OBAMA: 'I Didn't Overpromise,' Says Unemployment Could Drop To 8% Next Year


In an interview with CBS News' Steve Kroft airing on '60 Minutes' Sunday at 7 p.m., President Barack Obama rejected the notion that he may have overpromised on what he would accomplish in the White House.

"Reversing structural problems in our economy that have been building up for two decades, that was going to take time," he said. "It was going to take more than a year. It was going to take more than two years. It was going to take more than one term. Probably takes more than one president."

His remarks draw a sharp contrast to the interview he gave shortly after taking office saying if he didn't have the economy fixed in three years, “there’s going to be a one-term proposition."

Obama added that while he thinks it is possible for unemployment to drop to eight percent by November, he is focused on the elements he can control to get the economy moving again.

Watch the video below:

Here's the transcript:

Steve Kroft: Do you think that you might have the unemployment rate down to eight percent by the time the election rolls around?

President Barack Obama: I think it's possible. But...I'm not in the job of prognosticating on the economy. I'm in the job of putting in place the tools that allow the economy to thrive and Americans to succeed. Sometimes when I'm talking to my team, I- describe us...as...I'm the captain and they're the crew on a ship, going through really bad storms. And no matter how well we're steering the ship, if the boat's rocking back and forth and people are getting sick and...they're being buffeted by the winds and the rain and...at a certain point-- if you're asking, "Are you enjoying the ride right now?" Folks are going to say, "No." And are they going to say, "Do you think the captain's good-doing a good job?" People are going say, "You know what? A good captain would have had us in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point." And I don't control the weather. What I can control are the policies we're putting in place to make a difference in people's lives.

Steve Kroft: Did you overpromise? Did you underestimate how difficult this was going to be?

President Barack Obama: I didn't overpromise. And I didn't-- underestimate how tough this was going to be. I always believed that this was a long-term project...And-- you know, for individual Americans, who are struggling right now, they have every reason to be impatient...Reversing structural problems in our economy that have been building up for two decades, that was going to take time. It was going to take more than a year. It was going to take more than two years. It was going to take more than one term. Probably takes more than one president.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/3RKeYNFodXY/obama-i-didnt-overpromise-says-unemployment-could-drop-to-8-next-year-2011-12

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5 Great Investments on Amazon's Holiday Best-Seller List

5 Great Investments on Amazon's Holiday Best-Seller ListYour Christmas shopping list may hold the key to future riches if you read it in a different light. It's not simply a checklist of needs coupled with a smattering of wants. It's also the key to finding the best stock deals of the holiday shopping season.

How so? Consider this list of best-sellers found at Amazon.com (AMZN).

  • Men's Passcase Billfold, No. 5 in Clothing, having spent 39 days as a top 100 seller in the category.
  • Oster 4208 Inspire Electric Wine Opener with Wine Chiller, No. 1 in Kitchen and Dining.
  • UGG Australia Women's Classic Tall Boots, No. 1 in the e-tailer's shoe department.
  • Android tablets from Coby, PanDigital, and MID, the top 3 sellers in computers and accessories.
  • The Kindle Fire and its four cousins, which comprise five of the top 10 sellers in electronics.

Each of these best-sellers has a public company behind it. So why not try a different strategy this season? How about matching your spending on gifts with an equal amount spent buying shares of common stocks, beginning with the five behind Amazon's popular sellers? The future you -- the one dependent on your retirement investing savvy -- will be thankful.

5 Gifts That Could Keep on Giving

Here's a closer look at the companies behind the hot holiday gifts:

1. Shares of Guess? (GES), the company behind the Passcase billfold, are down almost 40% as of this writing. Yet what's bad news for current investors may prove good for those looking to open a new position. Shares of Guess? yield a market-besting 2.8% in dividends and trade for a relatively cheap price-to-earnings ratio of 9.7.

2. Jarden (JAH) is a consumer products conglomerate that includes Oster, Mr. Coffee, and Sunbeam among its consumer brands. Like Guess?, the stock pays a dividend, but growth is what makes the business attractive. Analysts see profits growing 11.4% annually over the next five years, yet the stock only trades for eight times those forward estimates. This could indicate a bargain.

3. UGG boots were an Oprah favorite for years and remain a staple for Deckers Outdoor (DECK). The stock has crushed the market over the past year and analysts see still more growth ahead. Going by Wall Street's estimates, Deckers is priced about in line with the rest of the footwear industry and is noticeably cheaper than top-dog Nike (NKE).

4. Google (GOOG), the big company behind Android, is finding a wide audience for its mobile operating system, and is taking market share from Apple (AAPL) and everyone else in the industry. The Big G doesn't pay a dividend, but if you believe in a future populated with smarter mobile devices that broadcast ads and keep us in touch with social media, you can't do much better than betting on Google.

5, Finally, let's talk about Amazon. Though we don't have the final numbers, it's probably safe to say the e-tailer profited more than most from the biggest Black Friday in U.S. history. Selling some of the most popular e-readers out there -- and in the case of the Fire, the most serious threat to Apple's iPad we've yet seen -- should only add padding to Amazon's already-cushy profits.

Holiday Portfolio Strategy

What if you have yet to open a portfolio? Getting started is easy. First, choose a broker. Then take the money you've set aside -- your gift-matching funds -- and set aside half or perhaps up to three-quarters for your new stock purchases. Divide the available funds by five and then use funds to buy five equal stakes in each stock.

Bam! You've got a portfolio. Wasn't that simple? Heck, it can even be fun when you treat shopping as investment research. So make a list, check it twice, and be on the lookout for the good stocks behind the great sellers.

Motley Fool contributor Tim Beyers owned shares of Apple and Google at the time of publication. The Motley Fool owns shares of Guess?, Google, and Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Deckers Outdoor, Apple, Google, Nike, and Amazon.com, as well as creating a diagonal call position in Nike, creating a bull call spread position in Apple, and writing covered calls in Guess?

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/10/5-great-investments-on-amazons-holiday-best-seller-list/

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16 Years In The Life Of Charlize Theron


charlize theronCharlize Theron isn't just one of the most beautiful actresses working today -- she's one of the most selective.

And she's been that way since the early days, when, as Hollywood lore has it, she fired her first manager for sending her scripts like "Showgirls."

It's paid off for the actress, who seems to succeed with every risk she takes.

Now let's see how she got here.

1995: A still struggling Theron appears in the straight-to-video "Children of the Corn III."

1996: Theron sees her first speaking role in "2 Days in the Valley." The short performance hikes her profile considerably. Later that year, she also appears in "That Thing You Do!"

1997: Theron rounds out Jeff Daniels and Michael Richards in "Trial and Error," then gets top billing opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in "The Devil's Advocate."

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/HErOFzFpy94/charlize-theron-young-adult-2011-12

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EU Crisis: ECB Cuts Rates, but Is It Enough?

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The ECB failed to make the dramatic recession-fighting decisions hoped for by EU officials and analysts -- instead it made modest moves to cut interest rates and offer banks long-term funds.

ECB president, Mario Draghi, made it explicitly clear that the national bank will not, and cannot, play a strong role in averting the financial crisis and reining in the looming recession.

According to Reuters, he "discouraged expectations that the bank would massively step up buying of government bonds if European Union leaders agree on moves toward closer fiscal union at a crucial Brussels summit."

Instead, the ECB says the eurozone's EFSF rescue fund should remain the main tool to fight bond market contagion, despite the limits of its leverage. He added that it would be illegal for the ECB or other central banks to lend money to the IMF to buy euro bonds (via Reuters).

Of course, the ECB will not be completely out of the picture. "They'll stay in the market but will only buy small amounts. It's governments who'll have to do the heavy lifting," explains James Nixon, chief European economist at Societe Generale SA in London. 

Reaction
The market has been increasingly convinced that the ECB would save the euro. This setback sent global markets into a dive and put further pressure on the Summit in Brussels. Investors are still hoping for a make-it-or-break it measure to come from the meetings.

But they shouldn't get their hopes up. German Chancellor Angela Merkel played down the Summit's expectations by saying the meeting will be "one stop" along the way to ending the EU's debt troubles.

Investing ideas
But could whatever news comes out of Brussels drag the market down further? How much more negativity could the market price in?

Analysts expect that if the news comes out even slightly positive that the markets may rally, or at least recover some of today's losses.

To find ideas on which stocks might be in for the greatest rallies, we created a list of large-cap companies with bearish short trends. Short-sellers think these stocks will drop in price, but will these names see a short squeeze if good news comes out of Brussels? (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

1. Avalonbay Communities (NYSE: AVB  ) : Engages in the development, redevelopment, acquisition, ownership, and operation of multifamily communities in the United States. Market cap of $11.86B. Short float at 10.67%. Shares shorted have increased from 9.74M to 9.17M month-over-month, a change representing 0.60% of the company's 94.24M share float.

2. Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR  ) : Engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas primarily in the north, south, and east regions of the United States. Market cap of $12.72B. Short float at 16.85%. Shares shorted have increased from 7.12M to 6.29M month-over-month, a change representing 1.48% of the company's 56.06M share float.

3. Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB  ) : Engages in the manufacture and marketing of branded convenience food products worldwide. Market cap of $10.53B. Short float at 8.2%. Shares shorted have increased from 14.60M to 12.99M month-over-month, a change representing 1.01% of the company's 159.19M share float.

4. Exelon (NYSE: EXC  ) : Operates as a utility services holding company in the United States. Market cap of $28.93B. Short float at 5.64%. Shares shorted have increased from 37.32M to 31.25M month-over-month, a change representing 0.92% of the company's 662.41M share float.

5. FMC Technologies (NYSE: FTI  ) : Provides technology solutions for the energy industry and other industrial markets. Market cap of $12.36B. Short float at 6.99%. Shares shorted have increased from 16.60M to 15.23M month-over-month, a change representing 0.58% of the company's 234.99M share float.

6. General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) : Operates as a global automaker. Market cap of $34.33B. Short float at 6.8%. Shares shorted have increased from 49.39M to 43.43M month-over-month, a change representing 0.81% of the company's 731.64M share float.

7. Ivanhoe Mines (NYSE: IVN  ) : Operates as an exploration and development company. Market cap of $16.63B. Short float at 7.31%. Shares shorted have increased from 20.10M to 17.50M month-over-month, a change representing 1.12% of the company's 232.66M share float.

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.

 

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Kapitall's Rebecca Lipman does not own any of the shares mentioned above. Short data sourced from Yahoo! Finance.

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Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/12/09/eu-crisis-ecb-cuts-rates-but-is-it-enough.aspx

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Is Ford's Dividend Premature?

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Ford (NYSE: F  ) shareholders have been waiting for this one for a while: The Blue Oval's dividend is back.

Ford officials announced on Thursday that the recovering auto giant would be paying its shareholders $0.05 a share in the first quarter of 2012, its first dividend since September 2006. But despite the news, the stock closed lower as broader markets fell sharply on Thursday.

That market volatility raises a question: Given all of the economic uncertainty around the world, is the resumption of its dividend the right move for Ford now?

Premature? Or justified?
Ford managers -- and Ford's board of directors -- clearly think the time is right for a dividend. "The board believes it is important to share the benefits of our improved financial performance with our shareholders. We are pleased to reinstate a quarterly dividend, as it is an important sign of our progress in building a profitably growing company and our confidence in the future," Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in a statement.

Put another way, the folks who run Ford think of this as another milestone on the company's road back to blue chip status, and they think it's a milestone the company can now afford. CFO Lewis Booth estimated that the dividend would cost the company about $200 million a quarter and said that Ford ran "stress tests" to ensure that the dividend would be sustainable even through another significant economic downturn.

Booth and CEO Alan Mulally have consistently erred on the side of financial prudence throughout Ford's turnaround, so I think it's reasonable to take them at their word now. The level of auto sales Ford needs to break even, at least in its core market of North America, is far lower than it was even a few years ago thanks to aggressive restructuring and a move toward higher-quality products that compete well with Toyota (NYSE: TM  ) and Honda (NYSE: HMC  ) and command better prices. Mulally and Booth have consistently said that their goal has been to get Ford's costs and margins such that the company would continue to be profitable even through a severe recession, and recent signs suggest that the company is at least close to that goal.

And really, $0.05 is a modest dividend -- annualized, it'll give a yield of less than 2% at current share prices -- though it's likely to rise over time. But for some shareholders, it's a big, big deal.

So is this about Ford's credit rating?
One reader asked me this morning whether I thought this was a play to improve the company's credit rating, which currently stands just one notch below investment grade. I don't: I think Ford had been signaling a return of its dividend in 2012 for some time, so Thursday's news shouldn't have been a surprise to analysts. (If anything, the added costs might delay the upgrade a bit.)

I do think pressure from Ford's most important shareholder constituency -- that's the Ford family -- was probably a factor, though. Henry's descendents collectively hold nearly 71 million "Class B" shares, a special series of stock that was created just for them when Ford went public in the 1950s. Dividends on those shares collectively paid family members as much as $130 million a year back in the late 1990s, but they haven't paid a dime since Ford's dividends were suspended in 2006.

The Fords will now see a collective payout of about $3.5 million in the first quarter, money that is probably eagerly awaited in some quarters. Although Booth said, unsurprisingly, that the family's considerations weren't a factor in the decision to declare a dividend, I can't help but think that some of those family members must have been applying pressure to Bill Ford, hoping to see dividends restored as quickly as possible, but it looks to me that whatever the pressure, Mulally and Booth were able to resist it until the time was right.

More milestones to come
Ford's turnaround has come a long way since the dark days of 2006, when the company's survival was in doubt. With its global operations largely restructured, its product line almost completely overhauled, and now its dividend restored, only a few major milestones are left.

But for Ford's managers, one of the most important still lies ahead: restoration of the company's investment-grade credit status. The dividend probably won't have much effect on that process either way, as I said above -- its impact on Ford's bottom line is relatively modest, and was widely expected.

Rather, the upgrade's timing is more likely to be influenced by factors such as Ford's ability to improve margins, continue its product and sales momentum, and deal with the crisis in Europe -- factors that rival General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) is facing as well. But even if Ford will have to wait a while longer to improve its bond-market prospects, the return of its dividend should drive increased institutional interest in its stock -- and that's likely to reward all shareholders over the next several months.

Want your dividends now?
Ford's long-awaited dividend will be back in March, but you don't have to wait to put the power of reinvested dividends to work in your portfolio. In a special new report, Motley Fool analysts identify "11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks," all great additions to a long-term investor's portfolio. This new report is completely free for Fool readers -- click here to get instant access.

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Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/12/09/is-fords-dividend-premature.aspx

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Debt Counselor

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Credit cards were established as a way of helping people gain credit. This means that you had been given a quantity of cash for you to spend, underneath the auspices that you'd repay it at the end of the month. This will show credit loan companies that you're accountable for your money and that you'll be able to make monthly obligations.

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Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6743278

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