Thursday, April 11, 2013

GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES

They're called entitlements when the poor receive them.

Recently the Italian government seized over a billion dollars of assets from the mafia. No surprise there. It's an organization in business, like any other, to accumulate assets and to make money.

What did surprise Italian authorities was one of those assets--renewable energy. Included in the government's mafia-linked haul were 43 wind and solar energy companies.

For years the US mafia was reportedly in the trash business. After all people need to do get rid of their trash. They also need energy. In some ways energy and trash are probably more interconnected today than ever. 

So besides utilitarian reasons and perhaps some altruism what's the attraction? Government subsidies. That's where the money is, a fact practically everyone knows. And for the mafia there's the apparent added goodie, money laundering.

Economists spend gobs of time and other folks' money studying so-called leading indicators. It might be much more efficient and much cheaper to just find out what the mafia is doing.

http://www.isaintel.com/2013/04/08/renewable-energy-the-mafia’s-newest-playground/





THURSDAY READS

London House Prices Soaring
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-11/u-k-house-prices-reach-five-year-high-as-london-s-lead-widens.html

Household Wealth In EU
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/4/9/total-fiasco-germans-are-the-poorest-cypriots-the-second-ric.html

More Smoke From Washington?
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/041013-651427-obama-budget-is-worse-than-everyone-thinks.htm?ref=HPLNews

How To Beat The Bond Market
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052748704567604578410513369288892.html?mod=BOL_hpp_dc

YTC Bonds: One Bond Guru's View
http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/fixed-income/articles/Why-You-Shouldn2527t-Hate-All-Bonds/4/10/2013/id/49188

Rising Land Prices
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323820304578412632432865220.html?mod=ITP_moneyandinvesting_0#articleTabs%3Darticle

Bullish With Warnings
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-highs-in-sp-500-are-very-bullish-2013-04-10

Rail or Pipeline
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/04/10/killing-keystone-seen-as-risking-more-oil-spills-by-rail/#comments

BIT BY BIT

I heard the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome.

You'll have a difficult time finding a better piece of advice for understanding what goes on in markets. It's a different story every day. And through various sources and bit by bit over time you'll get an understanding of what moves them.

Yesterday real estate magnate Sam Zell put in an appearance on CNBC and unleashed a rare commodity these days, the truth. The truth unfortunately gets the same reception as whistle blowers, especially when it comes to MSM.

In the early part to the last decade, just before the tech bubble popped, Zell appeared at a conference in Century City where he spoke. At the time he was owner of lots of property in Silicon Valley. Might still be.

 Someone ask him if he took part of the lease payments in shares of those hotter than hot technology darlings that were posting new highs every 20 minutes. His answer was quite revealing.

He responded he'd done something like that earlier in his investing life and got burned. Not this time around. Leases are leases. He wasn't interested in what could be called, depending on one's viewpoint, technology PIKs.

Zell's response that evening shocked many. Taking those shares in payment seemed such a no- brainier. After all, wasn't that what all those people who quit their jobs and rushed off to work in the valley were doing? Most of them had to be pretty smart people.

Here's link to his recent shocking revelation.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

THIS SHOULD PUMP UP YOUR CONFIDENCE IN OFFICIALS

One Wall Street wag is really in the wrong business. He recently penned a blog warning Cyprus could be the next Detroit.

Now we don't claim to be particularly devout. But we hope nobody tells Cyprus. We don't have any idea how much Paxil is available on that tiny Mediterranean island. But talk about bummers.  

In case you've not been paying attention the Motor City just went bankrupt, though for now it's being called technically something else. A lot like California it's a place that's been run by the Democratic party since the days of The Edsel, one of Ford's most memorable snap, crackle and flops.

Now before anyone gets their panties twisted into a big Murphy, the facts are the facts. And here's another fact. Michigan Governor Rick Synder, a Republican, apparently with sloppy due diligence, vetted Orr before picking him, a fact that raises issues about Synder. But now questions are surfacing about a possible conflict of interest with the Washington law firm where Orr was once a partner, JonesDay.

On another burner Orr apparently had some back taxes due, taxes he claimed he only found out about recently when he read about it in the newspapers. Orr was appointed as emergency manager in-March this year.

Here's a quote about Orr from Wikipedia:

Between 2009 and 2012 the state of Maryland’s Office of Unemployment Insurance filed four liens against Orr's $1 million Chevy Chase, Maryland, home, for unpaid taxes on child care for his two children. Two liens totaling $15,797.68 from 2011 and 2012 were listed as unpaid at the time of Orr's appointment as Detroit emergency manager. Upon learning of what he described as an "embarrassing" oversight, Orr stated that he promptly paid off the liens the same day.[22]
[edit] 

Orr's hiring might represent a conflict of interest. Here's a link to the rest of the story from today. 

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/detroit-city-council-examines-contract-between-city-and-em-kevyn-orrs-old-law-firm







Tuesday, April 9, 2013

WEDNESDAY READS

Lithium Battery Rethink
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/10/us-boeing-battery-lithium-ion-idUSBRE93904420130410

Beware Of The Obvious
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2013/04/09/the-great-rotation-that-isnt-so-great/

Hope Nobody Tells Gloria Allred
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/09/feminism-destroy-russia-patriarch-kirill

Another Currency Swap
http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting/2013/04/09/dim-sum-looks-tasty-for-africa/

Wake Up And Smell The Dependence
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2013/04/10/Thatcher-Was-Right-A-Dependent-Society-Will-Fail.aspx#page1

Dow 18,000?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-well-see-dow-18000-before-this-bull-run-ends-2013-04-09

Wasted Revenue
http://www.newsmax.com/US/billions-wasted-gao-report/2013/04/09/id/498682

Rising Too Fast
http://t.ritholtz.com/bigpicture/#!/entry/are-home-prices-are-rising-too-fast,516423c2d7fc7b5670a36101

JUST THE FACTS PLEASE

Today is Equal Pay Day.

Let's celebrate it with a smidgen of the truth, something you'll have a difficult time finding anywhere on MSM or PC blogs like the Huffington Post today.

However you feel about it, read the article in the link below. This is just one more example why you'll never get the real truth from MSM.

For all their honking their horns about getting the facts correct they seldom, if ever, do. Facts are just atmosphere for these people.

Backgrounding the news and interpretive reporting are and have been the tools of MSM. That's a polite but arrogant way of saying you and I never took Reading 101.

http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2013/04/09/its-equal-pay-day-but-is-gender-gap-real/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=email-2013-04-09&utm_medium=email

THE PRESSURE BUILDS

 This is the way most things that finally change start out.

A lone wolf or two long before anyone else starts howling. At first he's just a lone wolf. Most ignore, some even try to marginalize.

Change never goes down easy.

A few days ago I had a conversation with a physician I respect, a doctor who's been practicing for more than 35 years. We were discussing medicines and their side effects.

A particular name came up, one we both had much experience with though mine had been somewhat different from his. At one point he jovially told me he'd been prescribing it for more than 20 years without any problems and he wasn't about to change it now.

People who bring change are usually received with the same affection as whistleblowers. Check out the history behind gastric ulcers and H-pylori.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/04/09/blackrock-to-fed-time-to-ease-up-on-the-dull-hammer-of-qe3/

TUESDAY READS

Too Big To Not Fail
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/04/08/too-big-to-fail-banks-still-likely-to-fail-nobel-winner-says/

One Indicator That Apparently Gets It Correct
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/04/08/spotlight-on-the-economy-the-indicator-that-predicted-the-weak-jobs-report/

New Rule
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jitters-as-flash-crash-response-rules-take-effect-2013-04-08?dist=afterbell

So You Think Your Retirement Funds Are Safe
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-08/next-domino-australia-doubles-tax-retirement-savings

Dangerous Stuff
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/08/technology/security/shodan/index.html

Change Coming
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/07/us-broadcaster-threats-idUSBRE9360E220130407

What's In A Renaming? 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/04/us-usa-meat-names-idUSBRE93312620130404

Keep Inflating http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/08/us-spain-ecb-idUSBRE9370KY20130408

New Roth-401K Rules
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2013/04/08/new-rules-for-roth-401ks/http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/04/us-usa-meat-names-idUSBRE93312620130404