Howard McEwen, CFA

Last week I got a call every day (and twice on Thursday and Friday) from clients and friends telling me they were unemployed. That was 7 non-lazy, skilled people losing their jobs. Of course, people have called me in the past every so often and people are losing their jobs all-across the country for years now but last week’s call-a-day really brought it home for me.

We have to create jobs! And our current policies aren’t doing it. Hear what Darryl Parks and I had to say about it on Saturday’s show.

Part one here.

Part two here.

Give a listen here.

Standard & Poors announced that they’ve changed their outlook on U.S. debt. Does that mean anything?

Listen to what I had to say about it to 700-WLW’s Doc Thompson here.

With the Federal government facing a shutdown at midnight tonight, Doc Thompson had me on this morning and Sloanie and Tracy this afternoon.

Hear what I told Doc here. I told Sloanie and Tracy the same thing.

Update:  Here’s the link to my Sloan and Tracy spot.

I was on with 700-WLW’s Marc Amazon on March 16th to talk about Japan’s  problems and our economy.  While most focus on the earthquake, the tsunami or the nuclear power plants, I think  many folks are missing the long term problem Japan faces – not enough babies. This chart scares me. What happens when a country has more deaths than births as Japan has had since 2004? They also have zero immigration.

Give a listen here.

If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac go away then mostly will the 30-year mortgage.

700-WLW’s Daryl Parks and I discuss it yesterday. Give a listen here.

Bockfest starts tonight in Cincinnati. To honor it here’s an excerpt from Wrath, a novel of Kentucky featuring Bock and a few other brews.

They moved from the undercroft after a few months. William felt the parish priest was about to throw them out. His father had attended services while living there but after moving out he never stepped into another church.  They settled in an apartment that occupied half of the second floor above the social club where his father served beers.

The apartment was four rooms and seemed large compared to the basement.  His father kept mostly to the bar.  His mother served his father meals there and his father only came to the apartment to sleep.  William, Justus and Arthur shared a bed in the front room.  Minnie had her own room in the rear.  Minnie’s was the size of a narrow closet just wide enough to fit a bed.  Her mother stored potatoes and onions in burlap bags that hung over her head.

They got used to the smell of stale beer that floated up from the bar.  The aroma changed with each season.  In the late spring and early summer months, the men downstairs drank ales that made the air of the apartment weightless. One spring day William threw open the window and felt drunk on the mix of fresh air and the evaporate of ale.  He tossed a borrowed copy of Herodotus’ Histories onto a chair and danced with his mother.

She delighted in his arms and was one of the few times he remembers her smiling and laughing aloud.

“William, stop this minute,” she giggled as she continued to dance with him.  Minnie joined them in spinning around the room until a coughing fit brought the dance to a stop.

The fall brought Bock beer to the club.  The lager helped the men stay warm and gave them the energy to work their hard jobs.  It was heavier scented than the ales.  Still sweet but it hung heavier in the air.  The first snow brought heavy lagers and more men into the bar for longer times. William’s mother kept the windows closed to the cold but it trapped the family with the thick, heady aroma.  By late February, they were gasping for spring air and light ales.

Profanity floated up through their floorboards along with the beer scented air.  William and his brothers learned to swear from the curses that the men – first in German or increasingly in English – bellowed at one another through the long nights.

It’s tax time. It’s also time to buy Wrath, a novel of Kentucky by your’s truly. 700-WLW’s Marc Amazon had me on last week to discuss the impending tax time and Wrath. Give a listen here.

I’m keeping all Wrath information posted at www.facebook.com/kywrath.

Please give it an order and a “LIKE” to help get the word out.

This examiner.com column thingy is way low on my priority list.  I’ll post when I can.  Otherwise, I’m posting dumb stuff that neither I nor anyone else cares about or has already heard on somewhere else.

But I felt a jolt of positive energy so came up with this column: Two possible (stock market) positives.