In Search of the Perfect Investment

I wasn’t right on Google — except on recommending to get out. But I was right on Apple. Super earnings last night.

As I wrote yesterday I don’t like this market. It’s very quirky. (Is that the right word?) It can’t take tiffs, burps or bumps.

Look what China did to Google:

How dumb can you get? Our president now proposes a budget freeze — but ignores jobs. Remember consumer spending is 70% of our GDP. Reader Brenda from mid-state New York writes:

What could be done? Yesterday I highlighted Newt Gingrich’s five-point plan. If you missed his Forbes piece “End the insanity,” click here.

One of New York’s sitting senators, Kirsten Gillibrand  is about to be challenged in the Democratic primaries by Harold Ford. He had this piece published in yesterday’s New York Times. He sounds remarkably like Newt Gingrich. (Perhaps Obama will finally listen?):

Democrats, Get Down to Business

SCOTT BROWN’S victory last week in the Massachusetts Senate race, following the Republican gubernatorial triumphs in New Jersey and Virginia, marked the third time in three months that the Democratic Party has lost the support and trust of independent voters.

The message these voters sent was clear. With one out of five Americans unemployed or underemployed, President Obama and the Democratic Party need to shift attention away from health care and toward a bold effort to create jobs, improve the economy and rein in the size of government.

Here are four simple steps we must take immediately to put us, and the nation, on a better course:

First, cut taxes for businesses — big and small — and find innovative ways to get Americans back to work. We can start by giving any companies that are less than five years old an exemption from payroll taxes for six months; extending the current capital gains and dividend tax rates through 2012; giving permanent tax credits for businesses that invest in research and development; and reducing the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent.

America’s primary job-creating machine — the private sector — needs to be rejuvenated. Democrats must lead now on job creation or risk forfeiting Congressional majorities in November.

Second, we should pass a more focused health reform bill that restructures current health care costs before spending more, prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, enacts responsible reform on malpractice suits and extends health coverage to all children. And we must allow states to have input into the expansion of health coverage, as they will have to pay for much of the reform themselves.

This program isn’t all that Democrats wanted from health care reform right now, but it’s what the country wants. And it’s what the country can afford.

Third, we should reform our immigration policy to ensure that those who contribute to our economy, especially foreign math and science graduates of American universities, have a clear path to citizenship.

Finally, we need to address budget deficits now rather than waiting for some ideal future economic situation. It’s a good sign that the Obama administration is following the advice of Senators Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Evan Bayh of Indiana and other Democratic fiscal pragmatists who embrace the idea of a bipartisan commission to recommend spending cuts to rein in deficit growth. But we must be sure that the administration and Congress heed the commission’s advice.

By focusing on job creation and deficit reduction, we can expand our economy and balance the budget. We’ve done it before: When President Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he inherited a record fiscal deficit after years of Republicans in the White House. After eight years in office (and 22 million jobs created), President Clinton had balanced the budget and left his successor with a surplus. This can be done again.

To be sure, President Obama has achieved some important successes. His policies prevented the financial system from collapsing, saved America’s auto industry from extinction and avoided a depression. But that extreme crisis is over — what our country needs now is better, not more, government.

A Democratic Party refocused on revitalizing our economy, protecting the United States from terrorism and re-establishing itself as the party for the middle class is what Americans are demanding. If we do this, victory at the polling booths will take care of itself.

Harold Ford Jr. was a United States representative from Tennessee from 1997 to 2007.

Jimmy Fallon comments: “Today marks the official beginning of President Obama’s second year in office. He has three years left, but NBC offered him $45 million to leave altogether.”

How to live to be 100+. National Geographic funded some trips to areas of the world where there are lots of 100+-year olds. How do they do it? Five elements:

1. None of them exercise. But they are “all constantly nudged into physical activity.”  All have a garden which they tend.

2. They all have the “right” outlook. They have a goal each day. They know why they got up.

3. They use the right vocabulary.

4. They don’t eat much. When they do, they tend to eat a plant-based diet.

5.  They connect — often to a faith based community.Most have the same  friends they’ve had for years.

Here’s Dan Buettner’s TED talk  on How to live to be 100+.

The Australian Tennis Open is getting better by the day. Watch it on ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel. Nadal is out. But Federer and Murray are still in.

Late night humor.
+ “Massachusetts elects a Republican who drives a truck with 200,000 miles on it. It’s a Chevy truck. Which is more hard to believe, that Massachusetts elects a Republican, or Chevy builds a truck that lasts 200,000 miles?” -David Letterman

+ “Today marks the official beginning of President Obama’s second year in office. He has three years left, but NBC offered him $45 million to leave altogether.” -Jimmy Fallon

+ “The Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot stop corporations from spending money on political candidates. Which explains why Sarah Palin has accepted $1 million to change her name to Pizza Hut.” -Jimmy Fallon

+ “You know, it’s hard to believe President Obama has now been in office for a year. Isn’t that amazing? It’s a year. And you know, it’s incredible. He took something that was in terrible, terrible shape, and he brought it back from the brink of disaster: The Republican party.” -Jay Leno

+ “I am Conan O’Brien, and I am just three days away from the biggest drinking binge in history.” -Conan O’Brien

Harry Newton, who once interviewed a senior Economist editor and asked him what the secret of the magazine’s success was? And the answer: We’re a business magazine who recognizes politics plays a major role in business’s success (or failure). Other magazines (like Business Week,  Fortune, etc. ) seem to believe that you can discuss business independent of politics.