Lee Munson comment on market myths. Published on Seeking Alpha

In the Sunday Wall Street Journal, at least the part they sell to my local paper, the Albuquerque Journal, Dave Kansas furthered the already atrocious myths of Wall Street (see “You Still Need to Be in the Market “). The writer, and author of “The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know it”, would suggest that he sees though the common myths that keep ordinary investors down. He doesn’t, and I want to take issue with five different parts of Dave’s advice.

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Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts comment on the U.S. currency. Published on Seeking Alpha

I don’t quite remember when, sometime in the past year, I first began hearing average people say that the government ultimately has the power to fix the economy, because it can just ‘print money,’ but, in a few short months, the sentiment has become commonplace. It boggles the mind, but it now seems to be a truth commonly accepted by just about everyone–politicians, journalists, investors–even the man in the street. At Portfolio Asset Management this change in sentiment has altered part of our investing strategy. Gold is now back on the menu along with shorting treasuries. Alternative assets have gone to the top of our list of potential funds and the bond funds we hold are under tremendous scrutiny. The bottom line is that we are under fire–not by the market itself, but by the government policy of debasing the currency. Few are vigilant and the delay in the market reacting to the changes may take time. Meaning, some sound strategies may not work even though a rational investor would say otherwise.
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Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts comment on the market. Published on Seeking Alpha

Again and again, the cacophony of bottom-callers serves to lure the overly optimistic and the just plain ignorant onto the rocks of a sucker’s rally with their siren song. This is not to say that serious money cannot be made trading in this volatile environment; it can, and it is. We at Portfolio have never traded so much, but we’re riding the waves of folly, selling into these rallies, and picking up the pieces again when the waves break. This is evidently not what most people are doing, or there wouldn’t be sucker rallies.
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Lee Eugene Munson comments on Packaging Corporation of America. Published on Seeking Alpha

After taking a position in cardboard box maker Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG), a few things happened that surprised us. The first was a fast turnaround in management’s decision concerning the dividend. We saw the balance sheet was so-so, but over the years the firm told shareholders they were careful in targeting a sustainable dividend payout. In the January conference call, management was grilled on the subject and they expressed commitment to the dividend unless there was evidence that their business would see a multi-year contraction.
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By Lorraine Ell

The dramatic loss of value in 401(k) plans has prompted a fresh look at how the plans are managed and how much they cost. With the reduction in traditional pension plans since the Tax Reform Act of 1978, which established the savings plan known as the 401(k), more than half of all workers in for-profit corporations participate in these plans and depend on them to help fund retirement.

Lee Eugene Munson comments on mark-to-market accounting. Published on Seeking Alpha
Yesterday the house Financial Services Subcommittee run by Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA) discussed mark-to-market accounting.

Why do you care? Some misguided wicks out there (i.e. Warren Buffett and Steve Forbes) have asked for the M2M (yes, we have a silly text friendly symbol for mark-to-market now, twitters rejoice!) to be banned. On one hand I say yes, but only if it applies to me as well. It would allow me to ask my clients to stop using their current portfolio balances and simply use the balances from 2007. This would make me look spectacular, my referrals would shoot though the roof, and nobody would call concerned about the future of their retirement. The problem with this is that it is a fraud. People seeking to ban the M2M rule are asking the investing public to support the next great Ponzi scheme. The only difference in this scenario is that trades are placed and the money is invested in bank debt.
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Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts present an economic outlook. Published on Seeking Alpha

Thomas Lee, US Equity Strategy at JPMorgan, generated some buzz in the past few days when he noticed that the twelve-year-low reached by the Dow last week had only happened two other times in history. The others occurred on April 3, 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, and on December 6, 1974, after the first oil crisis. We now know that recovery in the market was soon to follow, and that the respective recessions ended four to nine months after, although unemployment had yet to peak. In both cases, the market popped and drew in the crowds. Is it really different this time, or is recovery right around the corner?
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Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts analyze Ford Convertible Preferred Stock. Published on Seeking Alpha

Last fall Portfolio Asset Management discussed the merits of the 6.50% Cumulative Convertible Trust Preferred Security (F-PS). This trust was also known as Ford Motor Company Capital Trust II. The idea was simple, get paid while you wait for Ford to do nothing but keep on trucking. Well, last week we found that like the homeowners that bought too much house and asked the banks to lower their mortgage rate, Ford (F) just can’t pay for their preferreds.
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“Lee Munson comments on current market conditions on CNBC’s “Closing Bell”

From CNBC’s Closing Bell
See the video.