•America's "Happiness Index" At New Low
The other day it occurred to me that during Ronald Reagan’s run for the Presidency he created a “Misery Index”. This index represented a total of the rate of inflation, plus the prime rate, as an indicator of how the American people felt about how they were doing. No one has suggested resurrecting this index in recent years. My thought was to create a “Happiness Index”. How happy are you with the leadership of the country. The problem is that other than taking an outright poll, how do you...
•Bias - So What Else Is New?
Have you ever notice how biased the media is? Let’s look at the press for the moment. The New York Times is thought to have a liberal bias. How do you go about checking it out to see if it’s true? What you have to do is take a look at what’s being published that’s negatively based, and when is it being published.
Let’s say Bill Clinton was in office, and something particularly bad happened, but the Times wanted to portray it in the best possible light. No, let’s go one step further; let’s say...
•Dell Versus Hewlett Packard
There is a war shaping up that involves two giant companies facing off, and soon there will be three. The war is between Dell Computer, and Hewlett Packard for supremacy in the personal computer world. The first battles have been fought, and clearly Dell has been the winner for years. The next battle seems to be shaping up as we write this, and Dell seems to be victimizing itself with recalls, and lackluster customer service at best.
For more than a decade Dell has eaten Hewlett Packard for...
•Democrats Will Not Win House, Republicans Will Lose It
Tomorrow is Election Day in the United States. Every member of the House of Representatives is up for re-election, and one third of the United States Senate. It is difficult living in the greatest democracy in 12,000 years of civilization, and not after a while grow use to the freedoms that our ancestors gave their lives for.
The Constitution and Declaration of Independence could only have been created by a specific generation in the 18th century, the time known historically as the “Age of...
•Disney / Abc Deserve Credit-sept. 11th Abc Movie
It is rare, rare indeed when a major media entity bucks the trend, and does what it believes in. Recently ABC under Disney’s guidance aired the $40 million production, “The Path to 9/11”. This was a five hour-two night portrayal of the events that led to 9/11. Having gone through the history of terrorism over the last 25 years, I believe this portrayal was as accurate as you can get. The screenwriters were not politically motivated in any way. They could have come down on the Clinton...
•Does Made In China, Now Mean What Made In Japan Use To Mean!!!
Until recently Zheng Xiaou was head of the State Food and Drugs Administration for China. He was arrested in May, and charged with being responsible for the sale of six different medicines manufactured in China. These same six medicines were fakes. The sales took place during Zheng's six years as the head of the department.
One of the medicines was a gall bladder medication. It contained inappropriate ingredients. It was consequently established that several people (five) died as a result of...
•Ford Has A Better Idea
Ford announced two milestones this week. The first is a new CEO coming from outside the company, in this case Boeing. The second is a restructuring plan that everybody knew was coming. We just didn’t know how deep, or how far they would cut. This company is very quickly becoming a case study at Business School for how NOT to run a company.
The company has a management team that has been asleep at the switch for at least 25 years. You would think they woke up this morning for the first time,...
•Mark Foley - Gay Congressman Resigns-The Real Deal
Florida Congressman Mark Foley has resigned from Congress amid charges and allegations that he had inappropriate e-mail contacts with a former teenage page in the House of Representatives. So what’s the real deal? What’s really going on? You can read the mainline press, and watch television, but you’ll never get to the real story that way. You have to ferret it out for yourself, and that’s what we have done. We have talked with the movers and the shakers, to learn what’s really happening....
•Mayor Bloomberg Says, “Shooting Unacceptable”
Several days ago, an unfortunate shooting took place in New York City. A team of five undercover police officers were sitting in a van outside a strip club doing surveillance. There was an additional officer outside on foot in radio contact with the van. A gentleman of African American descent was celebrating his wedding which was supposed to be the next day with two of his friends.
The three individuals left the club, got into their car and came under suspicion of the officer who was on foot...
•New Defense Secretary Changes Everything – Perhaps
On Election Day, the American people spoke very strongly that the direction the President and the Republican Party was taking America towards, is not the direction the country wanted to go in. Presidents are not oblivious to polls. They may not honor them, but they are not oblivious to them. The most important issue in the campaign turned out to be two issues according to the exit polls. They were CORRUPTION, and IRAQ in that order.
The President was quick with a lightening type response to...
•North Korea – Yes, You Have Our Attention
North Korea has tested a low yield nuclear device with 4% of the destructive power of the bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II.
Some believe that the device was much larger but may have failed for technical reasons.
We don’t know the truth, because the United States has not devoted the resources to know what is really going on. If you are surprised, don’t be. Intelligence collection is a tricky business.
When Richard Nixon was President, you may...
•Oil Prices Approach Historic High
It has been announced that British Petroleum had to shut down an Alaskan oil field providing 8% of US crude oil production. Oil prices on the world market immediately surged to within pennies of their all-time high. What’s really going on? For an answer I look back to former President Richard Nixon. Privately Nixon who was smart, and as shrewd a man as any President in history use to talk to his friends about if there is a dollar to be made somewhere, than somebody is making it.
It does seem...
•Stock Investing – Bank Of America, Morgan Stanley, Ubs, And Bear Stearns Swept Up In Latest Insider Trading Scandal
In the biggest Insider Trader scandal in two decades, members of four prominent firms were implicated in the developing scandal. The firms included Bank of America (BAC.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), UBS (UBS.N), and Bear Stearns (BSC.N). To begin with, a little history is in order. Insider trading in this country is illegal; this is not the case in certain other countries. In some countries principally England, such trading is legal. Prior to the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as...
•Stock Investing – Chrysler Up For Sale – What Is Daimlerchrysler Thinking?
DaimlerChrysler has basically thrown in the towel by hiring J.P. Morgan Chase to find a way for the luxury German auto maker to divest itself of the Chrysler automobile company here in America. We went back and took a look at our stock research on the original German purchase of Chrysler and wondered how we got from there to here. Chrysler was a stock pick of ours as far back as 1981 when Lee Iacocca brilliantly prevented bankruptcy, and turned the company around.
When it comes to stock...
•Stock Investing – Midterm Elections Make Drug Companies A Sale
Stock investing is tough enough when you have to deal with the specifics of a company and an industry. When you throw politics into the equation it becomes a whole new ball game. Now stock investing can be a crap shoot at best. Let’s take a look at what’s going on currently, and you decide. First let’s look at a little history.
For the better part of 50 years, the drug industry has been nothing short of a fabulous stock investment. Whether it was Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, or any...
•Stock Research - Amaranth Hedge Fund Collapse – What Happens When Your Friendly Banker Becomes – Predator
You might be familiar with Amaranth LLC, the giant hedge fund that collapsed last fall, after blowing up $6 billion of investors’ money. It now comes out that the circumstances under which they self-destructed are worth studying.
But first – A METAPHOR
What would happen if you had a pain in your chest, and you had tests taken at your doctor on a Monday who you have known and trusted for 30 years? He tells you that the results will tell you if you are going to live or die, no in between. You...
•Stock Research And Market To Be Affected Big Time Post November Election
Stock research normally tells us that pick the right stocks and it really doesn’t matter what the market does. When you survey history however, this seemingly true statement turns out not to be the case. You can have all the stock research in the world, but if the market goes against you, it doesn’t matter.
The stock market is making new highs with the Dow Jones Industrial Average piercing the 12000 barrier for the first time since the Dow Jones was created. The question now becomes which way...
•Stock Research And The Price Of Leadership-corporate, Public, Private
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the President of Vanderbilt University receives compensation of $1.4 million. The school also spends in excess of $700,000 on frequent parties, and a personal chef. There’s also the issue of $6 million of improvements to the mansion where he lives, which the university paid for. At least six colleges in the country are now paying about a million a year to their Presidents.
You will remember President Clinton was publicly criticized when Air Force...
•Stock Research – Apple Computer Rocks World With New Phone
It is extremely rare in the business world to find a corporation that starts a revolution, and then the very same company leads another revolution. Steve Jobs who runs Apple Computer successfully stood the computer world on its high legs, and then shook its foundation when he created with his associates the very first personal computer. Yes, there were others before him, but they were nothing in comparison to the Apple. The operating system that Apple uses is still acknowledged to be vastly...
•Stock Research – Eastman Kodak And The Power Of Disruptive Technologies
It’s simply amazing that ten years into the digital revolution, Eastman Kodak is trying to figure out what business they are in. For decades Kodak dominated the chemically based photographic process. You shoot a roll of film, and then you physically took the roll to a developer, and made a second trip to pick up the finished prints. Their only competition in the industry was the Japanese company, Fuji. The upstart would just eat away each year at Kodak’s market, but never becoming a real...
•Stock Research – Nyse’s Home Depot Rocks Investors With Ceo Resignation – Can Corporate Culture Survive
Our stock research has come up with an interesting play. As you know, Home Depot through its Board of Directors forced the resignation of General Electric trained CEO, Robert Nardelli, who had only been with Home Depot a couple of years. Somehow, Nardelli managed to get the Board to give him a $200 million severance package, which has Home Depot shareholders up in arms. How did a long-time General Electric guy like Nardelli screw up so bad that he was forced to resign, and not because he...
•Stock Research – Pfizer Blows Up Its Own Pipeline With Torcetrapib Withdrawal
Stock research we call it. You want to talk about stock research. Let’s talk about how Pfizer the world renowned drug company blew itself up over the weekend. We all know that the classes of drugs, known as the STATINS have meant billions to the bottom line of the major pharmaceutical drug companies. Remember we said billions to the bottom line, not just sales. Nothing is more profitable than a blockbuster drug to the bottom line. It’s like printing money at the US Treasury, maybe better.
For...
•Stock Research – Wall Street Makes Fortune Sweeping Your Cash
Years ago, I was a limited partner at Bear Stearns and Company in New York City. Once a year, we would have a partner’s meeting, and I would attend as a matter of course. Now keep in mind that we were a trading firm, also a brokerage firm. Back then we didn’t do nearly the amount of investment banking that is done by some of the majors such as Goldman, Merrill, and Lehman Brothers at the time.
What was most interesting however is that we always referred to ourselves as “The Bank”. It’s a...
•Tom Cruise, Paramount And Hollywood Power’s Shift, And Now Hedge Funds
Until the 1950’s, Hollywood was controlled by seven major motion picture studios. More importantly it was controlled by moguls, all of whom were men they of eastern European descent, who ruled the studio in the same way that the kings of their previous countries ruled the peasants. Creative control belonged to the mogul, while the money was always controlled by the New York bankers, the so-called “Suits”.
This power alignment began with the beginning of Hollywood prior to 1920, and continued...
•Troop Surge In Iraq Will Deepen Quagmire
It looks like President Bush is going to announce a "temporary increase" in the number of American troops serving in Iraq. The President is adding complexity to a series of wrong decisions he has made since the beginning of the invasion. It is difficult to imagine how a surge in American troops can fix a self-created problem?
We have made the same mistake that five star General Douglas MacArthur warned about with regard to Asia, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia." Presidents Kennedy...
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