The Grumpstump

>optical communicationeems like there has been a lot of fear based decision making going on in the latter half of 2008.

A string of gigantic bail outs have captured the news ever since mid-September. (In case you hadn’t noticed!)

There is no doubt that some poor decisions had been made in the past and some major cracks appeared in the foundation of the capitalistic system that seemed to run like clockwork for the past decade.

I’m not old enough to have lived through a major recession and remember the details but it seems to me that a lot of people have just lost their senses.

Rarely, if ever, has history rewarded those that have made quick decisions based on limited information and founded in fear. Why should this time be any different?

Destruction is a natural part of the capitalist growth cycle. Remember when the ‘dot com boom’ imploded? If all of the massive digital infrastructure that was built up during that time hadn’t been built, there wouldn’t be the resurgence of online destinations and tools that have grown like wildfire over the past few years.

The same thing happened with the Railroads 100 years ago.

I just hope that America hasn’t forgot that taking risks and building new things out of the rubble of the old is what enabled the country to come so far in its relatively short history.

If America has lost it’s fire and risk and capitalism are now dirty words, we could be in for a long decade.

I couldn’t resist and picked up some GE shares yesterday, I just couldn’t resist. Here’e what made me pull the trigger:

• Ok, GE missed their earnings estimate last quarter due to a down quarter for financials. So did everyone else. GE still is one of 5(?) companies with the AAA credit rating. They aren’t going anywhere.
• They have  150 Billion dollars in gross revenue a year. To increase that by 10% they need to grow the company by roughly the same size as Iceland’s whole economy. And yet, GE still comes pretty close to doing it every year.
• They make 22 Billion in cash every year.
• They are yielding 4%!
• They are at the lowest the stock has been since 2004. When GE is at its lowest in a half a decade, it seems like a buy to me.

So, boring, foolhardy, or a good idea?

????????

This probably makes me a terrible person…. wait I’m not driving wasted and asleep into a group of bicyclists… okay I feel better now.