The break between the DOW and Telecom Stocks

I've been buying and selling in the stock market since I was a kid. First stock was DIS.

Can someone who knows about telecom stocks tell me why there has been a break (one of the first disconnects that I can see) between the DOW 30 and Telecom stock prices?

The DOW just got back to 10,000 last week. Normally (last 20 years or so) there is a relationship between telecom stocks (T, VZ) and the DOW 30. The DOW has outpaced telecom by a factor of 2 - recently (last 5 years) - but the telecoms always follow (or lead) the DOW in gains and losses.

Telecom stocks have headed south.... a distinct break from the DOW 30 - something that hasn't happened in the past. Do we really think that the cell/wireless/pda event is over?

Why.. why...why?

I think that there is an opportunity here. Just like Cramer, I say - let's take our 6.4% dividend and wait for the correction.

Can you get good news on the Internet?

I love reading the news.

Unfortunately I have an unquenchable desire to read the commentary after an article.

I'm usually drawn to the Karl Rove op ed pieces in the Wall St. Journal and following comments.

Here is the latest: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574444981640430364.html

Mostly comments from less than knowledgeable liberals, pro-US is the world's policemen kooks and Obama bashers.

But back to the original question. Can you get good news on the Internet?

I usually start with Google news feed to see what has been posted and work on two or three versions of the same news.

1. Christian Science Monitor

2. Fox News

3. Wall St. Journal

3. Press TV (from Iran)

4. SF Gate (if covered)

You will be amazed at the different take on US events.

Let's do it now!

Christian Science Monitor article:

Obama says Iran must take 'concrete steps' on nuclear issues

Basically open article - did Iran get prestige from the meeting and not give up anything. Is this only a first step for meaningful dialog.

Fox News: Not easily found - top story is "Defunding Acorn... Unconstitutional?" Scroll down... rape, strippers, boobs, sex, hate, sex again. Sheesh.. is this news? Closest I can find is "

Clinton Calls Iran Talks Productive, but Incomplete

AP article - are there reporters that work for FOX? Clinton said she got a rundown on the substance of the talks in a telephone call from William Burns - so second hand information and no analysis.

Wall St. Journal:

Paths on Iran Start to Take Shape

Nice quote -Its leaders could decide that being seen talking with world powers helps them "recoup the enormous legitimacy they've ceded domestically" because of the summer's disputed presidential election, says Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They also raise the issue - should the US be thinking regime change, not nuclear weapons.

Press TV:

Obama: Iran-P5+1 meeting, constructive beginning

Highlights the defiant Iran, but also includes the salient points of the US negotiation.

SF Gate:

Iran, world powers agree to further nuclear talks
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/01/international/i014704D14.DTL#ixzz0Sk1z4eEa

AP article. Decent depth. Highlighted Obama stating that the US supports Iran's ability to use nuclear power generation. Included Iran's jab at limiting the US power in the UN.

Well - in this quick debate - I would have to give the medal to SFGate AP article. Let me know what you think.

The answer my friends is yes! But you have to sort through the chaff.

Obamacare, Palincare, Medicare!

My first outrage this morning was to read this:

Sarah Palin:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

The response from one blogger was faster than I could write. Here is an example.

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2009/08/its-evil-alright.html

Question to Palin: Have you ever had to buy health insurance? For many of us Americans who's company does not provide medical insurance, purchasing plans on our own is a costly proposition.

Moving - no time to write.

.

Healthcare Reform 2009 Wait Times

I recently saw many oponents of healthcare payment reform, using a survey produced by Merrit Hawkins and Associates (linked here) which shows Boston with the highest wait times for physician appointments. Although I applaud using metrics to track basic access to care, I am concerned as to the sample set size - several of these determinations are made with as few responses at ten and at most twenty one per geographic area.

Do they really think that 21 responses is a representative sample of all the physician appointments made?

For 5 years of employment, I was insured with Kaiser Healthplan in California - and I believe I had some of the best care of my life. For a year after, I moved to Anthem (Blue Cross) and was disapointed by the lack of preventative care and the basic lack of access. Now, once again I am happily back at Kaiser. The reason I bring that up is I would much rather use the Kaiser system of total care for health care reform, with mandatory insurance requirements, as opposed to an expansion of the Medicare system as it is currently run.

I've never waited more than a week for care at Kaiser, usually because of my schedule, not the physician's.

HULU paid service?

I recently came across an InformationWeek article talking about HULU looking to monetize for the content provided, and that consumers would not pay for a service that they have been receiving for free.

I disagree with this article completely.

For many years, I have thought that the added services provided by the cable/satellite companies were superfluous and that they should be simply bandwidth providers, last mile delivery. HULU has a great opportunity to bypass the traditional 'view what you get' television and deliver, true, subscription based, on demand service that many have been craving.

I would gladly pay for a service that brought me the shows that I want to watch - without the added overhead of shows that I don't want. The downfall and direction that I expect HULU to go - is subscription for the complete basket, good and bad, shows. I would prefer pay per subscription to specific series.

Give me Kings! Bring back Serenity!

Of course the great democratization of this process is subscription directly back to the content creators. We will just have to see how this plays out.

Abandoned Tenant Property Laws are stupid

October 1996.  That is the date of the last update to Tenant property law in the state of California as far as I can tell.  Law is definately not my baliwick.

So - you wonder why rents are so high? Listen to this...

Your tenant abandons property in your rental.  The value of this property is over $300.  That's right, $300.  You must follow the law to the letter or you will be liable to significant damages.

Here is the simple law:

Where The Property Is Apparently Abandoned

To dispose of apparently abandoned property without risking liability for damages to the landlord, a landlord must follow the steps below. If the tenant left the unit because of a court-ordered eviction, the timing of the steps is slightly different. This difference is discussed below in the bold bracketed [ ] sections.

Steps to follow with abandoned property.

To dispose of personal possessions which apparently have been abandoned, the landlord should take the following steps:¹³

1. 1.a. Write a notice to the former tenant or tenants.¹⁴
   
   [No notice is required for former tenants who were evicted under a writ of possession.¹⁵ A notice already is contained in the writ of possession form which the sheriff is required to serve upon the evicted tenant or tenants.]
   
   
2. b. Write a notice to any other person whom the landlord believes may be the owner of some or all of the abandoned property.¹⁶
   The notice¹⁷ must:
   
   
3. 1) Give enough information about the property so that the possible owner can identify it.
4. 2) Tell the tenant or other possible owner receiving the notice the place where the property may be claimed.
5. 3) Give the tenant or other possible owner a deadline after which time the property cannot be claimed.
   
   [A tenant who is evicted under a writ of possession has 15 days after the landlord takes possession of the rental unit to pay reasonable costs of storage and to take possession of items left in the rental unit.]¹⁸
   
   
6. 4) Tell the tenant or other possible owner what the landlord intends to do with any of the property which is not claimed by the deadline.
7. 5) Tell the tenant or other possible owner whether reasonable costs of storage will be charged before the property is returned.
8. 2. Deliver the notices to the tenants and other possible owners of the property.
9. 3. Meet with the tenant and other possible owners when they come to claim the property.
10. 4. If by the deadline, the tenant or other person pays the landlord any properly demanded storage costs, the landlord must release the property to the tenant or to any other person who the landlord reasonably believes to be its owner.¹⁹
11. 5. If the property is not released and if the landlord stated in his or her notice that he or she intended to sell the property at a public sale, the landlord must release the property to the former tenant if, before the actual sale, the tenant claims it and pays the reasonable costs of storage and of advertising the sale.²⁰
12. 6. If, after the deadline, there is any property which was not claimed by the tenants or any other people notified, depending on the circumstances, the landlord must do one of two things with the remaining property:²¹
13. a. If the landlord reasonably believes that the property is worth less than $300, he or she may keep it, give it away, sell it or destroy it.
14. b. If the property is reasonably believed to be worth $300 or more, the landlord should arrange to have it sold at a public bidding sale after giving notice of the sale through publication. Both the landlord and the tenant have a right to bid on the property at the sale. After the property is sold, the landlord may deduct the costs of storage, advertising the sale, and conducting the sale. The remaining money must then be paid over to the county. The county can then give the money to the property owner if the owner claims the money at any time within one year after the date when the county received the money.

What should the notice say?

Under California law, the notice must contain certain information.²² Sample notices (one to a former tenant and one to a person other than a former tenant) are attached. A landlord may use this sample notice, but will have to fill in additional information, such as the description of the property, the place where the property may be claimed, and a date by which the property must be claimed. These are the legal requirements:

1. 1. A description of the property.
   
   The property should be described both in sufficient detail, and in a way which gives all possible owners enough information for them to determine whether or not the property might be theirs. The legal limitations of liability provided to a landlord do not apply to property which is not described in the notice. However, if the property includes a container (for example a trunk, or box) which is secured (that is locked, fastened or tied, in a way which would keep anyone from easily getting into it), then the contents of the container need not be described in the notice.²³
   
   
2. 2. A deadline for claiming property.
   
   A date must be specified by which the potential owner must claim the property. The date given must be at least 15 days after the notice was personally delivered or, if the notice was mailed, a date not less than 18 days after the notice was mailed.²⁴
   
   
3. 3. Charge for storage.
   
   The property owner may be charged for the reasonable cost of storage of the property, and that the charges must be paid before the property is released to the owner.
   
   
4. 4. Where the property is located.
   
   This should include both the address where the property was left and, if different, when the property may be claimed by the owner.

How should the notice be delivered?

The notice may be delivered to the tenant or other possible owner by either:

1. handing the notice to tenant or other possible owner -- that is, personally delivering the notice; or
2. mailing the notice by first class mail with postage prepaid to the tenant or other possible owner at her or his last know address.

In addition, if the landlord has reason to believe that the notice sent to the person's last know address will not be received by the person, the landlord also must send the notice to any other address, if known, where it would be reasonable to expect the person to receive the notice.

And, if the notice is sent by mail to the former tenant, one copy of the notice also must be mailed to the tenant at the address of the rental unit that the tenant vacated.²⁵

How should storage costs be charged?

If a former tenant claims the property, the landlord may charge the tenant the reasonable costs of storage for all personal property left at the rental unit, but only to the extent that the tenant has not paid those costs to the landlord previously.²⁶

But, if an owner other than the former tenant claims a portion of the property, the landlord may only require that person to pay the reasonable costs of storage for the property that person claims.²⁷

In any event, the landlord cannot charge more than one person for the same costs.²⁸

If the landlord has stored the personal property at the rental unit, the cost of the storage must be the fair rental value of the space reasonably required for such storage for the term of storage.²⁹

What is the landlord's liability?

Once the landlord has given the proper notices, whether a landlord is liable to anyone for the property depends upon whether the property was released to someone or whether the property was disposed of in another way.

Property was released:

If the property is released to the former tenant, then the landlord is not liable to any person for that property.³⁰

If the property is released to someone other than a former tenant, and if the landlord reasonably believed that person to be the owner of the property, the landlord is not liable for that property to:

1. any person to whom notice was given; or
2. any person to whom notice was not given unless such person proves that: (1) prior to releasing the property, the landlord believed or reasonably should have believed that such person had an interest in the property; and, (2) that the landlord knew or should have known, upon reasonable investigation, the address of such person.³¹

Property disposed of in another manner (not released):

If the landlord reasonably believes that the total resale value of all the property is less than $300, the landlord may dispose of the property in any manner.³² However, if the landlord reasonably believes that the total resale value of all of the property is $300 or more, the property must be sold at a public sale by competitive bidding.

If the property is disposed of in either of those ways, the landlord is not liable for the property to:

1. any person to whom notice was given; or
2. any person to whom notice was not given unless such person proves that: (1) prior to disposing of the property, the landlord believed or reasonably should have believed that such person had an interest in the property; and, (2) that the landlord knew or should have known, upon reasonable investigation, the address of such person.³³

Did your eyes glaze over?  I need to store their stuff for 18 days.  Move it. Then sell their crap at PUBLIC auction!

So - get this, I don't know where they are - yet I'm supposed to spend money to get their crap out of my house.  

What benefit do I get?  None .. any proceeds above costs go to the county.

I'm sure that Sacramento will be right on this one.... as soon as they pass a budget.

Bush halts Global Warming with US Recession

I am not one to say the US government is a shadow organization, driving policies through non-public decisions, but the recent global downturn had me thinking after reading this article back from March 2008.

The Miller-McCune site states the following regarding which country is now the largest polluter:

"Much of the increase is driven by China. What is sometimes called “the Chinese miracle” may also prove to be a stupendous climatological hex. The country has been powering its record-setting economic growth with a slew of new coal-fired power plants: It builds a new one every seven to 10 days. Last year, China overtook the United States as the planet’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide."

Here is my theory:  Scientists working for the US government have come to the conclusion that global warming is going to be really, really, really bad for the US.  Examples would include flooding in the plains, washing away of topsoil, lack of snow pack(farms in the West fail without water), complete areas of the southwest are abandoned due to lack of water.  They finallyconvince President Bush (or Dick Cheney) that this will crush the US economy and with the backing of the Saudis they decide to stop the Chinese economic growth via a financial meltdown in the US.  This results in the US consumer drastically cutting back purchases of cheap Chinese products and idles all these coal-fired power plants. Voila! Greater decreases in global output of carbon dioxide than the Kyoto Protocol ever had a chance ofaccomplishing.

Thank you President Bush, you just bought us 10 more years of food and water.

Then again, perhaps, the Sun may drive our global climate.

The Great Global Warming Swindle, if haven't seen it - it is an excellent watch