I understand there is a significant cost behind the architecture, infrastructure and deployment a network the size that Comcast has developed, but one would think that the company would also be able to successfully run the network once in place, wouldn’t you?

Whenever the weather changes, be it a drop in temperature, rain, or significant wind, the Internet service provided by Comcast either slows down noticeably or all together stops.  When one calls the support center, most times, they have no clue as to a) any issue or b) how to help you.

I’m not saying they are evil, as others do, but come on! For $55 a month I would expect better service…

Tim Geithner and his inspiring confidence

During the Senate nomination of Tim Geithner, David Axelrod called on individuals to look past Geithner’s tax errors because Tim “inspires great confidence” and Rahm Emanuel called Geithner “the right man for the job.” 

Well, take a look what happens when the right man for the job, who inspires great confidence, speaks:

Obviously, that reflects the confidence of Wallst. 

Ford and GM see the car market stabilizing

Maybe my observation from two weeks ago was right after all…  I made the comment that I noticed a number of “new” cars on the road.  Well, a number of cars that had temporary license plates.  Despite having horrific sales in January, Ford and GM now say the automotive market is showing signs of stabilization.

Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.’s global marketing chief, said Wednesday that seasonally adjusted retail sales demand has held steady for the past four months. Meanwhile, the country’s used car market has come “roaring back” since January.

“That shows me that credit’s available,” Farley said after a Ford presentation at the Chicago Auto Show. “When we’re seeing the kind of growth in the used car market that we’ve seen in the last six weeks, that is a really important milestone for the bottoming out of the industry.”

While new cars are not moving, it looks like the used car market MAY be picking up a bit.

All I can say is “WOW!”

The inauguration was highly impressive on a number of levels.  On a very basic level, watching the ceremony unfold, with barely a glitch, in such perfect manner was very impressive.  Take into account the history that was unfolding, add in the sea of humanity, and you have the perfect recipe for a modern day drama. 

I was quite impressed with the class President Obama showed during todays events.  While our nation faces a number of uphill battles, he did not place blame with any one specific person or political party.  He did move away from the political attacks in hopes of bringing the country together and, I believe, in a number of ways he did.  While I found his overall message to be less positive – and more realistic – than I had expected, he provided a message that resonated with the masses in general.

I do have a major problem; however, with something that took place today.  The crowd was booing when VP Cheney and President Bush were introduced (and, yes, they were still the VP and President at the time).  If you have a problem with the former VP and President I fully support you and your views, but you simply do not boo.  This isn’t a free speech issue, it’s a respect issue – respect for the Office of the President – not necessarily the person.  You respect the position. When you disrespect the Office, you are disrespecting the nation, and it only shows the ignorance that still is within our society today.  

Again, best of luck President Obama.  You have a huge task in front of you.  

Stock Market

At the beginning of the year, all of Twenty days ago, I was concerned about how quickly the stock market was rising .  The DOW almost reached 9100, and it was acting as if no recession was gripping our economy. Bad news would come out, the DOW would go up.  Good news would come out, the DOW would go up even faster.  The market was enthusiastic for no real reason, and now it has a huge hangover.  Today the DOW dropped 332 points, closing below 8000 for the first time in 2009.  

Yes, the news looks scary once again.  The survival of US banks are in question. Will Bank of America survive?  How long will it be before The Royal Bank of Scotland will be fully nationalized? What company will go bankrupt next?  Look past the obvious bad news and you can see good news.  REALLY good news, actually.

Take a look…

IBM posted a profit of $3.28 for the quarter – .$25 higher than expected.  Not only that, IBM expects to make $9.20 per share for the 2009 fiscal year, up $.45 from what was previously forecast.  Johnson and Johnson posted quarterly profits 14% higher, though they expect 2009 figures to be flat.  CSX – the rail transportation company – posted a profit of $.90 per share, a whole penny less than expected. 

The earning are there and better than expected from some of the economic bellwethers.  I’m not saying the economy isn’t in the crapper, nor am I saying everything will be fine tomorrow, but I do believe that the market has swung to low too fast.  

Essentially, I think the stock market is way oversold and is trading on emotion, not on the reality of the current situation.

Pilates, I have a new found respect for you

Today was the first day of my workout routine and Pilates was on the docket.  I doubted the effectiveness of a Pilates workout… until today.  For a 17 minute workout I felt the “burn”, as it were, and I was sweating up a storm.  

Seriously, I was very surprised and I cannot wait for the next workout… oh, and I’m down to 162.5 pounds, down 6 pounds in about two weeks.  There is no target weight I have in mind, I simply am taking better care of myself and it seems to be working.

Erasure Pop Remixed!

I had the chance to listen to a promo copy of Erasure’s “Pop Remixed!” and I can officially say that I am disappointed.  Really, not trying to sound negative or unsupportive, but the remixes are really…   thin… weak… uninspiring.  

Here is a quick breakdown.

Always – The Manhattan Clique remix doesn’t embody any of the original – outside of the vocals, nor does it do the song justice.  I’ve never understood the fascination Erasure has with Manhattan Clique as their work never seems impressive.

Drama!  - Really, you would think that Andy Bell would honor his own song in little better than this.

A Little Respect – Hello bad late 90’s Euro Trance music

Fingers and Thumbs – The full remix is long and, at times, seemingly pointless. Worse yet, the remix uses a vocoder on Andy’s voice…  The edit version is OK, but nothing impressive.

There was such potential here but my fears, I believe, have been realized…. 

Until next time, stay (fill in the blank).

With a new years comes hope of better times for the stock market.  Here is a remind of how far we’ve fallen in the last year, thanks to dshort.com.  While the decline is significant, make sure you take notice of the other bear markets as well.

Obviously, as during any bear market up and downs seem to come for no reason while the bottom is being established. The question that is now in mind is this: is a bottom in place?

A few weeks back I posted a chart from dshort.com that compared the last four bear markets, well they’ve updated the chart to reflect the recent market activity.

You can click the image to get a clear view.

What does this information say thus far?  Well, the S & P crash of 2008 was larger than the DOW crash of 1929.  It look as if a short term bottom was established as the S & P is up more than 10% from it’s low, but is the selling and downward pressure over?  Looking at the VIX, it sure looks like things have really calmed down…

Frankly, I wouldn’t be throwing money into the market just yet.

Important to note: The 51% drop in the S & P does not mean we are in a Depression

So, the world markets have no crashed and the world did not end. Markets are actually mixed the day after the “great sell-off”. Also take into account that DOW futures are 145 points in the positive makes one wonder if the market is OK with the current situation.

For those who blame Republican policy – not greed and poor oversight – please explain to me why Europeans are rescuing banks? Dexia, a large Belgian, wouldn’t be getting a $9.2 billion government bailout if this was simply a U.S. / Republican party issue, would it?

Finally, there is still no word on where we go from here….

I wonder what today will bring.

While it mean nothing in terms of the bailout, it’s nice to see the DOW futures poining to a positive open - up 76 points as of this writing.

For the biggest one day drop ever:

Late Saturday evening congressional leaders and the current administration reached a deal on the financial bailout which includes a staggered spending rate and is open to companies who deny “golden parachutes” to senior executives leaving the company. A bailout is what Wall Street was looking for, as noted by the drastic swings in the past two weeks, but how is the market reacting to the news?

Rather unimpressed, actually.

As of 12:01 AM Monday, September 29th, DOW futures are down 67 points showing that the market is heading to a lower open. Look at other markets currently open and one can see the rest of the world isn’t too excited about the plan either. The Nikkei is down half a percent and the Hang Seng is two percent in the red.

Maybe the poor performance of the market is due to the fact that the Bill still needs to be signed into law, maybe a poor economy is finally playing into the market, or maybe the stock market is unhappy with what is being proposed.

This week has the potential to be wild, let’ see what happens.

UPDATE: 12:36 AM

Asian markets are heading lower due to an increase in interest rates, sending property and resource stocks lower.  Financial stocks, however, rose – it looks as if the financial markets are reacting in a positive manner to the bailout.

With the Lehman bankruptcy filing it was a foregone conclusion that the stock market was going to be hammered today. The DOW opened down almost 300 points – Energy, Basic Materials, Conglomerates and Financial were hit the hardest.

This is a sell due to Lehman along with falling oil and weakness in the dollar, but what a sell off it is. Just focusing in the Investment Services sector for a second, look at where stocks sit as of right now (11AM ET)

Lehman Brothers (LEH) – 0.20 – down 94.4%
AIG (AIG) – down 42%
Bank of America (BAC) - down 15.23%
UBS AG (UBS) – 17.83 – down 13.44%
Morgan Stanley (MS) – 34.16 – down 8.25%

AIG is in the downward spiral Lehman was facing, all this because of exposure to bad debt with real estate. Based on reports in the media AIG is searching hard for funding and may not be able to avoid a liquidity crisis.

One has to ask where will the pain end? Ironically, the answer seems to be when the housing market stabilizes. It’s funny the investment instrument that helped create the current situation may be the thing that can put a stop to this mess. The only issue is that it may be a long time off…