stevenash

What an absolute joke.

Good article by a close friend of mine: [Hidden Content]

Interesting. Look at the top three in each category and the governors political affiliation associated with each. Five out of six for the good guys.

I was under the impression that if a U.S. Citizen opts to fight against this country with an enemy, he forfeits his rights as a citizen.

Hmmmm- who was very recently complaining about somebody resorting to personal insults?   Pot calling kettle?

Big Girl-  Are you familiar with the following names?  Nidal Hassan, Carlos Bledsoe, William Long, Fasal Shazad, Tsarnaev Brothers.

Until the USPS can operate at a break even rate, we do not know what the real cost of sending a letter is.  It certainly is more than what the advertised rate is.   If it wasnt, the USPS would not have defaulted on debt and would not have operated at such huge losses.  My contention is that the "real cost" of delivering a letter is more than 50 cents.  My only point about the Solyndra analogy ( and I still maintain it was valid) was that selling your product for less than it costs to manufacture, never works and never will.  I am not offering an opinion on whether or not the USPS should be eliminated, but the only way to run a business is to have it pay its own way.  Market forces(competition) insist that private industry control its costs.  Government agencies are not "accountable to the market" and therefore do not respond to the markets demands for increased efficiency and bureaucracy reduction.

I am simply stating that the U.S. Postal Service, with its current cost structure is operating like Solyndra did.  They are "selling" their product for less than it costs them.  I dont know what it costs FedEx or UPS to operate.  All I know is that they arent coming to the trough every year for taxpayer subsidies/cash infusions.  USPS lost 15.9 billion in 2012 and 1.9 billion in its most recent quarter.  I cant answer whether or not UPS of FedEx can deliver for 54 cents per letter.  I am guessing that you assume that the 5 cent increase will not cause the volume of deliveries to fall off at all when making your profitability/break even calculations.  I also dont know what method you used to estimate the cost reductions but if they are accurate, I would be a big supporter of your proposed method.  Problem is, ( as it always is) government agencies are very incompetent when it comes to cost cutting or implementing operating efficiencies while private market enterprises accomplish them all of the time.  Until such time that USPS is not having to take in more taxpayer funding, the " cost" of what they are selling their product for is not really the cost.

 Just because they deliver mail for 49 cents does not mean that truly reflects the cost.  They have defaulted on debt and are in very bad financial condition.  I would surmise that, to be profitable or at least break even, their true cost of delivering a first class piece of mail is north of 49 cents.  UPS and FedEx rates are more indicative of actual costs since they are for profit organizations

I just hope nobody comes on here trying to discredit the numbers. Who authored the article has no bearing on them.

Well, he did make that very insightful comment that ISIS is not Islamic.. Hmmm, what does that acronym stand for? The Prez also said that no religion condones killing. Is Jihad condoned by the Muslim religion or isnt it?( even if being performed by a "JV")

Very well stated

ECO isnt going to like this

Not familiar with either of these blogs, but it appears they are quoting some data from reputable sources or am I missing something? [Hidden Content] [Hidden Content]

And those are all items that my administrative assistant could have sent to someone if she were making the case you are making. Since we are being criticized for getting in a "pissing contest", lets continue this discussion via PM so as not to agitate the rest of the board participants any further. Lets start with the names of those portfolio managers that you "help" arrange conference calls with or if you are actually a portfolio manager yourself, I would be interested in knowing what publicly traded securities you are currently investing those millions and billions of dollars in.

If you told him you were Warren Buffet and then he turns around and tells that to me, what good does that do? Lets go ahead with the portfolio managers names that you deal with on a daily basis along with the companies they represent. That will definitely cement your claim and this will all be over with. Besides that, Bullets has already stated he has no idea about what we are talking thus making it possible for you to lead him astray.

More evidence that the combination of low taxes and less regulation is a major contributor to robust economic growth. Hard to dispute.

I guess its safer to hope Bullets will cover for you than to give me those names of the portfolio managers that are calling every day. And you don't personally know Bullets but you have made your judgement of him based on what is said on this board?

I have no problem with this if you don't live in SE Texas. But it is rather interesting that you are close to Bullets, who I know lives here and has been here for most of his life. But you can clarify everything and make me eat my words just as soon as you name those portfolio managers and the firms they represent. When you have done that and I have spoken with them, I will be glad to admit that I have seriously misjudged you and that your market knowledge is vastly superior to mine. Very curious about one thing. If you are truly enlightened and live somewhere where the opportunities are unlimited, whatever moved you to find this message board that involves the simple common folk of Southeast Texas? Hurry with those portfolio managers names, please.

Anyone in the business who doesn't understand those statements isn't in the business very long. Yes, contact Bullets and have him contact me. If you want to back out on your Bullets contention, give me the names of 5 portfolio managers that have contacted you in the last two months and the names of the firms they represent. If they are fighting to get some of the "millions and billions" that you are about to deploy, I can find out in very short order about your credentials. At this point, you are suggesting that you and those you "help" are in the same league with the Harvard Endowment Fund, The Texas Permanent School Foundation, and Calpers to name just a few. It will be interesting to find out why a pivotal manager is located in Southeast Texas.

Let me first recommend that you abandon the personal insults approach, because it is ineffective and convinces nobody of anything. And yes, have Bullets verify that to me. I would dearly love to know how you "help" invest a multibillion dollar portfolio. All the statements you made about portfolio diversification, correlation, yada yada yada, are/have been well known to anyone who is in the business. So spouting a few terms that can easily be found in a few minutes on the internet proves zilch. I know a lot of portfolio managers and interact with them on a regular basis and I can tell you quickly that none of them communicate with other people in the business via personal insults. But go ahead and have Bullets give me the lowdown so I can understand your career better.

No problem. Have been managing portfolios for over 30 years in real life situations with real dollars( which forces one to stay educated on the related topics) rather than grabbing something off the internet and posting it with the hope that somebody will believe I know what I am talking about. Funniest part is when someone with little or no knowledge of the topic begins telling someone with many years of experience what they should and should not do. Some walk the walk, others talk the talk.

YAWN

Take a look at a chart of the stock market over 25,50 or 100 years and let me know if there are more bull markets or more bear markets

For every skilled hedge fund manager that makes 15-30% on an annual basis ( and I don't mean one or two good years and then 5 or 6 poor ones) there is a multiple that have gone out of business. Money is very smart and if what you say was accurate, nearly all the money would have found its way to those portfolios. The fees I refer are not just the initial fee but also exceptionally high management fees that never stop. By the way, 10 hedge funds exceeded 30% in 2013. As a percentage of all hedge funds, that is a very small percentage. I haven't researched this, but I am pretty confident there were more than 30 asset managers ( stock universe) that exceeded 30% in 2013. Here is a note from a Hedge Fund survey that might interest you: The industry is finishing its FIFTH CONSECUTIVE year of underperforming stocks, cumulatively trailing EAFE in dollar terms by 26.6per cent and the S&P 500 by more than 62% over this period.