Where you been? They ask....

Hi Folks -

Sorry for the sabbatical. I had a lot of new events happen that took me away from investing. Getting married and honeymooning in Bora Bora is one of the events!

Anyway I am back with lot's of thoughts this month. First, let's look at the financial sector. With the Dodd Bill (http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0908/Dodd_bill_much_more_aggressive_than_Treasury_plan.html), banks will be loving life. But it has to be the right banks. My call on this play is that banks like Citi, B of A, Wells Fargo and BB&T will do well. Why? The bill will protect these banks from financial losses in the consumer and commercial real estate market. Special legislation will protect this "institutes" from failure. After all without lending how do you expect jobs to be created? And we need jobs today (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm).

Unemployment also makes me think about some of the consumer stocks that could be set up to take a beating. First, and I can't believe I am saying this but I see Apple taking a huge hit on the chin over the next few months. I am not sold on the apple iPad (http://www.apple.com/ipad/) at all. I believe that Apple is telegraphing to us that they are running out of great products to support the $223.00 stock price (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=aapl). I think now is the time to short Apple. Sorry Apple...

Another interesting play that I am fully invested in are the following stocks - McDonald's, Yum Brands!, Altria. WalMart, Exxon and Republic Services. Why these stocks you ask? McDonald's and Yum Brands!, good food cheap....Altria, stress of losing that job......WalMart, crappy products sold dirt cheap, Exxon, we still need gas for now and Republic Services, we in the USA no matter how many jobs we lose we still make more trash then any other country in the world.......I have all of these stocks as a strong buy.

I see the USA going through some trouble times. We lost over 9 million jobs and they will not be replaced.....Something has got to give....Good luck out there.

Citigroup to buy Wachovia banking operations!

My predictions are coming true. So far I am 100%. My next prediction; Fed's get bailout, savings help or whatever you all call this bailout approved. From there we will see a market crash like never before. Think about this, where will all this bad debt go and who will pay for it. You and me my brothers and sisters.

The idea of taking your money out of the bank and putting into your mattress might not be such a bad idea now. My other advice, wait before you invest this next couple of weeks.

By the way Wachovia did fail! It failed shareholders. Check out how much the officers of Wachovia made. They should all be ashamed of themselves......

Press Release: Citigroup will buy Wachovia's banking operations;FDIC says Wachovia didn't fail.

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the latest byproduct of the widening global financial crisis, Citigroup Inc. will acquire the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. in a deal facilitated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses in the deal, with the FDIC covering any remaining losses, the government agency said Monday. Citigroup also will grant the FDIC $12 billion in preferred stock and warrants.

The deal greatly expands Citigroup's retail outlets and leaves it among the U.S. banking industry's Big Three along with Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The deal comes after a fevered weekend courtship in which Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. both were reportedly studying the books of Wachovia, which was suffering from mounting mortgage losses linked to its ill-timed 2006 acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp.

The FDIC asserted that Wachovia didn't fail, and that all depositors are protected and there will be no cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a statement Monday, said he supports the "timely actions" taken by the FDIC "which demonstrate our government's unwavering commitment to financial and economic stability."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also welcomed the sale of Wachovia to Citigroup, saying it would "mitigate potential market disruptions." Paulson said he agreed with the FDIC and the Fed that a "failure of Wachovia would have posed a systemic risk" to the nation's financial system.

"As I have said before, in this period of market stress, we are committed to taking all actions necessary to protect our financial system and our economy," Paulson said.

The sale of the Wachovia assets comes just days after the government's seizure of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. -- the largest bank failure in U.S. history. As details of its takeover unfolded, Wachovia shares plunged 91 percent in Monday premarket trading to 91 cents. The stock had closed Friday at $10, down 74 percent for the year.

Wachovia has been among the banks hardest hit by the ongoing crisis in the mortgage market. It paid roughly $25 billion for Golden West at the height of the nation's housing boom. With that purchase, Wachovia inherited a deteriorating $122 billion portfolio of Pick-A-Payment loans, Golden West's specialty, which let borrowers skip some payments.