Today I posted a comment about an IPO on facebook and had little response. It made me wonder if my friends knew what I was talking about or they probably just didn't even care. So I thought I would just blog about it since no one really actually follows my blog. Becoming an IPO meant that companies could raise capital for ongoing growth. Well an IPO stands for initial public offering, for which companies offer stocks to the public. Companies have earned the opportunity for Wall Street investors like you and me to buy stocks based on the performance of how they do business. (if you have a 401k or some type of retirement account you invest in wall street) I learned about them during the dot com era back in the 90's or the dot com bubble. So many companies were gaining investor confidence. The economy in the early decade was picking up steam and investors had pockets full of cash to spend. Many of the wall street investors invested heavily into the bubble and many lost fortunes. I remember one such company I would of invested in if I had the dough. Such companies like Palm. A hand held computer organizer maker that was going to become the next hottest item, like the I pod is today. It never made it. The Wall Street Journal once wrote a front page article of how the palm pilot was changing the busy house wife's life. It touted that the device became ones daily planner for their so busy lives. At the time Palm was worth under $3 a share. Within a month of the article Palm company was trading near $50 a share. Unheard of investment were common place during the bubble.
Today Palm is bankrupt and has since been bought up by HP. Which leads me into why I am posting today's blog. General Motors, GM, announced an IPO today with shares trading at $33. GM ended the day trading at above $34. Wow, to just think that this company filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 16 months ago is amazing. It rather irritates me that a company can screw the investor over by forfeiting all their debt to the shareholders and within 16 months offer new debt to new investors. Furthermore GM got to erase allot of bad debt by closing plants and dealerships, laying of workers, changing their pensions owed to retired workers and canceling debt owed to suppliers. Understandably the US citizens owned allot of the company because "We" bailed out GM with our taxpayer dollars. Yet we will never see a return on our duty to pay taxes. So what do we do? Many companies have been able to do this. Example, K-Mart filled for bankruptcy, loosing allot of investors fortunes and retirements. Yet in a short time after selling many of their lucrative properties, they were able to buy Sears company for $11 billion.
What about you and me? Many Americans the last several years have lost their jobs, homes and livelihood due to the economy. Most have faced bankruptcy. So in most cases it will take decades of repair for them to even have another opportunity to purchase a home ever again. Many have been forced out because the home values have dropped so much they will never be able to get out under such steep mortgage payments. Who is going to bale out the American people who have worked hard for that American dream to see it crushed by such a bad economic state brought on by greedy corporate companies?
if one doesn't educate themselves, then you can be sure they will be someone else's punk. most people don't know about money or business, i myself one, and we are targets for getting taken advantage of all the time. Take or be taken. I don't sympathize with people who complain about how things aren't 'fair'. The only thing fair to me is to realize that people will take advantage of me when it comes to my money and my choices, if i don't take advantage of my own situation. i can expect to work my whole life, save, expect my retirement check, then have it swept from under me if i think it is that simple. sometimes it is, but people get gypped and i won't hang around to find out if i'll be one of them. study up, get aggressive with money, make it work for you.
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