First Blog

You may think billionaires have a natural advantage in the investment business. They do. They are offered deals never available to you and me.   But that’s not all. Case-in-point. Consider Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world.   He is known for taking over companies by buying a controlling share of their stock.   He did it again this year.   He privately bought about 20 million shares of Krogers for about $25+/share.   This expense cost him about $450,000,000.   So what happened?   The shares, in the past three months have risen about 16% to $33/share, implying his investment has already accrued at least $70,000,000.   In addition, he gains $40,000,000 in dividends.    That is a considerable increase (more than 20%) on his original investment - in just a few months.   But why did the stock go up so much?   Because he announced that he bought the stock. That meant thousands of others piled on hoping to cash in on whatever Buffett was thinking, driving the share pri

The stock market is going up and up both in the USA and the world, despite impeachment, Iran, climate, swine flu, nuclear bomb production, taxes, and everything else you might think should mitigate the market.   With so much negativity you must have thoughts of impending doom. I do. Yet economic data are encouraging. People are spending money like crazy. Housing starts are up 16%.   The 10-year rate is strong. Unemployment is down. The new NAFTA and China deals are set. So, what do we fear besides fear itself? (Homage to FDR.)   Maybe Dengue fever?   Well, scientists have genetically modified mosquitos to fix that.   Is all this fear washed away?   Not quite.   The national barometer of fiscal confidence is the NYSE, the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s the latest assessment from that group of money grubbers The greatest fear on the floor of the stock market exchange is the fear of no bad news. This is singularly remarkable, that of discussing the fear of fear. So, what fear d

As a youth I learned you can’t escape death and taxes .   So true for the big two. This ancient list has expanded with three new tough guys living among us.    We also cannot escape scamming, spamming , and scanning . Walk in any city or airport, log on to any computer, or make a call on any phone, and somebody knows about it – and where you are – and what you did – and then tried to sell you something. It may be easier to escape paying taxes than avoid these bad boys.   But just try to escape by dying, and they still gotcha.   This is the 21st, you know. ------------ Pettiness ultimately gains nothing.

The Socialist view of life . From cradle to cradle to cradle - followed by a quick cremation. All for free. ---------------- The Socialist manifesto : We are smarter than you. We know more than you. We understand more than you.   We know what you need. We insist on helping you. ---------------- The Socialist menu .   Go to any Asian restaurant.   Almost certainly you will see the dish, “Happy Family,” a hodge-podge of various items to delight the customer.   A stir-fry dish with colorful vegetables (broccoli, baby corn, bamboo shoots, mushroom, carrots, etc.), meats (beef, pork and chicken), and seafood (fish, shrimp, and crab), it is cooked in a brown sauce.   As a catch-all, the European Union (EU) plan typifies this dish trying to serve all Europe the Happy Family. All are served the same and all are asked eat the same. But… Many simply want another dish.   Some want fish, some just beef, others only pork or chicken, and so on.   With this reckoning, the Happy Family

Dear Kids,  Experts recommend you save 10% of your income each year for retirement. Do you? This is just the beginning.  Make sure you put the money into a 401K plan, the only way you can build a substantial nest egg.  For me, I would need $500,000 in savings just to pay my property tax with the 1% interest, if I invested in a bank savings account.   Put your money where you can't get at it .  Not banks. "Banks shaft you in two ways, high interest when you borrow and minuscule interest when you save." Only 39% of Americans can meet a $1000 emergency.  Can you?  If you cannot, you are in dire straits.  About 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.   Is you, then ditto.  Have a two month minimum, hopefully eight month financial cushion. Actually, much more if you're in your forties. About 38% of Millennials believe $200,000 is enough for retirement.  Do you?  Of course, this is ridiculous.  You need at least $1,000,000 just to begin thinking about ret

Both Sanders and Clinton have promoted several new programs from free college tuition to health care for all illegal immigrants.  Some sound good.  Some believe the time has come for such government benefits, services, or beneficence, or whatever you want to call them.   Yet both agree there must be a pathway to funding such really expensive programs. Both believe we should tax the filthy rich, and who's not for them paying more.  After all, their proportional wealth has increased dramatically in the last decade or two. So, with their programs and tax plans in hand they push their give-aways hoping for your vote. NOTE.  Before going on, let's ask.  Where are you?  If you're reading this, your probably neither filthy rich nor filthy poor.  You're in the middle.  You pay taxes, and likely a lot of them.  But you surely would enjoy those multimillionaires and billionaires paying more. Suppose either is elected.  Suppose they implement their programs. Suppose they pus

We are a nation of heaps.  We live in heaps.  We respond only to issues when they become heaps - and then rarely.  So, what’s a heap? The heap paradox comes from rather vague predicates.  You’ve often heard of a heap of sand or a heap of trouble.  What this means is roughly we cannot distinguish individuals (such as grains of sand from a pile) from the others.  In fact, it is more complicated.  The ancient interpretation of this paradox (also called the sorites paradox ) is to resolve the question as to when, by removal of individual grains of sand, it is no longer a heap?  In this note, we look at heaps from the reverse perspective.  For example, when we add grains of sand to a collection, when does the collection cease being a collection and becomes a heap?  Of course, this paradox has no real resolution, but the word “heap” does seem to apply to many issues of the day. The (reverse) heap paradox is a key social and political situation in the USA.  At

A. Waste your time! Lots of it.  Some of my most productive moments have come when I was wasting time. B. Rules of Email. Does someone read your email?  The answer is yes.  For most of us it amounts to an application of data mining by dedicated robots by dedicated servers, but serving whom? 1. Never publish anything on email you don't want the world to see. Never publish to friends or family items you do not wish others to see. 2. Never publish anything that has racist, sexual, or political overtones. 3. Publish only plain commentary such as daily business to family or friends. 4. Publish only political stuff that has no personal connection with your affairs. C. Information corrupts integrity; it justifies inspection; it validates commercial gain; it indemnifies politicians.  Information provides the predictive analytics of our time. D. Suicide terrorists are nothing more than contract killers with an ecclesiastical contract and having an arbitrary target. E. Tax looph