Mike

Since I started using IE9 and do a spell check on a long message in hotmail without any misspellings, the cursor disappears and I have to click at the beginning of the message to get the cursor back (sometimes I can click at the beginning of the line and the cursor will reappear). The same problem also occurs in some forums.

Although that doesn't seem like a big issue, sometimes I have to click many times trying to find the right spot to click on to get the cursor back. If the cursor is not on the input screen, I cannot input any more text.

The Euro zone gdp growth is currently running at a very anemic 0.4% annual growth rate as reported in the last quarter. Although prior quarters were slightly better, they were also anemic and it appears that belt tightening in Europe has caused gdp growth to slow. It would seem that higher interest rates could possibly cause Europe to again dip into recession. Also the Bank if England is considering raising interest rates and the UK gdp shrank in the last quarter.

The following are the gdp growth rates for the major economies of Europe.

Euro Area 0.4%

France 0.3%

Germany 0.4%

Italy 0.1%

Spain 0.2%

UK -0.6%

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/GDP-Grow...

It has been announced that two physically backed copper ETFs will arrive shortly on the market.

http://www.etftrends.com/2010/10/coming-soon-physi...

If the ETF were to be of a similar value to the GLD ETF which currently has about 1,000 tons of gold sitting in a vault, the copper ETF would need to store about 50 million tons of copper in some warehouse. Since it is likely that the copper will be held for years (if not indefinitely), it is likely that the copper would need to be held in a climate controlled facility to keep the copper from deteriorating.

With the cost of a facility, delivery costs, as well as security, it would seem that the management fee would need to be very high.

In my opinion, none of the physical commodity ETFs make economic sense and should probably be banned. All they do is permanently remove the commodity from the market artificially driving up the price and thus manipulating the market. They are unlike futures contracts which are used for price discovery.

Issue 1:

Republicans want to reduce the corporate tax rate since they claim it is the 2nd highest in the developed world.

It is true that the US corporate tax rate is the 2nd highest in the world but is the 3rd lowest as a percentage of GDP due to large corporate tax loopholes. The democrats proposed a bill to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% or less by eliminating the tax loopholes but the republicans walked out on the negotiations. Pat Toomey wants to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25% without reducing the loopholes saying it will put the corporate tax rate in line with other developed nations but in reality will make it the lowest in the developed world as percentage of GDP.

Issue 2:

Republicans claim that health care reform is too expensive.

Approximately 60% of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

Another several million people annually default on medical bills.

Many of the uninsured use expensive ER for care and default on the bill.

Many young people don't carry medical insurance and when they get sick, they default.

All of the above is reflected in higher medical procedure costs increasing every ones medical expenses.

Wouldn't it be better to insure the uninsured and get 25%-50% of the cost instead of nothing?

Issue 3:

Republicans opposed financial reform. Although it is understandable that they want to let the banks continue soaking the poor with high fees but they also opposed capital requirements saying that the banks know better how much capital requirement is required more than the government.

Currently the capital requirement for banks is about 7% which means that a bank with $1 billion in deposits can lend out as much as $14 billion. Some banks prior to the credit crisis had a capital requirement as low as 2.5% which means that bank could leverage $1 billion in deposits to as much as $40 billion in loans.

That means that a bank with a 2.5% capital requirement would only need loan losses of about 1/2% to become insolvent and 2.5% to lose all the deposits in the bank.

Do we really want to have such a banking system that puts the taxpayer at such great risk? After all, all the deposits below $250,000 in the banks are FDIC insured.

Issue 4: The republicans claim the deficit is too high.

The FY09 budget was $1.6 trillion but over $500 billion of that was inherited from the Bush administration. Also because of the recession that was inherited from the Bush administration, corporate taxes dropped 90%, the stock market and housing didn't produce any taxes, and workers were laid off so they didn't pay taxes which produced a shortfall in taxes of 28% (about $600 billion). The actual increase in government spending in FY09 was only about $500 billion for the stimulus, added unemployment compensation, and other projects to try to get the US out of the recession and alleviate some of the pain.

Issue 5:

The republicans claim they will cut the deficit but are short on specifics and only claim they will cut taxes which will increase the deficit.

The last year before the recession, the Bush administration deficit was about $500 billion. After military spending, entitlements (social security, medicare, medicaid, welfare, and unemployment benefits), and interest on the debt there is only $400 billion of other expenditures. Some republicans want ot close down the department of education eliminating $56 billion to states which means that the states will have to increase taxes due to the shortfall. Another major cost ($40 billion) is the veterans administration which has a very high need from the two wars. So where are the republicans going to be able to cut to make a significant dent in the deficit? Are they going to close down Homeland Security, Department of Justice, the space program, Department of State, Department of Transportation so that interstate highways won't be repaired, or will they cut subsidies to the farmers and corporations and lose the farm and corporate vote?

The republicans seem to live in a dream world where they don't cut spending but do cut taxes.

U.S. Bancorp, 7.189% Dep Shares Non-Cumul Perp Preferred Stock, Series A shares (USB-A) is not currently paying dividends but there isn't any indications that dividends have been suspended. After looking into the prospectus, it does appear that these shares are different from most other shares in that there appears to be some type of purchase agreement where the shares will be converted to a floating rate trust type shares between 4/15/2011-4/15/2012.

I've noticed some strange things occurring with Level II quotes when using the TD Ameritrade Command Center and viewing low volume stocks. This has happened several times.

Today I was viewing Level II quotes for Wells Fargo preferred shares (WFC-L) and the last trade as well as the highest trade was $1,012. Then I displayed a list of the equities in my account and WFC-L indicated that the last trade was $1,013. When I checked WFC-L as a real time quote, that also indicated the same as level II quotes. My account continued to display $1,013 until another trade finally occurred which was over a half hour later. When I refresh my account display, does it somehow pick up trading information that did not occur on one of the major exchanges?

I know that real-time quotes for applications like msn money, yahoo finance, and freestockcharts.com can be different than Level II quotes since they usually only get their trading information from one exchange. For example freestockcharts.com get its real-time trading information from the BATS exchange only but can be updated later (sometimes hours later) with quotes from other exchanges..

when dividends have been suspended? What do investors hope to receive by purchasing those preferred shares?

Aren't people taking a risk purchasing preferred shares at a price above the call price?

Recently JP Morgan called 3 different preferred shares that had coupon rate of 5.49%, 5.72%, and 6.15% and had a market value between 5%-6% under the call price. Why didn't they call their 6.20% and 6.25% preferred shares which were about 1% under the call price instead allowing them to retire debt with higher interest rates at the same cost?

According to the prospectus for their 7.00% preferred shares, the call date has already passed and they could have called those shares at the same cost. Do companies worry about calling shares that are above the call price and then irritating customers?

For example, WFC-J has bond rating of Ba1/A- and WPK has a bond rating of Baa2/A- but both are issued by Wells Fargo. Ba1 is non-investment grade (junk bond) and Baa2 is investment grade two notches above junk.

Both issues were re-rated on 12/03/2009.

WFC-J is listed as "8.00% Dep Shares Noncumulative Perpetual Class"

WPK is listed as "Capital VII 5.85% Trust Preferred".

The following is taken from the description of WFC-J "The preferred shares rank equally with other preferreds and senior to the common shares of the company".

This morning, one hours before the opening bell, I turned on the TV and watched CNBC and it was showing that the futures (DOW, S&P500, and NASDAQ) were down 1/2%-1% and the European indices (FTSE, DAX, and CAC) were down 1%-2%.

I then went to yahoo finance on my computer and all European indices were down 1%-2%. About a 1/2 hour before the opening bell, I again looked at the European indices on yahoo finance and noticed that several of the indices had become 2%-4% positive. I then started watching CNBC to see if there was any news but there wasn't any. I then again looked at the European indices on yahoo finance and they were all up 2%-4%. I then checked pre-market trading for stocks and they were mostly up 2%-4%. I then watched CNBC again and all the US futures had reversed and were now indicating 1/2%-1% up. When the opening bell occurred, yahoo finance was back to normal and working correctly.

Because the problems started occuring 1/2 hour prior to the opening bell and quit failing right at the opening bell, it may seem likely that someone at yahoo finance may be trying to manipulate the stock market.

It is my understanding that RDS.B is the same as RDS.A except RDS.B does not withhold Dutch taxes on dividends. If that is the case, then it would seem that demand would make RDS.B cost more than RDS.A (especially when holding stock in an IRA since the tax can't be deducted from taxes).

The insurgency in Afghanistan is more similar to the Vietnam war and not the Iraqi war since the US is fighting primarily Afghans and not many foreigners like in Iraq,

At the height of the Vietnam war, there were 550,000 American troops, 200,000 South Vietnamese troops, 450,000 other allied troops for a total of 1.2 million troops but the war couldn't be won. When the US left, there were 650,000 South Vietnamese troops.

Afghanistan has about 4 times the land area as South Vietnam but currently has less than 90,000 US troops and 100,000 Afghan troops.

Does anyone see any way to win this war?

Immigration: In 1986, the Chamber of Commerce, farm lobby, other businesses, and the republican party opposed strict sanctions against employers that hired illegals and then only supported immigration reform when those sanctions were removed from the bill. Currently it is nearly impossible to prosecute or fine employers that hire illegals.

Iran & North Korea: Neither country developed nuclear weapons until G.W. Bush called them the axis of evil.

National Debt: The last three republican presidents have created deficits that significantly increased the national debt as a percentage of GDP.

Economy: The worst recession since the great depression was caused by the deregulation of the banking system.

Gulf Oil Spill: The largest US oil spill ever was caused by deregulation of the oil industry.

Health Costs: US health costs per capita is 50%-100% more than any other developed country due to the idea that private market health care is efficient and cost effective.

Wars: Neocon policies have engaged the US in two of the longest wars ever fought by the US.

Trade Balance: Lack of energy independence and lack of support for US manufacturing has created the largest imbalance of trade in the world.

The only country that I can think of is Equatorial Guinea which has a GDP per capita that is similar to the US but is taxed at about 2% of GDP compared to about 27% for the US.

However, 70% of families in Equatorial Guinea earn less than $2 per day and the wealth is is owned by the powerful few.

why do private health insurance companies under the "Medicare Advantage" program require the government to pay them 14% more to provide the same coverage as Medicare?

but wall street banks did not have to pay for economic damages caused by the banking crisis?

After all, they both used excessive risk to try to improve profitability and bonuses and things just happened to go wrong.

but when Reagan and G.W.Bush were in power, they created large deficits during their recessions?

Unlike Europe, American does not have consumer protection agencies and government provided health care and welfare for people injured by someone else or businesses.

Therefore the system of recourse in America is to sue. That is the American way of life brought on by conservative policies.

then why do the poorest counties in the world have a tax burden as a percent of gdp less that 1/3rd the tax burden of developed countries?

Why do some people assume that an illiterate populous, very high poverty levels, crumbling infrastructure, and low life expectancy can create a healthy economy?