Happy,Happy ,is the commuter is technologically obsolete ,,"It's all about putting butts in seats." , Mark Cuban

December 13, 2005

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy New Year to all,
Don’t get swept up in the nuances of FED speak, it is really just a exercise in futility or as Sigmund Freud said,”Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss”. The FED has carefully telegraphed every move since it began raising rates and this process will most likely continue and expand with the new FED chief. The FED told investors they were going to raise rates, they did. The FED told you they were going to keep raising rates, they did. See the pattern? I am confident it will continue don’t get sucked in by the talking heads, the FED will stop when they tell you they are going to. The discontinuance of the incremental rate increases will have a very positive effect on the stock market and clear a way one of the major hurdles to improving equity valuations.

For those of you who wonder why I left the city and now work from a home office, the current New York City Transit strike points out the obvious good news, that the commuter is technologically obsolete. Technology has empowered many professions with the ability to choose weather to commute or not, yes I am sure Christmas Shopping in the city is going to take a hit, but the total loss of productivity may be far less than you might think. This does not bode well for the city fathers. Lets face it next year the New York Stock Exchange will go public, with the intention of going all electronic,. No more specialists no more floor brokers, so then you ask is there a need for New York to be a financial center? Those days may be numbered and like many other parts of life that have become technologically outmoded the commute may become a thing of the past.

Show down with the unions? Am I the only one that notices that the heavily unionized industries are the ones in the US that are simply not making it? GM or American Airlines all share the common thread, that they are heavily unionized. Why can KIA, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota and Honda all build new profitable auto factories in the USA while GM and Ford are closing them …hummmm Sounds like rethinking the paradigm is long over due? Yea Yea I know all those other people are simply making slaves wages, save it this is not the 1970’s and with 80% of poorest Americans owning two cars and 76% owning air conditioning non unionized factories are hiring more and more workers while the unionized plants continue bask in wage and benefit increases while hiring remains at a stand still or on decline. Interesting during all that bogus talk of out sourcing not a single mention of the union question? Perhaps unions should spend more time nurturing their work force and less time making political contributions or they may just go the way of the Detroit auto plants.

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And
Merry Christmas ,Happy New Year ,Happy Hanukah, Happy EID,Happy Kwanza and a prosperous New Year

James