"Microsoft's buyback plan shows strength of tech firms" by Associated Press | September 23, 2008
Isn't that nice (while you gobble down government shit)?
SEATTLE - Chaos in the money markets gave Microsoft Corp. an opening yesterday to disclose it would take on debt for the first time, launch a $40 billion stock buyback plan, and raise its dividend.
The moves indicate that for all the credit problems plaguing the financial sector, cash-laden technology companies with good credit ratings are still borrowing money on favorable terms and otherwise enjoying flexibility.
The only one who doesn't get a credit line or a bailout appears to be YOU and ME, America!!!!!
The largest information technology company, Hewlett-Packard Co., approved an $8 billion buyback plan yesterday. And Intel Corp. chairman Craig Barrett told the Associated Press that the chip maker - which boasted $11.5 billion in cash and $2.1 billion in debt at the end of the last quarter - was feeling no squeeze from the credit crunch.
"I don't see any slowdown in our technology investment or R&D investment or manufacturing investment going forward," he said. "When you've got 10, 15 billion dollars in your bank account, short-term credit is not a significant issue."
Do YOU have $10-15 BILLION in the BANK, America?
Let Paulson get some of his $700 BILLION from THESE GUYS instead of US!!!
Of course, that is the whole point of this "bailout" -- to transfer $$$ from the average American to the super-rich (as if they needed it).
Microsoft, which benefits from having $23.7 billion in cash and short-term investments on hand as of June 30, historically has avoided taking on debt to fund day-to-day operations, acquisitions, and stock buybacks, even as many of its peers, including IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp., have done so.
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Of course, when it comes to YOU and YOUR CREDIT (or a fed bailout), Americasn, you get bupkis (except a bowl of shit to eat)!!!!
MIAMI - Al Ray is so strapped for cash, the only time he eats out is on Wednesday or Sunday, when the local McDonald's sells hamburgers for 49 cents.
That's not healthy, dude!
Maybe Microsoft or Paulson could buy you a good meal?
Ray lost his engineering job last November, and has been working as high school tutor, scratching out about $1,000 a month - if he's lucky. He struggled to make his $1,400 monthly mortgage payment and $330 monthly homeowners' association fee until May, when he stopped paying.
Ray, 44, is looking for work and renting out a room in his two-bedroom condo in Davie, Fla., for $500, but his monthly income doesn't match his expenses and he's facing foreclosure.
"I barely have money to survive," he said.
I KNOW the FEELING, guy!!! Why do you think I am down to one meal a day?
Ray is one of more than 7.5 million people - almost 15 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage - who are spending half of their income or more on housing costs, according to 2007 data released today by the Census Bureau. That is up from nearly 7.1 million the year before.
Traditionally, the government and most lenders consider a homeowner spending 30 percent or more of their income on housing costs to be financially burdened. But that definition now covers almost 38 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage - 19 million of them.
But hey, Microsoft and corporations are doing just fine, so....
See: Wall Street Already Profiting From Bailout
Though home prices have fallen this year, in the most expensive markets where home prices tripled during the boom, many working families still cannot afford to buy a home.
Gee, what a surprise!!!
Also see: The Economic Untouchables
The Boston Globe Worships the Wealthy Elite
Only U.S. Elite Need Apply
The Comfortable Class Above It All
The data underscore the serious affordability problems in this country and highlight how the slightest financial problem - from a lost job to higher gas prices or insurance premiums - can put a family behind on their mortgages and into the realm of foreclosure. An estimated 10 million homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
Translation: You are FUCKED, Americans!!! Where is YOUR BAILOUT, huh?
Cascading foreclosures over the past two years created a domino effect in the lending industry, undermining investor confidence and forcing the Bush administration last weekend to announce the greatest rescue package and market intervention since the Great Depression.
And yet, the deal will not help Dolly Hanna, 51, and her husband, who bought five homes in the San Francisco area over the past 20 years, and were enjoying life during the housing boom by renting them out.
Five homes? WTF?
How come they have to pick some stink elites to exemplify the problem? Most Americans are lucky to have ONE HOME!!!!
Yeah, I am tired of the pro-corporate, pro-rich, pro-banker, anti-American, agenda-pushing AmeriKan MSM!!!!
But her husband's overtime at his mechanic's job was cut, and the Hannas now find themselves overextended at a loss of $15,000 per month and trying two sell two of the homes.
With four children, Hanna had been a stay-at-home mom, but yesterday she started a job in real estate. They are seeking a renter for two upstairs bedrooms in their primary residence for $1,200. Getting a loan during the boom was easy, Hanna knows. Too easy.
"All you had to was massage the information enough to fit it . . ., and they gave us a mortgage," Hanna said.And because of that, the American taxpayers and homeowners should be made to pay?
No wonder the American people are so damn angry about this transfer of wealth to the rich!!!!!!!!
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