<p>I think that tax receipts are a good indicator of the economy. Income taxes for jobs, sales, hotel, airport, car rental and meals taxes for tourism and business climate. I don’t see that as much in the news as bad news sells more commercials than good news.</p>
<p>There was a home for sale in our neighborhood. Believe it sold after its first and only open house. The inventory around here goes rapidly.</p>
<p>There aren’t many sellers here which is good because there aren’t any buyers either.</p>
<p>They make money the old fashion way - they earn it: [The</a> Reason Wall Street Got So Rich, In Two Charts - The Market Now](<a href=“Bloomberg Markets - Bloomberg”>Bloomberg Markets - Bloomberg)</p>
<p>I suppose that it goes without saying that the money they made was sucked out of the rest of the country (and other parts of the world I’m sure).</p>
<p>I think home prices are going to rise faster than many expect…</p>
<p>It is March and there is nothing for sale. If stocks can rise back to old highs…residential real estate can too. There are some areas where home prices aren’t going to new highs, but there are some stocks that aren’t going to new highs either.</p>
<p>Those are good links doct. I guess it is obvious why young people flock to the finance industry. </p>
<p>It is funny. People like me discourage young people from going into the finance industry and encourage young people to go into the medical field and people that work in the medical field do the opposite. (I really tell young people to follow their dreams and if their dreams are realized in the financial sector…great ).</p>
<p>Well, my son is in the medical field and I’ve offered to talk to some people in the computer field with opportunities to get rich and he’s told me that he enjoys what he’s doing now and feels that he’s doing something useful with a good career path. It’s pretty hard to argue if someone is happy doing what they’re doing and the outlook looks good.</p>
<p>I’m casting a wary eye at the sequester and am wondering if it is big enough to impact the real estate market. I think that Bernanke is going to keep the stock market up but I don’t expect the Fed to start buying homes. There was some talk about that in 2008 or 2009 but it turned out not to be necessary.</p>
<p>I thought your son was in the computer field. I also thought…at least at one time…he was involved in data mining. What is he doing now?</p>
<p>He has a CS degree and is doing graduate school part-time. He’s working in the medical field. His graduate research area is data mining spatial-temporal databases.</p>
<p>I think there are plenty of firms that will buy homes. I don’t think the Fed needs to buy homes with these interest rates. So many homes are cash flow positive now. I think some speculation is back in many areas. </p>
<p>I admit I don’t know many areas, but even some areas that are not the best around here that are seeing lots of buyers and big players in the market. </p>
<p>In the more upscale areas, the supply is soooo low…the demand doesn’t have to be
much…</p>
<p>Your son is in great shape. The young people I see with CS degrees are in huuuuuge demand. Your son can take his computer skills into many areas.</p>
<p>If somebody loves what he is doing… :)</p>
<p>I am not worried about the sequester…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The feds spend over 3 trillion dollars per year. 85 billion in sequester money is peanuts. If gas prices come down to close to $3 per gallon that will have more of a positive effect on the economy that replaying an extra 85 billion. In fact I am much more worried about gas prices than anything else.</p>
<p>Took a small flyer on AAPL at 425.75. Buy and hold!</p>
<p>Good luck NJres.</p>
<p>[Apple?s</a> Planned ?IWatch? Could Be More Profitable Than TV - Bloomberg](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>
<p>Interest rates are not normal. Eventually, they will start to normalize. The economy will be doing well. Stock prices will go down. Talking heads will be pushing stocks. Investors will go “huh?”.</p>
<p>[Buffett</a> Still Buying Stocks, Sees ‘Good Value’](<a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/100515743]Buffett”>Warren Buffett Still Buying Stocks, Sees 'Good Value')</p>
<p>"“I think the Fed will try to give little signals here and all of that. But in the end, there are an awful lot of people who want to get out of a lot of assets if they think the Fed is going to tighten a lot.”</p>
<p>The results of higher rates, he said, “will be very noticeable” in the markets. While stocks will be hurt by higher rates, Buffett said other investments will also be affected and he still thinks equities are the best thing to buy now."</p>
<p>This post is premature…</p>
<p>[Direxion</a> Announces Reverse And Forward Share Splits Of 16 ETFs - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/direxion-announces-reverse-forward-share-204000760.html]Direxion”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/direxion-announces-reverse-forward-share-204000760.html)</p>
<p>$425 is a technical support level so we should get at least a bounce. Sounds good if you can watch it or if this is just a trade.</p>
<p>I have any doubts about how much money could be made on a connected watch device but I’m willing to be surprised.</p>
<p>The Fed would need improving unemployment and I think that Bernanke has set a target number. I don’t think that we’re anywhere near that number and I don’t think that we’re going to see a rapid acceleration towards that number in the near-term. I do think that Buffet is safe in buying stocks - for trading. I recall his relatively short-term hold in Intel that he exited last year - it seems that he can do short-term trading along with long-term trading. I think that he indicated that he wants to do acquisitions too which is quite different than him buying stocks of companies.</p>
<p>Wow - aapl just keeps going down with a series of lower highs and lower lows. I’m thinking of maybe selling some puts but with the way this is behaving, it seems very risky. Maybe I should be buying puts instead of selling them. NJres is a brave soul!</p>
<p>Yes…my post is premature…</p>
<p>However, I have no delusions that asset prices are trading at inflated values due to the Fed pumping…</p>
<p>It can be argued that the Fed is going to have to keep pumping for years and years. The deficit has to be funded and which entities can really fund the budget deficits? The deficits are too large…</p>
<p>So,…the interesting thing for me is when the deficit comes down, it will take fewer dollars to fund it and the Fed can stop printing as much money. This will hurt stock prices. That is my theory and I am sticking to it. :)</p>
<p>This post is premature…</p>
<p>I think that Buffet is safe for the next year. I don’t think that I want to go out any further than that, even though I don’t think that we’re going to see the big acceleration in hiring that we’ve seen with previous recoveries. I also think that the Fed will telegraph the news in addition to us being able to see it in the data. We spend some time here trying to pick up on what the economy is doing from various and sundry indicators and an acceleration would show up in the stuff that we watch.</p>