So, why do men love women?

So, why do men love women?

Here is a list of opinions and ideas taken from Paolo Coelho Newsletter.



1.Men love women because they walk down the street erect, always looking straight ahead,

never turning round to say thanks or return the smile or compliment we make when they pass by.



2.Because they don't complain about the sacrifices they make for the sake of the ideal of beauty, facing up to waxers,

Botox injections and menacing machines in gyms.



3.Because if they want to know something about their own appearance,

they ask other women and don't bother us with this type of question.



4.Because they feel compassion, and say "I love you" precisely when they are beginning to love us less,

to make up for what we can feel and notice.



5.Because they have their own ways of solving problems, which we never understand,

and that makes us mad.



6.Because they just love exotic cocktails with different colors and delicate little ornaments,

while we always have the same old whiskey.



7.Because they prefer to eat salads.



8.Because they write love stories.



9.Because they draw and paint their faces with the same concentration

as Michelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel.




10.Because they don't waste hours thinking about how they are going to approach

the pretty young man who has just come on the bus.

So, why do men love women?

Here is a list of opinions and ideas taken from Paolo Coelho Newsletter.

11.Because they cry their eyes out when they hear the Rolling Stones singing "Angie".



12.Because sometimes they complain about things that we feel too, such as colds and rheumatic pains,

and then we understand that they are people just like us.



13.Because while our armies invade other countries, they remain firm in their private and inexplicable war

to put an end to all the cockroaches in the world.



14.Because they are capable of going to work dressed like men, in their delicate little suits,

whereas no man would ever dare go to work wearing a skirt.



15.Because they really take seriously everything that is happening in the private lives of celebrities.



16.Because they smile every time they pass a child.



17.Because they do everything necessary for the house to be tidy and perfect,

and never expect any recognition for the work they have done.



18.Because they still feel they are adolescents even after they grow old.



19.Because we came from them, will go back to them, and until that happens,

live in orbit around the feminine body and soul.

Our lives and our thoughts always revolve around them, their bodies and souls are ever-present in our minds.

Their femininity, elegance and strength transport us to another world.

A woman's laugh touches our soul as well as seeing tears of happiness or sadness in her eyes.

Women are the most beautiful and sublime creations in the universe to a man, and they always will be.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed, contents included and photographs presented herein are of and by the originating authors. They reserved all rights and ownership of said article. It is republished here for the sole enjoyment and convenience of our readers who chose to visit this site by voluntarily clicking the link and viewing it.

Warning: Information contained above, while believed to be correct, is not guaranteed as accurate.

Steroids Wearing Off! Key Sectors Slumping! Urgent Action Required!

by Mike Larson
Friday, June 10, 2011 at 7:30am

I've been a huge football fan for years. I started watching Dallas Cowboys games when I was five because I loved the star on the team's helmets. I cheered for the Miami Dolphins because I live in South Florida. And then after I went to college in Boston, I adopted the New England Patriots as my team — an affiliation that carries to this day.
One thing I've always hated to see was when the game would be corrupted by steroids. I remember when Lyle Alzado of the Los Angeles Raiders struck fear into the hearts of opposing teams in the early 1980s. But it turned out his aggressive style of play and incredible strength turned out to stem largely from drug use. He died a broken man of brain cancer at 43.
It's not just football, either. How many baseball greats are now turning out to be nothing more than juiced-up pretenders? Heck, even cycling great Lance Armstrong is under a cloud today due to doping allegations made by former teammates.
It's truly sad, and in the end, what's the point? Why try to get an unfair edge if it just ends up killing you in the end? Or if your medals and rings and trophies just get stripped away?
Why am I bringing this up?
Because we're seeing the same, sorry thing happen here to the U.S. economy! Washington has been trying to pump the economy full of easy money for the better part of two years now. Yet it hasn't worked! And despite all that, the addicts on Wall Street are once again jonesing for another hit!
What's going to happen in the markets as a result? What does this mean for you? And most importantly, what can you DO about it? Here's my take ...
Why You Can't Keep Propping up an Ailing "Player" Forever
Beginning in March 2009 and continuing all the way through present day, Washington has been trying to juice the economy. It began with the bogus "stress tests." They helped spike the value of bank and real estate stocks, allowing companies to sell equity and buy themselves some time.

We were told the trillions in stimulus programs would cure our economic woes.

It continued with the $1.25 trillion QE1 program ... the $600 billion QE2 boondoggle ... payroll tax cuts ... the HAMP mortgage modification effort ... an almost-$900 billion economic stimulus bill ... and more.
We were told these would drive unemployment down substantially.
We were told these would prevent a double-dip in housing.
We were told these efforts would — for once and for all — plug the massive balance sheet holes in the banking system.
We were told there would be virtually no negative side effects.
And we were told months ago that the economy had entered a self-sustaining, healthy recovery.
But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ... Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke ... President Obama's economic advisors ... and virtually all the major Wall Street economists got it wrong. All we did was pump the economy up with monetary steroids — buying us some short-term performance at the cost of long-term health.
We're now $14.3 trillion in debt, and Geithner is raiding every government account he can to keep us under the debt ceiling. Plus, we're running up a trillion-dollar deficit for the third straight year, something no country in the history of the world has ever done.
And what do we have to show for it?

• A confirmed double-dip in housing,
  
• A rising cost of living,
  
• A renewed jobs market threat, with unemployed Americans taking a record-long amount of time to find work,
  
• And a fresh roll over in bank stocks, with companies like Bank of America giving up every penny of gains they've made in the last two years.

Wall Street's Plea: "Brother, Can You Spare Some More QE?"
Bottom line: The print, borrow, spend program is NOT working! Yet in the wake of the dismal May jobs report, Wall Street is back to begging Helicopter Ben Bernanke for more free money! And when they don't get it, like some spoiled kid, they take their toys and go home.

On Tuesday, the Fed chairman offered no hint that QE3 would be forthcoming.

Just witness what happened late Tuesday ...
Bernanke gave a speech on the economic outlook at the International Monetary Conference in Atlanta. He said the economy appeared to be weakening again, but failed to promise QE3. Result? Stocks rolled over into the close.
Meanwhile, the same economic "experts" like Paul Krugman who told us that if we just borrowed, printed and spent enough money, everything would be fine, are still at it. They're asking for even more of the same medicine that didn't work in the past ... twice!
Look folks, the plain, unvarnished truth is that our economy needs a long period of convalescence to heal. We need to work off the massive excesses built up during the tech stock and real estate bubbles. All the steroids in the world won't do the trick!


Sit by and do nothing while Washington and Wall Street sink further into the debt, deficit, and downturn abyss. I trust that sounds as unattractive an option to you as it does to me.
Until next time,
Mike

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed, contents included and photographs presented herein are of and by the originating authors. They reserved all rights and ownership of said article. It is republished here for the sole enjoyment and convenience of our readers who chose to visit this site by voluntarily clicking the link and viewing it.

Warning: Information contained above, while believed to be correct, is not guaranteed as accurate.

Issue 19 • June 1, 2011

PIIGS Too Big to Bail Out

Greece is back for a second round of feeding at the ECB bailout trough.

Just over a year ago, the PIIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) of Europe began squealing from high debt burdens and roiled financial markets.

In May 2010, the European Central Bank (ECB) cobbled together a $157 billion bailout package to provide Greece with much needed liquidity, the first of the PIIGS to be bailed out, but not the last.¹

Ireland and Portugal followed with total bailout commitments (so far) of $364 billion (€256 billion), but the underlying issue that triggered the crisis is far from solved and additional PIIGS bailouts are likely.²

The central issue is not now — nor has it ever been — a liquidity issue alone. More fundamentally, it’s a solvency issue.

Bottomless Bailout Pit

In recent weeks, government bond yields for the PIIGS have blown out to new highs as bond prices have plunged.

This is a clear vote of no confidence from investors who don’t see a new round of ECB bailouts working any better than the last … and for good reason.

Yields on Greek 10-year government bonds reached 16.8 percent recently. That’s more than twice what they were a year ago after the first bailout.³

At this rate, Greece is effectively shut out of financial markets, as investors anticipate some sort of restructuring or default.

Portuguese and Irish government bonds are similarly priced, which means the three little PIIGS have little choice but to rely on the good graces of the ECB for fresh borrowing.

But Greece, Ireland and Portugal are just small piglets compared to the much larger problem economies of Italy and Spain.

Spain’s borrowing costs have been moving higher, too, and are near a record level. Italy’s interest rates rose to the highest level since November 2008, during the worst of the financial crisis.

It seems pretty clear that restructuring the massive debts of any one of the Eurozone PIIGS … let alone all of them … almost certainly will require Europe’s banking system to be recapitalized as well. In other words, it looks like a bottomless bailout pit to many investors.

The European Central Bank is on the hook. And although the ECB considers default unthinkable, it’s clear that financial markets are sniffing out restructuring of some kind.

After all, some Greek government debt is trading as low as 45 cents on the euro. And a Greek restructuring (even if by some other name) is likely to lead to a similar arrangement for Ireland and Portugal before those dominoes fall.⁴

If Spain and Italy were also dragged into the crisis, it’s game over. We believe a restructuring truly would be impossible for the ECB to pull off without lots of collateral damage — inflicted both to the ECB’s own balance sheet and on financial markets globally.

In order to finance multiple bailouts, the ECB has accepted questionable collateral from the PIIGS directly and from Eurozone commercial banks. So the entire EU has a lot to lose. It’s not exactly clear how much exposure the ECB has to the PIIGS, but data from Germany’s Bundesbank show that liabilities to the euro financial system have risen to €340 billion since the financial crisis erupted three years ago.⁵

Not surprisingly, voters in Berlin and Paris are not happy about using their tax dollars to bail out others … and the protesting masses in Athens, Dublin and Lisbon are fed up with spending cuts, tax hikes and other austerity measures being imposed on them by others while depressing their domestic economies.

What’s needed is strong leadership and decisive action from the ECB, not politics as usual and temporary Band-Aids. A column in this weekend’s Barron’s suggested that before the ECB throws more good money after bad, Greece should be allowed to bite the bullet now, restructure its debts and try to get its economy growing again.

As an aside, politicians in Washington should take note of Europe’s debt follies. That’s because if Congress can’t find a real solution, sooner or later global credit markets will dictate one … almost certainly on less favorable terms for the US.

Investing Is Relative

So how does Europe’s debt drama tie in to your portfolio choices?

First, let’s remember that investing is a relative game. By comparison, Europe’s ongoing debt woes makes the US look more attractive to global investors.

It all comes down to the relative attractiveness of one bond, one stock, sector or region or country over another.

Is Coca Cola a better buy than PepsiCo?

Should I favor the health care sector over consumer staples?

Are US stocks or bonds positioned to outperform Europe’s?

Little-noticed in the debt drama over the past few weeks is how resilient US stocks have been. In fact, dollar-denominated assets, in general, including US stocks, bonds, and even the greenback itself, are attracting new interest from global investors.

And while recent economic data has been somewhat disappointing here, the US still appears to be in better shape relative to Europe. True, US GDP is expanding at a slower rate than countries like Germany or France, but the PIIGS are sinking fast.

The Greek economy contracted -4.5 percent last year while Portugal shrank -3.5 percent last quarter. Italy is growing at a paltry 0.4 percent rate. Spain looks somewhat better with 1.2 percent growth, but with an unemployment rate of 21 percent — more than twice the US jobless rate — and Spanish home prices still deflating, we don’t expect much growth for Spain’s economy.⁶

Another negative factor is rising interest rates across major developed markets, including a recent rate hike by the ECB. Banyan Partners Senior Portfolio Manager Sebastian Leburn says, “Almost two-thirds of the central banks in the MSCI EAFE Index of developed market countries have begun tightening monetary policies.”⁷

Needless to say, higher interest rates may not be the best medicine for countries already dealing with a sovereign debt crisis and suffering slower growth as a result.

As the Eurozone debt crisis continues with no end in sight, the EU economy could be headed for stagnation. Or worse, the PIIGS could drag all of Europe into a full blown recession.

In such an environment, while the US economy may not be a perfect picture of health, we believe US stocks are poised to outperform other developed stock markets — and especially Europe’s — during the second half of this year.

As Banyan’s Chief Market Strategist Bob Pavlik notes, investors today are enthusiastic about investing in foreign markets and frequently ask us about our exposure to markets, such as China and India. However, while many overseas economies have good long-term growth prospects, foreign markets aren’t always the best place to be invested.

In fact, with so many uncertainties, many foreign stock markets simply aren’t performing as well as domestic stocks. The MSCI World Index (ex US), for instance, is up just 3.8 percent year–to-date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 8.7 percent!⁸

Rather than investing directly in more volatile foreign markets, the Banyan Partners investment team believes one of the best ways to get international exposure is by owning big-cap US companies such as 3M (NYSE – MMM), Caterpillar (NYSE – CAT) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE – JNJ) that generate a majority of sales from overseas.

All three of these companies are current buys at Banyan and members of the Dow … which happens to be outperforming global stocks by more than 2-to-1 so far this year.

Good investing,

Mike Burnick
Director of Client Communications
Banyan Partners, LLC

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed, contents included and photographs presented herein are of and by the originating authors. They reserved all rights and ownership of said article. It is republished here for the sole enjoyment and convenience of our readers who chose to visit this site by voluntarily clicking the link and viewing it.

Warning: Information contained above, while believed to be correct, is not guaranteed as accurate.