Wednesday, December 17, 2008

J D Souther

Last night Toni and I saw one of the best concerts. J D Souther returned to LA for two performances, Friday at McCabes Guitar in Santa Monica where we saw him 20 years ago and last night at Largo at the Coronet on La Cienega in Hollywood. For two hours, JD told stories and sang his great songs which have been hits for Eagles, Dixie Chicks, Linda Rondstandt. With Jackson Browne, Irving Azoff, Timothy B. Schmidt and many other LA music scene "weights" in small intimate audience we felt very special sitting in the 4th row. As friends of mine know, I used to hang out with JD back in the day just as his solo career and Eagles were getting started. One night, I was invited by my high school mate, Alexa Bodrero to a small dinner party at her friend Linda Rondstadt's house near the Hollywood Bowl and I walked in to see JD there (realizing that they were a couple). He invited me to rehearsals and early recording sessions for his first solo LP.

Video - Chico and Harpo Marx

I've always loved the zaniness of the Marx brothers and here's a clip of Chico playing piano and Harpo playing the harp . . . . really good stuff.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ponzi Schemes

Now is the Madoff affair. Every-time you invest in a partnership, you are taking a leap of faith that it's a legal entity which will return your investment to you. Most of the time, funds and partnerships are honest but occasionally they aren't and you never know until it's too late. Be careful out there. click here

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Building Highway 1 through Big Sur


Just inside the Monterey County line on the magnificent Big Sur coast lies a section of Highway 1 and during the 30's when it was constructed by convict labor from Alcatraz the convicts were housed in camps, one of which is Kirk Creek campground on a bluff overlooking some of the most incredible coastal views anywhere.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

John Jacob Astor - who was he?

The original founder of the Astor fortune was John Jacob Astor (1763-1884). John Jacob Astor was born in Walldorf, Duchy of Baden (Germany) from a Jewish bloodline. His original financial break came by carrying out a series of shady and crooked real estate deals in the N.Y. city area.

The next breakcame when two men who are now known to have been in the Illuminati gave John Jacob Astor a special government privilege. The two men were President Jefferson and Secretary Gallatin--both Illuminati members. The United States government had placed an embargo on all U.S. ships from sailing with goods in 1807. But Astor got special permission from these two men for his ship to sail with its cargo. His ship sailed and made close to a $200,000 profit in that day’s money. Astor strangely profited greatly from the War of 1812, which crippled almost all the other American shippers. Prior to 1817, John Jacob Astor entered into the fur trade and remained the biggest player in the fur trade until he got out of it in 1834. Over the years, he had managed to build up a monopoly. How he managed to push everyone else out is a good question.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Are you a fisherman?

Want to know where the Dept of Fish Game is planting trout in California? click here

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Great quote . . .

"Don Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news immediately."

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The strange case of the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Yukon

When American surveyors got around to checking boundaries between Canada and US territories in 1869 they found that the Hudson Bay Company's post at Fort Yukon was in fact in Alaska! Kind of embarrassing so an agreement was worked out whereby the company and it's employees would simply move the store a few miles east to get them back onto Canadian soil . . . . ahem, the team of American's and Canadians did a good job of moving the post the number of miles calculated to accomplish the task but unfortunately they did it along the bank of the Porcupine River, not as the crow flies . . . the new store was setup and operating when along came a new set of surveyors who found they were still on American soil. What a mess . . . . so they moved again and left Old Rampart to begin again at Rampart House safely on Canadian soil. Learn more about the HBC click here

Monday, December 08, 2008

So you like beer eh?

I brew my own beer, yes I love homebrewed beer, nothing better and very cost efficient. For 5 gallons of amber pale ale, it cost me about $30. For a really good website all about beer, check out Here's to Beer click here

Unemployment Reality

The NY Times reports . . .

“The number of people out of the labor force — meaning that they were neither working nor looking for work and that the government did not consider them unemployed — jumped by 637,000 last month, the Labor Department said. The number of part-time workers who said they wanted full-time work — all counted as fully employed — rose by an additional 621,000.

Already, the share of men older than 20 with jobs was at its lowest point last month since 1983, and very close to the low point of the last 60 years. The share of women with jobs is lower than it was eight years ago, which never happened in previous decades.”

Noblesse Oblige

The English principle of having the moral obligation to act honorably and generously toward those around you, typically for noblemen . . . but it seems like a good idea to me for everyone to adopt the idea.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Video - Laurel and Hardy clip another one

I think these guys were so funny, here they are figuring out how to be bandits.

Baltic Dry Index

Do you know what this is? Baltic Dry Index: (contracts to ship commodities over the seas in the future) may break 700 tomorrow, down from 12.6k. This is a very good barometer of future economic activity worldwide.

Check the chart of this very telling index click here

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Bob Dylan borrowed from the Carter Family library

The Carter Family Song "Wayworn Traveller" was covered by a young Bob Dylan, who wrote his own words to the melody and named it "Paths Of Victory".

The need for narratives (or stories)

Yes, in a sane world, the fundamentals would be more important than the sound bite. In a more sustainable world, this would be the case. Yet, in the world as it exists today and actually operates, this isn't so clearly or confidently answered.

Media, we know, emphasize 'the narrative'. "The Narrative", in turn, tends to demand reduction to sound bites -- and, also, tends to play out the story to its conclusion. In that sense, the 'narratives' preferred by media have a kind of 'scoop' quality to them -- the hope that those crafting the narrative have 'scooped' the future by telling us what the future will bring.

Unfortunately, narratives are not that helpful when trying to decide on what to do or how to formulate a plan. Why? Because you never know the motivation behind the narrative writer nor whether they have done the proper research to represent what really happened accurately. CBK

Friday, December 05, 2008

Word of the Year - - - - bailout

The word “bailout,” which shot to prominence amid the financial meltdown, was looked up so often at Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary that the publisher says it was an easy choice for its 2008 Word of the Year.

The velocity of money

The velocity of money (how fast a dollar moves through the economy) is slowing rather dramatically. It could fall another 10% and just get back to the average for the last 107 years. Given the growth in population, inflation, productivity, and other factors, the money supply will need to grow by 7% annually for the next several years to keep the economy at equilibrium. GDP (gross domestic product) is essentially the velocity of money times the supply of money. If the velocity slows down, the money supply needs to rise just to stay even.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Tanta's passing

The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio. Tanta used her extensive knowledge of the loan industry to comment, castigate and above all instruct. Her fans ranged from the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who cited her in his blog, to analysts at the Federal Reserve, who cited her in a paper on “Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit.”

Click here

President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board

is to be headed by former Fed Chief Paul Volcker.

The WSJ noted today that the panel is “modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board established by then-President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, at the height of the Cold War, when officials worried that that the existing bureaucratic structure was inadequate to help the U.S. keep pace with the Soviet threat. The financial crisis has drawn similar worries that the government isn’t properly organized to monitor and respond to modern financial markets.”

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Rental Foreclosure info

If you're a renter and are wondering whether your landlord is in foreclosure you can get some help at this website Rental Foreclosure . . . click here

Monday, December 01, 2008

The art of receiving a gift

The first thing you can do to feel better when someone gives you a gift is to realize that the giver put effort into thinking of a gift for you by going through the process if finding and buying it, or perhaps in making the gift. Don’t feel guilty when you think of this! But realize that no one made the giver think of giving a gift and no one made her go out and get it. She chose to do this herself. Many people enjoy the whole gift giving process. So the whole time, up to and including the point when they gave you their gift, they’ve been doing something pleasant and enjoying themselves.

Next, remember that a gift is a way for someone to express appreciation or affection. People usually give a gift as a token of appreciation, or as a way to say they care or they love you. It feels good to tell people pleasant happy things like “I think you’re swell.” The giver is enjoying being able to share his feelings with you. Yes, just as it is sometimes hard to hear someone thank us for something we did, it can be hard to accept a gift. But while we might be feeling uncomfortable, that discomfort might be decreased if we remind ourselves that the other person is merely telling us they like and/or appreciate us.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The National Debt Clock is ticking . . . or is it?

The National Debt Clock in New York City ran out of digits in September as the figure ticked over $10,000,000,000,000.

Friday, November 28, 2008

on the drug war front - - - another failure

Mexico accused it's former drug czar last week of taking $450K from a cartel he was supposed to destroy, going public with a scandal that deals a serious blow to the country's US backed drug war. Noe Ramirez is the highest ranking law enforcement official detained yest as part of a Mexico's sweeping effort to weed out officials who allegedly shared police information with violent drug smugglers.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving


Once again we enjoy a proud family tradition in America by gathering with family and friends for great food and give thanks for all that we have and the special privilege of living in the USA.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Libya is becoming a democracy

Libya says it intends to open a new chapter in relations with the US by investing some of it's $100 billion sovereign wealth fund in US companies and sending thousands of students to study in the US. Hmmmmmm why does this sound . . . strange? Neither of those activities sounds like anything other than self serving. The son of the one man ruler of Libya said he expects a constitution providing for democratic elections to be adopted by September 2009 (the 40th anniversary of the 1969 revolution). Blah Blah Blah Blah

Monday, November 24, 2008

Video - Laurel and Hardy clip

In this clip, Stan shows Oliver how to play Neezy Eezy Nozy . . . .

GM and Tiger split

The path to salvation is truly underway at General Motors, today the beleaguered auto company searching for any way to save some cash severed it's relationship with Tiger Woods (or was it Tiger who severed his relationship with a tired old deadbeat company that can't compete anymore? . . . you decide).

Video - Lawrence Lessig on The Problem

Lawrence Lessig, professor of Law at Stanford University during an interview with Charlie Rose last week described the state of the US Economy and here is the video

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Downey Savings and Loan - - - - GONE!

When we first bought a home in Manhattan Beach in 1976, Downey S & L was our lender. Back then we used to send our monthly check to . . . . . . Downey S & L. They survived through the S&L crisis of the 80's but not the 2008 one. US Bancorp has taken over Downey S & L. It was the 23rd largest in the US with deposits of $9.7 billion. This brings to "22" the number of bank failures this year.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Dividend Yields

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 is now greater than the yield on the 10-year Treasury. That hasn’t happened since 1958.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Continuing unemployment claims are now at roughly 3.5 million individuals. Let's assume that each week we lose an average of 400,000 jobs (last week the government reported 540,000). That is 20 million jobs a year. That means the US economy for the last year has created 16.5 million jobs (very roughly). So there is some robustness in the economy even as we slide deeper into recession.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Late Day Rally attributed to beer . . . . BUD that is

Index funds, which represent about 10 percent of the stock market, ``got $5 billion from owning BUD.'' BUD is the ticker symbol for Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser beer. ``The stock that was added was a $500 million weight, so about $4.5 billion has to be put to work,'' said Buek. ``That money was spent across the other 499 names. To perfectly track the close, you'd want to put the $4.5 billion to work on the close.''

Monday, November 17, 2008

Flat Tax, Tort Reform and Term Limits

4 years ago Bill Fleckenstein wrote . . . "I think the party that has won, in this case the Republicans, might want to be careful what they wish for, in that both the stock and real-estate bubbles will unwind on their watch, with them in full control of the House, the Senate, the presidency and the governorships.

"Perhaps we'll all get lucky and the Republican Party will decide to pursue a flat tax, tort reform, and term limits -- the three major areas of reform which I believe could help the country become more competitive and help extricate us from the horrible fix that I see us in. However, if they continue the pork-barrel politics of the last four years, I would think that next go-round, the Republicans will be bounced from office after people's hopes are dashed in the upcoming economic turmoil."

Friday, November 14, 2008

The Nina

Christopher Columbus favorite sailing ship, La Nina was lost many centuries ago but one has been rebuilt to exact specifications and is touring. The ship is moored here in Morro Bay for two weeks but you can learn more about her here

Common Sense Quotient

Each month Bill Gross (PIMCO) posts his investment outlook at the PIMCO website, it's mandatory reading at the Kincaid Hardwood Company office for all staff. This month's is good for anyone just starting out in there career . . . . click here

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Credit Mobilier - the first great lobbying effort

Credit Mobilier was a company organized by George Francis Train, the vice-president in charge of publicity for the Union Pacific Railroad Company for the construction of the westward portion of the transcontinental railroad. It was the first limited liability company. Shares of CM were given away to congressmen to influence their votes in favor of the UP in it's efforts. The scandal broke and the collapse of CM caused great financial losses.

click here for more

after reading Stephen Ambrose's "Nothing Like It in the World" I wrote the song CPRR, you can hear it at this link click here then click on CPRR (Central Pacific Rail Road)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Video - Fargo favorite scene

The movie Fargo is iconic for many reasons but one is the portrayal of the Minnesota/North Dakota culture. No scene in the movie does it better than this one . . . . . enjoy.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Veterans Day - show your appreciation to a vet

Take the time to email, write or say thanks to a veteran today. click here for the history of this celebration and ask someone else to do so too.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Wisdom Book

My friend Dan Dominy sent me this link and it's a winner click here

Friday, November 07, 2008

Back in 2005 I posted . . .

I was reviewing some of my oldest posts to this blog and found this from February 2005 . . . .

Today I noted with great interest that CALPERS has decided that it's time to "cash in on real estate profits". They are liquidating 207 industrial buildings, 97 shopping centers and 22 office properties. We're talking some massive selling. The other side of the coin is that all of the property is being gobbled up by investors dying to get into real estate. Now this doesn't having anything to do with housing but it is an interesting occurrence.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Yes We Can

My favorite part of Obama's speech last night . . .


Good Morning on the day after . . . nice thoughts from my friend Steve See

"Either we have hope within us or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. . . . Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. . . . Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. . . . It is also this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now."

- Vaclav Havel

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

Many of you know I'm re reading Hunter Thompson's classic from the '72 campaign during which he covered McGovern, Lindsay and Muskie. Here's a funny excerpt . . . .

"They ran a very tight ship. Nixon rarely appeared, and when he did nobody in the press corps ever got within ten feet of him, except now and then by special appointment for cautious interviews. Getting assigned to cover Nixon in '68 was like being sentencedd to six months in a Holiday Inn. It never occurred to me that anything could be worse than getting stuck on another Nixon campaign, so it came as a definite shock to find that hanging around Florida with Ed Muskie was even duller and more depressing than traveling with Evil Dick himself."

Monday, November 03, 2008

unfunded liability on defined-benefit pension plans

There is one more shoe to drop, and it is a biggie. Stock portfolios, individual retirement accounts and 401(k)s have taken dives. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is down 35% since Jan. 1. There is one more major component of this country's wealth that will not be reported until late February or early March: the unfunded liability on defined-benefit pension plans.

According to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s Web site, 44 million Americans are counting on collecting retirement payments from defined-benefit pension plans. The maximum payment you can get from them if your corporation cannot meet its obligation to you is $51,744. If you are an airline pilot, engineer, senior vice president or chief financial officer thinking you will get a $75,000- to $150,000-a-year pension, you may be in for a rude awakening.

There's no reason to think that your pension plan hasn't lost as much as the stock market. From the estimates I've been reading, by the year's end there will be a $200 billion to $250 billion unfunded pension liability that will have to be made up. That will be $250 billion that will be sucked from net earnings of those companies that last and recover, and smaller pensions for the employees that work for a company that won't make it through this recession.

Do not look for the economy to recover until this $250 billion problem has been solved and you begin to see increases in gross domestic product and corporate earnings. The worst may be over, but I don't expect a meaningful recovery before at least the end of next year's second quarter.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Bill Fleckenstein's take on the future of jobs . . .

it isn't pretty but I believe he's really onto something. I have been asking for a long time "what is going to drive the next economy?"

To review the point that I made in Chapter 7 of my book "Greenspan's Bubbles" and in many columns: In the past expansion, economic growth was almost entirely about real estate. Gross-domestic-product growth, excluding mortgage-equity extraction, was almost nonexistent. In addition, when you consider that 30% to 40% of all jobs were real-estate-oriented, it's clear how hollow the economy is liable to be going forward.

Considering the capital destruction and the credit contraction now under way, I have a hard time seeing where the new jobs will come from to handle all the layoffs that are going to take place. Given that lots of marginal businesses have survived on consumers' wild spending, many of them will not make it as folks retrench aggressively. That's on top of all the carnage in anything related to real estate or finance. click here for more

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Micro Credit

Let's hear it for Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in India and one of the originators of the micro credit movement.

you can learn about micro credit here

and Grameen Bank here

Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Martin Luther Day

Yeah, I know it's Halloween but it's also the day that Martin Luther nailed up his 95 theses on the church to let the Catholic Pope (Holy See) know that selling indulgences was a bad thing among others. The Reformation began shortly thereafter.

We do Luther a great disservice if we see him today as a destroyer and an anarchist. Rather, history shows us a man deeply concerned with the state of his own soul and equally concerned over a Church that had become too encrusted with financial and political concerns to do fully the work of God. It was for this reason that Luther sought public discussion on the matters that seemed to him as a cleric most to defile the Church and to leave it most open to ridicule and scorn. He drew up ninety-five distinct points that he found to be in need of amendment and concerning each of which he desired a time of public debate. Then, in a stroke of genius that would do honor to a contemporary media mogul, Luther took his ninety-five propositions or theses to church with him on October 31.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Lower interest rates . . . . hmmmm

Well, the Fed has lowered interest rates again . . . down to 1%. That's great for borrowing costs assuming there is someone out there who wants to loan you money but the bigger question is, "Wasn't it low interest rates that created the subprime/financial meltdown in the first place?" Back in the day when Greenspan kept interest rates really low for a long time, not everyone was happy. Investors in bonds weren't. So the financial engineers started to create instruments that would increase the yields . . . . yes, derivatives, etc. You know how that's turned out.

I just think it's interesting that the solution to the current economic problem on one hand is the hair of the dog.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Goldman Sachs bonus pool

In spite of a implosion in their stock price and financial ruins all around, Goldman Sachs partners are getting ready to become enriched once more . . . . Goldman's profit through the first nine months of its fiscal year was $4.44 billion, down 47 percent from last year's record. The company has set aside $11.4 billion for compensation and benefits this year, down 32 percent from the same time in 2007.

The Real Economy and the Financial Economy

The recent crisis did reveal very clearly about one aspect of how the world works. There are in essence two economies: the real economy, where real goods and services are produced and consumed, and the financial economy, where assets are swapped for investment or speculative purposes. These two economies interact and affect each other, but each requires a unique regulatory framework to support. While government intervention in the real economy is almost always bad, government intervention in the financial economy is almost always necessary. For this reason, I fully agree that we need more regulation in the financial economy, as long as we are careful not to let it spill over to the real economy.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Noam Chomsky on risk taking

on Sept 19, 2008 Chomsky said this to the BBC interviewer . . . .

Markets have inherent and well-known inefficiencies. One factor is failure to calculate the costs to those who do not participate in transactions. These "externalities" can be huge. That is particularly true for financial institutions.

Their task is to take risks, calculating potential costs for themselves. But they do not take into account the consequences of their losses for the economy as a whole.

Hence the financial market "underprices risk" and is "systematically inefficient," as John Eatwell and Lance Taylor wrote a decade ago, warning of the extreme dangers of financial liberalization and reviewing the substantial costs already incurred - and also proposing solutions, which have been ignored.

The threat became more severe when the Clinton administration repealed the Glass-Steagall act of 1933, thus freeing financial institutions "to innovate in the new economy," in Clinton's words -- and also "to self-destruct, taking down with them the general economy and international confidence in the US banking system," financial analyst Nomi Prins adds.

The unprecedented intervention of the Fed may be justified or not in narrow terms, but it reveals, once again, the profoundly undemocratic character of state capitalist institutions, designed in large measure to socialise cost and risk and privatize profit, without a public voice.

That is, of course, not limited to financial markets. The advanced economy as a whole relies heavily on the dynamic state sector, with much the same consequences with regard to risk, cost, profit, and decisions, crucial features of the economy and political system.

to read more about Noam Chomsky click here


The Wild Trout Section on the Kern River


If you ever get a chance to hike up to this amazing stretch of river, do it. Drive through Kernville all the way up to the Johnsondale bridge, park your car and hike on the east side of the river for about an hour and you'll get to this great fishing area.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Where we came from . . .

Genetic evidence suggests that all humans alive today, despite their apparent variety, are descended from a very small population, perhaps between 1,000 and 10,000 breeding pairs about 70,000 years ago.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Oracle's supreme egotist . . . Larry Ellison

Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, the fourth-richest man in America, is drawing criticism from some shareholders for a $72-million pay package that is 12 times bigger than the median pay of chief executives in the technology industry.

Ellison, who proposed the 38% raise and won approval from a committee of board members, is now the second-best-paid CEO of a public company in the U.S. He received about $1.7 million less than Merrill Lynch & Co. chief John Thain did in 2007. Oracle's market value is almost three times Merrill's.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

State of the takeover market

Flash memory maker SanDisk is down 32% after Samsung pulled its $26 per share, or $5.9 billion, bid. SanDisk had previously rejected the offer as too low. Samsung now believes the offer too high given SanDisk's weak third quarter and uncertain outlook.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Ken Kesey on the 60's

"You never get over being a hippie. All that old stuff from the '60s still applies. When somebody accuses me of being a liberal, I say 'thank you. Being merciful, gentle and kind became subversive. What is the other side of that coin? Being cruel? . . . Here's what I've been telling kids who ask if I have a message for today's youth: Be excellent to each other and party on!'"

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Presidents and the Economy

let's take a snarky look at the past few Presidents, and see if we can't figure out the secret to their performance numbers. My best guess is good (or bad) timing:

Bush II: Came into office after 18 year bull market and crash; Arrived after major deregulation (Glass Steagel, Commodities Futures Modernization act) were already fait accomplis, contributing mightily to the credit crisis

Clinton: Arrived post recession, mid 82-00 bull market. Greenspan Put came about in 1997. Got out before most of the wreckage took place.

Bush I: Bad timing everywhere: Recession was ending during re-election campaign, but not yet felt by election data yet. Mistimed the war, patriotic fervor was cooling before re-election.

Reagan: Came into office at the tail end of a 16 year Bear market.

Carter: Arrived post Vietnam, Post Watergate. Malaise. Inflation, oil crisis were rampant.

That smells too much like dumb luck to me.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Making a Fortune from luck, then going about losing

Ask David Weyrich if the thinks he was the one who made the fortune and he'll probably tell you he did but all he really did is benefit from luck . . . huge luck. How? Well, he was born into a family that started and built a huge billboard business and sold it. So, of course, he thinks he's pretty good at business so he starts developing real estate, starts a charter airline business, takes on a ton of debt, etc. and now it's all coming home to roost. He is in the process of trying to sell assets to pay off loans and probably will lose most of his fortune . . . . read more click here

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Separation of Church and State - - - Sarah Palin style

Alaskan Governor Palin is not averse to allowing the Alaskan taxpayers to pick up tabs for her to go off and make appearances at religious gatherings. According to records, she and her family have been the beneficiaries of more than $13,000 in attending 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors since she took office in 2006; she has also billed the state $3,022 for the cost of attending Christian gathersings exclusively to Assembly of God in Wisilla and Juneau. Guess what? She's not alone in this type of behavior, it's happening everywhere.

Not everyone kept what we think they made

Here's an example of one individual who lost big . . . .

XL Capital Ltd. Chairman Brian O'Hara said he was forced to sell about 80 percent of his stake in the Bermuda-based insurer to meet margin calls.

``The forced sale was due to the precipitous drop in XL's share price last week,'' O'Hara said in a statement distributed by PR Newswire today.


``I had pledged those shares as collateral to secure a personal loan used to fund purchases of XL shares in order to avoid the expiration of certain options,'' O'Hara said. ``The sale in no way reflects a lack of confidence in XL's current and future prospects.''

Monday, October 13, 2008

Social Security investing in the S&P 500

If there ever was a time for the SSA to go private, now;s the time to do it. What if it took 10% of it's assets and bought Spyders here?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Ultimate comment

``I don't even want to imagine what might happen'' if the markets react negatively, Klaus-Peter Mueller, head of the German banking association, said earlier today in Washington before the blueprint was unveiled. The market response may be something ``we haven't seen at any stage in our lifetimes.''

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The Ultimate Fallback Postion

an announcement from the G7 Meeting that there is an consensus plan for dealing with the financial crisis but here is the last paragraph of the statement . . . . let's hope it doesn't go there.

No G7 official was sure the plan would work, so deep is the global financial crisis. If it does not, the next steps would be one of two nuclear options: either to guarantee all liabilities of banks, effectively nationalizing the financial system, or for governments to seek to bypass financial institutions by lending direct to companies and households. Officials hope they will not have to contemplate these options.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Comments from Henry Paulson on the G7 meeting

The G-7 will ``provide liquidity to markets, strengthen financial institutions, protect savers and enforce investor protections'' under a ``coherent framework,'' Policy makers will pursue ``robust international partnership and cooperation.''

This relieves me a little but the sooner this gets going the better.

Oil

OPEC will need to reduce production not because the price is currently too low but because there is not enough demand . . . . are we looking at a world wide recession?

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Another comment on predicting (or looking forward)

As observers of historical results, we have the advantage of knowing the end of the story. You don’t know the end of the story when you are in the action. We should not impute the clarity we have looking back, when our need is to look forward.

Credit Crisis - Financial Meltdown in simple terms

from Barry Ritholz at Big Picture blog

To repeat my prior arguments, the proximate cause of the Housing crisis were 1) Ultra-low rates; and 2) Abdication of traditional lending standards, thanks to 3) originators ability to resell mortgages for securitization purposes, and therefore not have to worry about loan defaults.

The credit crisis was caused by 1) the above securitized mortgage paper, that was 2) rated triple AAA by Moody's and Standard & Poors, which then 3) Which was then "insured" by credit default swaps (CDS) -- the unreserved for, shadow insurance products whose exemption was made possible by the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. That legislation exempted these derivatives from any supervision or regulation. The lack of reserve requirements is why there is now $62 trillion in CDS, many of which will never pay their counter parties the promised insurance.

If you are going to blame Fannie/Freddie/CRA, or George Bush or Barney Frank, you are missing the big picture.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

What does the future financial world look like?

From the Financial Times in London . . . . Take a look here

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Bail Out Legislation in detail

If you'd like to read the entire legislation, click here

Friday, October 03, 2008

is the S&P still overpriced?????

The S&P 500, down 25 percent this year, still trades for almost 21 times profit from the past 12 months. Only four of 48 developed and emerging nations tracked by MSCI Inc. -- Switzerland, Jordan, Colombia and Morocco -- have a higher price-to-earnings ratio, according to data compiled by Bloomberg yesterday.

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

Just saw "Jersey Boys" while in Toronto. Great show and the music of the Four Seasons was then and now pretty good. Researching Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio I found this . . . In 1999, when the US performing rights and royalties organization BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) announced its Top 100 Songs of the Century, Can't Take My Eyes Off You landed in the top ten with six million airplays or. BMI calculates one million continuous performances of a song of the average length (3 minutes) as representing 5.7 years of continuous airplay.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Money Market Funds closing / / / / yes

Putnam Investments LLC closed its $12.3 billion institutional Putnam Prime Money Market Fund yesterday and plans to return all cash to investors.

The fund, which was valued yesterday at $1 a share, experienced ``significant redemption pressure,'' the Boston- based company said in a statement. A drop below $1 a share, known as breaking the buck, would have exposed investors to losses.

The fund had no exposure to securities issued by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Washington Mutual Inc. or American International Group Inc., the company said.

Reserve Primary Fund, the oldest U.S. money-market fund, on Sept. 16 became the first in 14 years to break the buck. Investors pulled 60 percent of their money from the $62.6 billion fund on Sept. 15 and 16 before withdrawals were delayed.

Putnam is a unit of Canadian insurer Great-West Lifeco Inc.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

VIX indicates a bottom is very near

Investors paid up for protection from further losses. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index jumped 20 percent to 36.22, the highest closing level since October 2002. The VIX measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500.

Buchon Brothers update

Jim and I have a website now where you can learn about us, our music and upcoming gigs on the Central Coast click here

Monday, September 15, 2008

Don't you love these downgrades???? Their timing is exquisit . . .

Standard & Poor's downgraded the ratings of Washington Mutual Inc. today (2.00, -0.73, -26.7%) and Washington Mutual Bank because of increased market turmoil. Now get real, this company once sold for as much as $47 during the last two years and NOW it gets downgraded?

Capitulation?

Probably not . . . As of Monday evening, for example, the HSNSI (Hulbert Stock Newsletter Sentiment Index) stood at minus 33.2%. Though that suggests that the average short-term timer is bearish, he is not nearly as bearish as on past occasions of capitulation. The all-time low for the HSNSI, for example, is minus 81.8%--or nearly 50 percentage points lower.

Lehman owes . . . .

New York-based Lehman, which filed for protection from creditors today, owes its 10 largest unsecured creditors more than $157 billion, according to the Chapter 11 filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The largest single creditor is Aozora Bank Ltd. in Tokyo, with $463 million in a bank loan. Other top creditors include Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., owed $382 million, and a Citigroup Inc. unit based in Hong Kong, owed an estimated $275 million, according to the filing.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Cubes

an fun site to just amuse yourself click here

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Aaron Sorkin on the internet . . .

"Nothing has done more to make us dumber or meaner than the anonymity of the Internet."

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Buchon Brothers music gets better


Jim Thurman and I, The Buchon Brothers, played 11 songs last Saturday night at a local club in San Luis Obispo (8 of the song were original compositions) and received rave reviews from the audience. It was the first time we've played in front of a serious audience without music stands and we did well, hitting 90% of our marks. Click here and you'll be taken to my website where you can hear two songs from last night's show craigkincaid.com/music

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

The Journey of Mankind . . . click here

Monday, September 01, 2008

FDIC needs some bailing out?

Yep, another financial "biggy" is having problems . . .

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said her agency might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures. She said the borrowing could be needed to handle short-term cash-flow pressure brought on by reimbursements to depositors after bank failures.

The FDIC issued a report showing that the number of financial institutions on its so-called problem list rose to 117 from 90 which were reported at the end of the first quarter.

That's an increase of 30% in three months, and things look to get worse before they get better. The number of banks on the list is the most visible thing to consumers, but the amount of assets held by those problem institutions is more troubling still. The total assets of institutions on the problem list tripled. That means some pretty big players are in the additions.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Obama's promises . . .

Is someone keeping track of the Presidential campaign promises? While I didn't watch all of last nights speech in Denver, I did hear many promises of what Mr. Obama is going to do for the American taxpayer and citizen (not always the same). But if he wins, who will be holding his feet to the fire if he doesn't fulfill these promises . . . . . blaming congress won't be an excuse in my book.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Housing market at a bottom ????

well, probably not but let's look back a few years and see what what was being said in December 2006 -

"The worst of the U.S. housing slump is over, according to the National Association of Realtors . ."

This group is arguably the most optimistic bunch of bozos. I heard some guy say today on CNBC (during the 60 seconds I watched it) about Las Vegas . . . . "The market is great!" oh yeah, he did follow that with "unless you're a seller". Brilliant.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Paul Anka rants

Listening to NPR, Fresh Air's Terry Gross' interview with Paul Anka I learned about this recording of Paul Anka really giving it to his band . . . click here to listen to it

It's called The Guys Get Shirts . . .

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Understanding Graduates

The graduate with a science degree asks,' Why does it work?'
The graduate with an engineering degree asks, 'How does it work?'
The graduate with an accounting degree asks, 'How much will it cost?'
The graduate with an arts degree asks, 'Do you want fries with that?'

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Happy Birthday to Vic Harber

I am reminded that my brother in law, Victor Harber is also celebrating his birthday today.

Happy Birthday to my brother Andy

Andy, now 62, on the left with me while we were enjoying a cerveza in Mazatlan. He's a great guy, good father and loving husband to his wife Helene.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Appraisal Fraud

It's not new. No it's been happening ever since we bought our first house in 1976 and probably for as long as appraisals have been required for qualifying for a real estate loan (refinance or new). More and more, the current housing slump is being laid at the door of appraisal fraud. Amazing that anyone would believe that there wasn't something amiss when the appraiser is being paid by the lender.

I found this article from CNN Money from 2005 where people were testifying in congress about fraud but guess what? No one did anything about it. Here's the last line of the article -

"The cumulative effect of appraisal fraud is you may have investors holding mortgage debt that's backed by real estate worth less than they think it is," said Martin. "It's a train wreck waiting to happen."


No one did anything. read more here

How people got into financial trouble

most people believe they must do something to have something to be something

The average person thinks you win the wealth game by acquiring a lot of things. If you have a bigger house and a more expensive car then you are considered to be wealthy. What happens is, the average person attempts to acquire "more and better" by getting deeper and deeper into debt. This is exactly the opposite of what I mean by wealth, but people are psychologically driven to do it.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Real Inflation

Ever wonder what the actual CPI is? Here's a chart that show what todays CPI would be using the same basket of goods and services of 1990. Wow, it's 8% more than the "official" rate the government tells us today. Learn more at Shadowstats.com

Friday, August 15, 2008

Troube right here in ________ City

In New York State, the 16 largest banks sent taxes totaling $5 million in the most recent reporting period; that compares with $173 million from the same period a year ago.

Taxes paid are down an astonishing 97%!

And this is going on throughout the United States . . . . ouch!

"It will be a number of years before Wall Street starts paying taxes again,'' the mayor said at a press conference yesterday in Manhattan. "They will carry forward all of those losses.''



Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Way of the World

From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation’s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantánamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today’s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of "The Armageddon Test" —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world’s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sidney Pollock's favorite line

Sidney Pollock used this line in 3 different films :

You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth.

Monday, August 11, 2008

quotes from Jamie Dimon, CEO JP Morgan

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

Buying a house and buying a house on fire are two different things (referring to Bear Stearns).

Problems don't age well.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Gaining a little control

"Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act — if you can’t control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behavior. You will always have the last word."

Nassim Taleb

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Golden Retrievers in the Park

There were over 100 Goldens in the park click here

This is a picture of us a few years ago with Brutus, one of two goldens we had for 14 years. The other was Brittany.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

the World Food Crisis

the entire system of Western food production is in need of radical change according to the following books :
Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System - Raj Patel
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood - Taras Gresco
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - Michael Pollan
The End of Food - Thomas Pawlick
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser

Monday, August 04, 2008

Jack Elam

He once described the career of a character actor. It went like this: "Who's Jack Elam? Get me Jack Elam. Get me a Jack Elam type. Get me a young Jack Elam. Who's Jack Elam?"

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Blowininthewind.org


On a hillside between Cayucos and Cambria heading north to Big Sur you will find a memorial to the 4000 soldiers killed in Iraq . . . learn more click here