International Falls Journal - Is Paper Dead? - Comments

I sure hope the company

Redcrest — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:30:02 -0500

I sure hope the company makes it. I included a link to an interesting article on Boise.
http://www.al.com/business/press-register/index.ssf?/base/business/12235...

Globalization: a hot potato.

Thomas L. Johnson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:24:05 -0500

Globalization: a hot potato. Those on the left seem to oppose it, usually for some very good reasons: environmental degradation, its tendency to cheapen the value of labor, its lack of regulation. Conservatives, on the other hand, see it as a bottom line issue. If you can lower the cost of production without lowering the prices, you make better margins and more money. Wal-Mart contributes 10% to our balance of payments deficit -- and we let them.
Most of us live pretty local lives despite globalization. Yet, the big things in our lives -- gas prices, the mill's survival, the cost of bananas and lettuce, the availablility of corn on the cob -- are all being dictated by global markets. And, as I said above, nothing makes us feel more powerless.
The thing that has really hurt us locally and nationally is our inability to save money. Whereas the Chinese, despite their poverty, have saving rates approaching 50%, we Americans have negative savings rates -- we live our lives in debt. And that is why this crisis is so powerful here. It was created by debt and we are trying to solve it with more debt. Not once have our leaders told us the truth: our debts are our national sin. I think there was a prayer once that included "forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors." In German, the word for debt is Schuld; that is also the word for guilt. I say we are guilty.

TLJ. You raise the issue of

RJ1127 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:14:41 -0500

TLJ. You raise the issue of the Global economy. That is indeed a looming giant and nobody seems quite sure how to even attempt to handle it.
Keep Well

Is paper dead -- or just

Thomas L. Johnson — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:07:50 -0500

Is paper dead -- or just dying here in Minnesota and Wisconsin?
If I were running against Mr. Oberstar, I would be asking tough questions about the future of the paper industry in Northern Minnesota. I would ask him what he proposes to do to keep the entire worldwide paper industry from changing from a northern tier [MN, WI, Finnland] to a northern hemisphere industry -- Brazil and South Africa.
What do I know about paper? Nothing more than a guy learns growing up in this town and working five summers making stuff out of paper fiber. At any given hour of the day, there are people sitting at Coffee Landing who know a whole lot more about the paper industry than I will ever learn. And when I was in there on Saturday enjoying Sheila's Rueben Sandwich, I got the feeling that there is a high level of frustration and and even higher level of powerlessness on the streets of IFalls. Globalization makes people feel that way. That is why we need to make it a political issue. I love the improvements I see on highway 53 -- it shortens my trip back to the Cities-- but I am beginning to see that this road is becoming the superhighway to nowhere. And that is sad. Almost as sad as grown men thinking that our future will involve a return to a barter economy.

Option two is a good one, IF

Anton1965 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:29:14 -0500

Option two is a good one, IF you have a thousand dollars to invest in the marlket when its low. In this depressed market millions and even probably a few billonaires will be made and I hope you are one of them. Folks in other places, I am sure, do have a few hundred or thousand extra bucks sitting around collecting some dust they can throw at the market. In Orr, Big Falls, Ray and Internatrional Falls I think the majority of folks are not in that group of investors.

Will the market go up, probably that would be a good bet. Will it be cold in the Falls this winter, probably that would be a good bet. If you have a few dollars in a coffee can and a weekend for doing something for your own good what would be a good bet? Invest in the market or go cut some wood? I am going to get my chainsaw out, buy a couple gallons of gas and a box of shotgun shells and put some wood up and shoot some grouse and ducks and geese in those beaver ponds. Also a couple hundred pounds of potatos is a good idea also. Maybe next year, about May, If I survived the winter, the kids arn't sick and I still have my house and a few lefover thousands, I'll invest in the market...maybe not!

Like you said, those that have some "extra" cash might do pretty good. If you are one of those CEO's that squandered billions, you are going to do good also as the taxpayers are going to bail you out "and" give you the opportunity to "grab" another few trillions of dollars. I sure wished I was that guy who is Bush's VP who controls Halliburton but I am not so I guess pinto beans, flour and venison and geese are my staples for the winter. Hope I can cut some wood also. I wonder how fearful the aged in the county must be!! Good luck on your investments and have a nice time in Heidelberg this winter. I can feel the cold already.

When the price to earnings ratio returns to about 7.5 to 1 for a good investment and 12 to 1 for a poor investment and not more than 20 to 1 for a very risky investment rather then the 100 to 1 or 125 to one as currently, then the stock market might be considered an investment of reality rather then a crap shoot representing nothing of tangible meaning. As it is now the DOW will have to go down 1500 to 2000 more points to be at "investment quality" meaning. The market will rebound but the mentality of what it is will not go away in Americans minds and so what you see has happened these last weeks will again reappear and sooner then this last fiasco and the next time it will be even worse. You might be lucky and time it right!!

This is the biggest reason to not commercialize the retirement system and the social security system. You see, then there will really be a reason for the american public to not want the "system" of corruption to fail as then they will all feel the hurt. What a non-sensical and foolish way of thinking we have gotten ourselves into.

Barter is good, I have been doing so all my life. What will you give me for 200 pounds of whitefish or tullibee that will get me throught the winter? Anybody have any extra beets or potatos from the Grand Forks region? Could use another 50 pounds of wild rice too. Of course, oak of any kind for the stove is a rare commodity around here so it should bring a premium at the "Traders Market" this weekend. Now thats real investing for your future, I mean, what good is money?? Its not worth anything even if you did get lucky enough to find some and it has always been the downfall of man with the greed it generates and the systems of rational we use to justify getting it.

Of course, what does a snooty nosed Norwegian kid know about such things. I still have the toys my mom and dad bought me 55 years ago and still play with them. Also ,I have all Tom's 45rpm records and baseball cards and play with them also. They only cost me 5 cents each and that also is an investment. Those kids from Iceland don't need such things.

As option two , I feel I

Thomas L. Johnson — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:39:40 -0500

As option two , I feel I would like to engage option three a bit so that all of you don't start imagining that the answer to all of our problems is a retreat into pretend self-sufficiency.
What we are seeing right now is the epidemic stage of world financial crisis. It is not yet a world economic crisis although it could become one. This epidemic is spreading because it reached a tipping point last week when we passed what was supposed to be the cure and the cure didn't kick right in. Instead, panic did. Unless the patient dies -- and it likely won't, the epidemic has only a little bit further to run before the Chinese and their trillions come to the obvious conclusion: "We could own Coca Cola, General Motors, Pepsi, McDonalds and Boise Paper Solutions for almost nothing." I am investing my thousand dollars this month and, if I wanted paper, I could end up owning about 1,500 shares of Boise Stock that just recently would have cost me that much for 100 shares. And if the world need for paper doesn't suddenly go to zero, I would likely see my shares go up.
Of course, I did harvest my sweet basil this week and made my winter's supply of pesto. I suppose I could "cultivate my garden" and hope to attain some form of self-sufficiency but the very existence of my car and boat motor and chain saw and freezer demonstrate the folly of that idea -- at least for me.
I know that I will be voting for Dean Barkley for senator and waiting for the rest of you to decide who to place in the Oval Office. For those of us who aren't planting survival gardens or buying up gold ingots, that ends up being a very important question. It's the difference between succeedin' and failin' [Which rhymes, of course, with Sarah].

Yes, paper is dead. The

Anton1965 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:29:32 -0500

Yes, paper is dead. The computer age has done it in. With regards to "our" paper, it too is dead, mostly due to inadequate operations that have squandered millions in capital by wasting it on a few mens ideas.

Tough times... you betcha, in more ways then one. No retirements from Boise... you betcha. What to do??? Well according to several other blogs you can buy gold, you can spend several hundred dollars a month on the pretend stock market or you can grow carrots, beans, potatos and rudabaggas and you can tap maple trees and pick wild rice and cut some wood for the winter. Its your decision, of course, on what course you take. In addittion to the later, I am going to spend more time in church, but all of you don't agree with me of course.

No paper, no wood products industry, no retirements.... well the tourist industry doesn't look so bad and there is lots of food in the woods and in our lakes. Hope it don't get to cold this winter!!!

Is Paper Dead?

norpole — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:44:36 -0500

Boise Inc. borrowed over $1 billion dollars from a variety of lending institutions to create their company. Since their initial stock offering of almost ten dollars per share, it is at 69 cents a share. The stock has plummeted like a rock in a shallow pool. The future of this company and with it the future of International Falls hangs in a precarious balance. The world economy has been shaken by the factors coming from America. What do the people of our area and others see in the future for 1) the future of paper businesses and 2) the future of Boise and its effect on our local economy?