I think we are in a reverse economy and I play it ...

2009-05-16T08:41:00.000-04:00

I think we are in a reverse economy and I play it that way. The name of the game is buy low sell high, and if you apply that to the corporate side of sell their products high and buy the down cycles of recovery, like you say may work. I never short(but did this year). Not much money in shorting. It's not yet that bleak.

6-27-2008Sea Ray cuts 160 jobs at Vonore plant; Kn...

2008-07-01T00:50:00.000-04:00

6-27-2008

Sea Ray cuts 160 jobs at Vonore plant; Knoxville, Dandridge plants also lose workers

By Robert Norris
of The Daily Times Staff

About 160 workers at the Sea Ray boat plant in Vonore are being laid off as part of a companywide workforce reduction of about 1,000 employees in an attempt to achieve a cost savings of $300 million.

Dan Kubera, spokesman for Brunswick Corp., parent company of Sea Ray, said Thursday's announcement was a direct result of a detailed analysis of the market.

"Sea Ray management has been trying to keep employees informed that we might have to make further line readjustments. After completing the analysis, indeed the production line rate will be reduced," Kubera said.

"Unfortunately, when you're making fewer product, you need fewer workers."

The number of Brunswick employees in East Tennessee losing their jobs will total about 310, including 110 Sea Ray workers at the Knoxville plant and 40 at the U.S. Marine plant in Dandridge.

The state was notified of the job cuts on Monday, said Milissa Reierson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

RE boats...I live in a coastal town and have alrea...

2008-06-30T14:12:00.000-04:00

RE boats...

I live in a coastal town and have already seen the gas/economy effect on boats. We had a local boat maker go under a couple weeks ago (Seapro) and let go ~200 people.

I have some friends who do a lot of tournament fishing and they are fishing in less tournaments this year because of fuel costs. They've have been telling me how many of the people they know from fishing are either not fishing or selling their boats to get smaller ones that do better on gas. Some of the harder hit guys are selling their boats just to cover their mortgage payments now.

When it comes to the bigger charter boats (40-60ft sport fishers), most of them are sitting idle now. They've had to raise their charter prices so much because of the cost of diesel that no one is going anymore. This means those boats are now starting to go up for sale because they can no longer support some of the cost as charters. Also means more people are going out of work.

KUDOS!!!! YOU ARE ON IT!! EXPOSE THEM!!!ANd with g...

2008-06-30T13:27:00.000-04:00

KUDOS!!!! YOU ARE ON IT!! EXPOSE THEM!!!ANd with greed comes weird behavior. On e hedge fund manager had "sex" with his asst. and made "him" take hormones to grow , well, female parts. SICK. Then when we needed Spitzer, he was with his 17 year old girlfriend, sorry 18. This is insane. Buckle down. GET SHORT!!!! sds, skf, all shorts. buy gold. gg. abx. aem. TRUST ME! EVEN my pastor *he's not like Obama's Huessien's pastor!' he loves people and is trying to get us saved under the blood of Christ, our pastor told us all the market it fixed and evil. HE KNOWS! HE's a Godly man. Look at number of puts on the DIA. FROM THE BILDERBERG GROUP! LOOK IT UP!
Read below:
What we can do in this dangerous moment
By Lawrence Summers

Published: June 29 2008 18:10 | Last updated: June 29 2008 18:10

It is quite possible that we are now at the most dangerous moment since the American financial crisis began last August. Staggering increases in the prices of oil and other commodities have brought American consumer confidence to new lows and raised serious concerns about inflation, thereby limiting the capacity of monetary policy to respond to a financial sector which – judging by equity values – is at its weakest point since the crisis began. With housing values still falling and growing evidence that problems are spreading to the construction and consumer credit sectors, there is a possibility that a faltering economy damages the financial system, which weakens the economy further.

After a period of intense activity at the beginning of the year with the passage of fiscal stimulus legislation, strong action by the Federal Reserve to cut rates and provide liquidity and the introduction of anti-foreclosure legislation, policy has again fallen behind the curve. The only important policy actions of the past several months have been those forced on the Fed by the Bear Stearns crisis. It would be a mistake to overstate the extent to which policy can forestall the gathering storm. But the prospects for a more favourable outcome would be enhanced if four actions were taken promptly.

First, the much debated housing bill should be passed immediately by Congress and signed into law. It provides some support for mortgage debt reduction and strengthens the government’s hand in its troubled relationship with the government-sponsored enterprises – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While it is an imperfect vehicle – too limited in the scope it provides for debt reduction, insufficiently aggressive in strengthening GSE regulation and failing to increase the leverage of homeowners in their negotiations with creditors through bankruptcy reform – it would contribute to the repair of the nation’s housing finance system. Failure to pass even this minimal measure would undermine confidence.

Second, Congress should move promptly to pass further fiscal measures to respond to our economic difficulties. The economy would be in a far worse state if fiscal stimulus had not come on line two months ago. The forecasting community is having increasing doubts about the fourth quarter of this year and beginning of the next as the impact of the current round of stimulus fades. With long-term unemployment at recession levels, there is a clear case for extending the duration of unemployment insurance benefits. There is now also a case for carefully designed support for infrastructure investment, as financial strains have distorted the municipal credit markets to the point where even the highest-quality municipal borrowers are, despite their tax advantage, paying more than the federal government to borrow. There are legitimate questions about how rapidly the impact of infrastructure spending will be felt. But with construction employment in free fall, there will be a need for stimulus tied to the needs of less educated male workers for quite some time. Fiscal stimulus measures must be coupled to budget process reform that provides reassurance that, once the crisis passes, the fiscal policy discipline of the 1990s will be re-established.

Third, policymakers need to make a clear commitment to addressing the non-monetary factors causing inflation concerns. Though this could change rapidly and vigilance is necessary, it does not now appear that there are embedded expectations of a continuing wage price spiral. Rather, the primary source of inflation concern is increases in the price of oil, food and other commodities. Even if structural measures to address these issues do not have an immediate impact on commodity prices, they may serve to address medium-term inflation expectations. Appropriate steps include reform of misguided ethanol subsidies that distort grain markets to minimal environmental benefit, allowing farm land now being conserved to be planted; measures to promote the use of natural gas; and reform of Strategic Petroleum Reserve Policy to encourage swaps at times when the market is indicating short supply. Major importance should be attached to encouraging the reduction or elimination of energy subsidies in the developing world.

Fourth, it needs to be recognised that in the months ahead there is the real possibility that significant financial institutions will encounter not just liquidity but solvency problems as the economy deteriorates and further writedowns prove necessary. Markets are anticipating further cuts in financial institution dividends; regulators should encourage this to happen sooner rather than later and more broadly to reduce stigma. They should also recognise that no one can afford to be too picky about the timing or source of capital infusions and rapidly complete the review of regulations that limit the ability of private equity capital to come into the banking system. Most important, regulators should do what is necessary, including possibly seeking new legislative authority, to assure that in the event of an institution becoming insolvent they can manage the resolution in a way that protects the system while also protecting taxpayers. It was fortunate that a natural merger partner was available when Bear Stearns failed – we may not be so lucky next time.

Unfortunately we are in an economic environment where we have more to fear than fear itself. But this is no excuse for fatalism. The policy choices made in the next few months will matter to the lives of millions of Americans, to America’s economic strength and to the global economy.

The writer is Charles W. Eliot university professor at Harvard University and a managing director of D.E. Shaw & Co

Top economists debate Martin Wolf’s and Lawrence Summers’ columns in the

Comments on Fund My Mutual Fund: Listen to the Companies; not the Government Report...

I think we are in a reverse economy and I play it ...

6-27-2008Sea Ray cuts 160 jobs at Vonore plant; Kn...

RE boats...I live in a coastal town and have alrea...

KUDOS!!!! YOU ARE ON IT!! EXPOSE THEM!!!ANd with g...