Wall Street abhors Risk, as much as Rick Perry likes to Debate. Which is not very much.
Uncertainty is a contagion, that Wall Street just can not shake.
This Time, Uncertainty Took a Huge Toll
by Conrad De Aenlle, NYTimes.com -- Oct 8, 2011
Investors are supposed to hate uncertainty, but they lived with it fairly comfortably for two years after the last recession ended.
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The 14.3 percent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index in the three months through September was the worst quarterly loss since 2008 and left the index down 10 percent since the start of 2011.
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“There is an absolute fear of having money exposed to anything that can fluctuate in value,” said David Steinberg, managing partner of DLS Capital Management. Investors who take a chance now “are going to be rewarded once the dust clears,” he predicted. “There is a very high probability of high returns and a low probability of losing a lot on a long-term basis.”
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With valuations so low on stocks but uncertainty too great to push them higher, Mr. Rieder encouraged anyone who could commit capital for several years to consider buying stocks with high dividend yields. Then they could wait out the unsettling present until a brighter future emerged. “Nobody doubts that if you take a long-term perspective, they are attractive,” he said.
Funny, Wall Street catches a Cold, and it's America's Workers who get sent home, for a good long rest. Better luck next life people.
Wall Street abhors Taxes, as much as Mitt Romney likes to catch a Cab. Which is not very much.
Tax Phobia is a contagion, that Wall Street just can not shake.
US firms cut thousands of jobs during last tax holiday, study reveals
by Paul Harris, guardian.co.uk -- Oct 4, 2011
As some of America's biggest corporations push for a tax holiday on more than $1 Trillion of overseas profits, a new survey has revealed that the last time such a measure was tried it ended in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
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But a report carried out by the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies has examined the last time such a move was carried out. That was in 2004, when a similar scheme allowed 843 firms to cut their tax rate on repatriating overseas profits from 35% to 5%.
The firms then brought home $312bn and avoided paying $92bn in government taxes in return for a promise to create jobs. The measure was called the American Job Creation Act.
However, the IPS study measured the actions of some of the largest firms who took advantage of the tax holiday, and found that 58 of them had then slashed 591,000 jobs. The companies accounted for a massive 70% of the repatriated funds, and saved around $64 Billion they would have otherwise paid out in taxes. The firms included Ford, Pfizer, Eastman Kodak, General Electric and Verizon.
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"It was a tax break. It was a tax dodge. There is no accountability. They cut jobs and used some of the money to fund mergers and acquisitions and to pay dividends and to pay more to top managers," Collins said.
Funny, Wall Street catches a Tax Break, to rehire America's Workers -- and they decide to spend their repatriation windfall, on their Managers and Preferred Stockholders instead.
Wall Street hates investing in America, as much as Sarah Palin likes to hold down a real Full-time Job. Which is not very much.
Sitting stubbornly on their Assets is a contagion, that Wall Street just can not shake.
Companies Shun Investment, Hoard Cash
by Ben Casselman and Justin Lahart, wsj.com -- Sept 17, 2011
Corporations have a higher share of cash on their balance sheets than at any time in nearly half a century, as businesses build up buffers rather than invest in new plants or hiring.
Nonfinancial companies held more than $2 Trillion in cash and other liquid assets at the end of June, the Federal Reserve reported Friday, up more than $88 billion from the end of March. Cash accounted for 7.1% of all company assets, everything from buildings to bonds, the highest level since 1963.
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"For one household or business to save money is a good thing," said Dana Saporta, an economist with Credit Suisse in New York. "For everyone to be doing this at the same time could serve to slow economic growth."
Funny, Wall Street could prove that they really want America to grow, simply by re-hiring America's Workers, and investing some of those record Cash Reserves, into America's long-term future.
But Those "Job Creators" DON'T REALLY CARE about America
-- because if they did, they'd already be hiring,
they'd already be re-investing -- to get America moving again.
The proof of their many contagions, is in their stubborn INACTION.
Because just like their Republican errand-runners, they rather just see America Fail, than spend any of their record profits, on actually putting Americans back to work.
Only those blinded by greed, would refuse to reinvest in the Economy, which has given them so much, in the first place. Call it a crisis of Uncertainty. Call it a sickness. Call it so very, very pathetic.
Just don't call them, "persons", please.