Barack Obama is the President

Today, Barack Obama is sworn in a the 44th President of the Unites States.  Today, the White House created a blog that you can access - very cool!  

If we are looking at the effect of the new president on the markets - today is not the best day (4-6% fall off in the U.S. stock market, depending on the index one looks at).  It is unfair to look at this for anything other than the market has been falling for a while, and we are now back at lows not seen since November 20th (Dow under 8000).  This is going to take time - nothing will happen fast and there is a lot to do - it will take time to do it all, and have the impact show in the economy.

If you look at some company stock doing well early on, like McDonald's and Wal-Mart - what is their customer base?  This is value shopping at its finest. When you are worrying about your job or just lost a job, your focus, financially, is on food, shelter, clothing (remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs!).  At this point, it doesn't matter what a house costs, a car, or anything else that I don't HAVE to buy.  The first order of business is to do what can be done to stem the tide of job loss.  Once we make a dent on this you must see what jobs can be created - clearly looking in other places (other industries) will need to happen.

As for autos, I live in Michigan, and what is happening at the Detroit Auto Show this week is there is attendance, though not a lot of new things that are current (lots of concept vehicles that are a few years away from production, so no immediate help).  Crowd are decent, but not up (unemployed can't really afford $12 for admission), and there are some companies not present at all.  There has been some discussion between Cerebus and Fiat (Italy) about a joint venture (no cash included) that would give Fiat a 35% stake in Cerebus' Chrysler stake.  The idea is to bring Fiat's small car line to the United States again, and allow Cerebus to have access to that technology - while sharing info on the Jeep and minivan lines with Fiat.  I like this combo better than a sale to GM (which would clearly eliminate the Chrysler name plate from the planet).

We are just going to have to watch this story unfold.  We will survive, but it will not be fast.  I expect we need to survive until the end of 2009 to see any significant change and economic turnaround.

Happy New Year!

Here is the first post of the new year - did I miss anything???  2009 was sure a crazy year with any related to money and financing.  Scandals, bankruptcies, closures, layoffs, and many other things.  We also found out that the age old "diversification" does not work real well when everything goes in the dump!  We still have the Big 3, though for how long remains to be seen.  The markets seem to be waiting for January 20th and the swearing in of the new President to determine where things are headed.  

Banks are asking for more money, companies are still closing and laying off, retailers had a bad holiday season, now new job creation, those worried about their jobs are not spending!  Yuck!

After some early "up" days in all markets including international, there seems to be a slight downturn which began yesterday and continues as I write this.  Most markets in U.S., Asia and Europe are down (Nikkei was an exception).

The safe investment/savings play of Treasuries - good idea, but with these rates, the mattress is looking better all the time.

I am just looking myself right now, not a lot out there that appeals to me at the moment.  I think for the year I am going to look at biotechnology, pharma, technology (non-consumer), and energy.  We will see if I am right!