First, I would like to apologize for the pause in posting of my thoughts, articles, and trades. The last month has been very fast paced with lots going on. I was in Vegas for training and learned the latest developments in the banking industry. Then I was off to London to actually do some work. I did get some time to enjoy the weekend in Vegas and celebrate my birthday...let's hope I'm getting wiser with age. Here is a rundown of what's going on and specifically what to be thankful for:
Family
First off I'm thankful for family. I liked to pause and take a moment for my cousin Richard O. Faulkner Jr who passed away in a tragic car accident. We love you Rick and may your soul rest in peace.
Congress
There have been a number of articles out lately on Congress and there expensive habits. Its turns out that Congress may be thankful for their positions of power this time of the year. With an approval rating of single digits in some polls, you'd think they start to work together to deflect the heat and get things done. Nope, I think they would rather dodge the heat and continue to rake in the dough. Here were some surprising stats about the people representing you:
~ 11% of our congressmen have an estimated net worth of $9 million or more. That's 57 members
~ 250 members are actual millionaires
I'm not a hater, so I don't mind if you've got a lot of cash. However, as stories surface that some congressmen have traded stocks that may have helped them accumulate this wealth then I get nervous. I look at their positions and wonder if there isn't a potential for conflict of interest. See the 60 Minutes show for their reporting on this topic. It just makes you wonder if there is too much financial temptation and can they truly represent the average American.
Wealthy Congress:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-11-15/congress-wealthy-1/51216626/1
Congress & Insider Trading:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/
Markets
I and many others are thankful that the markets are actually well above where we thought it would be. The Dow is over 12000 and the SP is above 1200 and these are respectable levels with all the things going on in the world. The ride to get here has been very volatile so I hope you don't have motion sickness. I am still negative on the overall markets because there is too many loose ends not tied up. Think the Euro and the shuffling of leaders, the Super Committee not getting anything done, the Arab Spring...which is now the Arab Winter, and now you have the populist anger that is spreading across the country and world. Occupy Wall Street, the uprisings in the Arab countries and the strikes in London are real and they are real people voicing their disapproval of how things are going. The stock market has often been swinging day to day, and you can find it up 2% one day then down 3% the next and that's not good. So stay with the tried and true and look for great companies that are paying you as we ride this out. We call them dividend paying stocks, and you'll see that I've written about them often this year.
Economy
Again, I'm not a hater so I want to give some credit where it may be due. Who ultimately gets the credit will be debated but the economic picture appears to be getting better. A recent jobs number came out and the number of jobs created for the last month was 206,000 I believe. This is great news and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.6%. While we may not like what goes on in the back room, I am thankful for the President, Congress, and the business community and hope they keep doing things that get us back to work.
13F Filings
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