Billions sold

From a story somewhere on the internet: “LONDON – In the last two decades, the world has spent more than $196 billion trying to save people from death and disease in poor countries. But just what the world's gotten for its money isn't clear, according to two studies published Friday in the medical journal Lancet. U.N. agencies, universities and others working on public health routinely take from 2 to 50 percent of a donation for "administrative purposes" before it goes to needy countries. Others said there is little incentive for health officials to commission an independent evaluation to find out what their programs have achieved. "The public health community has convinced the public the only way to improve poor health in developing countries is by throwing a ton of money at it," Stevens said. "It is perhaps not coincidental that thousands of highly paid jobs and careers are also dependent on it." That kind of expenditure translates to $27,223,000 PER DAY, in case anyone really cares. The money creates jobs for health professionals but it does not help unhealthy populations all that much – that’s for sure. If you want to stay healthy, just wash your hands frequently, and stay away from sick people and from doctors. Please.

Tallerant

From some news story somewhere: “MELBOURNE (AFP) – Tall people earn higher wages than their vertically-challenged counterparts while being obese does not mean a slimmed-down pay packet, according to a new study in Australia. The researchers found a strong link between wages and height, particularly for men, with each additional four inches of height adding three percent to hourly wages.” The same thing is true of beautiful people. Tell me something I don’t already know – this is SO OBVIOUS. Next thing they will tell us is that according to some university study, higher prices cause inflation. Please.

Coercion and Extortion

From a news a story on the net: “Russia's decision to choke off natural gas supplies to a shivering Western Europe couldn't have come at a worse moment — and that's just as Moscow would have it. As icy temperatures chill European households normally heated by Russian gas, a diplomatic race is underway to resolve the Russo-Ukraine dispute behind the cut. Moscow seems in no hurry. Wednesday marked the second straight day that many European nations received but a trickle of Russian gas pumped via Ukrainian pipelines. Ukraine is pivotal to Europe's gas supply; about 80% of Russian gas normally flows through Ukraine, and Russia provides 25% of Europe's gas.” I say this is a ridiculous situation for the Europeans. All they really have to do is wear more and heavier clothing, no? I don’t really know. This is no time for high hemlines though.

Cuban Revolution

On January 1, 1959, Cuban dictator Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro’s communist rebels. The scene is depicted in Marlon Brando’s famous movie – The Godfather. In the movie, Batista makes a farewell speech, says goodbye, then leaves. Political leaders who make a mess of things have a habit of just leaving – I hate to think what happened to all the subordinates Batista left behind. Anyway, that’s water gone past the Cuban shoreline and back. Now, the Cuban people are hoping the U.S. can reinstate normal relations with their island. That would probably boost not only the Cuban but the U.S. economy as well. I read somewhere that Cuba imports lots of processed chicken meat. I have no way of knowing – I don’t live there. In order to benefit from the coming change, I could buy shares in meat processing companies. I just hope the Cubans don’t all become vegetarians overnight.

2009

From an investment advisory letter: By Tom Dyson: “President-elect Obama makes his inaugural presidential speech on January 20. This speech is going to determine the direction of the stock market for the rest of 2009. Sentiment is the reason this speech is so important. Right now, America is feeling pessimistic. People are worried about their jobs, their houses, and their finances. No one is spending money. To get the financial system working, the government needs you to start shopping again and it needs you to start making risky investments again. In other words, the government needs America to start feeling optimistic again. The financial system we use today is a simple confidence scheme... a Ponzi scheme. To survive and grow, our system needs a constantly increasing river of capital. As long as more capital enters the system than leaves it, the system functions. As soon as new capital shrinks, the whole system breaks down. Debt is the reason. As long as we can find new capital to cover the interest on our existing debts, the system works. When capital dries up and we can't make our payments, the system crashes. This is what happened to Wall Street in October. On January 20, in his inaugural speech, Obama is going to announce a gargantuan government spending plan, probably around $750 billion in size. Obama's plan will make the problem worse. Every dollar the government spends must come from the revenues it receives from taxing Americans. Essentially, Obama will borrow money from the future and spend it today on investments the free market is unwilling to make. This wasted money will hurt our economy for years to come.” There are a few things here that make sense. However, I feel that if you get something for your money, the money is not wasted – no way. The country will get infrastructure, different types of economic engines, and improved efficiencies, out of its investment. If the private sector won’t do it, then a government subsidy is the only way. Or, maybe the country can save for the next twenty years until it can pay cash for everything? I’m no financial guru, but my guess is that that’s not going to happen. Sorry.

Blagojevich saga

Mr. Rod Blagojevich seems to be giving the people of Illinois a hard time. From a New York Times story: “Around the state, elected officials, many exasperated after three weeks of topsy-turvy political drama, responded with fury. “This provocative action is an insult to the people of Illinois,” said Pat Quinn, the lieutenant governor and a fellow Democrat, who added that the governor had defied the desires of an entire state.” Let me suggest something. If someone just finds Rod a good job, he will go away quietly. He needs the money from his job as Governor; he would otherwise not be fighting so hard to keep it. It’s like when your best friend suddenly takes off on you. You will have a hard time dealing with it until you find someone else, no? PLEASE. The woman at left seems to be saying something like “Catch me if you can.”

Saxo Bank

There’s this bank in Denmark called the Saxo Bank. It was founded by two men who only have a high school education. Since they have done very well, they can now afford the best talent in the field so that they really don’t need to know anything other than how to motivate their people (they have 1000 employees) and read the bottom line, where it reads “net income.” They have come out with a ridiculous list of prognostications for 2009. Here it is: 1. There will be an Iranian Revolution, 2. Crude oil will hit $25 a barrel, 3. The S&P 500 will hit 500, 4. Italy will drop the EURO, 5. The Aussie dollar will slump, 6. The U.S. Dollar will outstrip the Euro, 7. China’s GDP will go down to zero, 8. Eastern European currencies will fall, 9. Commodity prices will plunge, 10. The Yen will become a currency peg for other Asian currencies. All of this is way off base, but Saxo Bank (an online broker like Scottrade and Etrade but with a banking license) is putting it out to generate some publicity. I shall refer to this list every month to see how their projections are going. I think the woman at left is Danish but that's really irrelevant.

They own us

From Yahoo! News: Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) – “The global recession is re-exposing fissures in U.S.-China relations that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spent more than two years smoothing over. Heightened tensions between China and the U.S. may worsen a contraction in world trade that already threatens to deepen and prolong the economic downturn. The friction comes as President-elect Barack Obama readies a two-year stimulus package worth as much as $850 billion that will require the U.S. to borrow more than ever from China, the largest buyer of Treasury securities.” Tell me something I don’t already know. I said this was the situation two months ago. I think Bloomberg is stealing from my blog!!!! Please. No matter what, the woman at left is optimistic. You can tell by the hemline.

Nintendo what?

So this is how the unemployment money is being spent? From Yahoo! News: By Ben Silverman: “Despite early predictions that 2008 would be the year Sony regained momentum in the bitter video game console wars, it turned out to be false hope. Industry leader Nintendo stayed ahead of the pack all year, thoroughly dominating both the home console and handheld hardware markets with their Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS systems, respectively. According to NPD Group, Nintendo flat-out owned the all-important month of November by selling over 2 million Wiis, better than twice as much as the next closest competitor, Microsoft's Xbox 360 (836,000).” Why don’t people just buy a game of checkers or, better yet, a nice chess set? I wouldn’t even pay $5.00 for one of these electronic gizmos. Do I want to turn into a zombie??? Am I too conservative? No!!! Remember, people who produce TV shows don’t watch TV. Maybe the woman at left does. Who knows?

Executive pay

From an investor advisory newsletter, don’t ask me which one: “In fact, American executives could learn a thing or two from some of their counterparts abroad. Just look at Haruka Nishimatsu, CEO of Japan Airlines Corp. for example. Each morning, Nishimatsu gets down to business immediately after his morning commute to the office – on a city bus. His desk – like those of all the other Japan Airlines employees – sits in the middle of an open office. I know this from personal experience, having sat at a desk just like that when I’ve worked in Japan over the years. He eats lunch in the company cafeteria and hopes – like all Japanese employees – that he’ll have time to eat his meal before it gets cold as he stands in line waiting to pay. This hardly sounds like the life of a corporate CEO, especially when you consider that JAL is one of the world’s top airlines. Nor does the fact that when JAL cut back and asked many of its employees to take early retirement, Nishimatsu first eliminated every one of his own corporate perks, including his own pay – which, at a mere $90,000 (U.S.), is below what JAL’s pilots get paid.” There’s something to be said for modesty and reality checks. Even the woman at left knows this. I have no clue who she is but she appears to be working hard.

Nobody knows

From some article in Forbes: by Steven Berglas, PhD: “After 20 years spent studying, coaching and writing about scores of entrepreneurs, I know this about all of them: They don't question their motivation; don't wonder whether or not they are taking risks; don't ask themselves, "Will this work?" Instead, they just act --passionately, indefatigably, in pursuit of a goal.” The big, unanswerable question is: WHY?? Nobody can tell you where motivation comes from – why one person is motivated and another is not. Can you teach a person to be motivated? Berglas claims that it’s got something to do with wanting to change the world. Ok, sure, but WHY??? The woman at left doesn’t know either. Don’t even bother to ask her.

Target or Wal-Mart

From a story on Yahoo!: "NEW YORK – Shoppers hit the stores Friday to return unwanted gifts and take advantage of drastic price cuts offered by retailers desperate to get rid of old merchandise and boost their less-than-cheery holiday sales. Many retailers opened before 6 a.m., offering 50 percent to 75 percent off on toys, furniture, electronics and clothing. Stores were hoping the discounts would entice shoppers to redeem gift cards and use cash from returning unwanted gifts to buy something new." I did the same except I went to Target. Target had no deals for me. All the prices were about the same or higher. Shame on Target - a very, very bad store. Go to Wal-Mart instead. I think that's where this woman is headed.

Now what?

From a story in Yahoo! this morning: (Although there is not even a slight hint of frustration in the Pope’s message, we can only imagine what he feels as he realizes that the scope of his political authority (he is powerless) is not nearly equivalent to his moral authority (he is powerful). After more than 400 years of church and state separation, perhaps the time has come to unite church and state once again. Dare anyone say it? “VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI warned in his Christmas message Thursday that the world was headed toward ruin if selfishness prevails over solidarity during tough economic times for rich and poor nations. The traditional papal Christmas Day message "Urbi et Orbi" — Latin for "to the City and to the World" — usually covers the globe's hot spots, but this year Benedict also addressed the economic conditions worrying many across the planet amid near-daily news of layoffs, failing companies and people losing homes. Benedict told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square that God's saving grace could "alone transform evil into good" and "change human hearts, making them oases of peace." Benedict dedicated part of his message to Africa, singling out Zimbabwe, where hunger is spreading and deepening. He said that people there were "trapped for too long in a political and social crisis which, sadly, keeps worsening." Millions of Zimbabwe's people need food aid, and a cholera epidemic has sharpened problems in a country once considered Africa's breadbasket. Suffering also continues in the war-ravaged region of Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Darfur, the pope added. In Somalia, people are weighed down with "interminable sufferings" as "the tragic consequences of the lack of stability and peace," he said. The girl at left is happy about something but we don't know what.

Going downhill

From the New York Times of December 25: “Much as Chanel and Dior and YSL carried on as luxury concerns well after the deaths of their namesakes, no American label seemed better poised to persevere in the absence of its founder than Bill Blass did. Blass changed things for designers on Seventh Avenue, who used to toil in the relative obscurity of its backrooms. By the sheer force of his talent and wit, he brought glamour to the job, and, by the 1990s, was so famous that his company had more than 40 licenses with annual sales of $500 million of Bill Blass products. There is no shortage of explanations for the label’s demise. There was an aging clientele, a management that seemed to take a freewheeling approach to the brand and its failure to find a successor who could match the Blass persona. (Blass died in 2002) Ultimately, NexCen, the new owner, blamed the economic climate. Without warning, NexCen announced in May (2008) that there was “substantial doubt” that it would remain in business. At Blass, fabric bills went unpaid. For the Bill Blass collection to fail in such an ugly way strikes many of those involved in the company as an especially cruel fate for a designer who made the profession seem so dazzling.” All this goes to show that bad management can drive a good business – even a great country – into the ground. The woman at left may be a former Bill Blass model, who knows? She may be one of the casualties of the failed business.

Recession???

I stopped by Target, Wal-Mart, and JC Penney this afternoon to do some last minute shopping. The parking lots were full to the gills, filled to the rafters, standing room only inside. Many shelves were bare. So, I asked myself - where is this recession that economists keep talking about??? Maybe everywhere else except here? Washington should put a commission together to look into this mystery. I did notice the price of gas is at $1.60 now. That much is true, but everything else is still expensive. Where is the deflation I keep hearing about? The woman at left must be smiling because her unemployment check is huge? Or she has a very rich husband? I have no clue.

Celebrations

This makes perfect sense to me. From Tom Dyson: “The Fed has aimed its printing press at the real estate market. The government thinks the falling real estate market is driving the recession and the credit crunch. If it can get the real estate market rising again, it thinks it'll be able to beat deflation and solve all our problems. So any signs of life in the real estate market will validate the Fed's strategy and generate a burst of optimism in the stock market. As I've been reminding you over the past month, the Fed's strategy is absurd. The best way to get prices rising again is to let them fall. The housing market needs to find the price where buyers and sellers meet. The more money the government throws at the market, the longer it'll take for prices to find their true equilibrium and the more time we'll be stuck in a recession.” The woman at left is waiting for us to act responsibly, so please hurry.

Geiger counter

Do you believe this? “Right now, there are only 10 stocks worth trading. Just ten. out of 5,600 stocks. That's because the rules of money are changing. And the only companies worth looking at are the ones that are following the new rules. Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald knows the only 10 stocks you should invest in right now. He's developed a proprietary system that reveals their future price movements-right down to the penny - with a 95% accuracy rating. It's called The Geiger Index. Keith has spent more than 10 years perfecting this technique, and now he wants to share it with you. To find out how you can use it to your full advantage, take a look at the below report.” Baloney. If he knew that much, he would be Warren Buffet. He makes money selling the report, not buying stocks. PLEASE. The girl at left is saying something like "Convince me."

I.O.U.S.A. what???

From an ad I recently read: "At last, here's how you can own the award-winning I.O.U.S.A. documentary FREE on DVD... over a month before it's even available to the general public! It's my gift to you, and it's also just the beginning of what you'll get in our new "Emergency 'Personal Bailout' Bundle" — also FREE — which shows you... What a sham the bailout is, how we got here, and what happened to the America we used to know. How to rescue your retirement with up to 78 personal "bailout" checks instead, paid direct to your account over the next 24 months. And how to salvage the financial security of your children, your grandchildren and America itself." So, you think this is free??? Nope. Nothing is free. If you follow the ad until the very end - it is extremely long and wordy and repetitive and wordy and long (written for persons who have nothing better to do), you will discover that you will be pitched a report on how to get out from having to pay taxes to support the government. If you don't pay taxes, how will that salvage the financial security of America? It is sad and funny at the same time. I don't see the girl on the left laughing. She is sort of asking something like "What's all this about?"

Lesson learned?

From an investor advisory letter: “A lot of people are wondering if there is anything at all good that will come from the financial crisis. Call me naïve if you like or even an eternal optimist, but I think so, beginning with the following: A regulatory overhaul leading to pro-active regulation: With regard to the financial markets, I believe that we will see new mechanisms designed to monitor problems before they get out of control. Some of that will include more transparent valuations and mark-to-market rules, but the lion's share will likely focus on the credit extension problems that have largely created this mess on a variety of levels. What's more, history suggests these changes will stand in stark contrast to Alan Greenspan's repeated refusals to crack down on sub-prime lending practices and his hesitation to impose regulations on derivatives that have figured so prominently in the current meltdown.” I disagree – I think people will always be greedy and irresponsible. In the meantime, Greenspan sits comfortably in his easy chair. Despite his old age, he is not wise. The woman at left probably has no opinion on the matter – she is simply waiting for us to act responsibly, PLEASE.

Whom do you blame?

From a popular investment newsletter: “Underlying the credit crisis gripping the U.S. and world economies is a crisis of confidence. Blame has been laid at the feet of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and an investment bankers’ brew of toxic financial products. Ultimately, however, it was the supposedly trustworthy rating agencies that got everyone to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid. The sheer fraud and greed of rating agency analysts and executives is staggering. That no one has gone to jail, and none of the agencies have been shut down is a travesty of justice on an infinitely larger scale than Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Until depositors, bankers and investors regain confidence in the quality of ratings we rely upon to measure financial stability and creditworthiness, the tremors that underlie the credit crisis will drag on indefinitely.” I have to say I agree with this quote 100%. Let us pray that the Food and Drug Administration is not currupt on the same scale. Just imagine. I don't know who that is on the left but I know she is not an investment analyst. But, if she were, it would make absolutely no difference to anyone.