What would Jack Welch do?
 

GE has come up in this thread, here and there. It looks so cheap. Not as cheap as it was there for a while. But cheap. Well, it looks cheap anyway. And I wonder if when things improve, it will just look flat. Flat for a long, long time. This one makes me really sad. They are all sad, but this one for some reason gets to me a little more. It's like when you see one of those beached behemoths on television and all those people are trying to get it back into the water so it can swim again. I bet everybody knows somebody who works for GE. I sure hope somebody figures out soon how to rescue the behemoth.

And here I am posting a link again. It's for anybody else who is keeping an eye on GE like I am.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...el_top+stories

Boomer

Maybe Fritz can pull it off ....
 

Boomer...I feel the same way about GM. I own some of it's stock. Living in Michigan I have seen how many people are really hurting. Hopefully, Fritz will get them back on the right track....:beer3:

I think it was Bernard Baruk who said " You may have the top 20% and the bottom 20%, but I shall take the middle 60% for myself."

Please bring on the smelling salts....
 

I just now managed to somewhat revive from a case of the vapors after having checked CD rates for one coming due soon. (Why oh why can't they give all us good little 55 and uppers a decent CD rate and let us go in together and prop up the banks. They could call them Geezer CD's. Oh well.)

Anyway, now I am back on that utility kick again. Already have Duke. Thinking about more Duke. That dividend is approaching 7%. Or it was recently. May be less now. I am not greedy. I can live with 7%. I can't deal with a 1.8% or whatever that obscene number was they just said to me for a CD.

I think Duke is run OK unless somebody decides they are not green enough. Could happen I suppose. (And remember that I am not a financial adviser and have no credentials for anything financial. Just been taking care of things for us. So please do not take any suggestions from me.)

Anyway, I am thinking Duke because it is one that I know. But does anybody out there have another utility stock they like a lot. I promise not to hold you responsible. I am just interested in what others have to say about utility stocks.

Boomer

Bob,

Your opinion on TradeKing? - I'm w/TDAmeritrade at 9.99 a trade. 4.95?? that's great if ur a day trader !!

of gardening and investing
 

I am getting ready to go outside this morning to continue a big job I gave myself. I am planting about a million little plugs of groundcover. I am doing this so that, down the road, I do not have to spend all my money on mulch. So here I am, planting all those little plants, everywhere. (It's vinca or myrtle, as it is sometimes called.) Now, if you know anything about groundcover, you know that the first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. And the third year it leaps.

Before you think that I am completely lost and I must think I am in the gardening forum, let me explain that I know where I am. And I have a vague idea where I am going. I hope. Not only with this post. But with the groundcover. And maybe even with some stocks I like.

I tend to go on and on about dividend paying stocks. I like them. But I do not chase huge dividends. I want only a reasonable dividend. Huge dividends make me skittish. You know that thing about if it sounds too good to be true....they're getting ready to slash the dividend followed by really bad news.

So anyway, yesterday, I came across a copy of Business Week, a special issue from the first of the year that was about the investment outlook. And therein, I found an article about dividend payers that kind of sums up how I view them, too.

I am a really boring investor. No daytrading. Only calculated risk. Always keep some of it untouched. Understand what the company you buy does. Is there a product? Do people need the product? How long will they need the product? In other words, boring, boring, boring. Oh and also lazy. I do not want to have to monitor a stock all the time. And, at this point in life, I know how old I am.

So here's the article on dividend payers, in case you want to read a kind of old article on dividend payers.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...4068597633.htm

Like my groundcover that I am planting. The good dividend payers will probably sleep. Then maybe creep. And someday maybe leap. (I hope not a backward leap for either one. But you just never know.) Meanwhile, I will wait patiently and see a little green along the way.

Boomer