Summer Draws to a close

No matter how old you get, the feeling that summer is coming to an end fills one with emotion. Today is the last day of camp fo rthe kids and you can feel the sorrow in their hearts. There is a mix of excitement that school will soon start and everyone's lives get back to a semi state of normal for a while.

ShopDaveMall continues to expand

I am pleased to announce that ShopDaveMall continues to expand. We've seen a surge in user accounts since January 2008 of about 105%. I think that people know that frugal is the new black. Getting cash back on every day purchases is easy and worthwhile. Don't miss some great back to school specials:

Nike 3.5%

Reebok 4.5%

Target.com 3%

London Fog 3.5%

The 5th Annual MorganFranklin Golf Classic

is a proud sponsor of the fifth annual MorganFranklin Golf Classic benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project. The tournament takes place on August 31, 2009, at The Courses at Andrews Air Force Base.

Adam on the markets

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was gloom and doom. Today the markets bounce back. It is really hard to keep up with how the talking heads want us to feel about the markets so I have stopped trying. If you tuned in on Monday you would have thought that a huge correction was inevitable. And so they talked us through a 2.5% decline only to watch it made back in part today.

The market is starting to recover and that is a bad thing if you are a trader. Traders make money on volatility and that means the market must whipsaw around. The last few months of steady rising stock prices are not so much fun for traders who make money on the buy and sell side. All markets will have good days and bad days. In this market the good days will out-number the bad. Don’t be fooled into listening to the people that got it all wrong before, get it all wrong again. Hopefully you were not conned into selling yesterday only to watch it come back to today.

Be an investor and not a trader. I have never been very good at timing the markets so don’t take advice from me on when to buy and sell. However I can tell you this. Never in the history of modern economics has intervention ever worked precisely. Markets always swing too far to each extreme. It is fair in my mind that the stimulus has been overdone and the byproduct of that will be- rising prices, driven by rising commodity prices and therefore inflation.

My bets are on the things that a recovery is made of. Raw materials like aluminum, commodities like copper, industrials like Caterpillar. As I said before, I am not sure when the market will turn higher or lower. I do know that two years from now the market will be higher than it is now and therefore it is a place I want be.

Warren Buffet was quoted as saying, “Be greedy when others are scared and be scared when others are greedy”. Right now I am optimistic that stock and commodity prices are going to continue to rise because the economy is coming back. Since I feel the stimulus has been overdone, the market will have to reflect that as well.

So, ignore the pundits that talk about the markets out pacing themselves. Maybe they have. However since you invest with money you don’t need immediately, I am perfectly happy watching the investments grow over the next 2-3 years. Patient people will be rewarded handsomely.

Starting a new blog

I am going to be starting a new blog in the coming days related to
professional program management and technogy. I'll send you all the
details when it is ready.

The Right slanders UK's health system

If there was ever a question as to if the right wing republican party
could care less about global opinion , you have your evidence now.
Thad loud oops! you hear being said is the collective voice of the
republican party realizing that you can't just go slandering an entire
country's health system and not take the heat for it.
Republicans all around need to second guess their strategy of throwing
everything they can at Obama especially when the things they start
throwing have strings attached.
Case in point would be that Bush could not have done anything in Iraq
were it not for his buddy Blair. Remember- we all cringed at "yo Blair".
So I guess the republicans feel pretty dumb at criticizing the health
care system of their only ally in the war on terror.
Hopefully the truly belligerent right can weave an apology into the
raucaus town hall meetings they are orchestrating. They know have
offended our greatest ally!

Sent from my iPhone

ShopDaveMall.com

I just received another rebate check from irebates for the summer clother I purchased on line by going through the ShopDaveMall.com portal. You can get the same savings as well. Simply go to your on line vendor's website through the portal. On a quarterly basis you get your rebates. Some cool specials... 0.5% to 3% cash back on travel. Great savings on clothes and housewares.

Tech Plus 2009- Bellagio - Las Vegas

This year's AICPA technology conference has lived up to its reputation of delivering timely and relevant information for the CPA in practice or industry. I am half way through the conference and I have learned so much information about document and file retention policies, Google Apps, New and useful gadgets for the raod warrior, and even about the virtual world second life. I highly encourage anyone that has interest in these areas to attend the Tech Plus conference in the future.

Why Obama should continue with date night

The conservative right has done a number on Obama in the media related to his date nights with Michelle. What a farce! I wish they could find an issue of substance to harp on. From my perspective, Obama is acting like a true role model for all of us. Despite the down economy, we should all try to get out and provide our own stimulus. Second, I think we all would be well served if we spent more one on one time with our wives, girlfriends, partners. In these stressful times, it is the close relationships that we have that can make the world a better place. Personally, I have just concluded a date weekend with my wife to Las Vegas and it has helped me leave the stresses of the world behind and to help us reconnect. Our daily schedules inclusive of two full time jobs, two children, and all that goes in between just don't give us a chance to talk like we were able to do. So I support date night, even if it is at taxpayers expense. He is the leader of the free world and does need some protection. And following the president that took more vacation time off than any other in history, this expense is justified and nominal.

Back in action

For those of my loyal followers, I apologize for the brief hiatus in my posts. The family is in the process of moving and that has consumed much time lately. However, it is good to be back...

Stimulus and the National Debt

It is amazing the the Republican party can be so myopic. This is likely the reaction of a party that ruled with ignorance for the last eigjht years now dealing with thier own dwindling relevance. It will be interesting to see how they will spin the success of the stimulus package when none of them have voted for it. I guess they will start with, "I was for it, before, i was against it, and franklynow I am for it again." It is an amazing bluff that they are playing in this hand of poker as they have evrything to lose once this works out. Incredible how they want to hearken back to the days of old and think that trickle down economics is the way to go. It failed for eight years under 43 and is not what the American people want. We will have to spend our way out of this one. Incredible how they, all of a sudden, are fiscally conservative again. Their president doubled the national debt. Thier president got us into this hole. This mess happened on their watch.
I fund solace in the fact that they continue to look like complete fools on TV trying to get the package shot down. The TARP has been an unmitigated disaster the way it was run by Paulson. Geithner has the bar set so low, success is imminent.
I am left wondering whether they think the American people are so naive to think that we have just forgotten about the last eight years as if it were just a bad dream. It was in fact a nightmare.