Forrest Fenn

Nobody has said that they have found the Fenn Treasure in New Mexico so I guess there's still time for me to formulate a theory about where it is and go look for it. I just might be right. What have I got to lose? I live almost next door. 

British Petroleum

From a recent news story: “NEW YORK – Nearly seven miles below the Gulf of Mexico, oil company BP has tapped into a vast pool of crude after digging the deepest oil well in the world. The Tiber Prospect is expected to rank among the largest petroleum discoveries in the United States, potentially producing half as much crude in a day as Alaska's famous North Slope oil field. The company's chief of exploration on Wednesday estimated that the Tiber deposit holds between 4 billion and 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which includes natural gas. That would be enough to satisfy U.S. demand for crude for nearly one year. But BP does not yet know how much it can extract.” I find this rather scary. Drilling that deeply into the Earth’s crust – does that not harm the environment somehow? I do not know, but I have a funny feeling about this. I don't think this topless woman likes it either.

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.

Climate change

This is from a recent news story on Yahoo! "If the world's nations act responsibly, Stern said, they will achieve "zero-carbon" electricity production and zero-carbon road transport by 2050 — by replacing coal power plants with wind, solar or other energy sources that emit no carbon dioxide, and fossil fuel-burning vehicles with cars running on electric or other "clean" energy. Then warming could be contained to a 2-degree-Celsius (3.4-degree-Fahrenheit) rise this century, he said. But if negotiators falter, if emissions reductions are not made soon and deep, the severe climate shifts and sea-level rises projected by scientists would be "disastrous." It would "transform where people can live," Stern said. "People would move on a massive scale. Hundreds of millions, probably billions of people would have to move if you talk about 4-, 5-, 6-degree increases" — 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. And that would mean extended global conflict, "because there's no way the world can handle that kind of population move in the time period in which it would take place." Maybe we should have known this fifty years ago???

Scary

The market is down - much further than I ever thought it would go. 8,000 would be the bottom - so I thought not too long ago. It's right now hovering around 7,300. It is really scary to see how scared investors are. What are they doing? Buying gold and pharmaceuticals and bonds and nothing else? What if this really turns into a depression? Then, to make matters worse, there is plenty of uncertainty in the global political sphere - wars and conflicts all over the place - Israel, Korea, Pakistan, Iran, and Africa in general, just to name five. What do you do with so many belligerent nations? There is definitely a scarcity of good government. Sooner or later, some one will tire of all this confusion and insecurity and urge a joining of strong forces - the reunification of church and state. That's the only thing that will keep unruly people in line. Europe will make a sharp turn to the right and probably catch everyone by surprise. The U.S. will simply keep playing games. Buy a house in Europe or Brazil or Argentina and good luck.

Frostbite

From Yahoo! News: “MONTPELIER, Vt. – The cold wave that stunned the nation's midsection expanded into the Northeast on Wednesday with subzero temperatures and biting wind that kept even some winter sports fans at home. The wind chill hit 33 below zero during the night at Massena, N.Y., and the National Weather Service predicted actual temperatures nearly that low in parts of the region by Thursday night. Winter-hardened people across northern New England bundled up amid warnings about how fast exposed skin can freeze. "Anyone who sends their kid out today is out of the running for parent of the year," said Eric Friedman, a spokesman for Mad River Glen ski area in Fayston, Vt. A frostbite caution sign was posted at the ticket office, but few skiers were there to see it because of the 5-below-zero cold, Friedman said.” When I lived up there, I went out for a stroll in 10 below zero weather. My walk lasted all of two minutes. This woman, of course, doesn't care - she lives in Puerto Rico.

Old Age remedies 2

From an article on Yahoo!: “New research reveals that two of the most boring-sounding personality traits can actually help you live a healthier, happier and longer life. It turns out that people who are ambitious and disciplined live up to four years longer than more impulsive folks. A study from the University of California at Riverside found that conscientious types--the kind of people who have their nose to the grindstone and always pay their bills right on time (or early!)--are more likely to have stable relationships and are less tempted by health-dampening drugs, alcohol and other risky behaviors. People who were less conscientious were 50 percent more likely to die at any given age, on average, than those who were highly conscientious. Order and achievement were the top two traits associated with having a long life, but that doesn't mean that you have to be a snooze to reach the ripe old age of 100. "Conscientious does not mean boring or humorless," said lead study author Howard Friedman. Want to boost your conscientiousness? Surround yourself with friends who are good influences and consider investing in a day planner or an online calendar to stay organized.” How about people who take Yahoo! articles seriously? This woman looks like she’ll live to be 99.

He needs the money

From a Yahoo! News story: CHICAGO – "Gov. Rod Blagojevich was out jogging in Chicago as lawmakers in Springfield voted to impeach him. Upon returning from his jog, he likened his situation to long-distance running. Blagojevich refused to answer any specific questions about the 114-1 vote by which the House impeached him Friday. But he said: "Let me simply say I feel like the old Alan Sillitoe short story 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.' ... And that's what this is by the way, a long-distance run." He then promised to say more at an afternoon news conference. Earlier Friday, the 52-year-old Democrat emerged from his home in a black jogging suit and berated the media for bothering his neighbors before heading out on a jog. He now faces a Senate trial. If convicted, he'll be removed from office." What if he doesn't want to leave? I'm betting it will take at least a year to get him out. If he had a sense of shame or a good job waiting for him, he would be gone already. Someone please find this man an alternative job. You cannot find him a sense of shame - he is, after all, a politician. This woman is saying something like "What are you looking at?"

Cinco minutos

I know you’ve been wondering which Symphony Orchestras are the best in the world. I can help you with that. This is my own order of preference: Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Paris Conservatoire, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. I cannot go into why I chose these but I can tell you I gave the list some thought – about two minutes’ worth. When you’re an expert at something, you don’t need to re-think your biases too much, no? That, by the way, is the best concert hall in the world, too. Take my word.

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."

Old Age remedies

This is a picture of Bettie Paige when she was young and beautiful. She used to be a pinup model and a centerfold. She's dead now. She died recently at age 85. She was probably quite wrinkled and frail. It's nothing to be ashamed of but we should also not try to put a pretty face on old age - old people are not attractive and they certainly are not healthy. Old age is a curse. A big one. You die after that. People forget about you. There is no use in calling old age the "golden years" and the age at which wisdom is acquired - baloney. 99% of old people will trade you their wisdom for a young and healthy body any day. You can take acai berries and yogurt and vitamins and goji juice and ginseng and green tea and anything else you want. There's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all, but you will still get old and weak. Until there's a cure, stay as healthy as you can - please. Good luck.

Bankruptcy Prediction

From a popular investor newsletter: "This Friday, Dec. 12th, the next stage of the financial crisis will begin. That's when one of America's biggest businesses (they operate in 44 states), will undoubtedly declare bankruptcy. How can I be so sure it will happen on Friday, December 12th? Two words: Un-payable debt. You see, the company I'm talking about, which is the 2nd biggest in its industry, and is headquartered in Chicago, has until Friday, December 12th at midnight to pay back a $900 MILLION loan. In the current market, this amount of debt is lethal. The company is currently paying over $1 billion per year in interest expenses to finance their debt—that's MORE THAN THEIR OPERATING INCOME. (That's like having a mortgage payment that's bigger than your entire paycheck.) There is absolutely no way the company can make this $900 million payment or raise this kind of money." Unfortunately, we are never told who it is although I remember reading a financial report a few days ago regarding this company, I don't remember who it was. It deals in commodities. In honor of black Friday, a black violin.

YOGURT

I had never heard of this product though it's been on the market for about eighty years. I guess it takes time for news to travel this far. After all, it took Columbus three months to cross the Atlantic. If you research this brand name yogurt and like it, let me know - I might buy it, depending on the price. I have a hunch it's probably expensive. This quote is from its website: "With its fuller, richer taste and ridiculously thick texture, FAGE Total yogurt has been incredibly successful in the U.S. That’s why the company has invested nearly 85 million dollars in an all-new, state-of-the-art production facility in Johnstown, NY, about 200 miles northwest of New York City. " Maybe we'll all end up as slender as the girl next door.

Hemlines and the Economy 2

As I have said before - if you want to know what the economy is up to, look at hemlines. This woman and her husband are taking a nice stroll - they are not worried about deflation and neither should you. Here is an article (which I condensed) taken from an investor advisory newsletter. I'm posting it because I agree with what it says, although most economists don't. By Martin Hutchinson: "The U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) both fell in October. Those declines – combined with sharp downward spirals in worldwide stock and commodity prices – have caused many analysts, and even central bankers, to worry that we are on the brink of deflation.
Such concerns may be warranted in the short-term. But in the long run, deflation won’t be the challenge we face.
Thanks to an overly aggressive central bank, and more than $1.5 trillion in U.S. Treasury Department bailout programs – as well as other factors related to the ongoing global financial crisis – inflation will be the problem that ultimately bedevils us.
As long as oil and commodity prices drop, the PPI and CPI indices, which include oil and commodity prices, also will fall. Such a decline, however, does not constitute deflation; it is simply a one-time price adjustment. This is particularly true if most of the commodity-price declines are simply a reversal of excessive increases that had occurred over the previous year. That’s essentially what we’ve been seeing here. However, the deflation believers currently have an additional argument: With output in the United States plunging, and the stock market down around 50% from its October 2007 peak, there are very few pressures pushing prices upward. ... this, however, will not turn into deflation, unless the recession is exceptionally prolonged. Currently, output and employment are dropping very sharply, as is the stock market. This cannot continue for more than a few months – the latest being perhaps late spring of the New Year. As output declines, forces pushing it towards recovery will become stronger and equilibrium will appear." If you can buy 100,000 shares of any safe, conservative stock, do so, while the price is still low.

Lilli Ewing

Lilli Ewing is a champion bodybuilder and a trainer. Bodybuilders are like other athletes - they must put in hours of daily exercise to get in shape. Like swimmers and pole vaulters and boxers and wrestlers and sprinters and gymnasts - they compete against other athletes in the same physical discipline. They create a living sculpture out of their bodies - which amazes me. The human body is an unrivaled piece of machinery. No two sports are the same so the body must be trained and developed according to the particular sport.

Work it Out

Work is movement. Don't be inert. Just move. Even rich people work - most of them anyway. Paloma Picasso may not need the money but she has worked practically all her life - she needs to work. She will forever be known as the daughter of the famous painter but she works anyway. She does not paint - she designs stuff like jewelry and perfumes and fashion accessories. Learn from her example. She's fifty nine and still working.

Bottom

This quote is from some publication - don't ask me which one - maybe Yahoo. "I don't think anyone can say we've reached the bottom yet," said Chuck Gabriel, managing director of Capital Alpha Partners in Washington. "It's going to be a very gloomy Christmas." Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, said that "for investors to get more confidence, we need to know details" of the new administration's plans to handle the crisis. "There's been a vacuum of leadership" she added, "and when that happens, you get fear and rumors, and then people sell." It came from about two weeks ago. These people know nothing. They panic just like everyone else. Even their guesses are half-hearted. They are too scared to stick their necks out and say something concrete. I think what I said was that the market had already hit bottom - it's time to start buying. You can have a different opinion, of course, but at least state it - don't be a marshmallow when you talk - please.

Blue Lips

So, ...the market finally bottomed. I predicted this. The world's top economists kept saying the market might hit bottom in about six months. They are all so wishy-washy. I said one to two months at most. It is Friday but not Friday the 13th. If it were, people would be more panicky than they already are. Courage is in very short supply nowadays. Now is the time to start having a good time. Prices are coming down - gasoline is a lot cheaper, too. There was this Harvard economist on NPR trying to explain why deflation is a bad thing. He just beat around the bush for ten minutes and didn't say a thing. Enjoy falling prices while they last.

Microsoft shares

As I've been saying for many weeks now, buying is fun.... This is an abbreviated article from an everyday investor newsletter. Enjoy....

By Porter Stansberry: As longtime readers of my advisory can tell you, I haven't been bullish on the stock market in years. In fact, for the last couple years, I've been warning that stocks, in general, were vastly overpriced. Investors were too complacent. They had too little fear. It turns out that was very close to a huge top in asset prices. Stocks, bonds, commodities, foreign currencies all peaked over the next several months. It was easy to see this peak coming with three key points: the number of stocks trading at reasonable prices, the amount of insider buying in the stock market, and the spread between emerging-market bonds and U.S. Treasury bonds. Reviewing these key data points today shows we're building an important bottom in stock prices. And it's why I'm telling everyone I know that this is one of the great buying opportunities of the last 30 years. Looking through the list of cheap stocks, several great businesses jump out: ExxonMobil, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, etc. Any reasonable evaluation of the market would find plenty of safe and cheap stocks... thousands more than you would have found a year ago at the market's peak. What about insiders? Brian Heyliger covers insider buying and selling for my firm Stansberry Research. He follows corporate insiders on a full-time basis. Throughout this bear market, the ratio of buys to sells has been steadily increasing. In June, the ratio was in the high thirties – anything over 35% is bullish. But since then, the ratio doubled, hitting 63% in October... a level I've never seen before. What about that lack of fear? My favorite measure of fear is the spread between emerging-market debt and U.S. Treasury debt – the so-called "risk spread." Institutional investors consider U.S. Treasuries a "risk-free" asset. Emerging markets have much lower credit ratings, higher inflation, and a much greater risk of defaulting on their debts. Investors normally demand much higher interest rates from emerging-market economies. But... in big bull markets, near the very top, investors become so complacent, they begin to assume holding emerging-market debt is tantamount to holding U.S. Treasuries. Looking back historically, you can see this spread is a great indicator of global tops and bottoms in stock prices. In about a year, we've moved from a period of complete complacency to absolute terror. Paradoxically – and this is hard for most people to understand – you want to be a buyer of equities when everyone else is panicking. None of these factors mean that stocks have to go up or that they will. No one can predict the future – but you don't have to be perfectly right to do very well in the market. Yes, our economy is struggling right now with huge problems. Enormous risks threaten America's leadership in the world, the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency, our energy supplies, the rule of law in this country, etc. But all of these risks – all of them – existed a year ago, when stocks were almost 100% higher, on average. And all of these risks will exist 10 years from now, when stocks have gone up three or four times from their averages now. To do well as an investor, you have to buy when stocks are cheap. And stocks only get cheap when most investors are afraid. So you have two choices: You can r refuse to invest in stocks, or you can learn to buy stocks heavily when their prices offer you a reward for taking smart risks. That moment is right now. END OF ARTICLE

You might recognize the lady at the left - she didn't need to buy stocks, she used to own Monaco.

Impulse buying

I have this advertisement from something called Green Mountain Coffee. It's one of those gourmet coffee distributors. Nothing wrong with that, of course. They offer a Keurig brand coffeemaker that brews one cup of coffee at $99.95. The coffeemaker is specially designed to accept one-cup packets. The company offers to send you $23.00 worth of packets provided you purchase the brewer. Shipping is free. I already have two brewers (one is still new), but my buying impulses still tell me I should buy. That's not the brewer, of course - it's the Hammer Stradivarius. You can't buy that on impulse unless you've got $3,853,211.00 cash.