Ravengate
Partners - Stock market, economic and political commentary by Patricia Chadwick

The sooner those banks which don’t need Federal Government loans – Goldman Sachs? Morgan Stanley? Wells Fargo? – can repay them, the better. Because then those healthy financial institutions will be able to compete head to head with their major competitors, now in essence under the control and management of the Federal Government. When that day arrives – and it can’t come too soon – there will be a real test of private enterprise versus the Government, of capitalism versus socialism. I know where I will put my bet for who will be the winner, and it ain’t with the Federal Government.

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Credit card horror stories have been pouring in to me since my Monday blog.One man said his experience with Capital One was so bad that he got the last laugh by shorting the stock at $45.It is now $10, so he is certainly the winner.As he put it, “jokes on them now – and as we say in the south, ‘it aint so funny when the rabbit has the gun.’ ”Good for him.

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Lately, I have been receiving numerous emails relaying credit card horror stories, in response to my frequent blogs on the subject. But the one I got on Friday takes the cake and I am retelling it because I know the person well who sent it to me, I can vouch for the facts and she has given her permission to share her story. In fact, when she wrote to me, she suggested that I do so.

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Lowering taxes in the midst of a recession is considered, in the science of economics, to be an expansionary move, i.e. one that will help to stimulate economic growth and end the recession.

The obvious corollary is that raising taxes during the midst of a recession is an economically contractionary move, one that will act to remove a stimulus to economic recovery and which will impede growth. So purely from an economic and mathematical point of view, it seems that the tax increases proposed in the current budget plan will only serve to lengthen this already seriously deep recession.

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The American Express ‘invitation’ (I wrote about yesterday) to, as they said, “a relatively small number of card members who have sizable balances and little spending and payment activity” may just be the tip of the iceberg.Why are they doing this?It is not out of the goodness of their heart.It is very likely because when they see a large balance with only minimal monthly payments and no new purchases, they are probably rightly concerned that the borrower may have fallen on hard times and may soon be unable to make the monthly payments.If that happens, then the credit card obligation which is currently an asset on the balance sheet will become a bad debt.So it seems to me that American Express is trying right now to strengthen its own balance sheet, and that is fine. But what is important for credit card holders is that you take care of YOUR OWN balance sheet.What the banks devise as their solution is not necessarily the best solution for you.

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Some of you may have received an ‘invitation’ from American Express over the last week or so to pay off your entire account balance and to close your account, and in return you will receive a $300 prepaid gift card.

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The stimulus package is a real disappointment because it could have provided a serious punch to shock the economy into action. Instead it is a typical – albeit much bigger than normal – spending bill, which means it is has more than the normal amount of pork and less of the incentives needed to stimulate capital investment, jobs and profits. But frankly, given the dismal state of the economy, I’ll take any spending in almost any form at this time – yes, even pork – provided it is done soon and in a big way. The economy can’t wait much longer.

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Watching yesterday parts of the House Financial Services Committee interrogation of the CEOs of the major banks and brokerage firms, I found myself fluctuating between being exasperated and bored It was reminiscent of so many other similar hearings – Congress educating itself after the fact. It was patently clear that our Government leaders did not understand the repercussions of their own political motives in contributing to the housing crisis they themselves fostered over the last twenty years.

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While the headlines in the media are all about the stimulus bill coming out of Congress and the Treasury’s bailout plan, there has been little media attention being drawn to a disturbing and growing phenomenon that is seriously impacting the potential retirement savings for employees, namely, the cutback in the corporate match for employee 401(k) plans.

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As we all slog through this dreadful recession, it helps to keep in mind the insane Monty Python song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.While that may seem a bit tough to do at times, there are a number of ways in which one can be frugal while still contributing to the economy.Here are just a few:

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