Buy an index stock fund and recoup some of your losses now. That is what CA>TV experts are saying for local investors. Real estate is going to be stagnant by comparison, but stocks will go up 100% in the next year or so.

Bob Brinker.com is one of the smartest conservative market timer’s in America. He agrees with CA.TV writers that the DJIA at 7600-8000 and the S&P 500 at 800 is the time to buy for the coming long stock rally. Bob says all model portfolios are fully invested… to gain ground in a sustainable market advance… of substantially highers levels into next year…

TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ — The Yucatan Express cruise ferry announced its plans to provide a weekly ferry service between Tampa and Cuba. The proposal is offered as an alternative to air transportation for Cuban Americans visiting relatives in Cuba and would be operated in accordance with existing government programs. The service would begin February 25, 2003, pending government approval, and would continue for 10 rotations through April 2003.

“The Tampa-Cuba ferry service is a humanitarian program that would help Cuban Americans connect with their families in Cuba and allow them to provide much more of the humanitarian aid permitted under existing U.S. rules. It is not political, nor would it promote business and trade,” said Matthew Hudson, chairman of Yucatan Express.

At $499 per adult round trip including standard cabin, 4 meals/day, port charges, security charges, and U.S. taxes, the service would be very cost-effective, according to Hudson. Cabin upgrades are available at small additional costs and fees imposed by the Cuban government would also be additional.

The owners of the Yucatan Express have also agreed to palletize, shrink- wrap and carry up to 100 cubic feet of personal cargo per adult passenger at no charge, so long as the cargo meets the humanitarian aid laws of the U.S. government.

“We are offering to carry humanitarian goods, such as food, clothing and medicines free of charge to help families that have been separated,” said Professor Hudson.

The Tampa-Cuba initiative expands the company’s new service between Tampa and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, which has been operating weekly, Friday through Tuesday, since November 22, 2002.

Operated by Scotia Prince Cruises, a Bermuda company which has been operating USA-Canada cruise ferry services since 1970, the company has treated five million passengers to world-class customer service and has securely transported 600,000 vehicles of all shapes and sizes. The current ship, the M/S Scotia Prince, is 485 feet long, fully stabilized with global capability and can accommodate up to 1,000 passengers and 200 vehicles including motorcycles, boats, campers, trailers and RVs. The Cuba proposal would use the car deck for humanitarian aid and would return to Tampa empty.

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CATV editor examines new cruise ship in port of Mobile that began a cruise industry race between Tampa and Mobile to gain routes and passengers after the New Orleans terminal was shut down after Katrina.

Mobile is focused on the Midwest I-65 corridor within an eight hour drive in market of 10 million. Tampa has had cruise ships for years while Mobile is a new comer.

One new target are high speed ferries that reach destinations without the luxury of on board accomodations.

AUSTAL in Mobile built one such ferry for Hawaii.

The mega cruise industry is also looking at smaller boutique ships like the one from Tampa to Cuba, similar in size to smaller European cruise ships like this one.

Mobile has increased the size of its single Carnival Cruise Line ships due to successful solid bookings according to terminal manager Al St. Clair.

This is the new ship moved from New Orleans to Mobile.

WHIL reports the Press Register reports Forbes Magazine says coastal Alabama’s eastern shore of Mobile Bay is highly resilient to recession due to low mortgage debt and high levels of education according to the magazine analysis.

News releases out of Washington, D.C. tell us 50 million people are getting a payraise from the Social Security Administration.   To the average retiree, that means about 63 added bucks a month, for the average couple it’s $103. And not a moment to soon, what with the cost of gas, food, and energy.   The added benefit comes after comparisons to the Consumer Price Index, and amounts to about a six percent increase….the largest increase to SS since 1982!  By the year 2017, it’s projected social security will be paying out more than it’s taking in. 

www.ssa.gov

Get used to the roller coaster of emotion and ignore it, stock investors have advised year after year. The market outperforms all other investments historically yielding a 12% return for long term investors of broad blue chip mutual funds.

Alan Greenspan said derivatives that hedge loans from losses for investment banks were a free market stimulus. Warren Buffett, George Soros said they were time bombs waiting to explode. Now they have. Things are so bad the US Treasury is considering taking over private banks and the word is this economic change coulod stagnate markets for more than 10 years.

The real estate bubble shocked the US economy. This led to after shock effect: loss of home equity, which caused a so called “credit crunch”. What is happening is American stocks are being sold because like real estate, no one knows where the true value is. Hyper growth caused fat real estate prices, fat wall street prices and fat consumer confidence that has lasted for years. The Dow will drop another 1,000 and all any one can say is this is a major correction, or sing sadly ” the party is over…………………………….”.

The Dow Jones stock average went below the psychological 10,000 threshold, down 1,000 points from last week as predicted.

1817 - The constitution of the New York Stock and Exchange Board is adopted
1896 - Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) first published in The Wall Street Journal
1907 - Panic of 1907
1914 - World War I causes the longest exchange shutdown: four months, two weeks
1929 - Black Thursday (October 24) and Black Tuesday (October 29) signal coming of Great Depression
1943 - Trading floor is opened to women
1949 - Longest (eight-year) bull market begins
1972 - DJIA closes above 1,000
1987 - Black Monday, October 19, sees the largest one-day DJIA percentage drop
1991 - DJIA exceeds 3,000
1999 - DJIA exceeds 10,000
September 11, 2001 attacks occur, closing NYSE for 4 sessions
2006 DJIA tops 12,000 on October 19
2007 -  NYSE Composite closes above 10,000 on June 1; DJIA closes above 14,000 on July 19.
2008- Monday, September 15, 2008; Largest point drop since reopening after September 11th, 2001

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) - A 17-story casino hotel being built by the
Poarch Band of Creek Indians near Atmore rises out of the rolling
farmlands and pine forests of south Alabama. It’s an eye-catching
tower for the stream of travelers on Interstate 65.
To make sure drivers don’t miss the casino exit, a 65-foot-high
electronic sign will beckon them to the site, which tribal leaders
hope will gain a reputation as a destination resort.
The casino is to be filled with 1,600 electronic bingo games in
halls enlivened by the flashing lights and ringing bells of a Las
Vegas-style gambling palace.

Japan reached a 4 year low as markets digest the $700B bailout, and the future prospects of a new forever changed economy. The Dow Jones could enter the 9,000 range after a high of 14,000. The slowing world wide economy pushed oil below $90 a barrel. ATLANTA (CNN) — Stocks sank around the world Monday after investors digested the passage of a $700 billion bank bailout plan in the United States and considered new flare-ups in Europe’s banking crisis. Losses of 4% to 5% were the norm.

 MOBILE, Ala., Oct 04, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The first Littoral Combat Ship built by the General Dynamics Team, Independence, was christened today at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile Bay. U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama was the principal speaker. Other speakers included Donald Winter, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama. Doreen A. Scott, wife of former Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Terry Scott, ceremonially named the ship by breaking the traditional bottle of champagne against its hull. The Littoral Combat Ship is a key element of the Navy’s plan to address asymmetric threats of the twenty-first century. Intended to operate in coastal areas of the globe, the ship will be fast, highly maneuverable and geared to supporting mine detection/elimination, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare, particularly against small surface craft.

The Vanguard Fund manager put it clearly on NPR, the US Treasury taking a warrant or ownership position in Goldman Sachs and other investment banks pursuant to the language in the bailout bill is nothing different than other governments buying American stock equity and board of director positions. You may not like it, but America has to compete dollar for dollar with foreign and communist countries, so get use to it.