- More of the same in the market. Today's flavor was up early followed by a swoon to take the DOW and SP500 down while leaving the Nasdaq near flat. Not a good day. From Yahoo Finance, Stocks dropped on Wednesday as uncertainty about the Obama administration's plan to stabilize the bank sector overshadowed data that showed the vast service sector shrank less than expected in January.
- Cisco after the bell. (Thus the picture). Cisco Systems Inc. says its most recent quarterly profit fell 27 percent. But it still beat lowered Wall Street expectations for earnings and revenue. Wow! Not as horrible as we thought!
- It seems as if all eyes are on Obama and Congress for the stimulus package. Everyone wants a life line and "free money." I'm concerned that the stimulus package doesn't contain enough for 2009 and 2010, and instead contains lots of paybacks and pork boondoggles. Some of that latter stuff is to be expected, but the focus has to be increasing money in folks' pockets and helping them out day-to-day.
- Obama's pay limit plan courts disaster. The President wants to cap executive's salary. In the real world, though, this sort of constraint is likely to make bad companies worse. A few public-spirited executives might relish the opportunity to run troubled enterprises for much less pay than they could garner from overseeing more successful ones. Yeah, that's my thought. Wouldn't a quality executive just go somewhere else?
