Pages

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Second half

Continuing with the second half of the stocks addressed on Nov 22.

VAR Probably will have a correction in 5 or 6 days.Will see. And by Feb 17-18 should find a bottom.
Second option is keep going up and black out by Feb 17-18 but I prefer a lot more the first scenario.

Wrong even though the second option mentioned that keeps going up till feb 17-18 for the kind of chart I consider it wrong.

-----------------------------

BKE It got a huge drop ending in August and recovered. Probably will keep going up. Be carefull right now for 4-5 days could reverse violently and if keeps going late January first week of Feb could see a big top.

Wrong didn't move much and the top was Feb 22 not in the first week of Feb.
-----------------------------

MEE Starting Dec 03 2010, this is bad. Kind of like Oh my God, that's bad! That kind of bad.
Probably can muster up something but at the earliest will be March. Anyways is bad, really bad.

MEE Wrong before getting killed (acquired) made a jump.
-----------------------------

MW Nothing to write home about could follow the trend but in Apr-May can be a different story.

Wrong. I know April-May is not here yet but drop a 20% in December.
--------------------------

DFS For the next 3 months doesn't look with a lot of upside.

Wrong. The next 3 months went up around 13% not much but went up.
--------------------------

DKS A trend follower. Anyway is going to have it's explosions but they are going to be quieter and quieter after April 2011.

Right. It follow the trend.The last movement is one of it's explosions.Will see if quiet down after April.
-------------------------

KLAC Is going to be range bound for several months.So long and short long and short could be one strategy.

Wrong. Went up 20%.
-------------------------

NTAP Could keep going till Jan 11-13 or (if the market goes down) by January 20 and or March 13 could be good times for a move up but I don't see too much potential to the upside at that point.

Right. Kept going up till Jan 12 retested Jan 14 and drop. Went for another leg up in Feb. failed and drop 25% till March 15.
-------------------------

RL Starting the new year could have a big drop I would be very careful around Jan 5. I doubt that it'll go up much.

Right. Started Jan 4 the drop and lasted around 8 days. It went up only 10% in four months.
-------------------------

MIPPS It had a nice run up probably can keep going one more month then probably will start some long consolidation. Will see.

Right. Kept going a month and a half and reverted.More than consolidation is a drop, so wrong about that.
------------------------

Well next week I'll draw some conclusions.

I mentioned in the previous post that around Friday and Monday comes the meat part in an up move.It move up both days but still couldn't break 1300 in the S&P. Will see if the uptrend still works shortly.

Dan

97 comments:

  1. U.K. inflation up 4.4%.

    More fiat printing come to eurozone.

    "The eurozone's leadership has come to an agreement on the new permanent bailout fund for the region". From the "10 things you must know before the opening bell thread - businessinsider.com.

    That eurozone bailout fund -$710 billion.

    Cobras blog - intraday thread - insitituitions still in distribution mode.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  2. ICan - It makes one wonder when it stops become a bail out and becomes a way of life.

    What happens when the regular bail out no longer works? Do they have a bail out of the bail out?

    Some all these bailouts don't seem to have a happy ending?

    Mangy Mutt

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just found out today that my bank that did the re-fi on our house over 6 months ago hasn't made any of the insurance payments that have been in escrow to my insurer. I wonder if they're paying my taxes that are supposedly in escrow. Unreal. Isn't this basic banking operations? Kind of shows you how little they care about the nuts and bolts of real banking. Not enough money in it these days, apparently.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dan,

    Thanks. You must be very busy lately and we miss your comments!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Manny,

    No kidding. The incompetence is breath taking.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The day time low yesterday was 1287.75 ES. Almost took it out on the last pass. Might be interesting day if it takes yesterday's low out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dan,

    Great call from last week!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Morning all! Thanks for the post Dan! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. From Dan's post last week, "Coincidences?":

    "I was expecting several weeks ago an up move around now, the peak for that impulse is this weekend. There's not too much time left."

    ReplyDelete
  10. Is a lower high forming in the markets?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I feel it in my bones, Thor. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Israel now launching air strikes in Gaza. But, hey, markets are pricing in all this geopolitical risk, right? RIGHT?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Then there's this.....the O man figured the Libya strikes would be no problem. No ground forces. Wrong. Our endless wars march onward...

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23libya.html?_r=1&hp

    ReplyDelete
  14. Whoa - what now Manny? I thought we all agreed, no more historic world events until we all have time to catch up! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oil headed back up again. 110 here we come!

    ReplyDelete
  16. No problem, Thor. Higher oil prices is GOOD for the economy, remember? Just click your heels and repeat that mantra three times and all will be well. The end.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Mannwich - What are your options at this point?

    The escrow, should have been taken care of automatically.

    What has your bank been doing with the extra funds? Going towards pricipal, interest or were they paying themselves a bonus?

    Sheesh, that is rough man.

    Mutt

    ReplyDelete
  18. I raised hell first but took care of it. I think. Called my insurance company and faxed over the letter that I received from Wells (I know, do business with the devil and this is what you get, but the rates were the lowest with these guys, of course) and they said they were taking care of it. What's weird is my insurance company never notified me about it. They said they'd been trying to contact Wells to get the $$ but had no luck. The inefficiencies in these giant banks are brutal. Scale my ass. Scale to be highly inefficient and careless.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I also love how I was notified. A form letter from Wells. No call from anyone or anything.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Manny - I missed that earlier, sorry! My very first mortgage was with WFB back in 1999. They were horrible with the impound accounts that far back! They were constantly getting the amounts wrong for withholding, our payment would sometimes change by 400 bucks from year to year. Haven't had a mortgage with WFB since, sounds like that might be a good thing!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Great, Thor. I'm sure this will be a fun experience with them. TBTF indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The markets must love unrest, war and instability in the Middle East.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I mean, according to Mr. Fink over at Blackrock, the markets love autocratic rule in nations, so a little unrest, violence and instability is all good for business, right?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Glad it is taken Care ofMarch 22, 2011 at 12:10 PM

    Mannwich - Glad to hear you got that taken care of and that nothing happened during the time your home was uninsured.

    It would have been 100% their fault, but good luck on holding them accountable.

    Mutt

    ReplyDelete
  25. Studendent of the Great DepressionMarch 22, 2011 at 12:15 PM

    Mannwich - The genious heading the Fedral Resserve is a Student of the Great Depression.

    He will throw money at this pig for as long as he thinks it will take.

    What he does not understand is he is creating far more problems then he could ever fix by doing this.

    The Bankers and market movers, know he will bailout the bailout, with even more bailout.

    By no means is this going to end in a pretty fashion, but BerStupidAnke, believes when the time is right, he will just mop it all up.

    What's a little unrest and termoil, when you can just keep printing money?

    Mutt

    ReplyDelete
  26. @Mutt,

    Catfood for grandma.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Egypt back at it again?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/egypt-interior-ministry-fire_n_839028.html

    ReplyDelete
  28. @Rock,

    TRP.TO, at pivotal stage. 52 week high. Break to the upside?

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  29. U$D lost its safehaven status. With all this mayhem, it's still down.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  30. ICan - Rock is out of town this week ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Is anyone else bothered by the treatment of Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning up to this point? Has he even been charged with a crime at this point?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Suncor(Su.to) no following higher oil prices today yet. H&S?

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  33. Annon (12:31) - My grandamother makes some of the best Cat Food Fettucini :)

    Mutt

    ReplyDelete
  34. Manny - I'm really torn on that one. On the one hand, he provided information that we wouldn't have had otherwise. On the other hand, he did break the law. Worse, nothing has or will change because of those leaks. That's the one thing I think Asange is hopelessly misinformed about; Americans are far more cynical when it comes to our government than he gives us credit for. Would anyone really be even remotely surprised at this point if it came out that we had secret prisons all over the world where we torture people? It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Would it surprise me to learn that most of our politicians, actors, and business leaders are tax cheats? No, not at all. When you have the Speaker of The House actively trying to impeach the president over an affair in the White House, while he himself is cheating on his wife is par for the course in our banana republic.

    ReplyDelete
  35. The real tragedy in the whole thing for me, is that we STILL continue to re-elect the same idiots who get us into these messes in the first place. Whether there's an R or a D in front of their name, they're all actively screwing us over and no one really seems to care, or at the very least, people are naive enough to assume their local elected officials are somehow different.

    ReplyDelete
  36. @Thor: Innocent until proven guilty? Hasn't even been tried in court yet. And why the mental cruelty? Isn't that a bit over the top? Borderline torture if you ask me.

    ReplyDelete
  37. @Denise, 11:10AM and 11:12AM: the quote you give is from Dan's post What kind of swan?, not Coincidences, that was Rock's post.:)

    I second your observation: Kudos Dan, good insight ahead of the move up that started last Thursday.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Wolfie,

    Thanks for providing the correct post. Maybe I need new glasses. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  39. "WTF: The Federal budget and 50 years of Canadian debt". http://news.nationalpost.com/graphic-50years-of-canadian-debt.

    "The Canadian Taxpayers Federation which set up the ever-ticking massive debt clock of Parliament hill last week declated the country is broke".

    Total Canadian debt - %563 billion - 30% of GDP.

    But, my question - Why did Canada go into deficit last year -when previous budgets were balanced? - Minority govt. -want to keep power at all cost. $56 billion deficit. Ugly.


    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  40. ICan - welcome to the club!

    Manny - that's a good point, I'll admit that I'm not following that story as closely as I should and I know that much of my response is more of a gut emotional level response to the spin the government and MSM is spinning about the guy than any well thought out opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Thor,

    They are making an example out of him, as if their protocols and safeguards are so poor that a guy like him could just download anything and everything, they know there will be others.

    That is what is mind boggling, that he could access those files. And here we worry about having the best computer safe guards, firewalls, encryption software, etc., when they just leave all of that stuff unprotected.

    Makes you crazy.

    No doubt about it, they will not let up on him as they know the only way to stop the next person is to frighten them into not doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  42. American civil war:

    Between the rich and the rest.

    "New civil war errupts, led by super rich, GOP". Paul B. Farrell - marketwatch.com

    But, isn't it true for all countries, including Canada.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  43. Here is a link to a story that has me upset today:

    How We Treat Heart Disease

    Dr. Mark Midei Faces Suit Over Cardiac Stents

    "Word quickly reached top executives at Abbott Laboratories that a Baltimore cardiologist, Dr. Mark Midei, had inserted 30 of the company’s cardiac stents in a single day in August 2008, “which is the biggest day I remember hearing about,” an executive wrote in a celebratory e-mail.

    Two days later, an Abbott sales representative spent $2,159 to buy a whole, slow-smoked pig, peach cobbler and other fixings for a barbecue dinner at Dr. Midei’s home, according to a report being released Monday by the Senate. The dinner was just a small part of the millions in salary and perks showered on Dr. Midei for putting more stents in more patients than almost any other cardiologist in Baltimore.

    The Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare, started investigating Dr. Midei in February after a series of articles in The Baltimore Sun said that Dr. Midei at St. Joseph Medical Center, in Towson, Md., had inserted stents in patients who did not need them, reaping high reimbursements from Medicare and private insurance."

    So this well respected cardiologist who graduated from Johns Hopkins, one of our best medical schools, gets kick backs from Abbot Labs, and the hospital which gives him the incentive to insert stents into people who did not need them.

    The free market works, I tell ya!

    ReplyDelete
  44. Ican - That article is REALLY good!!

    SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, “there’s class warfare, all right,” warns Warren Buffett. “But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Yes, the rich are making war against us. And yes, they are winning. Why? Because so many are fighting this new American Civil War between the rich and the rest.

    Not just the 16 new GOP governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and across America fighting for new powers. Others include: Chamber of Commerce billionaires, Koch brothers, Forbes 400, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform — which now has 97% of House Republicans and 85% of the GOP Senators signed on his “no new taxes” pledge — the Tea Party and Reaganomics ideologues.


    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-civil-war-erupts-led-by-super-rich-gop-2011-03-22

    ReplyDelete
  45. @Denise: Is what happens when everyone is either blatantly on the take or is looking the other way while seeing others on the take or a bit of both. "Don't rock the boat" should be the country's new slogan.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I personally find the way they are treating Manning rather disturbing and frightening.

    ReplyDelete
  47. @Dan: think you won't mind if I re-quote your short term perspective (thread mentioned above:"What kind of black swan?"):

    "And if fails to brake up by late next week I'll be clearly on the correection camp for a while, so at the latest in 10-11 days we will get clarity about the direction that everything will take.April-May still remains like my primary target."

    I for one would like to see the SPY test the 1312 mark this week. In the perspective of 1312 being our lower high, that would provide a great opportunity to reenter the market on the short side (with tight stops set).

    But markets failing to retake the 1300 in the next couple of days, or worse breaking back below 1294, that will do also:p

    ReplyDelete
  48. @Denise: I had to recently put the kibosh on what I thought was an unnecessary test that my doctor wanted to do.....feeling pretty good but she still wanted it done for some reason. I said no.

    There's BIG $$$ in treating bad health. Not so much in prevention. Need to remember that.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Anyone read Disaster Capitalism yet?

    ReplyDelete
  50. Agreed Thor. Very good article indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  51. @Denise(1:23), Thor,

    How's that different from Gaddaffi(insert any dictator, or corrupt politician)?

    Humans are greedy. No system is safe unless and until those who are caught punished enough to set an example. It's really bad in the east, where the sheeple are ignorant and uneducated and even sell their vote for a drink.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  52. By the way, I've read that book, "The Shock Doctrine" and it's very good.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Tradermike.net

    The trend is down.


    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  54. What bothers me the most is that this Dr. had the biggest cardiologist practice in Baltimore, and had the best reputation.

    So patients would think that they are getting the best care by the best doctor who had the most experience in his field for the region, (all hallmarks of what is considered the best predictor of successful treatment) and yet he has no moral qualms about over treating people for money, and risking their lives.

    ReplyDelete
  55. @Denise: As a culture, we've taken the ability to rationalize nearly all of our behaviors to extremes. I'm sure it's no different for him. Hubris, arrogance, and greed.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Denise - The medical industry in this country is so corrupt it would make your head spin. I have a completely different view on physicians now than I did 10 years ago, both from my own experiences within the medical industry (both private and public) as well as having my partner and many of his closest friends working in hospitals and medical centers.

    The most important piece of advice they usually give about the Medical Industry? Try to stay as healthy as you can to stay as far away from it as you can.

    ReplyDelete
  57. @ICan, 1:36

    Which is the biggest reason why we need effective regulation, the cop on the corner, as humans are greedy, corrupt, and will act immorally for personal gain. Even doctors who are supposed to do no harm. And the executives at Abbott and that hospital are all criminals as well, profiting from a corrupt system and doctor.

    This is the biggest argument against totally free markets and why conservatives/Libertarians want them, because they know if they can operate unchecked by anyone they can make enormous profits, the public be damned.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Thor,

    I viewed this firsthand when my father was ill and subsequently passed away, $500k later. My father wanted a certain surgeon, whom we later found out was booted from St. Louis, and an Ozark hospital paid him a signing bonus and a piece of the profits if he would come to their hospital.

    All of that treatment was on the urgent advice of his doctors, who had a conflict of interest to over treat him.

    ReplyDelete
  59. That is precisely my strategy, Thor. Try to use the system as little as possible and that means staying doing everything that I can to stay really healthy.

    ReplyDelete
  60. @Denise: I agree, but what if in our seeming cultural decline & moral decay the regulators become so corrupted and co-opted at the end of the day?

    ReplyDelete
  61. Manny,

    The greed and profit motive drives most people, medicine is no different.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Manny,

    There was a time that regulators regulated. Not anymore. The revolving door between lobbyists, the SEC, congress and Wall Street is well documented. Also the same revolving door exists in the defense industry; lobbyists, congress, defense corporations, the military.

    There used to be shame about corruption, outright stealing, illegally profiting or looking the other way but that went away 30 years ago. Now we are a proud nation of free market anything goes capitalists.

    ReplyDelete
  63. @Denise: But don't you think that's at least in part a cultural phenomenon that won't be easily or quickly reversed?

    ReplyDelete
  64. Denise - The thing that really changed things for me was the death of my mother and grandmother. Mom had no insurance and went to a county hospital, her care was phenomenal at every level, although having to navigate all the tax and income issues with her house in order to prevent her from losing it to pay for the cost of her death (to put it bluntly) was not pleasant while watching a parent die of cancer.

    My grandmother had insurance, both Medicare, and my grandfathers insurance from United Airlines which was still very good. The care she had in the private hospital was horrible, from doctors clearly not interested in her treatment, to nurses who were barely competent.

    I know full well that these two hospitals do not represent all medical care in this country today, but at the very least, it put to rest in my mind the notion that the government can't possibly compete with private industry when it comes to providing good quality care. I now know this to be bullshit propaganda paid for by the medical lobby.

    ReplyDelete
  65. "“What was going on in Baltimore is going on right now in every city in America,” said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who said he routinely treats patients who have been given multiple unneeded stents. “We’re spending a fortune as a country on procedures that people don’t need.” "

    ReplyDelete
  66. I also think that part of the problem is that in our global economy where big corporations run the show it's now so easy to justify what we're doing for our "jobs" if the effects of what we're doing aren't local, meaning you don't have to look your neighbor that you just screwed over in the eye because chances are the person that got screwed doesn't live near you anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  67. DSS - there's one other motivation for many of these folks that I think ties in nicely with greed. Laziness - people not wanting to work for their money. We have become a society fueled by getting rich as quickly and easily as possible. Hell, you could even tie in our obsession with reality TV into that. People like Paris Hilton, Nicole, Richie, or the Kardasians. People who contribute absolutely nothing to society but are somehow looked up to and glorified.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Manny,

    No, there is way too much money doing business this way.

    ReplyDelete
  69. The tragic thing is that people have to trust these doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, etc., as they many times have no choice.

    Which is not to say that there are not many honest doctors who do the right thing and selflessly defer to their patients, but when you look at the seamy underbelly of medicine in America it makes you want to puke.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Totally agree with that, Thor. Hard work is for chumps now. At least that's the message that constantly gets sent so is it any surprise to see the constant rationalizations of how many of us end up getting wealthy? It's the "everyone else is doing" it defense so it's all cultural.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Denise - I had a similar issue with my cardiologist, without going into too much detail on my family history, I have a very strong family history of sudden cardiac arrest (same thing that kills these young kids playing sports) along with high blood pressure. I have not been diagnosed with the condition, but I do have a little bit of thickening in an arterial wall. My cardiologist not only suggested that I immediately have a defibrillator put in, but that I spend 5K of my own money for a genetic test that my insurance would not cover! The worst part of the genetic test, is that it would only test for HALF the genes that affect the heart for this condition, I'd have to retake the test in 5-10 years when they can test all the other genes.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Thor,

    Wow. Sorry for that condition. 5k for a gene test? Incredible.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Are we going to hold that 1287.75 level? We have tested it three times so far, so it is do or die.

    ReplyDelete
  74. CRE prices continue heading south. Why do I get the sense that home and CRE prices are going to just slowly drip, drip, drip downward for several years and then maybe flatline for a long time?

    http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/03/moodys-commercial-real-estate-prices.html

    ReplyDelete
  75. Denise - The way I look at it. Is that doctors are no better than anyone else you would contract to do work for you. Only in this instance, the thing being worked ON is you. I play hard ball with any contractor we would have work on our homes or cars, I'm sure as hell going to be every bit a hard ass when it comes to my own body. Doctors are just like everyone else in the world in every other profession, there are good one's, and bad one's, simply being a physician isn't enough, nor should it. They should be under every bit as much scrutiny as every other profession.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Another good piece of advice I've been given from many people working in the industry is to steer a wide path around the arrogant doctors, they tend to be the worst doctors. Guess that makes sense, the most arrogant people in any office are usually the incompetent ones.

    ReplyDelete
  77. I guess the MSM got bored with the Japan crisis. Not seeing much coverage, at least online anyway. Or maybe there are simply too many crises around the world for them to cover in their typically crappy way?

    ReplyDelete
  78. Thor – When my youngest son was born about 2 years old, he started to get dry itchy skin, was having a difficult time breathing and become very lethargic. My wife signed him up for Washington State Health “Insurance”.

    We were told what Dr, would treat him, so we took him to the Dr at first he said our son wasn’t being bathed enuff (Therefore the dry skin) then he was being bathed too much (Cuz he still had dry skin) The Dr literally did not diagnose the difficulty breathing but would prescribe over the counter cough medicine.

    Because he was not getting any better, we were taking him in every couple weeks, the last time we took him in the Dr. practically said it was a parenting issue and he did not want to see our son so often.

    We ended up making an appointment with a private dermatologist, who said our son had asthma, exima and more then likely a food allergy, he scheduled an appointment for us with a Seattle based allergy clinic and we paid them $500 up front (Plus paid the dermatologist)

    We took our son to Seattle and on the way over he became ill again, when we got to the allergy clinic, they would not treat our son, because he did not get a referral from his primary Dr and the state “insurance” specified that they could only except patients who were referred by the primary.

    But because of how ill my son was, one of the nurses took pity on him and said they would run a quick check. He ended up having allergies to peanut butter, grass, pollen and a few others, they gave him a shot and put him on a nebulizer, within 20 minutes he was acting like a 2 year old again.

    Even though we were paying for this state “insurance” it was subsidized so we had to play by their rules and after doing some research, it turns out the primary Dr. got X amount of money from the state each month. If they did not see the patient they kept the whole amount, if they referred the patient out they had to share part of the money.

    The system is not set up for patient care.

    Anyway we dropped the “insurance” but it still took over 6 months to make the state believe we did not want that kind of care.

    Mangy Mutt

    ReplyDelete
  79. Chernobyl Cleanup Survivor's Message for Japan: 'Run Away as Quickly as Possible'

    http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/22/chernobyl-cleanup-survivors-message-for-japan-run-away-as-qui/

    ReplyDelete
  80. We have several doctors in our social circle and we always ask them about the other doctors and hospitals. Luckily, we have not had any major illnesses to deal with, but it is helpful when they say yay or nay to certain docs we might be considering.

    ReplyDelete
  81. That interview link I just posted above is a must-read.

    ReplyDelete
  82. 'What message do you have for Japan?
    Run away as quickly as possible. Don't wait. Save yourself and don't rely on the government because the government lies. They don't want you to know the truth because the nuclear industry is so powerful.'

    What a sad story, and the government is lying about Japan as well.

    ReplyDelete
  83. @Mutt(2:46),

    Good thing you were proactive, didn't believe the doctor and your son got better.

    Happens here in Canada too. My mother is allergic to wheat(celiac) - this is hard to believe because wheat is part of our daily diet. The doctor ran a test last October, didn't call us back to tell us about the result, until she got really sick. When we booked an appointment last week, then he(the doctor) told us about test results.

    I guess the patient has to be proactive these days.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  84. Mutt - So you know as well as anyone that simply having an MD means absolutely nothing where quality of care is concerned. Another thing I've finally gotten the hang of. If I don't like the care I'm getting from my doctor, or if he tells me things I think are BS, I fire him and find a new doctor.
    So many doctors hate being questioned when they are in the one profession where they SHOULD be constantly questioned. These are lives we're talking about here for god's sake. If anything, people should be harder on their doctors, not blindly listen to everything they say as if they're god.

    ReplyDelete
  85. "IBM sues IBM over alleged South Korea, China bribes". marketwatch.com. Mar. 18,2011

    Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in India this week.

    Buffet telling investors to buy Japan, India.

    India introduced GST - inflation , taxes and bribery - aren't they all taxes with different names.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  86. From FT.com,

    "Saudis prepare to abandon troublesome Yemen".

    "Saleh offers to stepdown by the end of the year".

    "Tripoli's anti-Gaddafi voices re-emerge".

    "Gold key to financing Gaddafi's struggle". The Central bank of Libya has over 170 tonnes of gold.

    ReplyDelete
  87. The Guardian blog on Libya is reporting that,"the U.S. believes Gaddafi may be expoloring exile options". Hilary Clinton said,"some of it is theatre". This could just be rumor to demoralise the Libyan fighters. No othe major newspaper is reporting this.

    ICan

    ReplyDelete
  88. It is so difficult these days to make vacation plans, the internet is a great resource but now poses new challenges in booking hotels. I first look at Trip Advisor, then at the bedbugregistry.com, and pray we get an adequate room.

    At least these bad hotels are being held more accountable!

    ReplyDelete
  89. Thanks, ICan for all of your links. I probably do not say that enough to you as you do such a great job of keeping us all informed!

    ReplyDelete
  90. Oil back above 105. Denise, bed bugs? Ugh!

    ReplyDelete