[...]Michelle Moquin's "A day in the life of…" » Blog Archive » Repealing Obamacare[...]…

[...]Michelle Moquin's "A day in the life of…" » Blog Archive » Repealing Obamacare[...]…

Joshua Slocum
Funeral Consumers Alliance

Home funerals are more personal and less expensive than traditional funerals.

Family members wash and dress deceased loved ones for burial, arrange viewing hours, even can build the coffin and conduct the funeral service.

Families must get a death certificate — usually from the doctor in attendance at death or the deceased’s primary care doctor — and a transit permit (from the health department) so that the body can be moved from a hospital to a home, cemetery or crematory.

Some communities, especially those in rural or semirural areas, allow backyard burial.

Families are allowed to handle the body themselves in most states — only Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and New York require involvement of a funeral director.

Cost savings can be significant — an average funeral costs about $6,000, but a home funeral may cost as little as $250.

Personal interviewed Joshua Slocum, executive director, Funeral Consumers Alliance, South Burlington, Vermont. http://www.funerals.org.

I will drive up from LA to see you if you are going to be at the Gimme Charity meet.

The Right is at it heavily trying to scare the multitude into buying what they are selling. Here is the latest.
=============================

Quasimodo and Clark… Tepper’s Fed call… Poor Seagate… House repeals Obamacare… Faber: U.S. dollar no longer valid… Porter’s take on Monsanto

Today, our trading expert, Jeff Clark, is unequivocal:
They say nobody rings a bell at the top of a bull market. But that’s a lie. The truth is… bells are ringing all the time. Yet no one listens. Quasimodo is in the bell tower right now, and he’s doing everything but peeing over the side. No one seems to care.
Jeff says Wall Street lies to you, but the market does not. He says investor sentiment is displaying extreme complacency. Stocks are overbought, and investors are happy as clams.

If you’re a new subscriber to Stansberry’s Investment Advisory, you can find the five End of America special reports we promised on our homepage. Log in and look for “Publications” on the left side of the screen. Click on “Stansberry’s Investment Advisory.” You’ll see a list of options… Choose the fourth option, “End of America.” You will find every report there. Jeff noted recently the volatility index (the “VIX”), sometimes called the “fear gauge,” is making new lows. Investors aren’t scared of stocks falling or interest rates rising… or anything else that’s highly likely to happen soon. When investors get this bullish and complacent, stocks usually wind up lower within months.

In a recent issue of the S&A Short Report, Jeff showed his readers how to make as much as 200% from the current highly bearish setup in the market today. Click here for access to the Short Report.

I’m with Jeff. My two Extreme Value short recommendations are falling, down 2.7% and 4.8% on the day as I write.

But I must ask: Are we at S&A fighting the Fed, one of the all-time great taboos of traders everywhere? Maybe…

On September 24, billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper made a bullish call on stocks based on the Fed’s money-printing. Here’s what we wrote in the September 27 Digest:
“What, I’m going to say, ‘No Fed, I disagree with you, I don’t want to be long equities.’” said Tepper. “We’re a bond place, but we changed up to a little bit more equities recently.” Tepper’s reasoning is solid. He said either the economy will naturally improve over the next three months, in which case stocks will perform best… Or the economy won’t do well over the next three months, and the government steps in. In which case, every asset class will rise except bonds.

Tepper has some experience making money from government intervention. Last year, his $7.5 billion fund returned 132%, mostly from betting on financials. You can watch his interview with CNBC here.
His fund, Appaloosa Management, returned more than 21% last year. Tepper says “the biggest opportunities” are still in equities this year, but it will be “harder and not without risk.” After the S&P 500′s 13% rally last year, we’re due for a correction – which we’ve coincidentally seen in the past two days. Or as Tepper says, “When things go up too high, they will go down.”

If Tepper likes credit creation for generating bullish tailwinds, maybe he should go long everything in the world for the next decade. The World Economic Forum says the world will need $100 trillion of new credit to support world economic growth over the next 10 years. If world governments respond to this call for the printing of enough money to buy the U.S.’s inflated economy more than seven times over, I would expect prices to rise. All prices. Everywhere. Every stock, every commodity. Everything… (Except bonds.)

Then, of course, all prices would collapse, and no one would ever trust a government again… hmm… Is it a sign of the times that sheer total insanity has at least some merit?

One stock getting crushed in today’s correction is one of Porter’s favorite shorts, Seagate Technology, down nearly 6% today. The world’s largest hard drive-maker announced second-quarter earnings fell more than 70% to $150 million from $533 million a year earlier. Sales fell 10% to $2.7 billion.

The reason for the underperformance? Hard drives are obsolete. With each iPad, iPhone, and computer without internal hard drives (like the MacBook Air) sold, hard drives become less important. These electronics use solid-state drives, or “flash storage,” which is twice as fast, more compact, lighter, and has a higher storage-to-size ratio than hard drives.

Seagate CEO Steve Luczo said the hard-drive industry has “marginal” excess capacity and faces “muted consumer demand” for PCs. This comment comes one day after rival Western Digital (the second-largest hard drive maker… and another of Porter’s short candidates) said a glut of 6 million to 8 million unused hard drives in the personal computer supply chain could hurt sales of new drives.

How is Luczo handling the situation? He’s apparently starting to realize he has no hope of trying to sell more hard drives. He’s now trying to boost shareholder value by repurchasing stock and instating a quarterly dividend. Given that his entire industry is becoming obsolete, taking cash out of the business and returning it to shareholders is a wise strategy. Too bad it’s several years too late.

I was wondering why my recent health care-oriented stock pick was up today, while the rest of the market was falling. Then, I found a little article on the Business Insurance website dated yesterday that said the U.S. House of Representatives voted 245-189 to repeal Komrade Obama’s health care reform law. Only three Democrats voted for the repeal.

That seemed earth-shattering to me. But then, the article noted, the repeal stands little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans aren’t trying to get Democratic senators to vote for repeal. They’re trying to get them to change the law. For example, they want Democrats to agree to not penalize businesses at a rate of $2,000 per employee for not providing health insurance and not penalize individuals for declining insurance. Republicans are also trying to deny federal agencies the money they’d need to create regulations to implement the new law.

My guess is the health care law will do two things, no matter what compromises are agreed to: It’ll give bigger, more established health care companies a competitive advantage over smaller, newer ones (just like in every other American industry). And it’ll give the government expanded powers to get into your bank accounts, 401(k), and other mainstream financial assets. If you don’t have some amount of assets out of the reach of the banking system’s ubiquitous electronic tentacles, you could be making a big mistake.

Competition is a powerful force in the business world. It’s a powerful force in government, too. And now, the government is getting serious about eliminating the competition. In the biggest one-day takedown of one of its biggest competitors, the government has arrested more than 100 members of the five New York crime families: the Gambinos, Genoveses, Bonnanos, Luccheses, and Colombos.

Apparently unable to hear the words coming out of his own mouth, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said today, “Some believe organized crime is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, there are still people who extort, intimidate, and victimize innocent Americans.” Takes one to know one.

End of America Watch

Today’s End of America update comes courtesy of the 2011 Barron’s Roundtable. Every year, Barron’s – a Dow Jones investment news service – gathers some of the best minds in the business to discuss their views for the year. This year, the investment pros are cautious. And their views align almost perfectly with our End of America thesis… High inflation, soaring gold, continued money-printing, etc. We’ll run some highlights from the Roundtable in the next several Digests.

We begin with two quotes from Bond Kong Bill Gross, manager of PIMCO, the world’s largest mutual fund; and Marc Faber, noted bear and editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report…

Gross: Of course [the economy is] falling apart! You are taking the corporate side. What about the side of Main Street? Of those who are unemployed and can’t find a job?

Faber: … the Fed will keep real interest rates negative as far as the eye can see. Negative real rates amount to expropriation and destroy one function of money: to be a store of value and a unit of account. If you measure the stock market not in dollars but gold, it is down 80% since 1999. I no longer regard the U.S. dollar as a valid unit of account. People shouldn’t value their wealth in dollars because one day, in dollars, everyone will be a billionaire.

To see the End of America video that started it all, click here…

Also, to read an exclusive interview with Porter Stansberry explaining how to protect yourself from the End of America, click here…
While we don’t recommend day trading, it’s working great for one of our new subscribers. Any great trades so far this year? Tell us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.

New highs: Sprott Resources (SCP.TO).

“Sean you are a very cool/diplomatic. When I see the complaints people have after spending $39 bucks for S&A, I have to scratch my head. I am Very Happy with the new letters that I am subscribed to. Thank you, I appreciate the efforts.

“I am just a beginner, never traded in my life. After receiving your newsletters for one week I decided to start to try day trading on January the 14, 2011. Again I know nothing about stocks. I didn’t even know what a moving average was, selling short. Anything.

“Anyway after 3 trading days, I have had some very good success. Friday, cash out at $650. Tuesday cash out $4,000 and Today cash out $2,000, Tomorrow is a mystery.

“I am Buying and selling the stock in the same day. I am shorting your losers and buying the winners, up and down, weighting them to which way I feel the dow is headed that day. Now, I realize this is a bit of beginners luck, but let me tell you, I can see where this is going, and I like it. Thanks for the inspiration.

“My Questions: 1. Where can I find more short/loser Stocks like phm and Ago, I need more shorts? 2. Where can I find info on the stocks that fall the fastest/most in a correction? 3. Where can I find info on where the indices might be headed the next trading day?

“I see jeff clark Short Report. Are all the gains he is talking about in his report about shorting loser stocks and would the Report provide the information I am looking for above?” – Paid-up subscriber Paul Stary

Ferris comment: While Jeff’s Short Report recommendations aren’t exclusively “shorts,” he has excelled at short calls throughout a decades-long career, primarily as an options trader. Jeff frequently comments on which stocks lead the market up and down, and what to expect for the next day or two. To learn more about the Short Report, you can click here. You can also find short sale recommendations in Stansberry’s Investment Advisory, True Wealth, and Extreme Val ue.

Regards,

Dan Ferris and Sean Goldsmith
Medford, Oregon and Baltimore, Maryland
January 20, 2011
=======================

That “End of America Watch” is a nice touch. The scam artists must be congratulating themselves for that one.

Mike

I would hold off on any commitment with respect to the rights concerning your “alien chronicles” until you have discussed it with other interested parties.

I will not be able to make the Gimme event because I am on location. But I will be available after the 18th of February.

Make it known on your blog that you are interested in talking about the movie rights to your blog and we will contact you.

Do yourself a favor and weigh all your options.

Kathleen