To All, "that was the week that was" in investments. Apologies to the ancient tv comedy revue starring David Frost.
1. Dubya is talking the talk very well. Now let's hope he can identify and find the perps and that he is really carrying a big stick. I am pretty confident on the latter. I do have one comment. The media has been saying that terrorists have nukes and poisonous gas. Possibly, but if they had nukes and poisonous gas, wouldn't they have employed them against Manhattan rather than the much more risky, much more convuluted, much less destructive idea of crashing airliners into buildings? Wouldn't taking our largest city off the map be more of a coup than several big buildings? This goes back to my Sonny Liston/Cassius Clay second fight reasoning. If Muhammed Ali really had a "phantom punch," why did we never see it in any other of his fights, including those he lost? Ergo, the fight was fixed. Ergo, the terrorists do not have these weapon and/or means of delivering them. Yet.
2. Mark Haines (SP) on CNBC is becoming a hero to me. Note that I use CNBC when I mention Senor Haines, and not CNBS, which is the correct term when talking about most of the other programming on this informercial network. Haines is a natural curmudgeon and he is old enough and secure enough to be both sceptical and not give a damn about what anyone says or thinks of him. Or about whom he embarrasses. What brings this to mind was his Friday morning diatribe against Wall Streeters who said buy to the public while selling for their own accounts. When the hair spray twins and a guest tried to shush him, he was unshushable. "Do you want me to grab the Journal and name the names here on national tv?" He asked the guest point blank if his firm was selling while saying buy. The guy squirmed and talked about ethics and other stuff that is mostly foreign to the biz. Now, in all honesty, I doubt if this fella or his firm is guilty of anything. We curmudgeons sometimes get so outraged that the ones we lash out at are not the guilty parties. But at least he gets the message across to America that many in our biz are as bad as the gas station owners who were charging $10 a gallon.
3. I am still recovering to having my Tuesday nights taken away from me. True, it does not look like I'm working when I sit at a coffee house sipping a Vente decaf and working on investment ideas with a big grin on my face. But people inevitably ask what I'm doing and, duh, I tell them. I have been opening two accounts a week using this extremely lazy prospecting technique on Mondays through Wednesdays. Now that Tuesday nights are lost time for me, I haven't gotten back into the groove. It turns out that was the most productive day. Weekends are out, because being single at a coffee bar at night on weekends is sad and scary. And bringing a date means nobody approaches. Or, at least they don't approach me. <g> It is not on monday through wednesday. So, I will be having a talk with the high sheriffs soon. I am still doing enough new accounts to keep me in paperwork for a lifetime, but I was doing more before the firm decided to help me. <VBG>
4. Living well is the best revenge. Let's let Dubya and the pros take the actual revenge and raise our middle fingers at the terrorists by returning to our lives of joy and freedom. If we cower down, they've won. And they can't win. Ever.
Best,
Knight in White Satin with no Moody Blues. |
