence will improve ... and Happy times will return.

Alas, My Prediction did not materialize the Democrats did not regain both houses until 2006 elections. Four years later!!

My First Tirade FEB 2001

George W Bush is hurting the Economy.. Every time he talks about that damn "light on his dash board", (it's his economic indicator) my confidence goes down.

The Consumer Confidence Index is a predictor of economic health.
When Confidence is up the National economy prospers and we have Economic Expansion.
When Confidence is down we have a declining Economy... a.k.a. Recession

The CCI has been high for the past eight years. Under the Democratic Administration of President Bill Clinton we had a continuously expanding economy and a lot of people got wealthy. Confidence was UP!

During August of last year the markets were rising. The National Political Conventions were held. After Labor Day the markets peaked. THEN the realization set in that Bill was not going to be around, and that neither party had a very strong candidate. Confidence began to fall, and soon thereafter the markets.

The debates came, and the people actually started to say things like, "The Vice Presidential candidates look better than the Presidential candidates." Lets face it, we were not impressed. Confidence fell and so did the the markets. By mid October the Dow was down 11%, S&P down 12%, Nasdaq down 25%

Just before election time there was a brief rally. The Democrats were looking stronger. The day before the election marked the end of this rally. Dow only down 2%, S&P only down 6%, Nasdaq only down 19%

As we quarreled about who won Florida, confidence eroded further. Bush celebrated his victory in the Supreme Court, and proceeded to make some disparaging comments about the state of the economy he was inheriting from the Democrats. He should have been looking in the mirror for the answer. He did not inspire confidence

Confidence continued to fall and the day before Christmas the Dow was down 6%, S&P down 16%, Nasdaq down 45%.

Fortunately in January, Alan Greenspan intervened, and cut interest rates. Things started looking up.
By Jan 24 the Nasdaq was UP 15.7% year to date!
BUT
George had been on the job for only two days. He immediately got to work to fix the economy. He polished his tax cut proposal for a week or so. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is falling. When he sent it to Congress, the market celebrated for 20 minutes, then continued on down.

The 15% Greenspan rally on Nasdaq was totally erased by Feb 9. The Dow and S&P are both posting 0.9% YTD after their recent declines.

Here's the problem. The consumers, us middle class folks, are not inspired to confidence by tax cuts to the wealthy. The rich put their tax cuts in "Leakproof Lockboxes", and Nothing Trickles Down.

It's Saturday Feb. 10 2001 and someone on the TV just used the "R" word.

Now I'm developing into a pessimist, and that's not good either.

I'm hunkering down for now.

Go See "Sicko"

You just gotta see Michael Moore's Latest documentary...
Sicko..

We Need Universal Health Care and we need to abolish HMO's.

The Insurance Companies have No Business telling Doctors how to practice Medicine!

I am a Recipient of Original Medicare... It is well run and has made staying Healthy affordable.

I can't say that about the my friends experience with the HMO Medicare plans..

The Drug and Insurance Companies have sold their programs on the rubric of "Competition is Good. Government is Bad"

Bull shit!

Aetna is Far less responsive than CMS Medicare.

Repeal Medicare Plan D Drug program... It is a subsidy for Drug and Insurance companies and Rips Off the seniors it is supposed to serve.

There , I said it. I feel better already.

My fight with Aetna

I don't Think of Aetna as a Law enforcement agency...

Apparently they do.

Recently they denied $2500 in Perscription drug coverage because I had Purchased the Drugs from a Canadian Pharmacy.

The FDA and Customs has stopped completely their harassment and interception of imported pharmaceuticals.

The US Postal Service Deliveres them to my door.

There is no place in the Insurance plan document justifying this denial. In fact the document supports Coverage of all Prescription Medications.

I have put the documentation of my claim on my Web Page

Check it out at

http://www.remedyandcrew.com/Claim_Dispute/Claim_dispute.html

If you are having a similar problem too, Please contact me.

I am planning to Fight this one.